Customer Service...

[Head Guru]

I just had a chat with a customer on IM. We were talking about how the level of customer service in business has declined.

 

I visited the bank yesterday. I consider myself a pretty nice person, and a valued client of my bank. Having all the business accounts there as well as my personal accounts.

 

After seeing the bank officer for some check reodering business, I asked if I could obtain a coffee cup from the bank. I noticed they had really nice cups and thought it would be nice to get a free mug.

 

I was told "yea right pal we dont give away mugs".

 

What has happened to customer service.

 

If one of my employees treated a paying customer that way, well lets just say that employee would be getting their next check from the unemployment office.

 

I thought it would be interesting for others to post their experiances with this type of poor customer service.

[TCH-Thomas]

Here in Sweden, it happens that we get free things, but its rare. If there is a store who have a club, they can have a offer "get us one member and you blah blah for free", but then they take that out on higher prices. And if we ask... ouch... no we should not.

Instead, they sell their stuff, and often very expensive.

My own little policy, is never to buy those things. Doesnt matter if it costs one cent or one dollar. Why should i pay to give that big company free advertising.

[blankman]

im all with hg on this one customer service suck in america

 

i was at jack-in-the-box last night and ordered some food thru the drive thru, the dude dropped my change and refused to offer to pick it up. gimmie a break.

 

The worstest customer service is at best buy. They just suck. I read that last year they arrested a guy for writing down the prices of their stuff in a notebook.

[youneverknow]

What really pulls my chain is the telephone support for Qwest DSL. After going throgh the phone que of entering my phone # then pushing the right options I got a busy signal!!! I tried again and kept getting the message "your call is important to us please continue to wait on the line for the next availible tech..." Then on hold for over 1 hour...if the call was important to them why not put on more techs?

 

I had to go through their merry go round for 4 calls and 2 defective modems....all this just to get online.

[DarqFlare]

Well, quite the contrary for me... Lately I've receieved very good customer service from Western Digital and Dell, and somewhat favorable service from MSI.

 

What ticks me off is the service in fast food restaurants. I never go through a drive-through because I want practically no ice in my drinks. Every time I go drive-through, I ask to have little ice... Then I get my drink, full with ice as always.

 

Though, there's a Taco Bell here in town that has a really nice guy in it.. Strange.

[Alan]

lol, This is more of a hehe type topic.

 

Me and my parents went to Wendy's last night about 11:45 PM, and there where like 50 guys trying to jump on one, and 5 of which had baseball bats, and the kid they where trying to jump on pulled out a gun and sent 50 guys and gals running around the parken lot, well when the police got there, they handcuffed the kid they where trying to jump on, and let the other 50 people trying to jump on him drive away.

 

What is police corruption? lol

[Deverill]

My next-cubicle neighbor at work went for coffee at a small coffee shop right on the docks where the cruise ships dock. He bought the overpriced $3.00 cafe con leche and all he had was a $20. He had to listen to a full 3 minute tirade from the lady about making change. Then when she calmed down a bit she said something else and he asked her to repeat it and she said "Nevermind, it's not worth arguing with you about it."

 

Last time I looked there were 2 facts - 1. it takes 2 to argue and my friend said nothing other than "A 20 is all I have." and 2. money is money and a business that fusses about getting it is destined to not be a business much longer.

[TCH-Rick]

The Best Buy story reminded me of when I worked at Circuit City. We had to visit our competitors once a week or so to check on their prices and were instructed to not to be obvious. It was always funny cause we would see some of their salespeople in our store at times as well.

 

At the time we worked on commission so if you provided good customer service it would help the paycheck. I had one guy that bought several smaller things from me. When it came time for him to buy a bigscreen TV he came looking for me.

 

I also have to say that customers can push the limit as well, though. I spent 45 minutes with one guy talking about a computer system. He took so long to decide that the last computer he wanted was sold. We had more coming in the next morning. I put a Hold on one for him and he left. A few minutes later he came in and asked if I had any of the rebate coupons for that computer. I told him I would put them together for him the next morning when he picked up the system. He said he had bought the machine at the store next door but they were out of the Rebate coupons. I gave him the coupon I had in my pocket. Can't repeat in a family forum what we said when he left.

