r/WestPalmBeach • u/ferdsays • 19h ago
Discussion Anyone else who's not originally from Florida notice the customer service down here is, to put it simply, bad?
I'm from New England and I'm not saying every interracting I've ever had down here is bad, or vice versa. Sometimes customer service can be a mixed bag anywhere. That being said, I've run into this consistent issue of people simply ghosting me. I've been looking at different universities to get a second bachelors degree and colleges either don't get back to you, or you finally get to talk to somene and they just send you some generic template email referring you to their website. No personalization, no extra effort, sometimes no one to talk to.
I had even worked customer services jobs coming out of college up north and there was an expectation that you always got back to a customer and, whether you liked your job or not, you should resolve their issues to the best of your ability. Down here it seems even the bosses and managers are just kind of indifferent about holding people accountable. Maybe I'm just being a male Karen, I'm not rude to people because of it. I just want someone to put in that little bit of effort to answer all my questions and help me for real.
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u/Space_Nut247 9h ago
It’s pretty bad. My wife went to a store to do a return, she asked them to look up the receipt and they refused and pretty much accused her of theft. I went into the same store, store manager looked up the receipt and did the return. The employee that accused my wife came over, looked at the stuff and said “that looks like the stuff that lady tried to return.” I said, oh, you mean my wife that you accused of theft? She walked away after that.
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u/ferdsays 6h ago
Lol yea man, the straight faced “no” gets me every time. I also enjoy when you’re in mailing customer service and they just send “refer to last email” and the last email didn’t answer my question or provide me any useful information.
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u/Refrigerator-Bright 19h ago
It’s definitely rough here. I’m originally from Denver and moving here exposed me to a whole other social contract. I find people in service roles or customer service to be more blasé than in other places I have lived. It was really frustrating at first (and still is tbh) but you have to adapt to the social contract and expectations.
Best of luck on your second degree!
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u/ferdsays 18h ago
Thanks! And blasé is the exact right term for it ty haha. I’m going on my third year here but its manageable
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u/tortoiseshelltea 6h ago
It’s because nobody, especially in customer service positions, is paid enough to afford to live here, because people keep moving down here and then complaining that it’s not as good as where the left.
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u/ferdsays 5h ago
Just to give you some perspective, the price increase is happening everywhere. I’m from New Hampshire, a 1 bedroom in a random town is about 2100 dollars now. I agree people in Florida aren’t paid enough, but that’s not an issue due to people moving here. Also, people move new places and notice things that are different, it’s a pretty natural response. I love the weather, the nature, I taught in your school systems, I pay taxes, I volunteer, I just noticed this one little tidbit. But if you ever find you have to move somewhere else, gO bAcK tO wHeRe YoUr”rE FrOm is a funny take to hear. I had to move here to help take care of family, or should I just let them die in agony because somewhere who’s family got here 20 years before mine said so lol
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u/UnderwaterMess 15h ago
In Florida you need to have money and know people otherwise you're SOL. Everybody wants to move here and go to these schools, they don't care about customer service.
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u/LaughTight2687 8h ago
Florida, in general, has just turned into such a mean place. Everyone's so angry, man, it kind of sucks as an introverted dude trying to come out of my shell. But try not to let it get to you, there are nice people here--but be prepared to look for em lol.
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u/ferdsays 5h ago
I’ve noticed, mainly with driving haha. I’ve met some cool people but I don’t think the infrastructure helps much. A lot of traffic, not many walkable cities, a lot of people from all different parts of the country and world probably makes it a bit clickish (spelling?)
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u/sinkflasink 9h ago
Please go back to New England, respectfully.
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u/ferdsays 6h ago
I’ll go back to New England if we all agree to give this land back to native Americans who were here before us. People move to new places all the time, you’ll survive
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u/sinkflasink 48m ago
You definitely belong in New England lol
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u/ferdsays 36m ago
I belong anywhere I please, as should you. If someone moving somewhere ruffles your feathers you may need to get out more lol
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u/necub91 5h ago
I'm from New England as well and yes customer service down here is awful!
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u/ferdsays 35m ago
Maybe some of the people in this thread are upset by my observation because they haven’t had the chance to enjoy the customer service we had up north lol
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u/Get_Back_Loretta_USA 4h ago
Regardless of the specific industry, if you don’t like people don’t be in the people business!
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u/Resident-Welcome3901 19h ago
Announcing that your goal is a second undergraduate degree suggests that you are not thinking clearly, and therefore will not offer much return on the investment of time and resources. As a thought experiment, imagine how you might respond to a person saying that they wanted to earn a second high school diploma.
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u/ferdsays 18h ago
School is quite cheap in Florida compared to up north. I have a degree in economics and want to switch careers to environmental science. So your analogy is.. idk what you’re honestly getting at lol. I also just like learning, so earning degrees is less about a degree and more about being in a community of people who want to study a subject more deeply. So my thoughts are quite clear, maybe they just differ from your clear thoughts.
