Customer service....

First, let me thank all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers for our family. It means the world to me that people can be so caring and supportive.

Now, you're in for one of my famous (infamous??) rants. Those of you who know me well know that poor customer service is my pet peeve. I've worked too many jobs dealing directly with customers to have any patience for bullshit and rudeness. Today we decided to go to the PX (post exchange) for dinner and ice cream. We chose Charley's Steaks ("cheesesteak" place, but remember I grew up near Philly, so I say that loosely) and proceeded to the counter. One kid was working the counter, and food area, while a couple other employees were in the back. This kid really didn't seem to know what he was doing, and was incredibly slow with the order in front of us. The soldier in front of us paid for his order, and the kid working took the money, gloves still on. I see this, mention it to Nate, and decide to watch to see if the kid then handles food with the same gloves. He's also wiping at his brow, and touching his face with them on. By this point the other employees come out, and one starts working the grill. Her nametag says she's a supervisor, so I continue watching the food prep area. **sidenote: my family owns a deli, I worked in it from age 12 to 16. I've also worked as a waitress, and had my permit to handle food and alcohol in Texas and Florida My mom worked in food service for 20 years. I know food service, and proper food handling WELL** Anyway, I watch as I place my order, and the kid rings it up, still wearing the same gloves. He goes to put some more fries in the fryer, and I interrupt, and let him know he needs to change his gloves. He stutters and argues for a second, and the supervisor tells him not to argue. At this point N is standing in front of her at the grill, and I'm still at the register. N comes over and tells me we're about to leave, because the supervisor is talking smack. I tell him it's fine, and go to pay. As I'm paying, I tell the kid that it was nothing personal, I've made mistakes handling food, sometimes you just forget. At this point the supervisor says "Goddamn, I told him to change his gloves, do we need to keep talking about it??" I let that slide as well, because we're all hungry, lets just get our food and go. I'm waiting on the chicken for the kids, and notice we're short 2 fries and our drinks, I let her know he forgot to hand them to me, and she snaps "He DIDN't forget, they're right there" and points at fries in the fryer. Whatever, I tell N to get our cups, and he tells me to go sit down with the kids. We sat halfway across the very large food court, and proceeded to eat. At this point I hear the supervisor LOUDLY mouthing off, cussing, complaining, etc. I can hear every word from 40 or 50 feet away, and I'm getting irritated. She's telling some friends in line that she can't get fired, they've been trying to fire her and can't, and it's hot outside, then she's working a hot grill, and she's cranky and doesn't give a fuck, she's going off on everyone, etc. Very professional, let me tell you. Well, N tells me she said (in front of him) "It's bitches like that that make me want to smack them." Now we are getting really pissed off, because we paid good money for mediocre food and are being treated like shit. We can hear her telling her friends, "The bitch complains and I told him to take his gloves off... It's no big deal, nothing is gonna happen." N finishes his food and decided to go complain to the PX customer service desk about her. I stopped and asked a busser who we would direct a complaint to about a food court employee. She sees me talking to him, and immediately calls him over, then loudly starts calling me names and bragging that nothing is going to happen. Ok... had enough. I get up, walk over and chew her ass, she's supposed to be a supervisor, an example to the employees, and I hadn't made an unreasonable request. She calls me a liar, and says I've done nothing but complain since I got in line, we're basically shouting at each other. 3 soldiers in uniform are waiting to order at this point, while the other 2 employees stand there gawking. One of the soldiers finally spoke up just as the customer service manager walked up, asking if he could place his order now. She walks in the back to speak to the CS manager, and I apologized to the soldiers for holding up their meals. I had let the CS manager know I expected an apology for her behavior, so I went to help the kids with the rest of their meal. Finally, the CS manager comes out and tells me the supervisor will not apologize, but CS is actually not who is over the food court, so she gave me the number of the lady who is. She apologizes, and reassures us we will be able to reach the lady tomorrow in her office. She walks away and N tells me the moment he said "I'd like to complain about a food court employee", the customer service manager said "Let me guess, Mary, right?" So apparently we aren't the only ones. Ok, fine. It's been 30 minutes of listening to the rude supervisor run her mouth to everyone in sight about me and my bitchiness. We tell the kids to hurry up and finish, we're scrapping the promised ice cream, before we lose control on this woman. She continued to talk shit for the remainder of the time we were there, 45 minutes total of her disrespect and loud bitching. All because I asked an employee to change the contaminated gloves he had on. I'm SO unreasonable sometimes! What a bitch for not wanting germs in my kids food! So, for the first time in my life, I am going to demand someone be dismissed from their job. We'll be filing a complaint in the AM, and if the lady is not fired, I'll continue to complain up the chain until she is. I have never been treated so poorly by an employee, and the fact that she behaved like a ghetto ass crackhead (looked like one, too) for 45 freaking minutes is unacceptable. Had she come out and apologized as asked I would have dropped it, and simply never eaten there again, but that was too difficult for her. So, I'll have to post later about the phone calls and whether she is still employed there or not.