Does poor customer service piss you off?

It does piss me off.

I don’t accept it but most of the time I expect it.

Depending on how put out I am, I’ll call and give details of my visit to a store mgr. or owner.

If I complain then it’s because I want to return and have a better experience otherwise I blow the place off. There are so few places I go to anymore that I really do want to have a nice time or at least not a bad time.

The last time I complained was to our dry cleaner because the counter kid told me I so much laundry to give that it took him 3 tickets to write up. A man and woman waiting beside me rolled their eyes at him. I told the owner I thought it was a good thing I brought all the clothes in one stop, 3 tickets instead of a line of people out the door. I also mentioned the kid had it pretty good being able to work in a nice area of town, wait on nice clientele in an a/c building and be allowed to come to work looking like he just got out of bed. The owner said, “these kids will be the death of me!” to which I replied, “or the death of your little store’s reputation.” I received a bunch of free dry cleaning but what I wanted was to waited on as if I was doing a favor to the business and not inconveniencing a spoiled teen.

Yes, it pisses me off.

Absolutely it makes me mad! I used to teach customer service as part of bank training and I do not like it when I get poor service anywhere. I even get annoyed at mediocre service. There is no excuse to not be pleasant, polite and professional.

One Tuesday I had to call AT&T because we didn’t get a credit on our bill for an ongoing problem. The person I got mumbled her name (and we had a poor connection) and she was no help at all. After having to explain to her twice why we were supposed to be getting a credit that was already promised to us!!! I told her that I wanted either her supervisor or someone, anyone that could help me. She said that she would connect me to a “specialist” and put me on hold. You know how you can tell when someone puts you on and takes you off hold? She did that at least six times. In her defense, she may have been trying to find someone. After all the explaining and being on hold 18 minutes! I got disconnected.
I called back immediately and got someone else – someone empathetic, who understood what I was saying, and took care of the problem in about 4 minutes! I told her how appreciative I was and that I wanted to tell her supervisor how wonderful she was. She thanked me and I told him how great she was. In fact I told him that he needed to give her flowers or doughnuts or shoes or something to praise her for her skills.

Had I known the name of the previous representative, I would have told him that she needed to learn how to use her computer (Tanya-the-amazing found everything in a snap), how to speak clearly, how to empathize with a customer, how to connect a customer correctly, among other things.

The feedback wouldn’t have been to be mean, but to make sure that she got proper training and coaching.

@Neizvestnaya I give that owner credit for saying the kids are killing him. At least he acknowledged the problem, and did not treat you like you were a pain and wasting his time.

Yes and I let them know as I know how important it is to most owners that things did not go well at all. Almost all are extremely appreciative I took the effort. If it was truly lousy service I will expect something to be done to make good for my time invested at their establishment and if not I will make it clear the reasons why I will not patronize their business ever again.

I love writing the letters to the management and telling them when I get great service! Those are fun to write!

Im one of those people who write letters to the management explaining why they lost my patronage.
As a business owner myself, on some level I take it personally as I would never tolerate one of my employees treating someone badly. I pay a lot of money to get customers in the door as do other businesses. An employee who wastes that opportunity might as well wipe their butt with the owners money.

No. It doesn’t piss me off and I have no idea why anyone would be pissed off by poor service. That’s what we’re paying for, right?

Yes it does. I usually find that I get the worst customer service from young people, in their teens and early 20s, who companies hire for temporary positions, but do not sufficiently train them in even basic things like greeting customers, thanking them for their business, eye contact, smiling, asking if they need help, etc. I don’t know if it’s because they’re just damn lazy, but a lot of young people in service jobs don’t seem to give a hoot about customer service. Countless times I have walked into stores at the mall and as I enter, the young salespeople there don’t even look up——they just lean on the counters busily chatting away, laughing, looking very lackadaisical and uninterested, as if I was “getting in the way” or “not even there”! Sometimes I’d be needing help and looking around, and there are like 3 or 4 of them just moping about not paying attention. And even when I act nice and polite to them, they answer curtly with sour faces. (Eg., I’d ask “Hi, can you tell me if you have this shoe in size 9?” Response: “No, we’re all out.” The salesperson then walks away quickly, with the same grumpy look on his/her face.). He/she doesn’t even make an effort to find out if they do carry that size, and doesn’t even say sorry. It’s very frustrating.

