Are vendors allowed to say “you’re welcome”?

[Steve Kownacki]

Bob, your thoughts here are more along the line with what I’m talking about. I want to not look at this from the provider’s or business owners perspective – I’m really talking about being the customer in this instance. And you politely and respectfully thank your server, their response should not be “no problem” nor even “your welcome” but “may I get you anything else”? They should have the response of the vendor.

Hey Mark, you keep working on those kids! Long live chivalry and just plain courtesy.

I must work now. Or sleep or something.

Steve

[Michael Hancock]

[Steve Kownacki] “you politely and respectfully thank your server, their response should not be “no problem” nor even “your welcome” but “may I get you anything else”? They should have the response of the vendor.”

Basically, you’re paying them to do a job so they should be thanking you, right? In that case, you shouldn’t be thanking them at all! After all, you’re paying them and that’s their thanks. By adding thanks on top of the payment you’re inviting a response, and saying they’ve gone beyond the minimum requirements to earn that paycheck.

So if they’ve done more than the minimum and you thank them, they absolutely should say “Your welcome” if they want. After all, they’ve already receive the typical thanks in the form of a paycheck. If you don’t want people to say “you’re welcome”, just don’t thank them.

I always thank my clients (especially the good ones) for bringing me work and being a pleasure to work with (usually). If they thank me in return for doing a standup job I reply “You’re welcome. It was fun. Let’s do it again, soon.” I’ve never had anyone complain that I accepted their thanks. It’s common courtesy to do so.

As far as “No problem”… It doesn’t imply it might have been a problem. Saying thanks can be interpreted as “Thank you for going out of your way to satisfy me as a customer”. Saying ‘No problem’ can just as easily be interpreted as ‘No problem, it was my pleasure to do my job for your money.’

Don’t read too much into this.

Michael

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I’ll be working late.

[Grinner Hester]

If people wanted honesty, they’d stay home with their spouses.
When someone asks me a questoin that translates to “is it a problem to change every freakin name key we just speant all damn day making?”, they really are not asking me if it’s a problem so much as telling me to get at it in a nice way. I respond with “nooo problemo” not because I’m a liar or even respectful but because I get paid by the hour to aid in the changing of minds of powers that be but have never done it. Same thing with you’re welcome. They are always welcome to waste time at my hourly rate. It’s what I do. If it irritated me, I’d become a producer and get paid for shopping as my editor made my shows.

[Bill Davis]

Unbelieveable that this thread hit such a chord.

I’m generally in the “It’s an automatic response – pretty meaningless – get over it” column.

However, since we’re all so intent on parsing every smidgen of meaning out of the original interchange – here’s some grist for the conversational mill…

What does it say about YOU that you got upset at his clearly extremely typical response? Actually, more specifically, what does it say about your “feelings” about that particular client? The amateur psychologist in me thinks you probably don’t feel particularly comfortable with this “producer” and has a smidgen of resentment about his taking the “you’re welcome” credit. So since it’s your business and your call, go ahead and feel free to demote him or her to the B-list of folks you want to work with in the future.

I say this because if the relationship with him RESONATED with you properly, you would never have questioned the “you’re welcome” in the first place.

May be telling you something subtle about them.

Or maybe in his brain, it’s like it is for me when someone says “hello” in a foreign language. If I know the proper response – I’ll gladly parrot it as a form of respect – tho half the time I’m clueless as to what the actual translation of my response is.

And so it goes. (small tribute to the late Linda Ellerby for those old enough to understand)

[Todd Terry]

[Bill Davis] “And so it goes. (small tribute to the late Linda Ellerby for those old enough to understand)”

If Linda reads this forum (highly doubtful), I hope she isn’t too shocked to learn of her demise. 🙂

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Bruce Bennett] “I have found that some people say “You’re welcome” to deal with anxiety.”

While I have little doubt that this may in some cases be true, most people say “thank you” and “you’re welcome” in an attempt at courtesy — I have linked the word for your convenience.

The root of the word comes from the meaning of “courtly manner or bearing.” You did not come into the court of a great monarch without “courtly manner” — that is, a gracious disposition and bearing that acknowledged the courtesy they were extending you (and so it was returned).

But in a world (to quote Don LaFontaine) where self-esteem has gone rampant and people think that they are far greater than everyone else around them, how can courtly manner survive?

I like the world of Disney’s Chip and Dale, thank you. Now they had it right. 😉

Here at Creative COW, all of the people that work here exchange civility on an ongoing basis. We use please, thank you and congratulatory phrases regularly. All of us treat one another with a lot of courtesy and courtly bearing and it helps us to forge a team that out competes billion dollar publishers with a handful of people. We are constantly cheering one another along. It fuels a strong loyalty and comradery and maximizes our productivity because of the unity it produces. Why? Because we are huge fans of one another and we acknowledge that quite regularly. Everyone around here has said many times over the years that this is the best place they have ever worked.

Courtesy. Courtly manner. It goes a lot further and produces far more than this modern pseudo-equality that is little more than the gimme-mine-before-I-give-you-yours (but not a penny more) mindset.

Ron Lindeboom

[Simon Stutts]

[grinner hester] “If it irritated me, I’d become a producer and get paid for shopping as my editor made my shows.”

Zing! 🙂