Truly sad that you think so. I guess if you’re bitch-slapped around enough by the stores you patronize, it comes to feel like love.
Not an ounce of irony or sarcasm there, BTW.
I honestly do love Amazon, so you’re not entirely wrong. But I hate most brick-and-mortar-stores, mostly for the reasons discussed here, and try not to go. I have a little convenient store at the bottom of my building where I buy stuff like milk, soda, detergent, etc. I order most other stuff online. I go the Harris Teeter a few blocks from where I live maybe once every 2 weeks, but it’s annoying as hell. I don’t go to big box stores, ever really.
The reason I do this is because we don’t have a right to have things exactly how we want them, but we have to find ways to deal with it.
Look at it from the other side: We’ve got a million things to do/produce and we’re expected to drop everything and hang on your every word because you’re a customer. That’s why it’s called “customer service”.
Customers who are acknowledged and leave satisfied are almost always repeat customers. More customers, more business, more profit.
OTOH get out of my face. Can’t you see I’ve got a million other things to do besides wait on you?
It’s not a matter of “having things the way we want them,” exactly or otherwise. It’s a matter of not being personally and psychologically abused by a seller because he/she/it thinks that prodding and bothering and “making buddies of” us is good for their bottom line.
We’ve been conditioned into putting up with way too much shit, all for the benefit of those who want our money. I object to it. I object to it all, and I am honestly bewildered how anyone can defend these practices any more than they can defend casual sexual assault or other forms of verbal abuse.
It’s not what “I want.” It’s what we deserve from entities that want our money. It’s our right not to be treated like cattle or carnival marks.
Just as an aside, there’s some considerable confusion here between genuine customer service - such as what you get in a specialty store or service provider’s shop - and the mindless, programmed bleating and badgering we get in everyday commodity shopping.
I don’t think there is. I think it’s you. I’m genuinely interested in people, whether they be on a message board or behind the counter at Walgreens. So I’m nice to them. I don’t treat them as interchangeable cogs in the machine, and so they don’t treat me like an interchangeable cog in the machine. I mean, a few do, sure, but so few that they’re the ones that stand out to me, not the nice and personable ones. Anyone in low level customer service looks to the customer to set the tone, even if unconsciously. I figure we’re all here doing something we’d rather not (whether that’s working or shopping) and my day is nicer when I’m nicer, and in return, they’re nicer. It’s contagious, if fleeting.
I’m actually much more closed off and anxious in a boutique sort of environment, and my treatment there is likewise efficient to the border of brusque. It’s just a reflection of how I’m acting.
That store I was joking about before isn’t a specialty store or service provider. They’re part of a huge multistate conglomerate of large corporate supermarkets.
Lost me there. If you think being asked how your day is compares in any way to sexual assault, you’re a fucking moron who doesn’t deserve being taken seriously.
A shop working asking “How are you?” is psychological abuse?
yeah… Someone’s got some serious issues and it sure ain’t the shop workers.
I’m pretty sure that Amateur thinks this is the Matrix and he is Neo.
Well, if only everyone were you…but they’re not. Sometimes people can’t find what they’re looking for because either we ran out or don’t stock it in the store. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get it and if I didn’t offer to order it for you and you did want that service, I wouldn’t be doing my job.
Ideally, we would like to help you on the floor but that’s not always possible, either people don’t ask or we’re busy with another customer. I get that “reasonably well” or “mostly” response on occasion and I wouldn’t just blow it off if you felt the need to let me know, in so many words, that you weren’t completely satisfied. Just so you know, I can’t read your mind. So, if you want me to do that, just lie to me and give me an enthusiastic, “Yes!” Then I’ve done my job and you don’t have to be bothered by my mission to provide you with exceptional service. Everyone wins! 
I feel violated just reading this.
Just imagine the trauma if they offered to shake your hand.
Or your mashed potatoes.
I’ve discovered that if you look generally pleased with life, and answer the questions with simple answers in a positive tone, people generally leave you alone. A good customer service person is in it because they like people and they like helping people. When you look pissed off and out of sorts, their first instinct is to try and figure out what’s wrong and see if it’s something their store has done and if they can fix it for you.
