NEW LAW: ALL AMERICANS HAVE TO SPEND AT LEAST ONE YEAR IN A CUSTOMER SERVICE RELATED ACTIVITY

Dealing with the public is both challenging and miserable all at the same time. How many of you out there waited tables in college or high school? worked fast food? maybe a retail environment? Oh, come on, raise your hands, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Work is good, any kind, and all experiences are all good, right? (ok, a little Pollyanna here, however, I am a big LEMONADE kind of girl... so work with me!)
Have you ever heard the phrase, "the customer is always right!" The answer class, is "NO! The customer is sometimes living on the other side of reality, the one in which they are a dictator and you are their servant, and THIS IS NOT REALITY!!!" Let me re-iterate, "THIS IS NOT REALITY!"
I know that even more people would go on Prozac if they really had the opportunity to get a full taste of what dealing with the public is like. Anyone can be patient for a while, no really, they can. Try to extend that for a full 8 hour day. Then a few days in a row. Next lets book on into a week, followed by a month or a year.
You too can be yelled at for not returning an item that the customer has obviously used, and had for SIX months, AND scratched up beyond belief..."But I never used it, I swear!"
And when you succumb, you too can be yelled at for giving them significantly less than full credit.
Do you, as a customer, honestly think that when you order something from a store that it is actually the person at the counters fault for it not arriving exactly when they were told it was? Couldn't it potentially be a UPS problem? or a manufacturing issue? a backorder issue? (The people in front of you actually do not MAKE the product, no really, it's true!)
In brief conclusion, I don't care that you have had a bad day, don't take it out on me.
I don't care that you are upset because you waited until the last minute to buy something that you know that you have needed for months and now not only do I not have any more, but it's just too fucking late to get it to you anyway.
I have absolutely no control over what the manufacturer actually sends us. Yes, we may have it on order, but someone from that company has actually got to send it to us before we can sell it to you, the lucky customer.
Your customer service rep is there to give you that personal touch, and information you wouldn't get from a recording device or possibly understand from the description on the box. There is no reason to be rude to a person who is honestly trying to help you. *And if there is, perhaps you should be looking for help with someone else... like a therapist!
(*Maybe customer service helps you most in an early political career, because it teaches you all about repetition, because frequently, people have many of the same questions.)