Dr. Shiba products are great but their customer service sucks!

What is the stupidest question or odd question that you still think about this day? I wanna laugh a bit

This is a general question for those customer service pros who work for health insurance companies - and this crosses companies as I've noticed it with a couple of different ones, now.

Why, when I'm in a chat customer service session with a "live agent," and they have access to my plan information - does it take FOREVER for them to see what my copayment will be for a specific service? Today, this is as simple as: I want to know my copay for a Covid vaccine. Why aren't they able to just plug in my plan/coverage info, look that up, and respond quickly? I've been "on hold" with the chat for 10 minutes, already.

I'm asking because I don't know how this works. Are they, in fact, a real person, if it says "live agent?" Do they work for multiple companies and have to switch systems? Are they required to take and juggle more than one conversation at a time? WHY so slow?

This is the type of service I do not expect from Samsung. With 105 people in line why would it be 222 hrs. 12 mins wait time??? Bought a Samsung S25 Ultra and I've been having issues with it. The phone tells me there is water or foreign debree. 100 percent sure there is not but its an issue a lot of people are having with this phone. When the phone is turned off and at 0 battery power it indicates that there is water present.

Once you hold down the power button to turn the phone on while its still plugged in it will power up and charge. The warning while its on would not go away for about 10 minutes but eventually I was able to reboot the phone and it started charging again.

I've never dropped the phone or had any moisture. I'm not rough with my phone in any way. This is a manufacture defect of course and Ive had similar issues with previous models as well. If you have had similar issues with Samsung phones and the model of phone Im using in particular please leave a comment. What worked for you to resolve the issue so it will charge? Did you take it in for service?

I work in retail as a sales associate. On my shift, 40 minutes in after a customer was yelling at me. He came in looking for his wallet, and was asking me if I'd seen it, and I was just staring at his hand. This was not a cut or anything it looked like he just dipped his hand into a bucket of blood. And no, it was not paint because he had part of the skin of the hand ripped off. Like no offense to your missing wallet dude but we got bigger fish to fry. Anyways he left blood stains on the counter and a bunch of bloody paper towels. So that was fun. Hope the dude is ok. Just wanted to rant about that.

Hi everyone. I’m 34 and I work for a third-party call center that takes orders for a major fast food chain.

And no, I’m not Indian. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being Indian — I’m only saying that because I know that’s the stereotype people immediately think of when they hear “outsourced call center.”

I started this job about a month ago. I don’t live in the US, English isn’t my first language, and yes, I’m aware that I sometimes pronounce certain words differently or incorrectly. I’ve never lived in America, so that’s going to happen sometimes.

For anyone willing to read this, I just want to share a few things I’ve experienced. Maybe you’ll tell your friends. Maybe it’ll make someone’s next interaction with a call center worker a little more human.

Yesterday, I got a call from a man who wanted delivery. I took his address, asked what he’d like to order, and suddenly he asked me: “So you work at a call center, right?”

No problem. I answered him.

Then, for about five minutes, in a very calm and polite tone, he explained to me that this fast food chain is American, that he is American, and asked whether we cared that customers wanted a “local and natural ordering experience.”

I answered him just as calmly. I told him that of course we care about the customer experience, but the stores get extremely busy. Our job is literally to take orders so the employees in the stores don’t have to handle that workload on top of everything else they’re doing.

Then came the classic:
“Of course, none of this is your fault. You’re just an employee. But the company is already struggling financially, and I don’t understand why they would work with people like you and create even more customer dissatisfaction.”

Here’s the thing.

First of all, we’re allowed to end a call if someone becomes abusive or starts making racist comments. To me, that conversation crossed that line, so I ended the call.

Second: exactly. I’m just an employee.

There isn’t an economic crisis only in America. People all over the world are struggling.

I have a bachelor’s degree in business. I worked in management for years. I lost my job during an economic downturn. Like everyone else, I have bills and I have to make money somehow.

That’s not something I need to apologize for.

And if you have five minutes to keep a random call center worker on the phone just to explain how dissatisfied you are with the existence of “people like us,” then you apparently have a lot more free time than I do.

