No, but I do enjoy Britcoms and Dr. Who!
Only e’s are buried in a cemetery. I couldn’t let that pass. 
After you bought your dress you should have gone back and totally pretty-womaned them.
The hospital where I used to work had a Tea Room that had longer hours than the cafeteria. I refused to go there because I would not get my food until my 30-minute break was almost over, and we’re talking about things like tuna salad, and nobody else in the place. It’s run by volunteers, and I finally met someone who volunteered there and asked her why they did this, and got away with it. She said, “Our philosophy is that of a relaxed atmosphere” and I replied, “There’s a difference between a relaxed atmosphere and wasting people’s time.”
:smack:
p.s. I temped at Home Depot a couple years ago, after I moved back. My “training” consisted of watching computer tutorials. I considered going back the following season (I worked in the yard and garden department) but when I got my W-2 and found out I made less than $1,000, I decided it was just.not.worth.it. Haven’t shopped in there since, either.
One memorable time was in a supermarket in Barcelona. This was at a time of day when lots of people were getting off work. The place was packed, and only one cashier was open. The line went all the way to the other end of the store. So I stood in line like everyone else. Gradually I moved up until I was near the middle of the line; still a long way to go. Then I saw that another cashier had arrived and was getting ready to accept customers. Not one person left the line to go to the new cashier. What happened was: Those of us in line had to stay in line, but new people could start a line at the new cashier. They should have kept one line and had us alternating between the two cashiers. I got out of line, put all my items back where they came from, and left. The amazing thing was that NOBODY COMPLAINED. Everyone acted like this was totally normal and fair. I couldn’t help thinking how a group of U.S. customers would have reacted.
I am amazed at the Home Depot stories. I am practically run over by employees looking to help me at my local store. I love it there. The Lowes (a couple of miles further away) is a wasteland and the Menards is confusing.
I have left restaurants due to extremely slow service. One time a bunch of us waited 45 minutes after ordering breakfast without receiving it. We had a meeting to attend so we left. And we made a show of it. By the end of summer, the place had bellied up.
Years ago, prior to common cell phones, I was freelancing at the corporate office of a large retail outfit. Their corporate offices were above the sales floor of the flagship store. At the end of the work day, I went to purchase some socks and the teen salesperson was on the company phone, clearly chatting to a friend. I asked someone in another department to ring me up but she couldn’t do so because of department rules. So I explained my trouble to her. She just shrugged and said she couldn’t do anything. I went back to Chatty Cathy and waved at her. She rolled her eyes. So I reached over the counter and pressed the disconnect on the phone cradle. And then dumped the socks all over the phone and left. I reported my experience the following day. It made the employee newsletter.
And that’s a very good point. Why spend all that money advertising if, when the customer comes in, they get poor service from untrained and sullen people angry about their workload and wages.
I will say that the local Hell Depot has suddenly improved over the last year to the point that it’s almost Safeway like in the number of people saying “Hi, can I help, finding what you need etc.”
Some years back we went to a Longhorn Steak for dinner. The server brought our drinks right away, then with a quick “I’ll be right back” she disappeared. Maybe 15 minutes later, she came and took our order. Shortly after we were seated, a party of 4 arrived at the table next to us. While we were waiting and waiting and waiting, they were served, ate, and were getting ready to go. That’s when we decided to go.
My husband went to the nearby server station to cancel our order and offer to pay for our drinks (tea and soda, so not anything $$) and suddenly the manager appeared, all apologetic. He promised our food would be right out. I guess I should mention that this restaurant was about 25 miles from our home and it was getting late - we didn’t want to waste any more time after being ignored for 40 minutes.
Anyway, while we were getting into our coats, our food appeared, all packaged to-go, no charge. He also gave us a card for a free meal as well as tons of apologies. And we were on our way.
To be fair, when we returned for our free meal a month or so later, service was excellent. We were properly impressed. So they did redeem themselves.
Since then, another Longhorn has opened closer to home, and they’ve instituted call-ahead seating, as other places have done. I called ahead and we arrived within the timeframe, knowing we might have a short wait. We were told 40-50 minutes. Um, so what was the point of call-ahead seating? They were telling everyone 40-50 minutes. Anyway, we left and have no intention of ever returning.
We’ve walked out of Home Depot more than once because of lack of service, and when we did some major work on our house, we ended up spending about $15K at Lowe’s because they tended to be attentive and helpful. The only thing we got at the Depot was a $200 light fixture because we couldn’t find one we liked as much at Lowe’s.
Wow, I’m amazed at all the Home Depot stories.
I have a really low tolerance for bad service. I worked retail and restaurants for a number of years, and good customer service was drilled into our heads. I walked out of a coffee shop last week because the staff didn’t seem too concerned about the line up of customers waiting to fill orders. One was serving customers and the other two were just chatting it up ignoring us. I just left the line.
The one incident that enraged me the most was when I was with a group of friends going to a local restaurant after our shift at the restaurant we worked at. We were in our early 20’s. We were seated, the restaurant wasn’t busy at all we waited a good ten minutes until our server arrived he was in his late 20’s, and as he walked by he tossed the menus on our table knocking around the cutlery and kept on walking.
We all had a stunned look on our face, and just collectively got up and put our coats on amidst a bunch of WTF’s to get to out of there.
Before we left however, we asked for the manager and explained exactly what happened . He was very apologetic offered us another server and that he was going to finally take care of him. We went to another place anyways.
The impression we got he treated us like that because we were young, but he didn’t know we all worked at a neighbouring restaurant and would of tipped very well if service was acceptable.
