Not that I have been here a long time, but from the preliminary impressions I have gathered, customer service in Florida, isn't.
Where I grew up, business had two rules: 1. The customer is always right. and 2. If the customer is wrong, see rule number 1.
Not here is southern Florida though. The service, from the apartment complex where I live, to the Wal-mart down the road, is atrocious.
The 'Royal Palm Beach Wal-mart' is never well stocked, with often empty or disorganized shelves. The checkout lines are commonly 20 to 30 minutes long, whether it be 6pm Thursday or 2am Sunday. The store has a unkempt and dirty feel to it. Shopping at the nearby Publix, with its higher prices, is preferable to enduring a 3 hour expedition at Wal-mart. And heaven forbid you require assistance, if on the off chance the 'associate' speaks American English, s/he will almost certainly be clueless about your question. Wal-mart used to be my favorite money saving store, but now I avoid it unless I have to have something that requires it. Be warned Wal-mart, I have walked out of the store leaving a full cart behind, rather than wait any longer, and I will do it again.
The 'Archstone Hidden Harbor' apartments are nice enough I suppose, but the customer service here falls short also. I recently had the occasion to have to report a few items for repair. Two of the items needing repair were a refrigerator and the air conditioner. Both of which I had already diagnosed before reporting, and both of which the HMFIC* argued with me about. His condescending tone, and repeated use of the the word 'really?' were angering. He then proceeded to attempt to correct me on the function of a defrost thermostat, and convince me that I meant defrost timer. Wrong on all counts pal! I'm fairly sure my 13 years in residential maintenance are more than sufficient to allow me a better than educated guess as to the root cause of the issue. The management here also makes a big issue out of the common practice of placing bags of trash outside the apartments door in the breezeway for a little while, before taking it to the central dumpster. They threaten 'fines' of $75 per bag. Somehow this strikes me as hypocritical when the grassy areas are strewn with broken asphalt pieces and an old parking block from a parking lot repair 5 months ago, or the catchment pond in the middle of the complex often has floating trash, broken bottles and at least one syringe. The overall level of maintenance of the facility is a C+ in my opinion.
And then there is 'Waterway Car Wash', which I soon learned from the locals is a perennial offender. The vacuums don't work, the muddy wash bays dispense little more than pressurized water, and the automatic bay only moves far enough to wet the front bumper. Locating the responsible parties required a bit of data mining of the internet and a couple of calls to the Village offices to ascertain the licensed owner. Who never returned my calls.
An indirect example of poor customer service is at a nearby tire and lube business, 'Martino Tire'. My son took his car in for an oil change and when he returned 3+ hours later, they had forgotten about it, they apologized and got it right in and was done in 20 minutes, but still, what kind of service is that?
I have other examples to further support my claim, but these should give you an overview of the level of (non) customer service I have experienced in the Sunshine State.
*HMFIC = Head Mother Fucker In Charge; derogatory term for people in charge but which are totally unsuited to the task. (Thanks for the term Dave)
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Since Florida is known as the Sunshine state you must be aware sun is a big attraction for the lazy. I mean who wouldn’t like to kick back and enjoy a bit of good weather, rest, relaxation, and of course the beaches, a chance to soak up the sun and just be lazy for awhile. That is why Florida is a big attraction for tourists. Florida calls to people who want to retire, calls to people who are no longer interested in working, who need a break from their hard working lives, it calls out to the people who want to be lazy for awhile.
Basically even for people who are born and raised as Floridians they all generally have a laid back attitude. You could say they are in a vacation minded state of existence. They do not put for more effort than what they think is necessary. As I am sure you can see from the Wal-Mart employees blatant laziness to the attitude of your local handyman they all have a minimalist attitude. They do the least amount of work to get the job done, even if it isn’t done right.
Also from your conversation with your local handyman I would assume that the minimalist attitude was also applied to the education and training. I am sure even the parents of a lot of the Floridians put forth the least amount of effort in child rearing to get their kids out of the house. Shoot, they can not even count a few simple votes accurately, what makes you think they know how to stock a shelf? It seems even the car wash has been programmed to do the least amount of work possible.
My suggestion to you is to either go back to where you came from, where you know that you as the customer will always be right. Or just don’t expect much from vacation minded locals, they have been in the sun far longer than you and will not change until hell *Florida* freezes over. If neither of those suggestions suits you, you can always find a bridge; they seem to be a popular hang out for people who are dissatisfied with the sunshine state. Don’t get me wrong, I think Florida would be a great place to vacation or visit, but if you want that hometown atmosphere then maybe you should just go home.
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