Checkout clerks who don’t push the rubber dividers back, so the people at the far end of the moving belt can reach them. Hel-lo…
Jerks at businesses who answer the phone (when you can actually get past the voice-mail), then go off to get the information you want, leaving the line open for someone else to see, and pick up, and answer…gosh, I was a little kid when I learned not to pick up the phone if the receiver was off the hook–someone else might be using it–duhhhh…
Fast-food clerks who still ask, “Takeout?” or “Eat in or carry out?” even if you told them first of all you wanted take-out, or eat-in, as the case may have been…
Bus drivers whose shifts end in the middle of your trip, and they stand there and gab with the relief driver, or the relief driver gets there late! This makes my blood boil!
Let’s hear from the Teeming Millions.
Oh… I thought this was a rant against all those gripes against service people, and I was all ready to applaud you. Then I find another tired, unoriignal, uninspired, and frankly stupid rant.
i went to the butcher on Friday. They were busy but not so busy that two of the staff couldn’t stop to have a personal chat while I stood there. And stood there. After a good five minutes, my SO arrived. he asked if I was ready to go and I in a perfectly level voice said that I hadn’t bought the meat but they didn’t seem to want to see me so we may as well go as elsewhere. I was not abusive although I was seriously pissed off.
So Jerk One turned to Jerk Two and yelled at him “you serving or what?”. Considering both of them had studiously ignored me I thought that was a bit odd.
Then Jerk One yelled at me “Waddya want?” I said “Nothing now”. So he shrieked “Sweet as, go away then”
I started walking away and he kept on screaming at me “Come on, come on come back and I will serve you” He was scary psycho butcher…
Well, if that’s the way you feel about it, why don’t you start your own rant? Your answer counts as another tired, unoriginal, uninspired, and franly stupid example of heckling. A hijack, if you will. If I ask for apples I don’t want an onion…
Please add to the list–
5. The Staples clerk who, while checking me out, ranted over her shoulder to a co-worker about having their hours cut yet again, and the week before Christmas, too, the bastards, she was a single mom, she couldn’t buy Christmas presents for her kids as it was, and then she noticed me standing there, in some embarrassment, waiting for her to look at my check, and she apologized, “Ma’am, I’m sorry you had to hear that”, like it wasn’t her fault I’d had to hear that.
Whining idiot. Is there no one else in town hiring?
Sort of expected better of you, DDG. It turns out it wasn’t such a busy Christmas season as most stores expected. They all probably hired lots of help and then scaled down the hours as they found the customers weren’t coming. So yes, the clerks who expected lots of hours didn’t get them, and it was probably a very bad thing for people who are underskilled and who live on the financial edge. My guess is that jobs are pretty scarce after the holidays when stores enter their slow periods.
Me: I’ll have a number four, super sized, with a coke, to go, please
Idiot: what size number four would you like?
Me: super size
Idiot: what kind of drink?
Me: coke
Idiot: would you like that to go?
Me: (imagine whipping out a grenade launcher…grind teeth) yes, please.
I’ve taken a part time job in retail to help put myself through school. I am trying to switch careers. The reasons are not important here. I just wanted to say, at the risk of getting beat up, that I have seen the other side of the customer/clerk thing. Outside of driving a cab here in N.Y.C., retail is the worst job that I have ever had. Ah, you say, nobody is pointing a gun at my head to stay. You are correct. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment:).
DDG, I have to disagree with you. Don’t you ever talk to your co-workers? Because she is a cashier, should she just sit there like a zombie? I think by appologizing she was admitting it was her fault. If that was money she was counting on for her kids gifts, that could be pretty distressing for her. Yes it was a little unprofessional of her, but give her a break.
Go to supermarket. Get stuff. Take stuff to checkout. Pay for stuff. Leave.
How it worked out:
Go to supermarket. Get stuff. Take stuff to checkout. Watch guy on checkout reach end of shift and leave. (Well, that’s life.)
Watch new guy on checkout log in on cash register, fiddle with till roll, etcetera. Watch him decide he doesn’t have enough change in register. Watch him go away.
Wait.
Look around. See guy supposed to be on checkout at customer service desk. Watch him flirting with customer service rep.
Wait.
Wait some more.
Watch checkout guy flirting with customer service rep. Decide he’s not coming back in my lifetime. Sigh. Take all stuff off checkout conveyor belt, find another checkout lane. Pay for stuff. Leave. Never come back.
The shop closed a little while later. I don’t know if customer satisfaction was an issue in that.
When ordering from Taco Sludge or whatever, your only option is to give your order one stipulation at a time. Tell them “A number four”, and wait until they punch it in; “supersized,”; let them ask what they want to drink, then tell them “Coke”. Let them ask if it’s here or to go, also. Managers get fixations sometimes; they may be hounded to ask the same questions every time, and nagged if they don’t. Above all, make sure they’ve properly keyed in one phrase before going on to the next.
There’s a Carl’s Jr. I used to go into because it was near where I work. From the first day to the last day I patronized them, I gave them my order on paper. I didn’t actually claim to be hard of hearing; I just silently handed them this sheet of paper. Only got it wrong once.
Right on, Rilchiam. One hopes the people hired at Taco Sludge know how to read!
I too get the idea that the fast-food clerks are rigidly trained in what to say. Unfortunately, this dry copy that they read is probably written by company officials whose names we’ll never know, since they know they’d be beset by hordes of irritated customers otherwise. (I applauded the woman who sued MacDonalds for serving her scalding-hot coffee. I don’t know how anyone can drink coffee heated right up almost to the boiling point!)
Bank clerks deserve some criticism here too. At my former bank–and this is one reason why it is my former bank–I was at the outside window, long before the era of ATMs. The window had a compartment which you would put your checkbook or passbook in to give to the teller to enter a transaction. I did this once and the insouciant clerk closed the lid on the compartment, almost crushing my hand! She later tried to laugh it off saying it was automatic. Good God, woman, how much of a fool do you think I am?
Do not read this thread before entering a fast food establishment…
I was hungry this evening, it happens. I wandered out into the snowy night and happened upon the nearest KFC. I order, pay for, and recieve a reciept for three strips and a side of mac and cheese. I am told, and the reciept verifies I am order #273. Feeling happy I am properly ordered in the world I wait.
Order 272 is called and delivered. Order 274 is called and delivered. 275. 280. 286 and I ask what the deal is. Moe behind the counter asks for my reciept. I show him. He mumbles and punches the order monitor back a few screens, presumably finding my order.
He packs a 6 strip meal, large mashed potato, potato wedgies, and three biscuits and calls “273!” I say “That’s me” and then I ask him for my actual order. He looks confused. He looks at the monitor, he looks at me and says I’m wrong. I show him the reciept. He throws a fit. I glare. He hands me a side of mac and cheese and tells me to get out. I leave with enough food to feed an army.
Illiterate, stupid, or really screwed computer system. Sigh. Life goes on.
One of the problems with service today is that people go into the job market thinking that the purpose of a company (a store, restaurant, fast food place, etc.) is to provide them with a job. Customers are an annoyance to be endured, not because the customer is the one paying your salary, but because they’ll get in trouble if they don’t.
I used to work for McDonald’s. I know the story from the other side. And I still say that the crop of service people today is more self-centered than customer-centered. Admittedly, there are exceptions.
One hopes the people hired at Taco Sludge know how to read! 