Last night I called our local restaurant to get a pizza delivered. Their menu says “free delivery” on it and we only live about 500 metres away. Of course I could have gone and collected it, but I was feeling lazy. Plus what’s the point if they offer free delivery?
The following short conversation impressed me so much I thought it worthy of a blog post:
Me – hello can you deliver a pizza to me?
Her – no, there’s no driver
Me – OK, but this is the 11th time we’ve ordered from you, and only once have you been able to actually deliver. Either you say there’ s no driver or there’s no car. What’s the point in putting “free delivery” on your menus if you can’t offer delivery?
Her – to be honest I don’t care. Complain to the boss. If you want your pizza come and collect it
Although shocked at what she said, afterwards I thought it was brilliant. There’s no American-style customer service here, no false smiles and pretending to care. At the end of the day she doesn’t give a toss and said so which I think is fair enough.
In a funny way that’s one of the things I like about Poland…
Tags: customer service, poland
Give me a choice between fake american smarm and disgruntled employees being brutally honest about how little they care, I know which one I’d take. Do you? :)
Should have been here 18 years ago when I first arrived to start a business – the fact that they even answer the phone is a giant leap!
I’ve been here a year now and, really, one of the few things I really like from the US is customer service, …servicegrump is just another retrogressive stress.
Re the bank – why not try Millenium..they’re fun. I recently withdrew the 1000zl for 3 days (to avoid going in the bank!), then, checking my printout, saw 2000zl drawn on the same day. Panic -had to go in dreaded bank…it turns out that the ATM doesnt ‘work’ on Sundays so had accounted Sundays money the next day! Stupid or what!
Now this is the kind of thing I hardly notice anymore.
I do remember going to a cukiernia about 10 years ago with a Polish friend and the lady behind the counter was almost American in manner. Big smiles, couldn’t do enough for us.
It only made my Polish friend suspicious.
Hiya,
me again. The first thing I noticed when I came to Ireland was their fake customer care (as in fact they do not care) but I grew to like it and to be honest it’s nice to see a smiley face at the shop. But still, we Polish have to learn a lot. Every time I go to Poland I am surprised that all those pizza places, shops, post offices and so on actually DO HAVE customers. I guess that’s one of the things we have left after communism.
eheheh this is funny :)
I have no truck with this no service/fake American service debate. It’s not the point. Service doesn’t come into it, when one human being faces another human being both of them should act as if they were, well, human beings. The Polish problem is that employees believe they are in charge of the situation. The American problem is that employees believe (read: have been drilled) that the customer is in charge of the situation. Neither is the case.
People keeps saying, that because Polish identify more with their family than with their job, they are friendlier at work. Except of supermarkets I feel treated very impolitely at service counters.
Is it just me, or would most people feel very offended if they were treated in this manner? In turn you are paying the bitches wages. Damn, if I was spoken to like that I would have a good mind to drive round there a punch the dosey bitch sqaure in the nose. Excuse my French.
Glad you’ve “enjoyed” it. ;-) This will happen to you every now and then. As Michael said many customers would get at least suspicious when facing an “over-friendly” service. False kindness is offensive here. And, no, business relations are not yet a good reason to make the smile feel honest. In some weird way, that guy probably felt he is being fair to you – he’s offered you his private and potentially dangerous opinions after all. ;-)
That’s changing fairly quickly, in most places you have 50-50 chances of being served with a smile. This of course doesn’t include national institutions where unless you know somebody there (“masz znajomości”) or bribe somebody you are just an intruder.