Does anyone ever tackle bad customer service?

C

Cheeus

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Out enjoying our Sunday yesterday we stopped off in four different places. In each place we were we got really awful rude service. My own reactions were everything from not tipping to being rude back, and wanting to ask one girl if she was ok because she looked seriously depressed (though I think she was really just up herself!).

What do other people do in these situations?

First place was a restaurant. It was really busy but the waitresses were really unfriendly, food & drinks took ages arriving. I'd never not tip just because I had to wait but the waitresses would put you off your food. When I was a student waitress we got huge tips at busy times because smiling while you were busy was really appreciated.

Second place was a cafe where (45 mins before closing) instead of saying 'thanks' when giving change we were told 'we close at 7 on the dot'. A waiter had an argument with another customer who objected to his throwing chairs around in the rush to cleanup.

Then on to the supermarket where we avoided our usual snotty cashier and found ourselves commending the guy who served us because he managed a thanks as he wiped his nose on his sleeve while handing us our change. Sad day when this is what you're grateful for!

Finally in to our local video shop that's staffed by all young guys who are the rudest people and really full of themselves. They throw the stuff at you and never say please or thanks coz you're interupting their conversation.

I think I'll start complaining to managers coz service just seems to be really awful everywhere now and meeting the same fools everytime I go shopping is driving me mad! Ahhh it's ssssoooo good to get it all out...
 
Cheesus,
Our local video shop is the most rudely staffed shop in the country. Im convinced of it. The slack jawed yokels behind the counter are usually too busy chatting to take any notice of you and if they do deign to come to the counter they treat you like you are seriously affecting their quality of life by trying to pay for your dvd.
Last time I was so annoyed that I simply stated, quite politely, 'Your manners are absolutely abysmal - perhaps you should consider a job where you are not in the public eye?'. This was met with a 'Whaaaa?'. Im not sure the moronic individual even understood what Id said.

I worked for years in a supermarket and I think from the cashiers perspective nothing makes them sit up in their seat quicker than a direct polite enquiry about their attitude problem. Along the lines of 'Excuse me, I dont like your atitude, whats your name please?'. It doesnt matter if you report them or not, taking their name is usually a wake up call.

It drives me mad as well when staff are just rude and ignorant.
 
I think all these people should be boiled in their own blood and then be forced to eat themselves.
 
truthseeker said:
Cheesus,
Our local video shop is the most rudely staffed shop in the country. Im convinced of it. .
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We must be neighbours so ;-)
What makes it worse is that I can't help smiling and saying please and thanks, makes me feel like such a mug! We had to change cashiers because our normal one is so snotty the whole time that we end up roaring laughing at her and it looks like we're bullying her!? Her attitude is that ridiculous.

I don't expect people to fall all over me but I don't think please and thanks is too much to ask for. I always hesitate in saying anything because a.)I don't want to appear to be lording it over people and b.)if it's not an Irish person it looks like you're being racist.

I must add quickly that the rude idiots I met around the place yesterday were 50/50 Irish and International.
 
All the staff in our local video shop are Irish. They just dont care about the job thats why they act like that. A couple of them talk about borrowing 'Daddys Car' and going to that 'like exclusive nightclub' so they probably dont take the money earning aspect of the job all that seriously.
 
That's exactly the same as our local video shop. We were about to ask for the manager but we were expecting one of them to say 'yah, thot's me'. They're infuriating!

As for the cashier in the supermarket - she's so rude that I really do want to say something to her. You can't always avoid her because there's often only a handful of staff on. I'd hate to say something though and then for her to feel intimidated every time she sees us coming. She is abusing customers though, you feel like a total inconvenience to her.
 
We must definitely be neighbours!!!

If I were you I would say it to the supermarket girl.
In our local supermarket which I use for everything for a quick pint of milk to the weekly shop for years and years I was once given a terrible time by a staff member who being rude and who also insinuated that I was using a stolen credit card. I was absolutely infuriated so I lifted her out of it there and then, marched out, got a notebook and pen from the car, marched back in and asked for her name (which she refused to give) and I then sent a strongly worded letter of complaint in (4 A4 pages long) and received a phonecall from the manager and then one from the owner - both apologising. The staff member herself never apologised personally but the security man who was standing next to her when I asked for her name has always been VERY nice to me since and the staff member herself has NEVER been rude to me again.
 