[HCSuperStores]

Hi Bill,

 

As I said before, I think we sometimes get smug as americans. That sucess in business is just "due" us, because we live in a free country.

 

But I also find that expectations are really odd sometimes.

 

I tend to charge a little more than the next guy, or I should say the "cheapest" guy. I'm not out to compete JUST on the dollar. I have services and quality that others wouldn't touch.

 

But some companies, especially the small businesses or individuals, just look for the cheapest thing. For them, I say "Fine ... have fun!" knowing full well the complicated and confusing road that they are about to go down.

 

Some people want it dirt cheap and want excellent service. Me, I'll pay a good price (don't read anything into this Bill ... my rate is fixed, right???) and I'm willing to pay much more if the service is there. Service IS value.

 

Some just don't see this anymore, especially when looking for the cheapest option.

 

I say those with good service and a decent price will stay around much longer than those that compete on price alone.

 

Those are my thoughts!

 

Bill

[ejh]

I was at the mall and was carrying a lot of things, I stopped by a Walden Books and asked if I could have a small plastic sack, the manager looked at me, sarcasticlly went "hmm..." and yelled "No!" I couldn't believe it! The dumb sack has got to be cheap and it's free advertising! You don't think it's wise to have someone walking the mall with your logo?!? Not to mention I'm never walking in the store again.

[Virtual Imager]

My biggest pet peeve about service is having to pay extra for it! I HATE the whole concept of tipping (not that I'm a bad tipper... I happen to always tip very well, but I just hate the whole idea). I think if an establishment wants to attract and keep customers by offering good service, they should train their people to give good service and pay them a living wage. The price of their product (meal, room, whatever) should include service, even if it has to be higher than what they charge currently. I'm a tax accountant by day and I give my clients excellent service. I wouldn't think of accepting a tip. I give good service because I want my clients' repeat business and because I take pride in my work. When I rent a hotel room I expect it to be cleaned... why should I have to pay extra for that? And when I order a meal in a restaurant, I expect it to be brought out of the kitchen and to my table. If a restaurant wants to increase sales, the servers should be instructed to return to the table and see if anyone wants or needs another drink or anything else to eat. It is in the retaurant's best interest to provide this service. If I have to hunt down my server, you can bet I'm not going to stick around and order dessert. The other thing that really burns me, being a tax accountant, is that I and most people I know, work very hard for my income and have to pay taxes on every penny earned. Most service employees don't. Some by choice. Some because they don't understand that not all their tips are included in their W-2 income. If service people were simply paid higher wages by their employers and not paid tips, all their income would be reported on W-2's which would result in a huge revenue boom for the country and perhaps, lower taxes, for all the rest of us.

 

Thanks, I needed that!

[stevevan]

It's just as bad in the Federal Government. In my job, I travel from site to site throughout the southeastern US to install radios, antennas, and other types of electronic items for the FAA. I have seen the full spectrum of "customer service" from the local technicians at the different airports. Even within my own platform, we have some that will only do the bare necessaties, saying "It's not my job to do (fill-in-the-blank)." Then they whine and cry when their promotions don't happen or they get a low evaluation score. Hmmmmm... Makes ya wonder...

 

P.S. Being on the road a lot I see much of the same customer service in restaurants as everyone has been saying.

[DarqFlare]

Where I work, student service is king... I work in a Community College assisting the students and staff with computer problems.

 

I get the maximum number of hours and preferred schedule placement because I am ALWAYS amicable. I am paid to help them, and nicely too. There's no point for a company to keep me employed when I alienate their customers.

[kaseytraeger]

I'm inclined to think that customer service varies from region to region in the U.S. I was born and raised in California, and [unfortunately,] have lived here all my life. Until age 25, I lived in the same town. When I was a kid, it had about 15,000-16,000 people. By the time I was 25, it was close to 50,000. I'm sure many people have heard of "urban creep" or "urban sprawl", but I also think there's a phenomenon of "discourteous creep" wherein the more people move into an area, the more businesses lose all sense of courtesy for people.

