Ignorant behavior at the Post Office

Complaints Corner
1
Having been here for 4 months, I had the worst experience of customer service here in Switzerland.

I got a document to fax to the German Embassy, Visa section and the number is the special pay fax number. That's why I couldn't fax it at my office. I went to the Post Office in Hauptbahnhof. The one who served me was an old guy. I filled in the postfax form and gave him. He looked at it and said this is not a fax number. I told him, it's a special Swiss fax number from the German embassy. Also I tried to convince him that it's correct. He looked at me like i'm really stupid. I just asked very politely that he can try it for me. He said to my face "It's impossible to fax this in Switzerland and we don't do it here" and crushed the postfax paper in his hand, then threw into to trash. I was really pissed off but can do nothing about it.

I just went to another counter, asked the lady there to fax it. She happily faxed it and it is sent just like normal though I have to pay more for that number. I wanted to go back to the old man's counter and tell him but his shift was already finished.

I don't know why a person working at the very big post office doesn't know about the pay fax number, but more surprised at the way he treated me. He could at least ask someone if he's not sure rather than held on to his ignorant knowledge. And that really makes my impression of Switzerland worse

2
Welcome to the land where the customer is king. Or, um, not.

3
You could always try Customer Care Service

http://www.swisspost.ch/en/index/uk_...stadressen.htm

4
My impression of the Swiss is that they NEVER admit to being wrong. They are always right. And when they are proven to be wrong then it is someone elses fault that caused the error in the first place. I can't remember the last time I heard a Swiss person admit to being wrong, they tend to admit that you are right instead. As if saying the words "I'm sorry, I was mistaken" would make them curl up and die.

5
Christ, one old git acts the prick and the whole country has to suffer a slump in its reputation, the whole of the population are serial non-apologists, etc...

As it happens I worked for the post office in Switz, at the counter, for seven years during which I had to deal with an awful lot of people. A small example I can pluck out my memory banks was of a couple of Americans who had to send a parcel. Very busy day, long queue and I dealt with them in English, gave them the usual form to fill up, with English legends, explained what was to be done, put in cross in the relevant fields and told them to fill it by the side and come back to me when finished. A minute later, the lady barges in whilst I was serving someone else, demands me to fill the form for her as she does not understand. I explain her again what's needed (basic stuff like adresses and content) and point out to the rather large queue of people saying that it would be unfair on them. Cue shouting about lack of customer service and storming off. Now, if it's quiet, I would have filled the form with her, I have filled forms myself when it was clear that the customer had problems reading/writing, but at that moment, it was not a good option.

It's not always as clear cut as you think, basically

6
I'd never over-generalized anything, just wanna complain about a specific old dude.

I understand customer service is a really hard to satisfy any body as some customers are really bad. Considering my act at the Post Office, I think I didn't do anything that might normally make any customer service people frustrated.

7
You certainly did not seem to have done anything wrong and the old git was clearly in the wrong. One of my ex-colleagues was like that and he was as much a pain to us as he was to our customers, rest assured of that

8
I guess the star trek crew would have said "It's customer service, Jim, but not as we know it." I think the thread so far is a pretty accurate summary, particular the inability to apologise, which is particularly galling to brits who tend to apologize for anything/anytime. Are there any lurking Swissies who will tell us if they think customer service is good here?

Daniel

9
....I'd far rather have the Swiss customer service philosphy than the American "how are you today, you're welcome" mentality which is also increasingly prevalent in the UK.

10
Hear hear.

11
Customer service in my country (Switz) is sometimes good, sometimes bad (hold the press ).

Exactly as it is in the UK where I live now.

I would say in my part of Switz (Geneva), the staff has a bit more of an attitude but it's more a cultural thing than outright rudeness whilst in the UK, you have to deal more with very young and badly trained staff.

Do bare in mind though, that we, as customers, can be just as "rude" and the fact that we are buying something is no excuse to do so.

Ultimately, what matters the most to me is that the person serving me knows what they are doing and if that means they don't smile and don't pretend to be my friend, so be it.

