Is Service getting worse or are Customers getting ruder?


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Liberty's Edge

I know I get frustrated with what I see as poor Customer Service in almost every aspect of life, grocery shopping, restaurants, retail stores, utilities, etc.

On the flip side, one of my jobs (the one that provides my family with health insurance) is in the service industry, and I get a lot of crap from people day after day, and I take it, with a smile in my voice and a keen, vorpal, @$$-hole bane greatsword in my mind.

So I wonder, where did it start? Were customers jerks first and service folks gave up trying to be nice, or were service folks lazy and customers got tired of paying for their indifference and inattention?

Sovereign Court

Customers are always the biggest tools around. Whoever invented the phrase, "the customer is always right," should be shot.

The Exchange

Some customers were always jerks.

A couple things have happened that, I think, have caused larger and larger portions of the consumer to become less civil and more rude.

First, as our brick and mortar stores became more impersonal with the advent and expansion of the huge chain stores, the consumer wasn't going to see Bilbo the Tailor or even Rose in the Womens Department, they were going to Store X. The people there stopped mattering.

Second, some companies started employing "customer service" reps that were undertrained, and difficult to understand on the phone, increasing frustration in the consumer. The more often a person deals with customer service people that make them angry, the more likely their initial attitude towards ANY given customer service rep will move to Unfriendly, or even Hostile.

Sovereign Court

Ash_Gazn wrote:

Second, some companies started employing "customer service" reps that were undertrained, and difficult to understand on the phone, increasing frustration in the consumer. The more often a person deals with customer service people that make them angry, the more likely their initial attitude towards ANY given customer service rep will move to Unfriendly, or even Hostile.

That is a good point, I won't get started on how some computer software have tech support guys in India who don't speak English very well trying to help you out.

Dark Archive

I can't say which came first, but I am looking at things from the opposite standpoint of the OP. I always try and be friendly and polite to those who are serving me as a customer, but the people I come in contact with at resturants and stores tend to treat me like the expect that I'm going to s%$! on them, so they are going to get me first. When i go to a resturant, I don't expect much, I just want a pitcher of water, my meal served in a timely manner, and to not have my wife's food dropped on the floor so she has to wait longer, and to not find foreign objects in my food. Unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask of people around here. I know that there are a lot of good people working in customer service, I have encountered a lot of them in my travels. However, around here it seems that customer service is a job for lazy, don't want to do anything, life owes me a living, punks.

Dark Archive

The customer is NEVER right. After working in the resturant industry for 15 years, I've learned that most people are rude, arrogant jerkoffs and that they bully the servers. I've seen the most rudest people come into resturants I've worked in (and currently work in). It gets to a point where the servers, no matter what they do, are doomed the second the person sits down. So they stop caring, ergo making the service worse. All because the person can't tell the difference between a medium steak and a well done steak (I want my steak well done, but still bleeding. My hand to God,I've heard that before).

The Exchange

Callous Jack wrote:
Ash_Gazn wrote:

Second, some companies started employing "customer service" reps that were undertrained, and difficult to understand on the phone, increasing frustration in the consumer. The more often a person deals with customer service people that make them angry, the more likely their initial attitude towards ANY given customer service rep will move to Unfriendly, or even Hostile.

That is a good point, I won't get started on how some computer software have tech support guys in India who don't speak English very well trying to help you out.

And named Robert, Dan, and Sally. That was a good CS idea.


I think if people just simply complimented good service as often as they complain about bad service, it would be a different story entirely.

I try to do that on every occasion I feel I got good service.

EDIT: Leaving a good tip for good service is not enough. Would you as a waiter rather have a 20% tip or a 15% tip and a kind word to your boss about your performance.

Dark Archive

Mac Boyce wrote:
The customer is NEVER right. After working in the resturant industry for 15 years, I've learned that most people are rude, arrogant jerkoffs and that they bully the servers. I've seen the most rudest people come into resturants I've worked in (and currently work in). It gets to a point where the servers, no matter what they do, are doomed the second the person sits down. So they stop caring, ergo making the service worse. All because the person can't tell the difference between a medium steak and a well done steak (I want my steak well done, but still bleeding. My hand to God,I've heard that before).

