Our Bounce U frustration

This post is all about venting:) As you know we are leaving in 2 weeks to go to Phoenix for our corporate training for BU. You cannot open your store until the people running the store have been trained (meaning Todd and I) All along they have been telling us that it would be absolutely, no problem for us to have Sam with us at training. We could set up a pack-n-play for her to sleep in. No big deal. Not the ideal situation, but hey whatever works. We started having this conversation back with them in Feb or march as we started to realize our timeline. Now just 2 weeks ago, it is all of a sudden a problem. Mind you just 2 months ago when we booked our flights, it was not an issue. Unfortunately, they are not willing to be flexible at all. We offered several solutions to them, of ways we could make it work. Their only solution was for me to come to the next training in Sept. They obviously don't listen well, because we have the same problem in Sept that we have now - We have a baby to whom I am her food source. Todd asked about doing a net meeting or evening me getting the training while there, through a conference call. They did not like either of these options. According to them, " we just don't feel that there is a need for that." So either we don't open our store until after I get trained sometime next year - not an option because they were not willing to pay the rent on our space:)or we make 2 trips - also not an option. So after going back and forth 9 million times, we now have to fly my mom out with us, so she can watch Sam. - All at our expense. Now instead of being able to stay with my friend Darlene for free, we have the added expense of a hotel. Fortunately, Darlene rocks and offered to let us use one of her Southwest rewards tickets that was about to expire. Bummer is that it expires on 8-5 and we fly 8-12. Instead mom actually had enough AA miles to use, so the ticket is only costing us $55. Yeah!! Thanks Darlene for the offer. It would have been great if it had worked out. The next issue was how, and where I would be feeding Sam. Mom will have to bring her to me to be fed. This was a major issue for them as well. They said there was no place for me to feed her and they could not allow her at the store. Todd and I both got extremely ticked off at this point. We have agreed to the extra expense of flying another person out there, and you still are not willing to be flexible? Give me a big freaking break!! They finally came back and said that they would agree to allow me to feed her at the store, but i would probably have to use the bathroom - I think NOT!! or there are a few restaurants and store nearby I could go to. I have news for them - if my choice is to go into the bathroom or someone elses store to feed my child, those are not acceptable. I will sit in their lobby and cover myself up to feed her before I do any of those options. Never saw myself as one of those crazy breastfeeding moms, but when those are my choices, you can bet i will be informing them of my legal right to fed her anywhere I like:))
I told the guy on the phone yesterday that between the merger and now this, if we had a way out we would most definitely be taking it!! He said - i am so sorry to hear that. Whatever. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that having an infant at training is not an ideal situation. I know that we are not the only people that will be there and that it can be distracting. We certianly don't want to distract others. My big problem is that al along they told us it would not be a problem. if we ad known that we needed to take someone with us, we could have planned all this a lot earlier. Now we are inconviencing my mom and she is having to miss her grandson's b-day.

On a positive note, we should be getting our bids in from the contractors this week. Once we get that we can close on our SBA loan. YEAH!!