No Time To Be Grumpy!

No Time To Be Grumpy!

Date: 2010.02.19 | Category: News | Tags:

Yesterday, I had a bad experience with customer service. This morning I thought “I should just blog about that and tell the world how unhappy I am!”

And then I thought, “Or not.” We all have enough reasons to be grumpy. I don’t have to share that with the world. Instead I can tell you about the person who did her best to fix it.

So, the quick story. My daughter lost the power cord to her portable hard drive. The one that has her very important robotics project on it! I went to one office supply store: ” Sorry, we don’t carry that brand or power cords.” Brusque but not rude. Just not very helpful.

Second store, where I had bought the SimpleDrive. No spare power cords. I asked if they could just open the box and show me the power cord so I could duplicate it at an electronics store. NO. Absolutely not. Unless I wanted to buy it, look at the cord and then pay a 15 % restocking fee to return it. Did they know the power cord configuration and requirements. No. Why didn’t I go home and phone Hitachi. Seemed to have little comprehension that I was working against a tough time line.

We need the cord. Fast.

I bought another SimpleDrive. Took it to my car, and looked at the power cord. Thought, “Well, this cord will power the existing drive, but it would be nice to have a cord for each drive.” So I wWent to Radio Shack in the same complex. There, the sole clerk was trying to comfort and educate someone with a Very Bad Phone Plan. She succeeded. And after turning them from angry people to happy customers, she quickly found me the substitute power cord I needed and sold it to me with a smile. And took the time to warn me to double check the polarity to be sure it was correct and assure me that I could return the item if it wasn’t needed.

I should have caught her name. All I can say is thank you to the wonderful lady who works in the evenings at the Tacoma Mall Radio Shack. I was turning into a real grouch and your attitude and helpfulness helped me change mine!

Robin

16 Responses to “No Time To Be Grumpy!”

Veronica 10/02/19 13:54

Sometimes it only takes one lovely person to make the unhelpful ones not even worth thinking about.
Richard 10/02/20 15:09

just like to thank you for the joy your books bring me – nice to see their spirit carry over into every day life …
Nicole 10/02/20 19:11

Isn’t it lovely how a simple smile can turn things around? I was having a bad driving day today with all the crazy drivers out there (never me, of course!) until one very nice gentleman waved me to turn left in front of his truck since I had been waiting so long. Very kind.

I’m on to book 3 of the Liveship Traders! Thanks for sharing your talent and imagination. I’ve totally loved the stories!
Tine 10/02/21 11:53

Isn’t it wonderful when you run into someone who is so helpful and can change you mood? Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen often enough, but, you sure do enjoy it when it happends.
Myke 10/02/21 16:31

Now only if we could find someone which would sell Australians Robin Hobb ebooks with a smile …

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/02/22/keeping-the-magic-alive-australia-and-ebooks/#comment-423

Say it isn’t so!
Robin Hobb 10/02/21 20:25

Hi Myke,

I followed your link to the discussion about Australia and how some e-books are not available there. I’ve heard about this before, with UK readers trying to buy e-books from Amazon.com

The publishing industry is still catching up with the electronic world. In many ways, we are following an old style of business in which the boundaries of countries determined the rights to a work.

When a writer sells publishing rights to the book (a writer never actually ‘sells’ a book) those rights are very specific. For instance, my agent sells US rights to a US publisher. The UK publisher actually buys rights that cover publishing the book in English in the UK and commonwealth countries. So, for example, Canada gets the UK version of the book, with the correct spellings. So, what you cannot buy in Australia is the US E-book. Because it’s not licensed to be sold there. Or in the UK.

The US HarperCollins (EOS) is actually a different company from the UK HarperCollins (Voyager.)

So. While I am unhappy about Australians and Brits being unable to get my books in e-book form, I’m not sure that it’s an Australian protective thing at all. It is, I think, more a case of those e-book rights not having been sold yet.

Which, I suppose, is only slightly different. And makes no difference at all to you being unable to get the books in e-form.

Robin
Leonard Moses II 10/02/23 00:13

This is probably going to come off wrong and for sure it will be off topic. I’m an excited newbie. I just discovered your books about 3 months ago and I am in the middle of Royal Assassin and loving it. Just as good as the first book or better. Before I read your books I thought that The Name of the Wind was as good as fantasy got. Now, though I haven’t read as many fantasy books as most, I have a hard time believing any fantasy books will ever come close to the ones you’ve written as far as quality and fun. I am absolutely addicted to these books. Assassin’s Apprentice is my favorite book of any kind. Okay enough of the fan talk, though it is all true. I like movies and tv shows. No they wouldn’t be just the same or as good but why not? Why haven’t these Farseer books been made into movies or a tv show? I would watch almost any version of them and would promptly blind buy them at their release date knowing nothing about them. There must be others like me. I am fanatical about these books. It would be fun for me to see someone interpret them in film form. If it would not be fun for you or if they wouldn’t pay you enough though then the books are more than enough forever and I mean just these first 3. I have all of the rest of your books as well in paperback form (except for the expensive out of print ones) and I am looking forward to reading them. Hailing from Tennessee. Keep up the great work in any form or fashion and thanks for everything you have done. These books are the highlight of mine and my wife’s days (she loves them too and only likes the warrior cats series more out of everything she has read and she reads a lot more than me). They would make great movies. I look at my lord of the rings movies wistfully and think yes, that was high budget fantasy, but if anyone would just take these books: Assassins Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and the last one and make a movie out of them I would probably like them so much more than the Lord of the Rings movies.
Bonnie lou Feld 10/02/23 22:12

hey Robin,
I am a huge fan, and am reading the last book of the Farseer story. I love your twists and as I wrote before, I am rooting for Fitz and the Fool and the Prince and all. Here is my dilemma. When I finished the first Farseer Trilogy, I knew I should have read the Liveship Trader series, but I was so immersed in Fitz and Nighteyes, I went directly to The Tawny Man. Since I am now out of order, what do you think of going back and reading the Liveship Trader Series. Did I just undo my enjoyment?
Love the Farseer books and keep on keeping on.
Thanks.
Kathryn 10/02/25 19:29

