John, reread your post for the appropriate spelling error! ;-)
Just bough their electric chainsaw on a long extendable stick thing. Looking forward to a spot of high branch trimming tomorrow.
lol
they wouldnt enjoy that Zoe...rice and coal dont react to bad manners...I am convinced a lot of these 'rude' people work within 'people industries' just to get their kicks...
ah, look, when you deal with "other people in general", lets face it, some folks are a delight to work with/for, and others go out of their way to create problems/make mountains out of molehills.
In saying that, generally, if someone is going to treat ALL customers with contempt, they should probably be working in a coalmine, or rice plantation.
Thats the other side of the coin...you will always get complainers...some people make it a full time occupation...we had a couple who asked for all their money back as the said there were crumbs on the wooden stairs to the roof terrace, a spiders web in the corner of the sitting room and leaves outside on the balcony and the roof terrace. They were paying for our luxury apartment in September and the leaves were falling...and the Tramontane blowing, we explained this, apologised for the crumbs and spiders web (not saying if there were or were not any, but took it up with our handover staff at the time)...but we did offer £50 back for the inconvenience...and they went ape sh*t, saying how crap the place was etc and they would get us blacklisted.... In 3 years of letting we have never had anything like it. My role at the intercontinental was Guest Relations Executive...so I got all the complaints...and became Mrs Teflon coated...smile fixed, manner charming and never got angry...though would punch a wall out of sight occasionally!
i would never actually tell anyone never to come back.. my hope is always that we can rectify the problem, and they will enjoy the rest of their stay, but, then again, some people are happier when complaining, such as a lady who told us every day of her three day trip that the place was paradise, and she would recommend it to everyone she knew. Then, the day of her departure, she said she was refusing to pay because the fridge in her room "did not work".
people who don't have the little house in the brain where the LOGIC monkeys work.
All she would have had to do was pick up the phone, or notify any of us in person, and we would have went up, and looked into it. I ran up to the room myself, to see what was up with the fridge(they were all replaced this spring, so mechanical fault is surprising), and it turns out the fridge was plugged out.
I used to work at the Intercontinental hotel, Portman square in London...and then worked at half a dozen central London hotels....and I share your view, customer is king. If I ever encountered a hotel where I met with an attitude such as you describe I would make sure I contacted every Trip Advisor, Hotel site on the internet and complained with force about their bad attitude.....from experience I will only deal with hotels and restaurants with good customer services...if I am spending my money, I want good service and I want polite service!
Glad I gave you a monday afternoon giggle, Carol. lol.
I dunno, maybe it's from working in hotels, that I still think the customer is king..... then again, I am told by the owner of one hotel I work in that, whenever I have a stroppy customer, I can simply tell them "if you're not happy, don't come back, but stop making a scene here".
He also has an "in a meeting" policy when people want to speak with the actual owner, and so, I get to deal with quite a few stroppy customers.
Still laughing Zoe! you obviously had a cashier who gets her daily kicks from irritating customers! I also pack at a rate of knots, not wishing to hold anyone up...though I have yet to come across anyone else who packs hell for leather to prevent others from waiting. Truly, I dont believe customer services are taught in supermarkets...you either are lucky and get someone who cares or you dont. Ive seen a customer complain in a supermarket about the rudeness of the cashier...and the manager, when called..also started shouting at the customer! You may have good customer service in some businesses...but I am pretty sure that the reason is usually, they are not French owned....like MacDonalds...where I have had superb customer services....(we only used to go in every day to use their wifi)...and only ever bought a coffee each....but they were always open at 9 on the dot and helpful to the enth degree, even in finding us a socket to plug our computer into so we could use their electricity!!!!!!. We have found a lot of businesses dont care that much if they open on time, a vague opening time within 20 minutes seems to be acceptable. Ive been told that the French way of life is to not stress about stuff like being on time etc. so I guess the customer not always right is another concept that has no place in France.
just back from my tea bag run to Lidl. Our local greengrocer is closed, so I picked up the 5 kilos of tomatoes, and the peppers and onions I need for some country relish I make every year.
Put my stuff on the conveyor belt, waited the mandatory 20 minutes, as the check-out girl "salut"s everyone in front of me, and discusses their daily discussables, the rentrée, the special offer on plants, whatever, and eventually, it get to me. Having more than I normally buy, i set about quickly packing my kilo bags of tomatoes, and handed her two tenners when she asked for money... she asked if I had any small change, and, knowing I'd none, I said "non, desole"... she insists, asking if I'm SURE I've got nothing, nothing at all. I reply that I don't have any change.She insists "not even the 5 centimes, it would be easier if you did". I drop my bag, start patting myself down, looking through my wallet, jeans, jacket, and finally come up with, once again "no, sorry".... She sighs, and shrugs, and continues to open the till, and count out my change. I go back to packing my bag, as it is a pet hate of mine when the person in front of me does it slowly. I have no patience.
So.... she hands my my change, and tells the lady behind me... "sorry, madame, you'll have to wait, some people are slower to pack their bags than others."
WHAT!!!! I reminded her that I was packing my bags at speed, but she instructed me to carry out a stripsearch on myself.
where the hell do people get this attitude? Anyone working in customer service should know this is uncalled for.
I know...one of our friends a master baker (dont say that too fast!)...he invented some of the breads for frozen burgers..ie...in microwave and heats meat but bread still edible.... and he said the same. Frankly...we have eaten bread all over the place...and its a reasonable baguette....tasty.....doesnt go hard next day...so ok with me!
It's not real bread Carol; What Lidl run is what in UK is fairly accurately called a "tanning studio"; mass produced factory bread given a final bake off in-store. The Macdo of dough.
I can just say over and over again that it all depends on where you live! The staff at our Lidl (69) is incrediably cheerful and friendly and has been working there for years!
I prefer it way over Carrefour and never have to wait as long in the line!
I feel like as long as they earn the smic, or at least something above that, they should at least try to "look" happy. It is not slave labour, and if they really do not like it there, they know how to hand in a letter of resignation.
A new guy started in our lidl recently, and on the first few visits, he was really nice, but obviously, after a while, the bad atmosphere, and contempt for the customers spread to him, and now he is also a drone.
If staffing at lidl was a social experiment, I have learned a lot from it.
Yours seems badly run, in Outreau, it's a lot better. But yes, it's cheap and they are paid low salaries. And you know, the French aren't known for their love of work. They're always after their next RTT. (I'm not being racist by the way, I am French!)
Thats the Bergerac Lidl.....our apartment in St Cyp, Languedoc is 5 minutes from a Lidl..and they havent got the bakery yet....! Something to be enjoyed..the bakeries...make not only baguettes but wonderful Chocolatines and croissant....apple pastries etc...fabulous...and very, very tasty and very very cheap!
Beckie...I think they are a brilliant shop....lots of savings to be had...and the bread in our local shop is second to non...they bake on site...you can watch the bread baking...37 cents for a baguette...
I'm agreed with most things people have said about Lidl but their nappies and baby wipes are really, really good and cheap, having had 4 children I have saved a great deal of money by buying them at Lidl.
an appropriate reply maybe 'and without customers...you dont have a job'..... like I said before...have never had a problem in Lidl...found the customer services locally to be better than the big stores....though we have a small Carrefour and a Spar...and in both we have lovely staff..probably because it is local and they live here so know most people.