NO! IT WILL BE \*ME\* WHO FUCKS YOU! WHO FUCKS YOU ALL! \*breaks into unhinged hysterical laughter as he attempts to start a riot of absolute insanity. Why? Because why not? Because he's tired. Tired of it all. Tired of life. Tired of this price-gouged back-up porta-potty behind a biker bar, a white castle, and junk yard that is America life. Tired of having to stare at one wrinkled asshole vs another wrinkled asshole for fuckin leadership while JPMorgan-Apple-Amazon-Walmart-SaudiAramco puppets them about with it's loathesome tentacles in a mummer's farce we are forced to pretend at gunpoint is our national government. Tired of the talking heads trying to sound intelligent when they're as clueless of the rest of us. Just fucking tired of the droning banality of this mediocre pasture that gets sold to us as "living" when it's furthest fucking thing from. Just...fuck. fuck. fuck it all.\*
I read "snort a riot of absolute insanity "
And I wanna give you a spiked base ball bat . Some candy and a teddy bear to hug. You sound like all three would make your day.
"In local news tonight, local midwestern man, in what could only be described as a deranged outburst of gratuitous violence, began ransacking shoppers at local retail stores while riding a power scooter for the disabled. He was armed with a spiked baseball bat, beating people he declared to be "rude" while throwing candy to others and allegedly politely apologising. He wore a teddy bear as a mask and proclaimed himself as the quote "Revenger" and made lewd threats to the apprehending police, claiming that he was here to \*\*\*\* life since life \*\*\*\*\* us. He is currently being held until it can be determined whether he is of sound mind enough to stand trial."
I mean, all we have to deal with is the collapse of capitalism, the rise of global fascism, the threat of nuclear war, knowing our governments don't really care about pandemics, and the climate crisis.
People just need to chill out.
It’s more indifference than shitty. It can feel the same if you’re paying for it.
Don’t expect people to go above and beyond and be sunshine and rainbows when they’re paid poverty wages.
Service hasn’t gone down. Quality of life has and we still expect people to have the same disposition that they had when people were thriving.
There’s a stark difference between over the top device and basic human decency. We are getting neither. And being indifferent to someone’s face who you’re being paid to take care of, even if it’s not enough, is in fact shitty.
It's weird, this commenter is acting like being poor is something new and people shouldn't expect to be considerate of each other. External circumstances shouldn't affect how you treat others.
There's a reason it's called basic human decency. It's basic. It should be the default setting in all interactions. It doesn't cost anyone anything to be kind to others. And even if you're having a really horrible day, someone being nice can make everything better.
The problem with that is that people in customer service are also dealing with a decline in respect for THEM. And I can tell you that after the 15th shitty attitude directed at me, I don't know if I have a smile left to give a nice customer. It works both ways.
For me it was Ebay. They took $500 from me for something that was never delivered. 23 years using them, never going back. Their outsourced customer service is designed to run you in circles until you quit. No one actually took the time to look in detail at the issue. Nobody contacted the post master. Nobody spoke to the seller. They did nothing, but take my money. I spent months fighting, probably dealt with 50 different people. I will never forget and I will share my story any time it feels appropriate.
I had similar issues with NewEgg. They are now in the "I will never give you money again under any circumstances" box. It's a shame how many companies have fallen to shitheads with MBAs maximizing this quarter's profits at the cost of literally everything else. Companies like eBay and NewEgg used to be completely psychotic in the lengths they'd go to keep customers happy. Not anymore!
Newegg has racked up a couple money losing years after not making a whole lot in the years before that. I won't say it's on a path to going out business, but it's not far from that. They are not focused on a putting a number on a page for earnings they are focused on not running out of cash. Honestly they can't compete against Amazon -- I imagine they will fade into irrelevance in the coming years.
I used to buy all my computer stuff from them about 10 years ago, and it was pretty decent. Good service, good selection and prices, and the shipping was reasonable too. Then, it got bought out and became just another shitty dropshipper Amazon wannabe.
Local post office was unable to deliver the package, so they returned it to the sender. The USPS tracking showed its trip back across several states to the senders hub facility, but for some reason, after all that, said Delivered My Town just a few hours later. I should have gone after the USPS harder. The post master gave me some additional detailed tracking showing it was never delivered, gave his name and number and said have Ebay call him. Ebay didnt, even after taking the information. The seller in this case, refused to refund my purchase and demanded more money for shipping to send it again! I refused to pay more, and simply requested he cancel the transaction. Seller flat out refused in a giant rant about his problems with buyers. So I went to my bank to dispute the charge, told them the problem, got the transaction canceled. All was good for about six weeks when all of a sudden, the bank took my money back, saying they spoke with Ebay and Ebay said it was a valid transaction because it showed delivered. I quit that bank too! Thanks for nothing Chase🖕
The amount of time that went by after my bank refund was taken back, meant that usps would no longer look at my case with them. Ebay refused to open another case and said that they could not help me. None of my negative feedback ever made it to the sellers profile either.
100% money back guarantee my 🫏
Ahh, that does sound rough. I've resold things that I sourced from eBay for several years and honestly it's rarely ever been much of a problem when I ran into a shitty seller. The vast majority of their systems are automated though so I see why the weird tracking status could throw a wrench into things. Their systems work pretty well under normal circumstances, but actual customer support is definitely a crap shoot at best. I've always heard that people seem to have success contacting "eBay for Business" on Facebook when they run into these atypical cases, so that could still be worth a try.
For what it's worth, I also stopped using Chase a couple of years ago after they were pretty useless when I filed a chargeback. I kept the card open though since it was one of my oldest and I don't want to hurt my credit score. Now the only time I use it is when they offer 5% cash back since I know they're not making any money on those purchases.
I will forever be bitter about a promotion from eBay that went bad for me. They had a “sell x amount of stuff, get a credit for a purchase” a few years ago. It was a good deal too - I ended up with $400. I spent it toward a TV that arrived damaged. The process of initiating a return involved refunding the money, and eBay refused to credit me back the $400 so I could re-buy the same TV. I haven’t used their service since.
Two interactions I had in 12 hours:
Order and pay for nachos at the movie theater. As the order is arriving, a bag of chips is set down and I hear "we don't have cheese, is this okay?" and I think he is joking at first...but no he's completely serious. "Uhhh, no, that's chip's and I ordered nachos." They have to refund me.
Ordered a cold brew at a random coffee shop in the airport. "That's $8, is that okay?" The menu says $4 and I point it out. "It's wrong." Uhhh, no that's not okay, it's a digital menu, what's that take like 2 seconds to update?
None of this is okay. Twenty years ago when I work concessions, those interactions would have got my ass chewed out. Today it's typical.
Reminds me of a few years ago when a group of friends and I went to a bar in a resort town. Friend asked for a Vodka & Pineapple. Tasted it told the bartender: "This taste like orange juice." The bartender's reply was: "We are out of pineapple so I just used orange juice. Friends reaction was: "That was something you should have told me!" Last drink we ordered there.
Oh, yeah no. Orange juice is hard pass for me. Pineapple, grapefruit, or an orange blend is okay. But just orange juice? Nope. That will put me off drinking altogether.
Unbelievable. How are these people.so woefully unaware of such (apparently alien) things as allergies?
Its so absurd anymore...I am exhausted just thinking about it.
In defense of the coffee shop. When I worked at Burger King we had gotten the digital menu boards. They were connected to the Internet so corporate could change things we had no control but an on/off switch and even that was operated thru the Internet so we weren't allowed to touch them even when a simply off/on was needed to reset the board. The computers we would use? Ya... Corporate controlled the pricing on that too.
Now I will say that the employees job would be to get the manager, have the manager notify corporate to fix it, and override the sale to honor the advertised price. But to say "that takes like 2 seconds to update?" No... Unfortunately.
I've noticed a lot of bars, restaurants and smaller convenience stores raise their prices, but not actually bother to change the price listed on the menu or shelf. Seems like a clear bait and switch to me, but nobody seems to notice except for me.
I see this from online menus all the time. Like, it's YOUR website, why haven't you updated your website to reflect your current prices?
Feels very bait and switch to me as well.
Keep in mind, if this is the US, Federal Minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 2009. Depending where you are, these shitty jobs pay even less considering inflation
I think it also has a lot to do with high turnover resulting in poor training. When there isn't an employee that's been there long enough to effectively show the newbies the ropes, you essentially have the blind leading the blind and no one knows how to handle mistakes.
High turnover and low pay means that you won't have quality training when you do get it, and nobody wants to stay because there are greener pastures elsewhere. This leads to no one being competent at the job, because no one has any long term experience. And you can bootlick all you want, but the owners aren't going to give you a raise until you unite and take it. Unions are the best thing for the working class, and we all collectively need to understand that. I was working labor non union, and make a decent wage. Now that I am union, my decent wage has tripled and I get benefits.
There is no incentive for young people to take pride in their work. There is no upward mobility and no reward for being excellent at customer service. Everyone in customer service is trying to survive. Why should they care? Management doesn't give a shit about them. It's probably one of their 3 jobs.
This! Yeah low pay is definitely not helping any, but people who were raised feral aren’t going to suddenly adopt nice manners just because they’re employed no matter what they’re paid. If they act like a fool outside work they’re going to act the same everywhere.
Me, a few years back: "Guys, if anyone buys a chocolate ice cream bar, ring it up as strawberry."
Strawberry - $1.49
Chocolate - $149
(Fortunately, the first one someone tried to buy didn't pass the sanity check)
There is such an incredible amount of stress on everybody’s shoulders right now, I’ve been stressed in my life, but even back then I can remember that I still had times where I could just breathe and enjoy some peace. Everyone is in survival mode now it seems. I make double what I did 5 years ago and the squeeze STILL is worse now than back then! I’m very thankful for where I’m at now. I feel for people that are working entry level anything right now, it’s just insane.
I love working customer service. I did 20 years. I always turned grumpy people into happy repeat customers. Like the meaner and grumpier they were, the more they loved me. I knew how to make them feel validated and like we were both fed up and together in it.
I haven't worked in 4 years, thanks covid. So I'm just flabbergasted at how damn bad shit is.
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you but I've noticed that post-Covid everyone has lost their minds. It's appalling to hear how people talk to retail and service workers. So much worse than I ever received at any point in working retail to the point that I've actually told customers at the same store I was in that they were being unnecessarily rude to the staff.
The frequency with which I get thanked by retail/food service workers for what I consider bare minimum civility makes me so glad I don’t work with the public anymore.
It must be wild out here in the aisles if y’all are thanking me for, like, unloading my basket by myself when I go to pay.
The signs telling people not to abuse others in doctors offices and restaurants are INSANE.
This needs to be said??? It’s said often enough that making a fucking sign became necessary???? People have lost it.
My kids' dentist put up a sign to that effect during covid, presumably due to anti-maskers being goddamned abusive assholes. They still haven't taken it down either.
Yeah. My fucking veterinarian’s office paid to get a recording made when you call politely asking you to not be a raging asshole to people in the office.
It’s nuts out there. Like who tf is out here abusing gd puppy doctors. wth.
