Bad customer service

My boyfriend and I often talk about the lack of good customer service in the retail industry. Just about everytime we go shopping, we notice that employees fail to greet you, make eye contact, or do anything to make the shopping experience pleasant. Well yesterday, I witnessed the worst case of customer service ever.

As I sat in the waiting room of the tire store, a customer stepped up to the service desk and jokingly asked the salesperson if she could get a discount on her service. The salesperson laughed and said no. No problem. Then a manager, who overhears their exchange, comes over to the customer, asks her to come aside with him so he could talk to her, and proceeds to tell her that her action (asking the salesperson for a discount) was inappropriate and put the salesperson in an awkward position.

:-O Why did he do that?

The customer walked into the waiting room, sat down, pulled out her cell phone, called her friend, and started telling her friend the whole scenario. She got so worked up about it (and a little loud by the way) that the salesperson came over from the service desk to apologize for the manager's behavior.

Have you ever heard of such a thing? A SALESPERSON apologizing for the behavior of a MANAGER?

Well anyway, the customer became so outraged by the insult (because it was insulting) that she got up and left without having any service done to her car, taking her business elsewhere. So retailers, the lesson to be learned in all this: "When you treat your customers like shit, you end up with no customers."