Truth is funnier than fiction! (Pt 2) Friday, March 19, 2010
We’re pretty proud of our customer service, but this one was out of our hands!
We had a customer call and explain, “You sent my music to my Post Office box as I had requested. It didn’t fit in the box, so the post office decided to send it to my house. They looked me up in the phone book. I’m not listed there, but my brother is. We have an unusual last name, so they assumed he was me. They sent my music to him. My brother and I have been feuding for five years and I refuse to talk to him. Can you have it picked up at his house and deliver it to me?” Isn’t music supposed to be the universal language that brings us all together?
We had a customer looking for incidental music to play between acts of a children’s play at church. It was an Old Testament drama about Queen Esther and the customer wanted flute music that was written around that same time period (yeah, we’re talking B.C.E.). Well, let’s see, Josquin Des Prez was one of the earliest composers we know of, and he was alive in the 1400′s C.E.—and we think that’s old! The customer was a bit embarrassed when we pointed that out, but was thrilled when we recommended some Renaissance music that has an ancient sound to it, which fit the bill perfectly.
We had a very frustrated band director call us at the end of an obviously very long day. He said he needed some CTBD solos for some students who wanted to go to instrumental solo and ensemble adjudications, but at their level of ability really had no business going. After a moment of trying to recall what publisher might have a series called CTBD, the Stanton’s employee was relieved to have the customer clear up the confusion by explaining that CTBD was actually his acronym for “Close to Brain Dead!â€Â Ever have one of those days?
An eager young man called asking for a copy of “Bach’s Fifth” for string quartet.
“Bach’s fifth what?” he was asked.
“You know—the famous one!” and he proceeded to sing the melody.
“That’s Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusic.” said the Stanton’s salesperson.
“Oh…yeah,” said the fellow, as the light came on. “Well, do you have that?”
Absolutely—we aim to please! Stanton’s has and will continue to do our utmost to determine what it is you need and get it to you as quickly and correctly as possible. We believe that by helping you to be successful, we will be successful. It’s been that way since 1960, and as we enter our fiftieth year, we strive to make our service better than ever—with a sense of humor whenever possible.
(Check yesterday’s blog for the first set of these musical miscommunications…)