How is THIS for customer (non) service...

[Running Mommy]

Running hubby takes the van in this morning for new tires. He walks into a local Big O tire's down the street from our shop.
He asks the guy how much it would be for new tires for the van.
The guy responds.. I KID YOU NOT...
"what, don't you have a computer at home? "
???????????????????????????????????WTHECK?????????????????????????????????
And then he directs running hubby to a computer they have in the lobby and lets him look them up himself!!
He walked out.
They lost a 400.00 sale.
And we wonder why people are buying online these days?!

[Tri Girl]

WOW! Seriously???
That's crazy!! I would have walked out, too. Sounds like a call to the manager is in order. WOW!

I went shopping today at Akins (a crappier version of Whole Foods) and the little cashier girl never greeted me, never made eye contact, never spoke to me (only to tell me my total) and didn't even say thank you or goodbye.
Having spent 13 years in retail, I ALWAYS was polite to customers- even if I was having a crappy day.
Customer service lately really bites!

[Bike Chick]

I agree Tri Girl, there needs to be a letter addressed to Big O.

[bmccasland]

Gee, and I used to be a Big O fan when I lived in AZ. I think a letter to corporate HQ is in order.

[Trek420]

Went to see the SF orchid show with Spazzdog here, decided I was hungry and went to the food area in back where a caterer had set up a long table servicing various fair-like stuff. Decided I wanted a hot-link. Get to the front of the line, the guy says "no this is the steak sandwich line." points 3 feet to his right where another dude supposedly serves various sausage-like products. Does he say "dude! Fire up a hotlink" to his coworker 3 feet away? Nooooo.

So back in line I go. I get to the front. "I would like a hot link" says I to the hot dog department.
"We're out. They're going out to get more, you could wait"
"Kielbasa? Polish? Chinese duck and five spice? Chicken artichoke and white wine? Bratwurst? ...."
"Nah, all out"

Ya think all this could have been cleared up two lines ago? I can see that pasta and salad dude looks un prepared.

I got a chicken sandwich which was probably better for me in the first place

[channlluv]

That's really ridiculously bad service.

I walked into a competely empty Naked Cafe near here (all organic, not all nude) one day around 2pm and the owner, who was working on something at the counter doesn't say "Hi, welcome, pick a table," or anything like that. She says. "We close at 2:30. Are you getting your order to go?"

Wow, really? I did get it to go, and I enjoyed it down by San Diego Harbor, but still. The next time I went in, there were a couple of people in there besides me, and when I got my order, the server (who didn't seem nearly as happy as she had the first time I was there) brought my receipt with my sandwich, and there was a hand-written note saying that a 5% surcharge had been added as a gratuity for the guys in the kitchen. Alrighty then.

I haven't been back. I go to the Rubios five stores down and they welcome me by name most of the time. I'm the one who special orders the chili lime salmon salad.

Roxy

P.S. Running Mommy, there's a special request PM in your box.

[badger]

WOW! Seriously???
That's crazy!! I would have walked out, too. Sounds like a call to the manager is in order. WOW!

I went shopping today at Akins (a crappier version of Whole Foods) and the little cashier girl never greeted me, never made eye contact, never spoke to me (only to tell me my total) and didn't even say thank you or goodbye.
Having spent 13 years in retail, I ALWAYS was polite to customers- even if I was having a crappy day.
Customer service lately really bites!

you know, I get this more often than I like these days. I wondered if it was me, maybe I was giving off negative vibes or something, but it's happening much too frequently these days, and they're usually teenagers. One kid was reading Archie comics when I came up to his till. He put the book down, scanned everything, collected my money, and went straight back to reading - all without saying a single word. Not a grunt, nothing. And forget eye contact, that's a form of communication!!

[maillotpois]

I have to say the 3 grocery stores I regularly frequent have super nice folks working the cash register, bagging, etc. They are always chatty and very pleasant. Two of these are local owned grocery stores, but one's a big chain and they are nice there as well. They always ask to help you out with your groceries - at the 2 mom and pop stores they don't even ask, they just do it.

Just had to throw out a counter point. We're not all going down the tubes....

[Trek420]

I've been very happy with TJ's service also the local family owned grocery store near my home.

[crazycanuck]

Ugh..We knew we were back in Western Australia when we encountered some crap customer service...

To make a long story short, there's no cell phone coverage much of the drive betweeen Ceduna (South Australia) and Norseman (WA) so we couldn't just call ahead and make a reservation. Norseman's small enough that normally you don't need to....We arrived at 7pm after a long day's drive & rocked up at a holiday caravan park to find the office was closed. After ringing the bell, Ian encountered a hissy woman who said 'are you here for the key?' She became hissy but we didn't want to wander to the other couple of places as we couldn't be bothered... We won't be staying there again

If you want good customer service, shopping hours and selection, don't come to Western Australia

[Trek420]

Also San Francisco: another TE event, the Spazzdog who lurks and sometimes posts here told me about a movie in the city, A Sunday in Hell. We made plans to meet in the city, found the event, texted and called and found each other, the event was not where we expected it to be but searching around we found the theatre.

Attendants confirmed "yes, this is the right spot for the film" but it wasn't for an hour so we set off to get some grub.

Arriving back an hour later, same attendant said yes, here's the spot and asked for out tickets .... could they have told us when we were there earlier that the event sold out a month ago?

Why is it that answering the question: yes or no is considered customer service without intuiting there may be other things we want or need????

[Melalvai]

Sounds like it's time to watch Clerks.

[arielmoon]

When I worked at a local tack store one of the owners was continually rude to customers. Once, when someone asked about a specific item and when it would be in stock she said what she was doing was more important than checking.

I was speechless! Even a little tact would have been better!

[azfiddle]

OTOH, my daughter has worked at Starbucks and as a server in a pub. I have seen her give outstanding service, and her managers have commented on it to me. It makes me very proud of her :-)