Well, SCs have to work somewhere

[Alpha Strike]

Back in '05, I was looking for a new car...

Me (to ): Congrats, sir, you just made 3 grand. *takes gently by the arm, starts walking toward the office.
GSG: But damnit, I made the sale!
Me: No, made the sale, you wanted me to look at something 'more economical.'

(As a side note, with the options package, ended up with close to $4K in a commission.)

Outstanding! No better way to punish an arrogant, patronizing salesman then to rub in his face exactly how his attitude just lost him a whole bucket of cash!

After a bit of reflection I think I can figure out the problem....

***snip***

At the end of the crossing, my Husband gave him our usual, personal tip of $100. USD. He presented it in the Gentleman's way with the bills tucked under the thumb and passed in a hearty handshake. The waiter knew what was happening but many of our fellow diners didn't. I didn't think the Waiter deserved as much as he got from us but, one must expect to spend a bit frivolously on a holiday.

Truthfully I think the problem was that the waiter was childish and immature, and certainly not suited for a position in dealing with a wide range of customers. Even if you're on-target with what was bothering him, so what?! A good waiter - especially when we're talking about high-end places - should be able to roll with the punches and not let trivial things affect his service. This is even more important when we're talking about someone who will be serving you repeatedly over the course of a week.

By the way, I must be more of a commoner then I thought. I had never heard of this specific way of tipping; I would have only known enough to be discrete in slipping this... "gentleman" a tip.

... Woodfield Mall

Woah woah! Fellow Chicagoan and/or suburbanite! (I'm from Wheeling myself.)
............................................

Funny, but the only bad service story that really jumps to mind - at least of this type - did happen at a couple car dealerships.

Several years ago I was shopping for a new car. I had saved up my pennies and had also gotten a very generous gift from a grandparent (read: several thousand dollars) and so I had enough to walk in and buy outright any car I was considering in my price range (about $18,000 - $24,000).

Anyway, after doing a few weeks worth of research, I made a point of dressing down when I went out to the dealerships; I didn't look like a hobo, but I just wore some comfortable shorts, a t-shirt and sneakers. As you might expect, I wasn't treated too well at some places.

I was completely ignored at both the local Pontiac and Chrysler dealerships, and only got the bare minimum of attention when I went to Ford. It was bad enough locally that I ended up going to a dealership in a nearby city (about 25 minutes away) and buying my car there. My salesman, whose name I still remember after 11 years, was exactly what I was looking for: laid-back, no pressure, and friendly. Even after I made 5 different trips to his dealership - and his sales manager got opennly irritated with me for not making a decision - John never pushed me to buy. That was a HUGE reason why I ended up buying a car from them, especially since there were several Chevy dealerships that were closer to me then his.

[DeltaSierra]

My worst experience as a customer was when I was shopping at a Victoria's Secret looking for a bridal shower gift for a friend. I'm not a skinny girl, and the clerk came up to me and said "Excuse me, but you won't find anything in YOUR SIZE here...why don't you try Lane Bryant?"

[Racket_Man]

Woah woah! Fellow Chicagoan and/or suburbanite! (I'm from Wheeling myself.)
............................................

.

nope not anymore moved away about 6 years ago to the frozen north Ya know

I used to live in Des Plaines and the car dealer was accross the road from the mall south of Golf Rd.

[Lace Neil Singer]

My worst experience as a customer was when I was shopping at a Victoria's Secret looking for a bridal shower gift for a friend. I'm not a skinny girl, and the clerk came up to me and said "Excuse me, but you won't find anything in YOUR SIZE here...why don't you try Lane Bryant?"

I'm not skinny either, and I would have been hard pressed not to clock her one. That was really nasty.

[Chromatix]

I've heard, interestingly enough, that Porsche dealers are usually quite relaxed about how you dress. Apparently they are used to people having well-paid but not glamourous jobs, and being a luxury marque each sale is worth a lot.

[protege]

to this day I am not sure how this salesman (or the dealership for that matter) stayed in business if that was the sales techniques they used.

