is it me or do we not have much tolerance for bad service

Post Reply New Topic

I have no tolerance at all for bad service. It's one thing when a restaurant is very busy and it takes a bit longer to get your food, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Here's a perfect example...Just went to Subway to get a sandwhich...this is my 2nd attempt to get a decent sandwhich there...I figured, maybe I had just bad luck the first time. So, ask for a HOT AND TOASTED Italian sub, with salad, italian dressing, mayo...ok...I specifically tell the cashier that I want the sandwhich HOT AND TOASTED and ask if they have a toaster or similar oven...she replies with "yes, we have a microwave"...I tell her a sandwhich is never TOASTED in a microwave and their ad says "HOT AND TOASTED"...So again, I ask if they have a different oven...she says yes and I say, well that's what I want.

25 minutes later, I get a COLD sandwhich...no cheese, no italian dressing...When I tell her it's cold, she tells me that they close at 10PM and they have already turned off their oven (mind you I ordered at 905PM!! !) I LOST IT! I told her she needed to find herself another job or quit if she couldn't even make a freaking sandwhich right...

ARHG$#%#$%#$5 Yes, stupid stuff like this puts me over the edge...unfortunately, where I live, IT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE DAY...

(I'm moving soon...thank God)

I think it boils down to the inability to suffer fools gladly. Maybe not as AS trait, but it's one I have.

I tend to be very sympathetic if the problem is understandable. But if it's just stupidity.... ooo.....

I also have a complete intolerance of poor service when it's due to people just not giving a s**t about the customer.

My mother is constantly talking about people these days not having any "work ethic", which when she says it makes her sound like an old fogey, but I think she's absolutely right.

I think it's also just a general discourtesy of the world nowadays. For instance, I was at the laundry today doing my wash, and I had my basket and stuff on a table where I was about to fold my blankets. This guy comes in (in a wife beater shirt no less) sets his basket down, his girlfriend comes in, sets her purse down, RIGHT IN MY WAY. So, I think, okaaaaay, they're just getting quarters, they'll move in a minute or so.

Well, yes, they did move their LAUNDRY in a minute or so, but the girl left her huge purse there in my way. So while they're sorting out laundry, I need to fold my blanket, which I can't do without the use of the tabletop. So I ask her if she'd mind moving her purse because I needed to use the table to fold my blankets (and I know I said it in a very nice and friendly manner) and she just gives me a dirty look, says nothing, grabs her purse, and walks back over to her boyfriend!

I don't know... maybe in her world that was considered friendly. But geeze... I was there first; what'd she want me to do, throw her purse on the floor???

And then these other two women come in with their laundry baskets and from chest height just DROP them on the floor so that they made a huge SLAM!! ! I'm usually not especially sensitive to noise, but seriously that hurt my eardrums. And they clearly don't give a crap about their baskets. It's not like they're made of bullet proof plastic or something; it's just a crappy Walmart-type basket.

I was sitting there secretly hoping they'd cracked the bottom of their baskets...

</rant>

I don't think it's so much the lack of tolerance per se, but taking it personally. Every time I get bad service, I have visions of the employees laughing in the break room: "Hey, did you see that loser? I gave him the wrong food just to see the look on his face." Her co-worker replies: "Yeah, I saw it; it was hilarious. Try putting salt in his coffee next time." Whether or not that's the case, I get really angry when I get bad service. It makes me think the employee is doing it just to get a rise out of me. When that happens, I always ask to speak to the manager or call the corporate office. I know I shouldn't be so quick to get someone in trouble, but my suspicion that the bad service is intentional is just too strong.

One time when I went to Whataburger, they got my order wrong FOUR times IN A ROW. In one visit, too.

The other day when I was at Macayo's (a mexican food restaurant), the waitress gave me a dirty class, it had a inch long bit of dried cheese stuck to the inside of the glass. I told the manager about this, and he said he would get me another glass. It was dirty too, though not close as bad.

I'd like to share with you guys a bad example set by Wal*Mart that I encountered by shopping there last year. I had just joined my local gym, and I went in Wal*Mart to buy a pair of gym shorts. I went through the clothing section a few times but just did not spot them. I walk up to an employee that worked in the clothing section, and politely asked where I would find the gym clothes. Guess what the b***h said? "You're gonna have to find them yourself, I'm not gonna find them for you!!" as I work in a Fry's grocery store, I am supposed to take the customer right to what they are looking for, all while being polite and caring towards him/her.

