Customer Service

I'll ask you in advance to forgive the random nature of this blog and any gross spelling or grammar errors. It's around 3:30 AM and I'm sitting at the computer having something of a coughing fit and I'm waiting for the medicine to kick in before I go back to bed. Blah blah blah...
I've thought on this for a week now and thought I'd finally share. Last week my wife, Lori, and I went out for Valentine's day/my birthday. In addition to dinner (and the beautiful flowers I bought her...I know-what a romantic) I wanted to find a new pair of shoes for my birthday...a pair of Doc Martens-black, to be precise. So, we started at Journey's at the Fayette Mall. Now, for starters, let me say that I sort of understand why I can't get any service at Abercrombie...Let's face it, I'm don't look nearly young enough to shop there (not that I could afford it anyway) and I'm just now approaching the age where I have children that are "Abercrombie aged". Journey's, however, is a shoe store and doesn't seem, to me, to carry the same snooty, rich-kid attitude that Abercrombie does. So we walk in to join the very small handful of other customers perusing shoes. There are three, a male and two females, employees standing at the counter doing...well, nothing. I pick a shoe up off the display and look towards the guy at the counter thinking that this is enough to get his attention. As it turns out, simple eye contact doesn't mean anything. I had to kind of wave the shoe around a bit before he rolled his eyes and trudged over to us. "Can I help you?" Did he really need to ask? Wasn't it obvious? While I found the lack of help annoying, I was able to write it off by saying, "well, they are rather young and young people today just don't have the same work ethic or customer service skills-I blame the parents," and I felt better. Then...
After a couple more stops at places that didn't carry Doc Martens, we thought we'd try Dillards. After coming to the conclusion that Dillards is an easy place to get turned around in and find yourself wondering, "Where the frack am I, and how do I get out?" we found the shoes. Woot! Woot! Here's the scene: Two salesmen, both older than myself-at least in the forties or fifties, one not-so-old and fairly attractive female customer, and us. One of the employees is standing behind the counter smiling, laughing at the other employee and the customer as they have a decidedly one-sided conversation. Oh, and he's eyeing the fairly attractive lady up and down...yeah, it was pretty obvious. He does, however, break his daydream of things that will never happen in his lifetime to make eye contact with us as I am holding a shoe and looking back at him. Nothing. The set of younger boobs in front of him seemed to cancel out everything else. No worries there was still the other salesmen who was sure to have better service skills than his silent, creepy partner. Nope. He was so sure that with his 1970's bald on top with long ratty pony tail in back hair cut and his mindless banter, that he had a chance with this woman who was half his age. Not only did he seem to think that he had a chance, but he actually seemed to think that she was actually interested in what he was saying. "My great, great, aunt actually sailed with pirates and...blah blah blah...Blackbeard...blah blah blah...." I know what the woman was thinking because it's the same thing I would be thinking in her place, "Does this guy ever shut up?"
It the midst of his "I've got something cool to say...don't you think I'm cool and sexy" monologue, he did manage to also notice me holding a shoe and looking at him. Eye contact! I was sure I'd get help now. Not even a nod or anything. He just went on yaking and yaking, completely oblivious to the line of drool that was leaking out of the woman's mouth as his speech went on and on and on killing more of the woman's brain cells. Poor thing, too polite to tell him to "Shut the heck up! No one give a crap about your great, great aunt." Instead she was probably late for some important engagement and now "Gar! I'm related to pirates man" has held her up. I was furious. What was funny is that he really thought she cared about what he was saying and found him interesting. If he had paid attention to body language he would have noticed that she was really thinking, "Oh my God! I want to stab myself in the heart with a dull object! Doesn't he know that his hair do went out in the late 70's?" Granted, the woman was far better looking than myself, but that's irrelevant! I'm a customer too and I'm wanting to actually spend money. This lady had either already made her purchase or wasn't buying anything and yet out of two people, one of which wasn't involved in the conversation (not counting the lady you wasn't participating in the conversation either), offered us no help. Not a "Hey, how are you" or a "Let me know if you need anything" or "I see you're holding up a shoe and probably need me to check on a size for you. I'd love to since that's what they pay me for." I even waved the dang shoe around a little bit. Lori suggested that I ask for help. "They are both looking right at me, they're standing no more than five feet away, and I'm waving the shoe. I shouldn't have to ask. Forget it! I wouldn't buy shoes from these idiots anyway." I said that out loud...honestly. I don't think they heard me over the pirate conversation though. I mumbled something highly inappropriate, slammed the shoe down and walked away, inevitably in the wrong direction since I had lost brain cells while I was subjected to the mindless jibber jabber.
If I was annoyed by the Journey's employees, I was nothing short of pissed off at the Dillards employees. They were older and should have known better. At least I think so. Even at little Blockbuster here in Versailles, we greet the customers as they come into the store and never ignore one with a question in favor of annoying a more attractive customer with mindless stories. What happened to good customer service?