 

This is exactly what happened in my town. So many people started moving there from areas like the San Francisco bay area and Los Angeles (and they brought their rude ways with them), that the businesses no longer had to provide excellent customer service in order to attract and maintain customers. It had become a numbers game, and there were enough potential customers in the area now that businesses became lazy when it came to customer service. The businesses started treating customers like we needed them instead of them needing us.

 

The discourteous creep was slow and undetectable to me until about a year ago. I had forgotten what real, honest customer service was like until my husband and I travelled the the mid west to visit his folks. They live in a town that's about the same size my hometown was when I was a kid. The customer service there is awesome. It stood in stark contrast to the kind of customer service we get in California.

 

Not two weeks after our return, we went out for breakfast one Saturday morning, and the restaurant was busy. The hostess didn't even bother to seat us. She practically tossed the menus to us, then pointed to a corner of the room and said "Go sit over there." This is no joke, it really happened.

 

My theory is that customer service varys by region (e.g., mid west versus California) and that a big reason for terrible customer service in some areas is that there are enough people out there that the businesses don't have to work for your business anymore. It's almost like they've got you by the keister. Think about it. When was the last time you got good customer service from your local telephone provider, your city's water and sewer department, etc? You are literally just a number, and you need them to provide you with basic services, so they don't have to be nice or courteous to you.

 

That's why I was so surprised to find TCH. I haven't received such excellent customer service in many, many years. Many people expect poor service from their web host simply because they aren't used to anything else. When I found TCH, I was honestly amazed that I had been willing to allow such poor customer service in other facets of my life.

 

But there is something we can do about it, and I have taken steps to do so in my own life. I am now a big proponent of voicing your experiences to customer service managers whenever you get very good or very bad service. For example, I had to call my health insurance company the other day. The customer service agent was so helpful and pushed to get a transaction through before a certain cut-off date that I asked for her name and sent a letter to her supervisor of how she had gone out of her way to help me and how she was an excellent customer service representative because she really seemed to want to help the subscriber. Likewise, my husband and I got terrible service from a local auto parts and service store (national chain). When I didn't get satisfaction from the store manager, I sent a letter to the national headquarters. (On a side note, I'm still waiting to hear back from them ... and if their headquarters dislike customers as much as their local store in our town seems to, I probably won't be hearing from them.)

 

Am I being a squeaky wheel? Probably. But the fact is that too many of us don't tell these companies that we will take our money and our business elsewhere if they don't provide the kind of service and respect to their customers that the customers deserve. Unless we say something, business ethics, practices and customer service will continue to decay. But you also need to make sure you praise a company when praise is due. It's like training a dog. Positive reinforcement works much better than the alternative.

 

Thanks for letting me rant.

Rock Sign (Super duper customer service!)

[Ninepatch]

My professional life was spent full-time in academia and part-time in law enforcement. There was no such thing as an unfilled service request, and it better be delivered with a smile or you'd have some tenured proffessor or tight-arsed lieutenant crawling up your netherlands in a heartbeat, making your life miserable. And, I never made as much as people in the private sector for all of that. I really believe most of the rest of the world has no idea what that kind of service is all about - well, except for TCH that is. Thumbs Up

 

I spent this morning going around with my ISP of all things. I've been a customer for 6 years, with an auto-pay account. They get, maybe, 2 calls a year from me and my bill is always paid on time, obviously. This is a local company, but I've gotten good service and I like them a lot - they've always been great about communicating with their customers.

 

The credit card they've been billing for 3 years expired 02/04 (meaning it was good until 2/29/04). On 1/31/04 at 9:15 PM my account was disconnected - no e-mail, no warning, no how do you do. I make a call to tech support and 10 hours later my account is restored but I hear nothing back from tech support at all. I provide the company with the updated credit card expiration date and we move on. Hey, mistakes happen, no harm-no foul.

 

Last night, 2/29/04, 9:15 PM - guess what? Yeah - my account was disconnected again. I send tech support a less than enthusiastic e-mail. About 3 hours later my account is restored but I hear nothing from tech support whatsoever. At noon today I called and talked to the Office Manager. Got a "don't know what happened" sort of story, and he was completely unaware of what had happened a month earlier - it had never been recorded in my customer account record. He also tells me that my credit card is expired - seems no one bothered to record my new information! He was a pleasant enough guy, but basically did the song-and-dance routine - he's new to the position.

