Hunting Happiness

SomeGal and I took a vacation last week and had a horrendous car rental experience.  We arrived after midnight and there were two counters open and seven or eight in line in front of us.  An hour later, we finally got up to the counter and then had another 10-20 minutes despite having a reservation.  There was a manager on duty who seemed quite busy surfing the internet despite the obvious slow moving line.   He finally opened a station himself just in time for us to be served by one of the other slow-moving representatives.

Maybe I’m just getting old and grouchy, but it sure seems like customer service has gone down the tubes recently.  Is it possible that all the focus on bottom line price is causing a general shift away from any semblance of good service?