The Herbal Connection is one of the worst stores I've had the displeasure of dealing with. I'm going to be brutally honest here (not that it's going to matter; I have a feeling everyone involved at the store is a fundamentally selfish person who doesn't give a shit about other people). I'm disabled. I'm disabled due to sexual and domestic violence causing C-PTSD, which in turn has caused me to develop an extremely serious physical disease. Due to my experiences of abuse, I do NOT like being talked to in a hostile manner. I'm anti-capitalist, so whether or not I'm a customer shouldn't matter. I don't care how much an employee hates their job, however; there is no reason to be rude to customers who haven't done a thing to the employee. I didn't get that feeling from the initially rude employee, however. The feeling I got was that she was having a bad day due to being slammed, and therefore felt entitled to be rude to a customer, and then to engage in gaslighting toward the customer (accusing that customer of rudeness) when the customer was affronted. Again, due to my experiences, I REALLY don't like gaslighting. I called on a Monday morning because I'd placed an order over two hours prior, and hadn't received a text it was even out for delivery. The girl who answered barked as soon as I told her, "you have to give us two hours!" When I asked her if it was going to be delivered, considering she told me they were slammed and her tone, she said "I can't believe you asked that" (in a "how dare you" tone), "we've never not delivered an order." Then she said "would you prefer to pick it up?" With passive-aggressive faux sweetness. I told her no, I just wanted to know if it was going to be delivered. She then responded aggressively "I don't like how this conversation is going." I told her I didn't like how this conversation was going either, as I'd simply called to find out if my order had actually gone through or not, and was going to be delivered. I said goodbye and hung up. When the delivery driver arrived, I told him what had happened, and asked him what he'd do in this situation. It's funny how things can change in ten years (I'm an older Millennial); ten years ago, the driver would have apologized for the behavior of his colleague, and if he'd mentioned it to his manager at all, would have told his manager that a customer reported being mistreated by one of his co-workers when she called. (Most likely, however, 10 years ago the driver would not have said anything at all). While we were talking, the driver, a young man who I'm guessing is in his early 20's, told me he'd only once left a bad review, and told me a long anecdote about how he'd driven two hours for something specific and the store didn't have it, when he'd asked about it (a mix-up). I was sympathetic to him, told him that really sucked, and also laughed and said I also left good reviews, but just didn't appreciate being treated this way when simply calling to find out if my order had even gone through. (The driver knew how late he was too; he started out by saying "sorry, it's usually out within half an hour," and told me "I was ready more than an hour ago." I told him it was okay and wasn't his fault). This driver then went and told his manager he didn't feel comfortable delivering to me. The manager implied on the phone I might be a danger to her driver. I'm sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous and offensive things I've ever heard. The driver, a man, is far more of a danger to any female customers than vice versa, simply statistically speaking. He seemed a nice enough guy (something I no longer think; I now think he's a bad person, to be quite honest. It's simply unbelievable to me that he would not only mention our conversation to his manager, but would do so in the context of making *me* out to be the problem). It's also incredibly offensive to me as someone who is actually a survivor of real violence. The idea that I would be dangerous to a driver for simply mentioning being mistreated by an employee on the phone, saying I left a bad review, and asking if he thought I should leave it up or take it down, or what he would do in such a situation, is not just ludicrous, but actually extremely offensive. The Herbal Connection refused to deliver an order on Friday. I waited two and a half hours to call, trying to be as patient as possible before asking had they even received my order, or what was going on this time. When I called, the manager, Dawn Gardner, got on the phone with me, and informed me they would not be delivering to me anymore, as I'd made her driver feel "unsafe." She was incredibly hostile and rude the entire time, and I wanted to go immediately, but insisted on having a conversation with me about what had happened on Monday. She was extremely adversarial during the entire conversation, yelling at me not to interrupt her while interrupting me repeatedly, and contradicting everything I told her about her employee's behavior, while also trying to catch me out in a lie (I told her the employee hadn't even checked on my order, and she said "she did, we have cameras!" And I said, "well she didn't tell me she did. Do you record conversations?" Of course they do not--not that it would have helped; I'm sure that someone like Dawn would have found a way to make that entire conversation my fault, considering her atrocious attitude on the phone). I've both worked customer service and been a manager. An employee like the employee who answered Monday would have gotten a formal reprimand in the past (since I've always been nice, I would probably have given an informal reprimand for a first offense, particularly on a busy day). If my driver had said to me he felt "uncomfortable" because a customer had asked what he'd do in such a situation, I would have asked him why; had the customer been rude? Aggressive? If the answer was "no," then simply feeling uncomfortable because a customer had asked his opinion about what to do about another employee's behavior is not a reason to no longer deliver to someone--simple as that. Furthermore, I would have left a mollifying comment beneath bad review, saying it had been a busy day, and the Herbal Connection was sorry about both the inconvenience and the compromised customer service that day, and to please accept our apologies. (Which I would have, as the customer; an apology for someone's rudeness is ALL I'd ever ask). Instead, Dawn berated me, was openly hostile, and was extremely aggressive toward me while insisting she wanted my side of the story, which is bizarre, to say the least. Again, Dawn, you know nothing about customer service. Your defensiveness when I told you that said everything, though. (Who asked for your resume? Not me). The behavior of the employee was rude and hostile, the behavior of the driver was cowardly and passive-aggressive, and the behavior of the manager was abusive. Although again I do believe there is a generational difference here--that the generation raised online doesn't know how to interact with people, tends to be entitled, and has trouble handling even minor differences of opinion (Dawn classified my feelings about this as "ageism;" I do not, I think it specifically has to do with the lack of social skills among the younger generation, how sheltered they are from the real world, and also a brand of entitlement their parents raised them with, which is specifically in opposition to the unsheltered, latchkey upbringing their parents experienced and are reacting against; it's nothing to with age, it's to do with the specific experiences of a generation), I will avoid making jokes about it this time, since they seemed to incense Dawn so much in my initial review. I will say that Dawn's overprotective attitude toward her employees does seem consistent with this overall trend, however; and that my incredulity about someone feeling attacked because a customer is asking where their delivery order is when it's been over two hours since they placed it, or feeling "unsafe" because a customer asked them their opinion about how to handle the situation at the door, is symptomatic of this same issue; extremely sheltered young adults have poor coping skills and a lack of resilience. As a person who has been through more than most people in a lifetime, even most people who don't have the luxury of living in the developed world, I do find this tendency to play victim offensive. I especially find it offensive--and an example of DARVO and gaslighting--when the person engaging in said behavior is the person who has been abusive. The Herbal Connection's official policy seems to be that it's just fine to vilify and abuse a disabled woman. (Dawn was also irate that my initial review mentioned how I'd been treated when calling to find out where my order was, saying it was "inappropriate" to mention someone specific. I did not mention her by name, and I notice many of the bad reviews are about being mistreated by specific employees. Does Dawn go out of her way to berate each of those people, I wonder?) I'm assuming Dawn is the nightmare morning manager mentioned by a review online as best to avoid unless you want to be yelled at first thing in the morning. That was certainly my experience with her. Suffice it to say that 10 years ago, all employees involved would have been reprimanded if not fired (Dawn in particular). I'm assuming that *some* businesses do still have standards of customer service and would not accept such abusive behavior from their employees, nor that their employees play the victim when called out on it. The Herbal Connection is not one of them.