Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Cascade, MD
Posts: 74

I tip well for good service - but when it is lousy, I think leaving a tiny little tip - .10 or so...is pretty effective. If you leave nothing, a server could think you forgot to tip; if you leave a dime on the table, the message is quite clear!

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Life is not a dress rehearsal!

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 118

Tipping issue

Hmm -

been reading the thread and want to put my $.02 in on it.

I have been involved in customer service as a tech weenie for the last decade. I have worked in numerous cattle centers....er I mean call centers, and I have had to sit through the company propaganda films where they spout the politically correct platitudes that the customer is always right. I have seen instances where customers on the phone who were threatening the techs with bodily harm, unusual suggestions for kinky sexual techniques, etc - who were given to supervisors who would give them whatever they wanted just to get them the hell outta their hair.

As a consequence, I am a very open minded customer when I go to a retail establishment, except for one thing. I bloody well assume that my business is worth the most excellant customer service I can get. I will tip well for good service, will tip adequately for fair service and will not hesitate to tip poorly for poor service. I also have no problems telling mgmt why I'm doing so - they need to be told when their staff does *good* as well as bad, and I also don't hesitate to refuse to return to places that have disappointed me. Retail *lives* by return customers and word of mouth, and they know it.

I would encourage everyone to judge waitstaff by the same measurements that you are expected to live by. Could you get away with treating someone with the same level of care as your waiter/waitress has given you? This is the general rule of something being fair - if it is turned around, would the other person like it. Would your waitress/waiter like being treated the same way if he or she needed your help at your place of work? If the answer is yes, you either got great service or work for the government or Motor Vehicle Department.

Ok, rant over.

Cheers!

Tucson Sailors

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Prison
Posts: 421

Well,

I must say I agree with you TC.

Customer service people get the crap screamed outta them, and usually end up in a bad mood. The good ones (like bkbk of course ) can forget about it with the next customer. However, I've been the victim of some really NASTY people with tech support. I mean the guy was downright RUDE! I tried to say as little as possible, and ended up having to lie and say my problem was solved (it wasn't) so I could re-call the company tech support again and get someone who wasn't as pissy.

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<b><font size=1 color=teal>"Sorry about the whole thing about losing your life savings, but that Palmpilot is property of Enron, so please give it back"

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 19

Greyhound

This isn't exactly a customer service story, but there are some crazy people on the Greyhound bus. I used to take it pretty regularly, and I witnessed a number of funny occurrences. Once I remember I met this guy in the station who had a ton of stuff laid out on about 5 seats. He startd trying to give me things of his, which I politely declined. Then he asked me if I would take some of his stuff on to the bus and say it was mine. I was kind of uneasy about that so I tried to say no as politely as I could, but then of course he got really mad, so I walked outside. He got some other guys to take his stuff, but the people at the depot found out, because he got in some kind of trouble. They eventually let him on the bus, and the whole two hour ride he spent yelling stuff at the driver. By the end of the ride, some of the other passengers started yelling back at him. I just turned my music up loud so I didn't have to listen to it

Another time I got on the bus and it was empty except for two people, a girl and this guy sitting beside her. The guy was talking to her excitedly. I assumed that they were good friends from the way he was talking. He spent the whole two hour bus ride talking nonstop, and she barely said a word. He was talking about some weird stuff, too- it sounded like he had 5 or 6 foreign girlfriends he met on the net, and he said one of them destroyed all the stuff in his house, another's parents went after him, and so on. He got off at an earlier stop than her, and the person in the seat beside her turned around and asked who he was. She'd never seen him before, he just sat down and started talking to her. I didn't know people tried to pick up on the Greyhound Weird, weird guy...

To be fair, I've also met some pretty nice people on the bus, but I never had any experience like those ones on the plane or train.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Prison
Posts: 421

WOW!

Hehehe! that's hilarious! I love this post...

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<b><font size=1 color=teal>"Sorry about the whole thing about losing your life savings, but that Palmpilot is property of Enron, so please give it back"

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

Re: Greyhound

quote:

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Originally posted by yuso
This isn't exactly a customer service story, but there are some crazy people on the Greyhound bus.<snip>

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"Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds." -- Albert Einstein

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Prison
Posts: 421

BTW, Cineplex Odeon is owned by Sony! Mwaahahhahahahahahahahahahaahhahaha

Ok......

Well bkbk, you'd think that companies would start to focus more and more on consumer needs & demands. However, they seem to think that all we care about is price price price. That's only 80% of what we care about!!!! They seem to be getting the idea that they can get rid of perks in favor of price. (Or in some cases, they just take away the perks.)


I'll post another story right after this. G2g for now!

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<b><font size=1 color=teal>"Sorry about the whole thing about losing your life savings, but that Palmpilot is property of Enron, so please give it back"