European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Pago 11ann lenders dear Ann Landers your column has provided an open forum for the Public for Many years 1 1 Hope you will print this letter for those of us who Are fed up with j the office Slob. Here Are some clues a if you done to bring your lunch id appreciate it if you did t watch me eat mine and hint for a taste of this and that. A since you like chewing gum Candy and snacks it would be Nice if you brought your own and stayed out of my desk drawers. A if you have a headache or any other physical problem please but your own medication and Stop mooch a ing. A quit making a pig yourself when someone brings a gift of food to the office. Last week you behaved As if you had never seen a cake in your life. A please done to have your relatives who want a ride Home meet you in the office. Their presence is disruptive. They done to belong in your work area. A done to impose on your office colleagues by bringing dozens of pictures of your children family wedding Etc. We Arentt All that interested. A bring your own sweater if the office Isnit warm enough or the air conditioning is too High and please done to take mine Home if i lend it to you. A done to hang on the phone for hours talking to your husband wife kids Mother sister or Best Friend. While you Are running your Mouth your co workers Are doing your work and we resent it. A a if you have a terrible cold or the flu or feel a Rotten a do All of us a favor and stay Home. Nobody wants what you be got. A thanks for printing this. I feel  up in any City Usa dear fed. In a glad you unloaded in this  and now readers if you Are wondering whether the writer is someone in your office it probably is dear Ann Landers  Mother in Law really got to me. Did it Ever occur to her that there Are Good reasons Why she is a neglected a in the 25 years that in be been married my Mother in Law has never once comply merited her son on his work his family or his Many achievements in Community service. The woman constantly asks questions that Are none of her business. During the first 10 minutes of a visit she lays a guilt trip on us for not calling and visiting More. She makes us want to head for the door. A recently for the first time we had to borrow Money from her for an emergency. She insisted that we sign a papers put up collateral  really Hurt my husband. He is the most reliable conscientious person i know and has never failed to keep his word or Honor a commitment. I had to write this letter Ann even if it does no to get letters a service from optical outlet discussed i read with great interest the recent letter about obtaining glasses from the lab in Pir Masens. I had a similar experience. I had ordered a pair of glasses on nov. 28, 1989, through the clinic at ram Stem. By mid february still had not received the glasses. As was the Case with the writer the staff at Ramstein was More than courteous and helpful. They tried several times All in vain to obtain a plausible reason for the delay. Finally As a last resort i filed a complaint with the army in at land Stuhl Hospital the first week of March. Two weeks later my glasses finally arrived. I was Able to find out that the prescription for my lenses had been contracted out. 1 require a fairly Strong prescription for my glasses so this did not Surprise me. However according to the lab the prescription was contracted out two Days after it was received from Ramstein. The clinic did not receive notification of this until late january no explanation was Given As to Why it took the lab so Long to notify the clinic. While i understand the Large volume of orders this lab deals with i feel maj. Kohler missed the Point in his reply. The a a reasons Given for the lengthy delay in my Case were simply not acceptable. Whenever Ramstein clinic called Pir Masens on my behalf the answer was always the same a we have contracted them out. We do not know where they Are or when they will come  in seemed to think mine was an isolated occur Ance. Apparently it was not. To the evaluate How we handle assistance Calls and retrain our customer assistance personnel is not enough. The Pir Masens lab and its system of operation should be examined and changes made to bring its service up to More acceptable standards. A Margaret o Brien Ramstein a Germany editors note major p. David Kohler chief optical activities division he 7th medical come re a plies a a \ a a Quot a a athe optical activities division receives numerous spectacle requests each year that exceed our internal capabilities. In the Case of military spectacles we pass these difficult orders to the Navy Laboratory