Why is every supposed "customer service representative" just an aggressively-sales-oriented go-getter, who doesn't know what serving the customer really means?
I feel another rant coming on. This one will be about the disappearance of "common decency" and, generally, morality. I'm not defining morality in terms of biblical "morality," such as it is called, because those don't define morality at all. They are merely the club rules by which one must play in order to fit into a particular god's "house."
People used to be polite. I don't mean this as in not burping, farting, or saying, even to the consternation of listeners, "Well, f*ck that sh*t," when it comes to the organized lunacy whose sects propagate more violence than any intellectual ideas ever introduced. [Jesus freaks and god-botherers of all stripes say shite like "evolution is just a theory," but I'd like for them to explain the difference between evolution and gravity, then, because gravity is, after all, just a theory. I'd like for them to disprove gravity by using their own corporeal bodies as trajectories running off the edge of one of San Diego's myriad canyons. My curiosity asks: Will they pause, in midair, a la Wile E Coyote, look down, and realize there's no ground beneath them, before plunging into the canyon?] I mean polite as in actually doing the jobs for which they should be hired, or have all employers just become large corporations, who, just like a snake oil salesman, out for a quick buck before skipping town?
What am I thinking? Most corporations are just out to make as much money as quickly as possible, of course, because they believe that as long as they can provide the cheapest product for the lowest price (even though the price might be outrageous for the crap they're actually selling, a la Wal-mart), the price going in is low enough so that some people will, thinking in the short term, rationalize that when it breaks down (and it will, sooner rather than later, of course), they'll just have to get another anyway. It's the development of the disposable society that irks me the most.
I don't want to sound like an old nag (because I'm not old, not because I don't complain or nag, because I realize I do my share of both), but I remember appliances that had 30-year warranties that actually never had to be called upon because those appliances lasted for the entire duration of the collective childhoods within any given household that bought said appliance. I'm talking about the old household-common names like Whirlpool, Maytag, and General Electric. Of these three, the only one left, really, is GE, and they just sold their appliance division to Electrolux because they've decided that consumer appliances are not where they can best place their resources to make the highest profits. Of course, they can no longer make a go of things by making appliances - it's not an industry with large profit margins, at least not any more, unless one is either SubZero (fridges/freezers)/Wolf or another "boutique" high-end brand name that commands high retail and "contractor" pricing.
But I digress. What I mean to address is the loss of store personnel who actually help customers achieve their goal of obtaining the best product, even if at the cost of their own business. One place where I (not too recently) received this treatment was when I'd gone to Saks Fifth Avenue, in the Westfield Fashion Valley shopping center, to shop for a new swimsuit. I was not looking for a "bathing" suit, just a utilitarian swimsuit which I could wear when I swam for exercise at my local community college pool. The saleswoman who helped me (and I didn't get her name, but if I had, I'd have written a note to their management to praise her for her professionalism), after listening to my description of what I wanted, actually pointed me in the direction of another store that specialized in sporting equipment and therefore would be more likely to have the swimsuit I sought. She was right to do so. I thanked her, and then left the store to find the correct retail outlet to find what I sought. She was being a real human being, not just an automaton purely focused on selling me something even if it were not what I wanted or needed, or else being no help at all.
That's the kind of decency that is lacking in today's (retail) environment. I despair at this loss of humane treatment among humans, if for nothing else but for the loss of lasting satisfaction (on the parts of both parties) and gratitude. I would like to think that if I return to that particular Saks Fifth store, that the same saleswoman might still be working there (for I'd hate to think that the management would have laid off such a good, honest person, though one never knows), and that I'd be able to thank her personally, even though she might have forgotten the exchange by now.
I think it's a generational shift. The new(er) generation of consumers is more self-reliant and self-service-oriented, whereas I'm still accustomed to receiving assistance when I need it.
A retailer who almost gets it right is Home Depot. They seem to have enough employees, but their availability is spotty. It's nice, though, to enter and not only be greeted, but also directed to the relevant department. At Costco, there are greeters, as well, but they usually just greet and do not seem to be there to guide customers to a relevant department, probably because when most folks go to a place like Costco, they're shopping for multiple things and so would be covering most of the store's areas, anyway. I don't want to judge Costco unfairly, though, because I've never gone into a Costco looking for a single department. I'm usually there to browse a bit, since I don't usually shop in bulk, being that I have practically no storage space for anything in my flat. I usually go to just check it out, seeing if there any any large impulse purchases that I can make and still live with myself. I feel comfortable shopping at Costco, though, because it pays its employees fair wages and provides benefits. It's a good employer, unlike the sibling of Wal-mart, which seemingly has no human motivation besides pure greed.
What I really lament is the rise of greed, which appears to be eclipsing all other human traits. How do people manage to raise decent families in this environment? I'm trying; are parents the only humans left who experience desires other than materialistic and selfish greed?
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