12 January 2008

Pardon the interruption...


Today, I did something very rude. It was incredibly thoughtless of me and I want to apologize. And, the worst part is - I do this very often, and I never seem to learn. But today, I felt compelled to blog my concerns and MY APOLOGY.
Let me tell you what happened.
I went to buy a couple of dress shirts. I picked up three different colors and took about 20 minutes to match them up with appropriate ties. I looked at cuff links and then made my way to the register. This was in a place where everybody lines up in one aisle right in the middle of the store and the line feeds perpendicular into a row of 6 cash registers.
When I got ready to pay, no one was in front of me, so I stood at the point where the sign reads "line starts here". There were two women standing at registers directly in front of me and they were talking. One was in her 20's and one was in her 40's. The younger one glanced at me and then went on talking. There was third woman working her register to my left and ringing-up a customer. To my right was a young man ringing up a couple of people. The ladies in front of me were still chatting and I assume almost a minute had gone by.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I was standing in the right place. I checked and sure'nuff I was in the right place. Both women glanced back at me, they knew I was still standing there! I'm pretty hard to miss! The young one looked annoyed with my lingering presence and finally asked me, "Can I help you?" I looked at her astonished and said, "Yeah, that's why I'm here." She rang me up, folded my ties and tossed everything in a bag and moved on to the guy behind me.
On my way out to my truck it dawned on me. I was very rude to that woman.
I mean, when you think about it... I left MY house to come to HER job. I decided that I wanted to spend some of MY money at HER place of business. Honestly, how rude of ME was it to pick up shirts and ties that are sold at HER job and expect HER to take MY money for them? Really... what a complete jerk I was to wait so quietly and so patiently while she finished talking and didn't even want to be disturbed and do her job of taking MY money.
I've learned my lesson.
I'm a rude dude.
So, to the young lady at the cash register at that men's store that I like so much - I apologize for interrupting your conversation. It was thoughtless, foolish and rude of me to expect you to be working while you were at your job. I'll try to do better next time by not expecting anything of you.
TTBM

10 comments:

Lina said...

I love that apology for the thoughtless customer service representative who felt the most important part of the job was to have a more important conversation than help people. But I'm glad you apologized for being rude. :-)

Mizrepresent said...

Man i just hate it...customer service today is almost non-existent...but i don't so much blame that child of 20 as i would the manager and training staff, and then her parents. Yes, it's something we have instill in our children, sometimes by reiterating it on the daily, speak up, be respectful, don't be a rude behind...and sometimes they just don't get it. But, if i'm paying you to do these things...then you better well do them. I remember a long time ago working at Micky D's this was drummmed into our minds, customer service...now the drones working at Micky D's don't even issue a "may i help you"...sad.

P. Maestro said...

rotf. . . this made my day. . .

but yeah, i commend you for keeping your cool. . . i know some of my friends would have made a scene. i probably would have hit her with a witty or sarcastic remark on my way out tho

Mr.Slish said...

Lol I dare you to go back to that store and apologize for being rude.lmaof....

Anonymous said...

Right on! Write On!

Unknown said...

Dear Sir,

As a Gentleman and a shirt-buyer, I found your tale to be all too familiar. Why, back in my day (2002), if I were to wait in line for a cash register with shirts, ties and cuff links, a female attendant would... well, she would probably give me the same snotty approach that she gave you.

In all seriousness, I think it has to do with where you shop. I prefer going to smaller shops where you would at least receive a more intimate - and sometimes professional - experience with salespeople who do not view you as herded cattle. The bigger the shop, the least likely their interpersonal skills are going to show.

But well done on handling yourself like a true Gent.

Best,
EtG

B.Good said...

"I'll try to do better next time by not expecting anything of you."

LOL! How dare you expect anything in the first place. Rude indeed, haha.

The Thinking Black Man said...

Hey there EVOLUTION83 - Happy New Year!! Just thinking about an apology had me laughing out loud on my way home!

MIZREPRESENT - I'm with you! I find that so many folks just don't seem to give a damn about taking pride in their work. Okay - maybe Micky D's ain't the dream job, but at least try to be civil and professional - it WILL take folks a long way!!!

What's up PRODIGY-MAESTRO? I might have thought about leaving them with a few words of wisdom had I not been stunned by the whole thing. It was one of those times where the perfect words came to me about 5 minutes too late. : (

MR.SLISH - Don't tempt me Brother, I'm going back to get some dress pants in a few days. I might just...

Hey B_MORE BAP LIFE! A BAP from my hometown!!! I am humbled!!!

Hey ED THE GENT! Thank you for the compliment! I agree with you - this was a bigger store [because I like the big selection] but a smaller store would have made a "bigger" difference.

Hey there B.GOOD! I'm quite ashamed of myself. Shame, SHAME on me!!! : )

Sister P said...

I was starting to think that it was just me. I thought I was becoming old and impatient, but it's this new breed of "workers". I can't stand the new drive thru thing here in KY. The person on the drive thru speaker says, "Hi, how are you?" I say, "Fine." and we sit there. Finally they'll say, "May I help you?"(with an attitude).
WTF???

BlackLiterature said...

Well, once you realized that you were indeed rude, you should have immediately retunedall items to the store and made your apolofy official by registering it with the manger. ;-)