at York town a. Special order spectacle program soap orders that surpass our capability Are referred to one of two German optical labs under contract to fill those difficult orders. In fiscal year 1990, we referred Only 168 orders to these German contract labs considerably less than one half of 1 percent of the nearly 55,000 soap orders processed indeed the author s order stands among the isolated few that require the special attention of our contract labs. Because of the age of the november 1989 order Complete detailed records Are not available filed copies Are removed six months alter an order is completed. However during our investigation another order from the author was discovered. Regrettably she neglected to describe How efficiently this next order proceeded. She ordered another pair of lenses on March 20, it was received in our lab on March 27, passed to the contractor on March 50 possibly the two Days the author refers to returned and inspected on april 25, and mailed to the clinic on april 25. For a contract order this Sterling 50-Day processing time should not be ignored. Nevertheless closer evaluation of our contract orders was appropriate. In the past our procedures batched the work to the contractor he in turn would return the group together. This meant that if one order took longer All orders were delayed. Consequently we now process contract orders More frequently weekly regardless of the Quantity batched secondly we will request that the contractor return finished spectacles As they arc completed not As a Batch. In addition intense scrutiny of the processing times and delays from the contractors will Hope Billy leverage better performance times from the German contract labs. Our initial evaluation showed that one lab offered consistently better turnaround times Oyer the other. Continued Competition and better performance from our contract labs will be necessary for us to renew their contracts. Lastly subsequent to our reply to the first writer we have initiated extensive procedures to make one individual responsible for iffy clinic inquiries a a distinctly customer oriented assistance Section. This sole source of information will eliminate the multiple responses and isolate and eliminate i Indre inaction and inaccuracies that May have been perceived in our past performance. If even 1 percent of our orders generates a complaint or better a compliment we could expect More than 125 letters a month As with any request for information the sooner we can get a request the better and More reliable our reply. Delays of several months after the incident make research and Resolution nearly impossible we will closely evaluate the Success of this dedicated assistance program during the next 90 Days. Comments and critique will be formally solicited from our Eon Filu ent clinics. Pen pal you serve As a sounding Board for so Many people who need to be heard i have benefited personally from what you have written dozens of  for everything. _ _ _ _ Oakland  Oak v v Quot a i thousands or daughters in Law will bless you for writ thanks for adding balance to the picture Gem of the Day Middle amp be is when you finally know your Way around but you Don t feel like going. A a a a c creators Syndicate re i am 27 years old i enjoy singing and writing to pen pals. A a a a a a Bethel b. Tacar Dori. Orgy. 1.hog a  / a a a a Negros Occidental Philippines. Please publish my name in your pen pal column. A Epitania Galgo i co Antonio g. Galgo Aras Aaan Ca wait. Sur Gap Del sur Philippines. A a a a i enjoy meeting hew people and having a Good time. I have a Friend in the military and would enjoy hearing about other people s experiences. A Shara slattery77 Courtenay ave. Saint John new brunswicke2j1m9 Canad please publish our name in your pen pal column. A a a Cherelyn real. A. A. A Pablita v Marl nog. A Ethel  cd Gene s store vegetable Section Public Market 6214 Gul Huangan Negros Oriental Philippines a a a i would like to have pen pals from Spain and Italy to Exchange books1 and things. I m 34 and do played to saudi Arabia. A staff sgt Nelson zapata437th Alce deployed Apo new York 09852 please publish my name in your pen pal column. A Carlita b. Balls lug a pc of Melys store. San Elcenie St. Cot Abato City. A Philippines. A. A a a please publish my name in your pen pal column i would like to write to people from other nations. I am 21 years Oil and my hobbles Are badman Tufi and .  