Customer service isn’t what
it used to be.
And it has definitely gotten worse during the pandemic.
I have noticed this since all this mess happened, that customer service is not at the level that it used to be when nobody knew of the coronavirus.
And you would think it would be so much better, because companies should be out to please customers more than ever right now, but no, it has gotten worse.
Case in point was Saturday night, which, at the end of my travel to get some food for my family, I felt that I must have had a black mark on my head or something, because I was treated unfairly at two restaurants.
On the weekend, I normally go out to get my family dinner. It has become a tradition in my family that at least once per weekend, my wife does not have to cook.
This tradition has continued during the past months, and sometimes I go out once, and other times I go out both weekend days.
On this Saturday, I picked up dinner for my mother at a local deli, and then I drove to two other restaurants, one fast food and one fast casual place.
At the first restaurant, the fast food place, I used the drive-thru, which I have done to pickup food at these places since the pandemic hit.
I gave the person the order at the speaker in front of the menu board, and I told the person that I had two gift cards, one with a few dollars on it—I had used the card just two weeks prior at another restaurant in the chain—and one that was full of money, $25 on it. I would be using those to pay for the meal, and I was told to drive up to the window.
I drove right up to the window—there was no one there at the time—and they asked for the gift cards, and I gave them the two cards, with the one with a few dollars on it on the top of the two.
They put one card through their reader after another, and told me that the cards were no good.
“I just used the top card two weeks ago to pay for my meal, so how could that be?” I asked them.
“They do not work,” they told me. “There is nothing on the cards.”
I told them to “ring it up again,” but I knew something was fishy about this.
As we were getting into it, a long line formed after me, so this whole procedure—which should have taken seconds—was taking a lot of time.
Finally, they came back to the window and told me the good news:
“Our readers aren’t working, or the cards are no good.”
“But I just used one of the cards … .”
Seeing that my pleas were going in one ear and out the other—an now knowing that their card readers were obviously not working for their own branded store card, no less, I said to them:
“I am going to make it real easy for you. I am going to pay for this with cash that I didn’t expect to use here, and I am also going to report you.”
Well, I paid for the meal with cash, got my change, and left to my next destination. And no, they never gave me my receipt.
I arrived at my next destination, a fast casual place that was nearby to my first restaurant spot. For this one, I had to get out of the car and go into the restaurant, which I did.
The place was not busy, and I got on line behind a young couple that were so intertwined with each other in loving embrace that I might have thought it was one person, rather than two, that was ahead of me.
Finally, it was their turn to move up on the line, and they did, giving the order take a convoluted story about what they wanted, and as they were ordering, I was called up to order, and did just that—one, two, three, I was done as they other order taker brought the young couple’s order to the front to be paid for.
My order was put on the side as the young couple’s order was being paid for, a process that should have taken a few seconds to complete.
“Your bill comes to $25.16, the cashier said to the young couple, who broke their eternal embrace to pay for the meal.
“Oh, please break up the payment into two separate orders,” the young man told the cashier, who had already rung up the order as one order. “We need them to be separate, don’t we?
The young lady thought for a second or two or three or maybe even four and said, “OK,” and the cashier rang up the order, which was the same order for both of them, in two.
The cashier told them that the order was $12.58 for each of them, and then the young man told the cashier, “Ring them up separately, but I will pay for both of them together.”
“OK,” the cashier said. “So the total order is $25.16.”
The young man took out his money, and the cashier said, “Do you have 16 cents?”
The young man said hesitatingly, “No … but I do have the 16 cents in my car. Do you want me to go out and get the 16 cents for you?”
The casher replied, “Whatever you want to do is OK with me.”
“OK, then, I will go out and get the change,” at which the young man broke yet another embrace with his sweetheart and left the restaurant for his car.
Mind you, my order had been sitting there, in the same place it was put, for at least five minutes while I waited for the young couple’s order to be paid, and there was a line forming after me for people who wanted to pay for their meals.
As the young man left the restaurant, I said to the cashier, “Can’t I just pay for what I have already rather than wait for this guy to come back with his 16 cents?”
The manager came over and took my order to another register, and said to me, “How would you like to pay?”
I told her, “Cash.”
“Oh, we cannot do that at this register,” and she took my order away from that register and put it where it had been sitting for several minutes at this point.
And no, the young man had not come back with his change to pay the cashier yet.
“Don’t you think that this is terrible customer service?” I asked. “If one order is taking a long time to process, you move that one over to the side and take the next one,” I told the manager as the young man finally came back with his change, which he counted out: “One, two, three … .” It must have been all pennies.
I was still standing there as he counted out his change one coin after another, and then started to chat with the cashier about this and that as she rung up his bill.
Finally, their order was done, and it was my turn pay, after waiting on the line for more than 10 minutes to get to this point.
The cashier told me how much it was, and I gave her a $20 bill that I had been holding in my hands for 10 minutes, so warm at this point that it could have warmed a freezer.
“Do you want to add anything to your order,” the cashier said to me.