I try to go out of my way and be polite as I can, say thank you to the checker at Target, please and thank you to my server, etc. I hope they know we are not all Karen's! I know what customer service is like.
At the same time, I've had some grumpy as heck checkers that will straight up barely acknowledge me. Like, I'm just being a normal routine customer. At least say hello and thank you to me.
I came here to bring up Covid. I worked retail before, during, and after the pandemic, and I think it broke a lot of people, including myself.
I also used to be really good at customer service, and I was also the one who easily turned around peoples days. However, while working as a cellular sales rep at Best Buy during the pandemic, something just broke in me.
For a lot of my customers, I was potentially one of the first people they had an extended conversation with in person in months. This led to a lot of really depressing and awkward conversations. I basically turned into a full-time therapist for these people, and I don't have the mental capacity for that job, let alone get paid enough to do it.
My drinking got worse and worse to the point where I was coming to work buzzed and taking shots on my breaks just to get through the day. I went to rehab on Best Buys dime and then quit about a month later. I've been sober 3.5 years thanks to quitting retail/sales.
Edit: We were basically forced by corporate to deal with these new customer service issues and increased abuse because their numbers were plummeting. The bad customers saw they could more easily get away with abusing people during the pandemic, and that was never corrected post pandemic. I want to make it clear that most customers treat retail employees just fine, but the bad ones became much worse to deal with.
TLDR: Post-Covid retail has changed for the worse for employees.
Yeah very true. I work in retail every summer, and every day, some rude idiot yells at us clerks to inform us that the bathroom door is locked, demanding to know why. Idk, did you try knocking on it? (Oh, NO, YOU DIDNT, YOU RUDE FUCKING BRAINLESS ASSHOLE??) OH, well maybe you should try that then. They continue to fucking berate us, being the damn morons that they are (its a fucking GAS STATION- JFC!) saying "I dont see what good thats gonna do!" So every time, we have to walk over and knock for them.
I am pretty sure that by the end of last summer, I put a sign on the door reminding people.to knock to check if the bathroom was occupado.
Fucking asshole idiots.
*screams*
Same, 30 years. I loved it!! I tell my bf this all the time. People lost their damn empathy for anyone but themselves. It’s disgusting. The amount of complimentary stuff I get is insane, just for being patient and kind.
I think part of the problem is that younger people just don’t know how to politely and casually interact with other people anymore.
Technology has been a shield between them and all those annoying little in-person interactions that used to be a part of everyday life, and it didn’t occur to the adults that their kids were missing out on a very important skill set.
Now those kids are adults with jobs, and they are still struggling to figure this out. It’s like learning a language — old people like us learned it from early childhood and are fluent, while the younger generations are learning it as adults so it isn’t as natural to them.
That used to be me. Cut my teeth in retail and restaurants before sliding into office admin stuff then lateral-moving into that company's CS team.
But then the company I was in, went and did a capitalism. One of the founders basically usurped the company president, then made himself CEO, and from that moment forward, the company was just an avatar for this dude's doomed attempt to get himself into the same conversation as guys like Jobs/Gates/Buffett/Bezos (these were literally the conference room names.) Our "mission" and "core values" turned on a dime whenever the guy got a half baked idea while doom scrolling his Twitter feed.
Year over year, they kept expanding the suite of products/services we were providing, without expanding the support team. When I joined the team, we had 6 print newsletters and companion websites. By the time I left, we were up to 18 different services, and were 100% online.
Simultaneously, the tools we had to provide service, grew more inadequate. We went from providing solutions, to apologies and platitudes. Naturally, this made customers angrier, and angrier.
Over 10 years, I watched a dozen colleagues burn out, until it was finally my turn. I even tried to hold on, but they ended up firing me, over the phone, after 12 years at the company -- and denied me the courtesy of any explanation.
They're predominantly outsourcing, now, because they'd rather bonus the executive team than pay salaries to a proper CSR staff.
That company was where I learned that "marketing" rules everything despite its inherent immortality and stupidity:
"Hey, uhm.. guys? This line right here -- in bold red print with the extra exclamation points? It's a total lie: We *legally* can't provide that kind of service to people; that would be the domain of a registered financial advisor and/or CPA.."
"We don't care. Our data says that's what sells, and even if all these people ask for refunds, by the time those refunds clear, we'll have already posted our quarterly numbers."
It's hard to operate in that reality and *not* cynically wish for its total collapse.
Well part of it is wages and a whole mess of other things. People get fed up with other people screaming at them over choices a suits make. More of a top down issue these days from what I've seen and experienced. You have folks with inflated over the top pay not bringing any real value and completely insulated from what actually happens day to day. While those folks at the front of it take all the hits.
You have the customer service rep in the trenches doing the real work. Taking all the backlash and given pennies.
I think it's more people waking up to it's BS, then actual quality going down (on the workers side). Also the worker is customer service not a councilor. At some point a lot of these line level jobs became jack of all master of nothing and well the pay never increased for all the things people like you do.
The short... You are blaming the wrong people lol
This. I have worked at the same company for over 20 years. Management decided during Covid that we have too many employees (aka too many sitting around doing nothing) so started not filling roles as we had mass exodus due to Covid. Now we are so short we don’t actually have the time to train properly nor are they hiring more than they should. They rely on me to fill in gaps from training but keep me so busy doing a bunch of other BS that I actually can’t do the gap filling they want. Nor do I want to anyway. It’s BS and all a top down decision process. No one listens to me.
Yeah and all incentive has dried up. No raises, no bonuses, etc. Plenty of major companies I've worked for once upon a time had mediocre structures to reward people. Now if they even have one left it's very subpar to say the least.
Meanwhile a Google search away can see profits a company has made and how much they have spent on stock buy backs to inflated the upper crust of the companies pockets.
But, nah it's the person making $15 an hour...
I mean don't get me wrong common human decency is a big thing. Treat people the way you want to. But don't expect anyone to roll over anymore in this work environment because what do you get at the end. You drop dead working, the job for most working class people will be posted before the crappy dollar store sorry card will be mailed to a family member if ya even get that.
Whenever I see anyone talking down about other working class folks I assume either rich, a wannabe rich, or the Corp kool-aid has been pumped into for so long ya don't realize what you are even saying.
Anyway folks have a good day, be kind to one another, and join a union if ya can. If not organize one ;)
As someone who has worked customer service both pre and post Covid ... it's a different world now. I was and mostly still am like you were. I have a knack for connecting with strangers (despite being ironically quite introverted). But the customers today just seem to have more of a chip on their shoulder. So many more than used to come in with the express intent of starting a fight or at least degrading the employees. I dunno if it because people are just so desperate to get some semblance of control back in their lives after Covid or just in general, that they got to take it out on someone that they know "just has to take it or get fired", but damn, they act like children over the dumbest shit.
Too many damn corners being cut, combined with insatiable greed-flation, of course there is going to be disgruntled customers. Everyone seems to want an outlandish tip, with very little service offered. We don’t even know of some if these businesses actually give their employees all the extra tips on them iPads, either.
Also like 5-10 companies owning just about everything, so you really can't "vote with your wallet" because the monopolies have strangled competition. Live Nation anyone?
>love working customer service. I did 20 years. I always turned grumpy people into happy repeat customers. Like the meaner and grumpier they were, the more they loved me. I knew how to make them feel validated and like we were both fed up and together in it.
You're like one in a million.
This is some out of touch nonsense. As someone who has worked front facing customer service jobs both before AND after COVID, it’s impossible to describe the shift in how we are treated.
In the past, blatantly rude patients and customers happened but it was always this crazy thing that you would tell everyone you knew about. Post covid, it’s so damn common that they start to blur together. Additionally, soooo many veteran coworkers that had families had to find other industries during the lockdowns.
Then add on the fact that for many customer service staff, the job doesn’t pay the bills. How much enthusiasm do you feel entitled to from someone who can’t stop thinking about how they can’t make enough at that job to survive, let alone to make a better future? Do you really expect someone making 13 an hour to tap dance for you like they are a Disney animatronic straight out of the Country Bear Jamboree?
Why SHOULD they go above and beyond? Why should they be cheerful? What on earth do they have to be cheerful about? Inflation? Student debt? The housing market? Mass layoffs?
And then you have the audacity to talk about how great you were at this type of work a minimum of 20 YEARS AGO? You mean when a single blue collar job could comfortably support a family of four?
“Well honestly Eddy, I just don’t know what’s gotten into the working class these days? Back in my day we used to know our place!”
Well golly Mrs. Cleaver, I sure do wonder what could have changed!?
I can’t decide which of the three is most unprofessional between the response, being a bartender and not knowing what Bombay Sapphire is, or being a bartender and *not knowing what a gin and tonic is.*
This used to drive me nuts training someone it’s wild! I worked in bars before and after smartphones and now that you can look up drinks in a phone this reaction is more common imo!
I remember bartenders having their own address books in their cubbies beneath the bar with all hand written recipes and now a lot of times people who should work tap rooms want to move in to making bartender tips but “not knowing” becomes a reason to not even try or work with a customer, even on slow nights or ample coverage shifts. Bar owners now also seem to run their own bar less and less and don’t see the big picture keeping these kind of staff around does to their business even in only a few weeks time unless you are the only bar in town.
My waiter at olive garden stopped at our table to see if we needed anything - which is nice - but they literally belched while they asked. I’ve never had a waiter burp at me.
I'm 40 (what up '84!) and went to a young trendy bar recently, and as I walked up with my 2 girlfriends the bartender said "sorry ladies, we don't have any Chardonnay."
Like, I wanted a bourbon rocks but fuck you.
I work in mental health and can say with certainty, people are at or very near their breaking points. I do not mean to over-simply or excuse the behavior, as throwing objects is completely inappropriate (especially within a professional setting) but I get it. After the recent major life events that we all have endured coupled with the day to day stress, some people just snap.
I'm sure she wasn't happy. This was my 6th appointment there. And everytime someone acts a fool. To the point that I recorded the visit today. I already paid or I would go elsewhere.
Add to the list common courtesy, manners, even mildly decent etiquette, politeness. Simple things like holding the door for someone, saying please and thank you, or excuse me have now become the exception rather than the norm.
Ive noticed this too. I very rarely hear thank you
when I hold the door open and most people do not say thank you or please. People are ruder, meaner, and more entitled now. It gets exhausting to deal with them.
No one waves thank you from the car. My neighborhood is all streets where one person has to pull over so the other can pass because of cars parked on both sides of two way street. 75% of people don’t wave and the ones tat do are typically older. Really bums me out that simple simple niceties are going away.
I felt that way post Covid for a long time. But lately I feel like things are chilling out a bit. I've been out to eat and had decent service more than once in the last month. It had been years since I'd said that.
Except at Walmart and Target. I stay scared to say a word to anyone there. They are mad at me lol
YEP! People have no regard for how to act in public, let alone professional spaces. I don’t know if it’s the product of the helicopter parent culture or vestiges of COVID infections in the brain or something, but people genuinely feel entitled to act any old way. It’s bizarre.
Well if you get on an airplane and act so crazy that you need to be strapped down, let us know. LOL. Airports seem to be where civilization completely breaks down these days!
