and so it begins

     So I have avoided this whole Blogging thing as long as possible. I seriously feel like Blogging proves that way to many people have way to much time on their hands.  Then it occurred to me that, as an Author who works from home, I am actually one of THOSE people.  (Shudder)  So here we go with my own attempts at making the world a better place or at least an interesting one.
     As you may have surmised from the title of my Blog space, I have some very rough opinions.  Since the time I could talk and think for myself, I have had some pretty firm opinions about the world around me and the people who inhabit it.  For 40+ years I have watched the world go to heck in a hand basket and wondered exactly where it all went wrong.
      At this point you probably expect me to start spouting off about climate change, the Federal government or even the various wars running amok around the world, but that is not what this blog is going to be about.  Don't get me wrong.  All of those subjects are incredibly important and best handled by greater minds than mine.  No, i want to talk about the little things that we can do everyday to make life better for ourselves.
     Way back in the day, if something went wrong people complained about it.  They raised unholy heck if the service they were expecting wasn't absolutely perfect.  If the waiter brought your food to the table and it wasn't prepared just to your liking, you sent it back.  If you found food that was spoiled at your local Grocery store, you complained to the manager and they fixed the problem.  Well, sometime over the past 4 or so decades that has changed.
     I have watched people in restaurants chowing down on their food and complaining the entire time about how it wasn't what they ordered or that it didn't taste good.  I have many people in fast food chains whine because the cooks/servers got their order wrong.  I have seen people in grocery stores gripe because the meat/bread/milk has gone bad and don't even get me started on mechanics.
     The thing that always amazes me is that in most of these cases, no one complains.  No one walks back up to the counter or summons a manager to fix their food order.  No one takes the offending meat etc and finds someone to correct the situation.  People just moan and gripe while accepting that this is just the way things are.  Because of this, service becomes more and more lax.  Owners/Managers don't try to keep service at acceptable levels and simply quit caring about the customers.
     I won't mention the store name, but a great example of this happened to me recently.  My wife and I were deciding which bread to buy and discovered that an entire row of bread was weeks past the expiration date and at least one loaf was moldy.  I took the moldy loaf to the Store Manager.  When I informed him of the problem, he did not apologize.  He did not do anything to reassure me that the problem would be fixed.  The Floral Manager who was standing nearby even told me and I quote, "Well I guess you won't be getting any of that bread today."
     I have been buying at that store for years, but that incident plus one other at another store in the same chain has cause me to switch to another chain.  Customer service means serving the customers.  It means taking care to make sure that everything is right.  Somehow, over the years, that message seems to have been lost.  Businesses put less and less effort into keeping customers happy.  They give us less and less while making more and more.  People just smile and nod while accepting that things just suck.  Well, I have news for you.  Things are going to continue to suck and get worse until we stop being complacent and start complaining!
     The next time your order is wrong at a fast food joint, go back and complain about it.  Heck even if it means getting back in your car and driving back to the place.  Make them fix it and make them apologize.  If you see something growing on the meat aisle at the grocery store, raise a fuss until it is killed and taken away for burial.  Let your voice be heard!  Gripe and complain till things are made right.  Maybe we can't change the whole world, but maybe we can change a little bit of it at a time.
     I will continue this blog as often as possible with examples of bad service and good service that I experience day to day.  Please free to tell me your own examples of this sort of thing.