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I am sure that we have all had it from time to time. You walk into a shop, it could be a large chain or a smaller shop that you haven't tried before, and you just get the impression the staff are veiwing you with the same contempt reserved for child sex offenders and people who talk in the cinema. From the initial looking you up and down as you walk through the door to the way they saunter over to ask "do you need any help" in a tone which translates to "your face is making me feel sad, get out" they make it clear that you are not welcome.

Now 9 times out of ten I am sure that most people would just wander out and not return, but, there will always be the odd time that you desperately need something only they sell or are there to get something for someone else, and you don't want to dissapoint them. So you try your very best to ignore them and find what you want and get out as quickly as possible, this is when sods law comes into effect and you find that either the t-shirt you want is only on display in 2 sizes smaller than your own or that the particular book in the series you are after is the only one not on the shelf. This forces you to seek the help of the assistant, after all this is what they are there for, so you wander over and ask only to be looked at and spoken to like the mangy old family dog which has just soiled itself on the carpet again. The assistant will make it obvious that finding the item you want is some sort of huge effort and makes it very clear that you are about as welcome as a bacon sandwhich at a Jewish wedding.

After keeping you waiting for what seems like an eternity whilst they dissapear "out to the stock room" where they probably find what you want after 45 seconds but spend the next 14 minutes reading a magazine, making a cup of tea and picking their nose. They return and grudgingly go to the till where you are charged over the odds for your item and leave witht he feeling that the member of staff now considers that whole line of stock tainted and would like to burn it or boil it in bleach.

This sort of thing usualy happens in "trendy clothes shops" the types which play Gakky music far too loud and are endorsed by the latest walking abortion to come out of a reality tv show, or sports wear shops staffed by the inbred love children or those deemed too stupid to appear on the Jeremy Kyle/ Jerry Springer show. However I have also has this happen in places you wouldn't normaly associate with this sort of thing, bookshops, chemists and even games shops.

So people of Dakka share your experiences of bad service, good service and any other bizzare things that have happend to you whilst out at the shops. Also your ways of dealing with it wether it is to simply walk away seething or to return later in the day and rub cat poo into the assistants hair!

I refused to pay the service charge in a restaurant once because I was kept waiting 25 minutes for the bill.

The consternation of the staff was immense. They clustered round asking what the prpblem was, they explained it was their first night and they were short staffed.

I told them they needed to hire more staff and left, never to return.

Nope. never happened.

I do all my shopping over the internet, or at the local grocer for food stuffs.

I see those dimly lit trendy clothing stores in malls sometimes... I avoid them like the plague. Same with apple stores. any store where I don't feel like i'm "cool" enough doesn't get my business.

squilverine wrote:
So people of Dakka share your experiences of bad service, good service and any other bizzare things that have happend to you whilst out at the shops. Also your ways of dealing with it wether it is to simply walk away seething or to return later in the day and rub cat poo into the assistants hair!

This kind of thing doesn't bother me anymore; not after living in South Korea. I got used to being refused service for being a foreigner; whether it was a coffee shop, a night club, or just a regular restaurant, I never knew when I would be told that they were sorry but they didn't serve foreigners.

I actually visited the coffee shop in the following photo some time before the sign was put up:


So yeah, I know what you're talking about.

And when I lived in Japan....it was a good thing I don't like public baths; which the ones that allowed foreigners wouldn't allow me anyway because of my tattoo.

When I was in Istanbul I was nearly mugged for dancing with an Islamic woman. Apparently they consider dancing in the same light that the West considers prostitution. Two men demanded money from me, and threatened to beat me if I refused. Thankfully I was much faster than they were.

Went to this bar a little ways down from my usual pub once. For starters, they didn't sell pints -or- jugs of beer. Instead you got some stupid little bucket with 6 bottles in it for twice the price of an 8L jug. There was no free pool like there was at the pub, and the waitress serving us was a complete, down-the-nose, condescending pirate hooker. She needed a good Hate-Fething IMO. Anyway, so after a couple hours of listening to her sigh, seeing her roll her eyes whenever we'd call her over, and just generally being made to feel unappreciated and unwelcome (tip: scowling at your customers is a bad thing), we decided to leave.