 

I've had great service fromt this company for 6 years and I'm not going to let a few individuals' inattention to the details of their job take it away from me. I go out of my way to "shop in my own backyard" and this is a local company I want to continue supporting. I now have the name of the company president/owner. If I have to do this again at the end of March, I'm not going to pull my account. I'm going to show up in their offices in person and let the owner of the company know what's happening to one of his customers. I think it will matter to HIM that his tech people no longer respond to e-mails and his billing clerks don't update accounts.

 

Then again, maybe I'm just a witch ... well, you know what I mean

 

Beth

[HCSuperStores]

I have to gripe some. It falls right in line with "service" going down hill.

 

Since the beginning of December, I've had issues, and bills from MCI for a phone number that I never had. I don't even have an account with them any more.

 

So I'm concerned on who authorized my name and address to be with this phone number (area code 401) that doesn't belong to me.

 

But here's the kicker. I've called 3 times to put an end to this.

 

Since my first call I've gotten about 10 pieces of paper ... bills, late notices, and finally collection warnings. 3 times I've called and 3 times someone on the other end has said they would take care of it.

 

Now I'm just worried about HOW this happened. It's been so frustraiting!

[Head Guru]

LOL

 

I had the same issue with MCI.

 

I won in the end. Took like 3 months.

 

In the end they were known forever as

 

MCI = MUST COLLECT INCOME!

[ThumpAZ]

HCSS,

Something similar was going on out here with MCI recently. What that person did was call the local news station's consumer help team. They got it taken care of right fast like.

That would be my advice to you as well...try the local news team. If that doesn't work, find an attorney that will take it on contingency and sue their butts. If you are getting collections notices, then it most likely is already on your credit report.

[HCSuperStores]

I was wondering if I was getting all worked up for nothing, but you're saying the same things I've thought. I even used the word "lawyer" in my conversation, without knowing if it would have any impact.

 

The credit thing was internal to MCI so there isn't anything on mine personally.

 

But still, I had no idea that this has happened to others.

 

Maybe it's just if your name is Bill????

 

If it's possible, I want to know HOW my informaiton got attached to this number. They looked it up and said that on XXX date it was under this name and then on XXX date it got changed. They don't know by whom it just was on a given date.

 

I'll never use them again, that's for sure. I wasn't even using them this time!

[bellringr]

Speaking of phone companies and lousy business practices, when Verizon was GTE, they had a pay phone in my small town over by the water dept. One day someone who works there noticed that it was broken and would call anywhere for free. Being the good citizen they are, they reported it to GTE.

 

Two months or so later, and several calls to GTE, this phone is STILL broken, but lo and behold, citizens of this small village of 1000 are all getting these mysterious phone calls on their bills to people and places they've never heard of. Not alot - just 2-5 calls on one bill. So if you weren't paying attention, you'd just pay it and never know. However, my parents always paid attention to the calls and when they told GTE they weren't theirs, they were basically called a liar. They had to push and shove and threaten legal action before GTE finally ADMITTED that they took those calls from the "free" pay phone they couldn't bother fixing and tacked them on to peoples' bills. Even after "fessing up" they CONTINUED to do it instead of fixing the @#$% phone! I think finally someone did something so it would be out of order to stop the stupidity.

 

How GTE got away with it without being in deep doodoo I'll never know. Today they'd have lawsuits out the wazoo against them for such slimy practices.

 

And go figure - today I have Verizon DSL, local, and long distance. heh

[Virtual Imager]

Can you hear me now?

[torvan]

It is funny you mention the ideas about customer service. Check out this letter I sent to the local Safeway:

 

Mr. Lyle Waterman

Safeway Stores Inc.

16300 SE Evelyn St.

Clackamas, OR 97015

 

Mr. Pete Ambler

Safeway Stores Inc. #4404

138 West Ellendale Ave.

Dallas, OR 97338

 

Dear Sirs,

 

It is very rare event when I comment in writing about an experience in any store, positive or negative. Usually, I dismiss the good service as expected and the bad service as “par for the course” in today’s society. Being a 35 year old man, my generation (to generalize) is more apt to just internalize what we see and experience and change our behavior to avoid those negative experiences rather than complain or compliment. I myself fall under that generalization.

