Most Absurd Customer Service Experience

**Cindy Hamlin** · 07-22-2001, 07:14 PM

Hello All!

Lately I have begun to notice the lack of customer service. I have noticed it has infiltrated the high end stores. Recently, I was in Hecht's and wanted to see a piece of jewelry. Two sales associates were talking about their weekend and were ignoring me. I started giving them dirty looks and still nothing. I then proceeded to walk over to them and say "may I see something over there, please!" A few minutes later she walked over to where I was very impatiently waiting for help. She said "may I help you" as if I were inconveniencing her! I told her "5 minutes ago you could have shown me a whole lot! And probably could have sold me something. Now you can neither show me or sell me anything!" I proceeded to ask her if she was on commission. She told me she was and as I walked off in a huff I told her-you probably starve, huh!

~Cindy

**Suzy W** · 07-22-2001, 09:36 PM

GOOD FOR YOU CINDY!!!
I think everyone has ran into rude salespeople and wanted to say something to them.
Dang! Now the next time I go to Wal-Mart I'll be mouthing off at someone LOL
:o

Suzy

**Joann Raytar** · 07-23-2001, 06:05 AM

Cindy,

Out of curiosity, how old were the salespeople?

**BobV** · 07-23-2001, 11:08 AM

There was an article in the 7/22/01 issue of The Kansas City Star about McDonald's and poor customer service and how they are losing several thousand dollars per year per store due to rude and innefficient employees.

Age is one factor. Just plain old not knowing the job is another.

Oh well. I guess that leaves BK and Wendy's. Better food anyhow.

Bob V.

**EyeManFla** · 07-23-2001, 04:56 PM

You want RUDE....!!!!!! Move to Florida...the Land of Rude. Nasty store clerks, nasty customers....but enough about MY store!!!!!

Problem One...you wnet to Hecht's......I hated that store 30 years ago, well that and Woodies (which I believe is go now)and 99% of most of the stores in and around DC.

But consider the rudeness we encounter daily in our own business....by the way, have you reemed out your Marchon rep today?

:bbg:

**stephanie** · 07-23-2001, 05:37 PM

I have had similar experiences just in the last few weeks. What has happened to customer service??? Well here is what I think...people have over the years stop thinking as their customers as number one, and people instead of complaining have just learned to live with it. Here is what I propose: This goes for our optical shops as well all over the country, 1. everytime something happens that is rude let management know about it. I believe if enough people complain something will have to be done. 2. Let corporate if applicable know. It is my belief that most people do not complain about these instances and instead will just not come back. If the owner/corporate knows about these things I am sure they would be interested in knowing what is going on in their company. I also believe that not enough people are complaining OR are not complaining to the right people. I feel that where I used to work would have been a fantastic place to work and I would still be working there had the customer service skills not been so horrific. I believe that if we would all work together on this we will find little by little customer service will come back to serve us. 3. Companies have to disipline for unacceptable behavior. Just because I am having a bad day does NOT mean I can take it out on Cindy. (sorry Cindy just used you as an example LORD knows I would never take it out on you or anyone for that matter). I know for a fact of several complaints that made it to corporate and no one was ever reprimanded. What does this teach the employee? I will tell you: I didn't do anything wrong and my actions are acceptable. Hmmmm....no I don't think so. 4. Pay employees what they are worth. Now this doesn't mean someone who is underpaid can do what they want. It simply means people who are not making a decent wage have a tendency to be resentful and instead of taking it up with their supervisor tend to take it out on the customers. Anyone who works with the public needs to be educated on how to deal with them. The world can be cruel but I have found if your actions are acceptable they usually will come around. Learn how to deal with hateful customers. Rolling your eyes and acting like you do not want to wait on someone is not the way to deal with it. It takes years to build a good reputation and just one person to destroy it in 5 minutes. Cutomers are our lively hood and other businesses too. If we are not going to change things than who will??? Pretty soon we will find everywhere we go to be an unpleasant experience. 5. Reward good service. Whether this means tipping a waitress and letting her/him know what good service they did...may also want to mention this to supervisor. Sometimes we take for granted when we have been treated well. Everyone likes to be told they are doing a great job.

Sorry this is so long but I just felt it needed to be said. Feel free to add your own points to the list.
Steph

**Cindy Hamlin** · 07-23-2001, 07:55 PM

Jo,
They were probably 17 or 18! But I have also had lousy customer service experiences elsewhere. Like the one at Staples a few months ago...

