I am tired of Poor Service by EVERYONE

[4X4]

Re: Thor


I think I encountered your buddy at a fast food joint a few months ago. The poor kid behind the counter was wearing a 'training' tag but that garnered no mercy from this a-hole.

The huffing and puffing as the kid is looking at the till trying to find the right button. Dude keeps repeating his order as though the kid forgot it while looking for the right button. Then the transaction is completed and the kid puts the tray with the receipt on the side so that the other people can fill the order and the kid summons the next person in line (me). As I'm placing my order, the guy cuts in and asks "where the hell is my burger... Isn't this supposed to be fast food?".
The kid tells him that they're making the burger.
There was two or three trays waiting for complete orders and the other staff is dropping food onto the other trays when the guy grabs the fries from another tray and tosses it on his.

Just a class 'A' pr1ck. I was about to tell the guy to calm down when his embarrassed wife told him to shut up and wait like everyone else has to.

[Thor]

4X4 that sounds like him, he's just angry at the world and he's the atypical rude driver who flips out to/from his daily commute to work.

He needs anger management help, seriously.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by fotze

No, that's 4x4.

No... I save my flipping out for when I log in to CP.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by 4X4

No... I save my flipping out for when I log in to CP.

I save mine for when I drive on the weekends.

[Engine09]

Went for some Thai food for lunch today and got great service, the only annoying this is when the waiter seats you right next to a table of people when the damn restaurant is almost empty.

Why do they always cram people into one section? Just to make it easier to walk orders over?

[Got Miikka?]

Brad: Hello, may I help you?
Customer: Yes. Your sign says 100% money-back guarantee if it's not the best breakfast you ever ate... well, this is not the best breakfast I ever ate, and I want my money back
Brad: Well, I believe there is a form you have to fill out...
Customer: No, I want my money back right now.
Brad: Well, that's not the way it works, you see... and you already ate most of the food already...
Customer: See that sign? [points up to sign that says "Try Our 100% Guaranteed Breakfast"] It says 100% money-back guarantee. Do you know the meaning of the word 'gurantee'? Do they teach you that here?
Brad [fumbling to find the form]: Sir, if you can just wait a minute...
Customer: Look. Just put your little hand in the cash register and give me my $2.75 back please [looks at Brad's name tag]... Brad?
Brad: I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get the form...
Customer [very frustrated]: What is the problem here? Can't you read? The sign says 100% guaranteed, you moron!
Brad [snaps]: Sir, if you don't shut up, I am going to kick 100% of your ass!

--from Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I save mine for when I drive on the weekends.

I save mine for when its 1 am and I can come back home liquored to post my usual BS on CP

[flip]

So time for my crappy service story.

so i bought an IPOD about 16 months ago from Future Shop, because I use it A LOT i bought 2 year PSP (warranty from FS). Like all other warranties it didn't cover physical damage.

Sure enough 2 or 3 weeks ago my IPOD stops working. It wouldn't take a charge and after sitting on the "please wait battery low" screen for hours I tried to reset. then i get the unhappy face scree.

Now my IPOD has had a rather large dent on the back since about 2 weeks after i bought it.

So i bring it to FS and they inform me that if it's the battery its no big deal and i say i think it is because it wouldn't charge. then they make me sign something that says if it is physical damage they are going to charge me $40 for their effort and of course because it couldn't have been physical damage (other than the dent i treat my ipod well) so i sign it.

I go to pick it up like 4 days ago and they tell me that because of said dent they refused to fix it at the tech centre that they send it to and that they want $40 from me because it was physical damage.

I inform them it was the battery and they tell me that even if the dent wasn't the problem they wouldn't have fixed it anyway because the dent was considered physical damage. Now i am more inclined to say the tech's used the dent as an excuse not to fix it.

After arguing for about an hour, they waive the $40 and i leave in a huff. SO when i get home i check on the internet on how to open one's ipod. When i open it i realize that the dent didn't even really transfer through and it wasn't even near the effing HD.

So basically it was almost certainly the battery, or some other non-physical damage problem and they used the dent to say that it was a dent in the HD.