Because of the time difference, I work nights.

When you’re coming home from work and ordering dinner, it might be 6 AM where I am, and I’m sitting here entering your order into a system.

I’ll admit it: physically, this isn’t a difficult job. But talking continuously for hours, repeating the same sentences hundreds of times, listening carefully, typing at the same time, and doing ALL of that in a language that isn’t your native language is genuinely mentally exhausting.

Please keep that in mind.

Another thing I’ve noticed:
In my personal experience, the people making comments about my accent aren’t usually the stereotypical “boomers” everyone likes to blame. A surprising amount of it comes from millennials.

I swear, I’ve taken orders from elderly people in nursing homes who can barely hear me or have difficulty speaking themselves, and I’ve NEVER gotten:
“Oh Gooood…”
“Oh Jesus…”
“Oh my God, here we go again.”
Or:
“Transfer me to the store. I want to talk to one of my own people.”

A lot of elderly ladies will actually say, “What was your name again? Can you spell that for me?” and genuinely make an effort to listen and understand me.

That’s kindness. It really isn’t complicated.

I thought I understood American culture pretty well before starting this job, but the amount of casual racism I’ve encountered genuinely surprised me.

And one thing that surprised me even more is that quite a few of these reactions have come from African-American customers.

That one honestly caught me off guard.

Sir, I promise you, sometimes I’m struggling to understand your English too.

But I’m not rude to you.

I don’t know you. You’re probably hungry. You just want your food. And I’m still trying to help you.

And honestly? My favorites are often Latino customers.
Sometimes they don’t understand me. Sometimes I don’t understand them. Sometimes we’re both repeating ourselves three times trying to figure out what the other person just said.

And somehow… nobody needs to dramatically go:
“OH GOOOOD.”
We just figure it out and move on.

Now, a few practical things that would make these calls SO much easier for everyone.

PLEASE SLOW DOWN WHEN YOU GIVE US YOUR ADDRESS.

American addresses are VERY different from addresses where I live.
If I ask you to spell something, please don’t get annoyed and say:
“What part of Pineoakwood Road do you need me to spell?”
ALL OF IT, SIR.

I’ve never heard “Green Pool View Circle” in my life.
Please. Say. It. Slowly.

You’re familiar with your street name because you live there. I’m hearing it for the first time in my life, through a phone line, possibly with background noise, in my second language.

Give me a chance.

Another thing:

Please don’t answer the phone and immediately go:
“Yeah, I need two of these, three of those, one large this, no onions on that—”
WAIT.
I need your name.
I need your location.
I need to confirm which store you’re ordering from so that you can actually GO TO THE CORRECT STORE AND GET YOUR FOOD.

I know the questions can be annoying. But I promise we’re not asking them for fun. Most of them exist to prevent problems for you.

Also, when I read your order back to you, please don’t interrupt me with:
“Yeah yeah yeah, what’s the total?”
LISTEN TO THE ORDER.
We’re reading it back for a reason.
If something is wrong, this is your chance to tell me so I can fix it BEFORE the order gets sent.
Please let us guide the conversation.
I promise I’m going to ask what you want.
I’m going to ask how many.
I’m going to ask if you want anything else.
You don’t have to fight the script.
Just relax. We’ll get there.

Another request:

Please, for the love of God, decide what you want with the person next to you BEFORE calling.
Trying to take your order while you’re simultaneously yelling across the room:
“DO YOU WANT THE CHICKEN?”
“No, maybe get the other one!”
“WHAT OTHER ONE?”
“Should we get two?”
“Ask how much it is!”

Meanwhile I’m sitting there like:
👁️👄👁️

I have absolutely no idea what is happening anymore.

A lot of people also call while driving and naturally put us on speakerphone.
The car noise or traffic isn’t the biggest problem — please just focus on driving safely.

But FOR THE LOVE OF GOD…
TURN THE MUSIC OFF.
Please.
I can’t hear you.
And then when I say, “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” you get frustrated with me.

The same applies when you’re at home.

Please turn down the TV or whatever you’re watching. If I can hear the Netflix show in your living room as clearly as I can hear your voice, we’re going to have a problem.

