[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

My day at the Zoo

I had a auction car passed yesterday, so this morning at 8am I thought I would go get it licenced at the local DOT, I pull into the carpark and line up to go into a bay and get carved up by a P plater who just shot into the bay at full speed, after giving him the old Knob puller hand gesture I grabbed another bay, so I stroll up to the front to be confronted with a line of people outside the door, the place was open but full, finally get in the door and was greeted by a smart **** attendant who spoke like I had just ruined her day, as I have done this well over 1000 times I said "I know what I need to do so I will just grab a ticket", I got a "nope you need to tell me what you are here for so I can direct you to the right area", so I told her, she then asks if it will be cash or card, I say cash, she then tells me its a longer wait because I have cash, WTF?, anyway I get in and there is nowhere to sit so I stand against the wall between a guy dressed as a woman and a Asian fella, there are 13 windows that they can use with 6 people working at them, there would have been well over 100 people in there, well the 3 hour wait was full of entertainment as there are some pretty screwed up people out there;

Anyway while I'm waiting I hear the attendant asking people questions and then saying we have a priority customer service then ushering people over to a section where the people were being served pretty much straight away ( obviously meet the quick customer criteria and paying by card), the Asian guy next to me keeps farting and staring at his phone like nothing happened and he stinks, the man/woman is taking to her/his lover on the phone working out what special meal he/she is getting tonight, finally my number is called, I get the attendant that served me when I came in?, so I finally get the car registered after 3 hours of the incompetent government departments finest workers doing what they do best, nothing!

It could be worse. When the ex and I were in the States for our honeymoon way back when, we stopped into the local post office in brooklyn to post some postcards (remember them?) back home to family and friends. Our friends we were staying with told us not to get in line as it would take ages, but to get the required stamps from the vending machine.

Of course, we couldn't find the stamps we needed, so we had to get in line. There must have been at least a dozen people in the line: it snakes from the counters along a wall, towards the front door and then along another wall. To service the line, there were two counter workers, both African American ladies. Whilst we were waiting in line, we were incredulous to hear the two customer service ladies discussing with each other their personal lives, whilst serving the customers: how their boyfriend was cheating on them and how he'd been caught out with the other woman, etc.

Them, to our surprise and shock, without even batting an eyelid, one of them, mid way through serving a customer, turns to her colleague, announces it's her lunch break, closes the shutter to her counter, and walks off! The poor customer she was serving then had to wait for the other customer service rep to finish serving their customer before having their transaction completed. You could see all of those still waiting in line were agitated from their body language, but there was nothing anyone could do about it.

That was pretty reflective of our experience with customer service in the US, except for restaurants and the like.