Soap Box

I have been drinking bottled water for decades. I have it at home and have used the same brand for forty-five years or so and the quality and consistency have remained high, but my brand is not available at a lot of the places we go and we use whatever is available.

It the last few years, the plastic bottles the water comes in have been getting thinner and thinner even to the point that when you hold the bottle firm enough to take the cap off you are apt to force water out of the top which can be messy.

I'm sure the companies would tell you that it is for some ecological reason but my firm belief is that it is caused by a condition known as "boardroom edicts" which happens when the higher ups decide to squeeze a few more cents out of the public for each piece of product.

It seems that even the amount of peanut butter in my favorite snack cookies has been reduced.

Things get smaller, thinner, don't taste as good or last as long and the CEO can get another couple of million added to his (or her) yearly bonus and the company stock goes up while the consumer satisfaction goes down.

I absolutely have to fly in my line of work as there are times that�s the only way I can keep my schedule. But it's only when the mileage is so great it can't be covered in our bus. I'd much rather spend eight hours on my bus going from point �A� to point �B� than to spend an hour getting to the airport, an hour (if I'm lucky) checking baggage and going through security, an hour at the gate wondering if the flight is going to be on time, or even go at all, the time it takes at the destination waiting on checked baggage and getting to my ground destination.

So, the only time I take a flight is when there is no other way to cover the distance in the time allowed.

It wasn't always that way, there was a time when flying on a quality airline was a pleasant experience. There were amenities and courteous, helpful flight crews, in the days before the airlines started viewing their aircraft as sardine cans and were concerned about the comfort and feelings of their customers.

Nowadays the amenities have dried up, the flight crews can range from nice to crabby, the seats keep getting smaller and they even have the audacity to charge for luggage.

Almost every flight is oversold, which is completely unfair for someone who has laid down their hard-earned money to reserve a seat, only to find they've been bumped and have to wait hours to continue their journey, many times resulting in missed appointments and opportunities.

I was once in New York, worked late and had a flight to catch the next morning and booked a hotel room close to the airport for convenience and when I arrived at the front desk, in the early morning hours, dog tired I found they had given my guaranteed room to somebody else and ended up sleeping a few hours in some party room that didn't even have a shower.

Recently at a motel we had used for a rest stop many times booked our driver, Dean, into a handicapped room, only to disturb his rest a few hours later to tell him the room was booked and he would have to vacate it.

They even threatened to call the law and have him evicted. This was just another example of staff incompetency, putting a customer in a room that should have been blocked for a handicapped person who was coming in later.

Should customers have to pay for staff mistakes? No, the company should eat them, overbooking, mistaken booking, any inconvenience a customer is caused that is not their own fault.

Once in a while somebody catches on and provides excellent service or upholds the quality of their product, until they sell out to some major corporation and its same ol' same ol'.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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