Rude, useless and unwilling to help in Massachusetts (coffee, eBay, shop)

[litlux]

TJ Maxx is a joke, they think their supposedly low prices will make up for being unable to help customers, answer questions or, last trip, not having anyone in the Pittsfield store at a register to ring up sales.

After seeing people waiting for a register to open, I placed my items down and walked out.

They're done. Stick a fork in them. I am sure we will soon read how their sales have dropped and they are considering Chapter 11.

Yawn.

We get indifferent service because we still return no matter how shabbily we are treated. Not me. No more.

[overtaxedunderpaided]

Got news for you folks, when you treat people with respect and courtesy, the favour will almost always be returned. Working with the public is a piece of work. Anyone who has large volumes of traffic in their job knows what I'm talkin about.
We're all waitin for the other guy/gal to "earn" our respect............it's a different kindof "animal" today.........as Mahatma Ghandi said, "We Must change in order to see the changes we wish to see"...........you treat another human being as a useless piece of monkey droppings? see what u get!...........treat them like fellow human beings just doing their best to make a buck............you get someone who goes beyond the call of duty and will remember you next time!

[A Blue Window]

When I was in the US a couple of years ago, I was surprised to see the shop assistant packing my shopping for me. We didn't get that privilege over here until recently.

[HeleenieWeenie]

I'm sorry to have generalized that ALL younger folks are bad CSR employees; but the 21yr. old grad. student? Honey you are definitely an exception to the rule. Congrats to you, I wish there were more of YOUR KIND. But unfortunately there are not so I will modify my statement to say that "normally the young ones are the RULE OF DISORDER" rather than order. Thanks for being a little snotty about it, but I see I made a general statement. You did too; including all middle-aged people in the non-punctualization rules, and misspellings. That is prejudiced too. But YOU WILL LEARN AS THE YEARS GO BY. That is NOT a stereotypical statement!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by HeleenieWeenie

I'm sorry to have generalized that ALL younger folks are bad CSR employees; but the 21yr. old grad. student? Honey you are definitely an exception to the rule. Congrats to you, I wish there were more of YOUR KIND. But unfortunately there are not so I will modify my statement to say that "normally the young ones are the RULE OF DISORDER" rather than order. Thanks for being a little snotty about it, but I see I made a general statement. You did too; including all middle-aged people in the non-punctualization rules, and misspellings. That is prejudiced too. But YOU WILL LEARN AS THE YEARS GO BY. That is NOT a stereotypical statement!

Sorry to have sounded brash in my reply, but I must hear "kids these days are useless, selfish, bratty, snotty, spoiled, immature, lazy, yada, yada, yada" at least several times per day. As someone who tries to break that mold the stereotype truly grates on your nerves. When I finally saw yet one more message regarding this I just kind of "snapped." After all, when you work six days per week in retail where you just have to smile and nod your head incredulously when people are venting their frustrations, you only get a rare opportunity to bite back.

I agree with many of the others who said "you get what you pay for." I currently earn around $11/hr. at Lowe's, and I couldn't be happier. Since my employer has enough faith in my ability to pay me so handsomely I gladly return the favor by doing the best I can to appease our customers and retain them as repeat business in order to help our company's bottom line. Lately we've been sagging, but that more so due to the upcoming recession than it is to poor customer service. On the other hand, if I were only making minimum wage, I would have a much lower tolerance for the daily stresses of the job at hand and would be much less likely to go above and beyond the call of duty---why should I exert so much more effort when my employer values me so little as to pay me as little as they legally can? Money motivates people. If the kids working at McDonald's made $12/hr. instead of $7.15/hr., you'd DEFINITELY see a difference. I can name the number of lazy dolts who work at Lowe's on one hand. Why? At $9/hr.-$13/hr. or so we're all very happy. If Lowe's only paid us minimum wage, then God love you all you'd be pushing those call buttons forever without a response from any one of us.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by texdav

I have to say that I see alot more shoppers that are rude than the number of store clerks that are.They are even rude to other shoppers.

A fine example of this would be this evening. Our Lowe's store is chronically understaffed, so there will often be times when I'm working alone in my department. Tonight I was alone from 2 PM-11 PM, yet somehow I managed to help most people in an expedient and professional manner. However, we got unusually busy between 9 PM and 9:30 PM (I guess the locals don't watch prime time television anymore), and I had several couples who needed assistance simultaneously. While helping one couple with inquiries about push mowers what appeared to be a lesbian couple stood staring at me and then pushed my call button, just feet away from me and the other couple. I had to excuse myself from the man and woman in order to deactivate the button, after which point they left because they didn't want to wait either.

