Time for a rant... venting if you want to call it that.
What happened to service?
I mean really, is it too much to ask that making an inquiry, or a purchase does not include eye rolls, sighs, looking at feet or obviously having an aura of not wanting to be there?
Now I am going to quickly point out that this is not just a blanket assessment of the entire service industry, but I have generally noticed that most people working in it are not too thrilled about doing so.
Example one: At my local hardware store (you know the one, its a green shed that is about the size of a suburb), I was looking for a particular item and although I generally love to walk aimlessly around this place I was in a hurry.
At first I thought it was just a coincidence that most staff members seemed to be located at the opposite end of the store (farthermost from the registers) but then I discovered that when you saw one (sometimes groups of 3 or 4) and walked towards them they were able to quickly scurry backwards (looking away as not to make eye contact) and by the time you got to the isle end they had disappeared down another isle. Following was pointless as when you saw them in the distance they would repeat the process again.
Example 2: Went to a restaurant, not silver service but not fast food either. Upon arrival the greeter (lets call her that) asked if we had a booking? (the restaurant was 3/4 empty!) I said no (eye rolls and audible click as if she was giving me the 'tisk tisk' noise). Apparently there was about to be a rush of customers that had reservations.
After grabbing the menus she proceeded to walk 3 steps, passed me the menus and waved her hand in an arc saying "you can sit anywhere, near the windows if ya like. Or maybe that one" (pointing to a nearby table).
We then walked the extra 3 meters and sat ourselves down.
Example 3: Needed a coffee, which is something that I need quite often.
At this particular shop, there was a queue of about 6 people, so no big deal.
One girl was making coffee so she was busy. One girl was taking orders, so she was busy.
The other 2 girls were also occupied, one texting and one watching her text (who knew it was a 2 person job).
Apparently one of the girls boyfriends or love interest was hilarious as there was lots of 'OMG' and 'LOL' to be had.
Unfortunately drawn by all the giggling the girl taking orders went over, followed by the coffee maker to see what all the 'OMG'ing was about leaving 5 people waiting for coffee.
Honorable mentions: The well known juice bar who has the music so loud that you need to yell your order to the teen at the counter several times.
The Northern beach side cafe who cant make changes to the menu, not even little ones like adding spinach to a breakfast order instead of tomato.
So what can we do about this lack of service?
If you complain, you get blank looks, eye rolls and sighs.
Good luck trying to find a manager (or most of the time the 17 year old you are complaining about is the manager) and make sure that if you do complain in a restaurant, its at the end of a meal so you don't get any 'unwanted extras' in your food (to be fair, that has never happened to me that I know of but I don't want to take any chances).
So what can we do?
AD