Customer Service Stinks in the U.S.

[ChadTower]

Restaurants. Cracker barell ordered a pricey plate and the side dishes were 1 table spoon portions. not kidding. I kept sending it back . I told them I wanted $25.00 a plate worth of food since I am paying $25.00 a plate

I go to Cracker Barrell all the time.  I have never seen an item there approach $20, nevermind $25.  You might want to look at your check.

[Harry Potter]

I don't know about the US but in Australia, I sometimes get the feeling they try a bit too hard. I actually like walking through a department store looking at all the electronic gizmos without someone coming up to me every two minutes asking if I need help.

When I was in my home country, the Czech republic recently, I found it was the exact opposite. No one bothers you when browsing (nice) but then trying to get help would be almost infuriating. I later found out that the average wage there is about 10000 Korunas a month, which is about $416US. I'd be quite unpleasant if I were earning such crap money. And before the standard of living comparisons come out, it ISN'T enough to live on. It's enough to survive on.

My 0.02 (0.36 Korunas)

[DrewKaree]

You scan your own goods at stores are popping up every place around here.

( I complained to a manager at Wall Mart about them and staid I do not think I should have to scan and bag my own cart. I did not come here to work)

While I don't like the concept of me allowing them to save on payroll, I certainly enjoy the "cashier" way more than the slack-jawed yokels commonly employed who can't even be troubled to make eye contact or smile.  I'll go that one better.  I walked into a store, returned an item I had paid $70 for three days earler.  There IS NO restocking fee at this establishment.  The register jockey rang it up as a refund, scanned it, paid no attention to the amount on the receipt of what I paid, and gave me back $50 and some change.  When asked "WHY are you only giving me this amount, when I paid $70 for this?"  "Oh, it's ringing up on sale right now, so that's what I have to give you back".  After the 2 question argument (my next question was "why aren't you giving me back what I PAID for this, since I clearly bought it when it WASN'T on sale?") I realized this woman had less intelligence and a grasp of the obvious than a fresh stump, I told her to get her manager, to which she replied "OK, but he's just gonna tell you the same thing".  Said manager in fact did NOT tell me the same thing, and informed her I was right.  When her snotty attitude became too much to bear, I asked her "WHY do you think I'd take $20 less just because you have it on sale?  If I bought it on sale and brought it back when it WASN'T on sale, would you have given me $20 more, and if you WOULD have, then perhaps I need to let your manager know so he can save himself needless waste in idiotic refund interpretations because you can't figure out a receipt means I get what I PAID back"  Snotty girl was fired later that week, I was informed, after e-mailing the company and having the manager personally call me and thank me for the e-mail that helped bolster his case for WHY she should be fired from a customer service position (obviously I wasn't the first, nor the last to have suffered that fool)

[DrewKaree]

Wall Mart... new style rotating bag holders. Clerks steal a bag all the time. Watched them do it. (tried on me several times.)

Since they're still on the clock and at their register, how do they hide the mounds of bags they're stealing from customers?  That one doesn't make sense to me.  Seems too "interpretive" of someone's in-plain-sight actions

Comp USA and Office Max clerks give bad PC advice all the time. I have had to learn to bite my lip. My wife hate it when I jump in and tell the customer that the teenage kid has not a clue what they are talking about and you do need to find out if your GAP slot is 4x or 8x

Who jumps in to tell the customer Dawayne the ham-fisted-typer isn't exactly helping them by asking about their GAP slot, since they won't know they're actually supposed to be looking for information on their AGP slot?

 

(yes, I know it's a typo, it's just hilariously ironical and all )

[danny_galaga]

Bad service doesn't limit itself to Fast food service or low paying jobs.

It's everywhere.

Doctors spend like 2 minutes with you.

[AlanS17]

When I was in my home country, the Czech republic recently, I found it was the exact opposite. No one bothers you when browsing (nice) but then trying to get help would be almost infuriating. I later found out that the average wage there is about 10000 Korunas a month, which is about $416US. I'd be quite unpleasant if I were earning such crap money. And before the standard of living comparisons come out, it ISN'T enough to live on. It's enough to survive on.

My 0.02 (0.36 Korunas)

I went to Prague once for a weekend while I was staying in Germany. I didn't rent a hotel room. I rented an entire fully furnished 2-bedroom apartment for $25 night. Just $4 was all I needed to buy more food than I could eat. I didn't notice any service issues, but i wasn't paying attention to that stuff either. It was incredibly cheap, though.

[Harry Potter]

yeah, it is cheap for foreigners. until the dreaded Euro comes in. Then I'll have to cut my beer consumption down to 10 pints a day.