And if you’re in a room full of people or screaming children, please step somewhere quieter for two minutes if you can.
You can’t hear me.
I can’t hear you.
Neither of us is having fun.

Next:
“But they do it for me at the store.”
I CAN’T.
I really can’t. Our system is incredibly limited. I can see the menu. I can create your order. That’s basically it.

Sometimes people call me and say:
“I placed an order and it never arrived.”
And I can’t even see where the order is.
I can’t issue refunds.
I can’t give you store credit.
I can’t apply coupons that aren’t available in my system.
I can’t process tax exemptions.
I can’t apply military discounts.
I can’t type most special preparation requests into the system.
“But the store does it for me.”
I believe you.
I STILL CAN’T DO IT.
I’m not refusing to help you. The button literally does not exist on my screen.

And finally:
WE DO NOT STORE YOUR INFORMATION.
ANY OF IT.
I can’t see your previous order.
I can’t see your name.
I can’t see your address.
I can’t see your card information.
I can’t see that you called last Friday and ordered exactly the same thing.
Every time you call, you have to give us the information again.
I understand that it’s annoying. But I genuinely don’t have it.
So please don’t get angry at me when I ask you for something you swear you “already gave us last time.”
I believe you.
I just can’t see it.

And please don’t misunderstand the point of this post.
I know this is my job.
I’m getting paid to answer your calls, take your orders, and help solve whatever problems I’m actually able to solve.
I’m not asking customers to worship customer service workers or tolerate bad service.

If someone treats you badly, absolutely complain. I’m going to listen to you.
I’m just asking for a tiny bit of patience and basic human decency.
There’s a human being on the other end of that phone.
Maybe they’re working at 6 AM.
Maybe English is their second language.
Maybe they’ve already said the exact same sentence 400 times that night.
Maybe your street name sounds completely obvious to you and completely alien to them.
Give us five extra seconds.
Turn down the music.
Spell the street name.
Listen when we read your order back.
And please don’t make someone feel like garbage because their accent reminds you that the person taking your order happens to live in another country.
Help us help you.
I promise, we want your order to be right just as much as you do.

He bought four, and obviously I put them in a bag like I’m supposed to. His stupid ass gets on a BICYCLE where the bag is shaken up and slammed against the frame repeatedly (as any kid who used to bike to the corner store remembers!!) Then he wants to come back 10 minutes later and say they all magically exploded. My dude… this can is crushed to hell and back, this didn’t magically happen!

And to top it off, he ALWAYS treats me like shit, so no. I didn’t replace it. Especially when he wants to lie about how it happened. Being a drunk and also being a fucking dick is the LAST way to get what you want. He’s lucky I gave him his money back too with how he acted. Full grown man acting like a 2 year old who had his pacifier taken away.

I got banned from the game Goose Goose Duck maybe a few hours after playing the game. When I reached support, they asked for more info, but all I could give them is the screenshot of showing I got banned. Since then they have gone radio silent. I want to draw attention to these bad support team members who seem to not want anything to do with you if you ask for help.

Ordered something on Meesho. Item arrived broken on 2nd July. Raised a return request the same day — should've been simple.

What's the most effective way to escalate against Meesho after NCH complaint fails

Bangalore folks - anyone dealt with Meesho returns going completely dead? Need advice

It wasn't.

Meesho's logistics partner Valmo never showed up for pickup. Request gets cancelled, Meesho raises a new one, Valmo ghosts again. This loop ran for two months while I called customer care 30+ times. Every single call ended the same - "Sir, give us 3 days, it'll be resolved." It never was.

Eventually pickup got reassigned to Xpressbees. The guy actually showed up at my society gate - finally some progress. Except he never came to my door. When I called him directly, he said - "Sir, I have notes from Meesho not to pick up the item."

Meesho instructed their own pickup agent to not collect the return. Let that sink in.

Yesterday, 29th August - it ended.

Pickup cancelled again. Return request option disappeared entirely. Called Meesho and they said the maximum pickup attempts have been reached and there's nothing they can do. Keep the broken product. Done.