Why would anyone want a well done steak? I want you to just bring out the steer, I'll point to what I want and you can just slice it off and slap it on my plate. That's the only way to eat meat.

Dark Archive

I am actually more likely to complement good service, than complain about bad service. If the service is bad, I will just find someplace else to eat next time. The only time I complain about bad service is when they get my order completely wrong.

Dark Archive

veector wrote:

I think if people just simply complimented good service as often as they complain about bad service, it would be a different story entirely.

I try to do that on every occasion I feel I got good service.

But most of the guests don't do that. We keep track of guest comments, we give them a phone number at the bottom of their reciept and you wouldn't believe the comments some of them give. While I will admit, 40% of the actual compaints are legit, we get comments such as:

"The food is too hot. We will NEVER come back."

"The rolls taste too much like bread, can you change the receipe?"

"Why do you play country music? I hate country music."

"Your steaks are too big. I ordered the 20 oz Ribeye and it was too much for me. Make your steaks smaller."

No joke.

Dark Archive

David Fryer wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
The customer is NEVER right. After working in the resturant industry for 15 years, I've learned that most people are rude, arrogant jerkoffs and that they bully the servers. I've seen the most rudest people come into resturants I've worked in (and currently work in). It gets to a point where the servers, no matter what they do, are doomed the second the person sits down. So they stop caring, ergo making the service worse. All because the person can't tell the difference between a medium steak and a well done steak (I want my steak well done, but still bleeding. My hand to God,I've heard that before).
Why would anyone want a well done steak? I want you to just bring out the steer, I'll point to what I want and you can just slice it off and slap it on my plate. That's the only way to eat meat.

AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dark Archive

Mac Boyce wrote:
veector wrote:

I think if people just simply complimented good service as often as they complain about bad service, it would be a different story entirely.

I try to do that on every occasion I feel I got good service.

But most of the guests don't do that. We keep track of guest comments, we give them a phone number at the bottom of their reciept and you wouldn't believe the comments some of them give. While I will admit, 40% of the actual compaints are legit, we get comments such as:

"The food is too hot. We will NEVER come back."

"The rolls taste too much like bread, can you change the receipe?"

"Why do you play country music? I hate country music."

"Your steaks are too big. I ordered the 20 oz Ribeye and it was too much for me. Make your steaks smaller."

No joke.

You have to laugh at that though, otherwise you will cry because people are so stupid sometimes.

Liberty's Edge

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.
I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.
I never did find out what a truly major a!%&$#+ the average person is, though, until I worked cash register at McDonald's. It's good, I'm glad I found out.

Dark Archive

We do actually, we post them up in the kitchen and laugh.

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

Scarab Sages

I spend a lot of time hanging out with people in the CS industry, so I've started to get a lot of their habits and complaints, though I myself don't work in it (closest I get is dishwasher).

1) People who can't seem to pick up after themselves when It's obvious you should bus your own table. when there is a big sign hanging over each of the garbage stations saying to "please return trays here", why don't people? this also goes for people who can't close a door after themselves. if it's closed when you got there, close ti after yourself.

2) people who can't seem to read. there are signs on the door that say the washrooms are for customers only. please don't just come off the street to use the washrooms and then act insulted when we say no. gah! this also goes for reading store hours. we know when we close, and the hours are posted on the door. stop trying to insist that we let you stay inside after we close! or ordering coffee after the machines are cleaned and turned off.

I myself more often then not frequent the same places repeatedly and I usually get on speaking terms with managers because of it. I also don't hesitate to compliment servers to themselves and to their managers when they do good, or tell them what they could've done better if they aren't so good, same as I would expect someone to do for me.

and incidently, I am a medium-rare man myslef, just to add to the steak threadjack above.