Sometimes it goes so ridiculous I do speak out. I’d be having a good day, walk into a store and get bad service, then I would actually tell the rude salesperson that if he/she doesn’t like the job, quit. It seems to make sense, since they are so apathetic and uninterested anyways. But usually they just “roll their eyes” and get even more sour-faced.

I wish companies/retail stores would train their young staff better. I’m not saying all young people give bad customer service, but there are a lot out there who do. Sometimes I’ll get bad service from older workers too, but not as often——I think in general older workers tend to value their jobs more and they have more life experience on how to deal with people, hence their better service. But there are grouchy, rude older workers out there too who don’t want to help you. Especially at big stores like Home Depot.

Don’t get me wrong, I worked in retail/service jobs in my younger days, and I have to say it goes both ways. I know they say “the customer is always right”, but in my opinion, a lot of customers can act like real jerks who don’t give a crap about treating employees with respect. Little wonder why many service people get jaded.

I think a lot stems from society itself, how we are raising our children, and just the general “social climate” out there. A lot of parents don’t raise their kids to show respect anymore, teach them manners and how to act in public, be friendly, etc. These kids become ugly, rude adults which in turn spawn a new generation of mannerless young people, who then find their way into the work world. A terrible cycle. Sigh.

When I’m friendly, as a customer, I almost always get good service. The person on the other side of the counter is a human being, and that’s how I treat them. Same as when I’m at work. You know the campsite rule, leave it better than you found it? Well, I try to apply that rule to my interactions with people.

It enrages me, but fighting against it is like fighting a giant blancmange.

It pisses me off and if I can get the manager’s undivided attention for a few minutes, I will kindly tell him/her. Often I find the management is frustrated as well, and the best example of this is Cracker Barrel Restaurants. Their service is abysmal and not just in one of their units. It is across the board, so much so that I have decided it is not so much their people as their management system. It is designed to be mediocre. Mediocre food, mediocre service. BUT, there must be genius behind their philosophy of mediocrity, because the customers keep coming back. I have just decided to adjust my expectations when I walk in the door. If I sit down in an empty dining room and a waiter doesn’t show up for 5–10 minutes, I just remind myself that this is not personal and that the CEO has made the decision to allow mediocrity. (Actually, if a waiter doesn’t show up in two minutes, I’m back at the entrance of the dining room, where they all gather, asking for a waiter).

Bottom line, it usually pisses me off other places, but I have found so many CB store managers who confirm the philosophy of mediocrity that I just realize I’m walking into a different reality at Cracker Barrel.

@plethora Exactly. And sometimes it’s even more frustrating and ridiculous when the managers are just as bad as their salespeople, and they back them up when you make a warranted complaint.

What I hate is when you walk into a place of business and there is no one else there except the staff, who look busy, and no one even looks up or gives you a nod to let you know they’ve seen you. I ran a business. We had customers 10 deep sometime. I’d be jumping like a Mexican jumping bean, but if someone new came in I’d always take a split second to make eye contact to let them know I’ve seen them. Or say “Hi Bob!” without breaking stride in whatever else I was doing (except if I was actively talking to someone else. Then it would just be eye contact.)

@plethora If the service is poor in many locations it is a problem from the top down. The managers suck too. Not just the staff.

I agree with @MRSHINYSHOES that younger people tend to be worse when it comes to service, because they have not had the work experience yet to get lucky and have a good manager who trains them, or the life experience to happen on receiving veru good service and hopefully having the brains to learn from it.

However, where I live there is a restaurant full of teens and 20 year olds working there and the service is fantastic. It is the only restaurant in my area the service really stands out. When I complimented the owner, he said they really focus on service, and train them from several days before they let their staff work on their own. When I worked in retail our staff gave great service, the 18 year olds and the 60 year olds. Management really sets the tone, and provides the examples. When managers are hands off and only deal with complaints and paperwork it is not enough to lead a strong customer service oriented team in my opinion.

