Honestly, it's a foreign language to them. You can practically guarantee good service is only provided by extranjeros; argentine waiters, romanian builders, english mechanics etc.
Go into any Carrefour or El Corte Inglés here and you'll see what I mean. Staff who are supposed to be serving customers take a perverse delight in ignoring them and prefer to chat to their colleagues or on their mobile to friends and family or merely pick their noses rather than do the job they're paid for.
The concept that their salary is actually paid by their customers seems to escape them. I remember reading last year that of all Spanish companies that go into the export business, a third have abandoned it after just two years. Probably because they've pissed off their customers so much.
The crap service par excellence is of course provided by any state-run organisation or business. The complaints against Telefónica are legion, having passed into urban legend many years ago. They feature on expat bulletin boards on a monthly basis. However, even they are exceeded by the Health service, Town halls, Tax authorities, in fact any arm of the state.
Now I know why. In spain, to get a public service job you have to sit oposiciones, a sort of board exam. The interview is purpose-designed to weed out any extranjeros that have the temerity to apply. I know because I once applied for an English-speaking role at the local town hall (to deal with the english-speaking ratepayers). Needless to say the job was awarded to a local who could hardly string together a sentence in English, let alone communicate effectively. The impression I was left with was that this is racism by the back door, pretending to offer jobs to foreigners, only to exclude them in biased interviews.
Go into any Carrefour or El Corte Inglés here and you'll see what I mean. Staff who are supposed to be serving customers take a perverse delight in ignoring them and prefer to chat to their colleagues or on their mobile to friends and family or merely pick their noses rather than do the job they're paid for.
The concept that their salary is actually paid by their customers seems to escape them. I remember reading last year that of all Spanish companies that go into the export business, a third have abandoned it after just two years. Probably because they've pissed off their customers so much.
The crap service par excellence is of course provided by any state-run organisation or business. The complaints against Telefónica are legion, having passed into urban legend many years ago. They feature on expat bulletin boards on a monthly basis. However, even they are exceeded by the Health service, Town halls, Tax authorities, in fact any arm of the state.
Now I know why. In spain, to get a public service job you have to sit oposiciones, a sort of board exam. The interview is purpose-designed to weed out any extranjeros that have the temerity to apply. I know because I once applied for an English-speaking role at the local town hall (to deal with the english-speaking ratepayers). Needless to say the job was awarded to a local who could hardly string together a sentence in English, let alone communicate effectively. The impression I was left with was that this is racism by the back door, pretending to offer jobs to foreigners, only to exclude them in biased interviews.
And the photo? A colleague bought a car on French plates. It took 14 months to get the car registered here in Spain involving umpteen visits to the gestor to get it sorted. I even once had to go to Cádiz itself to visit tráfico there to check what the gestor was saying was true - he was lying out of his arse! Needless to say he won't be getting any repeat business or recommendations from me.
5 comments:
Todo esto que uste expresa, no es más que el resultado de haber vivido y convivido en un País.
Yo he vivido en varios paises, y todas esas cosas o similares pasan en todos los paises.
Ahora bien, NO PASAN SIEMPRE.
Usted está explicando sólo las experiencias negativas. ¿Acaso no ha tenido ninguna POSITIVA?. Seguro que si hace memoria, serán infinítamente más las POSITIVAS que las negativas.
Saludos desde España, un gran país, con buenas gentes y una gastronomía espectacular.
De acuerdo, las cosas así pasan en todo el mundo, pero no es motivo para aceptarlas.
Estuve diciendo que la atención al cliente ya existe en españa, pero las grandes impresas y la administración pública no han aprendido las lecciones del resto del mundo.
la actitud de muchas impresas parece más como la actitud de la impresa inglesa 'ICI' (que ya casí no existe) durante los años sesenta y setenta cuando trataban sus clientes como vacas para sacar la leche.
No puedo contarle las veces que he estado en un bar (como hoy) cuando la gente hablan de los extranjeros en los terminos exactamente iguales. ¡Qué no somos (todos) guiris!
Y encima, no puedo contarle las veces cuando un funcionario ha denegada prestar servicio a mi esposa en que tenía derecho. ¿Porque? Porque ella tiene mucha dificultad en aprender la idioma. Los funcionarios no son jueces; no es su puesto para juzgar a ella.
En fin, tenemos una solución, que recomendamos a toda la gente (españoles y extranjeros). Si encuentras un funcionario malo, pues denúnciale según articulo 404 del código penal. ¡Cuando son bajo pena de inhabilitación de hasta 10 años, así se animan!
I get a bit sick of it sometimes - guiri de mierda etc - but I'd still rather live here than in Blighty.
And one day, with our superior numbers, we shall take over the ayuntamiento... and get our own back!!
Oh, the laughs we shall have then!
¡Oiga: siempre se pueda soñar uno!
We did an artilce and video on this subject and it upset a few people, mainly Brits. They felt we were being horrible about the Spanish but we weren't, we were just being honest!
I was reading your comments and I was a litte confuse, you were describing Spain or Mexico's bad costumer service? Just kidding, but it's almost the same, I wonder why? Lo mas triste es que soy Mexicana residiendo en EU y me identifico con su fustración. En 1998 fui a España y tube mejor antención alla que en mi propio país (Mexico, aunque ya soy "US Citizen") eso si es triste.
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