In many cases a person will just identify themselves to a group only by their first name. For instance at a meeting among people who are not acquainted.

"Hi, I'm Dwight and my question is..."

In that case I think it is proper to address the person by his first name. If a person introduced him or herself by their last name, "Hi, I'm Mr Dwight...", then I think it would be appropriate to call that person by their last names.

One thing that I've noticed is the lack of service in stores and shops. I've started to seek out businesses where they still provide service along with their merchandise. I'm quite willing to pay a little more to get some caring service along with the product that I'm buying.

For instance, there is a heating and plumbing shop here in Anchorage that I really like because their staff can answer just about any question about their products.

It costs a few cents more to buy, but it is well worth it my mind when compared to one of the big box stores where you're lucky to find a clerk willing to take you money.

This thread is an interesting topic, and I hope to see more posts here.

Dwight

Does anyone here remember full service gas stations? Wash the windshield, check the oil? Domo used to do that in Canada; don't know if they still do.

Even the gas station here in town switched to self service pumps. Before that, the attendants used to come out, pump the gas, wash the windshield, and ask if you wanted the oil checked. Not any more.

Although I wouldn't have thought of calling an adult by their first name when I was growing up, I find it disconcerting when my children's friends don't call me by my first name. I much prefer that.

My first real job (at about 12 or so) was washing windshields at a gas station. The station was owned by a family friend.

Another fellow (a close friend) would pump the gas and check the oil (unless the customer declined). I often had to have help for vehicles that I couldn't reach all the way across windshield. For a "fill 'er up" order, all the glass was to be cleaned. I think I earned about .75 cents per hour for this and worked only on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

I really enjoyed the job because I was with friends all day. We often took our pay (in cash) and bought gas for my friends 1952 Ford pickup truck and then we also would buy hamburgers. Amazing how far that little bit of money would go.

Dwight

If I recall correctly, it's illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey.

The one sure way to get your windcreen washed in Antibes is to stop at the first main junction in town after the A8 autoroute. In London you can try many major junctions (until the gangs get moved on by police )

Stations with a pump attendant are a great rarity in both countries. By now there must be guide books to help curious antiquarians to find them in neglected villages and byways.

The worst 'menace' in France is the fully automated station, without so much as a cashier. Every pump is operated by credit or debit card. The equipment is carefully designed so that it is next to impossible to read the instructions on the screen, when you do the process takes several steps and the end of those you make get told 'foreign cards not recognised' so you have to find a French one, which the machine accepts on your third attempt (if you're lucky!).These installations may be cheap to run but they are not popular. A stanard self-serve in the same area invariably looks busier by far

JR, you are correct. We cannot pump our own gas in New Jersey, but that does not mean we have "full service" stations! About the only attention you get from the clerk is when he asks you to sign your credit card.

The "old days", I'm afraid, are gone for good.

Dwight, where can I get a 1952 Ford pick-up truck, as illustrated? That is such a thing of its time ! It's up there with the Citroen "Light 15" Traction avant, of the late 40s and early 50s (the first mass-produced successful front wheel drive car) or the original Austin mini, as something which somehow defines the era and place it was made in.

It's an odd thing,but whilst you expect collectors to be fighting over the true classic luxury cars of the past, it's these common or garden cars and trucks that people want now.Perhaps it's because they are vehicles that people remember from their youth. Nobody remembers a gull- wing Mercedes sports, a 3 litre Bentley, a Frazer Nash, or an Aston Martin DB3 in their town, but everyone knew and remembers those. A result is that startled farmers see eager dealers rummaging in the barns of the nation, offering keen prices for rusty wrecks !

Believe it or not, my friend still has that truck. His dad bought it in about 1955 or so and gave it him/ They have repainted it several times and the engine is still the original flat head 6 cylinder with a 4-speed manual transmission.

The one in the picture is not my friends, though they are very much alike. The truck is in immaculate condition, as it has been all these years.

Dwight

Anyone here live in a town that still has drive-in restaurants where you order through a speaker and they bring the food out on a tray and put on the driver's side window?

quote:

Originally posted by juanruiz:
Anyone here live in a town that still has drive-in restaurants where you order through a speaker and they bring the food out on a tray and put on the driver's side window?

JR, two of the great establishments in Charlotte, where I lived most of my life, are the South 21 Drive-Ins on Independence Boulevard and South Boulevard. The Mrs. and I ate at one or the other at least twice a month.

I moved to a small town where there is a Sonic Drive-In and the waitstaff delivers on roller skates. The window trays, however, are missing, and the Mrs. is not fond of their cheeseburgers.

Yesterday's trip to the grocery store is a reminder of just how poor customer service has become.

The cashier, while being pleasant to me, had another conversation going with a colleague who was several registers away.

"I've already got too many hours this week," she spoke over her shoulder. "I was already supposed to be out of here. This is my last customer and then I'm done."