I went in to order a flip chart and the holder. The sales clerk who helped me with the special order, helped me pick the wrong one! We called the other location about 6 blocks away and they had in stock the board I needed. I told them to hold it and was assured that I could trade the easel board they ordered and pay any difference in price.

Up walks store manager (35 or so) and tells me that I will have to purchase the easel board they have and return the other back to the previous Staples for a refund. I tell him that cannot be true! He said that only the Staples that special ordered the easel board can return it. I persisted and so did he. I then asked him to transfer his easel board to the other location and I would exchange it there since they were willing to do so. He drove the easel board to the other location himself!

When I walked in the next morning to exchange the easel boards, the manager inquired as to why I was returning to purchase it there. I explained the scenario and the manager told me that wasn't the case at all! I asked for the district manager's name and phone number as I didn't realize I was talking to THE store manager of that location, I thought he was an assistant manager!

The next day I called the district manager and found out he couldn't refuse my return and that he has done this before! He thanked me for my concerns. One week later I received a note thanking me for my time in talking to him and a $25.00 gift certificate!

My point in all this is that I rarely find good customer service any longer! Stephanie, I agree with all of your recommendations and wish we all had the time to press the issue of good customer service!

~Cindy

**stephanie** · 07-23-2001, 08:48 PM

Well Cindy actually I don't have the time I have learned through very bad experiences to make the time. Even if it means long aggravated conversations on the phone. I had a horrible experience a couple weeks ago at a restaurant. 7 of us went out to celebrate a birthday. Well some of the people who came were on their lunch hour. We asked for a table for 7...ok they were busy but this restaurant doesn't take reservations or I would have made one. They asked if it was ok if they gave us tables "across from each other" Well what that translated into was two separate tables on the other side of the dining room. When I said we came together we want to eat together the girl who sat us said (very ignorantly I might add) we asked you if this was ok and you said yes. I said NO I would have never agreed to this. After a few mins a woman (obviously a manager) came over and told us to come with her. So she went to seat us at another table...well apparently she failed to tell the hostess she was taking that table because they seated another party at the table. So when I asked where were we going to sit she said I don't know guess you are going to have to wait. We left needless to say. I called and talked to the manager. Not even 2 days later I was in wm looking at DVD players for my husbands birthday. I saw one that I was interested in on display but could not find one in a box. I asked the girl for help. Oh she says we don't have that one anymore. HUH...what is it still doing on display I asked? Well I don't know she said very rudely just look over there for something else. What??? Well I found one in a broken box that I was interested in. I asked if she had one that was in a box that wasn't broken stating that I get concerned it was a return. She was obviously furious with me at this point and said well you know I don't know whether or not it was a return but people open up the boxes and that is why we tell them not to. Either you want it or you don't it is the only one we have. I said maybe I will just go elsewhere. She looked up and said "GOOD" Ok not a problem. I got my DVD at K-mart(who aren't noted for customer service either but at least weren't rude). URGH!!!! Makes me so mad. I can't imagine acting this way toward any of my patients. So why do I go out and have to deal with this? I am not getting a discount for this behavior toward me. I have said it before and will say it again...you can be the best at whatever you do and if you have no customer service skills your people will go elsewhere.

Steph

**chip anderson** · 07-23-2001, 09:37 PM

Those weren't Floridians, those wuz folks what has moved down from New Yawk! Decendents of dem retirees what can't push a hole in a voting card!

Chip

**Pete Hanlin** · 07-26-2001, 11:28 AM

Au Contraire (or however that phrase goes)- native Floridians can be some of the most snobby, rude people in the world.

Case in point- a few months ago, I was planting rose bushes in front of our practice and doing a bit of gardening. Naturally, I was dressed for the occasion and had a ball cap on (I love ball caps, this was one of my "working caps..." oh, that's another topic).

Anyway, as patients walk to our door, I give them a cheery "Hello! How are you?" Most just walked right on by (I suppose they thought I was hired help and therefore below their Southern Heritage upperclass status or something). Of course, when I would see the same patients a day or so later in my role as Practice Director, they were all chatty and pleasant (none of them recognized me as the same fella from the day or so before).

One thing I did notice was that, without exception, every person of color who walked by returned my greeting and had a nice comment about the flowers I was planting. I've never really figured out why there was such a disparity in reactions, but by the end of the day it became disturbing how these nice "hospitable" folks would blow you off if your hands were dirty!

