Worst Customer Service Award.

*This will be my last post until Monday--we're headed to the Wisconsin Dells today! Woo!*

Okay, it's funny, in a customer-service oriented world, you would think people would at least TRY. But sometimes, sometimes, you encounter people who just don't belong in the customer service field.

Case in point, my run-in the other day with the Ignorant Kinko's Guy from Hell.

So, I'm at the FedEx station at my local Kinko's, overnighting our tax stuff to our accountant. The guy who is helping me is new, I haven't seen him before, but I wait for him to finish patiently.
"Well, they don't have Standard Next Day to where you're sending this, so I put you on 3 Day Express Saver," he states to me, and starts typing away.

I realize what he's just said. "Well, I don't want 3-day Express. I want it to get there tomorrow. Could you upgrade it to Priority Overnight?" I ask.
He looks at me pointedly for a moment, then in a VERY arrogant tone says "I'm working on changing it right now, Ma'am."
He takes FOREVER to key everything in, and tells me the amount due. I hand him my American Express card.
Now, we LOVE Amex, because we get double points. So we put everything on it. We pay it off monthly, and it's the only card we have, other than a check card.

He runs my card through the scanner and pauses for a moment, looks perplexed, and runs it through again. "Sorry, Ma'am, but it looks like your card has been declined." He announces very loudly.

I look at him, incredulous. "Declined?" I repeat.
"Well, it's saying it's "not authorized."
"That's not possible," I say calmly.
"Well, in this case, it is," he shoots back just as calmly.
Trying not to be aghast at his rudeness, I narrow my eyes, trying to think of a reason WHY it would not be authorized. I can't think of even one, so I dig my feet in.
"Could you run it through again, please?"
He looks at me. "Did you pay your bill on time? Sometimes these things happen."

That's about when I lost it. "Look, you're running it through wrong," I insist. "There shouldn't be any problems with that card."
Apparently I'd hit a nerve, because he glared at me (seriously) and said VERY condescendingly "No, I'm running it through the same way I run through all the other cards."

At this point, I'd had enough of his arrogance. "Could you get the other guy to run it through?" I asked, as calmly as possible.
He looked at me, as if I was the Dumbest Person In The World, then motioned for his coworker (who was a familiar face) to come over.

"Hey, this customer's card isn't going through, and she's telling me it's not possible," he says evenly, OOZING with rudeness.

Familiar Guy looks at my card, then at the computer, and tells him simply: "Amex cards are different. See these numbers? You need to type them in." He types them in with a flourish, and LO AND BEHOLD, the card goes through.

Now, generally, I'm not the type to gloat (unless I've proven myself right in a disagreement with my Hubby) so I stood there with as little expression on my face as possible while the guy blushed all sorts of shades of red and finished my transaction. He even handed me the wrong copy of my shipping invoice, but I wasn't going to correct him. I could tell he was VERY upset at being proven wrong. He didn't say a word to me after that, just handed me my receipt and walked away.

I'm not usually the type to complain, either, unless I'm REALLY pissed, so I just left.
Although I will say, if I encounter him next time, I will have no qualms asking for someone else to help me. I don't care how rude I seem.

Although I have an idea he won't be around next time, if he keeps up the attitude with the customers.

People like that just ruin my day...