Wednesday, July 23, 2014

How to Send Out an "I'm a Jerk" Signal

Can I just rant for a minute??

Everyone has their pet peeves. Their list of things they absolutely cannot tolerate. I, myself, have several of them, but there is one specifically that I feel the need to rant to you about today.

The closest I've ever come to working in fast food was when I worked at a family member's bakery for a few months in college. Most of the time it wasn't too bad, but on holidays like Valentines Day things could get a little crazy. I was fortunate enough to have never been actually yelled at by a customer, but I have experienced bad attitudes and rude remarks. I also worked at a hotel for 2 years and if you think people are funny about their food, they're even worse about where they sleep. We kept things under control most of the time, but every now and then we'd accidentally check someone into a room where the bed was unmade or give them 2 queen beds when they specifically asked for 1 king on the 2nd level not near the parking lot or street lights. Things could get ugly pretty quickly, but that particular guest would leave eventually and things would continue as normal.

Needless to say, I have a history in the service industry. I have used every customer service line there is from "I will personally make sure I take care of this issue for you" to "I agree, our prices are a little high, let me see what kind of discount I can offer you. Even in the job I do now, when a customer calls with a problem they expect me to solve,  I really do try my best. But I recently saw something that really made me mad.

I was creeping on Facebook as I so often do, and someone on my news feed posted a paragraph long complaint about how their fast food wasn't exactly the way they ordered it. Now, here's the thing I don't get about people who complain about fast food. For one, it's called fast food. You chose that drive thru because it was quick. You wanted your food in less than 10 minutes. So how can you be but so upset if your order is altered a little? To be sure you're not the only one at the whole restaurant. And after all, we're humans. We make mistakes. So maybe we should be a little more forgiving when the 16yr old working the drive thru to put gas in his car is doing his best. Not to mention you're only paying about $5 for it. You get what you pay for, Ladies and Gentlemen.  Are there exceptions? Of course. But is it really all that necessary for you to park, go inside, demand to see a manager and get your food free just to make the point that your order was wrong and someone made a mistake? No. If you really want quality food prepared especially for you, then buy your own groceries and cook your own food.

This also goes for everyone who feels the need to be rude to wait-staff at a regular restaurant. How you speak to a waiter says a lot about you, and when you make a huge scene about your steak being medium when it was supposed to be medium-well, you look like the jerk, not the restaurant. There's nothing wrong with sending your food back, after all, you are paying for it. But there is a right way to do it, and there's a very wrong way to do it. Be discrete, be polite and understand that mix ups happen. Don't have an attitude, say you're never coming back again, or expect a discount, unless you want the restaurant's chef to treat your food like you're in the movie Waiting (you don't). And also, don't post about it on social media. Let everyone form their own opinions please, plus it just makes you look stupid.



You're welcome.