See, there’s the problem - I was seriously willing to drop cash on a wedding dress, but after being ignored I decided to try something else. I bought my dress off the rack at a Jessica McClintock store! I had a good enough experience that I told my sister, who bought an actual wedding dress through them.
That was a similar reason to why I picked a line of makeup, too - I used to wear MAC makeup, and when I chose them, I did because of how I was treated by the independently-hired makeup sellers at a department store. Via research, I’d narrowed my selection down to two makeup lines. I stopped at one and began browsing, and the two clerks couldn’t be bothered to stop their personal chatting with each other to even say hi/say “let us know if you need any help” even though they saw me peering intently at the makeup. No other customers were there. At the MAC counter, they were slammed - there were probably 4 clerks, with 3 applying makeup and 1 alternating with working the crowd and making sure the register was manned, and I fairly quickly got an apology for the delay and a promise I’d be taken care of as soon as they could. And they did! I was a happy customer for years.
I don’t expect retail workers to kiss my ass, far from it. But if I’m willing to spend a chunk of cash on something that may well need some assistance from them for me to make my decision, then at least acknowledge my presence.
I speak up with a pleasant inquiry, Can you help me over here, please?
But yeah, wicked slow, and blase’ not worth their poop in minimum wage!
I’ve always expected that, in a store where everything is arranged for self-service, I will need to specifically ask if I need assistance. Only rarely will I be asked if I need assistance, and it has nothing to do with whether I actually need it. And I rarely go to stores that are not self-service.
I think I may have walked out of a restaurant once or twice, though, but it’s been so long that it’s hard to remember. And of course I’ve gone somewhere else if I saw that the lines were too long.
What happened to Chatty Cathy?
Several years ago, a grocery store in my town had signs next to all the phones stating that any employee who used a cell phone while working would be fired on the spot. If someone needed to reach them at work, they could do so via the switchboard.
This kind of event always has our family reciting:
I know why we have reservations.
I don’t think you do!
http://www.stanthecaddy.com/sounds-jerrys-car-reservation.html
This last summer one Saturday my buisness partner brought his 15 year old to the shop to do some scut work and earn a few bucks. We ran his ass ragged all morning and decided to go out to lunch. There is a local family diner place I’ve been to countless times over the last 15 years. Unmemorable and bland but a decent place for lunch.
After 50 minutes and no food I said hell on this we’re leaving. Why it’s so vivid is because the thought of leaving a resturant or other buisness because of lousy service never would had crossed the mind of this kid before. A life lesson.
Dude, for reals? What would a proportionate response have been, exactly? Asking the cashier “Please, miss, if it’s not too much trouble, could you maybe possibly ring me up before the people behind me in line? But only if it’s not too much trouble, I don’t want to be a bother”? It’s a line, you get in it and wait your goddamn turn; if for some reason you can’t or don’t want to wait your goddamn turn, you fucking well ask very nicely if you might possibly, maybe, if it’s not too much trouble, go first. This is what separates us from the animals. Everyone who’s successfully completed kindergarten knows the drill. There is exactly ONE excuse for reaching over a customer’s shoulder to take someone else’s money, and that is if the customer in question has horned into the front of an established line.
I’ve walked out of two places in the past two years or so. One is a little cake place/cafe that opened in town. It’s not a terribly convenient place for me to get to and some friends of mine had a really bad experience at their soft opening, but we have so few places to eat in town that aren’t fast food chains, I wanted to give them a shot. So I drive downtown, park, walk in, and get in line under the sign that says “Place orders here.” The person working the counter was talking to some women sitting along the side of the counter with take-out bags in front of them, so I thought she was just finishing up a carry-out order and would be with the line in just a sec. And then, over the course of the next few minutes, it became clear that these women were in fact placing orders. Well, not so much placing orders and being led through the menu in excruciating detail so as to be able to place orders. At no point did the counter person ever look up at the growing line of people waiting at the order sign and acknowledge that we were even there. So I left, and I haven’t been back under my own steam since.
Then last spring, we were building some raised beds for the garden. So I went to our Lowe’s to get some lumber. Now, our Lowe’s has some great staff, their tendency to say “Now, honey, this won’t fit in that little old car–have you got somebody meeting you with a truck?” aside. But this particular morning, they appeared to have one person working the lumber department, and he was busy with someone else. I interrupted for a moment to tell him I needed a couple of things cut when he got done, and he said it would be just a minute. Thirty minutes later, he was still taken up with the other customer. So I left.
Just today. I went to Carson Pirie Scott to look at watches. Saw one I liked but no person at the counter. I walked to the next counter (fine jewelry) and asked the salesperson if she could get me the price of the watch. She looked at me and said “someone should be at that counter.” I said “nobody is there.” She repeated “someone should be at that counter.” I repeated “nobody is there.” She just looked at me and made no attempt to help me. I said “apparently you don’t want my business” and walked away. Bought a watch at von Maur where there WAS a salesperson who wanted my business and was helpful and friendly.
Touchy…I mean touche!:smack:
Rarely.
When I get bad service I ask for the manager. One time to be a real d*ck, I looked up the number of the restaurant on my smartphone and called the manager from our table and told him that we weren’t getting served. You should have seen how quickly he came flying out of the back…LOL
Most of the time when I get bad service, I ask for the manager. If he or she isn’t helpful, I leave and call their customer service number if they have one. I have received a number of free meal coupons and return calls after doing this. Some companies didn’t bother to respond and I never frequent those establishments again.
I used to be a frequent Yelper and I would post some harsh comments on there (all true; no exaggerations) but this gets to be boring after a while because many businesses simply do not care if they get bad reviews or not.
But as I said I rarely leave businesses anymore as I usually get the quality of service that I expect by asking for the manager.