“Look, at I want to do is to pay for my food and get the heck (yes, I did use that word, not hell) out of here. Do you think it was right that you had me and all the other people stand here while this couple was fumphering with their money?”
The manager came up and said to me, “We were trying to move the line.”
I could not believe that she said this to me, especially after she wouldn’t take my order just a few minutes before because I had the audacity to pay for my meal in cash.
“You have got to be kidding me. You wouldn’t take my order because I was paying in cash, and that is moving the line? That is terrible customer service, and you know it.”
I received my change and stormed out of there, and by the time I paid, about 10 people, if not more, were standing on line waiting to pay for their meals.
And then yesterday, I wanted to buy my son a present for Hanukkah, something that just came out, and I went to my local department store to see if they had the item.
They did not, so I decided to go to another such store in the chain—but before I would trek over to the store, I called the store to ask about the item’s availability.
I got onto their electronic voice mail, and I punched in a number to speak to the department that the item would be found in.
The phone started ringing … it took between 15 and 20 times for someone to pick up the phone.
I asked if the item was available, and the person told me to hang on the line while she checked.
I hung onto the line, while I started driving to the store, for a good six minutes, and I was disconnected at that point.
Since I was driving to the store anyway, I decided to call the store again, and I did the same thing, and this time, it took clearly 20 rings for someone to pick up the phone, and it was the same woman who spoke to me a few minutes before.
“You know, you told me to hang on the phone, and you left me hanging there for several minutes, and the phone disconnected. That is very poor customer service.”
“Well, I was actually doing you a favor, because we are not supposed to check on items during the pandemic,” she said to me.
“Then why didn’t you tell me that, and why did you keep me hanging on the phone like I was?”
“Well, it is store policy, and I was doing you a favor.”
Seeing that this woman had about as much brain matter as a used tissue, I said, “Thank you” and ended the call.
P.S.: The store had exactly what I was looking for.
Anyway, this is the state of customer service today. These are not the only times I have had problems with restaurants and stores since March—I had one dinner order where literally the chicken was left out of the chicken salad that I ordered for my wife and the chili was left out of the chili salad I ordered for myself, and that is just one of many of such encounters that I have had—and well, in particular during the pandemic that we are in right now, customer service should be paramount.
Yes, I could have reported each store on each of these infractions, and in the past, I have done just that—and I have received some freebies for my trouble.
But it just isn’t worth it.
I shudder to think what will happen next week when I go out to order a simple meal, I really do.
And in the meantime, I just know that that young couple will still be embracing each other as if they were one, and the world will still revolve on its axis like it always does.
My head will be sure to be spinning, too.
And it has definitely gotten worse during the pandemic.
I have noticed this since all this mess happened, that customer service is not at the level that it used to be when nobody knew of the coronavirus.
And you would think it would be so much better, because companies should be out to please customers more than ever right now, but no, it has gotten worse.
Case in point was Saturday night, which, at the end of my travel to get some food for my family, I felt that I must have had a black mark on my head or something, because I was treated unfairly at two restaurants.
On the weekend, I normally go out to get my family dinner. It has become a tradition in my family that at least once per weekend, my wife does not have to cook.
This tradition has continued during the past months, and sometimes I go out once, and other times I go out both weekend days.
On this Saturday, I picked up dinner for my mother at a local deli, and then I drove to two other restaurants, one fast food and one fast casual place.
At the first restaurant, the fast food place, I used the drive-thru, which I have done to pickup food at these places since the pandemic hit.
I gave the person the order at the speaker in front of the menu board, and I told the person that I had two gift cards, one with a few dollars on it—I had used the card just two weeks prior at another restaurant in the chain—and one that was full of money, $25 on it. I would be using those to pay for the meal, and I was told to drive up to the window.
I drove right up to the window—there was no one there at the time—and they asked for the gift cards, and I gave them the two cards, with the one with a few dollars on it on the top of the two.
They put one card through their reader after another, and told me that the cards were no good.
“I just used the top card two weeks ago to pay for my meal, so how could that be?” I asked them.
“They do not work,” they told me. “There is nothing on the cards.”
I told them to “ring it up again,” but I knew something was fishy about this.
As we were getting into it, a long line formed after me, so this whole procedure—which should have taken seconds—was taking a lot of time.
Finally, they came back to the window and told me the good news:
“Our readers aren’t working, or the cards are no good.”
“But I just used one of the cards … .”
Seeing that my pleas were going in one ear and out the other—an now knowing that their card readers were obviously not working for their own branded store card, no less, I said to them:
“I am going to make it real easy for you. I am going to pay for this with cash that I didn’t expect to use here, and I am also going to report you.”
Well, I paid for the meal with cash, got my change, and left to my next destination. And no, they never gave me my receipt.
I arrived at my next destination, a fast casual place that was nearby to my first restaurant spot. For this one, I had to get out of the car and go into the restaurant, which I did.
The place was not busy, and I got on line behind a young couple that were so intertwined with each other in loving embrace that I might have thought it was one person, rather than two, that was ahead of me.
