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December 1, 2005
BUSINESS AS USUAL, UNFORTUNATELY!
It amazes me how some people choose to run their businesses. Whether it's a company that fails to list its telephone number anywhere on its web site, or customer service phone lines which make us more frustrated then when we originally placed a call in the first place, some businesses just don't seem to understand or even care about providing good service to their existing and potential customers. For example:
1. My bank has intentionally moved away from supplying deposit slips in the lobby, at least at the branch I like(d) to frequent. According to the bank manager, since customers like to take more than one deposit slip at time, she felt it was necessary to pull all of the deposit slips from the lobby, opting instead to hand them out on a case-by-case basis. In the meantime, when the line to see a teller becomes long enough to stretch to the door (which is 75 percent of the time because, of course, the bank's understaffed), a bank manager comes out from behind her desk to hand out deposit slips to customers who need them. No pens, mind you, just a deposit slip. (You see where this is going?) By the time you get to the person who shouted "Next In Line" at you from behind bulletproof glass, you're nowhere near to being prepared for the ensuing transaction (because, as you can guess, it's kinda hard to fill in a deposit slip when you don't have a pen or hard surface to write on). This only infuriates the teller, who already has to scream because of the bulletproof glass that separates the two of you and the cop standing behind you in the lobby, where they no longer keep a supply of deposit slips for fear of you taking more than one at a time. Can you say 'direct deposit'!
2. The new pizza joint in my neighborhood refuses--despite customerís frequent requests--to sell pizza by the slice. The reason? Well, at first I thought maybe they just didn't see the value proposition in selling pizza by the slice. After all, they're new to the restaurant business, so maybe they just hadn't figured out how to price slices so they'd come out even or ahead of the price of a full pie. If not that, then I figured they must have a prep issue... you know, the pizza oven isn't calibrated to handle one slice at a time, or something like that. Both perfectly reasonable but easily solvable obstacles. Well, as it turns out, neither price nor preparation is the issue. (Ready for this?) The only reason they've chosen not to sell pizza by the slice is because they do not want certain types of people walking in off the street and frequenting their restaurant. And just who are these certain types of people? Well, while the owner of the pizza shop wouldn't come right out and say it, she referred to "those people" from up the street, "the ones who are always walking up and down this part of Pennsylvania Ave." Translation: if you live in my neighborhood, you know darned well that she's referring to the folks who make their home in the Lucille Raines Residence--a facility owned and operated by the Indiana Area United Methodist Women. Many of the men and women living in the five-story Raines Residence are actively engaged in rebuilding their lives from substance abuse. Some are parolees, while others are visually impaired. The common thread though running through all of them is that they eagerly share in learning to function as independent citizens. Many of them also happen to be single African-American men, but I digress. Bottom line... if the pizza shop starts offering slices, which again, people are asking for, the owners feel they'll be overrun with the wrong type of customer, who just so happens to be black. Never mind that this wrong type of customer's money is just as good as anyone else's, and never mind that serving the wrong type of customer when he or she is down but on their way back up may actually endear them to the restaurant for years to come. Aww, heck... while we're at it, never mind the discriminatory and exclusionary nature of the practice. My suggestions of a policy that slices are available for to-go orders only was met with, "Yeah, but they'd still have to come inside the restaurant."
One word... UnFrickenBelievable!
Posted by Mikal at December 1, 2005 2:10 AM
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Sounds like a business that wont be around long.
You've piqued my curiousity as to which pizza place it might be.
I do know of whom you speak. One might overlook their poor cust service manners, given that they are new to retail. But they don't play well with others, specifically with their retail neighbors, at least that's what I've heard. Comments about them can be summed up with one word... ODD.
So we'll see if they can last a year.
I'd try and get them shut down. Let it be known they are being racist, and not being good stewards in the neighborhood.
1. Easy solution is as you have stated, direct deposit. For other transactions, use the ATM. I go into my bank maybe about once or twice a year.
2. Mikal, round up 3 or 4 of the folks you feel are being discriminated against and come into the pizza place, sit down and order a whole pizza. Sit there for about an hour or so, be a little boisterous but not too much, just enough to needle the owners. Do it on a regular basis and even tell the owners you are doing it on purpose. When confronting such racist jerks use the rule: WWLD - or What Would Larry (David from Curb your Enthusiasm) Do?
Bury their nose in their own racism and embarass them in front of all of their other customers who may not possess your prescience. Shame is an underated and underutilized tool for changing hearts and minds.
You just miss Itza Pizza (and Itza Donna).
D. Lee: Right you are! For the uninitiated, "Itza Pizza" was the name of the multi-location pizza joint on campus where D. Lee and I went to school: The University of Houston. I even worked as a shift manager / pizza maker in one of the joint's high traffic locations for an entire semester.
D. Lee... "Itza Donna" was a rather large and jolly woman, wasn't she?
Man, those WERE the days!
Mikal, you mispelled it. More accurately, it should read "Issa Pissa."
I wonder how long that bank manager would do business at a bank that made her stand in line for a piece of paper.
I wonder how long that bank manager would do business at a bank that made her stand in line for a piece of paper.
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