Robotic Reactions

So often of late I ask a simple question of an employee – and feel that I’m imposing on their time and goodwill. You know; that vacant stare, the glance at other workers chatting together, the standard meaningless phrases taught by HR courses. It really gets my goat.

Ones that stick in my mind:

We (or rather they) booked the van in for investigative work. We rose early and drove our 2 vehicles for an hour in the rain to get there. Reception looked blank. It was not on the infallible computer – thus indicating; we must have dreamed it. We were in the wrong. Boiling gently, we informed her we wanted to see the Service Manager, now. He came and apologised for the mistake and told her to do the paperwork. She looked bored, stared that vacant disinterested look across the room, and said “I’m Happy to Do That”. Resulting in an Explosion –“IT’S YOUR JOB, I don’t care if you’re Happy – do it”.

Selling our remote North Devon rural cottage in a wet winter; the Estate Agent sent a young lady to write the blurb. She arrived in a black shoulder-padded suit, stiletto heels and a pink handbag. No wellies and Barbour in the BMW boot. 2 acres of ponds, paths, surrounded by gorse and heather, cliff-top views and no neighbours were the main selling points – which she completely dismissed: “It’s a bit isolated. People don’t like bungalows”. And so forth. We sent her away. We sold it as a second home to a ‘celebrity’, through a different Agent.

It’s really a failure of managers, who need to weed out their incapable staff, or at least retrain them to listen, to assess people and to do their jobs properly – not just to pass the hours until closing time.

“We don’t stock those anymore; there’s no demand. You’re the fourth person who has asked today.”

I'm probabaly just the archetypal Grumpy. It's my age....

Reading that back, in the cool light of evening, the Estate Agent bit sounds unbearably pompous.

It wasn’t. In 1980 we bought our first home, an unwanted ex-café wreck high up on a cliff. It cost 3.5 times our combined salaries (mine and half my wife’s). The alternative was a starter home in the south for the same price, all we could afford. The interest rate rose to 14% after we bought it.

We spent all we had, for years, keeping it waterproof. It took us 12 years (tax-free overseas) to save enough to completely rebuild it, and we lived in it, on and off, for 25 years. We finally down-sized, bought our VW Trooper, and another little cottage project with the proceeds.

Okay, we were lucky. I was in the army and she was a teacher. We didn’t want children. We could save for the future. But, we never had any other debts and saved to buy everything with cash.

So there.

Customer service doesn't seem to exist in many places...... Restuarant staff who are doing you a favour to bring food that you are paying them for and then look with disgust if the tip isn't big, garage staff/salesmen who know less about the product than you do, shop assistants who talk with their mates whilst you are waiting for them to do something. I could go on.. In USA a tip is expected in a restuarant but at least you get great service most of the time

Hi there,

Where do I start; after reading everything through gritted teeth with head nodding like mad in agreement?

"It's worth about £90,000." said the wee lassie from the estate agent - we sold it for £135,000 a couple of weeks later!

With regard to the good old US of A I tasted a glass of wine in New York and said "It's corked. I'm not drinking that!" The waiter looked aghast and fetched the manager.

The manager tasted it "There's nothing wrong with it. It all tastes like that." he said.

"In that case, it's all corked." I replied.

"I'll get you another bottle." said the manager.

"There's not much point if it all tastes like that." I replied "I'll just make do with water."

"But we have opened the bottle." said the manager.

"I know, that's why your waiter asked me to taste it." I replied.

He looked completely flummoxed, I enjoyed the water, I made damn certain that the wine didn't appear on the final bill and as for a tip ......... somewhere between "No way!" and "No chance!"

Best regards,

Ian

Never had the unfortunate experience of corked wine in USA but did in France once. The waiter nearly had a fit, called the manager who never even tasted it. Simply sniffed it and replaced with a (slightly) better one. In general though, USA service is pretty good.

DuxDeluxe wrote:..................... In general though, USA service is pretty good.

Agree; and nothing beats a "foot-long chilli dog" on a cold day!!


Ian

I just love it when you talk dirty!

Baseball game with all the trimmings. Trouble is I always see the Astros and they always lose

Houston Texans - having a brilliant season so far!

Wondering if the budget will stretch to a visit if they reach the Superbowl - but not holding my breath! (Actually, that is probably the ONLY way I would have enough money to go!! In a box, posthumously!)


Ian