needless arrogance
have you ever experienced really bad customer service? not like the ones in an odd restaurant where you might not be greeted warmly and served properly. atleast there they serve you. I'm talking about the stores on rodeo drive in beverly hills, los angeles. these guys think that they have come to earth directly from heaven. people like us are not even invited. once I went into a ralph lauren shop. I didn't have any intention of buying clothes there...but don't we go to other shops with the same mentality? ok coming back to the visit, we were 5 of us just looking around. then came this manager sort of lady...never greeted us...and pointing to us she yelled to her assistant "Can you go and talk to them, else they won't leave". we left the store immediately.
I don't understand this sort of behavior. in today's world anyone can become a millionaire within a few yrs. who knows, the people turned away by these idiots might also become super rich one day. do you think they will ever shop at these stores? why can't they treat people with respect? beats me totally.
26 Comments:
You can have such people and stores even here in India...Jus go to any of the big posh hotels..the stare that these people give when they presume us not to be of "that" level is atrociaous..any way I am gonna pay the money..the way a bearer asked me, whether I was literate, still haunts me..ofcourse we saw to it that he apologises publicly for his words and would cancel our order...this was us waiting for some 45 mintues for a briyani and some snacks..
yuck! i think i am glad that ive never come across such a situation before!!
A different form of racism..Thats it..
These kind of subjective treatment has been the bane to our soceity till date and in all probability will remain the same..
In all fairness.. did we treat our house maids/Sales person with some sort of politeness that they thoroughly deserve. Not all of us..
So I think evry1 of us have been impolite at some point of time or the other though we perfectly understand thats not the way one should behave..
Such a thing happening in India isn't much of a surprise, but its horrible to hear it happens here where people are usually far more polite. Really revolting to just imagine how ugly that female has behaved. Looks like excessive money and fame does make some people shitty in the head, even in this place.
Btw, Saranyan, whats happening in 14 days? Going to India? Or anything related to your previous post's title? ;)
not surprised! happens on and again! this entry reminded me of the bit from the movie "Pretty Woman" where Julia Roberts gets chased away from such a store ... she is allowed later when she walks in with Richard Gere.
Julia Roberts-ke indha gadhina ... nammakkallam sollava venum. :)
Ishwara Chandra Vidyasagar kadhai thaan nyaabagaththukku varudu.
When he was turned away for not appearing in sartorial elegance to be "worthy" of the party he was invited to, but which the gatekeeper did not know (who he was), he came back in the "proper attire" and at dinner time started *feeding* his shirt, trousers etc.
much to the embarassment of everyone around, who realized what he was trying to convey.
krish, meyyaluma. that should teach them a lesson.
harish, never go to those shops if you come to LA, just to keep ur record clean.
ioiio, good point. not all of us treat everyone the same. very true.
gandalf, the funny thing is that these sales people don't even make half of what we would make. and they think ther are on top of the world.
that 14 days is a countdown to my india trip this month. rest I'll leave it to ur speculation :)
gayathri, when julia roberts enters that store in that movie, everyone knows that she is a hooker. adhu konjam too much :) dunno if these people discriminate based on colour too.
thennavan, pazhaya kadhaya nyabaga paduthiteenga :)
jagan, this too happened when Ja was around. infact he was the one who entered the shop, inspite of me protesting.
Saranyan, one question..did you try to report this incident to anyone at Ralph Lauren? I don't know if its worth a dime to report it, but atleast you are doing your part.
illa ramesh, I ddint' do it. apparently those stores are known for such behavior. If I report, there is a good chance that they might insult us again.
Gandalf,
I srongly believe Americans are just forced to be nice thanks to all the laws and lawsuits over here.. If not they are just as good/bad as indians are..
And what she did is something like u and me jumping a signal.though we know its wrong..If given an oppurtunity we wud jump..and they wud insult..
And saranyan.. I too feel u shud report it by say "email" to whoever concerned..If they insult u again, we wud have written proof of it.. and neenga seekrama millionaire aayidalaaam
This more or less happens everywhere. There are snobs born in every corner of this world!
Ayyo paavam, everybody derives *sadistic* pleasure at the expense of Saran. We should ask store manager's mom if she cried that night after insulting Saran!
Occasionally u run across such people all over. Its never due to some racistic attitude exhibit in most of the instances, rather its just a reflection of ones mood swings.Paran if you start dwelling into these minor issues, then u might have to sue your landlord for calling u a "chicken". What a white trash was he? wasn't he.
dei roger/ja loosu, u know what happened that day. and nit was u who ventured into the shop first, ignoring my warnings. I'm very surprised that you call it a mood swing. and my landlord is a close friend of mine as well. whenever he calls me "chicken", I call him "loser" :) so what am I, a brown bastard? get your basics right.
ar, engayo poittenga.
anand/twin gemini, apparently saks fifth avenue in NY, which is equivalent to these shops, doesn't show such an attitude. but generally its true, there are people like this all over, only God can save them.
Saranyan,
I've never had such a serious experience so far. But I've noticed it even in Safeway stores in a milder tone. Like the person ahead of us would get a 'Hello' and not me. I've learnt to leave with this.
But if I were to face the RL incident, I'd definitely write to the company about this.
This is utterly lousy! Is it a racist tendency? Just wondering..
I have time and again experienced this treatment of "Well, you are brown and that makes you secondary to the whites", but not everywhere. Occasionally and very rarely, but its definitely there.
isn't ralph lauren the guy who publicly said in Oprah winfrey that he was ashamed that his dresses were worn by blacks.Or was it some other designer?
Saran, I think you should make a complaint with them.
some people can be so rude..
better not to visit such stores again!!!after all we r goin to pay if we buy..
Hi Saranyan,
Sathya rightly said, this is money based racism and it happens everywhere. You go to a five Star hotel in India in a two wheeler, you get the same treatment.
Money blinds people both in thoughts and action.
Is there any other sathya here..
narayanan, pvs - i still think it ain't worth complaining.
anupama, it is sometimes racist. in this case its more of rich-poor attitude.
ranga, u have been in texas, heard its rough out there. is it?
badri, i dunno man.
vivek, we will catch up in SB colony. heard u are a newcomer to our pettai, I can show u around :)
prabha, I wouldn't go and I'm not even recommending people to go there (that is if they are willing to spend $500 for a cotton shirt :) )
hari, adhuvum correct thaan. namma oorla innum oru padi mela irukkumnu nenaikkaren.
I can recollect the scene in which Julia roberts faces the same problem in 'Pretty women'.
This perception difference persists everywhere, it seems.
saran,i do agree with u big time on this, guess what...i was working on a marketing paper, when i happend to see your blog- on importance of customers!!..used ur story to good effect ;-)...
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