norinew, what is ice wine? I’ve heard the term lately but don’t know what type of wine it refers to.
That’s one way to shop. I’ll typically spend twenty minutes pouring over all my options in the craft beer section. I like seeing what they have/ what’s new, and weighing what styles I’d like to try, ect. Then there’s lots of folks who sprint in grab a case a beer or a handle of whatever and scoot out. Big deal.
It’s a sweet dessert wine that typically has a higher alcohol content. The grapes are left on the vine to freeze, and the sugars (to be fermented into alcohol) are then more concentrated. Tasty stuff. I’ve never had a poor one.
Let me share something with you: I really don’t like my job. But I do it because there aren’t any other jobs available at the moment. If I could have a non-customer service job, I’d quit my current job tomorrow and never look back. Unfortunately, I don’t get to pay the rent or eat or anything like that if I don’t have a job, so I’m stuck in a Customer Service Job I don’t like because there just isn’t anything else available.
I get really sick of people saying “If you don’t like customer service, don’t work in it!” If only it were that easy. 
As for my last paragraph: If you go complaining about staff, especially in the current economic climate, they’re liable to get fired.
So, the worst that happens to you if someone in a job they hate is rude to you is you think “Gosh, that person was rude to me”. If you complain about them, they may very well end up unemployed. And anyone that doesn’t have a problem with getting an employee fired for not being nice enough to them is a cunt of the highest order, IMHO.
I nearly got fired from my previous job because a cranky elderly customer complained that I was being “condescending”. Even though I had staff witnesses to the fact I wasn’t being rude or condescending or anything like that to this customer, I still had to get the Retail Employee’s Union involved to keep my job. And I was a full-time, salaried, Assistant Manager, not some random casual underling. I have an extremely low tolerance for people who complain about staff, as, in my experience, they’re only doing it because A) They’re an asshole, B) they want free stuff, and C) they have an undeserved sense of entitlement.
This is, of course, getting off-topic (and I apologise for that), but it is an issue I feel strongly about…
Ice wine is made from grapes that are harvested and pressed while they’re frozen. This gives them a very high residual sugar content, because the water in them is still frozen. It’s like making wine from grape juice concentrate. Very tasty, definitely a dessert wine, and best drunk from liqueur glasses, maybe two ounces at a time. It’s definitely not something you’d want to down an entire glass of.
Well, I never really looked at the alcohol content on the other brand I had, but the one the store owner gave me was only 7%, which makes it about half as strong as the other wines I bought yesterday. But either way, it’s way too sweet to try to drink enough to get buzzed or something! (And at $27.00 for a half-bottle, too expensive, too!)
Cool. If only I could get a sweet deal like that by going along to my local offie’s tasting session and mooching for half an hour. 
Well, seeing as how between my daughter and I, we walked out of there on Tasting Night with three bottles of wine, having had five sips of free wine and three cheese cubes, I don’t think I was the only winner in this scenario. 
However, I did tell the day guy that I was willing to be treated rudely on an ongoing basis if it kept amounting to free wine! 
or D) because your staff member did something to upset them.
You don’t like you job? Fine, get another. Can’t get another? Slap a fake smile on your face and be polite to your customers. I, as a customer, do not have to take your shit because you can’t get another job. Be polite, be respectful, be helpful or be unemployed. Way of the world, not that hard.
Norinew was not being out of line participating in a wine tasting. The clerk was very inappropriate in how he addressed a customer and was rightly called out for it. There is a reason the wine tasting-guy and the day clerk were both on her side.
The Wal-Mart prescription department would like to remind you that you need to be behind the black line.
Word. Seriously. Absolutely. Yes. This.
Amen, Hazle Weatherfield.
Not liking your customer service job is no excuse for being rude to the customers. And occasionally customers have valid complaints. Not every complainer is a lying asshole (though a few are, humans being human and all). Sure we all have our bad days, but that’s what coworkers are for, I vent to them.
If I went off on a guest the way I’ve been tempted to a few times I would be fired, probably on the spot, and deservedly so.
That’s all well and good, but when I think of what I was fired from Denny’s for…Customer was determined to find offense in an innocent remark. Bitched and bitched, and my attempts at reassurance were regarded as “arguing.” Then he got on the phone with corporate and played the protected-class card: “I’m a homosexual and my life is hard enough…” And that was it for me. He chose to take offense; he chose to make a scene; I paid the price.
I mean, is norinew absolutely certain the guy wasn’t just making a joke that fell flat?
ETA: No, I didn’t make a homophobic remark. I told him I couldn’t cash him out right that second but I would be with him shortly.
Absolutely certain? No, probably not. But there’s this thing the justice system has called “Beyond reasonable doubt”. The guy who was working there that night that wasn’t being obnoxious, apparently works with this asshole pretty frequently, so it seems like if asshole was making a joke that fell flat, his co-worker would have realized it, and therefore wouldn’t have commented on the episode to another co-worker the way he did. Plus, when I asked the day guy I kinda know if the guy was always an asshole or just having a bad day, day guy probably would have said something like “Oh, when Craig says stuff like that, it’s his attempt at being funny. Don’t pay any attention to him”, and no more would have been said about it. The way the people who know him reacted, tells me he was, beyond a reasonable doubt, just being an asshole. Yes, it could lose him his job (though I don’t think it did), but it could also lose the store business, and I wouldn’t want to see that. I’m an active member of the local neighborhood association, and the owner of that store has been very helpful to the association with donations, etc. when we’ve needed it. And he runs a good, clean store. Not a bunch of loud, obnoxious drunks hanging around and carrying on, etc. So if he’s got an employee who needs more training on how to work with customers, it should be brought to his attention.
