Maybe it's just me, but these kinds of threads seem to be getting more and more prevalent, both on the US and CO forums (and others, no doubt).

I suppose one could write it off to the "unionized shops," but how difficult would it be to: (1) assign supervisory oversight for the FAs, or (2) have "shoppers" fly the planes and do detailed QA reports?

It just seems very strange that something so important as customer service is left up to individual whims or work habits. Is it so difficult to hire and retain FAs that the airline has to look the other way?