Moving thread from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
Last summer the wife and I were shopping for a new station wagon. One of the cars we looked at was a Dodge Magnum, and the salesman had this really annoying habit. You see, every time I called the Magnum a “station wagon” he would say “Chrysler doesn’t make station wagons, it’s a Sport SUV”. I know some guy in marketing somewhere decided wagons don’t sell but SUV’s are hot so dubbed the Magnum a “Sport SUV”, but if the car looks like a wagon, and your customer keeps calling it a wagon, then it’s a wagon. The phrase was annoyingly redundant too, since SUV already means “Sport Utility Vehicle”.
This one salesperson’s habit did more to turn me off the car than anything to do with the car itself. We ended up getting an Audi wagon.
If you’re male, avoid the cosmetics counters at the big department stores, even Nordstrom’s (much to my surprise). My nearest and dearest will often run to the store for me during the Clinique gift with purchase event, and you’d think he was invisible. What’s almost amusing is that he also uses some Clinique supplies since they have some good shaving stuff for guys. He makes a point to talk to the manager whenever he’s ignored or paid attention too. He wants them to know how nice it is when he’s promptly helped and how annoying it is when he isn’t.
I get driven crazy when he and I go out to dinner, or when we go out with my best friend and the server always hands the change/credit card back to him. Many, many times my best friend or I have taken the check from the server, handed him our card/cash and they still hand it back to him. Ack! I know the world isn’t going to end, but it grates my cheese.
Yes. You are correct. They don’t give a shit. They just want the sale.
I would like to include the counter person at the McDonald’s restaurant we went to for lunch who SNAPPED HIS FINGERS at us to get our attention while we were perusing the menu. Boy, you snap those fingers at me again like I’m your dog and you’ll be able to scratch your ass from the inside. I know you can’t exactly expect five-star service from McD’s, but that is over the line.
I thought I’d read somewhere that at a lot of the high-end stores, the cosmetics workers are employees not of the store precisely, but of the cosmetic companies proper. (I could be mistaken.) Anyway, I had the same problem at Nordstrom’s with the Clinique counter; the two workers couldn’t be bothered to interrupt their conversation long enough to even acknowledge me when I was standing right there looking pointedly at them. Yes, I could have asked for help, but I didn’t want to shop with them any longer. Instead I went to my other choice, the MAC counter, and was acknowledged within seconds of showing up, and had great service.
Especially considering how much most retailer and service workers HATE it when customers snap their fingers.
This reminds me of the time my brother and sister were both working at the same McD’s. Ordinary objects in the workplace could not be called by the usual name–it was McItem or McObject. And the shift manager was absolutely ANAL about this–DB would say, “Toss me that rag, I’ve got a spill.” Manager would haughtily correct, “It’s not a rag–it’s a McTowel.”
I find it absolutely amazing what people can get their drawers in a twist over, ya know?
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Mr. EW bought me bowling shoes for Christmas. They had to order them because, “[they] don’t stock any shoes.” No problem.
The charge posted to the account the day of the order. The ETA for the shoes was 1-2 weeks. Two weeks go by, no shoes. Mr. EW asks what’s up. The punk kid tells him that he doesn’t know anything about no bowling shoes and he’ll have to call tomorrow.
We waited another week until my bowling night. Before leaving, I stopped in the pro shop to inquire about my shoes which I have now waited 3 weeks for.
The punk kid had the nerve to tell me he called Mr. EW on the 6th to tell him they were on back-order. Okay, what is the ETA? Dunno. Okay. How about you refund the order then.
I kid you not, the kid tells me, “I can’t issue any refunds, I don’t have a register.”
Me: How did you ring up the order?
Him: I didn’t place the order. It was [other punk kid].
Me: How did the person who made the sale ring up the order?
Him: He took it out front to the register.
Me: Alrighty then, how about we walk out to the registers so you can issue a refund?
Him: Not without a receipt.
Me: Pull the original order, cancel the order, and issue a refund.
Him: Okay.
I stand at the register while I hear 3 employees discussing my shoes. “Just tell her without a receipt we won’t do anything.”
He walks over to me and repeats what I have already overheard.
Me: If you pull the order, you can cancel the order, and refund the credit card. You don’t need the receipt to cancel the order if you have the original order.
(His cow-orker takes over.)
She: Um. No. When you bring in your receipt, we’ll issue you a refund. We’re not canceling the order.
Me: Okay. But if you don’t cancel the order, you will still get the shoes.
She: Yes, but you won’t be charged for them.
Me: Okay…
Now, I understand the issue with the receipt to an extent. They could have treated the situation differently. It has been just over 3 weeks since an order was placed and the card charged. They only had 7 days before they would have had to deliver the shoes or refund the money with or without the receipt. They wouldn’t even pull the order to find out when the order would be delivered.