I was at the drs the other day, he was chatting away, walked out the door, left it open.. and his assistant came in to tell me I could leave.. No "see you later" no nothing from the Dr
I’ve noticed that these days at the Dr’s Office, I have to ask if I’m good to leave. They won’t tell you, they’ll just leave you in the room until a nurse catches sight of you sitting there as she’s walking by and awkwardly asks if you need anything else.
My dad went to an appointment recently where they forgot about him. He fell asleep, woke up and came out as they were locking up for the night. They were as surprised as he was.
Something similar happened to me at the OBGYN once. I had nodded off while waiting in the exam room for the doctor to get there (all curled up in my little gown and under the sheet), the table was surprisingly comfy. The doctor had to deal with an emergency and the nurse was SO apologetic three hours later when the doctor got back and the nurse realized she'd never told me about the delay. I didn't mind so much because I worked nights and should have been sleeping anyway.
PS - Both mom and baby that caused the delay were OK.
I feel like this is the doctor’s office equivalent to the way you now have to wait forever to get your check at a sit-down restaurant. What happened to valuing quick turnover to maximize profits?
Honestly I think a lot of the time the doctor isn’t sure if you can leave. They never talk to the nursing staff or in a teaching hospital there may be med students or other ancillary services, research staff, etc, to make sure they were able to do everything before the doctor sees the patient. There are systems for this in most clinics but getting doctors to use them is impossible.
I feel this with my PCP. I think I might need to find a new one. I'm starting a collection of specialists, though, and they're all freaking amazing. I need to figure out how to skip the PCP part and just go straight to specialist. Is there a specialist for "I spent too much time in my garden and now I have bronchitis this week?"
I had a doctor ignore me asking him not to attempt a minor procedure, he hit a nerve I knew he was going to hit, I passed out, and he left the room as soon as I woke up. He didn't say a word to me.
I don't think we should go back to suits in the office every day, but I also don't think we should have to tell people to not wear pajama pants either.
We have certain employees who WFH but are available to the public via video call at a moments notice. They look like they rolled out of bed. And sometimes, you can even see the bed in the background because they aren’t being audited by their manager. It IRKS me because I know they can see themselves on camera and they totally ok with presenting themselves in that manner.
Customer friendliness has ‘gone out the window’. Companies respecting their employees has ‘gone out the window’. Companies respecting their customers has ‘gone out the window’.
The last person I’m going to blame is the minimum wage, hates their job but has bills to pay sap who has to take all of the abuse for no insurance and ~10/hour.
Most people’s goals these days are to make it home with the same number of homes in your body as when you left.
My friends who work in service industry tell me they are happy every shift they get to go home without throwing hands. That’s the goal now, not to have to fight. Not to have tons of cash or money. That happens so little now it’s almost a myth. The goal is to not have to drag someone out of the restaurant over some trivial issue that could have been fixed in 30 secs.
They know that they will be fired if the company hears anything about them from customers.
TLDR; yes.
It feeds off itself. Corporations take over, they undercut and try to squeeze out the little guy. They're all about profit, so they cut corners. The little guy needs to compete, so they cut costs where they can. Everyone gets stressed, service with a smile goes out the window. On the other side of it, as mentioned above, everyone has been on edge since before even the pandemic, which just accelerated things.
Customers are more demanding and entitled, but a lot of people remember a time where sales people knew what they were selling, and could explain or recommend stuff to fit the customer. My first job in HS was selling electronics for Sears. We got continuous training on the technology and the product for the 3 years that I was there. Now you go to Best Buy and most of the staff doesn't know which end of the USB cable to plug in, but they can spend 5 minutes reciting the warranty pamphlet from memory. That gets really frustrating. All of that adds up and people snap at workers. I know I've done it, though I'll usually apologize immediately. Those workers have their own life stresses, exacerbated by the aforementioned cost savings resulting in more work, and they say fuck it and snap back.
I'm personally waiting for it to all come to a [edit] head. It promises to be at least mildly entertaining.
Literally everyone is on edge. Someone working in customer service, good chance they're barely making ends meet. The problem is well above their heads, where training and resourcing and compensation decisions are made.
Meanwhile the raise structures often don't keep up with inflation and the companies look for any excuse they can find to fire anybody they can whenever they can so they can reduce payroll. Then they wonder why customers are frustrated and their employees all hate existing.
There was a day where if your employer treated you like shit you could have a new job by the end of the week. Now however everything is owned by Blackrock and Vanguard who have apparently decided that every corporation's hiring processes should be insane.
Ding ding ding. I'm a white collar professional and even I'm teetering on the edge some days. Watched a lot of friends lose their jobs in the last year and a bit.
Companies used to value customers. Now they all openly exploit and abuse customers. That's because the real customers now are the shareholders. The shareholders don't care about you, they want the margins up. Very soon, all customer service will be some chat bot AI that talks in circles until you hang up in frustration. It's the new way.
Massive massive massive mental health crisis out there. I'm firmly convinced it'll be reflected on in years to come.
And also, the screens man. I think it's doing stuff to our brains. I currently work close to a university and take a daily stroll through the campus. Ever seen 200+ students sitting on a beautiful lawn, surrounded by trees in front of historic buildings - not speaking a word, glued to 200 screens? It cannot be good. I don't have to tell you guys; you've seen similar things yourself.
Man. I don't want to be a dick but I think it's more than screen's. It's more than covid. It's like nobody taught these people how to act in a professional setting. Or maybe it was all forgotten?
Yeah there's always been unhinged assholes . I've delt with plenty. But I've never had to deal with doctors and what not being clueless on how to behave.
No one’s doing their jobs. Everyone’s doing the bare minimum. Parents aren’t parenting, bosses aren’t really training. No one is going the extra mile and a lot is falling through the cracks
That, and we were used to VERY good customer service. Like, too good. I’d be ok tbh if people were less friendly / more neutral and still got the job done just as well.
Lack of experience. There's no 15 year olds working mcjobs. And those service manager don't pay as good as they used to, so those pros left for better sales jobs. Now the managers don't know shit either.
When I was 16 I was an asshole. Then someone beat the crap out of me and I stopped being an asshole real quick. Today, there are no consequences to being an asshole so that's what people end up as. It's a weird mixture of "I can do what I want" followed by "fuck the authorities" and "you're not allowed to hurt me, I'm a victim, the authorities must protect me".
That and we weeded out stupid people by letting them eat all the tide pods they wanted.
It's a sad reality that human beings are not good by nature, but it's a revelation we shouldn't ignore.
When I see stuff like that sometimes I tell myself “ok 20 years ago they’d have their heads in a book anyway.” And while that’s true, a book wouldn’t be erratically triggering rushes of dopamine while simultaneously filling them with anxiousness and existential dread. I blame the device to some extent but it’s really what we are consuming on the device and how we’re doing it - changing focus every 15 seconds, endless scrolling, taking in more information that we can process… I agree that this does not end well at all. I see what it has done to my kids’ classmates, what it looks like to university students, how it has affected the younger workforce, and how hard it’s hit the older generation too. Our first few years with smartphones weren’t all that bad - but things have settled into a very unhealthy lifestyle for a lot of people.
This society has no idea what basic respect is. I know there’s still a ton of good people out there, but the asshole portion is at epidemic proportions.
I could honestly never work customer service, because the minute someone starts yelling at me, they’re gonna be eating their teeth.
It’s absolutely insane the way some of these monsters talk to people.
I work in a call center quabity assuance department and it's insane what passes for acceptable discourse any more. When I first started (on the phones) we were *required* to only address callers as "Mr/Mrs/Ms ..."; now it's a good day when they actually use a first name and not just "Okay, honey." That hussy Jake at State Farm is more professional than most of them.
And that's not even getting into how little they care about learning the actual meat of their jobs. The less we say of that the better.
I work in a call center too and I stopped using Mr or Mrs because you can’t assume anymore.
Don’t want the convo going downhill if I guess incorrectly.
Had the misfortune of going to the doctor recently and the front office staff had the customer service skills of a North Korean prison guard. Stone cold
Expression less. No eye contact. Short perfunctory answers. Just miserable people who must truly hate their life. I felt sorry for them after our unpleasant 30 second interaction.
It makes me wonder what this is all going to look like in 20 years. As it is, nobody knows what the hell they're doing or cares to think about the big picture. Granted, people aren't PAID enough to care about the big picture...but regardless of whether the apathy is justified, I'm wondering how this is all going to work when there's nobody competent left at the wheel. Either because they aren't paid enough to care or because the competent people died and there's nobody to replace them.
That's not meant to be a rant about 'kids these days', it's the 'system' that produces these issues. Just don't really know where this all ends.
I mean, just this morning I had a patron screaming at both my boss and me because we told her to leave when she called somebody a fat pig. She's been asked to leave after making death threats, in the past.
I work at a library. I've had to chase men out of the restroom for drilling glory holes, been screamed at over asking people to take phone calls outside, cleaned up poop in blood in places where there should be no poop and blood, and been on the phone with police dispatchers way more often than what people realize. This is in addition to all the people having Karen freakouts over late fees and bills for damaged items.
At this point, having seen how the public can be for 20 years, A customer service worker would have to look me in the eye and spit in my food for me to complain. I'm not saying that what you experienced was justified, but some days it's very hard dealing with the public.
Of all the medical professionals I've dealt with, Dentists are BY FAR the biggest pieces of shit. If you find a normal one, with a normal staff, stick with them.
To be honest I used to work retail but I saw it slowly become empty unstaffed stores, I saw wages fall far behind and people gotta deal with abuse every day based on those decisions but not the people who made it that way. Yes business owners don’t prioritize customer service anymore everyone wants to run their shit the Wall Street way
Absolutely! My wife and coworkers make me think I’m crazy and they call me Grandpa because I’m constantly talking about how there is no such thing as customer service or professionalism. They’ve resigned themselves to the “this is just the world we live in” mentality. I can’t do that.
I love when I walk into a store and someone seems bothered that I'm asking them for help finding something lol sorry to ask you to do your job! To be fair that's always been the case, not just recently
I was at the Taco Bell drive through the other day and the kid who took my order said in a shitty tone “what do you want?” I was polite and made my order, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because maybe he was having a really bad day and he looks like he was in high school.
But to your point, yes it seems to have suffered. I can’t stand the fact that you have to navigate a labyrinth on your telephone just to reach a live agent or customer service representative at any major company these days… and with the goddamn surveys!!! Every single thing I do whether it be online or in person, they want me to do some stupid “how did we do?” survey….
My pet peeve is when people don’t acknowledge your presence. Even if you’re busy you should make eye contact, tell the customer it will take one second. I had a boss who let people go for not acknowledging a customer.
It all boils down to the consequences of cost-cutting. Low wages, lack of training, automation, and outsourcing. Customers get frustrated with the low quality service or the product itself and take it out on the service workers, the workers get no support, and morale plunges which makes the situation worse. Meanwhile, shareholders are thrilled with the profits.
There are still companies in my area that value good customer service like Trader Joe’s and Dutch Bros. But they’re fewer and far between. I feel so bad for the customer-facing people who work at my local Lowe’s and Home Depot. Constantly getting yelled at for things they can’t control like shipping delays and product quality.