On Halloween, my girlfriend, her mother and I attended a free Alice Cooper show at the Arizona Veteran's Memorial Colliseum at the Arizona State Fair. It was free as long as we had tickets to get into the fair. If we wanted to pay for concert tickets, we'd get better seats. Well, halfway during the concert, my girlfriend got up to use the restroom, and didn't return for a half hour. I was worried, so when she got back and I had asked her where she had went for so long, she replied that after she had used the restroom, a lady wouldn't let her back through without her ticket. She didn't have a concert ticket, because all we had were fair tickets printed up from the website of the fair that had to be handed over at entrance to the State Fair. So after the concert was over, we had exited the house and while we were entering the lobby of the Colliseum, I asked her what had happened, and she told me the lady wouldn't let her through without a ticket, and she told the lady that her family was in the show, and the lady said, "I don't care!"
After Nicole told me this and we were walking out, my girlfriend's mother was disorientated, wondering which exit led back into the fair. She walked up to a lady in a yellow shirt who worked there, and asked, "Ok, where am I at?" The lady sneered and replied, "You're at the Veteran's Memorial Colliseum in Phoenix, Arizona." f*****g smart-ass b***h. Turns out that was the lady who wouldn't let my girlfriend through.

My third one happened at Best Buy back in December. My iPod's battery's life was near it's end, and I took my iPod back to Best Buy where I had bought the warranty for it. I asked them where they would be sending the iPod, and they said it would be going to Minnesota. Two weeks later, I called to check up on it, and they said it had not arrived in Minnesota yet, and I went down the Best Buy. They then told me that it was not going to Minnesota but the Apple store downtown. They said it would take at least a week to send it there, a couple more weeks to be fixed, then another week to ship back to Best Buy. I got pissed, so I went to a manager, and he told me that it was to be sent to California. We kept arguing with him, and he kept telling us to calm down, so that he could call the place in Minnesota. THE f**k? After he checked the computer, it was actually at the Apple store, repaired and ready to be sent back.

Here's the lowdown. Fast food is great for it's convenience when it goes your way. But the employees are so ignorant that you wanna pull an Ashley Simpson on the counter. You know what? I love Sonic for one reason: even though the burgers are already made before you order them, you gotta love the fact that it comes out in under a minute when you gotta clock back in from lunch on time. But, they take your words seriously. That's a bad thing at times like these. . I order a #1 burger with cheese, and fries and a rootbeer. They ask me, "Would you like mayo or mustard?" I say, "Neither, just ketchup."
.....
..... They literally give me just ketchup on my burger.
I could re-word what I say and they'll still f**k it up another way.

OK, then it's not maybe an AS/HFA thing, it's just us? Well, at least I know I'm not alone.

Here, that is an every single day occurrence. I can't count how many times.

1. my water bill is wrong, go to the water idiots office, explain to them why it's wrong...their response "we don't care, you either pay it or we shut it off"
2. my electricity bill is almost 600USD a month, one bedroom with an AC, no central air in the house...I call, ask them to check and see if there's anything wrong with the meter...their response "there's nothing wrong, you live in a big house..." (WITH NO CENTRAL AIR OR AC mind you)
3. go to get a sandwhich at a food court, sandwhich says "vegetarian"...I ask what kind of vegetables?...their reponse "a variety of vegetables"
4. go to Wal-Mart...huge lines...line is moving...a worker from Wal-Mart comes with a cart full of stuff behind me, hits me and says "what where you're going lady!" WTH? I wasn't even moving...SHE was behind me...
5. my hubby goes to a restaurant, orders pork chops...pork chops are COLD, completely COLD...he says, "this is cold"...their response..."that's what we got!"
6. go to Sally's to buy nail polish...get 3 as ad says buy 2 get one free...girl rings it up and charges me for 3, instead of 2 with one free...I say...this is on sale in the ad...her reponse "YOU should've told me it was on sale, but that's ok, everyone forgets to tell US!! !"
7. go to Popeye's to eat, kids meal includes apple pie...no apple pie given...I say...there's no apple pie here...their response...we don't have any and since it's free with the kids meal, you don't get anyting in exchange for it.
8. go to DirectTV office, girl says "you have 30 days to cancel without any cancellation penalty"...we went 3 times before we ordered...same story every time, same girl...12 days after it's installed, we realize it's garbage...almost 80USD a month for about 25 channels or so...we call, say we want to cancel...their response...it's 150USD to cancel...we say, no X person at Y store said no cancellation...their response..."we don't care, their in sales and they'll say anything to get you to buy"...
9. water bill mess...go to the Attorney General/Ombudsman, file a complaint...they understand water company has double charged us...water company still refuses to do anyting...call AG again...their response..."we can only ask them to check your case, but we can't do anything if they don't want to refund you the money, even though we agree they overcharged you...your option is to pay 2 months in advance and then ask for an executive meeting to get issue resolved...HAHAHA

Ah, yes, this is an EVERY SINGLE DAY thing where I live...if another idiot tells me it's my fault for their mistake, I will lose it...needless to say, I'm moving asap...counting down the days...