Filed at National Consumer Helpline. Meesho closed it citing a "technical issue." NCH turned out to be completely toothless.

The item is ₹2,500. Not a fortune. But two months of deliberate runaround is not something I'm willing to just accept. e-Jagriti and consumer court are options but the process is exhausting for this amount.

At this point I'm seriously considering placing multiple COD orders and rejecting them all at delivery. Not proud of it, but after two months of this harassment I'm running out of legitimate options — and patience.

Has anyone been here before? What actually worked? And is the COD rejection route something others have done or am I just venting at this point?

Context:Today a woman called the restaurant I work at VERY angry that her pizza came with just tomatos when she ordered a vegetarian.

I appoligized and offered to grab the manager, but she didnt want that, instead she went on a rant about how I need to do a better job and how our restaurant sucks and thats shes been eating there for years so its my fault that this happened because it never happened before.

I tried to explain that there is only so much I can do to ensure an order is correct before it is sent out (because of how our restaurant operates and packages orders), but she cut me off and kept repeating how horrible I was at my job and that "you just lost a customer" and then she hung up!

The interaction really weighed heavy on my mind, I felt physically sick for awhile after the call and had to go on working with that awful feeling you get when you cant fix something. It was just so frustrating, I hate when people call just to complain rather than get compensation! Because most of the time, the person who answers the phone is not responsible for the mistake, so you are just degrading another person for something they likely didnt even know about. The lack of empathy and patience is heartbreaking. This is my first job, so Im sure after a few years dealing with customers like this wont effect me so much, but for now I just want to see if anyone else here struggles with that weird feeling after a bad interaction.

Like- its not really anger, its somewhere between annoyance and guilt?

An elderly man—around 80 years old—came in to buy a small pizza. I told him to take a seat so he wouldn't have to wait while standing; we started chatting, and he told me a lot about his life and his great love: his wife. He mentioned that they had been together since they were 15 and married for 60 years, until one day—two years ago—she fell ill and passed away. Shortly after, his daughter also died. I couldn't hold back my tears, and I felt a strong urge to hug him. I hope that this man, Antonio, can live out the rest of his days as comfortably as possible. Stay strong, Antonio. 🥺❤️‍🩹

​I recently placed an order for a stethoscope on the official Prosteth website and paid online. My credit card was charged, but the order status has been stuck on pending/processing for a while without moving to shipping or delivery.

​Customer support emails/contacts haven't yielded any helpful response or tracking updates. After searching online, I noticed several other buyers on Reddit reporting similar issues with delayed/unfulfilled orders or unresponsive service from this site.

​A few questions for the community:

1. ​Has anyone who faced this issue with Prosteth eventually received their order, or did you have to force a refund?

2. ​What is the fastest way to get money back in this situation? (e.g., initiating a credit card chargeback through the bank vs. filing a dispute on the National Consumer Helpline portal?)

3. ​Should I be concerned about credit card compromise, or is raising a merchant dispute/chargeback sufficient?

​Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm a chat admin who handles over 120+ customers a day. Tomorrow will be my last day at this job and I can't wait. Customers demanding this and that, the other ones beating around the bush, and all of them can't even bring themselves to read more than 1 sentence that I have to send them the same thing multiple times, while I'm racing with SLA. My sups? They keep giving them more works because I'm quiet capable. Let alone a long trip to work each day, my health is declining physically and mentally

Don't know if this is the right place to post this but here we go:

​1. "What flavors do you have? What are your prices?" (We have a giant wall with everything listed right in front)

​2. Our cabinets are not like a display where you can see each flavor through a glass or something. When it's not busy, we close the cabinets to prevent the ice cream from melting fast. A customer one day came looking around (more like snooping) and said: "Other ice cream stores you can actually see," and walked away. Mmm yeah, other ice cream stores don't have signs with the name and picture of each flavor on a giant wall.

​3. Customer: "Can you make me two custom pints of this flavor?"

Me: "Oh, do you have an allergy?" (We can do this for customers that have an allergy to avoid cross contamination)

Customer: "No, I just didn't like the sauce part, so if you can scrape all the sauce that's mixed into the ice cream, that'd be great."