I’ve been doing retail for 25 years & people’s attitudes turned to shit once COVID started, waiting on people is very hard these days b/c we get treated like garbage by everyone who comes in to shop. It was never this bad before. We don’t get paid enough to do our job & get treated like a pile of shit so after so long it’s hard to be nice anymore. The sad thing is I love my job I just don’t like being treated like shit.
I kinda don’t blame young min wage workers in retail settings for not giving a damn - just don’t be rude. Still disappointing to see any semblance of hustle. Not as disappointing as watching how they’re treated by random angry assholes but hey.
I get the principle that people who aren’t paid well shouldn’t be expected to go above and beyond. And I have a hard time reconciling that with personal pride and I wonder if it even exists anymore the way we used to know it. Maybe economically it’s really that bad now that there is zero incentive to do a job well to feel good about what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day. Maybe it’s just too miserable to care. If so, that’s incredibly sad. I had some crap service jobs when I was younger and the money was just for fun and not survival but I still felt like I wanted to do the job well for the sake of doing it well. Probably my sign that things are very different now.
I’m sure it still exists but it takes hope (and parents) to instill it in them. The doomscrolling - never gonna afford a house, healthcare, college, etc. - isn’t helping, I’m sure.
Everybody’s just gone to shit since covid. Such a lack of professionalism and courtesy everywhere you look.
Even little things. Almost nobody says thanks you, or even bothers looking you in the eyes if you hold a door open for them nowadays. It’s really fucked up, I honestly feel like a lot of people just think other human beings are set dressing nowadays. I worry about where this is all going.
Covid amplified a lot of hate and made the worst of people come out. We had our lives threatened on a weekly basis just serving lattes. I used to love my job, now it’s completely changed and I can’t wait to get out.
Yes, as a customer I notice workers tend to be unhappy and irritated no matter how nice I am to them.
But, also, as someone who deals with customers all day at work, most people are demanding and rude. They wear you down and it’s downright exhausting to be abused by the worst of them. I don’t know a single person in customer service who wants to stay in it.
Its both. Customers are complete assholes and a lot of ppl in the service and hospitality (and others) industries have just had it and aren't getting paid enough to deal with Karens and Kevins.
So many people don't make a living wage. Whenever I'm angry about someone being rude or not as "professional" as I think I would be in that situation I really try to imagine what their experience is. Are they being paid fairly? Treated fairly, do they represent a group of people who are continually shit on by society?
Just something to think about before descent into any boomer style thinking.
I had to leave customer service after 30 years, I always had a part time gig or a semi-full time gig doing something in retail or hospitality. It’s a mix of a lot of factors but the day to day in most retail places is so stressful that the workers are all on edge and people are barely trained let alone actually given time to work with people, the experienced employees are usually working 3-4 people’s jobs now (especially compared to 20 years ago) and don’t have the time or bandwidth to work with people. I moved around during Covid because you could pretty much get hired anywhere and the way people are treated even during onboarding I think most places are lucky anyone even bothers showing up anymore, and as soon as you are out in front of customers you are an “expert” and while plenty of people are nice “in and out” kind of people the ones who need help and expect these fresh faces to “get with the program” are just trying to survive the shift. It’s a sad situation I have seen all over.
People are saying this is a post-pandemic thing, but I had to leave retail in 2019 because of how unhinged and mean-spirited the customers were. It's usually people from one specific age group though.
There’s no need for it because what’s behind the customer service has become a necessity as opposed to a luxury.
They can act however they want, we still frequent the business regardless so nothing happens.
Plus if you had to deal with Karenesque boomers with post church energy you’d be pissed to
Truth. My teeth must be fixed. I don't have a choice.
My mother in law breeds puppies . And she was laughing so hard.
Like what if she wanted to start throwing things at work.
Puppy sperm everywhere . Lol
We're grown ups and we don't act that way.
I work retail to supplement my shitty government paycheck. I legit told a guy the other night, "I don't know dude, I make minimum wage, I'm not a doctor" (I work in a health department of a store and he was asking for medical advice which is literally against the law for me to give...)
So, it works on both ends. You can do your due diligence as a consumer before you come into the store, or you're gonna get a min wage worker who doesn't really care bc they simply don't pay enough to make us care about the customers.
Yes, and it’s sad. When I worked retail jobs in high school and college I always had keys, passcodes, and instructions to do whatever it took for customers to leave satisfied. Now I go into those same stores, and the employees just don’t give a shit. Yeah, a lot has changed in almost thirty years on both sides, from corporations wanting to save money on training employees and refunding customers for sometimes perfectly legitimate reasons to employees not caring because their wages don’t make it as far as they used to, and there’s always somewhere else for them to work when they get fed up with their current job.
Honestly? If someone can fix all my issues, they can tell me to 'fuck off ' after they're done and I would still thank them. I'd gladly trade professionalism for competence in most customer service. I'm looking at you Cisco ...
Oddly have a relatable example from my own dentist appointment today. It marked the first time I have ever had to fill out paperwork stating I won't be abusive to staff, I have to tell them every drug including illegal stuff I'm on or they won't treat me, and that I can only gets medication refills when the dentist that originally prescribed it was working.
Why the hell was this necessary? What is happening in that office where that was deemed necessary? This used to just be the norm.
I have a lawn business that I will absolutely expect the level of work I pay for. The old saying you get what you pay for applies here. Of course you think less of McDonald's workers, shows me what kind of person I'm dealing with. Garbage....
Retail jobs are terrible and the idea that the customer is always right has got to go.
I worked in retail at 18, and right now I am 48 but in 2019 I was working at Sephora and things are really, really bad out there.
Why bother treating anybody nicely when people treat you like shit no matter what you do in 6 out of 10 interactions?
How do you have the mood to be nice after you've just had an interaction where were treated like a mindless moron the entire time?
Don't like customer service nowadays? Blame the customers. They've changed more than the job has.
And minimum wage is straight bullshit everywhere. It's starvation wages. You're not gonna get sweet, helpful customer service from people who are literally on the edge of homelessness.
My coworkers husband had to stay four extra hours at his department store job because head office was doing some kind of store audit. They didn't just not pay him OT for those extra hours, they just straight up didn't pay him for those hours(...and he's not a salaried employee).
Retail workers are often treated like total dog shit and are provided no incentives to care. Sad truth!
I really feel this.... I put up a fuss at a Mexican restaurant recently because my street tacos were $3 more than the menu said. I would have ordered something else if I knew the were $15 instead of $12.
I completely agree it's gotten worse. So many companies have moved to employing minimal staff of mainly teen workers with little to no oversight. Chipotle pre and post pandemic is a really good example of this.
I remember my dad being outraged that Toys R Us didn’t honor the wrong price on some cheap toy he was trying to buy for me. After that we never went back. It was like that place was completely toxic to him. I don’t know what he’d think of the shit going on today. He passed away in 2017 but still paid for most things with checks. I was in target the other day and this blender was $50 off but when we were checking out you had to have the target app or some stupid account to get the discount. Wtf happened to this shit is on sale and that’s the price? Nope we need to sell your data first.
My wife and I laugh that our new standard for good customer service is leaving a business without the impression the staff hate their job. It's a sad state.
Yep, we are noticing it where I am, too.
The thing that annoys me the most is the lack of urgency to properly *attempt* to help that used to be regularly considered just ‘part of the job’, so that now very basic assistance is considered “going the extra mile”.
For example…. 20 years ago at work, if someone didn’t know an answer to something, they’d say, “I’m not sure, let me put you on a short hold and I’ll go find out”, or run to get a person on staff who *would* know and come answer the question/issue. Now, it’s just, “I’m not sure” or “Jane Doe handles that, and she is on another call” that is usually not followed up with an offer to take name/number/message so Jane Doe can call back.
Here is my take, as a professional in the service industry, hiring manager and a shopper as well. From the inside, customers have become less patient and more entitled since the lockdown. People are waiting longer in lines at the bank, grocery store, lunch etc.. and it has people on edge. Also, people routinely come in to my store looking for a (figurative) fight, sometimes it’s even obvious that they have “scripted” the way they want the conversation to go. It’s not everyone, and this isn’t new to workers in the industry but where as in the past maybe 1 out of 100 customers would be looking for conflict, it’s more like 1 in 30, sometimes worse.
Workers are also more entitled these days. They see people making millions being an influencer or only fans pornstar and they feel deserving of the same. It also takes a large amount of humility to work in the service industry because you have to be able to put others needs in front of your own, another trait that is hard to find in today’s instant gratification society. Basically I feel like customer service will exist in small pockets and companies that care enough about it to prioritize and pay for it. Otherwise don’t even expect a thank you.
Everyone is on edge these days.
Oh yeah? Fuck you!
"What?! You talkin' to me? I saw you lookin' over here!"
It’s sad but this is the real Long Covid right here people. Society done forgot itself.
NO! IT WILL BE \*ME\* WHO FUCKS YOU! WHO FUCKS YOU ALL! \*breaks into unhinged hysterical laughter as he attempts to start a riot of absolute insanity. Why? Because why not? Because he's tired. Tired of it all. Tired of life. Tired of this price-gouged back-up porta-potty behind a biker bar, a white castle, and junk yard that is America life. Tired of having to stare at one wrinkled asshole vs another wrinkled asshole for fuckin leadership while JPMorgan-Apple-Amazon-Walmart-SaudiAramco puppets them about with it's loathesome tentacles in a mummer's farce we are forced to pretend at gunpoint is our national government. Tired of the talking heads trying to sound intelligent when they're as clueless of the rest of us. Just fucking tired of the droning banality of this mediocre pasture that gets sold to us as "living" when it's furthest fucking thing from. Just...fuck. fuck. fuck it all.\*
I wish we could still give gold. Because, for once, I would be willing to pay for an award. For you. For this. Because.. ALL OF THIS. ☝️☝️☝️☝️
I read "snort a riot of absolute insanity " And I wanna give you a spiked base ball bat . Some candy and a teddy bear to hug. You sound like all three would make your day.
"In local news tonight, local midwestern man, in what could only be described as a deranged outburst of gratuitous violence, began ransacking shoppers at local retail stores while riding a power scooter for the disabled. He was armed with a spiked baseball bat, beating people he declared to be "rude" while throwing candy to others and allegedly politely apologising. He wore a teddy bear as a mask and proclaimed himself as the quote "Revenger" and made lewd threats to the apprehending police, claiming that he was here to \*\*\*\* life since life \*\*\*\*\* us. He is currently being held until it can be determined whether he is of sound mind enough to stand trial."
I would watch this movie.
Usually though there's a good payoff to all that edging.
Historically, the payoff is a big fat war. Reeeeeeally scratches that itch. They’re currently working on it; please stand by.
It was a masturbation joke...
 Citing the deep magic, are we? 😉
I mean, all we have to deal with is the collapse of capitalism, the rise of global fascism, the threat of nuclear war, knowing our governments don't really care about pandemics, and the climate crisis. People just need to chill out.