 

I have a certain level of expectation when it comes to service at any store I patronize. I expect the employees to put on some sort of front that says to me “Welcome to my store” whether that is a smile when the see me, a “hello” if we are standing near each other, or even a “How can I help you?” if I look confused. If I ask for where something is, I expect a store employee to either tell me exactly where to find it or to take me to the item or items. I expect a thank you at the end of the transaction. A store that meets those expectations will always get my business regardless of any sales that a competing store is having that does not meet those expectations.

 

My experiences with the Tanasbourne Safeway store in Hillsboro, the Jantzen Beach Safeway in Portland, and the Downtown store in Corvallis set a service expectation in me that is higher than my own expectations. I expect, due to their service, that if I am on an aisle an employee will always say hello and ask if I need any help. I expect that checkers will smile, strike up some sort of small talk-even if it is to ask me if I found what I was looking for, and thank me by my last name (which I usually hate myself, preferring them to use my first name if they use my name at all). I expect that if a courtesy clerk is at the end of the check stand, they will bag my groceries, offer to carry them out, and also thank me by name.

 

Today however, I feel the need to explain what happened at the Dallas Safeway. For six months now, I have experienced a level of service I expect at the local Wal-Mart as opposed to Safeway, and am unwilling to tolerate it anymore. For your reference, I have included my receipt in case you wanted to review the transaction with me as I describe what happened today.

 

I came in to the Dallas store needing just four items—unbleached white flour, canned pie filling, graham pie crust mix, and canned black beans—but I was also in a “shopping mood”—which means I am much more likely to get more than just the four items that drove me to the store. I got my shopping cart and headed to the Bread area to see what good buys I could get on breads-usually I make my own, but bagels sounded good today.

 

As I reviewed the stock of bagels, I stood next to a female employee for a couple of minutes. She was straightening the shelves—I saw no name tag on her apron, and said nothing to me at all, never even an acknowledgement I was standing there. I sighed to myself, finding nothing on ad that I wanted to purchase, and walked away. I didn’t think much of this-she was busy after all—but a “hello” would have been nice.

 

I walked further toward the Bakery, and checked out the fresh breads. I was looking for an Asiago cheese loaf, but did not find any. A Bakery employee was checking dated stock in the front of the case, clearing out the bay. At no point during my look (which I did not find any of the bread I was looking for) did she acknowledge my presence or even ask if I was looking for something. If she had, she would have found I was looking for six loaves—five to freeze, and one to have for dinner tonight. Instead, I walked away with nothing.

 

I went over to the meat department, having decided to cook cube steaks for dinner tonight instead of the chicken I had in the freezer at home. There were three Meat department employees in the immediate area, talking loudly about cars and car repairs or something to that effect. One was even stocking the meat counter. At no point were any customers, including myself, ever addressed in any way. I walked the length of the counter looking for my steaks, and even passed right in front of the person stocking the case.

 

I picked up my steak, and then gathered the flour and the beans, but could not find the pie filling or the graham. I searched for over 10 minutes for these items, walking up and down every aisle of the store, gathering a few more items along the way. I passed two people I recognized as checkers (people who have been rude in the past and I avoid like the plague when I am in this store) who just walked past me without saying a word. One walked past me at the exact moment another customer told me where to find the pie filling, but he never stopped on his way to the front to address either one of us. I just took it as single mindedness—he must have been called to check--although to be honest I did not hear any page.

 

Having gotten my remaining two items, I headed over to Produce and got the broccoli to have with dinner, and headed to the check stands. Two checkers were out front of the check stands, and one (Erica) was in her check stand—all three had no customers in line. They were all conversing about something or another. I pointed my cart into Erica’s check stand, oblivious to the fact she was in a conversation with another employee. The scowl on her face betrayed the fact she was irate at being interrupted.

