Shopping rant

[DSE 5]

I go to a Walmart and walk to the checkout stand with a few items.
Cashier is chewing gum, cleaning out the underside of her fingernails, and looking straight ahead, not acknowledging me when I put my items on the belt. As the items move down the belt, she swipes them through the barcode reader, still not acknowledging me at all. No "hello," "How are you?," "didja find everything," or otherwise.
So, I swipe my card. The card reader pops up a dialog that I've never seen before. "Was your cashier courteous today?"
I didn't realize I said it aloud, but said "What the fuck?"
She turns her head sharply, and says "I don't appreciate your language, sir!"

Now...
~here is a company that is paying a cashier to take my money, or at the least be a human interacting with the sale, somehow.
~Said company has a machine on the register that somewhat limits human interaction.
~Same machine is now engaging me in a dialog about the non-existen human interaction with the person standing two feet away from me.
~Said person is unhappy with my choice of words to the machine that engaged me in the dialog about her, when she's two feet away from me.
BTW, when she made her exclamation, I responed with "I guess that means I respond "no" to your machine." She snapped her gum at me and said "The questions change on every purchase." To which I responded, "I guess this wasn't your lucky day then, was it?"
It is moronic having an interaction with a human that was generated by a machine questioning my interaction with the human I'm interacting with, when absent the machine, no interaction would have taken place!

I understand that this is part of the ploy to keep stupid humans employed, by limiting their interaction with others, but why have a machine ask me to answer a question about someone that is two feet away?

My original response stands...."WTF?"

[dorbie 0]

I was at SD zoo the other day, some woman with a pushchair & young baby was at the food counter, a server dropped a LARGE tub of coke onto the pushchair with baby inside, fortunately most of it missed the kid but the chair got a good soaking.

The server then spent a good minute or two saying over the counter "I knew that was gonna happen" and "Yea it fell all over the pushchair", not ONCE did she attempt to help the woman, make eye contact or apologize to her.

I got up to help and passed some napkins etc. Not one other person in the place lifted a finger and this was on a holiday weekend.

[warpedskydiver 0]

Maybe a corrective bitch slap would have helped her out.

[Armour666 0]

wow fine examples of customer service I'n unfortunly not that suprised.

Durring this past christmas I was in the checkout line with my son and a bunch of gifts we had gotten. Being extreamly bussy with people traffic some one had the briliant idea to form the line bending to the right of the chash out instaed of right across the isle blocking the path of every one. (this is one of the few time I've seen common sence like this in a retail store)

This was working quite well as moved close to the fromt of the line others seen this system and found the back of the line no porblem. I'm next in line when this cart cuts right in front. I tell him excuse me the line is back there. He gives me a look and then tells me I see no line. Asking him and pointing to all the other extreamly loooong lines at all the checkout you think in a store this bussy there would be no line here ? His lovely responce was why don't you and your kid fuck off before I cause you a painfull problem. (The only thing that kept me from poping him in the mouth right there was my son and other kids that were in the aera) I asked the cashere to please get the manager. He tells me he's not going to get involved in this.

What the hell is wrong with this ? some one tells a parent and his kid to fuck off and threatens violence and they don't want to get involved by calling a manager?

I was ashamed of that responce and to top it off when I complained and goot little sympathy from the manager either trying to give excuse thats its a bussy season people are stressed ect. ect. whin I started to get more pissed of he called security on me!

SO this one time at band camp.....

"Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most."

[willard 0]

Sounds like a good time to abandon the cart in line and shop elsewhere. If they don't appreciate your business then shop where they do.

[Butters 0]

I will not shop at places with bad customer service, bad advertising, etc... People don't talk, money talks!

PS: The problem is there are to many people that will continue to shop at places with bad customer service, bad advertising, etc... because they don't want to take the time to go somewhere else or they don't want to live without something (that is usually a want and not a need).

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[Zipp0 1]

As long as the line moves fast, I PREFER that they not engage me in some phoney, mandatory dialog. Just stay the fuck out of the express lane with 50 items, move the line fast, and I'm happy.

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

"didja find everything,"

I hate this question. Would I be standing in the checkout line if I was still searching?

Skydiving questionaire "Who do we contact in the event of an emergency?" How about a freakin' doctor?

Inane chat - pointless. I'm with ZippO. Acknowledge I'm here or that I'm waiting "Hello, sir" "Be with you in a moment" "I appreciate your waiting". Then just do the job.

Open another line for gosh sakes.

In all cases, do not say something nice to the senior citizen in front of me so that I have to wait for them latch on to you with pointless conversation so they can fill their lonely day with a stranger at a cash register and make the entire line wait for another 5 minutes AFTER they already paid.

Don't cut in line.
Don't get in the 10 items or less lane with a checkbook or with more than 10 items.

etc. (it is called 'shopping rant')

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[DSE 5]

I completely agree with everything said in the thread, but I failed to clearly present my point.
I'm at a checkout counter talking to a machine.
The machine is asking me if the clerk/cashier/saleswoman was "courteous" when:
a-The woman hadn't spoken a word
b-It's a frickin' machine asking me about a human
c-The human is 2 feet away
d-the *point* of the machine is to reduce human interaction, yet it's inquiring as to the quality of my human interaction with the cashier.
Absurd!

I'd rather a cashier just say "hi," and ring my stuff through. I don't want a machine asking me questions about my interaction with the cashier, and if they want a rating on the interaction between cashiers and customers, put a f#@!ing manager/reviewer/observer near the register to observe, rather than asking me insipid yes/no questions. Someone at upper Walmart management has their head up their ass.

