smilinghelps

Maybe my age is showing here. I grew up in a time when a person's word meant something, a dollar was worth the paper it was printed on and good service was something you received with a smile.

Nowadays you're lucky to get mediocrity, at best. In my family, we eat our meals out quite often. It's a running joke that I receive the worst service ever and it makes no sense to me. We tip well, aren't fussy customers and are friendly and pleasant to wait staff. But I will get the untrained or undertrained waiters who spill my drink, serve the wrong meal, forget my daughter's order and my boyfriend's meal is undercooked (very common) or cold at least once a week.

When I go to the store for a large purchase (just last week for a new computer), we went to three different stores (practically jumping up and down throwing money) before we could get assistance. Then we were 'greeted' by undertrained staff who didn't know what they were trying to sell. Luckily, we knew what we wanted to buy, so it was a no-brainer, cash-in-their-pocket deal. At two stores, after "selling" us, they didn't have the computer in stock. (these were Nationwide retailers) The third store had ONE but it was in a broken box! And he still wanted to sell it to us. It looked like it FELL off the truck, hello?? This is a computer, you're not supposed to drop it!! After all that, I went to a store and had one built, for 2/3 the cost, which I should have done in the first place.

Today I called for a reservation for shuttle service to the airport. I went online for a quote and it said to call the reservation desk, so I did. The woman quickly gave me a quote and said, "You can book it online," and I said, "I was online and it told me to call, now that I have you here can I do it this way?" "Sure, " she said. In the process of the reservation I asked the normal questions, "What if I have to change it, how far in advance should I call?" "Do you do early pick ups on the weekend?" (I'm paying for the service, shouldn't I know the rules?) So she said, "We don't do early morning pickups on the weekend with our shuttle, you'd need a private limo," and she passed the phone to her supervisor. He gets on the phone and says, "What's the problem here?" I said, "there's no problem, I was just asking about reservations and if you do early morning pick ups on the weekend." He yelled (Yelled!) in my ear, "She told you to book online!" and hung up.

HUH?

So he just lost a $100 reservation and I have to start my process of finding a shuttle service all over again.

What happened to the days when the gas attendant checked your oil and washed your windows?

In our efforts to save money, did we sacrafice good service?

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terrib

I had to laugh when I read this smilinghelps. I thought I was the only one who received "bad," service. My son and I went through a "fast," food drive through in Savannah and had to wait ten minutes just to get a voice over the speaker to ask for our order. And we were the only car in line! Then it took another fifteen minutes to get the order at the window. Of course they had ran out of lids and had to put my milkshake in a cup that didn't have a hole for a straw. And what hamburger joint runs out of ketchup?

mandax

Wow, that last story frustrated me, and I wasn't even involved! It's one thing to be lazy and apathetic, but it's another to be downright rude. Disrespect in the service industry drives me crazy. A friend of mine went through a similar situation, actually, with an airline. I wish I could remember the details, but my friend called me up, angrily explaining how the woman that answered the phone began insulting her. Are there not enough nice people to replace these incompetent people?

buyjupiter03

I don't know if it's this ^^^^, or the manufacturer's/big business quest to save money. But these days when your job doesn't pay sh*t it doesn't seem worth it to give a crap about the customer<---not endorsing the attitude, just explaining it. Probably doesn't help that a lot people are overworked, being asked to do the jobs of several people all at once so everything gets rushed through and crap customer service results.

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Malone

Outside of fast food, I usually get great service. Chic-fil-a even has good service, and outside the dwarf houses, that's fast food.
I used to be a cook, so maybe I just know what to say and what not to say to waitresses. I never really find "bad" ones, though, even when eating out with my family or friends.

I agree those big box stores can sometimes lack in service. Our Best Buy is pretty good about having people around, but I know I stood in there one time looking for memory, and a employee stood next to me doing some kind of inventory and never asked if I needed help finding something despite the looks I shot him. Circuit City is usually pretty lack luster.
If I'm going to spend real money, I'll go to a place that sells on commision, like HiFi Buys (Tweeters up north I think they call it) or HHGregg because they're generally more knowledgable and will haggle over deals.
I try to avoid JC Pennys and Kohls and all those stores for clothes. I'll either go to Belks (I think that may be a southern chain) or a local clothing store we have here that's been in business for about a hundred years and has incredible customer service and product.

The airlines are generally horrible.


jupiter pretty much summed up the problem above. I worked at a tool rental place that was connected to Home Depot, and when I would wander out into the store, the managers treated the employees like crap and had them doing the job of three people while trying to help customers at the same time. It was really ridiculous, especially considering what they pay. The rate of turn over was incredible. People just wouldn't deal with it, so everytime I went out there there were new people who didn't know what they were doing.

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alanmt

sorry smiling! Hope your luck changes!

My husband is my secret weapon - handsome, charming, outgoing and obviously gay. He makes friends with servers effortlessly, and they always give us extra attention. When there is a kitchen mistake,as there sometimes wil be, they like him so much that they fall over each other to fix it.

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Sam Winchester

The service of the entire world has gone to hell, Smiling. I definitely agree with you on that. Just last week, my girlfriend and I went out to a restaurant for dinner. One of the waitresses left the menu on our table. We decided on what we were going to have, and then set the menus back on the table. We weren't approached for twenty minutes. No one even looked at us. And then, finally, the waitress who originally gave us the menu came back and asked: 'Are you ready to order?'

