Tales From The Dark Side Of The Service Economy

    It is a tribute to the U.S. economy that certain businesses stay open. A rising tide seems to keep all boats afloat, even those that by rights ought to sink.
    I run a service business. As such, I have a team of highly-trained, highly-paid employees. And we still often fall short of our goal of perfect client service. How one can exist in a service business with a bunch of minimum wage employees who have obviously not been trained in anything, is beyond me.
    Recently I took a large print into a arts & crafts type place (which I will not name, but its initials are Michael's) to be framed. This place is a national chain and advertises its "knowledgeable and friendly associates."
    I selected the frame, glass, mat, etc., paid in advance, and left the print. I was told they would call me when it was ready. Three weeks later, having heard nothing, I went to the store. Befuddled employees looked everywhere and couldn't find my print. Then they explained that their manager had been out for a week. Then they searched some more and found the print. Nothing had been done. They explained that the glass hadn't come in. Then they explained that their chief framer had been out sick for a couple of weeks. The only thing they didn't say was that their dog ate it. If I hadn't come in to the store, I am convinced that I never would have heard from them. They already had my money, after all.

    I won't go through the details, but three more weeks pass, and finally I am called to pick up my print. The woman behind the counter asks to see my ID, which I find rather hilarious, since I have been in to see her about six times and I imagine, made something of an impression with my indignation. She assures me solemnly that they wouldn't want someone else to make off with my framed print. I offer my Florida driver's license which she studies carefully, and then tells me that it's "the wrong address." She shows me that the work order ticket on my frame (the work order ticket they created) has my street address as 4085 Park Street. My driver's license has 4485 Park St. My name is the same on both documents. I am standing in front of her with a photo ID in her hand. "You obviously made a mistake in transcribing my address," I point out.
    She looks dubious. "I'm not supposed to let you take this," she says.
    Convinced perhaps by my strong physical resemblance to Tony Soprano, and a look on my face similar to the look on Tony's when Ralphie burned down the stable and killed Pie O' My, the clerk decided to release the print into my custody.
    As a last item, I went over to a rack to find some picture hangers. You know, the little nail and bracket needed to hang a picture on your wall. There were none.
    I stopped a passing employee.
    "Say, do you have any picture hangers?" I asked.
    He looked at me with the bored countenance of the $8 an hour employee that said: I don't give a damn, and why should I?
    "No," he said.
    "You sell pictures, you do custom framing, but you don't have picture hangers?"
    "Home Depot has 'em," he said.

    I know that some businesses, notably McDonald's, have refined their systems to the point where they are idiot-proof and can be run by high-school kids on a part-time basis with 300 percent a year employee turnover. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the ecomony does not deliver products and services as simple as a hamburger, nor do they do as good a job with their systems and training as McDonald's.   

    That problem is further exacerbated where I live, since even schoolteachers and firemen cannot afford to live in this town, never mind a minimum wage clerk. Still, I don't know how these places stay in business — except to speculate that the demand for goods and services in our booming U.S. ecomony is so great that even businesses with lousy service can stay afloat, and every idiot can have a job.

    I guess that's a good thing?

Comments

[David Goldfarb]

My wife is a big fan of South American oil paintings and she buys a number of them unframed. We have had them stretched and framed at Michael's print shop without problem and have gotten excellent service (and prices) every time. They have have been courteous; they have done the work and called promptly; and the quality has been very good.
I had assumed from the manager there that the print shop was a separate franchise within the store, but I could be wrong.
Where I live there is housing where schoolteachers and firemen can afford to live and even minimum wage clerks. Maybe it's time you move to a more mixed environment where you can get some better service.