Tag Archives: Anam

Spotlight: Anam Shah

31 Jul

July 31, 2012

Spotlight Week 2012 continues with Anam Shah. Anam writes the blog My perception and then yours, which you can find in the sidebar or just click the image below. Take a second, it is worth a look around. Among the things you’ll find there are some intriguing literary analysis and also some interesting personal insights. She has a very interesting point-of-view and sharp insights into the world. I hope you find her as engrossing as I do.

Anam has done something a little different for Spotlight Week. She’s homed in on one of her recent experiences and described for us one of life’s too-common annoyances.

Rite Aid should be called Band Aid

It’s laughable how easy it is to find a job in the sales industry and yet the lack of actual customer service is so daunting. I don’t know about you guys but I pride true customer service. I was part of that industry and I had always exhibited the best.  To find it and be shocked into speechlessness is how often I come across it. Besides the fact that the title rhymes; the horrific experiences that I’ve had at this Pharmacy chain is beyond belief. Now one “W” is very prominent. “Why do you go there?” I will answer that question in due time. So don’t slip in your puddle with your lack of patience or pee in your pants.

     It all started in the month of April and yet the confrontation is still fresh in my mind. It was unwarranted the harassment I faced just to buy bottles of shampoo and boxes of soda. Instead of being heralded as a great customer, loyal to the extreme that spent over 100 dollars at this store; I was treated worse than a shoplifter.

     The sale was to buy three boxes of soda of 12 oz cans for 11 dollars, which was a great deal, but the real reason I was there was to buy overpriced shampoo bottles that were on sale. Rite Aid was the only pharmacy that I found to have John Frieda on sale for “Buy one and Get one for 50% off” with a 5 dollar cash back option if you bought shampoo for more than fifteen dollars.

     Then the notch count against the common people began. First the soda cans that were on their shelves were expired. Then there was only one person on the floor who had a clue about the sale. Next, their sale stickers were all old and no one had bothered to put the new ones up. Then I went up to the counter and found out that the cashier had no clue which soda brands were on sale. He was asking me, the customer, if I knew. Worse, he went ahead and charged me for the soda that I didn’t want even though I repeated a zillion times that I didn’t want the product. Annoyed, I was a bit short with the guy and I told him this is his job to know the current prices in the store not mine.

     After the horrendous trial of just paying, I was catching up with my ex-roommate that I had happened to bump into while at Rite Aid. She had worked on Wall Street and had recently been laid off. We mentioned our various occupations, the economic downturn and lack of jobs. During this time the incompetent staff was privy to our conversation and I didn’t know that it would escalate into a situation where I would personally be under attack. I was about to leave the store and I mentioned to the security guard that I would need to take the shopping cart to my car since I had so many purchases that would make it hard for me to carry. He grunted and said as long as I bought the cart back to the store it was fine. I said farewell to my roomie and went to the car. When I turned back and wheeled the cart back into the store I found the guard outside and the first thing he said “You gave the cashier a very rough time.” I frowned in confusion and responded “Well he didn’t know what he was doing.” He agreed but then he prolonged the conversation and he tried to turn the tables and said “You should have been nice to him.”  Incredulous I was like “I am just returning the cart, unless you are the manager of this store why are we having this conversation?”  Then the personal attacks began; I was bitter ……. I had problems… Did I even have a man………he was just talking to me. Who cares if I just spent an easy 50 dollars on one transaction?  At this point I had enough. I gave him a really good backlash which included losing my temper and giving him a good dose of the true Brooklyn language. The manager was not there and the guard’s name tag was turned around. Very sarcastically I said “So that is why you make sure your name is so inconspicuous.” I laughed in his face and I said “You are a waste of my time. I will be making a few phone calls and filing an online complaint with Rite Aid.” During this time a crowd had gathered and one customer actually came and asked me what the whole scene was about. My response was I should have called the cops and pressed charges for such harassment of the verbal kind. Plus I should have just left the cart in the parking lot instead of being courteous and returning it to the store.

               I got home and filed an online complaint. The next business day, I called the company using their 1-800 number open to the public. That very afternoon I got phone calls from a 718 number. No voicemail, just hang-ups. This made me raise my eyebrows. Finally, I found that it was the Regional Manager of Rite Aid. Why didn’t he leave a voice message which would be the norm? He apologized for my experience. During this time I was not allowed to talk and mention my grievances. He blamed the easy target: the cashier. My complaint was with the security guard. Then he mentioned policies and procedures like I was a two year-old. Like come on, even if you worked at McDonald’s there are policies and procedures to follow. There was no talk of reprimanding the security guard.  The apology: a band aid. Useless when wet and came off easily.

