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| Photo by Zimurg |
I would like
to know just when people stopped being polite and started being so downright
rude. Take today for instance. I telephoned the local Walmart to inquire about
a vacuum cleaner that was out of stock when I was there on Tuesday and which I
was told would be ordered and delivered to the store within a day or so.
The young
woman who answered the phone said she would transfer my call to Housewares. I
said, “Thank you.” She didn’t say doodley squat in return. Then again, I do
think maybe she grunted. I’m not sure. Anyway, the next person who came on the
line was another young woman, and when I told her the purpose of my call, she related
that she worked in Jewelry and needed to page someone in Housewares since she
didn’t “know nothing about vacuum cleaners.” I said, “Thank you.” She at least responded,
although what she said wasn’t “You’re welcome,” but “Okay.” Well, the next
person who picked up the phone was supposedly
a manager of some kind, and when I told her the reason for my call, she said
she would need to check with yet another person since she didn’t know when the
delivery truck was due. I replied, “Thank you.” She replied, “All right.”
After holding
the receiver to my ear for approximately 20 minutes, which felt more like an
hour, and listening to dead silence (Why doesn’t Walmart have canned music like
other stores?), I decided that either the woman had gotten lost on her way to locate
the other person, taken her lunch break, left for the day and gone home, or
been abducted by aliens, so I hung up and redialed the number for Information. The
same young women who had answered my first call answered the phone again and
again redirected my call to Housewares. The person who picked up the phone this
time was a guy who worked in Automotive. He said he would page someone in
Housewares. I said, “Thank you.” He said, “No problem.”
Well, long
story short—or at least semi-short—I finally got through to someone who could
answer my question. In fact, she was very knowledgeable and helpful. She was
also very polite, for when I said, “Thank you,” she actually responded, “You’re
welcome.” In fact, if I didn’t think my call would be directed to someone in
Infants Wear or perhaps Sporting Goods, I would call and give this nice,
helpful, polite employee a
commendation.
And that
brings me full circle to the point of this blog. And, no, it’s not the inefficiency
of Walmart; it’s whatever happened to good manners? In my opinion, “okay,” “all
right,” and “no problem” are not polite responses to someone who has just
thanked you for your time, effort, assistance, or anything else. Of course, perhaps
such blasé responses are better than no responses at all or, heaven forbid, a grunt,
but mannerly they are not. It’s a different
world today, however, than when I was growing up, or even 20 years ago, so
maybe it’s simply a sign of the times. In my opinion, though, today’s world is a
far less pleasant place, and one of the main reasons is the lack of good
manners.