Sovereign Court

It also depends on the type of customer service. I'm a very calm and erudite person when dealing with people who can actually do something for me (i.e. restaurants, customer service in a store etc.) but my fuse for idiocy from big corporations over the phone has gotten quite short. If I hear, "I'm very sorry to hear that sir but I do not have the authorization to do that." one more time I'm going to snap. I mean what good is having some guy from india for customer service if he can't actually help you because your service comes from a script and there are really only like 5 things he's capable of doing, and if you deviate from the script he has trouble understanding you and can't actually help you anyways.

Dark Archive

I worked in customer service for years, and coming from that side of it when I would constantly deal with customers who would constantly complain about stuff you couldn't control or do anything about you learned to paste on a fake smile and put them through as quick as possible. I was a cashier at a grocery store and I quickly learned I could make no one happy at all. I was the fastest cashier in the store and everyone came to my line, but I couldn't carry on a conversation with them to save my life cause I didn't care anymore, and generally I saw that happen to everyone or they quit or got fired.


Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.

Hmmm... sounds like the interweb.


What Ash_Gazn said, including the part about some customers being always jerks.

The disappearance of those small shops where you know the employees works both ways, also the emplyees no longer know the customers...

This is big part of appeal of small music and book stores for me, there has been a couple where I could just go hang out and chat with the owner...and more often than not I also ended up buying somthing (dreadful is the record store owner who knows my taste and can spring up albums "this I am sure you will like").

Now I am quite mellow and polite customer, but about that customer rep thing, the worst thing is that in some cases you have to look and look and look before finding any information how to contact anyone in the company. Especially trying to deal with any company in IT or telephone field by Internet or telephone (ironically enough) is sure thing to get my blood boil...eg. I hope everyone involved in any way with Yahoo will burn in Hell.
Then again, couple of time when I am at my snarkiest and finally managed to catch someone real, and she is really nice and friendly while still knowing what she is doing, the world is not so bad a place after all. So being nice and friendly to that hostile jerk of a customer is occasionally appreciated.

Sovereign Court

My wife and I saw a recent incident at Olive Garden (her favorite place) where some loud-mouthed jerk came in and started swearing and raising a ruckus because she couldn't understand why the buzzer they gave her didn't go off.
Hmmm, could it be because there was a 30-40 minute wait and she left and went a mile down the road to shop and those buzzers only work in the restaurant's general area?

Dark Archive

magdalena thiriet wrote:

What Ash_Gazn said, including the part about some customers being always jerks.

The disappearance of those small shops where you know the employees works both ways, also the emplyees no longer know the customers...

There are a few of those store still around here, and personally I would rather not go to them. If I go to a big box like Target or Wal-mart and the employees aren't as friendly and helpful as they could be I know it's usually because they have been dealing with idiots all day. When I walk into one of the small shops and the clerk there acts like it's an imposition on their time to help me because I'm not a regular and it would take time away from chatting with their friends who are in the store but not buying things, that is another story. Morale of the story, rude employees at Wal-mart, not a big deal. Rude employees at the local specialty shops, offends me on a personal level.

Liberty's Edge

Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

I don't really want to. Maybe, though, it'd make my wife wanna eat out less.

Liberty's Edge

veector wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
Hmmm... sounds like the interweb.

zackly. It's all very Kafkaesque.

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
veector wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
Hmmm... sounds like the interweb.
zackly. It's all very Kafkaesque.

1984, here we come.

p.s. Yes I do know that 1984 is Orwell and not Kafka.

Dark Archive

Callous Jack wrote:

My wife and I saw a recent incident at Olive Garden (her favorite place) where some loud-mouthed jerk came in and started swearing and raising a ruckus because she couldn't understand why the buzzer they gave her didn't go off.

Hmmm, could it be because there was a 30-40 minute wait and she left and went a mile down the road to shop and those buzzers only work in the restaurant's general area?

We have that happen alot. People leave and go a mile down the road to check out the other resurants, find out they have an extremely long wait, come back to us and find out their name was skipped. They explode and we end up buying 80-100 dollars worth of food to keep them happy. Personally, I would have told them that they were not here when we buzzed them and they need to start over.


I think most Americans are and have traditionally been polite, decent people. I do think, though, that the share of people who are not polite or act unethically is more than it has been at some other times in the past. And man, are some of them loud about it, which multiplies their tendency to overshadow all the nice people.


