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By expressing my opinion that Southern cultures may not be as "precise," I think I'm referring to an overall way of organizing that more regimented Northern cultures engage. This is just an opinion. If a Southerner disagrees, why is my opinion consiered an act to incite "hatred"? Suggesting people are imprecise is a "hateful" remark? It is not personal. It is not an attack. It is an opinion.
I didn't say you made a hateful remark or that you were attacking anyone. I am simply saying that the way you expressed yourself is a good way to get an argument going which can result in a thread having to be closed. Just like you have your opinion, I also have mine. I think it is more productive to share ideas without trying to ruffle feathers.
Quote:
A very cogent, well-spoken poster who moved to SA from NYC wrote a post expressing her unhappiness about SA's culture. He/she was seeking support. Locals got defensive and her post was deleted within two hours. I think that people considering a move to SA could have benefitted from it. So readers here should know that they are getting a heavily censored view of life and culture in SA.
Threads are not closed or deleted because the subject matter is negative. They get deleted because of personal attacks and other rule violations. If you ever feel something was edited/deleted improperly, please report the post using the red triangle symbol, or contact a senior moderator.
By expressing my opinion that Southern cultures may not be as "precise," I think I'm referring to an overall way of organizing that more regimented Northern cultures engage. This is just an opinion. If a Southerner disagrees, why is my opinion consiered an act to incite "hatred"? Suggesting people are imprecise is a "hateful" remark? It is not personal. It is not an attack. It is an opinion.
A very cogent, well-spoken poster who moved to SA from NYC wrote a post expressing her unhappiness about SA's culture. He/she was seeking support. Locals got defensive and her post was deleted within two hours. I think that people considering a move to SA could have benefitted from it. So readers here should know that they are getting a heavily censored view of life and culture in SA.
Robert....I have to graciously disagree with your statement regarding this being "heavily censored". I go to other forum to read and the same thing happens in many cities. There are definitely forums available to rant and vent....but this place is for general information. It's not really a true discussion board and general opinions are ok for the most part....but not sweeping generalizations that cannot be justified. The TOS specifically say that. Ive seen some topics closed or deleted when they even become a friendly chat between two people......their are PM's for personal convos. This is just a different arena.....and has it's limitations.
I think Miriam might get a different response if she were more specific about where her CS problems were occurring. And it would be even nicer if a few kudos were thrown in for those places that deserve it! I'm in the customer service business.....this town wouldn't be growing by leaps and bounds with newcomers from all over the US if we settled for inferior work ethics. Bad CS needs to be reported to the place of business....where it might be useful. I most definitely want to know when my business ethics are lacking. That costs me income!
Thanks for the clarification. Moderator cut: unnecessary rant
Last edited by AustinTraveler; 06-17-2007 at 02:43 PM..
Reason: Get over it please; if you don't like it here, perhaps another place would be better for you.
Wow...see, I would say the exact opposite. When we lived in Chicago, I felt that just about every place that should have been customer oriented wasn't. I'm not saying that customer service in San Antonio is stellar, but at least people address you as "sir" or "ma'am" instead of "hey you" or "huh?"
I think around here it's more of a big city vs. small town thing, as well as what age group a business employs and the culture of the business overall.
Go to any small town in the hill country and the businesses there will treat you very well because they know their customer base is from tourism and if the tourists go telling people that the service is horrible, the entire town will suffer.
You'll notice that places that employ mainly teens, with managers of roughly the same age will also have bad customer service, and this seems to be a national trend. However, throw in managers who have pride in what they do, and a good company culture and you'll get teens who work hard and provide good service. Most of the Bill Miller's around here have very good service, yet have a high rate of teenage employment...it's part of the culture of that company.
The lack of good dry cleaners is probably due to the lack of their need in this city. Several years ago many major companies (thankfully) went business casual, seemingly overnight.
I have to admit that my overall experience here hasn't entirely been bad. I could tell you the specific places that I have beefs with but I've already addressed it with them directly and not looking to give anyone bad publicity. My laundry list is LONG, but here are just a few:
Bad:
- KLRN- didn't fulfill an obligation as advertised during the Blazing Gavels auction
- Geico in Texas- AWFUL customer service
- Allstate- Great customer service at the agency level, but TERRIBLE service if you go thru the 800# for anything!
- Kinko's on Broadway in Alamo Heights- sometimes good, generally POOR customer service (by the way, did you know that Kinko's farms out a lot of jobs to other printers around town and marks up the costs for you, the customer? I hear they don't like paying their vendors either. A friend of mine had to quit doing business with them because they owed him quite a chunk of change)
- Car wash- can't remember the name- up by Medical Center, on Evers maybe? It's a full-service place that tries to sell you every service you don't want or need, tacks it on the bill even after you decline verbally (surprise at the register!) and then for $80 doesn't even clean the interior very well, unless you point it out and ask them to real nicely.
- Jiffy Lube on Bandera and 410- they don't vacuum the interior unless you ask them too, even though it's part of the oil change package/ included in the price
- HEB on FM 78 & Rittiman- mixed review. Sometimes the produce is old and wilted and sometimes very fresh. Sometimes the customer service is great. Generally, however, the checkout process is impeded by personal conversations about high school and sometimes even drug abuse. really.
