I say sorry when I had a dispute with someone or when I hurt someone with what I did or said.
I know that my english is awful, SORRY!
This however would, in my opinion.
I was in Migros Brunaupark this evening. The bill came to 20.10 CHF so I gave the assistant 50.20 CHF and she gave me 20.10 CHF change, an easy mistake . So I looked at her and pointed out her error, only for her to snap back at me as if I were in the wrong. As she was talking to me she realised her mistake and bashfully reached in to the till and gave me another 10 CHF. I didn't think anything else of it until my eight year old boy told me that she hadn't apologised. I figure I'm getting so used to the "culture" (or lack of it) that I didn't even notice.
It makes me laugh how a nation can be so superficial with their "apero" politeness and not have the grace to acknowledge an honest mistake. Which is what it was after all.
Today, while shopping with the missus and the in-laws at Shoppyland, I stumbled upon a crying little boy who looks like no older than 5.
Obviously, he's lost his parents. Brought him to the Migros Informations counter and stayed around at the entrance with my F-i-L while the the missus and her mom went about with their shopping in Mirgos.
The necessary annoucement was made through the P.A. system and the nice lady behind the counter gave the boy a bar of chocolate just to calm him down.
About 15mins later, came the boy's mum and the boy dashed out of the informations counter and straight into the arms of the mum. The usual boh-hoh happened when both mum and child were reunited again and the boy's older sister questioned, practically scolded, the poor kid about the chocolate. F-i-L heard the commotion and walked to them telling them what has happened.
Mum and her two children stayed around another 10mins whilst trying to calm the sobbing kid down. Upon achieving that, they just walked off.
No thank yous, nadda, zilch, nuut. Not only to us for finding the poor boy who was wandering aimlessly in the shopping centre by himself trying to find his mum but also to the nice lady who gave to the boy that chocolate bar which he is still holding in his hands while they were walking off. They stood there for almost 15mins and they were not more than 2m away from the bloody counter.
The sense of simple courtesy is slowing fading away as generations passed.
Is it me or the old Verkaüfer with scruffy grey beard and glasses has the worst attitude that one could imagine.
Asked him once on a particular MP3 player, on whether it will always starts at song no.1 each time you switched off the MP3 player and not from the last song played.
His answer was, "Ich wiess es nicht!" so I went "Huh, aber Sie arbeiten heir, wie kann das sein dass Sie eine Ware verkaufen und Sie wissen nicht auf die Ware."
He just shrugs and walked off. What an idiot!!!!
I've made a point that before asking anything about a particular product, I'll first go "Ich habe ein paar Fragen über diese Ware aber zuerst muss ich fragen ob Sie auf diese Ware wissen oder nicht!" Wenn the person in orange asked why am I asking that, I'll go, "Weil der Verkaufer dort einmal gesagt hat, dass er wissen die Ware vom M-Electronics nicht."
Then you sir have made an ass of yourself.
By the way, this is an English speaking forum. If you wish to spout forth what he said and you said, at least add an English translation.
Thanks.
Plus adding a translation can help as sometimes we can be surprised at what we tried to say, it's exactly what we said.
The look of defeat on his face was priceless and I felt genuinely sorry for him. I'm rubbish at complaining so (I'm ashamed to say) would have taken the bits home and whinged a bit to hubby and popped off to Migros to get a replacement. However, the guy shuffles off into the back and comes out with an identical thermometer and says: "Take this, it is made in Germany" (my trashed one was from China).
"Great! Thanks," I replied. "How much?"
The guy looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well I broke it, no charge."
No big smiley-smiles, just good quality customer service.
A few weeks ago I was at Coop St Annahof in Zurich. Cashier was an oldish woman who looked a bit tired. While she was ringing up the total, another old lady who was working there came over and they started talking to each other.
Got back my change and realised it was short so I mentioned it, and I had two of these women apologising profusely while I kept telling them it wasn't an issue. The friend who came over even told me that she shouldn't have distracted the lady at the counter etc. etc. etc.
There're just all sorts everywhere...
Also ... we are all human beings after all, and when I worked as a waiter or Paramedic and I was tired and sore and stressed out, I didn't always render the level of service the customer had a right to expect. So I tend to give the person waiting on me, serving me the benefit of the doubt, and in my measly 3 months of living in Zürich I have not had a bad experience (yet).
The thing is that Oldhand has been name calling me as arrogant on atleast 3 occasions and I really can't give a hoot what she/he thinks.
Mods, can I groan at myself?
This is ENGLISHforum.ch and not everyone speaks German. So whilst you were on your high horse about the salesperson not knowing the ins and outs of every product they sell, not everyone could understand what you were typing. For what it's worth, I don't see how you could expect a person to know everything about every product on sale in a Migros electronics store.
Your disclaimer that it happened in a store in an obviously German-speaking town doesn't matter - you are being inconsiderate.
But you obviously know best.
my rant, maybe is somewhat unrelated but I wanted to share it with you.
Have you noticed that sometimes when you are at a shop, where are few guys giving advice about the products, you have sometimes to wait until he handles some customer.
It happens to me often that the said customer is asking all sort of questions, both ( the salesman and the questioning customer ) are aware that I am waiting to ask something, but they just don't care, the customer goes on and on about this and that, and what happens if, and additionally that etc and the salesman giving long explanations and alternatives etc... then when they are finally over, I ask my question and the salesman gives me the shortest answer possible and walks away....
Needless to say, they are Swiss and I am obviously a foreigner
Sometimes has happened to me that for example he suggests something and the other guy just say "I don't know, let me think for a moment..." and he just goes blank thinking if the red ski boots are better than the black ones... and we are all three waiting for him to picture himself on the boots for a while....
What drives me mad is that after waiting for 5 minutes until this guy finally says... well I had to decide it and will come another day.. and I can finally ask my question ( for example, I can't find something on display and I just want to know in wich aisle it is), the answer is given in seconds, short and fast and the salesguy just go away before aI could just ask another some other question.
Sales people should always acknowledge customers at the earliest opportunity as it makes striking up a conversation when the customer reaches the lingering-by, or returning-to a product (=hot) stage.
dave