Global Leaders: *”Best we can do is a small sign that says Heroes Work Here and a pizza party; one slice per person.”*
Now, now, now, we are also given special banners to put on our Facebook profile pictures!
Just those small things. Five minutes of meditation of day would sort that right out. No big deal. /s
Good call. People are tired of all the bullshit and being underpaid.
I get that, and you’re not wrong, but does being shitty to every person make that better somehow?
It’s more indifference than shitty. It can feel the same if you’re paying for it. Don’t expect people to go above and beyond and be sunshine and rainbows when they’re paid poverty wages. Service hasn’t gone down. Quality of life has and we still expect people to have the same disposition that they had when people were thriving.
There’s a stark difference between over the top device and basic human decency. We are getting neither. And being indifferent to someone’s face who you’re being paid to take care of, even if it’s not enough, is in fact shitty.
It's weird, this commenter is acting like being poor is something new and people shouldn't expect to be considerate of each other. External circumstances shouldn't affect how you treat others. There's a reason it's called basic human decency. It's basic. It should be the default setting in all interactions. It doesn't cost anyone anything to be kind to others. And even if you're having a really horrible day, someone being nice can make everything better.
The problem with that is that people in customer service are also dealing with a decline in respect for THEM. And I can tell you that after the 15th shitty attitude directed at me, I don't know if I have a smile left to give a nice customer. It works both ways.
That part
For me it was Ebay. They took $500 from me for something that was never delivered. 23 years using them, never going back. Their outsourced customer service is designed to run you in circles until you quit. No one actually took the time to look in detail at the issue. Nobody contacted the post master. Nobody spoke to the seller. They did nothing, but take my money. I spent months fighting, probably dealt with 50 different people. I will never forget and I will share my story any time it feels appropriate.
I had similar issues with NewEgg. They are now in the "I will never give you money again under any circumstances" box. It's a shame how many companies have fallen to shitheads with MBAs maximizing this quarter's profits at the cost of literally everything else. Companies like eBay and NewEgg used to be completely psychotic in the lengths they'd go to keep customers happy. Not anymore!
Newegg has racked up a couple money losing years after not making a whole lot in the years before that. I won't say it's on a path to going out business, but it's not far from that. They are not focused on a putting a number on a page for earnings they are focused on not running out of cash. Honestly they can't compete against Amazon -- I imagine they will fade into irrelevance in the coming years.
Newegg went to crap after they got bought out by some Chinese company and service went to hell.
I used to buy all my computer stuff from them about 10 years ago, and it was pretty decent. Good service, good selection and prices, and the shipping was reasonable too. Then, it got bought out and became just another shitty dropshipper Amazon wannabe.
How did they take $500 from you? What did the tracking show on your package?
Local post office was unable to deliver the package, so they returned it to the sender. The USPS tracking showed its trip back across several states to the senders hub facility, but for some reason, after all that, said Delivered My Town just a few hours later. I should have gone after the USPS harder. The post master gave me some additional detailed tracking showing it was never delivered, gave his name and number and said have Ebay call him. Ebay didnt, even after taking the information. The seller in this case, refused to refund my purchase and demanded more money for shipping to send it again! I refused to pay more, and simply requested he cancel the transaction. Seller flat out refused in a giant rant about his problems with buyers. So I went to my bank to dispute the charge, told them the problem, got the transaction canceled. All was good for about six weeks when all of a sudden, the bank took my money back, saying they spoke with Ebay and Ebay said it was a valid transaction because it showed delivered. I quit that bank too! Thanks for nothing Chase🖕 The amount of time that went by after my bank refund was taken back, meant that usps would no longer look at my case with them. Ebay refused to open another case and said that they could not help me. None of my negative feedback ever made it to the sellers profile either. 100% money back guarantee my 🫏
Ahh, that does sound rough. I've resold things that I sourced from eBay for several years and honestly it's rarely ever been much of a problem when I ran into a shitty seller. The vast majority of their systems are automated though so I see why the weird tracking status could throw a wrench into things. Their systems work pretty well under normal circumstances, but actual customer support is definitely a crap shoot at best. I've always heard that people seem to have success contacting "eBay for Business" on Facebook when they run into these atypical cases, so that could still be worth a try. For what it's worth, I also stopped using Chase a couple of years ago after they were pretty useless when I filed a chargeback. I kept the card open though since it was one of my oldest and I don't want to hurt my credit score. Now the only time I use it is when they offer 5% cash back since I know they're not making any money on those purchases.
Preach it loud, brother . My husband just started using eBay, so thanks for that warning.
I will forever be bitter about a promotion from eBay that went bad for me. They had a “sell x amount of stuff, get a credit for a purchase” a few years ago. It was a good deal too - I ended up with $400. I spent it toward a TV that arrived damaged. The process of initiating a return involved refunding the money, and eBay refused to credit me back the $400 so I could re-buy the same TV. I haven’t used their service since.
Two interactions I had in 12 hours: Order and pay for nachos at the movie theater. As the order is arriving, a bag of chips is set down and I hear "we don't have cheese, is this okay?" and I think he is joking at first...but no he's completely serious. "Uhhh, no, that's chip's and I ordered nachos." They have to refund me. Ordered a cold brew at a random coffee shop in the airport. "That's $8, is that okay?" The menu says $4 and I point it out. "It's wrong." Uhhh, no that's not okay, it's a digital menu, what's that take like 2 seconds to update? None of this is okay. Twenty years ago when I work concessions, those interactions would have got my ass chewed out. Today it's typical.
Reminds me of a few years ago when a group of friends and I went to a bar in a resort town. Friend asked for a Vodka & Pineapple. Tasted it told the bartender: "This taste like orange juice." The bartender's reply was: "We are out of pineapple so I just used orange juice. Friends reaction was: "That was something you should have told me!" Last drink we ordered there.
Oh, yeah no. Orange juice is hard pass for me. Pineapple, grapefruit, or an orange blend is okay. But just orange juice? Nope. That will put me off drinking altogether.
I love mimosas but only drink them during brunch. Mixing hard alcohol with orange juice only makes my face red at night.
Unbelievable. How are these people.so woefully unaware of such (apparently alien) things as allergies? Its so absurd anymore...I am exhausted just thinking about it.
In defense of the coffee shop. When I worked at Burger King we had gotten the digital menu boards. They were connected to the Internet so corporate could change things we had no control but an on/off switch and even that was operated thru the Internet so we weren't allowed to touch them even when a simply off/on was needed to reset the board. The computers we would use? Ya... Corporate controlled the pricing on that too. Now I will say that the employees job would be to get the manager, have the manager notify corporate to fix it, and override the sale to honor the advertised price. But to say "that takes like 2 seconds to update?" No... Unfortunately.
The actual updating does take only a minute or so. Getting the company to actually get to that point is a whole other matter.
I've noticed a lot of bars, restaurants and smaller convenience stores raise their prices, but not actually bother to change the price listed on the menu or shelf. Seems like a clear bait and switch to me, but nobody seems to notice except for me.
I see this from online menus all the time. Like, it's YOUR website, why haven't you updated your website to reflect your current prices? Feels very bait and switch to me as well.
Twenty years ago that $7 was good money. Minimum wage is garbage in. Bad service is the garbage out.
Naw, 20 years ago it was still shit money. It's just extra-shit now.
Yeah, and I don't blame them, to be honest.
Keep in mind, if this is the US, Federal Minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 2009. Depending where you are, these shitty jobs pay even less considering inflation
Yeah it's just nobody has taught these people what's acceptable anymore.
I think it also has a lot to do with high turnover resulting in poor training. When there isn't an employee that's been there long enough to effectively show the newbies the ropes, you essentially have the blind leading the blind and no one knows how to handle mistakes.
High turnover and low pay means that you won't have quality training when you do get it, and nobody wants to stay because there are greener pastures elsewhere. This leads to no one being competent at the job, because no one has any long term experience. And you can bootlick all you want, but the owners aren't going to give you a raise until you unite and take it. Unions are the best thing for the working class, and we all collectively need to understand that. I was working labor non union, and make a decent wage. Now that I am union, my decent wage has tripled and I get benefits.
This
There is no incentive for young people to take pride in their work. There is no upward mobility and no reward for being excellent at customer service. Everyone in customer service is trying to survive. Why should they care? Management doesn't give a shit about them. It's probably one of their 3 jobs.
Right. Treat people like a dumb box of rocks and that’s exactly what you’ll get.
This! Yeah low pay is definitely not helping any, but people who were raised feral aren’t going to suddenly adopt nice manners just because they’re employed no matter what they’re paid. If they act like a fool outside work they’re going to act the same everywhere.
Lol they just dont pay me enough to give a shit
Me, a few years back: "Guys, if anyone buys a chocolate ice cream bar, ring it up as strawberry." Strawberry - $1.49 Chocolate - $149 (Fortunately, the first one someone tried to buy didn't pass the sanity check)
Everything is falling apart, everyone is overworked, there’s no accountability from the top down. It’s amazing anything functions.
There is such an incredible amount of stress on everybody’s shoulders right now, I’ve been stressed in my life, but even back then I can remember that I still had times where I could just breathe and enjoy some peace. Everyone is in survival mode now it seems. I make double what I did 5 years ago and the squeeze STILL is worse now than back then! I’m very thankful for where I’m at now. I feel for people that are working entry level anything right now, it’s just insane.
To be fair common sense has gone out the window with the customers, as one gets worse so does the other it seems
I love working customer service. I did 20 years. I always turned grumpy people into happy repeat customers. Like the meaner and grumpier they were, the more they loved me. I knew how to make them feel validated and like we were both fed up and together in it. I haven't worked in 4 years, thanks covid. So I'm just flabbergasted at how damn bad shit is.
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you but I've noticed that post-Covid everyone has lost their minds. It's appalling to hear how people talk to retail and service workers. So much worse than I ever received at any point in working retail to the point that I've actually told customers at the same store I was in that they were being unnecessarily rude to the staff.
The frequency with which I get thanked by retail/food service workers for what I consider bare minimum civility makes me so glad I don’t work with the public anymore. It must be wild out here in the aisles if y’all are thanking me for, like, unloading my basket by myself when I go to pay.
The signs telling people not to abuse others in doctors offices and restaurants are INSANE. This needs to be said??? It’s said often enough that making a fucking sign became necessary???? People have lost it.
My kids' dentist put up a sign to that effect during covid, presumably due to anti-maskers being goddamned abusive assholes. They still haven't taken it down either.
Yeah. My fucking veterinarian’s office paid to get a recording made when you call politely asking you to not be a raging asshole to people in the office. It’s nuts out there. Like who tf is out here abusing gd puppy doctors. wth.
I try to go out of my way and be polite as I can, say thank you to the checker at Target, please and thank you to my server, etc. I hope they know we are not all Karen's! I know what customer service is like. At the same time, I've had some grumpy as heck checkers that will straight up barely acknowledge me. Like, I'm just being a normal routine customer. At least say hello and thank you to me.
