What happened to Common Courtesy???

Over the past few weeks I'm noticing a HUGE lack of customer service/courteous people...is it just me??? Maybe I'm sensitive to it because I worked in Customer Service for 6 years!

~Let me share a few examples.....(this is long, and again you don't have to read it)

1. Every time I go to "a local store" to get fabric I have had to wait for about 20 minutes (at very least) to get any attention or help. Okay, that's fine....once....maybe. But this has happen repeatedly.
~One time there was an employee that was standing in the isle visiting with her friends and I kept motioning to her to come over and help me, she was staring at me forever and even smiled at me....but totally ignored me...so annoying. I always end up going over the electronics desk and asking for help and this was the response I got last time....."Ummm, all the fabric people are clocked out." (He gets a look from me saying "soooooo?".) Then he rolls his eyes at me and snaps at the other guy at the desk to help me. Note: neither one of them was doing anything. I just thought this was so rude!

2. We recently got forced to get our "TV service" hooked up again, even though we can't afford it and don't want it (I don't really watch TV). Odd as it is, the customer service was awesome in Utah, and they let us suspend and told us we could suspend as long as we need to. But all the sudden in Idaho the customer service is non-existent!
~They call me up and demand $400 or that we get our service hooked up asap. Not only that, they've taken away half our channels and they are forcing us into a higher/more expensive package per month (ignoring our original contract).
~And the guy that came over to hook it up unplugged all our other electronics and we had to have another guy come the next day so we could get our DVD player and everything else to work with our TV. No one there is even slightly interested in helping us at all....and all I have to say is......I'm NEVER using this provider again....(wanna know who...just ask...I'd love to tell you...hehehehehe).

3. I ordered something through the Internet and I was charged $2 extra on my shipping through PayPal, I wasn't given any other options to change the shipping, and on the listing I bought the shipping price clearly wasn't the price I was charged.
~So I called PayPal (who has Great Customer Service BTW) and they told me it was the way the seller had set it up. I contact the seller several days ago....very politely might I add. I explained my situation and that I didn't want to give them negative feedback, but I would like to see this "glitch" solved. No response until yesterday, they refunded the $2 and proceeded to blame the whole situation on me, and what I picked for shipping .....they go on to say.... "but in the name of customer service we've refunded your money, even though it was the shipping you picked" (there was no other option, hence the reason I contacted PayPal and this business).
~Well, turns out that after reading through their feedback, this isn't the first time it has happened, everyone else had to just eat it, so I'm a lucky one I guess. Just made me mad!

4. I had a customer a few weeks back that was very picky, they made me set up a whole different order for them and totally slash the shipping for them (in retrospect: shouldn't have done it, red flags all over that situation). ~Well when she gets her item she gave me bad feedback saying that it was a different fabric than what she expected (even though she typed the title to me which included the fabric) and then she goes on to say she would have never paid that much for the item if she had paid attention to the fabric. And that's my fault how? It hurt my feelings because this "item" she didn't like took me well over an hour to make.
~So because I'm one of the few people left on the face of this planet with a customer service mentality, I contacted her and offered her a free gift of her choice, she replied "ok I guess I want this....." I sent it, and no thanks, no nothing in response....of course.
~The feedback was changed (had to be) but I feel like she left bad feedback knowing the whole system and that I would try to make it up to her. It's one of those situations that I totally feel taken advantage of, and I'm still perturbed over....oh well, I did everything I could to make it right, even though it clearly wasn't in my control.

5. Here's a positive example! A few weeks ago I had to take Aaron to the Doctor for an ear infection and then go to the pharmacy to pick up an antibiotic.
~Needless to say...Aaron was a crabby mess, he was crying and super cranky. I'm outside the pharmacy and trying to traffic Kaylie into the store (who was all over the place singing about whatever). I was up all night for a week with Aaron and I looked it, so I'm sure I looked like a train wreck to everyone around. Anyway, as I was walking to the store and I was about 30 ft away and this guy (very scary biker guy, with a long beard and wife-beater shirt on) stopped in front of the automatic door and waited for me to walk in.....WHAT A GENTLEMEN!!!! I thought, even though he was scary looking, what a good guy. He said "Hello" to me and "hi cutie" to Kaylie. I was floored....so there are nice people left in this world, and they are never who you'd expect.
~Through all this I've learned a valuable lesson......'Do unto others as you would have done to you'.....and mean people are a dime a dozen. Even though nice people, the people who go out of their way to be polite may be few in number, but they stand out.
~I will forget these people who were less than friendly but I will never for get the "Scary looking nice guy at the pharmacy." And I'm definitely learning not to judge a book by its cover!
~Also I'm trying double hard to teach Kaylie to be polite, and to think of others first....because if we all did that just imagine how much better life would be!