Is customer service going to hell?

[Lannes]

I was at the supermarket today making a purchase and the cashier was giving me a dirty look the whole time,I dont know why.I gave her my discount card that was on my keychain and she kept it just before giving me back my change.She then said LITERALLY "Ya ya ya ya ya" instead of thankyou for shopping at alberstons.I noticed that my car keys were missing and went back and said "thanks for keeping my car keys biatch".

Ive never said anything like that to a woman before but Im tired of employees taking their problems out on people like me who are respectful and dont make unreasonable demands.Ive had shit jobs,alot worse than hers and never came close to treating a customer that way.

[Parche]

1. customer service

have you ever watched the series "Airline"

[Lannes]

2. Parts of it why?

[Parche]

10. albertsons

I have never had a problem with Albertsons or Safeway,
I dont know your situation

But watching the series Airline, and being in that business
I know how hard it is to work with the travelling public
they can be jerks sometimes, not all but a few.

[Lannes]

21. I worked in the hotel business for 4 years

I had to deal with business travelers who can be the most demanding customers there is.Ive been called every name in the book for things that were completely out of my control.Not once did I return fire so to speak.Thats why I wa so upset at someone who disrespected me only because i was in her line.

[Parche]

25. hotel

You know what it is like, sometimes we have to bite our tongues
at the crap that we get, and the weird people that come in
but you are right, we never "return the fire"

[KitchenWitch]

38. I have seen Airline

There are some crazy situations that have come up on that show, but there is one gate agent at O'Hare that had I been her manager and saw what she did on the show, I would have fired her ass. No matter how wrong a customer is, it is never professional to rub a customer's nose in it, especially in front of a planeload of people.

[Bunny]

3. Why did she keep your car keys?

I don't follow that.

[Lannes]

5. I dont know either

She was being obnoxious and probably kept my keys to be difficult which I didnt appreciate.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. this doesn't make sense

[BlondieK143]

6. Um..

why did she keep your keys??

[Lannes]

9. Because she was fucking with me

[BlondieK143]

11. did you talk to a manager?

?

[Lannes]

15. Normally I would

But I gave her my two cents which is enough for me this time.

[Ariana Celeste]

7. sounds like...

either she had a shitty day and didn't realize she had your keys, or she hates her job and grew up thinking she would have a cushy job handed to her, therefore not appreciating her job at all.

[Lannes]

17. I understand what you are saying

But like I said.Ive had jobs were customers treated me like shit and I kept my cool.I wasnt disrespectful or obnoxious and she decided to take her day out on me.No excuse for that.Ive noticed that this attitude is becoming more prevalent,

[Ariana Celeste]

20. Definitely no excuse

and if she did it to you she probably has a similar attitude with other customers- so she will probably end up fired. All I'm sayin is maybe there's some issues in her life. At the grocery store I go to, there was one cashier chick who was always less than enthusiastic, and sometimes bitchy. I generally tried to go to other lanes. Then I overheard another employee talking to her and it turned out she was in a shitty mood at work all the time because she was treated like crap by the management. Does that justify the behavior? No, not at all. And she didn't last very long after her attitude took that turn. But I could sympathize with her, anyways. I totally understand you being pissed off, though.

[coloradodem2005]

8. You are kidding me.

When I worked at Office Max, I would have gotten fired for that. If a customer was gracious to me, I would be gracious back.


On edit: I would have had half a mind to report her.

[Lannes]

12. Ive never been disrespectful to an employee

Unless they disrespected me first.Ive never gotten this angry but Ive come across too many instances like this.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. No, but the people who work in it are going to go to hell

[coloradodem2005]

14. What does that mean?

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. It means that all the lying, ignorant, unhelpful, uncaring, pieces of shit

who work in customer service are going to hell.

at least, if I have any pull with the Almighty they are.

[napi21]

16. You should have gone to the SM. He/she would have taken care

of the situation! Unfortunately, there are a lot of "youngsters" hured to run the register that are only there for the paycheck, and they don't follow the company rules at all.

My husband is a meat cutter in a major chain in the SE. Believe me, it's difficult to find anyone who really wanats to DO THEIR JOB, which of course includes GOOD customer service.

At the chain where he works, if any employee treated a customer like you were treated, they would be instantly fired.

[Lannes]

19. she was no youngster

In her late 20s early 30s.But you are right kids arent as respectful as they used to be.Reminds me of that song from"Bye Bye Birdie".

