rude customer service (Portland, Beaverton, Beaver: sales, credit, how much) - Oregon (OR) - City-Data Forum

Sprightly · 03-09-2010, 02:40 AM

I'm curious if this is a pattern for the Portland area, twenty-somethings, or just a trend sweeping the country. To give you the perspective I'm coming from I'm about forty now. When I was teenager and twenty-something I worked a lot of customer services jobs sales clerk, waitressing, etc. Back in those days being polite and keeping the customer happy was a big deal and if you didn't it could mean being fired. I and my peers were nice to customers even if they were jerks because we knew our paychecks depended on it. The trend I've noticed now is indifference bordering on rudeness, almost a "whaddya want?" type of response. There's rarely anymore "Have a nice day" or even a "Thanks come again" at the end of any transaction. You pay your money, they stare at you with a blank expression till you go away. To be fair not every single transaction is this way but a big percentage are - more than I've ever seen. Is it because they are poor? hate their jobs? I was in the same boat then too but I was decent to people when it was my job to serve them.

So what gives? Anybody know what's going on?

philwithbeard · 03-09-2010, 03:31 AM

Sprightly:

From the tone of your post, I am presuming the rude 20-something has occurred several time for you. But has this occurred in any specific location, for example several employees at a convenience store? A couple of stores in a specific Mall, or retail stores in Downtown? You may be surprised sometimes just how much a rude employee can be caused by a supervisor with no leadership skills at all.

Back on the other side of the Mississippi River, I found this disdainful / boredom attitude a lot more there than I have experienced it in Oregon. I had pegged it to be more of an "I am a Suburban Princess! It is insulting to my self-esteem that I have to ring up your sale. Go Away, uncool person."
or
a "I am here to score chicks, 8, 9, or 10's! You are not! Why are you talking to me? Can't you tell by my good looks I'm from a HIGHER social status than YOU? Have you no respect for your betters?"

But since I moved to Portland, I have run into a lot less of the above, and a lot more of sales-clerk types that were (are?) just plain hung-over, spaced out, or in various stages of recovery from their extended social life (which the job barely pays enough for the party life he/she wants.)

YMMV, but I have experienced only one or two times in Portland where a very young store clerk was rude to me, an old person, while being ultra friendly to another customer who was young and attractive. This I call urban city life: all kinds of people,

Phil

Sprightly · 03-09-2010, 04:54 AM

LOL, Phil! Your post improved my mood. I've had a few of these incidents occur and a particularly egregious one just this evening which inspired my post almost exactly as you describe - the checker being super-friendly to the person right before me (probably flirting) and then cold as ice to me. I'm generally a friendly person and people tell me I seem nice, so it's not that I'm a curmudgeon starting off with a scowl....though I'm working on it.

Edited to add: to answer your question, this is more than one store but generally the Beaverton area. It is something I've noticed unique to here just a lot of young people with not a lot of zest or sharpness, like they are just not fully present. Maybe they are exhausted from their social lives like you note but I wonder what's going on with them. Just kind of a flat affect - blank. This is something I've noticed in the last four years or so - saw some of it in CA too. Though to moderate this I have seen a number of perfectly normal decent friendly people young and old around this town too.

jjpop · 03-09-2010, 06:56 AM

I've seen it here too, but then again I've seen it other places when I travel. I get bugged by the lack of a "thank you". It doesn't even have to be very sincere--just say the words! Don't they realize I am choosing to shop in their establishment and that keeps them employed? I'm definitely not a jerk to cashiers, waitpersons, and gas station attendants (in fact, I say "thank you" to them all the time).