I think I'll just begin by standing there and saying 'thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...' until she says it back. Grrrrrrrr, it makes me so angry!
 
I must admit to having been on the receiving end of bad service recently....Having the debate with a friend recently who manages a Dublin city centre shop and his experience is with awful awful customers....The stories he tells are unreal!

People who throw cash and/or credit cards on the counter and won't look him in the eye...
A woman who came into the shop to see him to follow up on a product complaint. He asked her who she had been originally dealing with and she points at one of his staff and said 'that idiot over there'!
He reckons about fifty percent of customers would not say please or thank you.

So spare a thought for those people who work in shops/restaurants and are treated shodily by customers!
 
I always complain. If nothing else it makes me feel better. Just get their manager and ask them why the member of staff was rude (or whatever). I also find letters and emails work quite well. I even got a call from Eircom once after a complaint (didn't stop me from moving from them though).

Ireland in general does not do good customer service. The Americans are in a different class when it comes to how they treat the public but I suppose the culture of tipping is very strong there and serving staff can earn twice their hourly rate by doing their job well and doing it with a smile on their face.
 
I've put in my time working in shops and restaurants and I would have been fired if I treated people the way some do now.

Even if a customer is rude good well trained staff should at least remain civil. It is the nature of customer service that you will have to put up with idiot customers, but equally they can ask customers for respect too if they get out of hand - they can have them removed by security.

Now there's a thought... I could ask security to remove the rude cashier!!!
Seriously though, to greet a shop assistant with a smile and hello to have your change thrown at you is not on.
 
The thing is that the customer is the one parting with the money so it is up to the person taking it to provide the good customer service.
 
Lauren said:
People who throw cash and/or credit cards on the counter and won't look him in the eye...
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But the customer is not the one providing a service. Nor are they being paid to do a job. The staff member that is rude is being paid to do a job and part of that job is to provide customer service.
 
I worked in a furniture retailer years ago and the abuse staff took was unbelievable. Some staff were rubbish, but what happened was the good staff who genuinely wanted to help customers took abuse and ended up leaving, so the empty vessels who could not care less were left there.
 
In my many years as a supermarket girl nothing quite gave me so much pleasure as the ability to keep my cool and NEVER react to a rude customer with rudeness of my own. In fact the ruder a customer became the more polite I became. I could see it infuriated people but much more importantly it meant my own blood pressure never rose on account of someone elses bad manners.
 

The Americans are also the best in the world at complaining. I learned how to complain while waitressing in the States. Now I will always ask for things to be fixed in restaurants. The Americans' complaining also taught me good customer service.

As customers we could probably learn a thing or two from them too. I like the way they say 'sir' and 'madam' sometimes regardless of who they're addressing. The whole 'have a nice day' thing might be a bit cheesy but at least they're making an effort!
 
But the customer is not the one providing a service. Nor are they being paid to do a job. The staff member that is rude is being paid to do a job and part of that job is to provide customer service
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The thing is that the customer is the one parting with the money so it is up to the person taking it to provide the good customer service.
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The customer is availing of a service provided by the assistant, that doesn't omit them from having to be civil in their dealings. I think from the replies we can safely say that we have at last become great at complaining. There are two sides to every story, maybe the cashier doesn't like the OP's body language or the fact that they laugh while she is working. I don't see enough of bad service to warrant a 4 page letter or to look for management and i think people are so wound up that they need to vent their frustrations on those that are not in a position to bite back.
 

I would argue that in sectors that don't involve tipping (for example, retail outlets, supermarkets, hotel receptions etc), customer service is the US is much worse than here.
 
ubiquitous said:
I would argue that in sectors that don't involve tipping (for example, retail outlets, supermarkets, hotel receptions etc), customer service is the US is much worse than here.
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You may well be correct, I do not have enough experience of those sectors to disagree, but those I have had have not been bad.
 
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