> American customer service wasn't supposed to be shite

It varies wildly and I do try to remember that sometimes people are just having a crappy day and whatever I did was the last straw for them. I've absolutely been in that position.

But to have such a policy puts me in the position of someone enforcing such a policy and I'm not interested in that. I'm still pissed that the local baseball team used COVID as an excuse to adopt an absolutely bullshit bag policy, such that I didn't go to a single game in 2022. I might go this season but I will whine about it into every one of their feedback forms.

> No backpacks allowed?

There's a small record store chain in Seattle and surrounding suburbs (Silver Platters, for anyone who's lived here) that I irrationally hold such a grudge against, I'll never go back. Before light rail construction took it out, they had a store near where I live in north Seattle and walking distance from a large regional transit center.

One day, shortly after moving, I walked over after getting off the bus because who doesn't like a good record store? Obviously, I had my backpack with me. The door was open, I strolled in.

Not thirty seconds later, an employee was behind me absolutely livid pissed that I had come in with my backpack. "Didn't you see the [expletive] sign?!" No, what sign. "The one on the door, you idiot!"

So I walked back over to look and it was on the other side of the open door, not visible. He ordered me to take my backpack to my car. When I told him I don't have a car (a true statement then and now), he told me to GTFO or he'd call the cops.

I've never been back and simply won't go into a place that has a "no backpacks" sign on the door. For places within a half mile of transit, I will call and tell them why they've lost my business. A few have even taken down the signs.