You know this just made me think of something. More and more people are paying more and more for good customer service (or to put it more plainly, sucking up).

If you go to a fast food restaurant these days, it's the exception when you get good CS.

If you go to Starbucks, generally it's good CS, and part of that is the atmosphere they try to create in the establishment itself, almost like they want it to feel like the lobby of a spa.

However, to get that experience, you need to pay more than you'd like for a cup of coffee.

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

I don't really want to. Maybe, though, it'd make my wife wanna eat out less.

If she's rude...yes, it will keep her from eating out more.


I work directly on customer service and have two observations:

1. The customer belives that he's always right and that makes them feel they have the right to be a total jerk.
If the customers is a jerk the employee will threat them as such, is the employee is a jerk, well, nothing to do there,thats the wrong employee for the job.

2. In order for the customer service staff to properly do their work their need to be properly trained and motivated. Which in most cases (at least here in Mex) is the main problem.
If the employee is not properly trained for the job, it would be difficult for hi to do a good job since the begining. And if the employee is not motivated to do his job, he will do a worse job than if he wasn't properly trained, since good customer service relies in a big effort from the employee to serve and be patient with the customer.

The Reps of customer service in Mex fall in both of these categories. I have a couple of Mexican friends who worked for HP customer service, and the feedback in general was: The moment the customer noticed they were not North Americans, they got a bit rude, which in turn made my friends a bit sour as well. And since the job was a bit lousy in the payment and benefits and they were trained enough to make their job for a few months only (nobody stays in those jobs for long), they pretty much end up doing everything "good enough" to get by for a while, which means they ended up giving a crappy service anyway....

So, that's the story of CS here... very sad


Mac Boyce wrote:
Callous Jack wrote:

My wife and I saw a recent incident at Olive Garden (her favorite place) where some loud-mouthed jerk came in and started swearing and raising a ruckus because she couldn't understand why the buzzer they gave her didn't go off.

Hmmm, could it be because there was a 30-40 minute wait and she left and went a mile down the road to shop and those buzzers only work in the restaurant's general area?
We have that happen alot. People leave and go a mile down the road to check out the other resurants, find out they have an extremely long wait, come back to us and find out their name was skipped. They explode and we end up buying 80-100 dollars worth of food to keep them happy. Personally, I would have told them that they were not here when we buzzed them and they need to start over.

There's a barbecue not far from here that has the policy that if you're not there when your name is called, you're off the list. The restaurant is run by bikers. I've never seen anyone try to argue the point with them. :-)

Liberty's Edge

Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

I don't really want to. Maybe, though, it'd make my wife wanna eat out less.
If she's rude...yes, it will keep her from eating out more.

What do I do to rude servers, pee in their shoe?


Heathansson wrote:


What do I do to rude servers, pee in their shoe?

One of the perks of being a werewolf.

Dark Archive

I think the problem is that the big chains, i.e. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Wingers, Applebees, etc, Don't have to work that hard to earn a buck. If they can't make a profit where they are, they will just shut down and move somewhere else. The smaller, local stores do need to put some effort into getting you to shop or eat there, because, especially with shopping, it is an inconvienience to have to go to multiple stores to buy what you want and need. The problem around here is that most of the employees have the same, we don't need to work to get your buisness attitude that the chain stores have. There is currently a big "shop local" push around here, which seems to have given some stores and their employees an entitlement mentality. This is where I think things are going wrong.

Sovereign Court

Living in the Czech Republic, one of the things I miss most about the US is the customer service. Meaning that generally speaking (in my experience) American customer is good. Wonderfully good. Here in Prague, we call it "Service with a snarl." And it's almost universal. Good customer service is so rare here, it might as well not exist.

But I worked retail for many years in the US, and am well aware of how crappy customers can be. But just remember - it could be worse...

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

I don't really want to. Maybe, though, it'd make my wife wanna eat out less.
If she's rude...yes, it will keep her from eating out more.
What do I do to rude servers, pee in their shoe?

What you do is make friends with the managers, who will then let the cooks know you are a "preferred customer" and then you can bypass the servers (except for placing your orders, getting drinks) for the manager will watch over the table and make sure you are okay.