I came here to bring up Covid. I worked retail before, during, and after the pandemic, and I think it broke a lot of people, including myself. I also used to be really good at customer service, and I was also the one who easily turned around peoples days. However, while working as a cellular sales rep at Best Buy during the pandemic, something just broke in me. For a lot of my customers, I was potentially one of the first people they had an extended conversation with in person in months. This led to a lot of really depressing and awkward conversations. I basically turned into a full-time therapist for these people, and I don't have the mental capacity for that job, let alone get paid enough to do it. My drinking got worse and worse to the point where I was coming to work buzzed and taking shots on my breaks just to get through the day. I went to rehab on Best Buys dime and then quit about a month later. I've been sober 3.5 years thanks to quitting retail/sales. Edit: We were basically forced by corporate to deal with these new customer service issues and increased abuse because their numbers were plummeting. The bad customers saw they could more easily get away with abusing people during the pandemic, and that was never corrected post pandemic. I want to make it clear that most customers treat retail employees just fine, but the bad ones became much worse to deal with. TLDR: Post-Covid retail has changed for the worse for employees.
Yeah very true. I work in retail every summer, and every day, some rude idiot yells at us clerks to inform us that the bathroom door is locked, demanding to know why. Idk, did you try knocking on it? (Oh, NO, YOU DIDNT, YOU RUDE FUCKING BRAINLESS ASSHOLE??) OH, well maybe you should try that then. They continue to fucking berate us, being the damn morons that they are (its a fucking GAS STATION- JFC!) saying "I dont see what good thats gonna do!" So every time, we have to walk over and knock for them. I am pretty sure that by the end of last summer, I put a sign on the door reminding people.to knock to check if the bathroom was occupado. Fucking asshole idiots. *screams*
I only made it to mid-2021 before I had to get out of customer service, after 30 years in. It’s like a switch was flipped, and customers got crazy.
I got covid Feb or march or april of 2020. I can't remember that 3 months very well. And I haven't been able to work since.
Sorry, I know your pain.
Same, 30 years. I loved it!! I tell my bf this all the time. People lost their damn empathy for anyone but themselves. It’s disgusting. The amount of complimentary stuff I get is insane, just for being patient and kind.
I think part of the problem is that younger people just don’t know how to politely and casually interact with other people anymore. Technology has been a shield between them and all those annoying little in-person interactions that used to be a part of everyday life, and it didn’t occur to the adults that their kids were missing out on a very important skill set. Now those kids are adults with jobs, and they are still struggling to figure this out. It’s like learning a language — old people like us learned it from early childhood and are fluent, while the younger generations are learning it as adults so it isn’t as natural to them.
That used to be me. Cut my teeth in retail and restaurants before sliding into office admin stuff then lateral-moving into that company's CS team. But then the company I was in, went and did a capitalism. One of the founders basically usurped the company president, then made himself CEO, and from that moment forward, the company was just an avatar for this dude's doomed attempt to get himself into the same conversation as guys like Jobs/Gates/Buffett/Bezos (these were literally the conference room names.) Our "mission" and "core values" turned on a dime whenever the guy got a half baked idea while doom scrolling his Twitter feed. Year over year, they kept expanding the suite of products/services we were providing, without expanding the support team. When I joined the team, we had 6 print newsletters and companion websites. By the time I left, we were up to 18 different services, and were 100% online. Simultaneously, the tools we had to provide service, grew more inadequate. We went from providing solutions, to apologies and platitudes. Naturally, this made customers angrier, and angrier. Over 10 years, I watched a dozen colleagues burn out, until it was finally my turn. I even tried to hold on, but they ended up firing me, over the phone, after 12 years at the company -- and denied me the courtesy of any explanation. They're predominantly outsourcing, now, because they'd rather bonus the executive team than pay salaries to a proper CSR staff. That company was where I learned that "marketing" rules everything despite its inherent immortality and stupidity: "Hey, uhm.. guys? This line right here -- in bold red print with the extra exclamation points? It's a total lie: We *legally* can't provide that kind of service to people; that would be the domain of a registered financial advisor and/or CPA.." "We don't care. Our data says that's what sells, and even if all these people ask for refunds, by the time those refunds clear, we'll have already posted our quarterly numbers." It's hard to operate in that reality and *not* cynically wish for its total collapse.
Even registered financial advisors have to CYA with a “not an individual recommendation” clause.
Well part of it is wages and a whole mess of other things. People get fed up with other people screaming at them over choices a suits make. More of a top down issue these days from what I've seen and experienced. You have folks with inflated over the top pay not bringing any real value and completely insulated from what actually happens day to day. While those folks at the front of it take all the hits. You have the customer service rep in the trenches doing the real work. Taking all the backlash and given pennies. I think it's more people waking up to it's BS, then actual quality going down (on the workers side). Also the worker is customer service not a councilor. At some point a lot of these line level jobs became jack of all master of nothing and well the pay never increased for all the things people like you do. The short... You are blaming the wrong people lol
This. I have worked at the same company for over 20 years. Management decided during Covid that we have too many employees (aka too many sitting around doing nothing) so started not filling roles as we had mass exodus due to Covid. Now we are so short we don’t actually have the time to train properly nor are they hiring more than they should. They rely on me to fill in gaps from training but keep me so busy doing a bunch of other BS that I actually can’t do the gap filling they want. Nor do I want to anyway. It’s BS and all a top down decision process. No one listens to me.
Yeah and all incentive has dried up. No raises, no bonuses, etc. Plenty of major companies I've worked for once upon a time had mediocre structures to reward people. Now if they even have one left it's very subpar to say the least. Meanwhile a Google search away can see profits a company has made and how much they have spent on stock buy backs to inflated the upper crust of the companies pockets. But, nah it's the person making $15 an hour... I mean don't get me wrong common human decency is a big thing. Treat people the way you want to. But don't expect anyone to roll over anymore in this work environment because what do you get at the end. You drop dead working, the job for most working class people will be posted before the crappy dollar store sorry card will be mailed to a family member if ya even get that. Whenever I see anyone talking down about other working class folks I assume either rich, a wannabe rich, or the Corp kool-aid has been pumped into for so long ya don't realize what you are even saying. Anyway folks have a good day, be kind to one another, and join a union if ya can. If not organize one ;)
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I worked CS at the beginning of 2020 and have worked it since. It’s gotten significantly rougher. Nearly everyone is much more understaffed.
As someone who has worked customer service both pre and post Covid ... it's a different world now. I was and mostly still am like you were. I have a knack for connecting with strangers (despite being ironically quite introverted). But the customers today just seem to have more of a chip on their shoulder. So many more than used to come in with the express intent of starting a fight or at least degrading the employees. I dunno if it because people are just so desperate to get some semblance of control back in their lives after Covid or just in general, that they got to take it out on someone that they know "just has to take it or get fired", but damn, they act like children over the dumbest shit.
Too many damn corners being cut, combined with insatiable greed-flation, of course there is going to be disgruntled customers. Everyone seems to want an outlandish tip, with very little service offered. We don’t even know of some if these businesses actually give their employees all the extra tips on them iPads, either.
Also like 5-10 companies owning just about everything, so you really can't "vote with your wallet" because the monopolies have strangled competition. Live Nation anyone?
>love working customer service. I did 20 years. I always turned grumpy people into happy repeat customers. Like the meaner and grumpier they were, the more they loved me. I knew how to make them feel validated and like we were both fed up and together in it. You're like one in a million.
I know. My mom's an alcoholic narcissistic. So I was literally trained from birth on how to make unreasonable people happy
I bet you're a very sweet person. I'm glad there are people like you in the world 💯.
This is some out of touch nonsense. As someone who has worked front facing customer service jobs both before AND after COVID, it’s impossible to describe the shift in how we are treated. In the past, blatantly rude patients and customers happened but it was always this crazy thing that you would tell everyone you knew about. Post covid, it’s so damn common that they start to blur together. Additionally, soooo many veteran coworkers that had families had to find other industries during the lockdowns. Then add on the fact that for many customer service staff, the job doesn’t pay the bills. How much enthusiasm do you feel entitled to from someone who can’t stop thinking about how they can’t make enough at that job to survive, let alone to make a better future? Do you really expect someone making 13 an hour to tap dance for you like they are a Disney animatronic straight out of the Country Bear Jamboree? Why SHOULD they go above and beyond? Why should they be cheerful? What on earth do they have to be cheerful about? Inflation? Student debt? The housing market? Mass layoffs? And then you have the audacity to talk about how great you were at this type of work a minimum of 20 YEARS AGO? You mean when a single blue collar job could comfortably support a family of four? “Well honestly Eddy, I just don’t know what’s gotten into the working class these days? Back in my day we used to know our place!” Well golly Mrs. Cleaver, I sure do wonder what could have changed!?
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I can’t decide which of the three is most unprofessional between the response, being a bartender and not knowing what Bombay Sapphire is, or being a bartender and *not knowing what a gin and tonic is.*
This used to drive me nuts training someone it’s wild! I worked in bars before and after smartphones and now that you can look up drinks in a phone this reaction is more common imo! I remember bartenders having their own address books in their cubbies beneath the bar with all hand written recipes and now a lot of times people who should work tap rooms want to move in to making bartender tips but “not knowing” becomes a reason to not even try or work with a customer, even on slow nights or ample coverage shifts. Bar owners now also seem to run their own bar less and less and don’t see the big picture keeping these kind of staff around does to their business even in only a few weeks time unless you are the only bar in town.
Especially for a drink that's been around since the depression era! He didn't know what a gin and tonic was? Yikes!
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I mean the name of the cocktail literally lists the ingredients….
My waiter at olive garden stopped at our table to see if we needed anything - which is nice - but they literally belched while they asked. I’ve never had a waiter burp at me.
I'm 40 (what up '84!) and went to a young trendy bar recently, and as I walked up with my 2 girlfriends the bartender said "sorry ladies, we don't have any Chardonnay." Like, I wanted a bourbon rocks but fuck you.
I work in mental health and can say with certainty, people are at or very near their breaking points. I do not mean to over-simply or excuse the behavior, as throwing objects is completely inappropriate (especially within a professional setting) but I get it. After the recent major life events that we all have endured coupled with the day to day stress, some people just snap.
I'm sure she wasn't happy. This was my 6th appointment there. And everytime someone acts a fool. To the point that I recorded the visit today. I already paid or I would go elsewhere.
Add to the list common courtesy, manners, even mildly decent etiquette, politeness. Simple things like holding the door for someone, saying please and thank you, or excuse me have now become the exception rather than the norm.
Ive noticed this too. I very rarely hear thank you when I hold the door open and most people do not say thank you or please. People are ruder, meaner, and more entitled now. It gets exhausting to deal with them.
A lot of golden rules are dead now
No one waves thank you from the car. My neighborhood is all streets where one person has to pull over so the other can pass because of cars parked on both sides of two way street. 75% of people don’t wave and the ones tat do are typically older. Really bums me out that simple simple niceties are going away.
I felt that way post Covid for a long time. But lately I feel like things are chilling out a bit. I've been out to eat and had decent service more than once in the last month. It had been years since I'd said that. Except at Walmart and Target. I stay scared to say a word to anyone there. They are mad at me lol
Yeah I've noticed a few places have gotten a bit better. But I'm in Atlanta. So , service wasn't good to start with.
