Customer Service At Its Finest

Ok, so I am confident when I say that I am not the only one that has been beyond disappointed with customer service, or should I say lack of these days. This is an issue that I have had for quite some time and quite frankly, I’ve had enough! I mean I know that you can not expect a lot from high school and college employees, but what has it come to? What is wrong with the work ethic of America? Why does nobody want to work and since when is it ok to get away with being lazy and actually getting paid for it?!!? How do we ever teach kids what it means to truly work for something if we are paying them not to? Ah! I could go on forever, but instead, I will share with you three different encounters that have all happened in the last week….

Scenario 1
Guy behind counter talking on cell phone.
We walk up to counter.
Guy still talks on cell phone.
We are standing there waiting for him to get off. We wouldn’t want to interrupt.
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Finally, about a minute later he gets off and says, “Oh did y’all want to order something?”
Oh no, we just came up here to see what you were saying to your buddy on the other end of the phone….

Scenario 2
Me and a friend were doing some shopping and then proceed to checkout.
We get to checkout counter and set all of our stuff down on the counter.
Cashier has her cell phone in hand, texting. She literally looks at us, neither says nor does nothing and then looks over at her fellow teeny-bopper friend and says, “How do you spell mustard?”
My friend and I look at each other and you could tell we were both wondering if this was really happening.
She finishes her text puts her phone down and then says “Oh hi, how are y’all doing?”
I didn’t respond. I just gave her “the look.”
In the middle of checking us out, her cell phone rings.
Seriously?
She answers, but surprisingly tells the person on the other end that she can’t talk.
She finally finishes checking us out with of course no courtesy or respect.

Scenario 3
Me, to the very Abercrombie looking cashier: Yes sir, I bought these glasses while out of town, but I have a gift card for them that I didn’t have with me at the time so I would like to return them and re-buy them with the gift card.
Mr. Abercrombie: Well I don’t really think we do that.
Me: Well then just give me my money back for them then.
Mr. Abercrombie: O.K. I can do that.
Me: And then I will just buy them right back.
Mr. Abercrombie: Oh…ok.
Me: See, so what’s the difference.
Mr. Abercrombie: Well I guess you’re right, but that’s just a really weird request.
*Ok, maybe I’m just being sensitive, but I took offense to this. We are talking about 40 bucks here! You wouldn’t think it was weird if it meant $40 in your pocket!*
Anyway, he proceeds with the transaction.
Once it was all done, cash was in hand and gift card was swiped, I was walking out the door and I turned to him and said, “Just in case anyone hasn’t told you, it’s pretty rude to tell a customer that they have a weird request.” He responded with a laugh which made me sure that my comment didn’t phase him one bit. But at least it made me feel better.

And Mark gets upset when I want to report incidences like the three mentioned above to the managers….
What would you do??

On the other hand, I guess it's not always horrible. I did call Lowe’s today to report some exceptional service we got there.