But if you can't do that and have found that your server was being rude, POLITELY ask to see a manager, POLITELY tell the manager about the situation and then the manager will take care of the situation.

One thing to remember, if your food is made wrong, NEVER take it out on the server. While there have been occasions where the server has taken your order wrong, most of the time its the cooks who have overcooked your steak (for example) and are just hoping that you won't notice.


David Fryer wrote:
There is currently a big "shop local" push around here, which seems to have given some stores and their employees an entitlement mentality. This is where I think things are going wrong.

I am a believer in buying local and from small businesses. I have found though, a lot of people who don't run their business well, or don't want to be the slave to it that you often have to be, hide behind "shop local" and blame the community for not supporting them when in fact they are not offering what people want.

People not buying from you because your offerings cost a few pennies more is something worth discussing. People not buying from you because you are trying to force them to buy what you want to sell when you want to sell it is not.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Rob McCreary wrote:

Living in the Czech Republic, one of the things I miss most about the US is the customer service. Meaning that generally speaking (in my experience) American customer is good. Wonderfully good. Here in Prague, we call it "Service with a snarl." And it's almost universal. Good customer service is so rare here, it might as well not exist.

But I worked retail for many years in the US, and am well aware of how crappy customers can be. But just remember - it could be worse...

Hmmmm... Rob do I still want to Visit Prague at the end of October?...;-)


I'm in the habit of leaving unbelievably huge tips to waiters who don't smirk. They're hard to find.

Liberty's Edge

Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
Mac Boyce wrote:
Heathansson wrote:

Our society is getting bigger. I live in a city where one rude person will never cross my path again, or if he does I won't know who he is.

I don't know many of my neighbors. It's this big gob of anonymous humanity. It makes people defensive. Rude.
I think it's both, frankly. I often receive piss-poor service and don't have the heart to mess with the servicer, because I make way more money than they do, and thus would feel like a mean noble kicking a peasant around or something. Plus they can spit on your food, or other nice things. Yeah, I saw Fight Club.
It's not like small town America any more, if indeed it still exists anywhere. I've seen it before, though.

Rent the movie "Waiting".

*evil grin*

I don't really want to. Maybe, though, it'd make my wife wanna eat out less.
If she's rude...yes, it will keep her from eating out more.
What do I do to rude servers, pee in their shoe?

What you do is make friends with the managers, who will then let the cooks know you are a "preferred customer" and then you can bypass the servers (except for placing your orders, getting drinks) for the manager will watch over the table and make sure you are okay.

But if you can't do that and have found that your server was being rude, POLITELY ask to see a manager, POLITELY tell the manager about the situation and then the manager will take care of the situation.

One thing to remember, if your food is made wrong, NEVER take it out on the server. While there have been occasions where the server has taken your order wrong, most of the time its the cooks who have overcooked your steak (for example) and are just hoping that you won't notice.

I know that customers are rude, but frankly the whole food tainting thing makes me never want to eat out again. I rely on the benevolence and good judgment of people who theoretically might spit in my food to not get tainted food. I don't have much confidence there, frankly.

And POLITELY is a judgment call, possibly made by an either immature or mentally disturbed individual.
So "just be nice, and you'll probably be okay" doesn't leave me feeling very secure.
I'm not accusing anybody of anything, understand that; it just creeps me out.

Dark Archive

This person does a better job than I ever would of ranting about the service industry and whiny entitled people. Her language might be a little overly colorful for some, but it's hard not to agree with her on this point.

I like steak rare and dripping. I like steak brown on the outside and pink on the inside. I like steak black and crunchy on the outside. It's *steak!* What's not to love? :)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I don't know what it is with you people and raw meat. A steak is ideal at Medium. That is, just barely cooked all the way through (pink in the middle, not raw).

A burger should be served medium-well.

Sushi should be tempura-battered and deep fried.

Dark Archive

Kirth Gersen wrote:
I'm in the habit of leaving unbelievably huge tips to waiters who don't smirk. They're hard to find.

