Last night was my first commercial class. We were given a bit of copy to work on before class got started, and then Carolyne went through the ground rules for us. With no time wasted, we got right to work. As everyone took their turn in front of the camera, she pointed things out, working with each person on technique for everything from the slate (introducing yourself) to product handling. It was kind of a mass introduction to her approach. I went fourth and did fine on the slate, but didn't really feel good about my first take. She honed in on my tendencies, which are basically identical to the issues I've been dealing with in my previous acting classes. After some redirection, my second take was much better. At the end of the night, we watched the tape of everyone's performances. Everyone improved on their first take. It was fascinating to note what made things better and how notable the difference is between someone who seems relaxed and someone who is not. I feel extremely confident that we'll all improve tremendously over the next several weeks. Carolyne is such a character. In small world news, a friend of mine who I did a show with in Atlanta is in the class.
We had customer service trauma while shopping at Costco yesterday. At the end of March, we renewed our membership by paying the annual fee at the cashier. For some reason, I was not convinced the lady did it properly and I was nervous because we were paying cash for the only time ever, so I made sure we kept the receipt. After more than 30 days of no problems, my wife took the receipt out of her wallet and left it in our files. Sure enough, yesterday when we checked out, the cashier said our membership had expired. We explained that we had definitely paid it, and a manager was called over. This manager was pathetic. We explained the whole thing again. She escalated the problem by saying she was keeping my card and there was nothing she could do unless we had our receipt (from March!). What? We made all this up to buy cheap bacon? Seriously...who walks around with 30 days of receipts in their pocket? Now, I'm a calm, laid-back guy, but her attitude and absolute refusal to offer any sort of solution to the situation really ticked me off. It was clear that this manager was not interested in considering a customer-friendly solution to a problem SHE, as the current face of Costco, created. We left our items there and walked away in disgust.
On the way out, I decided to stop by the membership desk to vent a little frustration and express my dissatisfaction with the treatment we were receiving. The guy there was extremely helpful. He apologized for the problem, and, better yet, HELPED US RESOLVE IT. He cleared us to make our purchases that day so we could return at our convenience with the receipt. Can you imagine? He actually had to think and did it! Service! Resolution! Amazing!!! We got our card back, went through the store collecting our items again and checked out. It was still a hassle, but mostly diffused the situation. Thing is, it made me even more angry at the first manager for not even suggesting that we try to work something out at the membership desk. Guess she figured it wasn't her problem. She'd rather snub her nose and tell us to kiss off than take 2 minutes of her precious time and offer assistance. And THAT is what is wrong with people in the big corporate service industry today. Crappy training. No creative thinking. No initiative. No responsibility. Pass the buck and get back to daydreaming about your next day off. Of course there's also the issue of the untrained original cashier who screwed it all up in the beginning. What happens to people who aren't obsessive like us and don't keep receipts for this long? I'll never pay cash there again.
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