I'm going to make a statement. You can choose to agree or disagree.
Americans have become far too reliant upon "the customer is always right". People know now that all they have to do is throw a fit, scream, stamp their feet, or claim sexual/racial harassment and they will get whatever they want, all in an attempt to placate the person and avoid a lawsuit.
This is the perfect example of someone who has come to rely upon the "customer is always right" mentality, to the point they think they can break property and wreak havoc because they didn't get what they wanted. If/when they catch up with her, you can bet your ass she'll claim racial discrimination as well.
Priceless.
Then, we have European customer service. The customer is always wrong. Today, Evy and I went back to the computer store where we bought our laptop just before New Year's. The case we bought wasn't quite big enough for the laptop, and we wanted to exchange it for the next size up. First of all, they treated us like we were thieves. Doesn't matter that we've spent over 5k in their store this year alone...we walk in with a receipt and a bag and they are like "gasp, you want to exchange this? Impossible!"
We have to wait for the manager. The manager comes down and, no joke, this is what she tells Evy.
"What's the problem?"
"Our laptop doesn't quite fit this bag, so we wanted to exchange it for something bigger."
"Why didn't it fit?"
"Because our laptop is a couple inches too big" (the lady at the time gave us a 15" bag, our laptop is 15.6", and while the bag is supposed to fit all 15" bags, ours doesn't fit)
"And you tried to push it in?"
Duh. "Yes, it wouldn't fit."
"You didn't try hard enough."
I am NOT joking. That was her answer. "You didn't try hard enough."
So folks, the next time you are at McDonald's crying about the burger you just got, think about what it's like in the rest of the world outside of America, where the customer is NOT always right.
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2 comments:
hm, bulgarian service mentality does not equal european service mentality
Depends on the country. In over a decade of traveling throughout Europe I think it's safe to say that while our recent experience was a bit "over the top", as a general rule of thumb the European way of doing things is "the customer is always wrong" until proven otherwise.
One of my favorite examples was in the film "A Good Year" when Russell Crowe's character is temping as a waiter at the restaurant and that picky American couple comes up and starts demanding that they get a special salad with Ranch dressing, extra bacon bits, and this and that, and he takes the menu out of their hands and tells them "McDonald's is this way, fish and chips is that way. Cya!"
Yes, I made a generalization, but as a general rule...European service (when looked at from an American point of view) is far from the typical "customer is always right" standpoint that Americans have come to rely on. Personally, I think "the customer is always right" is a flawed concept, one that I think most Americans have come to rely on to the point that they believe many of the privileges and courtesies afforded them in their home country are actually human rights which they believe every other country in the world is beholden to uphold. This is absolutely not the case.
Just some differences that make me laugh :)
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