Where I live I find it so frustrating how consistently bad the service is, and I think many times my dissappointment falls on deaf ears, because they are meeting the standard of the community, and I expect more. It’s like they don’t know any better. My husband and I travel several times a year, and I have lived in several places, and each community seems to have their own vibe on service it seems. Of course chain stores and restaurants level this out across the country somewhat, but there still is regional differences sometimes. Well, maybe it has to do with where the HQ of the chain stores is located?

Not as much as it used to. Now having worked in customer service, I understand how badly these staff are treated and I sympathise with them.

No, I don’t waste my time with that, I simply don’t use them again. I don’t like getting pissed, it is not worth the effort.

I do get angry about it because it’s like they are getting paid for being inadequate. As a person who works in an environment where customer service is the main focus, I make it my mission to treat every customer with respect and gladly help them. I’m a younger person, so I try to prove previous judgements of workers my age wrong. If you’re paying for a service, your experience should be great!

@downtide I worked in customer service for years. It’s our job to remain cool under belligerent, rude, pressure, even when customers get to insulting you personally. I mean, if it’s gotten to the point where you’re so burned out that you automatically start treating ALL of your customers rudely, it’s time to get a new job.

It depends on whether or not I still need that [jerk/punk/moron] to do something for me.
If I do I will mask my feelings as needed to encourage that gets done.
If I might need something from the same person in the future I may leave it at that.
If I got what I needed already or I don’t badly need the perpetrator to do something for me then all bets are off that I let them know what I think of them.

It also depends a lot on how they handle it when the problem becomes apparent. If they are sympathetic and apologetic I’ll usually let them off the hook after a light roasting. If they are indifferent, I’ll be pissed but won’t waste my time on the perpetrator, but will take the next opportunity to let someone else at the establishment know about the incident.

If we’re talking about a restaurant it is mandated in local ordinances (NYC) to walk out or at least bitch vociferously until the perpetrator, and their manager, has grovelled sufficiently. ;-)
I have definitely walked out on service with ‘attitude’ or just plain indifference.

Interestingly when I wrote the question I was thinking more about someone being incompetent in their job rather than rude. But, of course rude bothers me too. I run into more stupidity than rudeness. Sometimes they go hand and hand.

One day, little Symbeline walks into a GameStop to get her copy of the new Tactics Ogre; Let Us Cling Together video game.
She looks around in the PSP section, but does not see it. She goes to the counter and inquires on a possible copy they may have. They may have some behind the counter she thinks, it has happened before. Maybe she overlooked it. Hope.

Well, you know what reply she got from the clerk?

I saw you looking in there. Did you find one?

@Symbeline No.

There’s your answer.

Well I guess I’m just a dumbass. But I didn’t do anything about it. I left, and found my game over at HMV.

Yes, I really do not like it. I rarely do anything about it.

Well, yes, but I also try to think about how little they might get paid. I expect great service from well-paid professionals.

Since when does integrity=amount of money @mattbrowne? Integrity is something you have or don’t have. You can’t buy it.

@mattbrowne I don’t think the amount one gets paid should make a difference. If anything, I take into account the person’s personal life – maybe they’re having a rough time. I’m aware that making less money, for more work, can add stress. However, I can usually tell the difference between somone who is having a rough day and someone who’s just an impolite moron. Poor customer service is usually plain laziness or unprofessional disrespect for their job. I’ve had jobs where I was making below minimum wage, jobs that I hated ..I was always pleasant and well mannered to customers/coworkers.

I think money sometimes does matter, because the employer who pays someone $8 an hour tends to not train their staff in my opinion. Also I think that employee generally has had less interaction with really good service people to learn by example. Of course there are lower paid people who have excellent customer service skills, but I think there is a case to be made about getting crappy service from people at the lower end of the scale. Also, people in the lower paid jobs are not allowed to think much of the time, again because of their employers, which can wind up feeling like poor service to the customer. Of course it is not a hard fast rule, I complain about service from doctors, and they make plenty of money.

