Here’s the first one: I was at Kroger picking up a few items, including two packs of Kraft American singles. [...]]]> Two bad customer service experiences in the last two weeks having me wondering if the general level of customer service is getting worse, or if I am just getting more irritable as I get older?

Here’s the first one: I was at Kroger picking up a few items, including two packs of Kraft American singles. For each pack I had a 50 cent coupon, which based on their policy should have been doubled. Of course the coupons didn’t double, and when I point it out to the cashier she just nonchalantly says “it just does that sometimes”, making no attempt to fix the error. I then ask for a supervisor, who comes over and basically says the same thing, making no attempt to fix it. I finally ask for a manager, who I think will surely make this right, who gives me nothing but a line of BS. She first says they can’t double it because the manufacturer won’t let them, and then when I point out that there is no restriction stated on the coupon to prevent doubling she gives me a line that it must be coded into the barcode. When I specifically ask her to adjust the total for the coupons she refuses, saying she doesn’t have the authority to make any adjustments. I had them take off the cheese and give me my coupons back, and followed the incident up with a letter to their corportate office in Ohio. At this point, I haven’t received any acknowledgement or response.

The second incident was at Randalls earlier this week. In their sale that ended Tuesday, they had two really good meat sales: one for bone-in pork chops for $0.99/lb and the other for 80% lean ground beef, also at $0.99/lb. Surprisingly they were out of both, and when I asked at the meat counter the butcher said that I just needed to get a raincheck in the front. OK, fine. I finish my shopping and check out, and tell the cashier I need to get a raincheck for the meat sale items that are out of stock. She then tells me I need to go to customer service for a raincheck, which has a line of about 12 people and is showing no signs of moving. Noting it is ridiculous I should have to wait another 30 minutes to get a raincheck for something they should have had in stock in the first place and that all my cold items would be warm by the time I was done, I asked for a manager. The manager comes over and when I explain what I need and that my cold items will be hot by the time I get through the line at customer service, he tries to stick to the line that all rainchecks must go through customer service. After a few minutes of arguing and me threatening to void the sale of the other $50 of items I was getting, he finally points me to the head cashier who is standing at the next register with the raincheck book ready to go. I ultimately got what I wanted, but I found it incredible how much of a douchebag the manager was about the issue.

So is anyone else seeing the level of customer service decline as much as I am, or is it just bad luck on my part?