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Where did costumer service go?
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Anonymous
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ok, it's a vent so e prepared:
we fill up our own gas, we check out our own groceries... do companies really care about costumer service anymore? i went to costco to buy some candy for a party and i made the mistake to swipe the card before the check out was done. i intended to pay half in cash and the other half in debit but the machine didn't ask IS THE AMOUNT CORRECT like in any other facility in the galaxy. it went straight to the AUTHORIZATION COMPLETE or something like that. when i said to the cashier to void my transaction she said nothing could be done. i asked for the manager and the guy who runs between cashiers came saying he was the manager. i explained him the situation and he said he could not do anything about it. i asked him to talk to the manager and again he said he was the manager for the store and kept looking around with a "bored" face while i was trying to explain him that i didn't have money to pay for all that. he started laughing at me and i immediately called my bank. as i said on the phone JUST A SECOND to the attendant he walked away leaving me alone there in the middle of the store. i solved the problem with my bank through the phone right there and when walking away from the store i noticed him talking to the manager. i'm not the type that causes trouble but the fact that he laughed at me and walked away while i was trying to solve the problem really hurt me. i walked to him and said DID YOU EXPLAIN YOUR MANAGER WHAT YOU DID TO ME? i looked at the manager and said YOUR SYSTEM IS NOT COSTUMER FRIENDLY AND YOUR EMPLOYEE LAUGHED AT ME WHILE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE CARING FOR MY BUSINESS. he laughed again and said SORRY MA'AM BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF YOU DON'T HAVE MONEY. then i got really angry and said I NEVER BLAMED MY POVERTY ON YOU. YOUR OBLIGATION IS TO DO YOUR JOB - COSTUMER SERVICE - AND YOU DIDN'T YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. YOU'RE A PROFESSIONAL FAILURE. he tried to say something back but i just walked away. i'm amazed to see how expensive costumer service costs in this country! places like nordstrom make you feel like you're their only costumer. i love such places but unfortunately i cannot afford them! where did costumer service go? just because we're poor we deserve to be mistreated and humiliated? =[ sorry for the vent. i'm better off sleeping right now. |
jsteele
Site Admin Online
Site Admin Online
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Go here:
http://www.costco.com/Service/FeaturePageLeftNav.aspx?ProductNo=10045080 and send a complaint. You might end up with a gift certificate or something. I find Costco to generally have pretty decent customer service. Especially given that they don't actually pretend to offer much in the way of customer service in the first place. Regardless, there is no excuse for what happened to you. In no circumstances should employees be laughing at customers. |
Anonymous
| I've been trying to reach "customer service" at our new health insurance company for about four days and haven't managed to reach a living human being yet. I think customer service is dead. It's sad, because I pay extra to buy from places where I feel good about the transaction. I hope there is a special place in hell for "managers" like the one you described. |
Anonymous
| Wegman's has great customer service and better prices than Giant and other places, provided you stay away from the gourmet section. I drive about 10 miles out of my way to shop at one. |
Anonymous
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For the most part, customer service is dead. You find a few good people out there, and a few good stores, but all in all, there is little. There are plenty of stores (Macys) where the cashier acts like she is doing you a favor ringing up your clothes. And that of course is after she signals you to wait for 5 minutes so she can finish her phone conversation.
But I was in Party City yesterday - a store where I expected zero customer service - and had 5 different people ask me if I needed help. And then the cashier looked at the balloons I was buying and asked if I realized why the balloon looked red, they would be magenta once blown up. I had not, and she let me go get some red ones. So go figure. |
Anonymous
| my pet peeve is when the cashier doesn't speak a word to me during the transaction - they don't even tell me the total of my purchase, just expect me to read it from the register. |
Anonymous
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To be laughed at is the worst. Sorry that happened to you. I think I would call costco and complain. I've actually always had good encounters there, but it just takes one episode to really sour a person on the experience.