We pay our bills, and of course no one tips her. As we're about to leave, she looks at the receipts and says "You don't even tip me for my time? Cheap 'arse'holes"

Luckily, my one buddy had drank probably thrice as many litres of booze as the rest of us, and most of his was hard liquor (I'm pretty certain he polished off a bottle of gin to himself at the least). So, being good and tanked, he proceeded to unleash verbal hell on this uppity snob who, by the time he finished, looked like she was in a permanent state of shock.

Serves her right.

2 summers ago, I was in sweden as usual, taking a much needed vacation (it was in july if I recall) with my girlfriend who I am currently engaged with.

We were at a nice restaurant, and I had downed probably 4 bottles of beer (two large cups at the restaurant, so more ore less) and was a bit out of it.

My GF was finishing eating, and we just had finished eating, about to ask for the check. Right then, a guy JUMPS UP from the table next to us, and demands that he be reimbursed for his terrible meal (after he had eaten it quite fully....)

The waitress stood there almost dumbfounded, and asked him if it was so terrible, why he ate it.

He wanted the manager, so the waitress went and got him, and bla bla bla same thing he told the waitress.

The manager said he wasn't going to get reimbursed because he ate the meal fully. So he picks up his cup of beer, tells the manager "This is what I think of you and your donkey-cave staff" and splashes it all over my GF.

The manager, acting like fething batman, punches him straight across the jaw, breaking his nose.

The guy runs out of the place, and leaves his wallet. The manager told me my meal was free (and it was easily a $130 meal for the two of us) and we left.

donkey-caves, I tell you.

^ Awesome story.

BATMAN PUNCH! KER-BLAM!!!

Worst service received was in rural France. Just combine rednecks and the worst French attitude to ever fart in your general direction, mix, shake, and enjoy.

Wrexasaur wrote:
Worst service received was in rural France. Just combine rednecks and the worst French attitude to ever fart in your general direction, mix, shake, and enjoy.

I hate France. Istanbul was more hospitable, and I'm a white, middle-class American from Chicago.

Well yea...

We've all seen the Robin Williams standup skit about France.

squilverine wrote:So people of Dakka share your experiences of bad service, good service and any other bizzare things that have happend to you whilst out at the shops.

Also your ways of dealing with it wether it is to simply walk away seething or to return later in the day and rub cat poo into the assistants hair!

The last time I was at the GW Bunker, the moron at the register simply wouldn't take a hint to leave me and the boy the hell alone.

I left.

Aside from also being turned away in south korea (at that time it was for having a short haircut rather than out-and-out whiteness), I don't really have a problem with this kind of thing. I find that it's all about attitude. You can feed them the same gak they try to force down your throat. I don't usually think this way (i.e., like an donkey-cave) but it's just a contest of willpower. One that shopgirls and shopboys are rarely equipped to win against anyone with some sincere confidence. In a restaurant, the tables are turned because they have access to your food while you can't see them. If you feel like you're in a lose-lose situation, just leave before your food arrives.

Manchu wrote:Aside from also being turned away in south korea (at that time it was for having a short haircut rather than out-and-out whiteness), I don't really have a problem with this kind of thing. I find that it's all about attitude. You can feed them the same gak they try to force down your throat. I don't usually think this way (i.e., like an donkey-cave) but it's just a contest of willpower. One that shopgirls and shopboys are rarely equipped to win against anyone with some sincere confidence.

Calling them shopgirls and shopboys, surely doesn't help.

"Excuse me shopgirl, do you happen to possess change of a 100$ bill? I don't carry anything smaller."

In a restaurant, the tables are turned because they have access to your food while you can't see them. If you feel like you're in a lose-lose situation, just leave before your food arrives.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Being opinionated can be a serious detriment in the context of food.




...Unless you are Lenny Henry, of course.

Um, what's wrong with having short hair in South Korea? What is "out-and-out whiteness"?

Inquiring minds and all that.

Nurglitch wrote:What is "out-and-out whiteness"?

At the local subway they hired a women who could barely speak english. I think they gave her the training to only make like the 3 most popular sandwhichs. but i ordered breakfest there. she almost made my sandwhich wrong twice and even then she got the order confused and overcharged me for a sandwich i didnt order. luckily i catched it.
In a job where communication in crucial you should hire someone who can atleast understand it.

@Wrex: My suggestion is that you match snobbery for snobbery, not begin with it. And as soon as your would-be social superior at the shop breaks down and acts in a helpful way, you also get into the "let's all be friends" mentality. Is it better to be respected or liked? Obviously, to be liked is better. But if you cannot be liked then you must be respected.

