The Service Industry in America

[Flint]

Originally Posted by jinx

Where exactly is this place where the customer is always right? I've heard rumors of it, but I've never been there.

I always end up at the place (everywhere) that the customer has a valid complaint that the service desk can't resolve for 15 minutes, that the manager can't resolve for another half hour, that the corporate helpdesk can't resolve until Monday, and that the manager of the corporate helpdesk eventually admits to being able to resolve in about 15 seconds -- but here's the catch: IT WILL NEVER, EVER GET RESOLVED UNLESS I FVCKING YELL AT EACH ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE FOR X AMOUNT OF MINUTES UNTIL THEY PASS ME ON. The system is designed so that YOU HAVE TO YELL AT PEOPLE or else nothing gets done EVER. The system is designed so that 99% of people will give up before getting what they rightfully deserve when the store is clearly at fault (and they don't even deny being at fault! they just say it's "not our policy" to fvcking do anything about it).

It's not the fault of the employee, and it's NOT the fault of the customer. It's THE POLICY that is designed to make it impossible to resolve anything.

Well, guess what? I'M NOT LEAVING THIS GODDAMN STORE UNTIL SOMEBODY FIXES THIS FOR ME! IF I HAVE TO FVCKING YELL AT YOU AND YOU AND THE NEXT MOTHERFUVCKER FOR THE NEXT TWO HOURS, EVENTUALLY YOU WILL HAVE TO FIX THIS FOR ME. . . .YOU. WILL. FIX. THIS.

I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL YOU FIX THIS!!! . . . That's what you have to do. They MAKE YOU DO IT.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Flint

The system is designed so that YOU HAVE TO YELL AT PEOPLE or else nothing gets done EVER. The system is designed so that 99% of people will give up before getting what they rightfully deserve when the store is clearly at fault (and they don't even deny being at fault! they just say it's "not our policy" to fvcking do anything about it).

Well... I've never been to anywhere that is set up so that the customer has to be aggressive towards staff in order to resolve an issue.

However I have worked in many places where an obnoxious customer is eventually given something they are not entitled to, or is given special treatment at a Manager's discretion because it is not fair on the staff involved to make them deal with this person.

It's always saddened me when this happens, because the arsehole goes away with the impresion that they were right all along, and that all the staff have just been lying, creating obstacles and being difficult. It encourages this behaviour next time and ensures that the highest level of customer care goes to a customer you would be happy never to see again.

I'm sure the above doesn't apply to you of course Flint.

[Flint]

Back to my original post:

Originally Posted by Flint

It's not the fault of the employee, and it's NOT the fault of the customer. It's THE POLICY that is designed to make it impossible to resolve anything.

It's unfortunate that the first-line employee (and second and third and fourth) are discouraged from directing you towards someone who can fix the problem. I don't want to yell at them any more than they want to get yelled at. But if they think I'm leaving without getting my issue resolved, then there WILL BE some yelling.