The day before yesterday I bought some new boots.
Yesterday I wore them, and found that there is a sharp piece of leather on the side of them that does indeed remove skin after wearing the boots for a day, and stockings are insufficient protection. I told the shop yesterday at lunch, and they said they would get me another boot.
This morning before 9 I got a phone call to say the new boot/s were here.
Personally, I don't often get service like that. Often if I take something back, I get treated like I am the one with the problem instead of the item I paid for. I get treated like I am neurotic. Or as if I am a fool. It is strange that shop assistants behave so defensively when something is taken back because it is not right. After all, we are not taking them back because of something the shop assistant did. Its a product fault, not their fault. With the manners they show however, it becomes a service fault. Getting my boot replaced so quickly and cheerfully shouldn't surprise me at all. Its an indictment on the service standards of the country that it does.
There's another slant on the poor service that is common in nz not only in shops but also in restaurants and in hospitality in general. It goes something like this. When the settlers came here they came largely from the UK which has a very strong class system, and that class system was something the great majority of the settlers wanted to leave behind. There was no servant class as not many people could actually afford servants. Everyone could better themselves if they wished to, and if they were successful in accumulating money they were accepted into the more moneyed strata of society. No prejudice about new money versus old, business versus owning land, no blue blood aristocracy. No-one being taught from a young age that service was done like 'this'. Everyone had this equality thing going, so you didn't serve anyone. Serving someone was looked down on, and the art of gracious service got lost.
Its a theory anyway.
I saw in the paper it is now possible to do a diploma in shop assistant skills now. Soon my much promised Diploma of Supermarket Checkout Skills will be available!
Posted by Toni at June 19, 2003 12:30 PMI almost always get good service. I think that one of the things about not have a serving class is that many of us know people who've worked as waitrons or in shops, so it's more like dealing with equals and less like having underlings. And it's easier to see working in the service industry as a temporary thing or a choice. I like that.
But then maybe I just avoid shops where I'm not treated well. :-)
Posted by: iona at June 19, 2003 04:32 PMYeah, its true most of us have done our time in shops or hospitality.
Maybe because we don't intend to stay in hospitality we don't take it too seriously...
Posted by: toni at June 19, 2003 04:51 PM