Customer Service

I would like to do a comparative study of customer service in the United States and in Paris, France. My thesis, they both suck but for different reason.. Check it out.

By day 7 in France, I didn't even want to eat out because it took so long to get a meal. You sit and wait 20 mins for a menu, 30 mins for water, 2o mins for the meal and then 50 mins for the check.. next thing you know the whole day is done... and you are hungry again cause its been so long since you ate by the time you get the change back.. The French just dont so much give a fuck that you have somewhere to go, or anything at all to do with your afternoon or your life. You are supposed to savor the flavor, enjoy the meal and all of that, the company the wine and if that means that you wait 20 mins to get salt for your underseasoned entree.. So be it.. THIS IS FRANCE!!!! Joie de vivre!.. something like that... so at day 7, I took it back to the states and ate pomme frites (well actually these cool potato wedges that they offer in Europe) at Mickey D's.. which actually still took bout an hour.. but ya know.... at least there was no server to deal with.

On to the States! The first day back from France, I was sooo excited to have someone ask me how my meal was going!! No i didnt need anything, in fact, everything was superb.. but its good to know that you care! So you are now thinking.. im crazy and I am not even making a point.... Aha!!.. keep reading..

This gripe is not about my fabulous and friendly service workers on the Main Line in PA.. NO NO NO.. its about that bitter ass black lady that works behind a desk in every city in America, who acts like her job is the most important fucking thing on earth! Wednesday some co-workers and I head to Ballys Fitness Center to work out. As a part of the National Body Challenge, you can get 8 weeks free with the pass. So, I forget my pass on my desk, but my homie who had been there just the day before and did not need the pass. The lady behind the desk said "Oh, you dont even need this you are in the system already."

So I get there, and I am in the system and they want me to meet with the fitness coach.. "Oh no lady, I'm just trying to go to the ab class."

"Oh no honey, I you HAVE to talk to the fitness coach and you HAVE to take the tour."

"But I know where everything is and I have already set my fitness goals, so I think I'll just head up and work out!" Certainly she will let me go, because after all working out is FREE, so i'm not taking anything.. i'm simply saving her coworkers the hassle of touring me around utterly pissed off.. Oh NO!.. She consults the other bitter ass black lady who says, "OH NO!! SHE GOT TO HAVE THE PASS!! HAS TO HAVE IT!"

I lean toward them and swallowing my rage utter, "But I'm in the system and Bally's has called my home, I know i'm there."

BABL 1 says, "Well, they called you but they THOUGHT you were going to bring in the pass!"

So I call my other friend who is coming to meet us, to grab the pass off my desk and bring it.. and there i sit in the lobby for the next 45 mins, that I could sweating up a storm and lowering my risk for heart attack, stroke and diabetes.. But i'm sitting there looking at dumbass BABL 1 and 2, who ask me a couple time each if I found my pass. I want to respond, but I find it hard to scream at a woman my mother's age and say, "NO BITCH!! and instead of harassign me, you should waddle your ass up them steps and onto an elliptical." But for real.. all jokes aside, how do you weigh 200 pounds at 5'2" and you work at Ballys?

So I finally get my pass, and she doesnt use any of the information on it. .She looks at it, tucks it in with my guest pass and with a few taps of the computer and that piece of paper I am in..

Now, you may read me as a BABL who should have brought her pass to get in... but I ask in simple business sense... If your goal is for me to join your gym. In other words, spend my dollars there in exchange for a service, why wouldnt you just let me in and tell me to bring the pass tomorrow. After all, you can get a one day guest pass at Bally's for FREE.. the Pass I have is FREE so I wasn't getting away with anything! But with their sassy black attitudes, they could no let a chica slide (oooh that was the perfect place for the N-word!)

Now this is definitely not the first time that I have met a BABL. She works at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and makes you go back to the end of the line when you lose your number because she HAS to have that or its not fair, even when she knows you've been waiting there for an hour. I've her behind desks in schools, doctors offices, stores, banks, any place where folks act like the customer no longer comes first. I've met them everywhere... and they are the reason why I'll tell my kiddies to go to college because I guess when you make 6.45 an hour, there is no choice, but to be bitter.