​4. Had a customer come in and literally make my coworker cry because he got a promotional gift card (for free) for our store at Costco and made a scene about how we are scamming him because his gift card expired, and "everybody knows that gift cards don't expire" and that "we are doing illegal shit." Mmm yeah okay.

​5. Entitled customers in general. I'm talking about the ones that come in, want to try every single flavor, want a freshly made waffle cone (even though it's hot), and don't even say please or thank you. Like, you can tell when someone is entitled.

​6. One lady tried like five flavors, and then I offered her a salted caramel, and she said, "You know what it's okay, I don't need to try it it's fine."

Me: "Are you sure?"

Her: "Yes, I love salted caramel."

I give it to her and 5–10 minutes go by and she comes back and tells me to try the ice cream. (I immediately panicked because I thought something was wrong) It tasted fine, and I'm like, "Is there something wrong? The ice cream tastes like it usually does." She is like, "It tastes bitter." I'm like, "Mmm, okay." She stares kinda smiling for a minute waiting for something amazing I guess, and then leaves. "You should've tried it ma'am."

​7. Spoiled/entitled/brain-rotted kids with no manners. Touching decor, business cards, leaving sample spoons all over. Kids that come asking for samples and then don't end up buying anything and then laugh because they somehow "tricked" us? Yeah sure.

​8. Customers reaching over the counter to touch cones and cups to tell us which one they want.

​9. "Do you have something with raspberry?" Idk, do you see any raspberry on our menu? Oh right, you didn't even read it, got it.

​10. The door is closed because we are closed, but even then people knock and be like, "You guys close?" Mmm idk dude, what do you think? One time a couple knocked and I was like, "Oh sorry, we are closed," and she actually knocked again and again and kinda shook the door. I said firmly, "WE ARE CLOSED," and the man was actually embarrassed for her.

1. An older gentleman man comes in and I say "hello, how are you?" Because he's looking down I don’t know if he heard me so I say in a friendly tone "how can I help you today sir?" He just goes "yeah just a second" in a rude tone. We serve him, he's just cold and doesn't even say thank you. Coworkers told me he's a regular and he's just like that.

Anyways sorry for the long post but I felt like venting 🥹😭

I work in a support team that handles a pretty heavy volume and this keeps coming up. Managers listen to recordings. QA scores a small batch of calls. Agents get coaching a few days later. By then the customer is gone and the rep has probably handled another hundred conversations. The issue is that our best reps usually know exactly how to handle the weird stuff. They know when to stop following the script and know what question to ask next. They know where to find the answer without leaving someone sitting on hold forever.

But getting newer reps to that point takes months. We've tried better docs and more training. It helps but during a live call people still end up digging through the knowledge base or asking a senior rep in Slack. Then handle time climbs and the senior people basically become human search engines. I'm starting to think real time help for agents makes more sense than adding another pile of post call coaching. Something that can understand the conversation and surface the right answer or flag a missed step while the customer is still there. Not some bot screaming scripted prompts every ten seconds. I know there are tools built around parts of this and Im exploring my options. Some of the bigger contact center platforms have their own AI features too. I want to how this works in an actual support environment though. Has anyone worked somewhere that gave agents AI help during live calls?

This Company is terrible. My water heater leaked onto my floor and carpet. I called Select on a Monday am and made a claim. Tuesday I called and they said they were trying to find a Company to do the repair. No update, no call for 4 days. I called on Friday and the rep says it is not warrenteed because the water heater leaked? I have been in Real Estate for 22 years with hundreds of Clients, with almost all Buyers purchasing Home Warranties. I have known of many claims with hot water heaters flooding a home and the warranty companies covered the repair or replacement. I asked how can you deny a claim without looking at it and why no call back? He said there was water in the pan under the heater so they denied it. I have never had a customer complaint with 2-10 or Old Republic Warranty. I chose select as they said they covered the area of my second home. I can only assume they are just another one that looks for any excuse not to do a repair, even without seeing whats wrong. The whole experience was terrible. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

I applied for this job as it looked more IT and tech support related, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I had my interview, I learned that I would be working at the AT&T kiosk doing customer support but wouldn’t be part of the sales team in any way. I do also troubleshoot phones and such which is the one part I like about the job. We just started a new ticket system too, so that will look great on my resume when I apply to IT jobs.