[willard 0]

Quote

I completely agree with everything said in the thread, but I failed to clearly present my point.
I'm at a checkout counter talking to a machine.
The machine is asking me if the clerk/cashier/saleswoman was "courteous" when:
a-The woman hadn't spoken a word
b-It's a frickin' machine asking me about a human
c-The human is 2 feet away
d-the *point* of the machine is to reduce human interaction, yet it's inquiring as to the quality of my human interaction with the cashier.
Absurd!

I'd rather a cashier just say "hi," and ring my stuff through. I don't want a machine asking me questions about my interaction with the cashier, and if they want a rating on the interaction between cashiers and customers, put a f#@!ing manager/reviewer/observer near the register to observe, rather than asking me insipid yes/no questions. Someone at upper Walmart management has their head up their ass.

I can appreciate your frustration. Want some more irony? You're ranting to even more humans through yet another machine. Ain't technology wonderful?
WalMart should give free beer to those waiting in line.

[narcimund 0]

Quote

the *point* of the machine is to reduce human interaction, yet it's inquiring as to the quality of my human interaction with the cashier.

Under these conditions are you surprised the woman has turned into a frightful creep? Wouldn't you?

But I disagree that walmart has made an error with this. Their goal isn't to make the experience reasonable. Their goal is to maximize the difference between their income and their expenses. They're apparently VERY good at that.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[quade 4]

Ever do any work directly with the public?

Very, very early in my semi-adult life I had a job working with the public. I interacted with thousands of people every day.

It's possible to give individual attention, even if only for a brief moment to an individual. However, dealing with a HUGE number of them wears a person down pretty fast and it's pretty darn easy to fall into not even seeing the person you're supposed to be dealing with. Deal with enough of the public and it's very easy to become simply a verbal interface rather than a human.

Anybody that has to deal with the public on a regular basis, I cut a LOT of slack.

Little tip; almost every single organization on the planet that is even remotely concerned with live human interaction and customer service has their employees wear a name tag. If you want to get their attention AND good service don't treat THEM like a f'in' robot and expect good service. The first thing you should do is say "hi" and call them by their name. It literally wakes the person up out of their stupor and let's them know that YOU know who they are.

I swear, try it the next time you're at a gas station, McDonalds, checking in at a hotel, any time you see somebody with a name tag. You'll see your overall service improve almost instantly.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[DSE 5]

16 years in sales, yes...lots of work directly with the public. I view it differently.
If I'm the seller, I owe it to the buyer to treat them well, because it's their money I'm asking for in exchange for a product that myself and others offer. As a way of "thanking" them for choosing me, I owe them good customer service. As a buyer, I'm free to choose where I'll go and where I won't. I owe the seller nothing. I don't at all blame the cashier;she's a Walmart cashier. Probably has a lot on her mind, perhaps isn't trained well. But for the corporate morons to insert an electronic dialog rather than train her to say "Hi, how are you?" is going to cost them as much of my business as I can reasonably take elsewhere. I'd rather they spend more time training, observing, etc using people than using machines for interaction. I'm not a fan of the auto-sale where one simply swipes a card.
Soon, you'll walk into restaurants, electronically place an order at your table via touch screen, pick up your food, and clear your own table. Sorry, I don't find that appealing at all. Charging me more money while expecting me to be more involved in the purchase process and then asking me to dispose of my food offends me, and further reduces the need of a workforce. I'd rather pay those same higher prices and have a human that can smile at me, thank me for my patronage, and appreciate having a job.

[Shotgun 1]

I don't go to Walmart very much, but if I do, it is because I am looking for something that I don't want to spend much money on. And that's pretty much all I expect from them - cheap stuff. If I want anything more than cheap stuff, I'll shop somewhere else, which I usually do.

And I don't see much point in the cashier saying, "How are you?" because I doubt they really want the answer. (But I've always thought that was a stupid greeting anyway, unless it's sincere, which it rarely is.)

[skydiver30960 0]

As a whole, I agree with most of the thread. I like the idea about using peoples' names, I'll have to try that.

OTOH, I've been cursed for most of my life with being able to see both sides of the story. In this case (the same as the long-ago thread about fast food orders getting FUBAR'ed by inept counter workers) I find it hard to expect anyone to give much of a damn for minimum wage. I know that I like my job, but if I was getting $5.25 an hour, I'd be much less motivated. Like somebody else said earlier, money talks. It goes both ways. You gets what you pays for.

Elvisio "but a "hi" would be nice, I agree" Rodriguez

[Krip 2]

Hi 30960

I think you said it all. Wally world isn't about service it's about inexpensive imported goods from china.

As long as the customer gets what he expects (low prices) wally world will continue to thrive in the retail mkt & exploit their emplyee's.

Wally World employee's Working off the clock so wally world doesn't have to pay overtime. to minimize wall world labor costs

Wally world subcontracting the janitoral labor in their stores to a contractor that uses undocumented labor. to minimize wally worlds labor cost.

Wally world maxizeing their part time labor force to avoid paying their empoyee's health benifits, vacation, and sick leave.

A lot of customers are concerned abour WW's prices and don't give a damn the way they treat their employee to keep the prices low and maximize their profits.

We won't be a party to the unethical treatment of their employees irregardless of the money we could save.

[Royd 0]

Quote

Soon, you'll walk into restaurants, electronically place an order at your table via touch screen, pick up your food, and clear your own table. Sorry, I don't find that appealing at all. Charging me more money while expecting me to be more involved in the purchase process and then asking me to dispose of my food offends me, and further reduces the need of a workforce. I'd rather pay those same higher prices and have a human that can smile at me, thank me for my patronage, and appreciate having a job.

How would that work at Hooters?

[DSE 5]

Now that's showing some imagination. Hmmm....electronic ordering coupled with personal service. I like it.