Poor Customer Service the Norm

The little story I am about to relate is not unique. Indeed, I suspect it is played out tens of thousands of times each day across the country. I offer it here because it is so common, and damn it, it shouldn't be!

I was grocery shopping this afternoon at the Vons at the Traffic Circle in Long Beach. I got some organic veggies and fruit, then saw that Ghiradelli chocolate was on sale. My son likes good chocolate, and his birthday is next week, so I figured this was a decent excuse. The bags of chocolate squares were $4.29 each or $3.49 each if you bought two or more. Plus I had two $1 coupons, which brought the price down to $2.49 per bag. S till pricey but doable.

When I looked at the receipt, I saw that I had been charged the $4.29 price. I politely told the clerk I was sure the price should've been $3.49. Instead of saying, "Oh, sure, ma'am, I'll have the bagger go to the shelves and check the price," she just frowned. The bagger reluctantly agreed to check the shelf with me in tow, though she rolled her eyes at the young clerk next to us as we passed him, telling him I was disputing the price. The other clerk also rolled his eyes.

Sure enough, I was right. The bagger didn't say, "Oh, I'm sorry. It looks like we made a mistake. We'll just have to go to the customer service desk to get you a refund." Instead, I asked her if she needed to take the price tag on the shelf to the desk. She peeled it off without comment. The so-called customer service person begrudgingly gave me $1.60 in change, without saying, "Sorry for the inconvenience" or "Thanks for bringing this to our attention." No apology from anyone. Just crossed eyes and frowns and a general feeling that I was really putting them out. Through all this, I was polite and said thank you several times.

What's more, the gal at the customer service desk told the bagger to put the price tag back on the shelf. She never indicated that someone was going to reprogram the cash registers or whatever it is they have to do to correct such an error.

I wondered, as I have often wondered, if these errors are calculated. Can you imagine 80 cents per bag multiplied by all the bags of Ghiradelli chocolates that Vons sells this week. And of course there may be hundreds of errors, which only compounds the money the chain would surreptiously cheat out of its customers.

Of course, the even bigger issue is this: Why are people so rude these days? Why do they take these kinds of interactions so personally? Don't they realize that if they were pleasant on the job, they would have a lot more fun on the job? Why is this rudeness so prevalent in our society? How did it come about? What can be done to reconnect people with their common humanity? What can be done to help them loosen up and have fun? Are we doomed to be a nation of overly sensitive, eager-to-be-offended children?