Ben has a few bucks and I guess he is used to being spoiled. I go to a car dealer and they jump me as soon as I hit the lot. They watch out the window like vultures and you cant get your foot on the ground before one of them comes bugging you. They act like they are starving to death. Geez- I want to take a minute and look on my own a while.
But Ben is right service has gone to hell. You cant get any business on the phone now unless you listen to a computer and push buttons. Forget the government or the phone company-too many buttons. I saw an ad on TV the other day saying they had a real person on the phone. so I guess they may ne starting to wake up.
Look at a website like ebay and you'll be happy to get a phone menu. They don't even give out phone numbers. Email goes through a series of menus to "sort of" define your problem.
And they'll get back to you when they feel like it and not respond to your responses to email. You have to go through their online menu system if there is still a problem.
"Customer service" is a joke. They find dealing with customers to be nothing but a nusiance. Rather than address problems they pretend they don't exist and turn a deaf ear. And that becomes the "new standard".
Our economy is shifting jobs out of production and into services but services are shriking.
Nah, maybe it is the places he is visiting or maybe it is the city he lives in. Here in Kansas City and Minneapolis (the 2 cities I live in/work in) I have almost always had great, friendly service -- ranging from low-level restaurants ($20 lunch) to high end restaurants ($150 dinner), rental cars, airlines (Midwest and Southwest) and hotels.
In fact, about the only bad customer service I've had recently was last night at Pizza Hut when I had placed an Internet order for a pizza, gone to get it and 10 people were standing around staring at a spatula for 5-6 minutes before asking me if I had been helped.