I can't tell you the trouble that I've had with Comcast. It took them 14 visits and took us at least 50 phone calls to get our internet and cable hooked up. They were incompetent, which is bad enough, but then when we'd call, they were rude to us. The problem with bad customer service is that it is so dehumanizing. The trick to keeping your mind is to remember that they are not dehumanizing YOU, the process has already been dehumanized. Doesn't help when you're boiling and just want someone to pay attention to your problem, I know. |
maynie
Member Offline
Member Offline
| Great customer service is such a big deal. It's exactly why I wouldn't switch banks or car insurance companies. I work in customer service so unfortunately tend to be extra critical. I went to a Subway last week and the person at the bread was texting. The guy next to here had headphones on. And the other girl was talking to one of her friends that was on the other side of the store. It was one of the most ridiculous things I'd seen in a long time. But the cell phone problem is so common now. I've seen so many places where employees have blue tooth earpieces or headphones on. |
Anonymous
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"And that of course is after she signals you to wait for 5 minutes so she can finish her phone conversation."
Or your presence isn't even acknowledged while she is on the phone with her friend talking about what they're doing later on. "my pet peeve is when the cashier doesn't speak a word to me during the transaction" And I love the no eye contact thing. Didn't your parents teach you that it's rude not to make eye contact when speaking to others? Oh right, you're not actually speaking to me. |
Anonymous
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My worst customer service experience was when the employee on a KIDDIE RIDE at King's Dominion completely and totally ignored my 4 y/o son's plaintive stare while he waited on her to finish her conversation on the Emergency Phone at her station. She was talking about what someone else was wearing and saying to her boyfriend ("she WHAT?? She said that to WHO?! Let me tell you what I wouldda said to HER...")
I started making direct and non-stop eye contact and watching the time. My son was doing the St. Vitus ants-in-his-pants dance and looking right at her. She talked for an additional 4 minutes before she finally hung up and asked him "You ready to ride?". I'd decided (for curiousity's sake) to see how long she'd talk before she decided it might be time to, oh I dunno, do her job maybe? Ugh, it makes me boiling mad to just think about it again. I wanted to jump over the rail that day and yank the "emergency phone" right out of the wall. |
Anonymous
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I don't have to spend my money in any particular store, and there is generally another one just like this one down the street. Don't think I won't go to the other store without publishing on the internet what horrible customer service I had, and contacting chain store management too.
The era of the easy to keep customer is over. For that matter, so is the easy to keep job. Some people haven't clued in that there is a recession with a 10% unemployment rate. Didn't Circuit City just go under? I never went to that store because of customer service issues. Hmmn, you think some of these other businesses would learn from this. |
Anonymous
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Many big box stores lack customer service, I agree. But how about the mom&pop stores that have bad customer service? They ask for community support to shop their stores instead of the big chains and then suck at customer service. As a SAHM with 2 young ones in NW DC, I know what I'm talking about - salespeople/store owners completely ignore me when I walk into the tiny store with NO OTHER CUSTOMERS. Not a hello. No help with the door as I'm struggling to get my double inside. Why would I spend my money there when on average their prices are higher? It's supposed to be for customer service but I'm not seeing it at all.
BTW, still love NOrdstroms for their first rate customer service. |
Anonymous
| I have noticed that the level of service on Korean Airlines is a million times better than any American airline. |
Anonymous
ANY other airline offers better service than American airlines do. The staff on American airlines are always rude and bitchy, and it really sucks and makes your flight a living hell when you happen to be traveling with kids. But what makes my blood boil more than anything else in the modern world of customer service is the inability to be able to talk to a living human being when ringing a company for a service. I find this particularly frustrating because the automated services never seem to understand my non-American accent, and make me say the same thing over and over, and then when they don't understand, instead of passing me through to a representative, proceed to hang up on me!! That really makes me furious, especially after having wasted $3 and a half hour of my life talking to a stupid machine that got me nowhere! |
Anonymous
| the endless loop of customer service calls is the worst. But on a day to day note, it's the sales girl on the phone that drives me nuts. Or the people who barely acknowledge you're there and certainly can't be bothered to smile or look directly at you while ringing you up. I worked in a restaurant when I was just a teenager and couldn't have fathomed giving such unfriendly service! |