I know it happens in the US...obviously, but believe me, you have NO IDEA how bad it could truly be...this place is insane.

Yes, I think it's connected to AS, the fact that we don't suffer fools gladly. I believe it's directly related to the facts that we take things literally, behave according to logic and expect others to do the same, miss the hidden clues, etc. etc. Eg: NTs don't believe all they read on the menu or expect them to have all the menu says they have, etc. If they advertise wonderful shrimp, say, in a place a million miles from the sea, they just figure that they won't have shrimp or it'll be bad, and don't order it. NTs twist the truth and expect others to twist the truth too. Aspies are literal and expect others to live up to their words.

QFT.
If a business or store isn't going to do XYZ then they shouldn't say otherwise (assert & advertise that "Yes, we do XYZ"). I hate being lied to (whether by individuals or groups)-it's counterproductive (as a consumer & as a citizen), obfuscatory, and offensive to my "core values".
I get riled up by many injustices, both major & minor. Issues with food are lifelong significant problem that get me especially angry & upset. I can tell when one little thing is wrong & that ruins the food for me-am very particular & really do notice things that others do not.
Have current conflict with meat counter personnel at grocery store, had my social worker write them a letter on my behalf. They cut & grind up meat according to certain specifications for me, but occasionally it's not right, someone does a poor job, and complaining about it is met with derision & dismissive attitude. So I finally had to get official about it, hope it doesn't make things worse. Sigh.

I must be extremely lucky, because I have experienced very little of this BS. Or it could just be from the fact that I live in Fargo and people in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota are well known for our "Minnesota Nice."

I have a friend, however, who was huge amount of hassle while buying a house to use as a rental property. The house was foreclosed upon and the real estate company that owned it was trying to desperately get rid of it, so my friend was able to haggle out a steal of a deal of $70,000 with $50,000 in equity for a house worth $120,000. Apparently when the deal was about to go through the real estate company figured out that they were basically giving this house away that so apparently tried to screw with my friend and do a bunch of ridiculous delay tactics to get my friend to become so frustrated that he would decide not to buy the house, fortunately my friend was able to get the deal through and is already looking for another house to buy to use as a rental property, using that $50,000 in equity as a down payment.

Wow. You know, maybe the restaurant is just a horrid place?

Where I live, you get your Subway sandwiches right away. You watch while they make it and it takes less than 5 minutes.

I do have little tolerance for bad services too. I didn't care until 4 years ago, I had lots of money back then. I didn't mind wasting money, I could waste it after all.

But now I have very little money. I pay for it - so I want to get what I asked for. I'm extremely picky when other people don't care for exacts. They just 'take it, the exacts don't matter do they'.

I don't mind spending time on correcting a mistake.

I do care for the exacts very much.

I used to take my car in to a place for it's oil changes.
I had taken my car there a few times and they did a fine job. Then one time they didn't screw the plug in tight. It was finger loose. I ended up getting nearly all my oil dripped all over the road and several people's driveways, plus driving my car with barely any oil in it. Needless to say I am not going back there ever again. In fact I just went out and bought those ramps, oil pan, etc so I can change the oil myself.

I can irritated at bad service. I imagine everyone does. I try not to get too worked up any of it though.

Funny you mention subway... I usually only get one kind of sandwich at subway with red wine vinegarette. Sometimes employees will put plain vinegar in my sandwich... I have to be careful about correcting them because then they'll put the red wine vinegarette in it and I've now got double the vinegar which is worse.

Only time I ever walked out of place was a pizza hut that never got around to giving me my drink after about 15 minutes.

Definitely! I do not tolerate bad service and will not hesitate to speak out. I've had my share of bad experiences in restaurants, it got so I MUCH prefer to cook at home. Now I am not saying I am a gourmet cook and that I don't ever mess up a recipe, but I can pretty much whip up a fair version of just about anything I can get takeout. It's cheaper and a lot of times it is better.

