I Am Not Gruntled

Coffee in the Chicago skyline mug, "The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles on iTunes. The music choice this morning was not random, it was three-fold 1) Apple is slashing the price of the iPhone by $200 (we, of course, paid full price in the expectation that--like the iPod--prices would not be going down), the phone part of the iPhone stopped working yesterday (an apple tech support rep was able to get it back up in a quick phone call--but it was scary nonetheless), and the Beatles are still not (and not going to be) available for download on iTunes.

Now to glass. Oh how behind can I get? When Thursday is an Ikebana day I always lose a bit of work time, but today is Ikebana, gymnastics AND ballet for the J (I have to get gymnastics switched today). It's also a scheduled fuse day and I have a ton of calls and bookkeeping paperwork to unsnarl. Apparently everyone at Bullseye who works with my account is new. I found out (from accounting) the day before yesterday that my "new" sales rep was no longer there and the one order she did process for me in May appears be snarled up with some of it past due. Bookkeeping called me at almost 7:00 the other night not knowing enough about my account to notice that I am on the east coast and therefore three hours later than they were... Yes, I was working, and yes, I answered the phone. But if I am still working at 7:00 something has gone very wrong and I don't have time to chat.

Now it's time for a bit of a soap box. When we evaluate a company for a business relationship we take all the incoming data, all the sound bites we can get, and we form a picture. I have been using BE glass for over 20 years--to this point it's almost all I've used. I've been loyal to the point of ignoring sound bites and resisting the lure and temptation of shiny, flashy promises by other manufacturers--good solid developments from other producers not even making it onto my radar. I've also been dealing directly with the BE factory for awhile now as I need frit in 5-lb quantities, I like BE's molds, and my long-time wholesale supplier (Ed Hoy's) doesn't carry all the molds or frit in that size.

But now I am disgruntled enough that it might be time to do an evaluation and maybe move on. So what's going on? Lots of things that I am not going to go into here. The negative energy I have generated so far this morning by STARTING to write it all up has me so enervated that I am just going to drop it. Suffice it to say that everything I have seen in print (oh the beauty of the InterWeb), heard from other businesses and artists, and recently experienced in my (lack of) customer service interaction indicates that the business priorities of my glass producer no longer seem to mesh with my needs of them as the primary source of my materials.

For the second day in a row I have not ended posting on a positive note, and I don't feel better about my world. Writing almost always makes me feel better about my world. *sigh* Six orders to get out today. Niche to finish or not. Oh yes, and Ikebana and gymnastics and ballet oh my. Breakage report from one of my local galleries tomorrow.