Now That's Customer Service

The French are not known for their great customer service.

This summer, I was in Nice. I was taking a bus to meet a friend in St. Paul de Vence. Even though the bus fare was the same no matter where you were taking it the driver proceeded to yell at me "quelle ville allez-vous!" My response, in bad school girl French was "lentement s'il vous plaît". Which must have translated to please yell at me some more. Finally someone in the bus line intervened and translated for me. Did I mention that no matter where you went on the bus line the price was the same…

When I was in Paris a waiter spilt an entire carafe of red wine down the front of my white sun dress. When he realized what happened he laughed, handed me a napkin and said "dieu merci c'est vendredi". I guess he had the weekend off. There was not a moment in our interaction where he was concerned about my wine splattered body.

Signs. I work in customer service. I understand the annoyance a clerk feels answering the same question over and over again. To make life easier for customers stores put up signs. I can only image how many tourists were yelled at before this sign was put up.

for the image that belongs with this post please see www.adogabroadayear.wordpress.com