Susan Elkin Photography Blog
Reveal the Mystery

Aug

6

Looking for Stories

Filed Under Creative Projects, Where I am Going, Writing

Hey, everybody, I have a request! I’m writing a book about negative experiences customers/clients have had in restaurants or retail shops. Particularly treated shabbily by either the employees and owners of the establishment themselves. For example, I’ve had MANY experiences where I entered a retail shop and felt that I ought to ‘thank the employees for allowing me to enter the store’. How’s this one – Several employees are just standing around behind the counter and there’s ONE customer (you) WAITING to be asked ‘can I help you?’ After five or ten minutes an employee turns to you, not saying anything (no greeting, nothing) waits for YOU THE CUSTOMER to respond to his/her silence. Your response is greatly appreciated and I shall add it as fodder to my book.

~~ Susan Elkin

AWE Window Display

Comments

12 Responses to “Looking for Stories”

  1. Sue O'Kieffe on August 6th, 2007 3:56 pm

    hi susan,
    i’d be happy to post a request on my blog, since not everyone reads comments that closely….
    i have a phone/web-based customer service gripe…do you want those, or just brick and mortar experiences? feel free to email me if you want to.

    ~sue

  2. Susan Elkin on August 6th, 2007 5:19 pm

    Hi, Sue – Thank you so much for your most generous offer.

    YES, I would LOVE your story
    YES, I would LOVE to have you talk about it in your post.

    I’m eager to hear from other people.

    ~~ Susan Elkin

  3. Diane Clancy's Art Blog on August 6th, 2007 7:51 pm

    Safe to Check Out CafePress…

    there is activity again over at Susan’s blog … and she is asking for stories of yours … but go check it out yourself
    ……

  4. Rima on August 7th, 2007 12:21 pm

    Hi, Susan! I’ve been thinking about this all morning. I’ve had so many bad experiences that it’s hard to pinpoint the worst one. This is such a common experience these days, isn’t it, this feeling like you’re not a valued costumer in most places… especially the ones “manned” by kids with no extensive life experience, or much understanding of basic civility. I tend to shy away from stores (or other commercial venues) where I know that it’s more aggravating than necessary to shop there.

    One of my more memorable experiences happened about 4 years at a family-type chain restaurant, well-known for its friendly atmosphere and accessible food, and where the manager is known to stop by the patrons’ table and check if they’re happy. That particular day, after waiting for our food to come for close to an hour (the kids were NOT happy), we casually mentionned to the manager that the food took a while to get to us – he asked, we answered. Two minutes later, our furious waitress comes swooping down on us to chastise us on our audacity – how dare we tell her boss we were unhappy with the service? Needless to say, her boss heard a lot more from us, and we saved the expense of having to tip anyone. And we never went back. Now, that’s a good example of how to loose a good costumer – neglect to remind the staff that those annoying people (the costumers) actually provide the revenue which pays the salaries, and in exchange, they generally require service AND courtesy – or politeness, at the very least.

  5. Susan Elkin on August 7th, 2007 3:49 pm

    Rima, thank you for taking time from your busy life to respond to “Looking for Stories.”

    My condolences to you – it’s perplexing to me why a business owner/manager either looks the other way or just doesn’t care about how employees treat customers/clients. There’s much mediocrity in the world.

    Again, I appreciate your sharing your story with me (us).

    ~~ Susan Elkin

  6. Sue O'Kieffe on August 9th, 2007 10:15 am

    Hi Susan,
    Here’s my story: Somehow this winter, when perusing the net, I managed to get signed up for a service I didn’t intend to order. The monthly charge was added to my phone bill. When I called the company billing me, they agreed to stop billing me the $8.49. It took two more billing cycles to remove it from my bill (because a supervisor had to approve it.) Now, two months after the last charge to my account I still had not been refunded for the $25.50 due me. When I called and asked why it was not approved at the same the stoppage of the billing was approved, I was told “I don’t know.” C’mon folks. Get your act together and stop trying to hold onto your money. It will probably be another two months before that refund goes through. Im sure the company is hoping for the “out of sight out of mind” many of us go through when something drags on for a period of time. I will say, though, when I initially contacted AT&T regarding the charge on my bill, people bent over backwards to assist me with some difficulty I was having finding my correct account information.
    ~Sue O’Kieffe

  7. Susan Elkin on August 9th, 2007 11:49 am

    Thank you, Sue. I do think some places hope for ‘the out of sight, out of mind’ mission statement in their accounts payable manual of procedures. I hope it’s in the mail and in YOUR hands Friday.

    ~~ Susan Elkin

  8. Judi Singleton on August 9th, 2007 6:19 pm

    I had a interesting encounter with Sears yesterday. I called because I had bought a refrigerator from them and had not received either my Sears card or a bill. They said unless you have a credit card number I can’t talk to you. I laughingly said, would you like to give me the refrigerator for my birthday. They put me on with a supervisor. Who said we do not have your address so we could not send a bill. But I said, “You delivered the refrigerator to this address.” Funny almost six phone calls later got it straightened out. Judi

  9. Susan Elkin on August 11th, 2007 12:55 am

    I’m sure at the time your experience with Sears was quite frustrating – it was rather amusing – you received the refrigerator but they didn’t have your address. Sounds like intercommunication isn’t a concern to Sears.
    Judi, thank you for responding to my plea. I shall add your experience to my notes.

    ~~ Susan Elkin

  10. Sue O'Kieffe on August 13th, 2007 1:23 pm

    hey susan!
    just wanted to come by and say how much i enjoyed your visit to my blog. i hope you might do so again and again….(no pressure, you understand, no pressure)
    ~sue

  11. Bobbie on October 10th, 2007 7:04 am

    Susan,

    There are so many of these bad experiences today. I think especially when one has to deal with telephone support. One Thanksgiving our satellite TV went out after service on Thanksgiving eve where the technician removed one of our antennas without telling us. My husband spent the entire day on the telephone being shuttled from one support person to the next. He was determined he was going to have football that day. But even his tenacity did not help as he did not have Thanksgiving football. The next day he canceled our service and we went to local cable service where they know how to treat a customer!

  12. Idetrorce on December 15th, 2007 1:00 pm

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce

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