            The next time I went to that Rite Aid………………… the cashier wasn’t present but I did see the security guard. Oh and by the way he was telling another female customer ahead of me, quite candidly, how stupid he thought she was. She responded with a smile. Did they know one another? I don’t know. Was it professional? No. As a customer I believe once you’re on the job your personal life should be out the door. He saw me looking at him and I believe he refrained from using perverse words of another nature.  I was highly irked with these new tidings and the outcome of my complaint which had been so easily disregarded. I sent the Regional Manager an email. It said the following:

Dear Richard:

Not that long ago I went to that location again. I was horrified to see that you still have that atrocious security guard working there. I see that the customers opinions are considered null and insignificant. His inappropriate remarks are generously rewarded. Considering that factor I was not surprised to overhear another inappropriate remark with his then present conversation with another customer.

I used to work for a Rite Aid as a teenager, but if  he had did what he verbally did with me at my current firm which  I work for, he would have been terminated for his lack of professionalism. I am surprised that you keep on such employees when he is from a third-party and probably a dime a dozen.

I will take my business elsewhere and trust me when I say that word of mouth is very powerful. I was willing to consider the Rite Aid employees being written up or given a verbal warning because I understand that procedures differ at each company. For you to keep on a security guard that intimidates customers is horrible. Your lucky that nobody has called 911 for his harassing behavior.

Since I am an Accountant and well versed in the business world I will tell you this. I will make sure everybody that I know in the immediate vicinity will not go to that Rite Aid or any other. I will even post my bad customer service experiences on my blog. I hope you will enjoy that since I can see how much you care about customer service. I will take all my prescriptions and my family members to CVS. I will also promote CVS and tell everybody I know or even briefly acquainted with why I don’t go to Rite Aid. Competition is lovely thing isn’t it? Especially in the private sector.

I hope this has given you food for thought. I am disgusted that I have to mention my background for you to take me seriously.

Regards,

Anam Shah ……

The Regional Mangers response to my concerns about a security guard that harassed female customers?  There was none. Great Customer service! My only regret, I should have called the cops and filed a complaint against that bloke of a security guard when I had the chance!

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You Call That Service? HA HA HA HA!

26 Jul

July 26, 2012

Being a waiter is a tough job, no doubt. You have to pick up the food, carry the food, and put down the food. Whew! I’m winded already! But seriously, being a waiter really is hard. For instance, you have to make sure that the food gets to the right table. And you usually can’t take a bite out of someone’s dinner.

OK, ok, before you start screaming at me, I’m just kidding. (This blog is called, after all, the Tepid Ride. What else do you expect from a bad title like that? Shakespeare I am not.) Being a waiter is hard. You carry heavy trays, take confusing orders, deal with annoying customers. You are always on your feet, deliver lots of food but don’t get time to eat anything yourself, and you work long hours for low pay hoping to make it up in tips. I get it.

Now all that said, this blog is going to be me complaining about all the lousy service I’ve gotten in restaurants lately. Aren’t you lucky you clicked on this post? Wait until tomorrow when I blog about paint drying and how spicy mustard burns my tongue. Can I be any worse? Yeah, and you know it.

Saarah and I are in the middle of a run of bad service. In the last five places we’ve been to the service has ranged from “non-existent” to “almost-but-not-quite-terrible.”  To make matters worse we get stared at. She thinks it is because we are an interracial duo but I think it is because people see she is a normal woman with me, some sort of stooped-over troll-like Bavarian shoemaker from the deep dark forest of Germany. But I digress.

1- My Local Diner

This place is very well-regarded for their food, winning some sort of “Best Diner” award for three years running. Ok, the last time they won was 2006 but it is still a very good place.

I have inherited a reputation there for being a great tipper. My mother, on those rare nights when my brother and I would dust her off and take her out into the sunlight, would tip anywhere from 40-200%, no joke. We’d walk in and waiters would-LITERALLY- jockey their way over to us, elbowing each other out of the way to get to us. Eventually one particular waiter won and he became out regular waiter. And why not? Mom put three of his kids through college with her tips. So when I go in with someone I try not to get noticed. I wear big hats, dark sunglasses, vampire capes, whatever, just so I can get a table with a waiter or waitress I don’t know or else I have to live up to family name and tip huge. I can’t do that; I have a car to pay off.

We were there for breakfast and we had a waitress I never saw before, thank goodness. Problem was, she wasn’t that good a waitress. She didn’t refill the drinks, took plates away before we were done eating, and when she came to the table she focused on me and ignored Saarah. And worse? Dirty fingernails. The worst part was when she started rambling about the different sizes of orange juice when Saarah ordered the smallest one. Like she doesn’t know that a small glass will not last as long as a large glass? What is she, four? The lecture lasted and droned on for a good ten minutes. At one point Saarah interjected “Sheesh, I also wanted a soda!” Good thing too because I had fallen asleep in my scrambled eggs. Then when she assumed we were done with our breakfast she bought the check over without asking if we wanted anything else. Hello? Coffee?!! I’m not sure what I tipped that day but it was a low point in my family history. It may have been $2 and I’m sure Saarah thought it was too high.