Honestly, I’m not generally the “whiny” type. Sure, I may come home and vent to my husband, or come online and vent here or in email. But 2008 is almost up, and I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve been upset enough by public service to complain formally this year. Hell, I could count on two fingers.
Believe me, I know people who whine and complain incessantly, to get free stuff. That ain’t me. In fact, in this past year, I’ve gotten lots more free stuff by complimenting what I’m happy with than by complaining about what I’m unhappy with!
This is what I was wondering. I had to bail out a staff member once who had made a deadpan joke to try and ease the situation with a difficult customer, and the guy took it the wrong way and the situation just got worse from there.
Interestingly, the amount of free stuff I’ve obtained by complimenting staff: Nothing
Amount of free stuff I’ve obtained on the rare occaisons where something has been fucked up enough that I did complain: Enough to make complaining worthwhile, if I was that way inclined.
We’re living in a society where complaining will get you mondo free shit; is it any wonder that people just default to “Complaining Self-Entitled Asshole” straight off the bat now?
I don’t get free stuff by complimenting staff, I get free stuff by complimenting companies. When I called the toll-free number on my Freschetta pizza box and told them it was my family’s favorite frozen pizza, they sent me a coupon for a free one and two $2.00 off coupons for other pizzas. This is just an example of free stuff I’ve gotten by complimenting. I guess the local business equivalent of this would be “rewards” cards, where you get rewards by building points by utilizing them frequently. I have a card I get stamped every time I get a specialty coffee at Sheetz, and after I have five stamps, I get a free specialty coffee. There’s a local restaurant we like called When Pigs Fly, and they have “The Piggy Bank” card. You register for it, get a coupon for a free meal in your birthday month, in your anniversary month, everyone in your family gets a coupon for a free meal in their birthday month and you present your Piggy Bank card and get points for every dollar you spend. When you accumulate enough points they send you coupons for free desserts, etc.
My point? Frequenting businesses is a form of complimenting them, and a lot of businesses do reward that.
But you may have a point that the fact business managers are entitled to give you all kinds of free stuff if you complain, but not if you compliment, well, they may have that a little backwards.
The other thing I think is that businesses should track who complains, and how often. I have an acquaintance who always has coupons for free McDonald’s food because every single time she eats there (including the times when the food is free!) she complains her ass off and demands more free stuff. Of course, I don’t think she’s a “complaining self-entitled asshole”, I think she’s just a plain old thief, but won’t admit it. I think once a company identifies this kind of thief, they ought to have the same right to ban them from their store as they would any shoplifter.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. What I meant by “complimenting staff” was “Ringing/Writing to [Company] Head Office and telling them what excellent service I’d received and how helpful [Specific Staff Member] had been.” Never once have I had a company come back and say “Thanks for the positive feedback! Here’s a $10 gift voucher.” (or something like that).
I see what you mean about “Loyalty Cards” but I don’t think they’re in quite the same category as Free Stuff From Head Office, IMHO.
No, you’re right. I can’t recall ever getting free stuff for complimenting a company about their staff, either, only complimenting on their product. I would hope that if I compliment on service that some way or another it gets back to the staff I commented on. That would mean more to me than free stuff for me.
No, not quite the same. But same basic idea. You frequent a place because you like it, you “compliment” them by continuing to patronize them, and you get free stuff.
Update on the asswipe, btw: I was walking past the liquor store this morning on my way to the supermarket (as I think I’ve mentioned, they’re right next door to one another, very convenient), and the day guy called to me. He wanted me to come in and meet the owner. The owner apologized, firsthand, for what had happened and said he doesn’t think there’s any excuse for that kind of behavior, and promised me it wouldn’t happen again. I told him I understand times are tight for a lot of people right now, and maybe they don’t care for their jobs but can’t find another one, but I don’t think that’s a good excuse for rudeness. He just looked at me for a minute, because I guess he thought I knew this already, then informed me that asswipe works for CSX (railroad) and makes 125K a year and only moonlights at the liquor store! WTF? If you don’t like dealing with the public, why the hell would you keep a job like that if you’ve got a good-paying day job?? 
Now, I’m kinda hoping he does get canned, so the job can go to someone who needs it and knows how to play nice.
Yeah, that’s an entirely different kettle of fish. Even I can’t work that one out… if I made 125k/year working for the railway the only time I’d be anywhere near a liquor store would be when it was my turn to get Friday Night Drinks for everyone at work.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy in the shop at this point at this point, though.
Still, I’m glad the issue seems to have been resolved, and that The People In Charge took the time to personally apologise. They obviously do value your custom, which is nice.
Yeah, but it’s not just that he values my custom. Even though I’m in there a couple of times a week, I’m sure they could lose my business and never register a blip on their radar. It’s the idea that they take care of customers as a whole that pleases me.