Hi Robin,

I just wanted to say that I am absolutely LOVING Dragon Haven. Although, last night I was reading in my backyard with my two fat cats on either side of me (Fitzy Fitz and Molly Polly are their names. ) and i just had to put it down. I was so worked up over that bloody Jess before the wave hit!
I don’t expect this to go on the site, I just wasn’t sure how else to contact you privately so as to not broadcast my address.
One other question for you before I go, do you think you will make to Australia at some stage? I did attend one of your readings in London when Fool’s Fate was released. It was so exciting to hear you read and meet you afterwards. Your books are the only books that I have ever re-read. Whenever I finish a book and don’t have a new one to go onto I pick up one of yours and am immediately sucked back in to your world. I loved that you gave us a visit with Brashen and Althea, Paragon and their little boy in Dragon Keeper. It was like catching up with old friends.
Ok, I am sure you are inundated at the moment so I won’t go on. Although I could talk about your books for hours, days even!
Best wishes to you and thank you very much for the hours and hours of joy, anguish and elation that you have given me.
Kath
Robin Hobb 10/02/26 11:11

Hi Kath!

As you can see above, I edited your note so your personal address doesn’ t show, and I’ll send you a separate email to respond to what you asked.

Australia! Oh, I would love to come back and visit again!! Unfortunately, that’s not in the plans for me right now. But take good care of your amazing country until I can get back and look at it again, please! No more of those horrible fires, okay? It was heartbreaking to read about those.

Thanks for your comments on the books!

With best wishes,

Robin
Robin Hobb 10/02/26 11:13

Hi Bonnie!

I tried to write all the trilogies, and even each book, so it could be a satisfying read even if one was all you ever read. I tried to make each one have a beginning, middle and an end to at least a few story lines. Obviously, I’d much rather you read all of them, but I still think they work as stand alones.

If you go back and read the Liveships now, you’ll know a few things that readers didn’t know when the books orginally came out. Will the books work for you still? Well, there is a lot going on in them, so I hope they will!

With best wishes,

Robin
Robin Hobb 10/02/26 11:19

Dear Leonard,

Like you, I love both books and movies. I greatly enjoyed seeing Peter Jackson’s version of Lord of the Rings. When they made Robert Parker’s Appaloosa into a movie, I was there for the first day showing. So I certainly believe that a movie can do justice to a book, in the right hands, and that it can even bring out aspects that perhaps the reader hadn’t previously considered.

But writers don’t really get to decide to make a movie of a book. They have to wait until someone makes the offer to do it, and then each writer has to weigh if that is the right person to make the movie. Even if it is, it is a precarious process that may fall apart at any stage along the way. So, the bottleneck gets narrower all along the way, as few movies are optioned, fewer move into production and even fewer emerge as finished movies with distribution.

With that said, would I like to see a Farseer movie? In the right hands, I think I’d love it!

But, until that right person comes along, I’ll just keep on writing my books. When I’m writing a book, I can cast absolutely anyone I want, and I have an unlimited budget for special effects!

Roboin
Bonnie 10/02/27 00:42

Hey!
I just had to say you write the most awesome-est books ever! I just finished The Golden Fool, I’m just about to start Fool’s Fate yay. At times, I begin to think of the books and wonder how Fitz is doing, and then I realise its a book and laugh at myself. I even sometimes I think that the story actually happened in real life and again I laugh at myself . Your books also make me think about different aspects in life, in truth your books just make me think, alot . I love the emotion you put into the words, it makes feel like I’m there with Fitz. I have to say, I love the Fool! he is my favourite of course. Well thanks for writing them.
Bonnie
haha also, yay! I’m not the only Bonnie in the world, where I am there are no other Bonnie’s around.

Byee (:
Dianne 10/02/27 09:44

Hello Robin,
Dianne 10/02/27 09:52

Hello Robin, sorry about the previous post—my computer processed the message before I finished it.

It is unnecessary to post this to your blog, but I REALLY would like to know more about the Fool/Beloved, and while I know it is corny and done in many other series and not very original –I WOULD read about the Fool/Beloved if you wrote his history (first or third person, but I personally would like first person) from the time he was a child to his leaving for his school from the six Duchies.
I really have no idea if this would bore you to tears, sparkles any interest at all, or if you would dismiss the premise altogether, but I hope this does spark some interest in writing more about the Fool, who is by far my favorite fiction character of all time.

Sorry for posting in the “wrong” thread stream.

Thank you,

Dianne
Mayri 10/03/01 08:59

Hi Robin!

It’s refreshing to see someone who can bring back your good mood in a bad day but it does not happen often enough…

I’m one of your French fan. I read the books of the Liveship Traders after the Tawny Man Trilogy and truly loved them (to answer a question made before)!

I’m very curious to know the story of Fitz family before his coming… So I often make wish that you will be inspired some day by this story!

Bye
Mayri

No Time To Be Grumpy!

16 Responses to “No Time To Be Grumpy!”

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