Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Not what you think....GRRRR!


No. This is not an armed robbery. This is what I wish I could do to put some step in the morning crew at my local fast food establishment. All I want is my god damn yogurt parfait and small coffee. What do I have to do to get this in under 5 minutes? It's your f'in job. Please just do it.

Let's break this down. 10am, way after the breakfast rush I walk through the doors. I make my way up to the counter where no other customers stand. There is approx. 2 minutes of chatter between the staff members. No one is doing a damn thing to help a customer or prepare for the possibility of one.

Finally I get a "how can I help you" I order and pay in less than 1 min. The fastest part of the whole morning ordeal. The cashier takes my money easily enough but then the whole transaction falls apart. She casually goes back to the conversation as if I just paid her for a small conversation because she is such an eloquent speaker. The conversation continues. Oh, by the way, the conversation she is having is with the manager!

I can see the yogurt parfait I ordered. It is sitting 2 feet behind the cashier in the refrigerator. The coffee I ordered is nowhere in sight. A third employee now arrives on the scene with a cup of coffee. She puts it down on the counter and walks away. No communication to me or the cashier on whose coffee that is. She then disappears into the back for a few minutes. The cashier doesn’t move, doesn’t speak to me, doesn’t nod, glance or even sneeze in my direction.

The third employee returns, grabbing my yogurt parfait that I have been staring at for 5 minutes from the refrigerator. She places it next to the coffee and then struggles to reach a bag from the other side of the cashier, who will not move to make it easier for the third employee to bag the items. I assume at this point that the order is mine, but still do not have a verbal confirmation. The cashier gets disgusted and takes the bag from the third employee. They have a verbal fight and stop bagging my breakfast. They argue for a bit while the manager looks on laughing. Finally the two of them finish bagging my order and speak for the first time in 7 minutes. “Have a nice Day. Come again”, they say simultaneously.

Of course I would never load the gun but if the cold metal barrel was lodged up on their pearly whites for just a few seconds I think that things would happen a little quicker from now on. I wouldn’t be this pissed if this didn’t happen everyday for a week. I tested the theory that it was a fluke day for the crew. I gave them the benefit of the doubt before I drew my gun. But they failed. They failed me and the rest of NYC.

We are hitting an all time low in customer service. No one cares anymore. Big biz has really botched things up this time. Problem is Americans are in such a daze that they don’t even notice. Or do they not give a shit either?