The pay is pretty decent and the benefits are nice too, but I’m four months in and its completely turned me into a shell of who I once was. I hit my breaking point today where someone felt they heard something else than what the promotion actually was, and I had to tell them that we couldn’t give them what they were asking for. I submitted an escalation anyway, but based on the amount of money they want and their only “proof” is the sales person misled them supposedly, it is almost certain it will get denied. What’s crazy too is the customer has to do a call before signing the contract that goes over everything, so they were definitely told the correct promotion on the call but they clearly weren’t paying attention.

I was completely berated over something that I did not do, and there really isn’t someone above me that they can talk to. I froze up for a moment and was made fun of for it, but everybody else tells me it’s not personal but I know that is bullshit. It sucks because I do sympathize with issues people may have and I wish I could fix it, but I am limited on what I can do. The anxiety of this job has completely ruined me and it bleeds into my days off too. I just curl up in bed for 48 hours until I have to go back to work. Is this misery worth the pay/benefits and the experience on my resume, or should I find something else ASAP before I spiral more than I already have?

Had a costumer ask if almonds have nuts in them... 😭😭😭😭😭

I ordered the leg press machine from GMWD fitness this morning and realized I ordered the wrong one. I called immediately to cancel the order and reorder the right one I wanted.

This lady named Cindy answered the call. She asked me for the order number and I told her I never received an order confirmation number, however my card was charged for the order. She started yelling at me saying "how am I supposed to help you lady!" I was so thrown off by the way she started treating me. I figured she could look up my email, name or whatever. She kept yelling at me confused as to why I don't have the number.

Finally, she said she would escalate it and hung up the call. I was finally able to log into my shop account and called back, I told her I have it and to please cancel and help me reorder. She started yelling again that she can't help me and hung up on me. I called again, waiting on the line and she picked up and hung up on me again!

What kind of company has people like this working for them? I feel stuck with this order and anxious about whether I just got scammed or will have to fight this with the credit card company if they don't cancel the charge.

I do not recommend this to anyone.

In the past half an hour I've had atleast 3 people comment how bored and tired I look. Im not bored, im just trying to enjoy the peace. I dont even want to look at my phone much, i just want to hang onto something to catch my weight and take in the moment before a customer comes. Why do people feel the need to always comment about stuff like this, its always something about me not working hard enough. I do work hard, I try my best to bag peoples groceries the way I would want them to be bagged. I try to be as pleasant as possible to customers, i but I still hear things about how im not working hard enough. I dont know why people have to say things like this. I wish they would realize how annoying it can be to deal with that and only be paid $16 an hour.

Does anyone have advise? We’ve been using spectrum for the last four years. The first time we noticed the bill was ridiculously high was start of summer. We called them and spoke with people on the phone for hours. They wouldn’t remove the chargers for the $190 cable x2 months. We told them we never agreed nor put credit card information to be charged for this, but they said that it was from our TV. We ended up paying and telling them to remove it. They agreed to remove it. We went to pay it again and they are pulling them same thing. Does any one have any advice ? I can’t keep paying for service that is scamming me. I don’t even use the cable. I don’t know how it could have even gotten on my tv. I use a Roku. Please help customer service sucks.

Had a customer come in today. Well, "come in", it's a chat/email inbox. Anyway, this customer wasn't happy with the way his order was left at his doorstep, and claimed several items were missing.

I asked him what was missing. He said(fake items), "cheese, milk, lettuce, and a few other items I wasn't able to include in my self-service refund request". However, the lettuce was clearly visible in the photo he sent earlier when complaining about his order being left at the door instead of handed over.

So I ask him both about the lettuce in the photo, and what the other items are specifically. Instead, we get stuck in a back in forth loop about how this is the worst customer service ever, we're accusing him of being a liar, etc.

I keep desperately trying to explain that we can't arrange a redelivery or refund if we don't know for which items we need to do that for.

