Are you kidding? Manners change all the time. I did a little googling and found something interesting:
huh. Still think your great-grampa said ‘you’re welcome’?
WTF is wrong with saying you’re welcome? It’s polite. Saying no problem is fine amongst friends… Saying no problem when a customer thanks you over the phone is frowned upon because it has the world problem in it which is seen as negative.
It’s just all getting so convoluted, isn’t it? I can see them apologizing for the mistake, of course. But at the end of the conversation, after they have corrected the issue, and you are exchanging closing remarks, let the poor shmuck pass with a simple ‘You’re welcome’ or something similar. Please. Don’t expect them to go and on thanking you for the chance to correct the mistake.
And as Inner Stickler so eloquently pointed out, the point of etiquette is to serve as social lubricant…making it a bit easier for us all to get along. When one says, ‘no problem’, guess what? It may have been one hell of a problem, far above and beyond what most customers present. And a good customer service rep can swallow that and make it look easy. Smile and tell ya, “no problem” when you thank them.
ETA: I’ll just shuffle on off your lawn now, Ms. Mariemarie.
Yes they do! the phrase in english would be, “don’t mention it.”
"Merci!
“Ne dis rien mon cheri!”
Over the phone, what does a frown amount to?
“You’re welcome” seems to me to be somewhat unique to English, and in fact always seemed to me to be a shortening of “You’re welcome to ask me to do it again”. That said, it is what I usually say, being “older” (45 next week) and having been raised with that phrase.
However, I have no problem with “no problem”, and use it myself in “casual” situations. I feel the increasing commonness of the term is simply a direct result of our more multicultural society. Most of the non-English languages with which I’m familiar (passingly familiar, that is; I don’t speak any language other than English, beyond a mostly-useless smattering of Mexican Spanish, but I know bits and pieces of a few others) use some term that can be literally translated as “no problem” or “it was nothing” or “it was no trouble”.
In fact, an argument could be made that “no problem” is actually more appropriate in a customer service situation. A customer saying “thank you” to me is indeed thanking me for doing exactly what they’re paying me to do, and thus it is “no problem” for me to do what they’re paying me to do. The money they’re paying me is their thanks, IMO, and in reality I should be the one thanking them.
Frowned upon by managers, trainers:rolleyes:
But it’s not uncommon to hear ‘no problem’ on customer service phone calls - I just had to call my cable company the other day and the guy definitely said ‘no problem’ (I noticed thanks to this thread). These calls are recorded and monitored, so if it was such a big issue it would surely be stamped out.
I don’t really notice the smaller variations. Usually I can tell “good will” is intended, so it’s all good.
Well not every company is going to have a problem wiht reps using that word. I prefer to say my pleasure rather than no problem.
So what’s the opinion of “sure thing” here? Rude? Acceptable? Something else?
I wouldn’t consider it acceptable as a response to “thank you”. It’s a phrase typically used in place of “yes”, and so might sound like, “Yes, thank me!”
I always just mean it as “sure thing, I would do that for you”
But then I’m sure there’s someone out there thinking, “Of COURSE it should be a pleasure to serve me–why would it be otherwise?!”
And also service or, more polite, à votre service or je t’en prie, je vous en prie.
Emphasized: mais de rien!
In Quebec it’s bienvenu (influence of English).
In western US I used to hear you bet. Isn’t it used anymore ?
I have, several times, had to ask a customer to clarify themselves when they use this response to my question “Would you like to add that to your purchase today?” Because, you know, one time I figured someone saying “Oh, that’s okay” REALLY meant that it was okay to add that item to their purchase…and then they got upset when their bill was higher than they had figured and I had to refund the sale. “Okay” most often means yes. I side with your mom on this one.
I’ve heard a few old-timer friends of mine use it in Oregon, and I started using it myself, although not in a business setting. Maybe if someone thanks you for holding the door for them. Friendly, casual, chill IMO.
As others have said above, bitte or bitte schön works.
There will always be those folks who have a touch too much of the “customer is always right” mentality-- a little is okay, but a lot is not so good.
Personally, I say a variety of things: “you’re welcome”, “no problem”, “don’t worry about it”, “it was nothing” are all in the most often used category. I don’t, however, go as far as to thank someone for allowing me to correct something-- instead, I would say something akin to “thank you for bringing that to my attention” before fixing the problem. It’s pretty useless to thank someone for complaining after you’ve fixed their problem.
Much like my other uses of language*, I would find it quaint and stifling to be reduced to one all-purpose phrase as a response for a common interaction.
I very rarely say “bless you” when someone sneezes. It’s usually “gesundheit” or “salud” instead-- they mean approximately the same thing without the weird Invisible Pink Unicorn will fix your sneezing connotation.