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Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast
Two rants for the price of one. One is my experience with volmall.com, the "official" store for utsports.com, and the other my idiotic sailor/student.
My wife placed a "huge" order (in the $2,000 range, more than we've ever spent online and by far more on UT stuff than ever before) with them near the end of October. Partly to make up for missing out on the chance to go down to Knoxville and watch a game (my wife broke her fibula and ruptured a ligament, I went home to take care of her instead) and partly for Christmas.
There are plenty of other places out there we could have ordered from, but I went with volmall because of the connection to UTsports.com and that proceeds from each purchase benefit the UT athletic department. Win-win, I thought. I get a bunch of UT gear and stuff, and I support the UT athletic department at the same time. I told my wife to order just from volmall and she did.
Fastforward to last night. I left Chicago last night for my home in Missouri where my wife lives (I am in the Navy). Waiting for me was almost everything. Ordered in October, almost everything in December. I'm a little disappointed in that. My wife's been on the phone with personnel from volmall.com nearly every day trying to find out where the remaining items are. A few items arrived yesterday before I got home.
One of the items was a Virginia Tech backpack (PING: VPI). I could have swore we ordered from volmall.com and not hokiesports.com or whatever it is. Another item is a Peyton Manning autographed football. One of 500. The display box is torn up. The item sells for three hundred dollars and the display box is tore up.
The snack bowl helmet box was literally destroyed when we received it. The box it was shipped in had other items in it as well, but the box the bowl came in along with the "helmet" were completely separated. Are you kidding me?
The personnel at volmall.com have been far from helpful. My wife talks to a new person nearly every day. Each person gives her a new story, varying from "we can't help you" to "I'll email my supervisor and the company" and "We'll call you right back" to "I'm sorry I'll take care of this" and "We don't have a callback system". We've never received a response from volmall.com Any responses we get from them is when we initiate it. We've never been contacted.
Today, my wife's tried to call three times to complain about the backpack and other items. The line has disconnected all three times while we are on hold.
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Rant #2 The Case of the Idiotic Sailor
I teach Naval Heritage at my barracks. I cover a different lesson or topic each week. Over the course of the week, I teach about 340 sailors in my barracks during four classes.
Last week was the anniversary of the attack of Pearl Harbor. As such, my lesson was about December 7th, 1941. The instructor guide, or IG, I was given had certain areas to be covered. One of which was Doris "Dorie" Miller.
The IG stated that an eyewitness account said Miller shot the .50 cal machine gun with a large confident smile. I wasn't satisfied that the IG finished there, so I asked the question,
"What was the significance of Petty officer Miller's accomplishments?" The answer I was looking for: It was the first time he shot the gun. He had never been trained on it.
The answer I got from one sailor, in front of 85 of his shipmates, "It was the closest he was going to get to shoot white people."
Are you kidding me??
He got razzed by the sailors around him, and I pointed at him and said "No!". I then explained the answer I was looking for.
After the class, I pulled the sailor into our office, where my chief found out about it. This sailor was soon charged with Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Failure to Obey. The sailor failed to obey the commanding officer's policy on inappropriate language.
He was taken to captain's mast as a result of this. I filled out a voluntary statement in regards to the incident, as did 15 of the sailors that were in the room at the time.
Shortly after his captain's mast my chief was called and told that I'd be joining the sailor at captain's mast at 430 later that day. Hmm. I wonder why. I had a couple of theories why the captain would want me there, ranging from good to bad.
When I got there, I was "briefed" that the commanding officer may "turn the heat up" on me. What the heck for? The sailor told our commanding officer I baited him into answering that way. The sailor said I asked, "Why was Miller smiling?"
So, there I am, in my dress blues with my "IG" in hand, and now I'm standing in front of the captain. He asks me what I said and to see my IG, which of course I let him have. I showed him where it said Miller smiled, and explained to him why I asked the question I did, not what the sailor said I did. The captain excused me and after I left the sailor went back in.
Obviously, I didn't get punished but just being there I felt I was. Why didn't they read my voluntary statement, or any of the voluntary statements of the students? I never read their statements, but I'd be reasonably sure their's said something similar to mine.
I was so wound up over this, even though I didn't get in trouble, that I hardly slept that night. I came back telling my chain of command they'll never get me to teach another class again.
Obviously I will, it's not like I can dictate what I will and won't do. It just ticks me off to no end that I was brought down there to get the "heat" turned on me, when I did not one thing wrong.
End of rants. Carry on.
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