What happened to good service?

Plus:

• Good service is..: The following people and places keep us coming back for more.
• The tipping point: TONY readers weigh in on the art of gratuity.
• The ConEd Awards for bad service: In our experience, these losers win.
• Taming the Wild Bean: Can two TONY staffers win over the scariest sandwich makers in town?
• Our hot UPS guy: Is yours steamier? Send us pics online.
• I hate it when...: Our readers share their most aggravating—and their most pleasant—service experiences.
• Top 10 service complaint sites: For when the frustration is so great, you need to share it with anonymous others.

Tell us if this sounds familiar: After a contentious exchange with a guy you’re pretty sure is trying to sell you something more expensive than you need, you’re ready to just plunk down your money for the item (which you still have slight doubts about) and be on your way. Only now, there’s no one to ring up your sizable purchase. You wait at the counter, patiently. Sales clerks walk by. They see you, but no one comes over.

You’ve forgotten about it by dinner (where the waiter disappears for 20 minutes and messes up your order) and you try to enjoy that night’s concert (where you’re kept waiting outside in the cold—only to be told you’ve been in the wrong line). Inside, a drink helps, though you missed much of the band because you were battling for the bartender’s attention while he flirted with a girl in a tube top. Tired, you try to catch a bus and it rolls by…without stopping. And that’s when it hits you—anger and rage and frustration. And you aren’t even sure why.

You are not alone. A poll conducted by NYC-based consumer website Measured Up, where users post positive and negative reviews about businesses, found that 80 percent of respondents think service today is below average. In a city that’s a shopping and dining destination, why do we encounter such poor service so frequently?

Blame a global economy, cost-cutting corporations and the general stress of big-city life. “I can tell you as a New Yorker for 15 years that service has declined,” says Measured Up creator Marc Karasu. “Technology has made business less personal, but there’s something particular about New York that makes it a little more of a pressure cooker and a little more of a dismissive environment.” Not to mention that for a generation reared on touchy-feeliness, the idea that one might be entitled to good service is vaguely guilt inducing—especially when you know the clerk behind the counter might make a paltry $7.15 an hour.

So what is good service, and when should we expect it? In the following pages, we’ve rounded up some all-stars: Each place (or person) mentioned offers a great product—that goes without saying—but they also go above and beyond to deliver it in a manner that makes us feel valued as customers. We left out certain categories like supermarkets and fast-food joints, to name a few, because those are places where the service is secondary to the price. And our list isn’t comprehensive—instead, this is our attempt to start a conversation. As you read, you’ll likely think of places you frequent where the service is outstanding—or not. We want to hear about them. Write to us at timeoutnewyork.com/service. We’ll respond in 41 to 47 business days, guaranteed.—Alison Rosen