Customer service? Duh..... or Serve yourself Customer!?

SammyChevelleTypeS3

SammyChevelleTypeS3

$50 site donor 2023
Joined
Oct 7, 2021
Messages
3,944
Location
Deep South/USA
Customer service? Duh..... exactly "what is that?" I can hear someone asking with puzzled expressions.... or the latley infered "Serve yourself , Customer!?"
Sometimes things can happen & instantly remind one of all the things "missing" in this "modern world/rat race" we have the luck to be living thru these days. So the first one of the day...... Wife and I order up a burger and no drinks for lunch at a neat little hamburger joint. All nice and new/clean/neat and you could see (since new) it is likely over staffed to get off on the good foot. So (yeah!? what inflation!? some keep saying) the bill for JUST (2) burgers, since we each walked in drinking from our own bottled water.... $16.25! YIKES... saying it now makes it feel even wilder. Anyway I hand the big , mature ( I take him for a high school senior or freshman in college) nice / polite young man a twenty and then I dig the .25 coins out of my pocket. As I try to hand him the coins he almost pulls away like he doesn't want those coins!? So he hands me my reciept and then starts looking across the room for "help?!" it seems like. I then notice I have not been handed any change. Being in no hurry I just watch and wait kind of intrigued by what is starting to unfold. So he shows a sign of relief and smiles as then, here comes the older woman (manager I suppose) asking him "you having any trouble?" They mumble among themelves and I notice he is holding three one dollar bills. As he starts to attempt to hand the bills to me while he watches her in a puzzled look, she takes his hand back and whispers to him. "He gave you twenty dollars and .25 cents for a $16.25 bill.... right? So , you can just give him four one dollar bills and put away the coins." I felt so bad for the young fellow I played like I noticed none of this and thanked them both for my change and the outrageous $8 burgers! WoW. Great customer service AND that inflation most on Tv do not encounter, realize or admit is real today in 2024. An article I was reading in one of my automotive magazines reminded me of this burger outing when I read the article titled : Service without a Smile! Things have certainly changed the past few years. With all the Iphones/Ipads/Smart tablets and on and on I am kinda surprised many of can actually still communicate in person.
 
Cash is going away, he probably hasn't handled much in his life....probably never heard a dial tone either. What did you get on the burgers?

BTW, you posted this in the wrong section so I guess none of us are perfect.
 
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I truly felt a pained sympathy for the young man. I recall being thrown into jobs with so little training I had no idea what I was doing. Not the best example of Service without a Smile. Better one is when I dropped wife's new car off at dealership for what should have been a short couple hours fix. Only to have the service guy call and apologize that two new techs had driven the car, changed and played the radio and parked the car outside with the rear windows down (left that way) for the duration of a thrunderstorm that filled the floor pans in the back seat with water. Told me come on in and they will send me to rent a car while they keep hers to detail (two more days). I went in and asked for the manager or owner and explained it is NOT my fault and I should not have to drive away off to the car rental place and spend my time dealing with their screw up. I think they should grab a demo or any vehicle off the lot to send us home with. Funny but the owner and the service writer looked at each other and said. "he is correct. Hand him the keys for that Honda Pilot to go home with." They have us in their system for servicing many of our Hondas since the 1990s so they can see we are established (long) customers. A bit funnier was when we went pick up the car (no charge) they had the silly idea to try to impress us with a reciept on the console in the car from a detail company that stated Paid in Full - Royal Honda. $500 "detail charges!" LoL I do not think so.
 
The only reason you learned to make change is by observing cash based transactions as a child. Then engaging in cash based transactions over your life span.

It is entirely possible for someone to have never observed or engaged in a cash based transaction. They literally have never practiced this skill.

What are some skills you never observed or engaged in when growing up?
 
I’m old so that is that….however I get chapped hearing someone say “no problem “ when I say “thank you”. This is typically when I’m the customer. They are being paid to be in customer a customer service role. They don’t get to decide if something is a “problem”. Their job is to react to the customer with gratitude. If it weren’t for this customer, you wouldn’t have a job….then that’s a PROBLEM.
 
My worst experience with waitstaff not knowing about money was at an ice cream stand in western Indiana. I ordered five $0.10 cones (yep, ten cents each back then). The young lady looked puzzled and took out a pad and pencil. Wrote down a column of five tens and proceeded to add them up. "One, two, three four five". Finally turned to me and said that it would be fidity cents.
 
The other day at the deli I ordered a third of a pound of a product. The guy was stumped and had no idea what I was talking about. I had to walk him through it.
 
SammyChevelleTypeS3 said:
Anyway I hand the big , mature ( I take him for a high school senior or freshman in college) nice / polite young man a twenty and then I dig the .25 coins out of my pocket.
Click to expand...
Fess up. You paid cash so you wouldn't have to awkwardly face the screen at the register asking how much tip you want to leave while being stared at by the cashier. :ROFLMAO:
 
CarbonToast said:
The only reason you learned to make change is by observing cash based transactions as a child. Then engaging in cash based transactions over your life span.

