and that, dear readers, is the goofball way of spelling 'WOW'...
I went out today during the afternoon to get a late lunch, and from the moment I sat down to the other 4 customer service interactions, I gotta tell ya, either the world has gone to hell in a hand basket or I should have been looking for a job in the food service industry or retail long before I got my most recent job. I'd use the word abhorrent, but I don't want to 'class up' the treatment I received today. In more realistic terms, "friggin' awful" sounds a whole lot better....here we go:
The diner-I love diner food, and have been craving homefries for a couple of days. Well, not only is the craving over, but I have a place to cross off my list of places to go. The service was putrid. Everything else was very good, but the service, I felt like my table was a bother. The 2 people I were with wanted dessert, and after one of them asked for a box, the check was dropped...while the other was holding the dessert menu. This is Observation 101, is it not? I had to flag the guy down, and he said, "oh, did you want something else?" Clueless and classless. Yet another place not to go (and if you think I'm a dick for saying this stuff, my retort is 4 plus years of full weeks in a restaurant to put myself thru college-and no, it wasn't a college bar, so there goes that argument).
The shoe store-I have run down my kicks to the soles. There are holes. I'm proud of these sneakers because I've had them for quite awhile, during most of my job search. Walk into the shoe store and in 2 minutes get asked 5 times if I'm doing okay. Uh, wrong question, but I get the drill. Finally I have a question, I only wanted to know if they had my size in the back or if what you see is what you get. "I can call around or go online, once this damn phone stops ringing." I'm sorry, what does you doing your job with the phones have to do with me? I know, I'm nit-picking, but I think it's rude. It's not that I'm thankful to be working again, I'm more thankful to have a slight purpose and the bonus of I get to be a consumer again. As I'm making my purchase I'm asked if I'd like a bag. Yes, please. But I didn't get one. I got that whole askingaquestionwithoutlisteningtotheanswer thing...Lovely. At least she put my receipt in the box and pushed said box towards the edge of the counter.
The copy place-I admit, I have not been to a FedEx Kinko's in awhile (so long that it's now called FedEx Office). I walked in and was greeted politely, and then it went downhill, fast. Not sure what I did to make this lady behind the counter upset, but after she asked me what I needed, I told her I have a thumb drive and I need the PDF on it printed. I've done this for this document the last 3 years and it's cost me about $12, well worth the paper and ink. If I did it at home I'd run out of ink once for certain, maybe twice. Besides, I have a job again, I can drop that kind of massive coin, right? (That last sentence was, shhh, sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell) I'm told that she can do it for .12 a sheet or I can do it myself for .09 a sheet. No sweat. Did she point in a general direction? Yes. Did I know what I was looking for? Hell no (sigh). So after 20 seconds of me looking around a room like Rain Man, I saw it, and I liked the idea. A small box on a stand, maybe 5"x 5", with a place to plug in your thumb drive and a small screen...and of course, a place to put your credit card. I plug the thumb drive in, no sweat, and I'm off to the races. Until it comes to process my PDF. It hung for a good 4 minutes (while stating "please wait while we process your document, this may take a few moments considering your file size"-it's not everyday I get a compliment like that), and I wasn't mad, upset, or even annoyed, it's technology. The woman asked me if everything was okay, I told her I was waiting for the machine, it's thinking. Another 2 minutes went by and she said she could do it for me. Okay, I canceled my print job and brought the thumb drive over to her. Now while I can appreciate how busy she was, what price do you think she charged me? Yup, .12/page. I just gave her my 'Really?' smirk and off I went. She wasn't pleasant and she ripped me off. I could care less about the $2 or so she pilfered off of me, but the principle driven monkey in my brain is ticked. I figure I'm either repaying a debt to karma or I must have been a real asshole out last night.
My last item isn't a complaint on customer service, but more of an observation. I swear that 2 months ago while out of work I was noticing how nice I thought people were being to each other. Either that or I've romanticized it. Which is quite possibly true. Instead, I ran into the grocery store and out, 2 items, maybe 5 minutes. In that span of time I went from an old Nissan Sentra parked on my drivers side to an Avalanche being 9 inches from my door. And the way we were parked, whomever did it had to walk past my car and could have noticed it. Now, maybe, just maybe, this is a change that I need to adjust to, moving from the 'burbs to the city, but y'all don't want my city attitude. That can go from 'Hi how are you' to 'Go %$#& Ya'self' in a hurry.
I have to ask, did I miss something, or are we all back to being assholes amongst each other? Because if that's the case, I'm back to being nice to my friends, family and Ma Dukes. The rest of the world? Sorry, but that wall can go back up and I can avoid that at almost all costs.
What do you think?
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