12
Your point raises a fundamental point... which side of the ròˆstigraben are we talking about.

Having lived on both sides, I can safely say the experiences are radically different. And its the German Swiss experience that is exasperating: often very average, but with snobbery/arrogance mixed in. In Suiss Romande its as you say "attitude".

For example: Buy something in the sales that is still expensive. Instead of wrapping it up nicely anyway they just scrumple it up and throw in bag?? Like saying "You got one over on us (by buying cheap) so we are going to get our revenge"... go figure.

Daniel

13
So there is a difference when being rude is the cultural thing to do? Maybe that's where I'm going wrong. So if some shop assistant is rude then I should just pop it down to a cultural thing. It's obviously not their problem, it's their culture. Or lack of it. I'd rather have a clueless but helpful shop assistant rather than someone who thinks it's beneath them to actually do their job.

14
Totally disagree. The Swiss spend more time saying hello, goodbye, nice evening etc etc in a false way then the English will ever do. They just forget to include the big American smile!

15
In Switzerland, for every vocational skill that is known to men, the Swiss will get a diploma at the end of its training term.

The Swiss mentality is Diploma = Knowledge = I know more than you.

16
It's not actual rudeness, it is percieved rudeness. I guess that in some cultures, obsequious servility is what is required from lower class people in humble jobs, in others there is far less of such an attitude.

Do also factor in mind that your average Migros shop assistant is more likely to be a fellow foreigner and that brings another layer of complications, adding their own cultural differences to the mix.

Also add the fact that Anglo-Saxon expats are too often percieved as snotty and overpaid cultural isolationnists by the lower classes of this country (a large chunk of whom are also foreigner who had it far harder and, from an often lower education background, had to learn to integrate themselves more into Swiss society).

Finally, the X element, the "wingeing foreigner" truism, an universal one, is also at play, particularly if you can't speak the common language. Which also leads to misunderstanding in verbal and non-verbal communication. The stare issue was a good example of that. Again, don't single out the Swiss, every nation is at it...

This is not to negate that you will encounter outright rudeness, like the thread starter has and this is something which is frown upon in Switzerland as much as in any other country. Myself and a few colleagues got on occasion a right bollocking from our boss for not having been polite enough with a customer and in the case of a complaint, the line followed by management was that the customer was right.

On the subject of the fakeness of greetings, agreed, it is just a social convention and everyone knows it, however it is an important one. The "Bonjour", "Merci" and "Bonne journee" you get from the checkout lady is part of the culture, even in large cities with large foreign communities like Geneva. The Portuguese ladies manning the checkout at the Coop next to my mum adhere to it as much as the Swiss. To reverse the tabs a bit, again, anglo-saxon expats do not score very highly on that count for too often not using those greetings and/or not bothering to at least learn them in French. It's like the greetings amongst friends and accointances, shaking hands with the men and kissing (3 times no less) the girls, even those you vaguely know. After 12 years in the UK I have slipped a bit and on occasion just give a wave and I have been told off, in a jokey way, by my mates for turning English

17
Total pants I'm afraid. The starter of this thread witnessed outright rudeness as have I on numerous occasions. I'm not entirely sure what the point was about immigrant workers at Migros, I'll assume that you think that they are the source of some of the perceived rudeness that you mentioned because of their culture. On the contrary, I find that the immigrant Migros workforce are some of the most polite in the building. Incidentally, I speak the language fairly and consider that I have integrated myself in to the Swiss way of life. But I wonder what people mean by that when they say it. Does being integrated mean that I shouldn't rock the boat, or expect too much? After all I'm just a bloody foreigner.

18
Where did that come from? I didnt read anyone complaining of a lack for servility, just not to be treated rudely or plain lied to...

... ps loved the suggestion that "they cant actually have been swiss but were probably portugese" It's a beautiful example of the sort of stuff that I think people are moaning about. Not an apolgetic bone in the swiss psyche.

Anyway, this is complaints corner... let us complain!

Daniel

19
No nice, but was this 'old guy' Swiss?

20
exotic: switzerland is a country living in denial. you are a good example, no offense. you just don't want to listen. a lot of people in this forum are giving valuable feedback. don't justify your fellow countrymen anymore, just listen and do something with it. maybe you can help this society to evolve.