When someone asks me if the can help me find something, I either answer “no thanks, I’m all set” or, if I’m just checking out a new store or window shopping “no thanks, just killing time” and give them a a bit of a smile.
I’m not a gregarious person, I don’t like chatting to perfect strangers. But four or five chipper words isn’t going to kill me, and it might make the other person’s crappy day better. Plus, if it’s a store I regularly go to and some day I DO actually need help, I’m much more likey to get good help from people who don’t see me as a bitch.
Of course there are some hard sell sales folk out there, just like there are some people who WANT to be told what to buy. It’s a shame so many people are so entrenched in what they like and want out of life that they can’t give a little back now and then.
“Assault”?
You call having someone say “Did you find everything you needed today?” assault???
You are the sissiest pansy that ever wilted outside of his precious little hothouse.
Wuss.
That whole assault business is hilarious. I wish my life was easy enough that I was worried about throwing out a couple of "No thank you"s and "You too"s in answer to “Have a nice day.” Of course, I’m not some insane social pariah who is sociopathic enough to think that constitutes a big deal either, so what do I know?
You don’t understand! The bored teenager at the till is really an orwellian moneysucking droid designed by psychological masterminds to drain your wallet dry of every penny while you stand helplessly by, mesmerized by the pretty colors of the potato chip bags.
On one hand, it is pretty appalling that right now some of the best minds of their generation are making obscene amounts of money developing ways to make children feel unhappy so that they can be convinced that an unhealthy product will bring them an ephemeral joy. I mean, that really sucks.
But that’s not to say they don’t have a right to try, and not every clerk nodding at you is part of The Conspiracy.
Right now? It’s been that way for a long long time…
I personally was assaulted this morning.
We have a new (at least to me) bagel place that is somehow…magic. It has actual New York bagels–Maybe they import the water or teleport them from Manhattan…I dunno, but these are identical to REAL NY bagels. I’ve been going there obsessively for about two weeks. So I go in and a cheerful hippie clerk (who’s obviously a mindcontrolling drone) who’s served me about 6 days out of like 10 and he sez to me: “Good morning!” (which forced…forced me to respond with a “Good morning” back to him. So he’s doing that cult-thing where he’s establishing a rapport.).
He then asks what I’d like (unreasonable and probably assault! Why can’t I just reach behind the counter and pick/make what I want without any human interaction!!!). I tell him and he said “Wow–that sounds good. I’m gonna try it for lunch” (another lie. He’s trying to fake-bond with me to appease his corporate overlords.).
THEN he asks my if I want my usual (A medium coffee with room for cream/milk). How dare he suggest something. Amateur Barbarian’s good friend Springs01 was onto something when she said that the waiter should always wait for YOU to ask THEM for a drink. It’s NEVER ok for THEM to ask YOU!!!.
But I went along with it. And then, on top of everything else, he said they’re testing a new product, would I like to try one? And he “gave” me a “free” slice of “chocolate-chip banana bread”. :rolleyes: Sheyah, right “free”. It was probably loaded with PCP and Heroin so I’d be addicted later.
Then the hairy little bastard said “Thanks for coming in and have a great day!”. Like I HAVE to do exactly what HE says. What if I want to have a rotten day? IT’S MY CHOICE.
Me and Amateur Barbarian are like, y’know, soul-mates. The abuse we take at the hands of our social inferiors is exactly like the kind of sexual assault a 14 year old girl would get in a North Korean prison/rape camp. I mean, someone saying “Can I help you?” or “Have a good day”? Much worse than a Stalin-era gualg.
Amateur Barbarian and I demand your pity and compassion for having to deal with these low-life scumbucket rapists and I’m sick of everyone mocking Amateur Barbarian for his brave stance against social inferiors assaulting him with questions.
Yup. Because for every whiny bitch that thinks that being asked if they’re OK is equivalent to sexual assault, there are a few self-important twats who are incensed if store employees don’t get down on bended knee to kiss ass enthusiastically, and those are going to be the people who send offended e-mails to corporate about how this peon (name spotted off name tag and forwarded along) didn’t use fucking mind-reading to make his/her day all super-awesome and didn’t go that extra mile to provide the best service ever in the history of humanity.