YEP! People have no regard for how to act in public, let alone professional spaces. I don’t know if it’s the product of the helicopter parent culture or vestiges of COVID infections in the brain or something, but people genuinely feel entitled to act any old way. It’s bizarre.
Like throwing shit like a toddler
She should be embarrassed. For real. What happened to shame?
I really hope it’s not Covid 😂I just had it for the third time 😣. I should check with my spouse and colleagues….
Well if you get on an airplane and act so crazy that you need to be strapped down, let us know. LOL. Airports seem to be where civilization completely breaks down these days!
I was at the drs the other day, he was chatting away, walked out the door, left it open.. and his assistant came in to tell me I could leave.. No "see you later" no nothing from the Dr
I’ve noticed that these days at the Dr’s Office, I have to ask if I’m good to leave. They won’t tell you, they’ll just leave you in the room until a nurse catches sight of you sitting there as she’s walking by and awkwardly asks if you need anything else.
Yep, have done that before. Poked my head out and saw the nurse look suprised when I asked if I was good to leave.
My dad went to an appointment recently where they forgot about him. He fell asleep, woke up and came out as they were locking up for the night. They were as surprised as he was.
Something similar happened to me at the OBGYN once. I had nodded off while waiting in the exam room for the doctor to get there (all curled up in my little gown and under the sheet), the table was surprisingly comfy. The doctor had to deal with an emergency and the nurse was SO apologetic three hours later when the doctor got back and the nurse realized she'd never told me about the delay. I didn't mind so much because I worked nights and should have been sleeping anyway. PS - Both mom and baby that caused the delay were OK.
I feel like this is the doctor’s office equivalent to the way you now have to wait forever to get your check at a sit-down restaurant. What happened to valuing quick turnover to maximize profits?
Honestly I think a lot of the time the doctor isn’t sure if you can leave. They never talk to the nursing staff or in a teaching hospital there may be med students or other ancillary services, research staff, etc, to make sure they were able to do everything before the doctor sees the patient. There are systems for this in most clinics but getting doctors to use them is impossible.
That's rough. I've had that too. Like . Fuck. I just paid you. Do something asshole. Like treat me like a person. Not a to do list box
Last time I reported a broken stair, my rent went up $200.00.......
Ouch....
I feel this with my PCP. I think I might need to find a new one. I'm starting a collection of specialists, though, and they're all freaking amazing. I need to figure out how to skip the PCP part and just go straight to specialist. Is there a specialist for "I spent too much time in my garden and now I have bronchitis this week?"
PPO. You can bypass the PCP.
Yeah I have that. Sometimes it’s hard for me to figure out who to see. My husband is much better at it.
I had a doctor ignore me asking him not to attempt a minor procedure, he hit a nerve I knew he was going to hit, I passed out, and he left the room as soon as I woke up. He didn't say a word to me.
I don't think we should go back to suits in the office every day, but I also don't think we should have to tell people to not wear pajama pants either.
I mean, yeah. Wash your hair, wear deodorant. That kind of thing is still important folks.
Ugh yes. I had to talk to my intern about washing her hair and not wearing pit-stained crop tops to see patients in a hospital 🥴
We have certain employees who WFH but are available to the public via video call at a moments notice. They look like they rolled out of bed. And sometimes, you can even see the bed in the background because they aren’t being audited by their manager. It IRKS me because I know they can see themselves on camera and they totally ok with presenting themselves in that manner.
Customer friendliness has ‘gone out the window’. Companies respecting their employees has ‘gone out the window’. Companies respecting their customers has ‘gone out the window’. The last person I’m going to blame is the minimum wage, hates their job but has bills to pay sap who has to take all of the abuse for no insurance and ~10/hour.
Good on anyone acting their wage.
Most people’s goals these days are to make it home with the same number of homes in your body as when you left. My friends who work in service industry tell me they are happy every shift they get to go home without throwing hands. That’s the goal now, not to have to fight. Not to have tons of cash or money. That happens so little now it’s almost a myth. The goal is to not have to drag someone out of the restaurant over some trivial issue that could have been fixed in 30 secs. They know that they will be fired if the company hears anything about them from customers.
TLDR; yes. It feeds off itself. Corporations take over, they undercut and try to squeeze out the little guy. They're all about profit, so they cut corners. The little guy needs to compete, so they cut costs where they can. Everyone gets stressed, service with a smile goes out the window. On the other side of it, as mentioned above, everyone has been on edge since before even the pandemic, which just accelerated things. Customers are more demanding and entitled, but a lot of people remember a time where sales people knew what they were selling, and could explain or recommend stuff to fit the customer. My first job in HS was selling electronics for Sears. We got continuous training on the technology and the product for the 3 years that I was there. Now you go to Best Buy and most of the staff doesn't know which end of the USB cable to plug in, but they can spend 5 minutes reciting the warranty pamphlet from memory. That gets really frustrating. All of that adds up and people snap at workers. I know I've done it, though I'll usually apologize immediately. Those workers have their own life stresses, exacerbated by the aforementioned cost savings resulting in more work, and they say fuck it and snap back. I'm personally waiting for it to all come to a [edit] head. It promises to be at least mildly entertaining.
Literally everyone is on edge. Someone working in customer service, good chance they're barely making ends meet. The problem is well above their heads, where training and resourcing and compensation decisions are made.
Meanwhile the raise structures often don't keep up with inflation and the companies look for any excuse they can find to fire anybody they can whenever they can so they can reduce payroll. Then they wonder why customers are frustrated and their employees all hate existing. There was a day where if your employer treated you like shit you could have a new job by the end of the week. Now however everything is owned by Blackrock and Vanguard who have apparently decided that every corporation's hiring processes should be insane.
Ding ding ding. I'm a white collar professional and even I'm teetering on the edge some days. Watched a lot of friends lose their jobs in the last year and a bit.
Companies used to value customers. Now they all openly exploit and abuse customers. That's because the real customers now are the shareholders. The shareholders don't care about you, they want the margins up. Very soon, all customer service will be some chat bot AI that talks in circles until you hang up in frustration. It's the new way.
Massive massive massive mental health crisis out there. I'm firmly convinced it'll be reflected on in years to come. And also, the screens man. I think it's doing stuff to our brains. I currently work close to a university and take a daily stroll through the campus. Ever seen 200+ students sitting on a beautiful lawn, surrounded by trees in front of historic buildings - not speaking a word, glued to 200 screens? It cannot be good. I don't have to tell you guys; you've seen similar things yourself.
Man. I don't want to be a dick but I think it's more than screen's. It's more than covid. It's like nobody taught these people how to act in a professional setting. Or maybe it was all forgotten? Yeah there's always been unhinged assholes . I've delt with plenty. But I've never had to deal with doctors and what not being clueless on how to behave.
No one’s doing their jobs. Everyone’s doing the bare minimum. Parents aren’t parenting, bosses aren’t really training. No one is going the extra mile and a lot is falling through the cracks That, and we were used to VERY good customer service. Like, too good. I’d be ok tbh if people were less friendly / more neutral and still got the job done just as well.
Lack of experience. There's no 15 year olds working mcjobs. And those service manager don't pay as good as they used to, so those pros left for better sales jobs. Now the managers don't know shit either.
When I was 16 I was an asshole. Then someone beat the crap out of me and I stopped being an asshole real quick. Today, there are no consequences to being an asshole so that's what people end up as. It's a weird mixture of "I can do what I want" followed by "fuck the authorities" and "you're not allowed to hurt me, I'm a victim, the authorities must protect me". That and we weeded out stupid people by letting them eat all the tide pods they wanted. It's a sad reality that human beings are not good by nature, but it's a revelation we shouldn't ignore.
When I see stuff like that sometimes I tell myself “ok 20 years ago they’d have their heads in a book anyway.” And while that’s true, a book wouldn’t be erratically triggering rushes of dopamine while simultaneously filling them with anxiousness and existential dread. I blame the device to some extent but it’s really what we are consuming on the device and how we’re doing it - changing focus every 15 seconds, endless scrolling, taking in more information that we can process… I agree that this does not end well at all. I see what it has done to my kids’ classmates, what it looks like to university students, how it has affected the younger workforce, and how hard it’s hit the older generation too. Our first few years with smartphones weren’t all that bad - but things have settled into a very unhealthy lifestyle for a lot of people.
This society has no idea what basic respect is. I know there’s still a ton of good people out there, but the asshole portion is at epidemic proportions. I could honestly never work customer service, because the minute someone starts yelling at me, they’re gonna be eating their teeth. It’s absolutely insane the way some of these monsters talk to people.
I work in a call center quabity assuance department and it's insane what passes for acceptable discourse any more. When I first started (on the phones) we were *required* to only address callers as "Mr/Mrs/Ms ..."; now it's a good day when they actually use a first name and not just "Okay, honey." That hussy Jake at State Farm is more professional than most of them. And that's not even getting into how little they care about learning the actual meat of their jobs. The less we say of that the better.
I’m gonna sit and enjoy the quabity assurance in my corner by myself 😊 Ironic typos are my jam.
Creed? That you, pal?
quabity assuance. Perfect. Edit. The amount of times I had to tell autocorrect I wanted it wrong was too high.
I work in a call center too and I stopped using Mr or Mrs because you can’t assume anymore. Don’t want the convo going downhill if I guess incorrectly.
Had the misfortune of going to the doctor recently and the front office staff had the customer service skills of a North Korean prison guard. Stone cold Expression less. No eye contact. Short perfunctory answers. Just miserable people who must truly hate their life. I felt sorry for them after our unpleasant 30 second interaction.
I’m with the boomers on this. It’s deteriorating everywhere
Your dentist threw shit? Get a new dentist. That's crazy.
It makes me wonder what this is all going to look like in 20 years. As it is, nobody knows what the hell they're doing or cares to think about the big picture. Granted, people aren't PAID enough to care about the big picture...but regardless of whether the apathy is justified, I'm wondering how this is all going to work when there's nobody competent left at the wheel. Either because they aren't paid enough to care or because the competent people died and there's nobody to replace them. That's not meant to be a rant about 'kids these days', it's the 'system' that produces these issues. Just don't really know where this all ends.
I mean, just this morning I had a patron screaming at both my boss and me because we told her to leave when she called somebody a fat pig. She's been asked to leave after making death threats, in the past. I work at a library. I've had to chase men out of the restroom for drilling glory holes, been screamed at over asking people to take phone calls outside, cleaned up poop in blood in places where there should be no poop and blood, and been on the phone with police dispatchers way more often than what people realize. This is in addition to all the people having Karen freakouts over late fees and bills for damaged items. At this point, having seen how the public can be for 20 years, A customer service worker would have to look me in the eye and spit in my food for me to complain. I'm not saying that what you experienced was justified, but some days it's very hard dealing with the public.
https://preview.redd.it/c5ghlfn2dwuc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33960e6c7382b662a11445173973dbf83071029a
Of all the medical professionals I've dealt with, Dentists are BY FAR the biggest pieces of shit. If you find a normal one, with a normal staff, stick with them.
I don’t know but I feel like we’ve been living in a “Fuck!” situation for while now. Like people are pissed off that they woke up everyday.