 

As I emptied my cart onto the belt of the check stand, I asked for paper bags before she started bagging. She rather abruptly shoved the plastic bag dispenser back and opened a paper bag in such a manner as to tell me “This is not how I normally do things” I just ignored it, because asking for paper bags in this store is usually met with some sort of frown. Preferring the sturdiness of paper bags is a preference of mine, although I realize it is a more expensive item for the store, thus reducing your profit margin from my purchase.

 

I had left a coupon on an air freshener refill, loose; it was from one of those red dispensers that are on the shelf offering me 55 cents off the price of the refill. She picked the coupon up off the air freshener refill, and slammed it down on the lottery dispenser in an obvious “It goes there stupid” gesture. In bagging, she put my steaks in the same bag as the air fresheners (I had picked up one Airwick refill and two Glade fan driven models) with no separation between them. While I trust the packaging of the air products, my past experiences have told me that checkers will place the meat in a plastic sack if mixing the bag with household chemicals. It may not be a Safeway required thing, separating the two, but it is a thoughtful gesture.

 

She said nothing to me at all as she was ringing up the order, and the scowl remained on her face during this time. I even tried to joke with her, saying “I hope the phone number I entered was correct” for my club card (It was not, instead it brought up a Travis Jacobs instead of me—I recently moved and did not remember if I had changed my phone number with the Club Card online—but I must have.) No reaction from her at all.

 

Once the order was completed, no total was announced, but I did see the total ($50.23 after Club Card and coupon discounts) and used my debit card for the purchase. Only when my receipt came up did Erica finally turn pleasant, thanking me by my last name, asking if I wanted help out with my bags, and to have a nice day.

 

I wish I could say that this shopping experience was unusual for the Dallas Safeway, but unfortunately it is all too common at that store. With the exception of two shopping trips to the Dallas store, I have walked away from each shopping expedition with a negative experience. I have, in the past, been treated rudely or just ignored by three checkers, a front end manager, a head clerk, two Bakery employees, three Meat employees, one Produce employee, and two courtesy clerks.

 

Once I got home, I called the store at 5:35 p.m. and asked if Mr. Ambler was in-he was not. I asked if the assistant manager was in-he was not. I then asked for the Head Clerk, and informed him briefly of my negative experience. I got no apology for the experience, just a lot of “uh-huh” and “mmm-hmm” sounds; I was also not asked to elucidate nor was I asked any clarifying questions which I expected in order to ensure that I was heard correctly.

 

Mr. Watterman and Mr. Ambler, my shopping needs are not great. I have only spent $1,157.66 at Safeway after coupons and Club Card savings since moving to Dallas in July of this year; and so I realize that I am not much of a profit generator for Safeway. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this letter, I still expect some level of respect and politeness from any store I go into to spend my hard earned dollars. It is just unfortunate that the store that is less than a block from my house (I can see it across the empty field that separates my house from the store) will never get that business from me again; instead I will give the local Dallas Select market those dollars I used to spend at the Dallas Safeway. They have proven to me in the past to be able to meet the minimum standards I mentioned above.

 

Sincerely,

 

Troy Ridenour

 

 

This was the response from Waterman, who is the Portland Division President:

 

 

Dear Mr. Ridenour,

 

Oregon store and how disappointed you were with the entire experience.

 

As you may be aware, several years ago Safeway embarked on a program to ensure that all of our customers receive a high level of service when in our stores. I am certainly sorry to hear that we may have fallen short on a number of service related issues.

 

We will look into the details provided in your letter and be in further contact with you to get additional details which will help our District Manager for the Dallas area review all the issues with store employees and follow up as necessary.

 

Sincerely,

 

Lyle Waterman

 

My letter was dated January 12, his response on January 16. I have not heard from them since. What gets me is that I gave him a detailed letter indicating the problems, so there is no "may have fallen short" and that they will "be in further contact with" me--and no one has.

 

Canned letters--makes writing a detailed letter not worth the time.

 

I never did hear from the store manager (Mr. Ambler) either.

[bellringr]

What you should do is write back to this person and give him the link to the letters you posted online so that he can see it was advertised to the whole world.

 

I have a bit of a nasty streak - I hate canned letters. They take me from simply not patronizing that company anymore to telling everyone I know not to go there.