One time I had had my car serviced at the dealership, and when I got home I realized I left my book inntheir waiting area. I called the dealership, the receptionist answered the phone, and I explained what happened. She said to me, “well I can’t do anything about it, I am not going to go looking for it.” Idiot. I asked her to transfer me back to service, to see if they had found it or could check the waiting area, they had my book. The receptionist sounded like she was not going to go out of her way for anyone, no one was going to make her do one thing past what she was specifically hired to do. Not one morsel of wanting to help. I never espected her to get up from her desk, I get that she answers the phones, but for her to think how she might help me.

@JLeslie I kind of agree and I kind of don’t. If we’re talking about plain old manners then either you’ve been raised your whole life to have good manners, or you haven’t. The receptionist you spoke of was obviously not raised with any kind of manners. I just don’t think any amount of money could instill them in her. I suppose you could try to “train” good manners into someone but their real personality would always come out in the end.

@JLeslie: In the defense of receptionists everywhere (our dealership has 5), they aren’t allowed to get up and leave the phones unless someone else stops what they’re doing to do the phones and in a dealership at least, NO ONE wants to relieve the receptionists because the phones are more like a complaints line or message service between mgt. and their spouses than anything.. It’s too bad she didn’t tell you up front she’d transfer you to the other dept. where they could look for your things, you’d probably been a lot less offended.

@Neizvestnaya It goes back to manners. She was rude. She could have said, “I can’t leave my desk, but I’ll look for it when I go to lunch,” or something.

@Neizvestnaya I never expected her or asked her to get up and look herself. Her tone was horrible, definite atitude. She was ready to hang up, rather than contemplate who might be able to help me. Her goal should be to help me somehow. She needs to THINK, not get rid of me.

@Dutchess_III I only half agree. It is not just manners. This is the mistake employers make in my opinion, they think manners is enough. People absolutely can be trained to meet the expectations of the company, and exceed expectations of the customer. Growing up in a nice family does not teach most people to stay on the line while they transfer you to the next operator before leaving the line, companies train that. Nice upbringings don’t necessarily teach you to thank a customer for bringing in a complaint so that the company can address any unhappiness you might have with the product. Family life is not just like work life, and employess also need to know how far they can go, how much autonomy they have to help a customer, know so they don’t have to worry about getting in trouble. In bloomingdale’s salespeople have the power to return a garment, in many stores you need a manager to sign off. The service level is higher in stores like Bloomies, Saks, Neimans, because the sales people almost run their own little business themselves, building relationships with clients, always thinking long term sales, and providing full service, because they are allowed to, and expected to.

@JLeslie: That’s awful. If this is the way most people are talked to on the phones then it’s no wonder our people get so many horrible calls, I think people dread having to call anyplace nowadays.

On the vein of training, there are only a few places I’ve worked where there is any. I’ve always been told I’m a “good” employee but if I am then it’s by my own observation and/or on the job picking up of what I think works best. Since I’ve been doing customer service stuff then they kind of throw you to the wolves, no one wants to be bothered with the “lowly” positions.

@Neizvestnaya When I was a teen, I am 43, there was almost always some training in most companies from what I observed. Now most companies don’t give a shit and don’t value it. It is a big problem.

Lack of training is one aspect of several. We also have to keep in mind the extra burden of people (especially families) with very low incomes. Poor housing conditions with exposure to more noisy disturbances. Feeling less safe. Fewer household amenities. Maybe a second job. Less sleep. Lower quality of sleep. This list is very long.

I’m not saying people with low-paying job have a right to be rude. But there’s a difference between being served in first class on an airplane and asking a parking lot attendant a complicated question. I know friendly parking lot attendants, but if I meet someone who responds poorly quite unlike a Singapore Airlines flight attendant, I can live with it.

@JLeslie: I’m 44 and I’ve had many jobs in different fields but only two gave me any kind of training which got me the jobs at all the other places. The best teaching of work ethic and people skills came from my grandparents when I lived with them, just basic human interactions deemed appropriate at the time for whatever situation. Sadly, I can’t say my own parents have much to contribute, they were among a great many who figured schools were teaching kids all the needed to know to enter the adult world. WRONG!