Customer Service Sucks!

When I was younger, the people working in the stores were definately older, more respectful and, shit(!), they actually knew what the hell they were doing. Fast-forward 10 years and bam! You have Screech, only 10x more stupid, asking you, "what would you like in you Happy Meal, sir?"

Where I am leading this debacle of an entry is here - Where did my customer service go? Did it just up and leave when NAFTA was passed? Did it decide to go to the EU because there were better paying jobs? Or was it that the French were just better at treating Customer Service with respect? I don't know but I want some decent customer service back.

When you have a Mickey D's filled to the brim with kids running around trying to make burgers and another kid not much older supervising this Three Stooges display of sadness, you have to wonder -- how do businesses stay.. well.. in business? I am a great proponent of HS kids getting a summer job at Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm but if you give them a flame broiler or a cash register - forget about it (I think I'll exempt both Disney and Knott's on that - their training is actually pretty good).
I think I'm rambling a bit - let me try to focus.

Take this story - I was in a McD's and the place was just packed. Kids after school congregating in their new place of loiter. Yet, there are kids behind the counter trying to make orders as well. Unfortunately, they are unable to service the kids wanting food because they cannot figure out their priorities. Stupid.

Another example. I'm at this thing in Pasadena - held at the Rose Bowl - and I'm actually VIP (or at least I thought I was), and I'm looking to get my VIP wrist band thingy so that I can get my two free water-downed beers and a pretzel. Asking the stupid security guy (in his late teens, maybe.. maybe early 20's) who I talk to to get this wrist band thingy and he straight up says, "I dunno". "Maybe it's that woman over there with the big hat."

Thanks Sherlock. Why don't you go fill up your pipe and stick it up your ass.

Or going to Wendy's and not getting what I asked for. Then having to go back and yell at the manager because his crew is utterly useless to the general public.

Or going to Borders Bookstore and asking for a video game that I can clearly point out but the chick who probably started oh.. two minutes before (it seems) can't get the friggin' key right and then has to ask six-dozen times after the first.. "Which one again?"

You want to know who has great customer service? IN-N-OUT burger, for a fast food chain. Besides having the best burgers in Southern California (and I dare say anywhere in the contiguous US, Hawaii and Alaska), their top-notch service is rather swell.

Other than that, service at dining joints like MORTON'S is the only place you'll find EXCELLENT customer service. They're smart enough not to hire stupid kids (or people for that matter).
Now, I'm sure there are places that have great service and employ HS'ers and young adults. They're just few and far between. And it's not limited to food joints and record stores.

Hot Topic - stupid kids AND wanabe goth's.Game Spot/EB - Stupid kids AND geeks (that's almost an oxymoron even).The GAP - Stupid kids who are actually STUPID AND STUCK UP.Blockbuster Video - ...yeah, I wish they actually hired people that knew a turd's worth of movie info. They can barely rub their head and pat their stomach's.

Now, don't take this as being racist - but what's worse than kids working to serve the public is minority kids who wreck the English language asking you if you vant flies wi dat? NO! I don't want flies with that.

Maybe, the problem is that these people have NO CLUE what work ethic is. Maybe they're leisurely passing the 4 long hours they have to be on their lame ass shift just to make $25 (before taxes) a day so that they can blow it on the next AFI or HIM CD. Who cares that they're what makes their establishment look like ass.

With customer service plunging at an alarming rate, it's no matter why the internet is a better option to purchase everything from DVDs to Twinkies.