I looked at her and said: 'No, hey, I'm still a little fuzzy on what I want,' sarcasm evident in my voice. I said it in a joking way, though.

'Oh, I guess I'll come back.'

I said, 'I'm joking. We're ready.'

'Okay, so why didn't you say that?' She was beginning to get angry.

'I was joking. We were ready ten minutes ago,' I said, not meaning anything other than that. She thought I was saying the service was bad, which I wasn't. I was merely stating a fact.

'What are you trying to say, sir?'

'Nothing. We're ready to order.' I ordered a sirloin steak and my girfriend had the roast beef. No starters. Half an hour passed. Nothing. An hour. Still nothing. Ninety minutes. Still nothing. I was beginning to get so hungry that the f**king table started to look appetising. And all the time there were waitresses walking by us with trays of food in their hands. Walking down the bottom of the restaurant, and then coming back, and then walking back with more food! And most of them - and I don't mean anything by this, because there's nothing wrong with it - but most of them were overweight. And I was so hungry that I was moody. When another one walked past, I turned to my girlfriend, who was drinking her Southern Comfort in an attempt to stave off starvation, and said: 'what the fuck are they doing? Going out the back and eating the fuckin' thing? One of them heard me and came over to the table.

'Is there a problem, sir?'

I said, 'I'm diabetic, miss. I need my dinner now.' I'm not, but my brother is, and that trick usually speeds up the service whenever we go out for family meals.

'It won't be five minutes, sir.'

Two and half minutes later, the food was sitting on our table. I think the one I had the argument with purposely told the kitchen staff to go slow. I'll not be going there again.

That also reminds me of another story from when I was about sixteen. Up until I was twenty-one, I played football for my local GAA club. We got to the All-Ireland quarter finals one year. We were playing in Croke Park (we lost the match by a point) and when the match ended, we went to a fancy restaurant for our meal. We were playing against a Dublin team, so the restaurant knew who we were. We ordered our meal, and two hours passed without it arriving. And then, at the top of my voice, I yelled: 'All right, who said the cook was a cunt!' The entire place went silent. The management people came in to see if there was any trouble. Even the cook came out of the kitchen, at which point I yelled: 'Who said the cunt could cook!' And all the lads I was with, busted out laughing.

Sam.

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seigfried007

:pats smiling on the back:

Oh, we know how you feel. Ever been to Denny's

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smilinghelps

So funny, Alan! You know, my boyfriend and daughter (both with huge dimples and personalities the size of the Grand Canyon) do a great job entertaining our waitstaff, that's never a problem, getting a pleasant waitress--but if I'm with them (the family curse) my waitress will be training someone or there will be a new cook in the kitchen.

We are creatures of habit, we frequent the same few places for the food choices, quality, atmosphere (no smoking) and service but more and more the service aspect, even in those places, is going downhill.

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Malone

Sam: I shudder to think of the things being done to your food after remarks like that. I'm a smartass as well, but when it comes to the food industry, you want to kill them with kindness.

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Sam Winchester

I know, Malone, but sometimes you've got to draw the line. This wasn't the first time I've gone to that restaurant and that happened, but it certainly will be the last.

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smilinghelps

You took the words right out of my mouth, Malone.

We never ask for a replacement meal, even if it's wrong. My boyfriend is highly allergic to mushrooms and even if they aren't in a dish but in other dishes, he will say--Please make sure no mushrooms are in this. 50% of the time, they are--no kidding, 50%! He'll send the meal back and ask them to take it off the check without a replacement.

Revenge is a meal best served by a pissed off cook!

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Malone

From my experience, cooks don't mind AT ALL fixing food they fucked up. We curse ourselves and fix the food as fast as we can. The only downside for the consumer would be that the food may not be as well put together because the cook is in a rush to fix it. Even the most bitter cooks I know don't mind fixing something they screwed up.
The problem arises when people complain about their wait time or they think a medium steak is medium rare when it's not and when it re-cooked and stuff like that. If waitresses screw up the order, the cooks get mad at the waitress, not the consumer.
But if a waitress comes back and says the guy at table three is being a total dick and saying the food sucks and he wants something else or it took to long or it's not hot enough, or when someone comes in two minutes before closing, etc. - look out.

Just a little more: If another cook sees a cook be a dick because he's stressed out or something that's not the customers fault, someone else will usually step in and make sure the order goes out right. Specifying no mushrooms because of an allergy is actually taken somewhat seriously, and if I were cooking, I'd make sure to isolate that order on the grill so it wasn't around the other food. If a cook wasn't willing to do that or acted pissed off about it, someone else will probably keep an eye on him and make sure mushrooms don't go near his food (if the kitchen isn't so crazy that no has time to do anything besides what they're working on).

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Non Serviam

I agree with all the above. Also policemen are getting younger these days and what is it with all these danged kids on my lawn?

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Swamp Thing

And now a bunch of damned kids who look like they are straight out of high school demand to be called Doctor just because they've got clip boards and white coats. And some girl with an attitude problem and a rubber glove wants to stick her finger where?!?

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