Bad Service

First post here, please be gentle.

A few weeks ago, I made an online purchase for a computer cable. Very simple, very cheap. I was already very pleased with that, because I was buying and shipping a 10' cable for $20 whereas in various stores I'd found 6' cables for $35. So the shipping was supposed to take a few days, but when it hadn't arrived I checked and found that it had shipped two days after my initial order, and UPS claimed to have delivered it. I didn't have it, though, and I checked the mail every day.

So I called customer service and got a guy with a horrible stutter. I could barely understand him. At first I thought he was just inexperienced, but I soon discovered that he was the ONLY guy working CS. I told him the situation, and he said he would call UPS about it but didn't know what else he could do for me.

Um...in situations like this, isn't it policy to please the customer? It's like that in all businesses. You factor in losses like that. No--instead, when I very politely ask if the cable could be replaced, he goes and says "Do you know how much money I would lose if I sent you another cable??" and claims that if I go to my credit card company, "[our company] will win." He also says that he won't gain anything by sending me a replacement because "we'll lose a customer either way."

After this exchange he sends me an email highlighting the particular passages of the terms of service that were relevant.

I got news for ya--I'm with Wachovia, and you're a horrible customer service agent. So no, you did not win.

Quick one. For some reason I have my post office's phone number saved, and I decided to call and see what time they closed.

I call:

Person: Fratelli's Bakery, what do you need?
Me: Oh, I'm sorry, I have a wrong number
Person: No no, what do you need? This bakery's got everything.
Me: I was actually looking for the post office, sorry about that.
Person: I'm just kidding, this is the post office.
Me: Oh. Well, could you tell me what time your office closes today?
Person: Which one, the bakery or post office?
Me: Uh, I'm calling in regards to the post office.
Person: Hahah, of course you are. We close at 6.
Me: Great, thanks.
Person: And on your way over, stop at Fratelli's bakery, they have some great stuff over there!
Me: Yeah... thanks.

Now, I get that this isn't horrible service, but isn't the post office part of the government in some way? Shouldn't you not pull this kinda stuff then? I agree though, Fratelli's is pretty sweet, I used to work across from it.

So, I went to Taco del Mar yesterday for my lunch, their burritos are awesome.  I went in and stood by the "Order" area.  The girl who was supposed to be making the food was talking on the phone on the back wall.  She talked for a few minutes without acknowledging me at all, then she hung up the phone and headed over to make my lunch.

Well....

While on the phone, she had a pair of food preparation gloves on her hands.  She then reached for the flour tortilla which would contain my food.  With the same pair of gloves on, mind you.

Me (very politely): "Excuse me.  Would you mind changing your gloves before you make my food?" 

Her: Gives me a dirty look, but changes her gloves.  

Small thing, I know, but who knows whose grubby paws had been all over that phone and what their hygiene habits were.  I work in healthcare and have taken Microbiology, so I know exactly what could have been crawling on that phone.  And frankly, it made me nauseated.  

At least I had a clean burrito.