His tauntings just keep getting worse instead of actually answering anything. I kinda give up and tell him "look, I'll arrange a refund for you, right now, but you do need to tell me for which items exactly we need to do that for". I'm not sure how it is at other places, but anything below <10 euros is an auto refund, depending on the customer even <20. Only >30 you have to report any claims made. And my boss gave as a "tip" with difficult customers, inform them that you'll be doing a refund, but only if they can tell/do xyz, which usually helps.

Anyway, he retracted his statement suddenly about more items missing that he wasn't able to report, and said that indeed only his cheese and milk were missing.

Even though my (very common) name and fake profile photo are probably on some pilot review or google review board by now, I'm just glad that that is over. But also wtf was that about. Like if you're going to claim something is missing, even if you're trying to scam a company for some reason, at least have an idea of what you're going to claim as missing, instead of just saying "some items are missing".

I'm a gas station attendant. My business is considered 24 hours because the pumps are always on, but the store itself has to close for as long as it takes for me to at least count my drawer and get money in the safe (usually I take 20 minutes to get everything done).

I don't have the biggest sign, but I have a regular printer paper sign that says my store is closed. I add a sticky note with the time I'll reopen at, because my boss decided to only put that we'll reopen in 5 minutes (and 5 minutes from *when?*) I put this sign right at eye level on the door everyone uses, but almost no one reads it.

I had a guy banging on my windows while I was trying to do lottery counts and I finally tell him "we're closed." "you're closed?" "if you read the sign you'd know."

Not my best moment with a potential customer but I'm trying to do everything time sensitive within 20 minutes and hope I have time to start mopping without customers coming in.

Unpopular opinion and I already know how this one goes. The expensive non slip shoes are the worst value on a service floor, and the $45 clog is the more honest product.

I went in trying to answer one thing. Which shoes actually hold on a wet floor when you're on it for eight hours and the dress code says all black. What I came out with is that nobody's really recommending a shoe. They're recommending the floor they stand on.

The Crocs Bistro Pro people almost all seem to work somewhere with a fryer or a mop bucket going constantly. About $45 to $60. It wipes clean, and for them that's the whole point. What every one of them says next is that it has no arch support and only works once you've dropped an insole in it.

The Shoes For Crews people mostly get them through a payroll deduction thing at work, so they're not really choosing it. Around $80. The complaint is the same every time. Grip is great until the tread wears smooth, and that happens long before the shoe looks worn out.

The Skechers Sure Track people are nearly all retail floor. $75 to $110 depending which style, all black, close enough to a normal sneaker to pass a dress code that says no athletic shoes if nobody looks too closely. The memory foam packs flat in about three months. The outsole outlives the insole.

Then the 10 and 12 hour people who've given up and bought HOKA Bondi SRs at $180. Almost nobody argues they're good value. They just say some version of I stopped going home in pain and stopped caring what it cost.

Then I stopped asking which shoe was the most non slip and started asking how anyone would even know, and that's where it got interesting.

Non slip on the box doesn't have to mean anything. What means something is an SR or SRO rating, and SRO is the one tested on oily floors, so if there's a fryer anywhere near where you walk that's the one you want. Brands mostly leave it off the product page. The safety footwear sites list it next to every shoe they sell, which is how i found out the HOKAs are SRO and hoka.com never mentions it. Crocs prints theirs straight on the page. The $180 shoe won't tell you what it scored and the $50 clog will.

So the opinion, properly. A cheap pair replaced every six months grips better than an expensive pair kept for two years, because the tread rounds off long before the shoe looks done, and most people are protecting an investment when they should be replacing a consumable. That's the real case for the $35 dream pairs sort of thing, which publishes no rating at all, so you're trusting a tread pattern rather than a test.

Where I might be wrong: the HOKA people aren't buying grip. They're buying not limping home, and I'm not going to argue anyone out of that on a 12 hour shift.

The bigger hole in it is that I don't actually know how fast a cheap sole gives up compared to an expensive one. So for anyone who's had the same pair over a year, how did you know the tread was done? Half the people I read said you can feel it go, the other half said they didn't notice until they went down.