Thursday, June 11, 2009

Two Things... or More

It's been an interesting few days. My list of pet peeves has grown and I've been able to add a couple of stories to my life history. I say that as if I'm writing down everything that happens to me, but we all know that I'm not.

Anyway, first I should tell you about my latest adventures and then I'll list my newest pet peeves for your enjoyment/musing/discussion.

I went to the mall last night. Not an entertaining story in itself. Mary and I did the usual... you know, browsing the racks until we found the most hideous dresses we could find to try on. Mission accomplished. I looked like a grandma at a spring picnic and Mary looked like Connie Chung. We moved on to the cosmetic counters because M needed a few things, so I made my way over to the Benefit counter to peruse their latest and greatest products.

The Benefit gal greeted me and let me know that if she could do anything for me to let her know. I said thanks and told her I just wanted to look at what was new and I would let her know if I needed any assistance. I grabbed the new catalog and started flipping through it as I walked around to the different stations at the counter. I made my way back to my starting point just as M was finishing up and I was debating on whether I needed a new lip gloss or not. Benefit gal #2 came over and said, "Can I help you ladies with anything?"

"I'm just looking at what's new," I replied.

"Ohhhhhkaaaayyy," she half mouthed, half spoke as she rolled her eyes.

Then she continued to stand and stare at me as I looked. Just stared. And stared.

"Are you sure I can't help you with anything?" she asked with some annoyance.

"Yeah.... I'm just looking right now.... but thanks," I said mildly, but with a hint of annoyance.

"I just don't like it when people are here just looking. It makes me uncomfortable when people stand there and don't need anything and don't want to try anything," she quipped.

"Ok, well, I'm just looking right now." I retorted with control.

And then I proceeded to stand there and reread the ENTIRE BENEFIT CATALOG because she made me so mad. I WAS going to buy some liptint. WAS. But instead I stood there as long as humanly possible just to make her more uncomfortable.

"Hmm... alright, I guess I'm done." I said to no one as I turned and walked away from the counter.

So if you work in the customer service industry and you have to deal with people all day I suggest you learn some people skills. It's probably not a good idea to be rude to someone that is contemplating buying a product from you because chances are they won't. And chances are that if they want that product they will choose to get it elsewhere from then on. I'm just saying.

M and I then went to Stanford's for a late evening meal. We picked a corner table and ordered our strawberry lemonades. Some folks sat at the table next to us and then a couple sat at the bar across from us, and then a little group was seated in the corner by us as well. They all ordered their drinks as well. We sat drinking lemonade and waiting for our food; about fifteen minutes had passed and the table next to us got their food. Then the couple at the bar got their food. Then the table in the corner got their food. Did I mention that every booth on our side of the restaurant got their food? We still had no food.

So I guess our server finally decided that we deserved our food, so she had another server deliver it to us. Fine. We got to eat. And then we were out of lemonade. The rest of the Stanford patrons had eaten long ago and were finishing their third round of refills. None for us though...

No server to be found.

When she finally did show up she took our order for refills and disappeared. We waited for 15 more minutes for refills. I asked for the check. She scurried away... and disappeared. Again. We waited and looked. And waited. And looked. Finally she reappeared, sans check.

WHAT!?

She remembered and hustled away again to actually bring the check. We left no tip. Obviously.

On to my growing list of pet peeves:
1. Incompetent servers/hosts/hostesses

2. Customer Service associates that don't provide any kind of service. They pay you to help people, so do it. And don't be rude about it either. I'm sorry your having a crappy day, but there is no need to try to ruin mine.

3. People who refer to pregnant ladies as "preggers" or "preggo". Stop it. Unless you need to rhyme your sentence with "Eggo" there is just no need for this. If you are scrambling to edit your blog posts/status updates/Facebook notes now because of this, don't worry about it. Everyone gets a free pass, but consider this your warning.

4. People who volunteer me for things without my knowledge and then I get calls/emails asking when I'm going to be doing "X" thing. Don't assume that because someone else said I would do it, that I actually am aware that they said I would or that I am aware of whatever favor/project/service it is.

On a lighter note, it's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. Which means the WEEKEND! I'm so ready for that.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't know what you're talking about...i loved our server with all my heart. she was fantastic. and i didn't tell you but i actually left her a $100 tip because i thought she was so great and my phone number and she and i are going to start hanging out on a pretty regular basis.

Heather said...

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated to make the story better... sue me!

Heather said...

But really, she was horrendous. And the cosmetic girl was ghastly.