I know one salesman who is no longer in business...He worked at the Chevy place "minutes from the mall" not far from me. He got reamed out (and later fired) over some things he'd said to me. Keep in mind that I'd just totaled the Tempo about a week or so before, and was still a bit sore. In fact, I walked with a slight limp, and had the neck brace on. In other words, I wasn't in a good mood already...

With the Tempo kaput, I had to get another car for school. Dad and I hit up all the dealers, looking at their used cars. Most of them realized we were just looking, and that we'd possibly be back to buy a car. Not this guy...

He actually *refused* to walk the lot with us, since we weren't sure we were buying a car that day. He actually left us standing in the middle of the lot

Needless to say, my father was a bit pissed. He told me to get into the car...then he went inside the dealership. Let's just say I could hear him outside...and I had the windows up

Turns out the salesman (who just had been relieved of duties) was trying to play a joke, and it backfired To this day, I will not buy a car there, nor will I take one in for servicing.

[reasoned-unreasonableness]

dominoes

one of my friends used to work for government. basically his job was finding jobs for the people who, in all fairness, should never have passed first grade. anyway he's awesome and a smart guy really and one day he tells us 'your chance of getting hired by a pizza place goes up the lower your your iq is.' now at first i figured he must be exaggerating since he likes to make a quick joke or reference, sadly i was mistaken.

me....well its certainly not elvis lol
pw....XXXX pizza worker

pw: yes this is XXXX pizza what can i get for you?
me: yeah i'd like the three medium pizza deal and a 2 liter coke please
pw: will that be delivery or pick up
me: delivery
pw: alright that's $20. 95 you can pick your order up in half an hour
me: but i asked for delivery
pw: but i thought you said pick up
me: no, delivery
pw: right so pick up
me: no i want it delivered
pw: you live out of our delivery area you have to pick it up

this is when i really questioned this person. i mean selective hearing isn't unheard of and if they said all their delivery people were out i would have said alright ill pick it up. i mean its not hard they're set up around 15 blocks away. thats just it though its a mear 15 blocks, well within delivery range and unless they magically lost the 5 delivery cars they have regularly i doubt they were all out. anyway on with the story:

me: um, check again
pw: alright what's your number
me: xxx-xxxx
pw: ah you are in our delivery area. so what would you like to order?
me: .......can i talk to a manager please?
pw: alright hold on

a few seconds later the same person picks up the phone again

pw: hello welcome to XXXX pizza what can i get for you?
me: nothing, i'm suddenly no longer in the mood for pizza *hang up*

at this point i'm sure he didn't notice as when i was hanging up he was talking about the non-pizza deals they had

[ralerin]

All of you guys with car stories are putting me off shopping for one.

Back to restaurant suck. This was a restaurant located not too far from the mall and was billing itself as something like "#1 Italian bistro in the state!" or some such nonsense. It was Tuesday evening. Most restaurants here are half busy on Tuesday nights. This place was completely dead except for us (my father, mother, brother and I). Cue foreboding.

We sat down and the waitress came out with the menus, basket of garlic breadsticks, all the good stuff, we had our drinks. Then dinner came out.
Dad's veggie lasagna? The pasta was completely black. Tomato sauce was spread over it like a thick wool blanket.
My brother's lobster ravioli? Lukewarm to ice cold. It too, had sauce piled on like a blanket.
My spaghetti? Tasted exactly like water with a touch of hot pepper. I'm serious. There was no taste.
I forget what my mother had but she too, wasn't pleased with it at all.

Now my dad tends to yell when he gets upset. This time was no different, but in this case it was justified. The waitress comes over, arms crossed, looking pissy when she sees we're not eating. "Can I get you some take out boxes?" </snotty attitude>

"Get your manager!"

Manager comes over and dad shows him the black lasagna. "The pasta is BLACK!"

What does the manager say? "I see nothing wrong with it."

"YOU HAD THE GALL TO SERVE THIS TO ME AND MY FAMILY?!? WELL WE WILL LEAVE NO TIP!"

To his credit the manager didn't let us pay and the waitress got a dime as a tip. The ravioli gave my brother food poisoning later when we were at the mall. The place closed down a few months later and got turned into a BBQ place. (We went to the BBQ place and while the food was very good, Mum was not pleased with the placemat in the shape of this gigantic tire. *eyeroll* Talk about stupidest reason to not like a place.)

