In the last 3 days I’ve witnessed two prime examples of terrible customer “service” and I wonder, when did this become acceptable?
Case 1 : Blockbuster Video
Not expecting much from a video rental chain, I’ve been into the Blockbuster by my apartment over 8-10 times since I moved in. There is a worker there, who over the course of my rentals has thrown my card at me, thrown my credit card at me, been rude, “busy” and really made it seem like I was inconveniencing her. On my last rental, I forgot to grab my rental card, so it took a couple seconds for me to get it out of my wallet. As I completed the transaction and headed to the door, the woman tells the next customer very loudly “Thank you for having your card ready I REALLY appreciate that.” Oh I’m sorry, did I make you wait an extra three seconds? Was there more than three customers in the store?All in all, it has been pretty poor. My two options. Not rent there anymore. Bring her flowers. I’m thinking that out of some kind of weird irony, I really want to bring her the flowers.
Case 2: Credit Union Inside Hy-Vee – Noland Rd.
Apparently the Credit Union inside Hy-Vee closes at 7 pm. As I finished up shopping, a middle age, African American man approached the counter. Two employees had their heads buried in the counter, fumbling through papers. The one women, sensing someone was at the counter, looked up and said three words, “We close at 7” then looked down and returned to her papers. The man was kinda taken back and after trying to figure out what just happened, the woman did it AGAIN! Keep in mind it’s 7:18, she doesn’t apologize, tell him when they open the next day or even give an ounce of compassion. Mmmmmm yeah, customer service at it’s finest.
Now to the countless people that truly serve their customers, kudos to you all. But I again have to ask, when did poor, lazy, sub-par customer service become acceptable? When did it become ok for customers to fold under this garbage and just accept it?
Anyone wanna fight back?
This Life Journey 
Oh yeah, I definitely hear you on the Blockbuster complaint. I was in there last Friday hoping to get The Pacifier as a guaranteed rental. They were all out. So as their store policy, the rental is supposed to be free. Three people helped me look for a copy & all three said: we’ll, we must be out. None of the three offered me a free rental. So I guess it’s guaranteed that I must look for another DVD in any scenario such as this. It was also guaranteed that I wasn’t going to ask for a free handout.Thanks, Blockbuster!!I don’t even own a BB card, I wonder what Ms. I-Need-Flowers would do if I walked in??
Danny, you’ve inspired me to write about my lovely Wal-Mart experience from yesterday. Because, you know, Wal-Mart is the pinnacle of customer service.