[napi21]

23. My mistake. I shouldn't have said youngster because they sure

aren't the only offenders! I hate to sound like an old fogie, but my husband is 62, and it's been years since there have been any employees who had pride in their work, or cared about anything except what's in it for me.

[Bouncy Ball]

22. when I was a checker, even if I didn't feel like smiling,

I forced myself to. Just doing that helped me to be more pleasant when I didn't feel like it.

What I hate is when they don't even acknowledge you, they just start scanning your food then chunking it, fairly hard, to the other end. Uh, HELLO? Those are my GROCERIES. Mind not throwing them?

[Ariana Celeste]

24. hell yeah dude-

on exactly that, I hate it when they don't ask you for your discount card and then look at you all pissy when you hold it up in front of them, like god forbid you take the initiative.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

27. I had an experience last week at my local Food Lion.

I was waiting in line and there were maybe two people in front of me. I had maybe 10 items and they had about the same. An employee walked up and stood beside me, then cut right in front of me. WTF? I got really pissed and said, "I KNOW YOU'RE NOT CUTTING IN FRONT OF ME, A CUSTOMER?" The people in front of me, including the employee, looked at me like I was nuts. I went clear across the store to another checkout lane, where I was stuck behind someone w/ a full cart. The customer was really nice and offered to let me go in front of him. After thanking him, I said (loud enough for others to hear), " You know, actually, I'm just gonna leave. Some employee just cut in front of me in another line, and that's just not right."

I left my shit in front of an empty lane and walked out. I went home and called the store manager because I was so pissed and told him what happened. He apologized for the incident and said the people (meaning the cashier who allowed that to happen and the employee who cut) would "pay." I said I didn't want anyone to lose their jobs over this, but I think they should definitely be spoken to. I used to be a cashier at Food Lion during college to help pay for school. I remember we'd get our asses reamed for not greeting a customer!? So, Food Lion's off my list of places to go. I'm "Kroger-ing" (they're Union anyway).

[Ariana Celeste]

30. Never had a bad experience,

at Kroger.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

35. Kroger's better I think.

[ronnykmarshall]

31. How many items did this employee have??

[Lannes]

32. self edit

.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

34. Just one item, but that wasn't the point. Perhaps if he'd asked,

it wouldn't have been an issue. I've happily let other people cut in front if they've had one item.

I've seen this happen at the store before where employees cut in front of customers. It's the way he did it that pissed me off.

[ronnykmarshall]

36. Oh.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

26. If by hell you mean "India," yes. nt

[LeftyMom]

28. Yes it is

and from my pesrspective (as somebody whose jobs have always required some degree of contact with the public) there are two big reasons why:

-manpower/staffing hours

Too many retailers are switching to the Walmart model where they don't have enough staff, nobody gets paid well, and turnover is high. Overworked, undertrained, underpaid people with no incentive to do thier best (bacause thier chances of moving up in the company or getting a significant raise are nil) give shitty customer service. Even the ones who try thier best are spread to thin and will probably be bitched out by a manager if they give you more than a few minutes of thier time.

-the lack of manners in society

Watch any busy parking lot or intersection. Many people are passive agressive assholes.

To get a customer service job, you have to pee in a cup, pass a fill-in-the-bubble personality test, maybe get a credit check run. Nobody calls your references to see if you're polite or handle pressure well.

Most retail managers don't want really nice people. Nice people take thier time, help customers, bend the rules from time to time. Nice people aren't effcient.

[Mugweed]

29. Reasons:

They're underpaid, are treated like shit by the customers and managers alike, are usually at the financial end of their ropes. It's a defense mechanism: I'll fuck with you first because you're only going to do it to me.

[yellowcanine]

33. If you have to ask the answer is probably yes.

[Zuni]

37. It is another way for the BFEE to destroy our nation

[Lauri16]

39. That's awful

I work at the Customer Service Desk of a supermarket. I get thoroughly pissed when I have customers come and tell me about the rudeness of a cashier. There's no reason for it. It doesn't happen that often, but as far as i'm concerned, once is too much.

I always ask the customer to please wait for me to page the store manager or the manager on duty at the time to tell them right then and there. When you make a complaint to the people at the service desk and then leave, it's easy for the complaint to be...not ignored...but not taken as seriously as if you were telling the manager yourself.

I don't know how other stores work, but where I work, they take customer complaints to heart and will always reprimand the cashier.

Whatever kind of day that cashier was having, that's no excuse for her to be such a bitch.