Anyway, what goes around comes around, with the economy and gas prices the way they are, people are cutting back on going out to eat. And if restaurant employees were smart, they would realize that bad service drives away customers, and the worse the economy gets, the less likely people are willing to pay good money for shabby service. I had a horrendous experience at a restaurant that was recommended as one of the best in the area, I had guests from out of town and wanted to impress them. They were impressed all right, the food took an hour and a half to arrive, and when it did it wasn't cooked right, the waitress was AWOL, etc. Well, they did not realize that I had some pretty powerful connections with the owners; and when word got back, the restaurant manager personally called me at work and wanted to know what he could do to redeem himself. Unfortunately, there isn't anything that he could do. My guests have all left, and I have no reason to go there on my own, so it's his tough luck.

I learned in marketing class that if a person has a bad experience at at place, he or she will tell at least 10 people and I believe it is true.

The worst service I have ever had was at a restaurant.
Me and my girlfriend went to the Moxies Grill here in Calgary, our
server "Shayla T" seated us, thats where things went wrong.
First Shayla gives us a story not to expect good service because its
Saturday, and she's new, then on taking our order she forgets the
soup my girlfriend ordered for an appetizer, while I got mine so I ended
up sharing, now when I got my appetizer I looked around for some
napkins, we had nothing to wipe our hands off. We ordered 2 Beef
Dips, which I had with fries and my girlfriend had mashed potato, now we
had to wait until Shayla to bring cutlery and napkins which she sort
of remembers after 5 minutes by only bringing some for my wife, when
told to bring some to me she started getting snarkey with us and
slammed them on the table, but we didn't say anything.
We started on our meals when I noticed the fries were very salty, there
was like a table spoon of salt on my fries which I didn't put on, when
Shayla returned to ask how everything was I told her about the salt ,
but was told oh they were soaked in salt water, these were encrusted
with salt, she offered that there would be a reduction on the bill for
the salty fries, so we got up and paid the bill but Shayla kept walking
past us at the front counter ignoring my girlfriend who was trying
to pay, but we still paid full price for a half eaten meal, so guess
what no tip and put a 0 down, that's when Shayla go's you can fill in
the tip, so my girlfriend gave her another 0.
I have never seen such a poorly run restaurant, having a bunch of
brain dead bimbos running around in miniskirts fcuking up paying
customers orders is not good business, we have been going to Moxies
since the early 90's and used to think the service and food was great
but since the new look and the Idiot Bimbo waitress all that has gone
out the window, we will never go to Moxies, and I have been spreading
the word on our experience with these restaurants.

Last year my brother picked me and my boyfriend up to go home for Thanksgiving. On the way home, we stopped at McDonalds because I was hungry, and they forgot my burger! My brother just told me to deal with it and go without, but I wouldn't tolerate it. So he turned around and drove like a maniac in the rain so I could get my burger. He was really pissed off. That bad service could've gotten all three of us killed. It shouldn't matter whether it's McDonalds or Outback Steak House. It's their job to get me what I ordered.

Yep..I have a hard time with bad service, and i do take it personally. It drives me nuts.
I went to Wendy's yesterday and the level of informality and subtle hostility was very distracting.
My frustration reached it's peak when the girl asked me what kind of dressing I wanted on my Ceaser salad....I said..."It is a Ceaser salad. I want Ceaser dressing"...but at least they remembered the dressing at all.

I have come close to meltdown when dealing with really dense customer service...

have had meltdowns after particularly rude encounters...like when a cashier who saw me every day yelled at me for not having an ID when I was buying beer...I was 31 at the time!

Another example was when I was stranded across town with a flat tire and no other transportation, and the only bike shop around refused to fix my flat unless I left my bike there for several days, when most bike shops will fix flats on the spot...to make a long story short, it turned into a very negative two-way confrontation...

I have walked out of places, and sent angry letters to headquarters and management...all kinda stuff...I understand the the people working behind the counters have crappy jobs, but I don't appreciate it when they take it out on me.

I also think that basic communication skills should be a prerequisite for people who are working the counter. I hate having to repeat myself over and over and over again...or when the description of an item on a menu lists what comes on it, and the person preparing it, asks if I want these things on it....so I get confused.....the sign says it has these things on it...so i expect it to come with all these things unless I specify I dont' want something......at which point I become frustrated and walk off....(this seemed to happen all the time at Quiznos, which is why i hate them)

I think I must be a horrible customer.