No under-age Burger Rings
A few days ago ob1 made some good comments about customer service on his blog, saying how “the mindless application of rules results in lower outcomes” when employees stick to the rules handed down to them rather than going out of their way to help customers.
I had an experience of this very issue today whilst down at the big shopping centre in our city. I took my son Owen to get him a treat of Burger Rings, his favourite snack food. Now at the eastern end of the shops I have discovered that the only store which sells Burger Rings is the liquor store, where they have two shelves full of them (don’t ask me why - perhaps Burger Rings go well with beer?) Anyway so I took Owen there, grabbed a packet, which he handed to the middle aged woman behind the counter. I then gave him a $50 note for him to give to the lady to pay for it, which he likes to do (makes him feel like a big boy)…
“Sorry, I can’t accept that from him”, she said.
“Huh?”, I replied eloquently.
“I’m not allowed to serve under-18s.”
“But it’s for Burger Rings!…. it’s not like he’s buying alcohol,” I said incredulously.
“Sorry. It’s the rules.”
Shaking my head, I took the money off my disappointed son, paid for the Burger rings, and left the store in silence. Owen’s disappointment faded pretty quickly once I opened the pack for him and he started gobbling them down, but my annoyance didn’t subside quite that fast. Few things annoy me more than people who are so petty as to stick to the letter of their rules, sacrificing both courtesy and common sense. It’s like they are on some kind of power-trip, inflexibly enforcing their rules on innocent people, when there is no good reason to do so. I’d like to say I won’t be going in that shop again as a result, but their monopoly on Burger Rings means I probably still will. I just hope that I get served by someone different next time, who won’t be so petty when I give Owen the money to pay for his snack. But then again maybe I shouldn’t stubbornly ask for trouble like that. Perhaps I’ll just meekly pay for them myself and not invite a repeat of the irritation.
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