You don't determine tip percentage by server hawtness? I thought that was how everyone did it? :)

Dark Archive

Set wrote:

This person does a better job than I ever would of ranting about the service industry and whiny entitled people. Her language might be a little overly colorful for some, but it's hard not to agree with her on this point.

THAT........WAS..........AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Set wrote:

This person does a better job than I ever would of ranting about the service industry and whiny entitled people. Her language might be a little overly colorful for some, but it's hard not to agree with her on this point.

I like steak rare and dripping. I like steak brown on the outside and pink on the inside. I like steak black and crunchy on the outside. It's *steak!* What's not to love? :)

This is my Favorite part of this, and something I fully agree with!!

anonymous wrote:

Speaking of respect, another idea that has ruined American culture is the one that states, ‘I don’t give respect freely. You have to earn my respect.’ This one is most often uttered by punk kids with bad attitudes and black fingernail polish.

*bad word deleted* gag me.

I mean, how egotistical does one have to be to automatically assume that their respect is so *bad word deleted* important that one must jump through multiples hoops in order to earn it? How about we give people respect because they are humans with lives and feelings just as important as our own? Why not give people a default level of respect and more or less can either be won or lost based on the behavior of the individual? The loss of respect is something that should be based on actions. The idea that that one must win basic respect in the first place is incredibly belittling. How narcissistic can you be to embrace that ideology?

Sovereign Court

Set wrote:

This person does a better job than I ever would of ranting about the service industry and whiny entitled people. Her language might be a little overly colorful for some, but it's hard not to agree with her on this point.

Good stuff. :)


It doesn't always work, but I've found that I generally get what I give. I've done my share of both retail and customer service, and I'm well aware that the pittance these folks typically make isn't enough to make it worth giving a damn.

That said, if they can't simulate giving a damn, they're also limiting their own opportunities. But that's a different topic.

Sometimes, just being friendly is all it takes. My favorite example is airline employees. I can't believe how many times I've watched frustrated consumers take it out on the gate agents when a delay is due to weather.

I flew several weeks ago when the airline's computer system was completely down during my checkin/boarding. I do IT support - I know computers are imperfect. And I know the guy standing in front of me isn't the one who broke it, or the one fixing it. I also know that waiting patiently for my turn and having a kind word for the gate agent got my daughter and I free business class upgrades.

Having said all that, I have my limits. During my last DSL hookup at the house, I spent over 3 hours on the phone trying to persuade the guy on the other end to tell me what my default password for the new account was, so I could connect. By the end of that conversation, I was done being polite.

Liberty's Edge

For service, I tend to operate on the "Oh, so I guess you never want me to come back here ever again" principle. If you cannot be even vaguely competent or polite, I am gone. I have experienced that in stores of all sizes. Once in a small deli I ordered half a pound of meat. The guy was slicing, weighed out .4 lbs, went back and cut a dozen more slices, then casually expected me to buy .8 lbs. When I reminded him that I asked for half a pound, he said "What, you want me to throw it out?" I never went there again.
Conversely, a supermarket I go to has fast, polite service, with very rare overweights, they either give me a piece to try there, short the scale (pull the extra meat off, ring it up, then drop the extra meat back into the order), or at least ask before ringing it up. Last Christmas I stopped, asked to see the manager, and told him how good I thought his deli department was. I have also complimented the shift manager as a McDonald's for having his staff running at high efficiency. I want them to know when they are doing good.

As for steak:
Steak should be cooked by putting it on a plate, showing it the fire, then serving it.
Serving sizes for steak are as follows:
16 oz or less - appetizer
17-32 oz - side dish
33-48 oz - entree
49 oz + - main dish
It should be accompanied by large quantities of ice cold vodka.
My capacity for both has left more than a few people stunned (save ends). :)


Ross Byers wrote:

I don't know what it is with you people and raw meat. A steak is ideal at Medium. That is, just barely cooked all the way through (pink in the middle, not raw).

A burger should be served medium-well.

Sushi should be tempura-battered and deep fried.

First two, I agree with. Sorry you haven't enjoyed sushi (meaning raw fish).

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