What happened to the American Work Ethic and Customer Service?

I hate to say it, but the thing you're looking at right now can be blamed for a lot of the issues you're talking about. Before the computer we HAD to communicate, we HAD to interact on a PERSONAL LEVEL.

Now it's all about speed. No time to talk, no time to do the job correctly, no time to treat someone with respect. Haven't you heard?!! It's all about ME, and it's all about me getting what I want RIGHT NOW!!! Instant Getification as one search engine commercial puts it. Point and click - never have to talk to a human being, just GET IT - what ever it is.

So here we have a whole generation that was bred incapable of dealing with other people on a human level. Civility has gone the way of serenity. Quality to quantity. All part of the eventual and inevitable undoing of community. Plug in or get left behind.

Personally, I think it sucks. We are losing the very qualities that used to describe what human meant. Sad isn't it?

Well, I don't know what you expected them to do over the phone about missing icecream ? You'd have to go back to Walmart anyway. Honestly? The only way to get any amount of good customer service at a big place like Walmart is to show up in the flesh. They can look you in the eyes and know you are telling the truth .. the package was missing product from it. And if someone DOES give you attitude, their boss is probably 10 seconds away. I always get 90% better results by face-to-face encounters with customer service people vs. over the phone. They feel protected over the phone, like they can get attitude and there isn't anything you can do about it. OR ya could shop somewhere small like a mom & pop place. And even then, if employees are young or inexperienced, they seem to construe a call about an error like you think they are incompetent and wish they'd get fired / docked / yelled at by their boss. It's not rational, but it's how people see you calling and saying something is a mistake. They should just see it as honestly probably not their fault and try to remedy the situation as best they can.. Plus, like others said, customers take advantage and people are underpaid. But a lot more than being underpaid is the lack of common sense that folks seem to exhibit recently. Eh, I miss really good customer service too. If I really can't eat something at restaurants these days, I just don't eat it and won't pay for it. I don't send things back, I'm scared of the employees messing with my food. I also pretty much never call places if something is wrong.. I show up or don't bother. If it's a long distance it's probably a catalog and you can just send that stuff back without talking to anyone. It's not just Walmart. I don't know what's wrong with people.

What happened was the bottom line, and what business likes to call "globalization". People used to take pride in their jobs and in their companies when several decades of service was rewarded by a gold watch and a pension. Now all one can expect is wage and health benefit cuts, layoffs and outsourcing.

A month ago, Circuit City, in an effort to improve their bottom line, "suspended" their veteran employees, allowing them to reapply for their own jobs after a "cooling off" period, although the jobs would already be filled by inexerienced novices working at entry level wages. The customers got bad service because the new employees knew nothing. And experienced employees learned what experience gets you.

Meanwhile, a week doesn't go by without a news story of yet another CEO running his company into the ground and getting a golden parachute for his efforts, or an investment group buying out a struggling, publicly owned company, firing most of the workers and selling a "lean" new company for billions in profit.

Morale is a joke. Job knowledge is value, so it's is a liability to Accounting and Human Resources. Better to break the job down to something a moron can barely do and find the cheapest labor pool. Someone want a union or health benefits? Fire them. There are plenty of desperate minimum-wage candidates with bills to pay.

Citizens complain about illegal immigrants, but without them, prices would have to go up. Those illegals work insane hours for ridiculously low pay without complaining because they know they'll be turned in to Immigration the moment they show signs of resistance. And legal citizens no longer complain because they can be replaced by someone who won't.

For those that survive, they quickly learn not to waste time on anything or anyone that won't help put the boss' kids through Harvard. Customers are sized up for their sales potential. A customer who looks well-off will get more attention than someone in jeans and T-shirt because it's a matter of survival to the commissioned employee. They simply can't afford to waste time on someone looking for a bargain.

And customer complaints about quality are carefully managed to maximize revenue. Want to replace the lightbulb in your GE microwave? Make sure you turn it off at the fusebox or you'll likely blow up a circuit board, and GE won't sell you a replacement part without a $ervice call. Got a gripe about a $5 shirt that fell apart in the wash? It's 5 bucks, man! Get another one! What about that $20 self-setting clock? Just return it to the factory in its original packaging.

When you've had enough of customer service, don't take it out on the employees. They are as frustrated as you are.

I wa just subjected to some of the worst customer service I've ever not received in my life. At the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas at the ticket office. All of the women/girls were under 30 and they were serious snots and made no attempt to render any service. There is no such thing anymore as going the extra mile. Most of them nowadays won't go an inch to resolve a customer issue let alone a mile. I wrote a letter to the entertainment director regarding how I was treated and hope that I get a response shortly. (Just mailed it today.)

Today's society finds rude behavior acceptable because it is easier to be rude than it is to be polite and considerate.

it all depends on how much you pay.

BUSH