Are You a Person Who Complains (re Goods & Services)?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’ve done the service jobs for YEARS (like…7 of em!). I’m very lenient when it comes to these matters.

With that being said, I’d return the vinegar. I mean, it’s not like there was something sticky on the exposed portion of the cork or bottle cap or something silly and cosmetic. I also wouldn’t be hostile about it. That spider could have got in about a billion different ways.

Regarding the boots, I’d have told the guy at the beginning that the store you were in now had that color. After the next ass-kissing, I’d alert him that you came in to get these boots and that anything he said could only hurt the sale/you came in for these boots and they’re bought so he doesn’t have to waste his schpiel on you.
I hate ass kissers. If he irked me as much as you said he irked you, I wouldn’t have bought them.

42

The last time I complained to a manager, it was because an assistant manager was giving my checkout guy a hard time without actual cause.

See, my husband and I had a regular checkout guy at our grocery store. We saw him every week - he was personable and friendly and we actually kind of enjoyed our little chats with him. So, one day I was checking out, chatting with our checkout guy, and the assistant manager (who was and remains a tool) started giving him a hard time - in front of me, causing my checkout to be delayed while he did so - about being “unprofessional”.

It’s not like he was telling off-color jokes. We were randomly talking about the relative quality of two products - he was telling me he liked one brand of rolls better than the one I’d chosen. It was a new product in the store, so I was actually sort of glad to have it pointed out to me, you know? Oh, and he’d asked me where my husband was, since we customarily came in together. Random check out small talk, basically.

So the assitant manager started berating our guy and I looked at our guy - who gave me that sort of look that equates to a shrug and an eyeroll, and I started defending the checkout guy. “Pardon me, but he was just being friendly and bringing a new and possibly more to my preference product to my attention. He was beng perfectly professional about the whole thing.”

The assitant manager was then rude to me - presumably for the temerity of disagreeing that with him that our checkout guy was being unprofessional. I called him - politely - on his rudeness and he told me to shut up. The conversation went something like this:

Me: There’s no need to be impolite to me - since I was the customer he was supposedly being unprofessional to, I thought you might like to know I didn’t consider him unprofessional at all. He was very polite and friendly and helpful, actually.

Assistant Manager: Shut up. I’ll deal with you later.

My reaction is best summed up in smilies.

:eek: :mad:

I made my checkout guy call the store manager.

43

WHAAAAAAAAAAT??!??!? :eek: (There aren’t enough “eek” smilies in the world!)

What happened then?

44

**RIGHT! ** :cool: If you are picky and a complainer, you must, must, must also ladle out compliments, when due. Otherwise, you’re just a bitch. Discriminating shopper is fine, but just been bitchy isn’t.

Karma will come back and kick you in the ass if *all *you do is complain,whine and bitch.

I will sometimes write complimentary letters, especially for Civil Servants I see going “above and beyond”.

You also won’t feel guilt about a well deserved complaint if you also hand out commendations as well.

45

I wasn’t much of a complainer until I became a retail manager. If the service has been particularly egregious, the store manager will really appreciate a heads up. If you just leave and never return, it doesn’t help him solve the problem. And if the store manager doesn’t care, I’ll go so far as to write a note to the district manager (we’re talking about really bad service, not just little irritations) who defintely wants to know what’s going on.

46

Most days I’m a doormat. A few months ago, Mr. Pundit took me to a New Orleans food type restaurant. I’m not much into cajun, so I ordered a ribeye steak. Now, it wasn’t a cheap steak; it cost over $20 and didn’t include any sides. So I was paying out the whazoo for this steak, but hey, I had a hankering. I ordered it medium rare, as I always do. When it was delivered, it was torched. Not red or even pink on the inside; it was cooked to death. I should have sent it back, but I didn’t. I just didn’t want to ruin our date.

