I first want to thank every one here for the kind words, good luck wishes, and advice I received. It's been a very fun 7 month ride, but alas, now it must come to an end. Several factors come into play here, and I'll try and explain them to the best of my ability.
First up was the postal system here. As several of you know, my post office here is ****. Some days I'll get mail, and all of the sudden I got no mail for about a week, and then I got a pile of mail all at once with different post marks. So certain bills came well past due, and really ****** with my credit.
Second is the price of things these days. Rent coupled with electic and phone prices was really killing me based on the small amount of buisness I was doing. I had maybe 100-150 people over the course of my first month stop in and wish me luck. Then they would go buy some food elseware, or tell me how good other places are. That doesn't pay the bills, unfortunatley.
The true final straw though was my dealings with Formisano bakery. Good rolls, ******** and dickheads for employees. I should fill you in on their policy's and the way things are run before I tell the rest of the story: All orders must be in before 2:00pm EST so the order can be delivered overnight. You are to leave your name and adress, and they deliver your bread inside to you, if they have a key.
Formisano bakery had a key to my building thanks to the previous owner, so when I started an account with them, they could come in and drop off the rolls over night. The rolls were good, but the problem initially started when they delivered my rolls inside a cardboard box with no bag inside. The rolls on the top would go stale before I got in each morning. So usually 4 or 5 rolls of the two dozen or so a week I bought were garbage before I even got to try and make money back.
The second part of the whole problem came when I called one day at around 1:45 PM EST to order some rolls, because I was nearly out. (I had 3 rolls left I think.) I left my order, and that was that. I came in the next day to open up, and there was no such bread. Then the bill collector (A guy named Herb White) came in with a bill, expecting me to pay for bread that wouldn't be there till the next day on their mistake. I decided to be fair, so I paid them, not quite expecting the situation to escalate. Boy was I wrong.
Fast forward 1 month. I called in an order at around 10:50 AM EST to order a new box of bread, after asking Herb time and time again to tell the deliveryman to put my bread in a bag so I didn't have to throw some out each time. (This comes into play a bit later.)
The next day I came inside my store to find no rolls. Immediatley 3 people came inside and asked for footlong subs. I had the meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, and condiments, but no sub rolls, so I had to turn them away. That cost me about 13-14 dollars there, because their service is unreliable, and therefor, those 3 people thing that I am unreliable to have my product in.
I called up Herb White and he said he would be on it. A whole day passed with no rolls. (I did go to the store and buy some lame replacment rolls for that day.) I was very irritated over the whole ordeal. The next day, still no rolls. Now I was flat out pissed. I called up again, and went through automated hell, never once speaking with a human being. Herb had his private cell phone to which I was able to reach him before, but now he was absent from the phone.
On the third day I came into work, finding the rolls, and the box saying "Free" on the side. I figured it was a reasonable gesture by them. I let my irritation slide, and went about my buisness. That was untill last monday.
Last monday the bill collector Herb came around with a bill. I explained the situation to Herb, and he basicly told me I wrote "Free" on the side of my box and that I was trying to rip them off. He told me there was a woman answering the phone now, and that I could call and try and straighten it out before thursday when he came around again.
Thursday rolled around (I'm quite busy) so I gave the place a call, and a woman answered the phone, and the following conversation took place:
"Hi, this is Kevin at Kevvo's, customer number 572, and I'm calling to ask if I can speak some one in billing?"
-"Just a moment."
*mubles and muffled convorsation*
-"Hello?"
"Hi this is Kevin at Kevvo's, customer number 572 and I'm calling because last week my delivery was 3 days late, and this is the second time this happened. I was hoping we could work somthing out. I spoke with Herb White on monday, and he suggested I call to settle this before he came around today. Also, the side of my box said "Free" on the side."
-"We don't give free bread away."
"Ok, well, because you guys were 3 days late, on the first day, I had to turn 3 customers away immediatley because I didn't have any rolls. That cost me more than your rolls would have."
-"Well if your only turning away 3 people you can't be doing very much buisness at all."
". . ."
-"Well, I'm looking at your record here, and if we were getting more than 9 bucks a week out of you, and you were a priority customer, we might handel the situation differently."
"Do you treat all your customers this way, or is this reserved for the new buisness owners aroud here?"
-"So your not going to pay for the bread?"
"I'm not going to pay you for a service I didn't recieve when I asked for it. I'm trying to work somthing out here, because my customers enjoy your bread."
"So your not going to pay?"
-"I gather that's what your deciding."
"Well then, when the guy comes to collect, don't pay him and you can go **** yourself."
Yes. I can go **** myself.
So then in comes Herb White. I tell him the situation in front of a room full of customers. He turns around and tells me I'm lying, and that no one said that, and that didn't sound like anyone he worked with. Told me I was a liar, and left.
So my next step was to get my key back, so I called back, spoke with the woman on the phone, and asked for my key back, told them where to deposit it, and I'm still waiting for it.
Various other smaller things built it up too, but that whole situation became the straw that broke the camels back.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them.
It was a fun ride.
Kevin