@Nurglitch: A short haircut apparently indicated serving in the military. By out-and-out whiteness I meant being turned away only for being white.

garret wrote:At the local subway they hired a women who could barely speak english.

Mmkay...

sandwhichs

...

but i ordered breakfest there.

...

my sandwhich

...

i catched it.

...

In a job where communication in crucial you should hire someone who can atleast understand it.

Sorry, but it was too good to pass up

My local newsagents has to have the most stupid staff on the planet: A couple of bints with bleached blonde hair, tits on display, fingernails that Freddy would be proud of and enough make-up to fill several religious texts. Yet not one braincell between them.

Every single time i go there to get some tobacco they screw up the order.

Me: Blue rizla, Blue drum, extra slim filters please

server returns with green rizla, golden virginia and a lighter.

I point out the mistake and they slowly correct it sometimes asking me to repeat the order....

...I wouldn't mind if they were chatting about hair, or painting each others nails as that would be valid grounds for forgetting my order (annoying yes, but at least an excuse). No, they do nothing except stare into space and give me random objects from behind the counter until they stumble upon the combination i asked for.

Africa will cure you. Believe me, African 'customer service' is... words fail. On the plus side, your western, capitalist sense of entitlement will disappear forever. God bless Africa!

garret wrote:
...In a job where communication in crucial you should hire someone who can atleast understand it.

I don't think Dakka would be the same without garret. Priceless.

While I can't remember anything in particular, but every so often I run into a cashier or the like who just annoys me. I try to approach the check out counter with an un-demanding attitude and a smile on my face. I've worked dead end job retail, and I know how boring it can be, and how stupid/annoying customers can be, which is why I try to be friendly, at the least. Needless to say, I find it irksome when the staff member remains in an almost stupor of apathy, despite my attempts to joke and converse.

One of the worst example of poor service I have ever come across was at a pub called The Killcot Arms near Newent in Gloucestershire (now shut down so I dont have a problem naming it!).
We had been recommended it by my girlfriends work collegues so the whole family went along for a meal, the place itself was really nice, a typical oldy worldy country pub, the menu wasn't too bad and had a mixture of pub grub classics and some more unusual dishes, most of the family stuck with fish and chips, steak that sort of thing but myself and the girlfriend wanted to try the wild boar.
What arrived looked like someone has boiled there shoes in in tramps piss for a few hours, it tasted little better but as everyone else was enjoying their food we thought that maybe it was just how wild boar tasted. Once the plates were cleared and we were waiting for the deserts it became apparent that others on our table had also not overly enjoyed their meals. For desert the girlfriend went for a banana and chocolate "spring roll" with vanilla ice cream, what she got was more like a warm cat poo wrapped in newspaper with liqourice flavoured ice cream, the other deserts were equaly as awful, so we called over the waitress to ask if we could swap them for plain icecream instead.

What followed was pretty bizzare. The landlady stormed over and proceded to yell at us that we clearly weren't good enough to appreciate the food they offered and that she would only replace our food if the chef was willing to do so, she also told the girlfriend that she was lying about the ice cream because it said liqourice on the menu even though she had a copy in front of her which clearly said vanilla. Once her rant was done she stormed off, we were all a bit shocked to say the least as we were about to get up and leave the waitress brought over some plain icecream and appologised, once we were done we chucked down £30 to cover the cost of the ingredients, walked out to never return again. 3 months later we drove past to see that it had shut down and was boarded up.

It's like one of those places on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

Kilkrazy wrote:It's like one of those places on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

I like that show, and I like Gordon.

It's refreshing to see someone who's willing to help people take their heads out of their asses.

Yep. There's a couple of places near here which were on his early shows but my wife never let us go there.

I still see plenty of local restaurants and pubs which have the classic, far too long menu and can do a lot of stuff badly and can't do a small selection well.

So tell me, whats the Brit fascination with eating in pubs. A pub looks like a small bar to me. Why on earth would you want to eat in a small bar with family? What exactly is the deal Dakka Brits?

We have a local mini-chain of small seafood places. Cheap eats, great food. I'm OK with that.

They do everything in pubs Frazz.

I'm sure even in the seedier pubs they procreate.

The last place I want to take family is a bar as far as eating. IME most bars have better grilled foods than chain restaurants and as good as most steakhouses but I'd never do a Sunday evening meal at a bar.

Odd culture across the pond.