[BethB]

OY! where to start on the restaurant suck....First there was my experience at Dennys where me, hubby, son and mom in law got ignored for 1 1/2 hrs along with 2 other tables.

Another happened to my mom. she went to out for lunch with a coworker. during the meal coworker had to go to the restroom and a few seconds later mom had to go also. Mom got back to the table first where the waitress accused her of trying to leave without paying. Mom yelled back and between her and coworker they left waitress a whopping 1 cent tip. yay mom!

the next happened to mom and brother. Went to Village Inn. Got sat. waited for nearly an hour without drinks, food, being acknowledged while others were being served and fed after they got seated. that was about 40 min longer than I would have waited.

Another was when hubby, son, brother and I were going to eat some mexi-food and we got seated at a section where the server had not even arrived for their shift. Major WTF's from us but we did get our chips and salsa and drinks.

Most of my bad stories come from restaurants and my family and I are good tippers(20% or more) but there is a stereotype about mexicans being bad tippers.

[reasoned-unreasonableness]

i think i started a new era of suck for this thread. yay me

anyway more restaurant suckage

went to local little coffee shop which all in all is a nice place. normally it has fresh donuts, coffee, hot chocolate, and other things so its really a college meet n study place. well one day i found they actually do lunch there with soups n sandwiches which wasn't bad since you got both for around $5 without soda. it also happened that i took my grandmother out with me since i thought she would enjoy it and the cashier was one of her equally senior friends(mid 70s). now for one thing i was amazed to find someone of her age working at a place where college students meet up daily but i guess a job is a job. she was a nice lady but i think in the talking she forgot my drink which i didn't mind to much. she's old, forgetful, and the water is free and serve yourself.

my problem though was with the sandwich station and the woman running it. now the cashier is on one side of the building where the cash register normally is but the sandwich stand(mind you had to take your receipt to them and tell them which sandwich you wanted so they could make and bring it) was across the room not 10 feet from the door to the bathrooms. this was a big no-no to me but i sucked it up and put my order. after that i take my soup and walk to our table where my grandmother is sitting while some more people order sandwiches.

about 30 minutes later ten people had been there gotten their sandwich and ate it and yet i was still waiting for mine where i ordered first when she was doing nothing but talking to a co-worker in the back and while the place was packed she wasn't busy at all. tired of waiting i get up to go see whats taking her and i see the sandwich i ordered sitting next to her fully prepared as it had probably been for about 29 of those 30 minutes.

apon seeing me she gets up with my sandwich and moves to hand it to me. my first thought was 'oh no, its not that easy,' and with such turned around acting like i didn't know it was mine and took a nice long walk to my table her following behind trying to give the plate to me making her deliver it like she is paid to do.

in the end the sandwich didn't taste all that great and i never got a sandwich there again. i did however go for the soup since that was delicious as well as served buffet style so i know when ill get to eat.

[Mike Taylor]

Everything you guys had to deal with just trying to buy a car is one of the reasons I quit the job after three months. I've never seen a more combative, conniving, backstabbing sales environment in my life!

1. The customer has to fight with the salesperson to get a reasonable price.
2. The salesperson has to fight with the customer to get a halfway decent paycheck.
3. The salespeople fight each OTHER to get the customer. Cooperation is actually FROWNED on in getting a sale done.

I've had coworkers go into my sales desk and TAKE paperwork for customers I was working with. The day I saw one of my sales sheets on the manager's desk with my name scratched out and another put in, I waited for my paycheck, took my lunch, and never went back.

[powerboy]

Went to a bar this last Monday with some friends. I finished one drink, so I went up and waited. Now I understand waiting a few minutes, if the bartender is busy. But he was not. He saw me come up and he went behind the drinks, to watch the game that was on. There was glass, so I saw what he was doing.

A couple of minutes of waiting, he finally come back around. But then he checks his phone and starts typing on it. Now I was getting pissed. And I was showing it. He looks at me and asks what I want, then he answers his cell. He then tries giving me what I had earlier. Something that I didn't want right then.

And as a matter of fact, my friends and I are going back on the 22nd of this month. It is karaoke night there & a couple of the friends loves karaoke.