Yeah cept I checked and it wasn't. Now i had thought about buying a new battery on my own and replacing it to see if it worked. Because then i could really bithc out the FS people but i got a good deal on a newish 80GB ipod yesterday and decided to just never shop at Future Shop again.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Thor

Just last weekend I went to buy some beer for a BBQ I was going to, and since there was a brief rainstorm the store was packed with people and obviously they were understaffed. This guy 4th in line of a line of about 9 people was absolutely losing it, making grunting noises, sighing very loudly, looking/hoping for reactions from others in the line.

I mean seriously, is your life so difficult that you can't handle waiting an extra few minutes because it rained outside and everyone rushes indoors to the stores at the same time?

Patience would help people live happier lives

From my experiences working at a liquor store Thor, if your buddy gave me attitude I would have told him he can buy his liquor elsewhere and denied selling him the beer. The beauty of working at a liquor store is that you can treat rude customers like garbage and most of them will still buy beer from you.

Also on an unrelated note, when I worked at a hotel, if someone gave me attitude, I would quote the room for way higher than the actual rates they were going at. I once suckered some guy into paying 160 for a room that was selling for 89. The beauty? I sold the nice couple right after him the same type of room for 65 with the AMA rate. Ah, good times.

[FFR]

Originally Posted by Kryzsky

Went for some Thai food for lunch today and got great service, the only annoying this is when the waiter seats you right next to a table of people when the damn restaurant is almost empty.

Why do they always cram people into one section? Just to make it easier to walk orders over?

I can answer this. It's becuase every restaraunt divides itself into sections and assigns one section of tables to each server. When you arrive (especially if it's just before the lunch or dinner rush) there is typically only one server on the floor and so they seat everyone in that one server's section. The reason they do not want to spread everyone over the whole restaurant is two fold: (1) If they start spreading tables everywhere then as new server's start, tables in their section are already taken and if they were then to take tables in other servers sections to make up for it, there wouldn't be much point to having sections and (2) having people spread over a restaurant makes it significantly more difficult for a server to work. Server's rely on efficiency and making the least number of trips possible. If the restaurant was to get suddenly busy and a server already has tables all over the restaurant, then they're pretty much screwed.
If it was late at night and they did that, it's because a final cleaning has already been completed on the other tables and by spreading out the tables away from the closing server's section, they are just adding significantly more work for themselves.

[Antithesis]

I don't get too upset about 'service' at retail places or movie theaters unless it's insanely awful. My philosophy is that I want to have as few tedious, exhausting, meaningless conversations with people as possible. It's just the same meaningless drivel place after place ... self-serve and pay-at-the-pump for me, in fact, any time I am able to complete some transaction myself I take it.

It's places where I might need some real assistance that I get upset about poor service ... when I got my HDTV the girl at Bell created an order and then didn't release it or something, so my wife took the day off work (costing us $160) and the guy never came ... amazingly when it got resolved, the Bell agent:

A) spoke English
B) was friendly
c) gave me more than I asked for in terms of credits
D) actually pulled through with said credits

I am an ex-TELUSer as well, and I'll tell you what, that was a fata-ed up business. Both sides - the union and management, disgusting. A completely dysfunctional situation. I hated my time there ... literally counted down in 15 minute increments 'till my next break ... lunch ... break ... home. Thank goodness I enjoy my job now, so Sundays aren't spent dreading Monday. I'd never, ever suggest to anyone that they work for that company.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Also on an unrelated note, when I worked at a hotel, if someone gave me attitude, I would quote the room for way higher than the actual rates they were going at. I once suckered some guy into paying 160 for a room that was selling for 89. The beauty? I sold the nice couple right after him the same type of room for 65 with the AMA rate. Ah, good times.

How does that work? Once I phoned a hotel and was told the room I was booking would be something like 300 bucks. I said "300 dollars! I was told $159" and the response was "Oh, okay. Then $159 it is". It wasn't a scam or anything, I was told that it was that much by someone else and I just had to say it. Is the staff allowed to just arbitrarily make up the prices as they go?

On a related note, Customer Service and the plumbing at Hotel Arts aren't great. Fresh-cut fingernails on the floor and a cold shower tell me this.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

How does that work? Once I phoned a hotel and was told the room I was booking would be something like 300 bucks. I said "300 dollars! I was told $159" and the response was "Oh, okay. Then $159 it is". It wasn't a scam or anything, I was told that it was that much by someone else and I just had to say it. Is the staff allowed to just arbitrarily make up the prices as they go?