2- Naniwa Sushi

We went to a Japanese sushi place in the neighborhood. Is it redundant to say “Japanese” and “sushi”? What other kind of sushi place is there? Well before you think I’m asking pointless questions, there is a kosher sushi place not far from me run by a family named Feldman.

The place was nice, the food pretty good, the waiter clueless. No matter what we asked him about the menu he had no idea. When we asked him about the ingredients in the rolls he was incoherent, like his tongue was literally glued to the top of his mouth. He had to walk away and ask someone else and he usually didn’t come back with an answer. He was confused about the specials on the menu, confused about what we ordered, needed help remembering what we asked for, had no idea how anything was made, and was just generally on Japanese cloud 9. I had to explain the menu to him at one point. He always smiled, albeit vacantly, always treated us politely, and always had a pleasant tone in his voice. I think it was because he was mentally unstable. I’m sure he smiled the same way during a mugging or a violent bout of stomach cramps.

3- Arirang

This time we went to a well-known Japanese Hibachi place. Is it redundant to say “Japanese” and “hibachi”? What other kind of… oh never mind, I already made that joke. 

I took this!

We sat at the grill and except for the guy across from us sneaking video of Saarah (until she gave him THE LOOK – copyright Saarah) we had a lot of fun. The chef flipped food in the air and we caught it in our mouths (well, one of us did, the other got conked on his head with a shrimp) he sang odd songs that he obviously rehearsed with the other chefs because they all sang the same odd songs, made a Lady Gaga out of rice, and made a really good show out of the cooking. But our waitress? Ugh. Taking plates away before we were done, not understanding what we ordered, asking us every two seconds how everything was, hovering like a UFO over our shoulders, she was so annoying. Why was she in such a hurry? I have no idea. At one point she almost hit me on the head with a salad bowl and stole Saarah’s  salad bowl while she lifted the fork to her mouth. Literally. She lifted the fork to her mouth, lowered it to get another bite, and the fork just clinked against the table. Saarah was so miffed there was smoke coming out of her mouth. That waitress does not know how close she came to the precipice that night. By this time I’ve learned to let Saarah handle the tipping so I’m not sure what it was but I’m pretty sure the waitress got about what she deserved.

4- Bab Al Yemen

I have to say right up front that this Yemeni place had the best food out of any place on this list. I loved it. Don’t ask me to describe any of it or pronounce it, but it was awesome. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

No I wouldn’t. The service was worse than awful.

There were maybe six tables with customers but there was only one waiter, who was new, and was not familiar with the foreign (to him) menu. He had no idea what the food was, did not speak the language, and was totally swamped. He had a kid in a dirty t-shirt helping him carry stuff, and the kid sometimes even managed to get some of the food to the correct tables. I guess child labor was not a question but a matter of real life practice. When someone came in who did not speak English the chef had to come out and take orders. Just waiting for the check took longer than eating the meal. We waited for tea (which I loved), we waited for water which was never refilled, we waited for our food, we waited for our check. I think I’m still waiting. I may still be sitting there, blogging and starving. Please someone, come and save me. So what was the tip? For the first time ever I left no tip. If it were up to me I would have left a buck or two but I know how much I value my life versus being slogged by the shoe (copyright Saarah.)

5- Memo Sish Kebab

Pretty good food, pretty mediocre service.

The waitress was meh. She was tired and unhappy looking. Her eyes oozed her anger and disappointment and it was so obvious that she would rather be anywhere but there. This was a woman who CLEARLY was disappointed with not only her life and her fate but her entire cosmic karma. She served us small portions (not necessarily her fault) and she screwed up the takeout order. She was never around when we needed her. We had to ask the other waiter to refill our drinks. After we told her we would like a takeout order, we actually had to remind her to give us the bill. Like what waiter doesn’t want to get paid? She even screwed up the bill but it was in our favor so score one for the good guys. Tip? Again, no tip, and since we were not charged for one of our drinks we came out with extra money in our pockets to boot.

The only time in my life I tipped worse was years ago in England when due to me being totally confused by the exchange rate I’d either tip extravagantly or somehow tip in the negative numbers. I was never sure if, when I walked out, I had just bought the waiter a Bentley or stiffed him 20 pounds. But this is really not about tipping (though you may very well be ready to yell at me for stiffing the waiters) but is about the horrible service I’ve been getting. Did I really expect anything out of line? All I wanted was a clean pair of hands, to be given an answer to question about the menu, and not to wait for the check longer than it took the cook to make the food.

So waiters beware. There’s a new attitude in town, and I’m ready to settle my scores with cash, or lack thereof.

 

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Thank you Saarah for your help with this post! Readers, anything you enjoyed in this blog is due to her.

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