I have some gripes with people who fail to pay attention to the details of their jobs that they get paid to do. Here is an experience I recently had that shows how attention to detail seem to be a "dying art" in many respects.
Yesterday was the day my new mattress, box spring, pillow, pillow cover, mattress cover, and all the sheets were arriving. The delivery was to come between 12 and 5 in the afternoon.
When I received my bill in the store on Monday, the seller told me that everything was there on the list. I quickly looked over and everything seemed to be in order, as a trusted that this person knew what they were doing. They were also speaking to me so I didn't fully read the list properly, which was my mistake.
I had been in the mattress store 3 to 4 times, spending several hours talking to the same seller, asking questions, etc. I ordered a double bed, the double boxspring, with double sheets, which also meant that the mattress cover was also size double, full or standard.
First Instance
But yesterday morning on the day of delivery, Wednesday, I looked at my bill again just to make sure everything was in order and that's when I noticed an error. The mattress cover was size queen.
Why is this detail overlooked by a professional seller of mattresses?
When I was talking to him in the store I recall him talking about queen sheets for my order, despite me having a double mattress. And I had corrected him at that time, thinking that he would have verified his own work to make sure he didn't make a mistake somewhere else.
This is the mistake we often make in trusting the competency of others. If we want to make sure things are done right, we have to verify it ourselves, not simply trust the competency of others.
So that's one issue of attention to detail. Someone whose job it is to get all the right pieces ordered for the customer, couldn't even order all the same sizes. I called them up, and they told me I would have to go into the store myself and bring back the wrong item that they ordered for me. Not the wrong item that I ordered, but they ordered the wrong item yet I would be the one we have to go to them to correct their mistake. Off the bat this is something I am don't much appreciate when you make the mistake and you make me go correct it. If you make the mistake, especially as a business, you should be the one to correct it.
Second Instance
But the issue of attention to detail doesn't end there, on a fine Wednesday yesterday.
When the delivery truck came, they didn't even have the wrong sized Queen mattress cover, as if these deliverers themselves can't even pay attention to the detail of the items on the list they have. Instead of actually grabbing a mattress cover, they grabbed two pillow covers.
The guys seemed like a bit of pothead stoners, spaced out and not really competent. I had to repeat three times the issue that I had 2 pillow cases when I only ordered one, and the item that was mis-ordered wasn't even there.
It's not even like the two items are even written the same on the paper. And if there were two of the same exact items, it wouldn't be written as two separate lines, because the quantity would simply be changed from 1 to 2.
So this is the second issue of people having a lack of attention to detail in their own jobs they are supposed to do correctly. Seriously, how hard is it to order all the same sized products when you're talking with the customer who is ordering a double bed? And how hard is it to check a sheet of paper and grab the right items before you go out on delivery?
Third Instance
The third and final issue with attention to detail on that same day, was with public transportation.
I went back to the mattress store to get the actual mattress cover that was supposed to be ordered, that wasn't ordered, but miss-ordered as a queen, and yet never delivered. I took the bus there and back, rather than rollerblade.
Once I got on the bus, I said "bonjour" to the bus driver yet he ignored and didn't respond. Then when my stop came up, I rang the bell, walked up to the front and waited for him to stop. But he just went past the stop. I said in French "excuse me, what about the stop" but maybe I didn't say it loud enough as he didn't respond. Then an older woman spoke up in French saying that he didn't stop at her stop, and then I interjected again saying "yeah I've been waiting here and you've passed it for 300 feet". Then the bus driver stops, shows his arm pointed to the door and says "here's your stop" in a tone as if we were the annoying ones for complaining that he didn't make his stop. I got off telling him "you're not a very good driver".
I think it's pretty simple job that you just have to stop when you need to stop. He doesn't even pay attention to the detail of people requesting a stop. The guy couldn't even do that. Even though I had walked up to the front of the bus waiting at the yellow line for them to stop. There I was 2 feet beside him and he couldn't even register that I'm there because I had asked for stop. He couldn't even look to see if there was an indicator for a stop, which there was. Then when I spoke up about missing the stop, he wasn't even paying enough attention to the detail of his environment to register me speaking. Maybe I was too soft and too nice initially to stir him from his low state of awareness of ignoring his job.
So that's my little annoying experience on one day where I was seeing a lack of attention to detail in many places with respect to people's jobs. These aren't even tricky things to get right or wrong. All that was required was for: 1) a seller to pay attention to what the hell they were selling and actually sell the right sized products that match together, rather than ordering one that wasn't even the right size; 2) delivery people to pay attention to what's actually written and grab the right items on a list; 3) a bus driver to pay attention to the one thing they have to do, which is make stops for people to get off at.
Does the lack of attention to detail sometimes get on your nerves?
Have you ever had a business make a mistake, such as one related to attention to detail, yet make you correct it rather than themselves?
Have you ever had so many instances of people not paying attention to the detail of their jobs all within one day?
Let me know your gripes on how people don't pay attention to what they are supposed to be doing ;)