Then again, yesterday I went to a local shoe store with the sole intent of buying some knee-high black boots. I found some and just my luck, the sign said that $20 would be taken off the register, bringing the total price to $39.95 (original price: $100). Woo hoo! When I checked out, the cashier didn’t take off $20. I pointed out to her that the sign said that they were $20 off. She said that if they were on sale, the price would have rung up with the new amount. Now unfortunately there were 3 other people behind me in line and only 1 register open. Normally I would have let it go. But I was feeling extra bitchy I guess. So I stuck to my guns, repeating nicely that the sign said $20 would be taken off. She was not the least bit snippy but said she’d have to see the sign.

So we trotted back to the display to have a look. She scrunched up her nose and said, “I think this sign is supposed to be for the brown ones.” I pointed to where it said, “black” on the sign. Then she opined that it was supposed to be for the black velvet ones; mine were leather. Ever polite, I said, “Well if that’s the case then I have to say that the sign is confusing. It says diba black boots and all the boxes directly underneath the sign are all black leather.” She called over a manager who agreed that it was supposed to be for black velvet boots but that the sign was indeed misleading. So she gave me the $20 off. I thanked her for it; she thanked me for my business and I left happy.

I’m still ticked about that steak, though.

47

Aangelica, what happened when the store manager came in??

And I only ask in my most polite voice for extras. I never send things back since they were only small things that I didn’t want (pickles, ick). That’s ok, I’m not allergic and I’m old enough to take them out myself. No biggie.

I’ve only encountered nice service people so I guess I’m just lucky.

48

They’re even more rare than the black ones!

49

Usually I don’t rebuy bad products or return for bad service.

However, my mother had a friend who would not only look for things forever (many times it was a color/fabric thing – if it wasn’t exact, she wasn’t buying), she would often return them once she found them. She’d just change her mind, or decided that it didn’t suit her purposes like she thought the item would.

We didn’t live in that big of a town so her options for finding things weren’t that great. (This was in the pre-internet days.) So she’d have to go to the same places over and over for whatever it was she was seeking. She was always polite about the whole thing, but after a while, you know the salespeople would hate to see her coming.

50

Pundit Lisa Wisconsin has a law that a retailer has to sell merchandise for the least amount that is posted on an item. They can’t leave up a sign that advertises an item and then say the item doesn’t sell for that price though noggy. Those boots as signed in the store would have had to be sold with the $20 off. I had a woman this spring telling us that the patio blocks we were buying were the price that the compter said it was and we weren’t going to get it for the price that it was marked for on the actual product outside. At that point I had a hot flush andfelt my blood pressure rise. I said that by Wisconsin law … ect. She said “We do not.” I said “Get the manager.” The manger told her to ring it up at the signed price and that they did have to do it by law. They removed the sign. A week later we want more and the sign is back out there, and the register still is at the high price. We once again told them no you’ll be charging the signed price. I have to wonder how many people they defrauded on that item. I having worked in retail for 12 years do now my lawful rights for stuff like that. I know that the only garenteed returnable item is one you find was defective at purchase. They can’t legally refuse to give you a working unit or your money back in that case. They have to give you back money that you can take and use anywhere, not store credit. They don’t have to take back any item for any other reason.

51

My rule-of-thumb for deciding whether to complain or not is more or less this: If it were me doing that job, could I have done that for any reason? If the answer is yes, then I shut up and put up.

Example, you order french fries and get mashed potatoes instead. It could have happened to me if I were the waiter. Mix up an order, busy day at the place, g/f dumped me, boss is being a prick. Eat the mash potatoes and be happy. Tip generously, the guy could be having a real rough day.

OTOH, Clerk is snotty, annoying, rude, being an arse. That is his choice, not something that happened to him. Give him hell. Spit serpents at him until he cries and quits. Call his supervisor. Make a stink.

If it is on a restaurant, raise a stink and leave. Don’t ask for something else or you will be eating snot for sure.

And always, always commend above-average behaviour.