a area subdivision Ramsay. Negros Occidental. Philippines. A a Quot i am 19 years old and would like to correspond with pen pals through your column. I am a business College student and my hobbles Are reeding corresponding cooking and dancing. Ann Marie Sutherland a. A. 19 Valdez Road Spanish town . A a St Catherine a a. Jamaica West indies. I am 20 years old and my interests Are embroidery calligraphy stamp and Coin collecting. Dims especially Marilyn Monroe Star trek and anything do to with animals i Hope to find a pen pal in the . Armed forces. A Judith Boulter a a a a a a. A a a a. \ a ski liver Street a. V.,. A a Newt rid Verdon Leicestershire England. Ue99pd a Ali am ill 16-year-old Guy and enjoy photography Mutic travelling hiking and Reading. Rajend Pachaud co Goethe Institute. A.  1103, Kathmandu Nepal please pull i our names in your pen pal Sec Uon a a a a a a Quot a a. A a a miss jul Lett Laura 14 years old a or. Jovel not. Laura 19 years old. F-17 Francisco Loop. Governor Alvarez beet. Zamboanga City. Philippines wipes eur hops an edition. Circus Elton 190,000 . 1 commander editor in chief _ . _ Deputy commander editor in chief Marie to Minckl a Rob Wicker Deane b Mcdermott. Production manager managing editor. Circulation manager this newspaper is an authorized unofficial publication for members of die military services overseas. Contents of the stars and stripes Are not necessarily the Otto Cal views of. Or endorsed by the  government the department of defense or the u-8 european command. A. The appearance of. Advertise Nav the this publication including inserts or supplements does not constitute endorsement by the department of detente or the stars and stripes of the products or services advertised. Every thing advertised in this publication shall be made available for Purchase use or patronage without regard to race color religion sex National origin age marital status physical Handicap political a ii Afron or any other non Merit Factor of the purchaser user or Patron. _. 7. Main office switch Faro 06155-6010-etb 348-5741 or 5823. For departments dial 06165-601 plus Extension or ets 346-0 plus the Extension. A a a a. News ext. 237.255.232.226.326, sports ext 225,269,263,332.321,221. Features ext. 230,245 of 341. A. Letters to editor ext. 208 education Jim Jones. Ext. 226. Medicine Janet d Agsuno ext. 230-business Randy Mcclain ext 326. Advertising display ext. 247 or 309. Classified ext. 349. Telex 419-332. Tel fax 06155-601376,mailing address Apo 09211-4211 or Postrach .11 14 37, d-6100 Darmstadt 11, Germany. _ news bureaus Bremerhaven Germany Ken Crauson building 103, cart Schur Cavern Apo 09069 Telephone ets 342 8659 or civilian 0471-88782.kaiserslautern Germany Deedee Arrington Doke Peggy Davidson Lynda Davidson building 2899, Pulaski Barracks Apo 09227-3717 Telephone civilian 0631-52104. Munich Germany Steve Taylor building 16, c Stair Weh. 2nd floor Mcgraw Cavern soured Apo 09407 Telephone ets 440-73,20 or civilian 089-690-1600. Nornberg Germany Vince Crawley. Effie Bathen building 21, William o. Darby Cavern Apo 09696 Telephone ets 460-7256 or civilian 0911 -712563. A a Stuttgart Germany Joseph Owen building 4303. Room 201, Wallace Barracks. Mailing address co Vii corps Fin. Group  to Wallace Barracks. Apo 09154 Telephone ets 420-7179 or i Wotan 0711-642571. Wurzburg Germany John Miliar room 110, River building Apo 09036 Telephone ets 350-4704 or civilian 0931-71569. Brussels Belgium David Tarrant International press Center 1 Boulevard Charlemagne Box 45, 1041 Brussels Telephone civilian 00322 230-0967 Tel fax 00322 2369066 Mediterranean j. King Cruger Gary Miller and Candida Anione Naples Italy Asa Box 68, Fps 09521 Telephone Auto Van 625-1110.ext. 4880 of civilian 0038-81-7624049. New York City room at 252 seventh ave., new York 10001 Telephone 212-020-3333. United kingdom Dave Diehl Amy Gelsler Jones building 436 Cess us Raf met Denham Apo 09127 Telephone Auto on 238-2226 or civilian 0638 512226 Washington . Chuck Vinch Janet Howells Lerney. Oast a the Pentagon room 2e756, Box 46095, Washington . 20050-6095, Telephone 703-697-6695 703-693-6366. Circulation offices Germany Berill civil Lari 8331846, ets 332-4412 Bremerhaven civilian 0471-85168, ets 342-8119 Rhein main a civilian 069-692050 or 692565, it 330 6025 or 7103, telex 412712, Cen Reg Tel fax 069-694087 Kaiserslautern civilian 0631-57070 or 67079, ets 489-7100 Munich civilian 0896901503 or 6901504, ets 440-6556. Tel fax 089-699-1806 Nurnberg civilian 0911 -712550, ets 460-7001 Stuttgart civilian 0711-646743. Ets 420-7175. Greece Athens. Civilian 9923390 Italy Vicenza civilian 0444-515368, ets 634-7545, Tel fax 0444 300- 641. ,. K a a a a Spain Madrid ets 665-5807, civilian and Tel fax 00341-6561465 Turkey Istanbul civilian 664372, Tel fax 0090-1-1664372 United kingdom civilian Newbury 063514768, Auto on 268-3209