The Bitching Thread 2.0

Has 'good customer service' taken a nosedive for anybody else?

Like, in recent months/years, it seems like the entire concept of "great customer service" has been traveling out the window, in multiple places.

I get it. In society today, everyone is getting angrier, customers are getting angrier and it rubs off and embeds on employees of whatever restaurant, store, whatever. The phrases "The customer is always right" and "service with a smile" don't need to be taken literally. But the spirit of both those sayings is for working employees to be 'overly nice' or 'more nice that perhaps you would think is warranted or appropriate' no matter how mad or rude a customer is, the employee should be at least one notch nicer to them. This is the ideal, because the employee is representing a brand as a whole, and also simply because they're being paid to be nice.

Stores and restaurants used to always offer something extra to compensate for a mess up, even if it's not an employee's mess up. And it isn't always an employee's mess up, mess ups often happen due to some computer error or some technical mix up. Not one person's fault, but still the store will be 'overly nice' and offer something extra to butter up the customer. Nowadays, workers could not give less of a f*** and they don't pretend otherwise. Examples of this recently:

1. Went to a regular sit-down place, usually go there, was "lucky" enough to get their best waitress. But apparently on her worst day. My food of a chicken and mashed potato plate came with some sort of hair on the potatoes. She's halfway across the room when I notice the hair, so I wave my hand up and around for two whole minutes like a doofus for someone to nice me. She finally does, I mention the hair, she takes the plate away without a word or explanation or even apology. I wait 5 whole minutes more. She brings a plate back, identical looking food with no hair, but still no explanation or apology. For all I know she yanked the hair off while in the bank and gave me the same potatoes (but if so, did that need to take 5 whole minutes). I eat it anyway, get the check and the once-hairy plate was charged full price. Not half priced, not comped or anything to say 'sorry' in any way shape or form. (And like I said this is their best waitress who, a year before, actually took half-price off my soup & salad because I happened to mention that the soup was too salty. That was VERY overly nice actually. But a very mysterious hair one year later somehow didn't deserve any discount or explanation or apology at all.) So I made me own discount by tipping 0% and writing on the receipt for less hair on my potatoes next time.

2. Last week, a different restaurant, used to be really good because it used to be owned by different people. The menu has "french toast" and "banana nutella french toast". My exchange to the waiter"

"I'll take the banana nutella french toast."
"...french toast, you said?"
"Yes, the BANANA NUTELLA french toast."
"ok"

I got a plate of french toast. No nutella, no banana. I'm too seething angry to speak, so my sister said "excuse me, he ordered the BANANA NUTELLA french toast." They take the plate, and about a minute later they bring it back, having placed the bananas and a very small amount of nutella on the french toast. No explanation, no apology, no comp or half-comp. They're lucky we tipped them anything at all.

3. An un-named fast-food burger place. They recently installed the touch screens to auto order on to them. I order an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, a caramel sundae and a small fries to go.

My main gripe this time is with the asshole worker who could give WAY less of a f*** than anyone I've ever met anywhere. He hands me a bag with 1 pie and fries and says "we're out of the other pie and sundae." He literally says nothing else and stands there silent for 5 whole seconds. My point is, a competent human being would then immediately say "we're sorry, do you want your money back, or do you want some replacement food?" Instead he eventually makes me say "so... now what?" and he says "I dunno." So eventually someone else has to say "do you want your money back, or do you want some replacement food?" At this point I'm in a tiny bit of a rush (meaning, in a rush to gtfo of that particular location of that particular chain) and I didn't want to take the time to look up any other prices so I say "my money back. Quickly." To their credit, I do get my exact change back for the 2 items (which were somehow unavailable, why didn't the computer catch that btw?) including sales tax back, and in cash, despite me paying by credit card. (So wait, does that somehow count as being 'overly nice' nowadays?)

(This burger chain does have a complaint line and online form, which I actually used a few months before, for an error from THAT particular location actually. I ordered their special limited time mushroom chicken sandwich, and went home to find zero mushrooms on it. I do the complaint form online, just to see what I would get. I get a phone call 2 days later from some office, apologizing for such and said to visit that specific location the next day so it could be taken care of. They didn't specify, but I'm certain I'll be getting something free for the error. They do, I got a free-this-time special mushroom sandwich, this time WITH actual mushrooms on it. But I need to mention, the second time I said I wanted the mushroom chicken, and they give me the mushroom burger. SO TECHNICALLY that's 3 visits in a row for that particular chain location where they get my order wrong. For the third time, I very much feel the need to file a complaint, but I fear they'll make me go back there again to rectify it.)

In fairness, these weren't really 'anyone's fault' but I still feel screwed in their responses which basically all told me they didn't give any shits about me or anyone.

I work at a Home Depot. There's a lot I could say, good and bad, about how that company is run and how my location is run. But the #1 good thing I can definitely say about it is that all the employees and management are good at being 'overly nice' to customers. Nothing bad in the store ever rubs off on to the paying customer, no matter what mood they're in or what their demands are, or no matter the mood or demands of the previous customers that day. A lot goes awry at the store (mainly because of computer errors or something, or often, workers tend to get overworked) but it's never taken out on a customer. Especially in my department, we'll chat on off-times during work, and complain about all aspects of the job, but it's only in our ear-shot. Once a customer walks up to us, we're all like "Hi, how can we help you?"

We're just doing our job well. Mainly because we're PAID to be way too nice. We're certainly not paid to be mean. A lot of people forget that way too often.