Really makes you feel wanted!

'Fuse, just further signs of an undisciplined, clueless, "dumbed-down" America...

quote:

had another conversation going

A variant of this is clerks who are on the phone with friends and won't hang up.

I wonder how many of you have noticed a growing trend in online merchandising toward "Gotcha" sales methods. Some of the better known schemes involve "introductory" bargain rates in which, once consumers accept the offer, they find themselves obligated to a considerably higher rate following the introductory period. What I find dishonest is the complete absence of any mention of what follows expiration of the initial period.

Most, if not all, of the credit card issuers offer initial low interest rates to suck people in, but neglect to disclose the consequences of a late payment on mortgage, credit cards, installment payments etc. with any other companies, in which the interest rate can increase exponentially. If the hapless cardholder makes the "minimum payment" he will remain indebted for the rest of his natural life, and pay interest on the interest and penalties.

I recently ordered, online, a flower arrangement through a Teleflora Florist in my area. Their website announces Free Delivery. The flower item was listed at $55.00. The itemized invoice read:
Price: $55.00, Delivery: $0.00, Service Fee: $14.95, Tax: $5.60. Total Order: $75.55. Nowhere on their website is there any mention of a service fee, but the Free Delivery is proclaimed in very prominent print. The careless buyer has agreed to pay $75.00 for an item advertised at $55.00, but even the careful skeptic who refuses to click on the submit button, has wasted time needlessly.

quote:

Service Fee

Which reminds me: Anyone else notice how "shipping and handling" fees are getting up to 35% of the original cost? I mean, they already have a built-in profit. Why do they have to pad it like that?

quote:

Originally posted by juanruiz:

quote:

Service Fee

Which reminds me: Anyone else notice how "shipping and handling" fees are getting up to 35% of the original cost? I mean, they already have a built-in profit. Why do they have to pad it like that?

You betcha' JR!

I ordered M&M's with my company logo custom printed on them; the shipping (which is less tah 30 miles from my office) and "handling charge" (whatever that is) cost more than having the candy custom made!

SR, you mean to say you are making multi-million dollar deals here, and handing out M&Ms to say thank you? This is the world of high finance, Dennis.
You have to splash out a bit more. Send the candy to us, care of AP, and get them gold pens with the logo on.

quote:

Originally posted by dance girl:
SR, you mean to say you are making multi-million dollar deals here, and handing out M&Ms to say thank you? This is the world of high finance, Dennis.
You have to splash out a bit more. Send the candy to us, care of AP, and get them gold pens with the logo on.

The M&M's are for my support staff (aside from their bonuses and very nice Christmas checks); on the million dollar deals, we do high end lunches; as long as the client brings his checkbook! (by the way, under NJ Law, we are not permitted to give out gifts worth more than $10.00. This is tightly regulated by the N.J. Banking and Insurance Commission); so the lunches are "personal" get togethers!)

These secret charges are a pain and a common subject of complaint by the public and consumer groups in Britain.

We've stopped one of the worst offenders viz airlines. Our low cost airlines would advertise flights at, say, £40. That looked very competitive. What they didn't say was that this price excluded airport taxes and various other fees. The real cost was far higher. Our advertising standards agency has outlawed this practice.

Another great one is the 'booking fee' for online ticket sales. Book tickets for concerts or shows directly through the theatre and find a booking fee added yet it cannot possibly have cost the promoter the fee just to have their computer process the order and, in some cases, for the customers to print the ticket for themselves. I can see some justification for Chelsea soccer club charging £1 or £1-50 because the credit card company may charge some tiny amount and the process does involve posting the ticket through the mail but many promoters are just loading the price.

On another topic : do you still have drive in cinemas in the States? And what about bowling alleys? I gather that the latter are somewhat in decline. The cinemas were on the way out when I first visited California, over thirty years ago . The whole idea of a drive in or drive through business was so alien to us that we arranged a whole day where we drove in or through various places for everything from banks to restaurants, ending with the cinema. The locals thought this a fine example of European eccentricity There never were such cinemas in Britain though we did have one drive through bank. There is one drive through McDonald's near here (and that's only four years old !) and there are surely a few others, but they are rare.

The bowling alleys were few and here they seem to have gone, except there's one in a new big sports complex in Cambridge and there's one in a similar complex in Antibes

Something peculiarly esoteric but 'modern' concerns the name of the composer Purcell. It is now pronounced Purse-ill. When I was a lad it was 'Purr-sell'.That's something that's crept up on us. A bit late: he died in 1695 !

On the other hand, the astronomer Halley (as in Halley's comet) was called Hal-ee. However this became 'Hawly' around the time of the comet's last appearance, a pronunciation which we oldsters promptly learned. In recent times it has reverted to Hal-ee. I don't know whether to stick or twist !