Last night I went to the video store to pick up two movies. I have a membership that allows me eight rentals a month. I show up. Choose my movies, and check them out like they were library books. But when I went to the counter the clerk told me that all memberships were changed to “rent as you go.”

When I signed up, it was the middle of the month, so I figured I had two more weeks to get my money’s worth of rentals, which I let him know. That’s when the clerk said again “all memberships were changed to rent as you go.” Of course, I responded with “I still have rentals left for this month.”

I think you already know what his reply was . . . “I guess we cheated you then.” Feeling certain that this couldn’t have actually come out of his mouth, I asked him to repeat himself . . . “I guess we cheated you” he said again. Needless to say, I walked away with my movies and didn’t pay any additional money, but it’s still shocking that those words actually came out of his mouth.

Maybe what they could do now is come up with a cool advertisement that could change my feelings about the experience . . . Probably not because anytime you interface with a customer you are marketing, and the personal experiences are the most important.

Do you have any personal stories of crappy customer service?