Whatever Happened To The Customer Is Always Right?

I have noticed something over the past few weeks. Something that actually disturbes me a little. You may have noticed this too.



Customer Service Is Dead My Friends!!



I have worked with the public since I was 16 years old. One thing that was (painfully) drilled into my head was "Make the customer happy" or "The customer is always right".



Well much to my dismay, those days are long gone.



Take for instance the lady at the checkout that was on her cell phone the entire time she was checking me out. Never spoke to me, not even once! But I can say that she is going to buy her husband a new pair of shoes for his birthday next week! I'm glad, I was worried my bothering her to want to pay for my merchandise would doom her husband to walking around barefoot, and I would just never forgive myself.





Or a different cashier at a different store who let out a blood curling scream right in the middle of checking me out, and went running to the other end of the room. I was shocked! I checked to make sure I didn't have some kind of monster hanging out of my nose, or that Zach didn't let out some sort of atomic bomb in his pants. When I was sure that I didn't cause the little breakdown she came back to explain that a spider crawled across her register. A little melodramatic?



Then there was the guy at the hardware store. I asked him where something was, and I was told if I would look "down that way" I would see it. Since I came to him from "down that way" and didn't see it, that may be why I was asking for assistance.



Call me old fashioned, but I'm not giving these people my money to be treated like I'm bothering them!! What happened to the days of old when people would pump your gas for you? Or come to you while you are shopping to ask if you need help finding something? Or, at the least, GET OFF THE PHONE while they are waiting on you?

I'm curious, do you have any bad experiences to share?