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u/Resident-Welcome3901 17h ago
You present as a
Dilettante playing at education rather than as a serious student. A more considered approach would be to complete the pre requisites as a non matriculated student, then apply for a masters program in ecology or biology or botany. Not that stacking undergrad degrees is evil, I went to nursing school after getting a liberal arts degree-it’s that earnest collegiate admissions people do not see their mission as re-educating economists or philosophers. Trade school was an excellent choice for me, the baccalaureate programs I applied to flipped me off unceremoniously, as have yours, apparently.1
u/No_Minimum9828 10h ago
- Fucking rude
- If you can’t spell your insult, maybe reconsider using it - we all know what that messed up formatting means and there is a certain irony to it given you made it as you claim OP is “playing education”
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u/ferdsays 5h ago
I’m going to assume this person had a bad experience with either their education system or is frustrated about a personal problem. I’m not taking their advice to heart. I will say though that I was inquiring about taking classes as a non-matriculated student.. and customer service never got back to me(in this case advising), which is what this post was about. Also, I was a teacher down here for a few years. Education is something you should be excited about. Learning can be fun. Not everything in life is about a return on investment. If I want to take a pottery class, a small engines course or Spanish, I’m not looking to make my money back. I’m looking to understand the world I live in better and become a well rounded individual. Loving learning has made my life better and it’s unfortunate school costs so much in general, but it shouldn’t dissuade someone from who doesn’t need to go into massive debt from learning more about the world we live in.
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u/ferdsays 18h ago
As a thought experiment, imagine being a plumber and wanting to be an electrician. You would likely need other certificates for that, which may require training at the same level of trade school that got you to be a plumber.
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u/LaughTight2687 8h ago
As a thought experiment, do try your best and be nicer on the internet. It really doesn't cost a dime dude.
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u/Naia1111 11h ago
Your argument makes absolutely zero sense lol. Plenty of people have gotten 2nd bachelor's degrees. No school is going to take someone less seriously and turn down all that money just because a potential student already has a bachelor's. Just like no one in the real world is going to take them less seriously either. You also don't know what this person's professional goals are.
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u/FourLetterWording 10h ago edited 10h ago
lol WHAT? this is the stupidest take I've ever heard. These colleges are champing at the bit for fresh meat straight out of high school to sign up for insane student loans and drop out after two semesters - just look at the statistics. And a high school diploma is wildly different than a college degree. Ya know, those degrees that specialize in various subjects that you pay money for veterans of those fields to impart their knowledge in said subjects? As opposed to a high school diploma which says you have what should be understood as enough basic knowledge to navigate the world.
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u/Resident-Welcome3901 8h ago
OP indicated that his applications to
Baccalaureate programs were ignored. I had a similar experience, and one of the institutions was gracious enough to share with me exactly why I should fuck right off. I was sharing that experience with OP. If your experience has been different, I celebrate your good fortune and thank you for sharing. Bless your heart.2
u/NYJets19692025 6h ago
Doubtful his application was ignored. If he was seeking additional info getting anyone on the phone anywhere these days can be tricky. Best bet would to go on campus or email someone outside of general admissions.
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u/FourLetterWording 5h ago
you weren't "sharing an experience" - you literally were just putting OP down by implying that they're somehow stupid, and then making a wild false equivalency that seeking a second degree is like getting two high school diplomas. Absolutely ridiculous.
I'm sorry you had a shit experience, but that in no way applies to OP, college admissions, or even is tangentially related to their actual question here.
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u/Exciting-Tough-6164 10h ago
Yes, if you don’t speak, Spanish move to another country this is not an English speaking country Florida off at Tallahassee might find
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u/ferdsays 5h ago
I’m only half sure what you’re trying to get at, but let’s not bring people down for trying to be bilingual.
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u/jesslizann 13h ago
As a customer service worker in Florida, I can tell you it's most likely collective burnout across the whole industry. Working customer service, especially in Florida, with the crazies, crackheads, and transplants who expect the whole state to be like a Disney World Resort, is incredibly thankless. Because for every kind person who just needs help and ends the interaction with appreciation, there's a guy screaming his ass off, blaming me personally that his prescription is expired even though we called to confirm twice, sent a fleet of emails, and called him multiple times on the day of to pin him down for a phone appointment. Or a regular who seems nice and asks to use our bathroom, and I go back there to find actual human shit smeared on the walls and that they wiped their asshole with our nice cloth hand towels (There was plenty of toilet paper). I've definitely had my kindness, effort, and courtesy repaid with rudeness and disrespect too many times.
I was bright-eyed and always went the extra mile when I first started out, but 10+ years of catching smoke for things that are usually not my fault or have nothing to do with me has changed my approach. Not every customer deserves my 100%, and I need to protect my own sanity, energy, and motivation. It's far more healthy for me to start on a more neutral basis, and then I turn up the effort and enthusiasm when the interaction stays positive, respectful, and kind.