- Scrubs Medical Laundry- EXTREMELY polite and nice with me, but didn't fulfill my order as promised- ALMOST cost me to lose business!
- One particular local, private university- lost FIVE sets of my transcripts so I had to keep resubmitting them. The financial aid department is also notorious for "budgeting errors" and the like that put students in very difficult financial positions.
- Good Stuff, small retail store in Selma- great place, but one particular employee dismissed my inquiry as to whether they had more of a particular item without actually checking. I asked the other attendant, presumably the owner or manager, when there would be more of that item, and she immediately was able to produce at least 20 of them from the back. Funny how he didn't care to check and see if they were back there or not.
Good:
- USAA- OUTSTANDING customer service!!!
- Cha-Cha's restaurant on Babcock- excellent food, excellent service (and wouldn't you know it- the owners are from Chicago- must by why. Ha!)
As for the "Sir" / "Ma'am" deal- I have to disagree that that makes SA any better than Chicago. I could easily do without the "Ma'am" if people could just get things right the first time, or at all even!
This was not intended as some sort of jilted gripe. It is a legitimate discussion about what I've found to be the culture of this city. Mind you, my perspective is different from yours.
Yes, there are a lot of friendly people here. There are just as many nasty ones- one even threw a Gatorade bottle out the window of a car at me because I turned into his lane (Don't get me started on your driving here!) Nice or not, I care most about precision- and that is definitely lacking around these parts!
As for getting back what you put out, I am very nice, understanding and patient. I do express my concerns and it floors me that I have to actually ask people to do their jobs right- I mean, wouldn't that just be common sense for most people??? It seems that the more tolerant I am, the worse things get because they take advantage of that. It's not helping people do a better job that I mind, but rather the time lost in repeatedly addressing the same issues. We don't all have that kind of time to spare and I'm sorry, but when I pay for something to be professionaly done, I expect the outcome to be better than what I could produce myself; otherwise I would do it myself and save the money.
I agree with the other posts about customer service lacking in other places as well. You almost have to expect a certain degree of error when doing business in any city, state, or region...but I find that here, the inaccuracies and overall lack of precision or care are much more consistent than anywhere else I've lived!
As for the comment about there not being a "demand for dry cleaners here"- um, have you noticed that this is a military town? Servicemembers' uniforms require a great deal of attention to detail (some services requiring more than others)! You almost can't get that here. If someone knows WHERE please tell me. Thanks.
Last edited by miriamflores; 06-17-2007 at 10:47 PM..
I think miriamflores that all your bad is just life. How long have you been in San Antonio? I think I would be too stressed out just thinking about all the bad things (small or large) that happen all around us. I have enough other problems! hehehe I know I am guilty of this in my personal life.....sometimes I will say something in a tone a voice that may offend someone and wondered what happened. To me it just sounds fine. I too work in customer service and have done an outstanding job. My evaluations tell me that. Hang in there! San Antonio really is an awesome place to live.
I am not from here originally. I've had the oppotunity to travel and live in other places and can't help but noticing that there's a serious work ethic lacking in San Antonio. What is it? Why can't I find a decent dry cleaner or car wash? Why are people in customer service so lazy and mean? Why do schools mess up financial aid and lose transcripts? Why can't vendors meet deadlines or get orders right? Why is there no accountability anywhere?
No offense, but a lot of people here don't seem to take any pride in their work nor do they care whether it's done correctly.
I am not alone in this observation, as several of my friends- both natives and non-natives of San Antonio- have expressed the same frustration.
How does anyone stay in business here depending on employees or vendors that are such slackers? Is it the low wages here that make people just not care?
I am by no means perfect. I certainly don't think that my standards are all that high to begin with, but COME ON! This is ridiculous!
Hello,
Welcome to the real world.
I'm not yet in SA but understand your frustration. I had a classmate tell me the other month that this sort of thing just points out how, "Your life is not all important or a priority to anyone else other than yourself." She was right, the only one to take care of your business and information is you really.
When you find the abled and efficient person, that is a nice surprise. Good luck with school!
Gen
A very cogent, well-spoken poster who moved to SA from NYC wrote a post expressing her unhappiness about SA's culture. He/she was seeking support. Locals got defensive and her post was deleted within two hours. I think that people considering a move to SA could have benefitted from it. So readers here should know that they are getting a heavily censored view of life and culture in SA.
I read the thread that you're referring to. I actually posted in it as well. I don't know what was said to have it deleted.
I lived and worked in NYC for many years and what the author of the thread posted about the differences between NYC and SA was utter nonsense. I was embarrassed at the tone and content of the thread.
I'm not sure why it was deleted but I certainly wouldn't consider the poster well spoken and the thread well thought out.
I read the thread that you're referring to. I actually posted in it as well. I don't know what was said to have it deleted.
I lived and worked in NYC for many years and what the author of the thread posted about the differences between NYC and SA was utter nonsense. I was embarrassed at the tone and content of the thread.
I'm not sure why it was deleted but I certainly wouldn't consider the poster well spoken and the thread well thought out.
Normally, I would not comment on a specific thread, but since there seems to be such confusion concerning the NY thread, I will tell you that it was deleted because the OP was a previously-banned troll who has come back about 20 times now. It was not deleted because of personal attacks or for content. Believe me, things are not always what they seem. Now, back on topic please.
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