That's my beef for the day. I'm just sick of hearing my wife complain that Pennsylvanians are "short and rude all the time," while Alabamians are so "hospitable and friendly." Baloney! Some of the friendliest people I know are Yankee to the bone!

Pete "Don't make us come down and whoop up on y'all agin!" Hanlin

**Pete Hanlin** · 07-26-2001, 11:53 AM

Okay, back to the topic. Try buying a car! I mean, if I sold a product that only came in 5 or 6 models (Mustang, Focus, F-150, Escape, etc.), I guarantee you I would know everything there is to know about the various product availabilities!

Last year, I visited a Ford dealership here in town in response to a 0.0% financing ad (and beat 0%). Anyway, although the salesman didn't seem to know anything about the special offer, he did want to get me into a Mustang.

During the test drive, I asked if the six cylinder came in yellow. He was sure it did.
I say, "Well, could you check for me, because yellow wasn't available on anything except the GT last year" (which I know to be true). "Oh, you can get any color we offer on any model" (which I know is false), he says.

THEN he says "Wouldn't you rather upgrade to the 5.0 V8 in the GT model anyways?" Aurggggh! Ford hasn't put a 5.0 in the Mustang since 1996 when they changed to the 4.6 litre V8!

Needless to say, what a moron! Of course, he persisted in calling the office every other week to see if I was "ready to buy" yet. I finally said "I might be ready to buy, but not from someone who knows less about the product than I do."

Sad to say, this wasn't an isolated incident. I routinely found that salespeople didn't know things like whether the car had side airbags, the type of suspension, engine availabilities, etc. I mean, if you're going to spend in excess of $20,000 you would think they'd be on top of their game! Oh, and don't even go into how they assume you don't want to spend a lot if you're under 35! Aurrrrrrrgh!

Pete "That's why I study our new copy of LENSES when it arrives. Someone needs to know if a FT35 comes in Transitions III brown!" Hanlin

**stephanie** · 07-26-2001, 07:19 PM

Thanks Pete for the pro-northerner posts. I have found the same to be true here. Of course I have found that quite a lot of the people are so prejudiced here. I am not talking just of African Americans I am talking northerners spanish everything and anything that is not them. Yea Pete it is really funny because I thought our garderner was going to have a heart attack when I said hi the place looks great. He kind of looked around like to say are you talking to me. People are people as far as I am concerned. There has never been a prejudice bone in my body and I hate hearing people judge people by where they are from or the color of their skin etc... people need to get over it and grow up.
Steph

**Cindy Hamlin** · 07-26-2001, 08:47 PM

I know what you mean Stephanie and Pete! There is a lady that cleans the restroom in our office building and I speak to her everytime I see her and she is a lovely lady. When she is cleaning the restrooms on my floor I can always interrupt her to go, but others are told they need to go upstairs.

I make it a practice to talk to everyone-cashiers, waitresses, gas station attendents, co-workers in the salon I get my hair done at, etc. etc! I have never met a stranger! I have found, too that that relationship is reciprocal in that I am rewarded, too!

I realize I gave 2 instances of blessing out sales associates, but I did try to be pleasant and all I asked was for service!

BTW, I am a Yankee! Born in Baltimore (Balmer), Maryland (Merland)!

~Cindy

**Alan W** · 07-26-2001, 08:51 PM

Great posting.
I hope it will grow into a "Tips on Customer Service" thread as successful as Harry Saake's "Dispensing Tips".

**Alan W** · 07-28-2001, 11:00 PM

It's so refreshing to hear folks talk the way you do.
Last year I attended a course at the local college on Diversity Awareness. I recommend everyone take a course like that. Anyway . . . Around December I had an African American customer come in. When we were finished, I said: Happy Kwansa, and I handed him a sucker. He almost fell off his chair and had the biggest smile I had seen in years. We tend not to go near cultural issues. It's an old philosophy. But, I can't tell you how many people he sent to me because of it. A few months later he walked in for an adjustment holding a box wrapped in gift paper.
After I finished the adjustment he handed me the box and said . .
Happy Passover. It was a box of Matzohs. Now, if you don't know what Matzohs are, its OK. Over grown crackers is good enough for now. The point is that breaking down barriers and recognizing, appreciating, the uniqueness of our cultures, can make your place of business a very nice place for a customer to come to.

Thanks for your attitude, Steph.

;)