In a way I'm kind of worried that Scranton being engulfed by Greater New York City is going to be a double-edged sword---economic rebirth and recovery coupled with impatience, bitterness, and rudeness. I've actually had an instance in the past where two women nearly got into a catfight as they vied for my attention. While helping one woman with weed killers another woman interrupted us to ask me to help her with grass seed. The first woman chastised the other for interrupting us, and both started raising their voices at one another for a 30-second tirade that attracted the attention of other customers and co-workers in the area. A few men actually got a real kick out of watching the two 40-something women going at it, and I could have sworn one was even recording it on his camera phone from a distance! LOL!

People are just so impatient anymore; it takes a special breed to work in retail these days when everyone not only wants one-on-one attention with one employee at the same time but also wants it done yesterday!

[Nelly Nomad]

Originally Posted by overtaxedunderpaided

We're all waitin for the other guy/gal to "earn" our respect...

Oh, I hear that so often! "Soandso has to 'earn' my respect."

I feel so differently. I treat each and every person I meet with respect. No one has to "earn" my respect. In my opinion, simply by virtue of sharing this life with me, you are worthy of respect. You keep my respect until you prove to me you're no longer worthy. It takes a lot to get off my "respect list" but boy, depending on the severity of the transgression, it can be tough as nails to get back on .

[MB2]

Originally Posted by Nelly Nomad

Oh, I hear that so often! "Soandso has to 'earn' my respect."

I feel so differently. I treat each and every person I meet with respect. No one has to "earn" my respect. In my opinion, simply by virtue of sharing this life with me, you are worthy of respect. You keep my respect until you prove to me you're no longer worthy. It takes a lot to get off my "respect list" but boy, depending on the severity of the transgression, it can be tough as nails to get back on .

Oh, wow.....I truly give my respect to you, for being so open minded in this world, as well as level headed!
I treat everyone with respect, because I have no reason not to. Unless, of course, until I am given a reason to "not respect" them.
Since I am working in retail, I had a few encounters, where people got onto my "bad side" holding me personally responsible for the bad day, they were having.
Some apologize (which I think is pretty darn cool) and others pretended that I "owe them something" for some unknown reason.
But, overall, the good customers outweigh the bad ones by far....thank god....LOL.

[njsocks]

Originally Posted by NewHomeHappy

I totally empathize with your shopping experience.
A few years ago, I went to TJ Maxx. I could not find the "work out" clothing section. So I asked a "Sales Associate" female, Excuse me, where are the work out clothes? She gave me the blank stare and replied in Spanish & walked away. So to the next girl I asked, Where are the work out clothes. ANOTHER blank stare, and a mumble, no speak Engleesh. LOL

How the hell do you hire a Sales Associate in Central NJ that does not speak the English language? Management must be pretty desperate. I wrote a letter to TJ Maxx corporate HQ and YES, I did get a reply AND a gift card with an apology.

lmao!! How on Earth are these people that DON'T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH drive? *illegally* lol!
All I see are people speaking different languages in NJ! We, as Caucasians are the minority!

PS! I totally hate that too about hanging the damnn clothes on the rack and counting them! Wth! It drives me batty. Like you said, you get the 3 headed look too if you even want to try clothes on! I try to stay out of there only when need be. It is hopeless.

[tamiznluv]

I think the problem in Mass. has a myriad of reasons. Here on the East Coast we tend to be "standoffish" and cold, not open to others. We have a MAJOR non english speaking population that have no intention of learning it either. They expect us to learn Spanish! WTH? Kids don't want to work for their money. They seem to think the world "owes" them everything. (These statements are broad generalizations written from what I have experienced)

The CS problem seems to have undergone a bit of transformation in the past 3 or 4 years though. There was a time I just hated to go into ANY store because I would lose my pleasantness due to poor/rude CS. I was so "used" to this behavior that when I started noticing the CS people were being pleasant and helpful, I was amazed and felt happier on my journies into shoppingland. I hope enough people complained to corporate that "laws" were laid down to middle management. (now THAT is a tough job, middle management!)

It all depends on the individual too. I have an aquaintance who usually never has a smile on her face, moans and groans about how lousy her life is all the time and how she got fired from ANOTHER job or quit. WELL...she got a job at WalMart and I was in her line. I watched her "interact" with her customers...same sour puss on her face, same pissy attitude and the customers' faces showed their reaction to her too. She also did not get along with co-workers or management. She wonders why she got fired again? She found another job at "It's Tuesday" and guess what? She is out of a job again. She is in a vicious circle. Her life stinks(according to her) so she has a rotten attitude that she takes to work with her and doesn't even TRY to be pleasant. She has no education so she can only get the minimal jobs so on and so forth. I think a lot of people may be the same way as this woman. No win situations and we, as the public, get the pleasure of bumping into them every once in a while when we shop.