So, Mr. EW arrives at the bowling alley about 10 minutes after the conversation with the punk kid. He begins the conversation politely enough, “I’m just curious [punk kid], why did you tell my wife you called me? The number I gave you is a cell phone, and I have the phone records.” The girl from earlier gets involved, “You told her that someone called him? No one called him.”
He asked them to pull the order. They fell over themselves apologizing as they pull the original order. They issued him a refund–in cash.
Okay, so I’m a bowler. You obviously want me to stop bowling at your establishment. Considering how dead the alley normally is, you would think you could use all the business you can get. Why not offer a coupon to waive the rental fee for bowling shoes during the wait time when a customer orders shoes? I don’t mind waiting 4 weeks for my shoes. I do mind you having no clue as to when the order was placed, what was ordered, and when it will be delivered. Oh, and I do mind you charging my credit card the full amount when I place the order if it is going to be an indefinite period of time before I get the order.
I also get irked if a rep calls me by my first name (I’m not classist, I’ve had plenty of customer service jobs myself, it is just a token of respect, particularly if the customer is older, to call them “Mr./Ms.________”. When somebody calls me “Mr.” I almost instinctively say “Call me Jon”, but first please do me that courtesy. [Aside: I briefly had [for me] a large checking account balance when I deposited a check from my credit union to buy my car at the same time a retirement account check came in from my last employer and the same tellers at my bank who had called me Jon two days before called me Sir, Mr. and smiled a lot broader when they dealt with me when I had the large balance; they must call my sister “Your Grace” and touch their forehead to the floor when they view her balance.]
But my ultimate pet peeve and the one that if I were a retail manager I would fire an employee for on the spot is when the employee is taking a personal call on his/her cell phone. I’m not unreasonable on the subject- if your shift is slow and you don’t have any customers needing assistance and you’re caught up and you get a personal phone call, fine, take it, briefly. A couple of minutes top. Unless it’s to tell you that your kid brother just spontaneously combusted, however, say “I’ll call you back” the SECOND a customer needs you or looks like they might need you, and then say “I’m sorry, how may I help you?” to the customer. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER FUCKING RING ME UP ON THE REGISTER WHILE CARRYING ON AN ANIMATED CONVERSATION WITH SOMEBODY ELSE AND NOT EVEN ADDRESSING ME OR [SIZE=4]PARTICULARLY DO NOT EVER MAKE ME WAIT WHEN I CLEARLY WANT TO ASK YOU A QUESTION WHILE YOU TELL YOUR FRIEND “I can’t believe he’s still with her! But you know who else he used to go with…” VERY OBVIOUS PERSONAL TRASH. AAAAARRGGG!
Other major don’ts: If I tell you I don’t want the service policy, accept me at my word. If I tell you I’m just looking for today, take me at my word. If your store has something advertised and I come to buy one and you don’t have it, then say “I am really sorry, we’re out of stock… I can get you a raincheck” or something to that effect, but don’t just look at me with a complete lack of concern or interest and say “We’re out of those.” Look, I know that you’re not going to go home and squall because I didn’t get the advertised item, but you can at least pretend to be sorry that your store did this, and you can most definitely give me some alternative (another item at same price, said raincheck, call another store and see if they have any, etc.). And I don’t really give a damn if you just started here, if this is the second minute of your first shift you’ve worked here longer than I have- If I ask you “How much is this IPOD?” then clearly I’m interested and “Gee… I’m not sure… I just started here” is not an answer- an answer is “I’m not sure to be honest, but let me find out”.
While it’s diverging from the OP, what I really hate is when I’m at a hotel and I ask the clerk directions to “123 Marvin Gardens Blvd.” and get the “Hmmmm… I just moved here” stupid ass blank stare. Let me clue you in on a little something, sugar- people who’ve lived in this city alllllllllllllllll their lives probably don’t know where every street in town is, but I’ll bet you that you have a map here somewhere cause most of the people who stay here don’t live here but just might be here for some reason other than totally random happenstance. Check the map, call somebody who didn’t just move here, call the business I’m trying to get to and ask their directions, whatever, but don’t give me a dumbass grin and your geographic history. (Sometimes I think I was the only polite and competent front desk clerk there ever was- terrible job, incidentally, as you have to have the manners and demeanor of a professional but you’re paid less than the guy who pushes the broom.)
I actually prefer it that way. I don’t like it when the employee wants to greet me and start up a conversation: “Can I help you? What are you after?” I simply want to check out what’s there to start with. If the stock doesn’t interest me it’s much easier to make a quick exit if I haven’t established any contact with the employee.
To me it depends a little on what they say. I’m not too keen on the “do you need some help?” and “what are you looking for?” types, but I’m quite happy to get a “Hi how are you?” and then have them continue reading their magazine or whatever. It lets me know they are there, but doesn’t intrude on my sense of being able to browse without buying.