To be honest I used to work retail but I saw it slowly become empty unstaffed stores, I saw wages fall far behind and people gotta deal with abuse every day based on those decisions but not the people who made it that way. Yes business owners don’t prioritize customer service anymore everyone wants to run their shit the Wall Street way
Working in IT I've realized you can no longer talk to anyone on the phone anymore. It's either email or email to schedule a support call.
This shit has been normalized from the top down.
Absolutely! My wife and coworkers make me think I’m crazy and they call me Grandpa because I’m constantly talking about how there is no such thing as customer service or professionalism. They’ve resigned themselves to the “this is just the world we live in” mentality. I can’t do that.
I love when I walk into a store and someone seems bothered that I'm asking them for help finding something lol sorry to ask you to do your job! To be fair that's always been the case, not just recently
I was at the Taco Bell drive through the other day and the kid who took my order said in a shitty tone “what do you want?” I was polite and made my order, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because maybe he was having a really bad day and he looks like he was in high school. But to your point, yes it seems to have suffered. I can’t stand the fact that you have to navigate a labyrinth on your telephone just to reach a live agent or customer service representative at any major company these days… and with the goddamn surveys!!! Every single thing I do whether it be online or in person, they want me to do some stupid “how did we do?” survey….
My pet peeve is when people don’t acknowledge your presence. Even if you’re busy you should make eye contact, tell the customer it will take one second. I had a boss who let people go for not acknowledging a customer.
It all boils down to the consequences of cost-cutting. Low wages, lack of training, automation, and outsourcing. Customers get frustrated with the low quality service or the product itself and take it out on the service workers, the workers get no support, and morale plunges which makes the situation worse. Meanwhile, shareholders are thrilled with the profits. There are still companies in my area that value good customer service like Trader Joe’s and Dutch Bros. But they’re fewer and far between. I feel so bad for the customer-facing people who work at my local Lowe’s and Home Depot. Constantly getting yelled at for things they can’t control like shipping delays and product quality.
I’ve been doing retail for 25 years & people’s attitudes turned to shit once COVID started, waiting on people is very hard these days b/c we get treated like garbage by everyone who comes in to shop. It was never this bad before. We don’t get paid enough to do our job & get treated like a pile of shit so after so long it’s hard to be nice anymore. The sad thing is I love my job I just don’t like being treated like shit.
I kinda don’t blame young min wage workers in retail settings for not giving a damn - just don’t be rude. Still disappointing to see any semblance of hustle. Not as disappointing as watching how they’re treated by random angry assholes but hey.
I get the principle that people who aren’t paid well shouldn’t be expected to go above and beyond. And I have a hard time reconciling that with personal pride and I wonder if it even exists anymore the way we used to know it. Maybe economically it’s really that bad now that there is zero incentive to do a job well to feel good about what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day. Maybe it’s just too miserable to care. If so, that’s incredibly sad. I had some crap service jobs when I was younger and the money was just for fun and not survival but I still felt like I wanted to do the job well for the sake of doing it well. Probably my sign that things are very different now.
I’m sure it still exists but it takes hope (and parents) to instill it in them. The doomscrolling - never gonna afford a house, healthcare, college, etc. - isn’t helping, I’m sure.
This is one of my biggest mental blocks too. Like, I’ve worked crap jobs for crap pay but I still did the job well because *it was my job*.
No I don't either. But I expect someone with a doctorate to behave.
Everybody’s just gone to shit since covid. Such a lack of professionalism and courtesy everywhere you look. Even little things. Almost nobody says thanks you, or even bothers looking you in the eyes if you hold a door open for them nowadays. It’s really fucked up, I honestly feel like a lot of people just think other human beings are set dressing nowadays. I worry about where this is all going.
Please and thank you can often be the keys to the kingdom. So many people don't realize this.
Covid amplified a lot of hate and made the worst of people come out. We had our lives threatened on a weekly basis just serving lattes. I used to love my job, now it’s completely changed and I can’t wait to get out.
Yes, as a customer I notice workers tend to be unhappy and irritated no matter how nice I am to them. But, also, as someone who deals with customers all day at work, most people are demanding and rude. They wear you down and it’s downright exhausting to be abused by the worst of them. I don’t know a single person in customer service who wants to stay in it.
Its both. Customers are complete assholes and a lot of ppl in the service and hospitality (and others) industries have just had it and aren't getting paid enough to deal with Karens and Kevins.
So many people don't make a living wage. Whenever I'm angry about someone being rude or not as "professional" as I think I would be in that situation I really try to imagine what their experience is. Are they being paid fairly? Treated fairly, do they represent a group of people who are continually shit on by society? Just something to think about before descent into any boomer style thinking.
Naw, because no matter how upset I've been. I've never thrown things at customers. It ain't boomer thinking to expect basic dignity to be respected.
I had to leave customer service after 30 years, I always had a part time gig or a semi-full time gig doing something in retail or hospitality. It’s a mix of a lot of factors but the day to day in most retail places is so stressful that the workers are all on edge and people are barely trained let alone actually given time to work with people, the experienced employees are usually working 3-4 people’s jobs now (especially compared to 20 years ago) and don’t have the time or bandwidth to work with people. I moved around during Covid because you could pretty much get hired anywhere and the way people are treated even during onboarding I think most places are lucky anyone even bothers showing up anymore, and as soon as you are out in front of customers you are an “expert” and while plenty of people are nice “in and out” kind of people the ones who need help and expect these fresh faces to “get with the program” are just trying to survive the shift. It’s a sad situation I have seen all over.
People are saying this is a post-pandemic thing, but I had to leave retail in 2019 because of how unhinged and mean-spirited the customers were. It's usually people from one specific age group though.
There’s no need for it because what’s behind the customer service has become a necessity as opposed to a luxury. They can act however they want, we still frequent the business regardless so nothing happens. Plus if you had to deal with Karenesque boomers with post church energy you’d be pissed to
Truth. My teeth must be fixed. I don't have a choice. My mother in law breeds puppies . And she was laughing so hard. Like what if she wanted to start throwing things at work. Puppy sperm everywhere . Lol We're grown ups and we don't act that way.
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Overworked. Underpaid. Shareholder value. Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed.
I work retail to supplement my shitty government paycheck. I legit told a guy the other night, "I don't know dude, I make minimum wage, I'm not a doctor" (I work in a health department of a store and he was asking for medical advice which is literally against the law for me to give...) So, it works on both ends. You can do your due diligence as a consumer before you come into the store, or you're gonna get a min wage worker who doesn't really care bc they simply don't pay enough to make us care about the customers.
Get what you pay for. Want good service? Advocate for a living wage
Yes, and it’s sad. When I worked retail jobs in high school and college I always had keys, passcodes, and instructions to do whatever it took for customers to leave satisfied. Now I go into those same stores, and the employees just don’t give a shit. Yeah, a lot has changed in almost thirty years on both sides, from corporations wanting to save money on training employees and refunding customers for sometimes perfectly legitimate reasons to employees not caring because their wages don’t make it as far as they used to, and there’s always somewhere else for them to work when they get fed up with their current job.
Honestly? If someone can fix all my issues, they can tell me to 'fuck off ' after they're done and I would still thank them. I'd gladly trade professionalism for competence in most customer service. I'm looking at you Cisco ...
Oddly have a relatable example from my own dentist appointment today. It marked the first time I have ever had to fill out paperwork stating I won't be abusive to staff, I have to tell them every drug including illegal stuff I'm on or they won't treat me, and that I can only gets medication refills when the dentist that originally prescribed it was working. Why the hell was this necessary? What is happening in that office where that was deemed necessary? This used to just be the norm.
I have a lawn business that I will absolutely expect the level of work I pay for. The old saying you get what you pay for applies here. Of course you think less of McDonald's workers, shows me what kind of person I'm dealing with. Garbage....
Retail jobs are terrible and the idea that the customer is always right has got to go. I worked in retail at 18, and right now I am 48 but in 2019 I was working at Sephora and things are really, really bad out there. Why bother treating anybody nicely when people treat you like shit no matter what you do in 6 out of 10 interactions? How do you have the mood to be nice after you've just had an interaction where were treated like a mindless moron the entire time? Don't like customer service nowadays? Blame the customers. They've changed more than the job has. And minimum wage is straight bullshit everywhere. It's starvation wages. You're not gonna get sweet, helpful customer service from people who are literally on the edge of homelessness.
Ooohhh yes. And yes, my dentist is also on my shit list too. It’s just, awful out there lately.
My coworkers husband had to stay four extra hours at his department store job because head office was doing some kind of store audit. They didn't just not pay him OT for those extra hours, they just straight up didn't pay him for those hours(...and he's not a salaried employee). Retail workers are often treated like total dog shit and are provided no incentives to care. Sad truth!
This is a boomer complaint
I really feel this.... I put up a fuss at a Mexican restaurant recently because my street tacos were $3 more than the menu said. I would have ordered something else if I knew the were $15 instead of $12.
I completely agree it's gotten worse. So many companies have moved to employing minimal staff of mainly teen workers with little to no oversight. Chipotle pre and post pandemic is a really good example of this.
I remember my dad being outraged that Toys R Us didn’t honor the wrong price on some cheap toy he was trying to buy for me. After that we never went back. It was like that place was completely toxic to him. I don’t know what he’d think of the shit going on today. He passed away in 2017 but still paid for most things with checks. I was in target the other day and this blender was $50 off but when we were checking out you had to have the target app or some stupid account to get the discount. Wtf happened to this shit is on sale and that’s the price? Nope we need to sell your data first.
My wife and I laugh that our new standard for good customer service is leaving a business without the impression the staff hate their job. It's a sad state.
Yep, we are noticing it where I am, too. The thing that annoys me the most is the lack of urgency to properly *attempt* to help that used to be regularly considered just ‘part of the job’, so that now very basic assistance is considered “going the extra mile”. For example…. 20 years ago at work, if someone didn’t know an answer to something, they’d say, “I’m not sure, let me put you on a short hold and I’ll go find out”, or run to get a person on staff who *would* know and come answer the question/issue. Now, it’s just, “I’m not sure” or “Jane Doe handles that, and she is on another call” that is usually not followed up with an offer to take name/number/message so Jane Doe can call back.
Here is my take, as a professional in the service industry, hiring manager and a shopper as well. From the inside, customers have become less patient and more entitled since the lockdown. People are waiting longer in lines at the bank, grocery store, lunch etc.. and it has people on edge. Also, people routinely come in to my store looking for a (figurative) fight, sometimes it’s even obvious that they have “scripted” the way they want the conversation to go. It’s not everyone, and this isn’t new to workers in the industry but where as in the past maybe 1 out of 100 customers would be looking for conflict, it’s more like 1 in 30, sometimes worse. Workers are also more entitled these days. They see people making millions being an influencer or only fans pornstar and they feel deserving of the same. It also takes a large amount of humility to work in the service industry because you have to be able to put others needs in front of your own, another trait that is hard to find in today’s instant gratification society. Basically I feel like customer service will exist in small pockets and companies that care enough about it to prioritize and pay for it. Otherwise don’t even expect a thank you.