Incompetence

I have little patience these days for incompetent people. I seem to be encountering them more frequently. Is there a breakout, an epidemic? Let me offer two examples.

Just this week I went to get my haircut. I go to The Haircutters. It's fast, cheap, and I don't need an appointment. I know this sounds reckless, but remember I have curly hair and a slightly poor quality cut is often hidden by the curls. They are quite forgiving. Plus, I've never really gotten a bad cut from this place.

Well, this week...my hair was driving me nuts and I had had it. I wanted some of the length and weight off my hair - stat. So I left Alivia with Cody and printed a coupon for two dollars off and went to get my haircut. Well, the lady who cut my hair was nice enough. She chatted about kids and meds and breastfeeding and the like...all the while cutting my hair horribly. I tell you, I have never questioned an end product mid-way like I did this haircut. She did a horrible job. I can't stress this point any harder. Horrible! But hopefully, it won't show because, once again, I have curls.

But then we went to check-out and this is where I died. She took my coupon. Read it. Said it will be two dollars off eighteen. And. Then. Pulled. Out. The. Calculator!!!! Can you believe it?! She couldn't subtract 2 from 18! I was floored. I mean, if you can't cut hair, at least be able to do basic math. Have something to offer your clients. Something!

I have come to the realization that niceness is no substitute for competence. I once thought that it maybe could be, but I now have a firm belief that if you are completely incompetent in helping and serving in your given place, niceness is of little use to me.

This takes us to my second example: Walmart. Now I'm not a snob who thinks she's good enough for Target but too good for Walmart. I lived in Arkansas and know how nice Walmarts can be. They can be clean, stocked, and full of helpful and well-groomed employees. They just can't be that way here in California apparently.

Two weeks ago, Cody had a big order with Urban Outfitters and needed a lot of a certain sized box. While Cody tagged the blankets and got the order ready, I went to Walmart for 30 boxes. They didn't have any on the shelf. I found an employee and asked her to check in the back to see if they had any back there. TWENTY minutes later...she strolls down my isle, after seeing my "what did you find out" look, she said, "oh yes, I'll now go and look for your boxes." WHAT?! I said I thought she had been looking this whole time and asked her what she had been doing all the time I was waiting (I even asked another employee to try to find her), and her simple and pathetic response was "oh, I had to pull something for someone." Awesome.

She later responded that there were no more boxes but that I could go to customer service for further assistance. So I wait in line and when I reach the customer service rep, I ask if another store has my desired boxes. She asks me what the box's upc number is. I say I don't know. She says she can't do any searching without the number. She then proceeds to stare at me. She doesn't radio a rep in that department to have them look up the upc number as she should. She finally says I need to go back and get it if I want her to look it up. UGH! I go back to the isle, get the number, and the lady finally says they should have 200 in the back. What? The other employee said there were none in the back. Then the rep says then the computer must be wrong and that the only thing I could do is find a store manager to have them get the keys and look in the storage unit out back, but that the process would take a long time.

So she says my best bet is to go to Huntington Beach Walmart because they are supposed to have 500 boxes and there is no way they don't have 30. But, wait for it, I go and they have...0. That's right, zero! Did I mention I have Alivia with me? The store manager can't explain for the fact that they are supposed to have 500 and don't. And for that matter, he said he saw them just a couple days previously. Are you being robbed? Are your employees absent minded and misplacing 500 boxes? Excuse me store manager...but how do those things go missing?

He says to follow him. I have alivia in a stroller and I'm pulling a cart. He doesn't offer to push the cart for me. That would have been a gentleman's gesture. But whatever. We go to the "only place where the boxes could be" and we see none. He then says, "well, I'm awful sorry, but I can't help you." To which I say that I refuse his response. I had just driven from Orange at the suggestion of the rep there and he was the manager and I needed boxes and he should have 500 and he is wasting my car gas and my time. He said he'd give me a ten dollar gift card and an apology, but that was the best he could do.

Well I took his money because I'm not stupid. But I was still bugged. He took me to the garden center to purchase my other items (packing tape and other supplies) because "the lines are shorter in the garden center", but the garden center doesn't have gift cards. So now I have to wait twice as long for him to go and get a gift card, ring it up, and bring it back to me. All the while, I'm in line and the teller closes her lane when I'm the next in line because the customer in front of me has a check that didn't clear...and all the other tellers just left for break. She's the only option, and she's closed. Awesome.

The store manager finally comes back, hands me the gift card, and asks what else he can do. I thought the answer was obvious, but I didn't have much faith in him to figure it out, so I asked him to open another lane as the line I was in was growing and there were no other tellers. He looks around and asks the teller of my closed line were her co-workers are. Oh brother! She says they are on break. He asks when they should be off of break and so forth. Finally, he radios more employees to come and assist while the teller of the closed lane mouths "thank you" to me.

First, I wrote Walmart corporation about their horrible computer inventory system. What is the point of one if it can be 200 and 500 points off mark. Secondly, the customer service reps and manager were minimally helpful at best. Thirdly, I'll just say that the dress code is grossly misfollowed here in California. Grossly misfollowed! And it's hard to distinguish employees if they look like any other shopper. And lastly, all the greeters were extremely friendly. And you know what, I couldn't have cared. If you as a store are completely incompetent, it doesn't matter that you have a nice man or lady at the door complimenting my child and smiling and saying nice words like, "Merry Christmas," if you as a store, are operating as I've mentioned above. That nice employee will not insure my continued business.

I will say that I tried my best at being nice to the nice people, because, afterall, I'm a Christian. And these greeters are paid to be nice, and they were nice, which makes them the most competent ones of the bunch!