Finally, it was their turn to move up on the line, and they did, giving the order take a convoluted story about what they wanted, and as they were ordering, I was called up to order, and did just that—one, two, three, I was done as they other order taker brought the young couple’s order to the front to be paid for.
My order was put on the side as the young couple’s order was being paid for, a process that should have taken a few seconds to complete.
“Your bill comes to $25.16, the cashier said to the young couple, who broke their eternal embrace to pay for the meal.
“Oh, please break up the payment into two separate orders,” the young man told the cashier, who had already rung up the order as one order. “We need them to be separate, don’t we?
The young lady thought for a second or two or three or maybe even four and said, “OK,” and the cashier rang up the order, which was the same order for both of them, in two.
The cashier told them that the order was $12.58 for each of them, and then the young man told the cashier, “Ring them up separately, but I will pay for both of them together.”
“OK,” the cashier said. “So the total order is $25.16.”
The young man took out his money, and the cashier said, “Do you have 16 cents?”
The young man said hesitatingly, “No … but I do have the 16 cents in my car. Do you want me to go out and get the 16 cents for you?”
The casher replied, “Whatever you want to do is OK with me.”
“OK, then, I will go out and get the change,” at which the young man broke yet another embrace with his sweetheart and left the restaurant for his car.
Mind you, my order had been sitting there, in the same place it was put, for at least five minutes while I waited for the young couple’s order to be paid, and there was a line forming after me for people who wanted to pay for their meals.
As the young man left the restaurant, I said to the cashier, “Can’t I just pay for what I have already rather than wait for this guy to come back with his 16 cents?”
The manager came over and took my order to another register, and said to me, “How would you like to pay?”
I told her, “Cash.”
“Oh, we cannot do that at this register,” and she took my order away from that register and put it where it had been sitting for several minutes at this point.
And no, the young man had not come back with his change to pay the cashier yet.
“Don’t you think that this is terrible customer service?” I asked. “If one order is taking a long time to process, you move that one over to the side and take the next one,” I told the manager as the young man finally came back with his change, which he counted out: “One, two, three … .” It must have been all pennies.
I was still standing there as he counted out his change one coin after another, and then started to chat with the cashier about this and that as she rung up his bill.
Finally, their order was done, and it was my turn pay, after waiting on the line for more than 10 minutes to get to this point.
The cashier told me how much it was, and I gave her a $20 bill that I had been holding in my hands for 10 minutes, so warm at this point that it could have warmed a freezer.
“Do you want to add anything to your order,” the cashier said to me.
“Look, at I want to do is to pay for my food and get the heck (yes, I did use that word, not hell) out of here. Do you think it was right that you had me and all the other people stand here while this couple was fumphering with their money?”
The manager came up and said to me, “We were trying to move the line.”
I could not believe that she said this to me, especially after she wouldn’t take my order just a few minutes before because I had the audacity to pay for my meal in cash.
“You have got to be kidding me. You wouldn’t take my order because I was paying in cash, and that is moving the line? That is terrible customer service, and you know it.”
I received my change and stormed out of there, and by the time I paid, about 10 people, if not more, were standing on line waiting to pay for their meals.
And then yesterday, I wanted to buy my son a present for Hanukkah, something that just came out, and I went to my local department store to see if they had the item.
They did not, so I decided to go to another such store in the chain—but before I would trek over to the store, I called the store to ask about the item’s availability.
I got onto their electronic voice mail, and I punched in a number to speak to the department that the item would be found in.
The phone started ringing … it took between 15 and 20 times for someone to pick up the phone.
I asked if the item was available, and the person told me to hang on the line while she checked.
I hung onto the line, while I started driving to the store, for a good six minutes, and I was disconnected at that point.
Since I was driving to the store anyway, I decided to call the store again, and I did the same thing, and this time, it took clearly 20 rings for someone to pick up the phone, and it was the same woman who spoke to me a few minutes before.
“You know, you told me to hang on the phone, and you left me hanging there for several minutes, and the phone disconnected. That is very poor customer service.”
“Well, I was actually doing you a favor, because we are not supposed to check on items during the pandemic,” she said to me.
“Then why didn’t you tell me that, and why did you keep me hanging on the phone like I was?”
“Well, it is store policy, and I was doing you a favor.”
Seeing that this woman had about as much brain matter as a used tissue, I said, “Thank you” and ended the call.
P.S.: The store had exactly what I was looking for.
Anyway, this is the state of customer service today. These are not the only times I have had problems with restaurants and stores since March—I had one dinner order where literally the chicken was left out of the chicken salad that I ordered for my wife and the chili was left out of the chili salad I ordered for myself, and that is just one of many of such encounters that I have had—and well, in particular during the pandemic that we are in right now, customer service should be paramount.
Yes, I could have reported each store on each of these infractions, and in the past, I have done just that—and I have received some freebies for my trouble.
But it just isn’t worth it.
I shudder to think what will happen next week when I go out to order a simple meal, I really do.
And in the meantime, I just know that that young couple will still be embracing each other as if they were one, and the world will still revolve on its axis like it always does.
My head will be sure to be spinning, too.
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