What does it take for you to complain about bad service in a store?

They would have to be deliberately offensive. Working on the other side of the counter has fostered compassion enough to forgive mere foibles like bad service.

I’ve never experienced service that was worth complaining about. People who are very demanding may find fault, but I’m not one of those people. Service people of any kind have enough distractions from unpleasant customers that I don’t want to add to anyone’s distress. If you haven’t worked in a job where you have to deal with customers, you may not know how unpleasantly demanding so many people can be. If some one was rude to me as a customer, I might say something, but it would most likely be, “Rough day?”

It would have to be extremely bad service that somehow took a turn for the worse for me to take it to a manager or customer service.

Usually, I will try to kill the person serving me with kindness first, to see if that alters the situation. 99.9% of the time it does.

If that doesn’t work, I will politely ask if a supervisor is available. Sometimes the mere mention of wanting to take something further helps.

Unless they became verbally abusive or did something that would pose a danger and/or health risk to myself or someone else, I’ll do my business and move on.

Some one who listens… If I can’t find anyone I just calmly consider the opportunity to learn from the situation and one day run my own store better and drive them out of business… but If I feel cornered and trapped In a bad situation I try to escape at all costs everything and everyone linked to the bad situation and I switch sides/teams ect…My loyalty is revoked.

If my employees are not treating my customers with curtesy and respect, I want to know about it. I assume most employers feel the same. So if the behavior is really out of line then I will find the manager and report it. Usually they are apologetic and say they will take care of it, this is especially true if the manager is also the owner of the business. Sometimes if just another employee, they will be less appreciative. I think when you take on a job, you have to perform it to the best of your ability, if you are allowed to give less than your best, it is no favor to you. In this competitive job market there will be someone else waiting to take your position and do a better job.

I haven’t really had bad experience in stores. If I did I probably wouldn’t cause a scene. i would call the store later and ask to speak with the manager directly. That’s more scarier in my opinion than calling the corporate office. I would probably also threaten to give the store a review of the situation on Yelp to the manager. I would request something be done about the situation immediately. I think I would only do any of this if an employee: Raised their voice, rolled their eyes, cursed at my wife, said something racist about someone in the store, made fun of another customer in the store.

It would have to be something pretty blatantly screwed up, I am not a complainer. I dislike chronic complainers and believe that one should pick their battles carefully.
Don’t sweat the small stuff is my mantra.

I’ve not had terrible service in stores, more like… lackadaisical. Like cashiers who can’t be bothered to speak to you, even to say “Thanks” or “Have a nice day” at the end of the transaction. I don’t complain about that, but I do tend to avoid the stores where that is the norm.

The things I have complained about have almost always been safety issues. Particularly having expired food on the shelves in a grocery store. In one case, I caught my store covering up the pre-printed expiration date on a cheese product with a store sticker showing a later date. I about hit the fucking roof. I was in a rage, pretty much, and marched over to the manager right that second, and talked to him about it rather, um, loudly.

^^^ I would have asked to get the stuff at half (or lower) price. Food should not go to waste. Food is not like Cinderella’s pumpkin that instantly goes bad at the stroke of midnight on the expiration date. I’ll eat it. And the poor grocery store owner, who’s already working on a razor thin margin, can stay in business for few minutes longer.

I have never complained about bad service. I simply shop elsewhere.

I complain when someone is just plain rude or inept. Reputable businesses want to hear constructive customer feedback. That’s the way they improve service and keep customers coming back.

I always make sure to compliment too. You’d be surprised to see the surprise on faces when you give compliments .. it’s almost like they expect criticism instead.

Competition is such that if you don’t have happy customers, they’ll just go elsewhere. If a business isn’t interested in hearing about their customer’s bad experiences, they’ll just have that many fewer customers!

I do not. I am there for the products, not the service. Reserve your fake smile for your husband/wife.

I’ve always worked in retail or restaurants, so it’s easy for me to empathize with other people in the service industry. The only times I’ve complained is if the person is deliberately rude or extremely inept. At that point, it’s actually best for the business if you give the manager a heads up. That gives them a chance to fix the problem- reprimanding the rude employee, training the inept employee, etc, so that employee won’t do the same thing with a whole bunch of other customers.

It would have to be extremely purposeful, willful bad service. Like someone giving me a bad attitude or being mean or disrespecful. If they’re just stupid or ignorant, I’ll usually give them a pass.

I agree with @Nullo that being on the other side is sometimes an awful place to be, because a lot of customers can be really horrible. My best friend’s boyfriend is one of those people. He’s never enjoyed a meal or service at any restaurant that he’s ever been to in his entire 52 years of life. He is rude to the waitstaff and complains bitterly at every minor thing that is of no consequence. He thinks they ask him for his order too soon, or make him wait too long. They bring water before he’s asked for it, or don’t bring water in a timely fashion. There’s always too much ice or not enough ice. The condiments on the table are never suitable. There’s either too many napkins or not enough and they’re never the right size. Nothing is ever cooked correctly and nothing ever tastes quite right. He is one of those people that makes a big deal out of sending food back. It makes me cringe. It makes me uncomfortable to go out to eat with him and I’ve had to apologize, after the fact, to multiple waiters.

I always try to be super-polite and friendly to service persons and I expect that in return. And I don’t expect service people to be miracle workers. Mostly I expect them to be polite, to know their product and their service (or be able to get correct/accurate information from someone else in the company who does know the answer, if they don’t know immediately) to acknowledge my existence. I expect service people to greet me politely immediately, or if they’re on a call or helping with another customer to say something like, “I’ll be with you in a moment.” just to let me know that they know I’m waiting in line or need to ask a question.

So for me it would mostly be about extreme, deliberate rudeness. Just about everything else, I can let slide.

I’m also one of those people who will write or speak directly to the manager of a company to say something nice about an employee who was particularly nice or helpful. I don’t think a lot of people do that.