Demanding Better Service

If there's a common complaint in rants across the blogosphere, it's stories of bad customer service. Well I'm here to tell you I'm mad as hell perturbed by the whole thing and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I generally wither in the face of confrontation but there have been some glimpses of assertiveness lately.

Case in point:

Yesterday I went to the mall to get some odds and ends...a lava lamp for my mom and some 2008 calendars at 50% off. I made my way to the food court where my salivary glands were already in full anticipation of some Chinese fast food. Yuuuuuuuum, yum!

As I approached the enclave of Asian gastronomic delight, there was the usual Roper-Inner persuading passers-by with chicken samples on a toothpick.

There was the Disher-Upper behind the hot trays that dished up my bourbon chicken, lo mein, and green beans. BTW, always order it "to go" even if you're eating in the food court because they give you more food that way.

To my left, I noticed a mid-50's black woman standing at the cash register waiting to give her drink order and pay for her food. I'm not sure how long she'd been there and no one was there to serve her. I wondered if she was getting poor service because of her skin color. I wondered if she wondered if she was getting poor service because of her skin color. I grabbed my styrofoam container from Disher-Upper and took my place behind her in line. I planned to order a Diet Coke since I'm watching my weight.

After we waited a bit, my queue-mate turned to me and I rolled my eyes. She whispered, "What are they doing back there?" I shrugged.

Disher-Upper looked at us and then yelled something in Chinese over his shoulder to the kitchen. No response, no activity. Disher-Upper continued to dish and Roper-Inner continued to rope. And we continued to wait.

The lady turned to me again, and I asked with a smile, "Do you want me to get some attention?" She smiled in return and nodded her head affirmative. I didn't want to embarrass her because I was going to demand better service. It chaps my hide when customers wait while the help dilly-dally. I've been on that side, and you put the customer first. Period. You do your odd job shit when no one's around.

There still was no activity headed our way, so I shouted with a command voice into the kitchen, "Yo, Tony, ya got some customas waitin' out heeya!" I caught Disher-Upper by surprise and he jumped. He hushed me, and I looked around the food court to see how much trouble I was causing. As my gaze returned to his, I defused the situation with a huge grin. He scurried to the register. It would seem that Ringer-Upper was also part of Disher-Upper's job description. He just needed a firm reminder.

I looked over at the lady and she had a look of satisfaction. I winked, and said as I waved my hand over my head, "It's just like hailing a cab in New York. Yo, Tony, I need a cab ova heeya!" We all laughed.

And that, my friends, is how you act like a jerk to get your way light a fire under unresponsive service providers!
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