[Head Guru]

Torvan,

 

Please dont shop there again.

 

Nothing speaks louder than your wallet!

[torvan]

Boy, I just wish it was that easy. The other half is an assistant manager for another Safeway. . . .and you know that old saying "spend your money where you make it so you can make still more."

 

But, what I have done is given more money to Costco (who get's the bulk of the dollars as it is) and the rest goes to either the local Select store or I tell Brian to get whatever it is at his store.

 

But for this particular store-hell no. They lost this guy.

 

Cheers!

Troy

[LunarMagic]

I too hate tipping. I do it, but I'm not happy about it. $10 for a burger? And then you expect me to give $2 to the person who carried it from the kitchen to my table? I worked at Subway for 9 months - not my favorite place to work, for sure, but it was my first job. I was esctatic if someone ever left a dollar for me - which happened rarely. But we never ever expected it.

 

Come on, just raise the prices and pay your employees a decent wage. I should have to be expected to pay extra just to get good service - and I don't want to have to worry about having something nasty done to my food if I don't because of bad service a previous time!

 

I've had some good and bad experiences. I'll relate two I had with airlines, since they're what stands out to me.

 

Over christmas I was stranded in Chicago thanks to a major winter storm that cancelled the last leg of my flight. I was very upset, nearly in tears, and had NO idea what to do. I'm stranded in a strange airport. I walked up to some random counter, I don't even think it was an airline I had flied with, and asked for help. The guy who helped me was the nicest person I have ever run into. He was very sympathetic and looked up everything I asked, giving me options. I made two phone calls to myboyfriend in between and then went back. The guy gave me directions and a phone number and helped me get a place to stay for the night.

 

So then the next morning there was an entire plane full of people who had been delayed overnight, who hadn't gotten any sleep, and who were now at the airport at 6am. And one of our flight attendants was THE rudest person I have ever encountered in the airlines. First of all, when people came up to ask if any other flights were avilable, or if they could get on this particular flight, he said, "No," and ignored them. I was sitting right there watching the entire time. Every single person I saw go up to him, he was rude to. And then we all got on the plane, tired and cranky and late, and something happened and we ALL had to get off the plane. Now comes the good part: this flight attendant got on the intercom and said his "apology" that went something like this: "Someone else was supposed to clean the cabin, and they didn't. I wasn't aware of this when we boarded the plane. I did my job, but I apologise for those who didn't." He went on like that for quite some time, to the pure open-mouthed astonishment of everyone. We could not believe how absolutely snotty and rude this guy was, and then he had the gall to point fingers at someone else??

 

I did mention it to one of the other flight attendants, as did many others. I hope the guy got fired.

[Hockeypuck]

I've had people downright lie to me to try to make a sale.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to CompUSA to check prices on the memory I wanted to add to my computer. I went to the area where they keep memory, and the man there asked me what kind I was looking for. I told him, and he brought it out on the counter for me. He told me the price ($120 for 2x128MB sticks) and gave me some line about them being the only place that carries it around here and probably the best price too.

 

I'd seen the same set-up a week ago for $70 online. This CompUSA employee wanted to take advantage of someone he thought did not know enough about computers to know he was lying. I just said "no thanks" and left the store.

[Guest LightKeeper]

What's customer service? LOL

[bellringr]

Customer service is what you get at TCH (and precious few other places)

 

Rock Sign

[Virtual Imager]

Got this by email today... thought it was relevant:

Subject: The Meaning of "Service"........

 

 

      Do You Know The Meaning of "Service"?

      At one time in my life, I thought I had a handle on the meaning of

      the word "service." "The act of doing things for other people."

 

      Then I heard the terms:

      Internal Revenue Service

      Postal Service

      Telephone Service

      Civil Service

      City/County Public Service

      Customer Service

      Service Stations

 

      And I became confused about the word "service."

      This is not what I thought "service" meant.

 

      Then today, I overheard two farmers talking

      and one of them mentioned that he was having a

      bull over to "service" a few of his cows.

 

      SHAZAM! It all came into perspective. Now I

      understand what all those "service" agencies

      are doing to us.

 

 

VI

[bellringr]

ROFL!!!