Leisesturm · 03-09-2010, 07:25 AM

Hmmmm. I for one disdain phonyness and I would prefer surly and efficient to patronizing any day of the week. That said, I have found very little of the latter in Oregon. Admittedly, I do what little shopping I do (there may be a takeaway in there somewhere) somewhat west of hipster central but I find most cash register interactions quite pleasant. Try the Trader Joes on Glisan and 21st and tell me you encountered a rude clerk. I am amused and a bit horrified when I see those "If your sales clerk does not ask you what your Zodiac sign is, your purchase is absolutely FREE plus a free session for you and a friend at Tanfastic!!!" Honestly, if their sales staff have to be blackmailed into being pleasant to customers then they are hiring the wrong kinds of people. No amount of social engineering can fix that. Its a free country out there (for now) vote with your feet.

H

figmalt · 03-09-2010, 11:23 AM

Having worked retail in my younger years, I cannot begin to explain the level of dishonesty, rudeness, surliness, condescension, and out-and-out meanness that you have to put up with from customers. I seriously lost all faith in humanity after working as a cashier, and it has taken many years to overcome this jaded attitude.

I don't know what your experiences are, and I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. But having had the shoe on the other foot, I would say give the cashier the benefit of the doubt. Customers can say almost whatever they want to a cashier, and the cashier just has to sit there and take it. There's another forum out there called "customers suck" if you don't believe me. Go read some horror stories.

roneb · 03-09-2010, 01:02 PM

It's sad, but I think both sides of the arguement above are true to a large extent. Society in general is less polite than it used to be. Children are not raised to appreciate manners and politeness as much as they used to be. As a PE teacher I see it all the time... It shows up as poor sportsmanship.

jjpop · 03-09-2010, 01:42 PM

I had a long and storied career in customer service myself. Some of my best moments were when the next customer would recognize that the previous one had treated me badly and say something like, "Wow, what a jerk!" or "Guess he/she got up on the wrong side of bed!"

Also, and I don't mean to pick on seniors, but many of my flat-out rudest customers were the elderly.

And Leisesturm, I always prefer efficient. I'd just rather have efficient and a "thank you" than efficient and a blank stare.

Sprightly · 03-09-2010, 03:20 PM

Figmalt, I know people can be complete jerks to clerks because they can't do anything - that's one reason I make a point to treat them like human beings. That's why it stings a bit when they treat me like crap. I'll have to check that website out but I don't need convincing of the general ill manners of society it is a trend it seems as Roneb says - one sees it in driving, behavior in stores (of customers to customers), everywhere. Leisesturm, I don't want patronizing - I just want people doing their job with a bit of courtesy.

backdrifter · 03-09-2010, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by figmalt

Having worked retail in my younger years, I cannot begin to explain the level of dishonesty, rudeness, surliness, condescension, and out-and-out meanness that you have to put up with from customers. I seriously lost all faith in humanity after working as a cashier, and it has taken many years to overcome this jaded attitude.

I don't know what your experiences are, and I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. But having had the shoe on the other foot, I would say give the cashier the benefit of the doubt. Customers can say almost whatever they want to a cashier, and the cashier just has to sit there and take it. There's another forum out there called "customers suck" if you don't believe me. Go read some horror stories.

Oh my goodness. Exactly. Customers are terrible. It's impossible to be resilient all the time...

And to OP, sometimes I get so many bad customers in a day that I can't help but be patronizing or phony or just downright laconic, and perhaps even "rude" when my patience has finally run out and I get tired of being mistreated. It's one's job as a public servant to serve customers, not to be abused by them. And I, for one, do appreciate the customers (like yourself perhaps) who treat me like a human being instead of their personal servant.

And yes, I am poor and hate my job (some days), and literally cannot afford college (10 credits at PCC for ~$1000? I'm no trust fund baby here...), and I cannot afford to really do too much else that's fun. Personally I think I'm pretty friendly to customers despite it all. My story here isn't remarkably uncommon either, which is very unfortunate for the masses of young customer service associates out there serving you. I'm sure many have a story like that behind the poor service they give you. It's tough getting your hours cut at a poorly paying job, juggling schedules with a 2nd job perhaps, plus school, and then on top of it having people use you like toilet paper... Not everyone is good at putting on a happy, friendly face throughout all of this.