It is entirely possible for someone to have never observed or engaged in a cash based transaction. They literally have never practiced this skill.
Click to expand...
That's a fair point. I take 3 year old with me for the grocery shopping and 99% of our shopping is on credit cards or gift cards - she says she tells me she has to get her cards before we go shopping too.

Lots of learning starts and is cemented through observation.
 
dishdude said:
Why are ya'll paying with cash?
Click to expand...
I cant say as I usually pay with a card. For some reason, I pulled out cash that day. I prefer paying on the credit card for a few reasons.
#1 You will have a real easy documented list off all your purchases in "myonlinebanking."
#2 Most quality issues can get resolved quickly to the customer's satisfaction (no hassle dealing with a manufacturer likely on the far side of the planet) when purchases are made on the card.
#3 You are only liable for $50 I have been told in cases of any type of fraud.
#4 You do not get prompted to enter a pin or a password at all.
Once or twice a week we log into "myonlinebanking" page and transfer money from a checking account to pay off the credit card charges. #5 We usually avoid any high interest charges on the card by keeping balance at or near zero.
Just doing that has helped the wife and I to easily keep track of purchases.
It also kinda nudges us to take a weekly peek into the "myonlinebanking" feature. Just a simple, neat, quick look to make sure we have not missed any bills and to make sure there are no strange charges we did not make.
YET we are STILL dynasours anyway. LoL , as I asked my two sons how they handle their banking business etc....
Of course they enjoyed laughing at the fact their mom and I still use and update a "paper" check register to this day.
They do not keep a hard copy or any old fashioned , out of date checkbook like we still do.
Naturally they both use some type (of course) smartphone app!
 
SammyChevelleTypeS3 said:
Of course they enjoyed laughing at the fact their mom and I still use and update a "paper" check register to this day.
They do not keep a hard copy or any old fashioned , out of date checkbook like we still do.
Naturally they both use some type (of course) smartphone app!
Click to expand...
A lost art lol. :D I still balance every week or every other week depending in of I have a CC payment due.
 
SC Maintenance said:
Sounds like he was polite and respectful? You got your change after he asked for help. Sounds good to me?
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Oh yeah. I felt bad for the fellow and was 100% respectful and tried to act as if I noticed nothing. That occurence was a poor example on my part of the customer services failures we have been noticing as of late. We both really do miss the old Sears department stores we once had all over our area. Sears to me was the very start of what Walmarts are today. They have just about everything u could want.
Sears was well know for many years for their top quality return , replace or refund policy. What mostly I have customer services issues with is thru phone attempts to resolve things or when it comes to auto dealership failings like the incident where they went for a joy ride in the wife's car and left the windows down in the ran! Woooof. The article I was reading that got me typing (fingers out ran the brain once again) was all about how much things have changed when it comes to customer services involving what is most of us BITOG folks obsessions. Our wheels! :) Talked about how and what the term "service station" came from and what it meant and just like the old phone booths are a thing of the past most people have never seen. Gas stations which were once TRUE service stations (mechanic on duty) kind of places are now really places where the customer truly does serve ourselves.
 
PontiacHO said:
I’m old so that is that….however I get chapped hearing someone say “no problem “ when I say “thank you”. This is typically when I’m the customer. They are being paid to be in customer a customer service role. They don’t get to decide if something is a “problem”. Their job is to react to the customer with gratitude. If it weren’t for this customer, you wouldn’t have a job….then that’s a PROBLEM.
Click to expand...
What makes me sad with society these days is when I walk up to a counter and the worker give you the blank or pissed off expression and does not greet you , let alone does not even feel the need to say "how can I help you?" Even better is the one where they are talking and I can not understand what they are going on about until I realize they are talking on their cell phone and are not even talking to me. The cutomer they are being paid to assist.
 
SammyChevelleTypeS3 said:
Oh yeah. I felt bad for the fellow and was 100% respectful and tried to act as if I noticed nothing. That occurence was a poor example on my part of the customer services failures we have been noticing as of late. We both really do miss the old Sears department stores we once had all over our area. Sears to me was the very start of what Walmarts are today. They have just about everything u could want.
Sears was well know for many years for their top quality return , replace or refund policy. What mostly I have customer services issues with is thru phone attempts to resolve things or when it comes to auto dealership failings like the incident where they went for a joy ride in the wife's car and left the windows down in the ran! Woooof. The article I was reading that got me typing (fingers out ran the brain once again) was all about how much things have changed when it comes to customer services involving what is most of us BITOG folks obsessions. Our wheels! :) Talked about how and what the term "service station" came from and what it meant and just like the old phone booths are a thing of the past most people have never seen. Gas stations which were once TRUE service stations (mechanic on duty) kind of places are now really places where the customer truly does serve ourselves.
Click to expand...
You ordered a burger. The fellow was polite and respectful. He delivered the correct change with some help?

Where is the failure in customer service?
 
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