On a related note, Customer Service and the plumbing at Hotel Arts aren't great. Fresh-cut fingernails on the floor and a cold shower tell me this.

Well, I'm not sure about other hotels, the one I worked at, they have different rates for different seasons, and different rates for things like AMA, military, etc. If the room is reserved with a credit card, then it's guaranteed at that the agreed price they booked it at. If they come in as a walk in, then we were flexible in the rates we can charge. Anyways, the hotel I worked at wasn't the greatest, and they weren't getting that much business, so depending on how much rooms we had left, we can go down to a minimum price. At that time it was $65 minimum for walk ins.

Actually, thinking back, we used to do other stupid stuff to rude people. I remember pre-authorizing this one guy's credit card to the max, just because he was being a dink. I mean, it didn't charge anything to the card, it just tied up all his limit on the card for a week, or until he called Mastercard to get it lifted.

[sadora]

As someone who works in the restaurant industry I can say that the "customer is always right" tag is simply stupid. That said, those who deserve good service get it, those who don't get what they deserve. There's a'holes on both sides of the customer/server dynamic but what I hate the most are those customer who think they can do what they wish simply because of the money in their pockets. Paying for a service doesn't give you the right to be an a'hole. Honestly, just be glad this isn't Europe...or France in particular, where the attitude there is "the customer is always f'ng wrong".

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Muta

On the other side, the service you get in small towns are AWESOME. Whenever I go to Kimberley with friends for the weekend, I always get such vastly superior service at retail places all over; although, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Don't come to High River then. Employers here can't find enough staff for their businesses. The local bowling alley is being closed due to a lack of staff.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Another thing that gets me is when someone working a till slaps my change down on the counter instead of dropping it in my cupped hand. WTF?

Happened to me once while buying gas in the south end of Calgary. Next time i was Calgary i bought $20 worth of gas from that same station. Went to the same gal and opened a margarine container that had 20 dollars in nickels. Dumped the nickels on the counter and told her it was all there and walked out

[Antithesis]

Wait ... are you serious? How are the two things connected? She put your change on the counter instead of in your hand, so you come in and dump 400 coins onto the counter next time?

I know it's incredibly likely that you don't care what I, or anyone else, has to say about the matter, but from what you've said and where I'm sitting, either one of two things is happening here:

- either this is another example of someone saying after the fact, "wouldn't it be awesome if ..." because I can't see a situation where I'd get so mad at a retail outlet that I'd take the time to count out 400 nickels for payment on a $20 bill ... but everyone's different, I guess.

or

- You're one of those nightmare customers who un-necessarily make the job difficult for people who work in retail. I mean really, that's like someone saying they don't like your shoes, so in return, you stab them in the eye with a hot poker. Over-reaction?

I guess I might be missing something, I mean, maybe on your previous encounter, in addition to putting your change on the counter instead of in your hand, she jumped out front, kicked you in the balls, and then took your change from the counter and put it in HER hand. Or gave it to the guy behind you.

Really? Am I missing a joke?

[CMPunk]

Originally Posted by Dion

Happened to me once while buying gas in the south end of Calgary. Next time i was Calgary i bought $20 worth of gas from that same station. Went to the same gal and opened a margarine container that had 20 dollars in nickels. Dumped the nickels on the counter and told her it was all there and walked out

Thats pretty dickish cause she put the money on the counter. I've had plenty of customers do the same thing to me when I held out my hand for payment and they dropped it on the counter. I've also been the guy who had to count out all that change...that messes with my day and the rest of the customers in line behind you because I have to count it all

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by BBQorMILDEW

The management does not want unity, it wants to get rid and harass all long standing employees in order to destabilize the Union.
Being on the non mobility side it was caused by those idiots who crossed the picket line in Alberta. They are all the scum of the earth,

You should really finish that sentence. I hate when things don't end properly.

The most important thing management wants is to save money. They would actually save more money by training fewer people due to less turnaround. They're suffering because they can't keep anyone there. It isn't the money. Management gave it's workers more than enough money. Why does it suck so bad to work there? Think about it for a bit.

[RW99]

I can't wait for the job market to dry up again so employers have a choice of applications, not "if you walk in we will hire you".

I only have a little bit of flexibility for where I can shop in Banff. But I'll walk across town for a higher price and better service.