Have Americans as a whole simply lost all self-respect? Do we not value the money we work our asses off for? I don't know what it is, but it seems to me that, as a general rule, Americans don't place a lot of value on how they are treated by businesses as customers which tells me that we either do not value our money because we will give it to anyone who has what we want/need regardless of how they treat us or we have zero self-respect and think we deserve poor treatment or that how we are treated isn't very important. Can you come up with another explanation?
I'll put this in another context. I need you to use your imagination here though. If you are a woman who has been asked out on a date and you have accepted then you will likely find yourself in a decent or hopefully nice restaurant with the guy who asked picking up the tab. Now, if he treats you like crap the entire time it is fair to say you would end the date and walk away. Now, remember, he's paying! That's really bad, but now imagine that you are paying for him and he treats you just as bad. That's even worse! Are you really going to pay this person to treat you like shit? Hell no, you are going to tell him to piss off and walk away, possibly leaving him with the bill or at least his portion. So why would you give your money to a business that is going to treat you the same way?
Honestly, we all work very hard for the little we have. Granted, some of us have more than others, but that's really not the point. I is time that we ALL start demanding that businesses treat us with the respect and value that we have as consumers or we take our business elsewhere! Granted, it is not always convenient to do this, but there is no better way to tell them just how terribly they are treating us and the fact that we WILL ONT stand for it any longer than to refuse to fund their continued poor treatment of us. Sure, you can call a manager and complain and you may get a coupon, if it's a restaurant you might get a free desert and if you're really lucky, a complimentary meal but then they continue to do the same thing to other people.
When these companies start seeing a rapid decline in their income, especially at the locations that are the really bad offenders, because if we're being honest, not all locations have employees that treat customers poorly and show some level of gratitude and respect, they will either have to act or close. Which do you think that they will choose? I spent years in the restaurant and retail industries and I can tell you that the amount of pressure placed on a manager for failing to train their staff properly in customer service or failing to hold their employees accountable for poor treatment can be intense and will lead to termination. Now I certainly do not want to cost someone their job, but in reality I'm not, they are! If you can't or more accurately won't do the job you are paid to do then you should be fired and someone who can and will do it right moves in.
I have heard people say things like,
"But they only make minimum wage."
Um...Okay. Who told them that they had to do that job? Did someone force them? Is their family being held hostage and failing to work for pay that they don't like or in a place that they hate will cost them their lives? The answer is an unequivocal no. I remember having to work for minimum wage and it sucked then and it sucks now, but just because it sucks does not mean that the people who spend their hard earned money their should be treated poorly. In fact, if we stop spending our hard earned money at these places then they will close and those people will lose the minimum wage jobs that they had and they only have themselves to blame for that.
Here is a prime example of what I am referring to. I recently went to Burger King to grab dinner for two. Okay, so I lose points for lack of healthy content but it is still a decent burger joint. Well they are running a special called the "2 for $10 deal" on select meals. I pulled up to the drive through and ordered 2 #1's which is 2 Whopper meals. These are part of the 2 for $10 deal and yet I was charged full price. I asked the kid in the drive-thru if the $10 deal was over and was told,
"No, it's still going on."
I asked why I was being charged full-price then and was stunned when he blamed me for the manner in which I ordered and the fact that I was unaware of the different buttons he had to push. Seriously?!?!? The exchange went like this.
*"So why am I being charged full-price?"
Him: *"Because you ordered two #1's but you didn't say you wanted the 2 for $10 deal and I have to push buttons. If I don't push the right button then you pay more and once I push it the stuff can't be changed."
Me: *"Seriously? You mean that you couldn't figure out that when I ordered 2 #1's that they qualified for and are part of the deal?"
Him: "Yeah because you didn't say you wanted the 2 for $10 deal."
Me: *"So I'm being overcharged because you can't figure something that simple out and now you won't correct it?"
Him: "Uh...yeah." Then he shut the drive-thru widow and did not speak to me again. He just handed me my stuff after I paid.
I pulled away and called the business to speak with the manager. Not surprisingly, she was equally useless. She had a very strong accent, which I have no trouble dealing with. She was Hispanic and clearly a Spanish speaker. Lucky for me I also speak Spanish, but I spoke in English since that is how I was greeted and didn't want to appear rude or insulting. I explained the situation to her and was told that she would have to look into the problem and call me back. She took down my name and number after I repeated it several times, apparently Collin sounds exactly like Mike, and then hung up without a goodbye or thank you or anything.
Ten minutes later she calls me back and tells me that a Whopper alone costs $4.63. She tells me further that se cannot refund my money to me, not even just the amount I was overcharged, but she will give me another Whopper. (I already had 2, why would I want a 3rd?) I explained to her that I simply wanted the money that I was overcharged and wanted to make her aware of the issue so it didn't happen to someone else. She got rather rude at that point. She told me I didn't need to tell her what needs to be corrected and that I could take the Whopper or nothing. She explained I could come and get the burger tonight or tomorrow and then hung up.
I returned home and sent an email to corporate, though you have to cram everything into 1000 characters so hopefully you don't have a serious issue that requires explanation. I d not expect to hear anything from them because that is the trend these days, if a customer is not happy you should absolutely ignore them and hope that they just go away. I will add a comment in the comments section if they do contact me and let you know what happens.
Anyway, I have received poor treatment at numerous of these places for a long while now and honestly, I am damned tired of it. I can cook my own food, I'm actually pretty good at it. I can easily go to another business and spend my money there. There are several options that I have and none of them put my money back in Burger King's hands again. I have made a choice to do this with any business that treats me poorly and if I see them treating another customer poorly it will be noted. I do allow for people having bad days or being new. I do not expect that anyone would stop shopping somewhere due to a single bad experience, however, when it is a regular thing then it is time for us as Americans to send them a huge FU by ceasing shopping there. That is how business used to operate Companies were made or broken on how they treated their clientele and that still hold true when a company is doing business with another business. If they are treated poorly or they are not treated as though they are the only client that particular business has they will quickly go elsewhere. Why are we as public consumers any different? The answer is that we aren't, we have just been content allowing these businesses to treat us like we don't deserve to be respected or valued. We have created a culture of rude employees by not saying anything to prevent hurt feelings or to save ourselves a headache because we all already know that they do not care.
I am going to attempt to start a sort of a movement and I hope it blows up. I refuse to shop anywhere that treats me poorly. I deserve respect and to be treated as though I am a valued customer. I worked for my money and I expect you and your employees to work to get me to spend it and I do not mean by filming fancy commercials, I mean by treating me as all customers deserve to be treated. I truly hope everyone who reads this does the same and encourages their friends and family to do the same as well.
Let's take back America and demand that we be treated as we deserve to be treated.