What customer service?

I recently asked a business to perform a customized task for me.  This is a service that they offer to customers on a regular basis, so I thought nothing about the request.  But when the time came to honor the request, it wasn’t done.  Upon inquiring with the business about what was going on, they agreed to look into the matter.  The reply I got?  “We have a new employee who couldn’t understand the request.”  Uhm, okay.  The employee then showed me the request.  It was written in plain English.  As in – do this on such and such a date per customer request.  The only way someone didn’t understand it was if they didn’t read.  And how can any business hire someone who doesn’t read for a job where reading is rather essential?  It made no sense to me.  But, being the polite person that I am, I rolled with it.  Instead of getting upset, I asked if the request would be completed the next day.  The response?  “Probably.”  Yeah, that’s when they lost me.  If you can’t bother to make sure simple tasks are done correctly, what exactly can you do?  However, this seems to be a trend with businesses anymore.  I don’t know if it’s because we have a generation of younger workers who don’t want to really work.  Or because business have given up the belief that customer service is important.  Yet, in this day and age when so many places are going bankrupt, shouldn’t they be doing everything possible to keep customers?  Maybe not, maybe I’m the only one who cares, maybe I’m just a whiner who wants what I want and I want too much.  Yeah, that’s it.  I’m being unreasonable for wanting basic customer service.  The next time I go shopping, I won’t expect anything.  How does that saying go – “Aim low and you’ll never be disappointed.”  Yup, that’s the attitude to have here.  The store never has anything in stock?  No problem – I don’t need to eat, clean my house, get dressed.  The employees are rude, can’t handle simple requests, don’t know where anything is?  It’s fine, all my fault for daring to enter the store in the first place.  I can handle everything in the store – from finding the item to checking out with the self checkout lane.  Now hold on a second – this is starting to sound like online shopping but with the hassle of actually going to a store.  Hum, now I think I see why physical store are dying out…