When I was car shopping, I test drove the car I eventually ended up buying at a dealership where the salesman was slick. He was every car salesman stereotype. But what got me is he kept pushing this damn lease they had. No matter how many times I told him I wanted to buy, not lease, he kept trying to tell me the lease was better for, oh, so many reasons, but we don’t need to get into the details - just trust him, it was so great! His brother had one for his son! Blah blah blah.
(A) If I tell you I want to buy, not lease, it’s because I’ve already looked into it and decided I want to buy, not lease.
(B) I’m not an idiot. If you, the salesman, is pushing something like crazy, it’s because that thing will be more profitable for the company. And where does that money come from? Just as a wild guess, my pocket.
I ended up thanking him for his time, leaving, driving to the other dealership in town for that make, and giving a nice guy there the easiest sale of his life.
I had a car salesman effectively talk me out of a car sale by saying things like, “you need to make a quick decision because I’ve got someone else looking at this car this afternoon” and “what do I have to do to make you buy this car?” If he’d just backed off and left me to think about it for a day I probably would have bought it, but the more he pushed, the more I dug my heels in.
That manager was totally making shit up. I worked at a McDonald’s for a couple years, and we never called things McWhatevers except for the normal menu items like McNuggets.
As for waiter sexism, the worst example I had was at Kamal Palace, an Indian restaurant in Berkeley (apparently they closed last year). available light got out her credit card to pay. The waiter actually told her that she should let me pay because it was my manly duty, and if she paid it would insult my manhood or some bullshit. I even said that it didn’t matter because we shared the account, but he persisted with his ridiculous request. I don’t remember who ended up paying, but we certainly didn’t tip and we never ate there again, and advised our friends to avoid it as well.
Oooh, I’ve got a couple.
First a trick…When at a store with not helpful people…Either…A)Look at something really expensive. If I can’t get help (especially at a commision store), I’ll look at/fiddle with/act interested in the plasma TV’s when an employee finally comes up to me I’ll ask them if they can get a ladder and get the $25 VCR off the shelf that I can’t reach OR B) do something I shouldn’t be doing, like climb the ladder myself. That tends to grab attention, unless they’re really bad. At Home Depot, I cut my own chain once, employees actually walked past me. I should’nt have been surprised, someone needed something cut one day and the employee actually pointed the customer to a handsaw and asked him to cut it himself :eek: .
As for the go to hell department. My wife and I were looking for a new TV. We went to the store found the TV we wanted (50’’ plasma about 7g at the time), couldn’t find anyone to help us, so we plopped down on a couch and watched about 15 minutes of A Bugs Life. We finally spotted an employee on the phone, he finished up his phone call, made I contact with us and made another call. Okay, he’ll proabably be over in a few minutes, 10 minutes later we walked over to another person and said
“Could someone comeover here and sell us this Plasma TV?”
“There’s a salesperson right over there that should be able to help you.”
“We’ll we’ve been sitting there for almost 30 minutes now, he’s made eye contact with us, and still hasn’t talked to us yet.”
“If you head back over there he’ll be right with you”
As we turned around we saw him wave over to the phone guy and make a hand motion for him to talk to us
We walked back over there, stood in front of the SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR TV and about 2 minutes later he got off the phone, looked at us and said (I shit you not) “I’ll be right with you, I have to make one more call”
So I told my wife we were leaving and he promptly followed us
“Is there something I can do for you?”
“Sorry, you’re too busy I don’t want to disturb you”
“No, I’m done now, what can I do for you”
“Nothing, I dont’ want to take you away from your work”
“Did I do something wrong sir, how can I fix this”
"It doesn’t matter, we’ve been over there for 30 minutes, you’ve seen us, all you had to do was ring this up and tell us where the dock is to pick it up. We’re going to go over to [major competitor about 2 blocks away, not best buy/circuit city]
And we walked out.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to walk back in twenty minutes later with my receipt for [let me check] $6496 for a plasma TV, extened warranty and a DVD player (which was actually free, but you couldn’t tell from the recepit) all put on a new store credit card. Plus I liked my sales guy so much I spent about another $200 over the next few weeks and I sent some family members in there to talk to him when they needed stuff. What a dipshit.
Well, it pisses me right the fuck off! What is it with these assholes that go out of their way to get your first name and then start slinging it around like a coked up baccarat dealer?
“Alright Euth, I’m assuming you’ll want the Scotch-Guard Protection.”
“Hey, take it easy Sam Drucker, you’re selling me a couch, not talking me down off a fuckin’ ledge.”
Don’t be silly. I’m almost never correct. It’s the drugs.
I just wanted to add my displeasure about the first name thing. My first name is two
syllables, where do these jackasses get off shortening it to one? If I wanted to use a
nickname I would introduce myself that way. I’m w/ the formal idea, I’m Mister Cane
until I tell you otherwise, but if you choose to assume you can call me by my first
name, then use it the way I gave it to you, do NOT shorten it to one syllable.