maandag 12 september 2011

Dutch customer service

Mr A and I want the kind of gas fires in the two chimneys that can be operated by remote control.
So I wrote to Jaspers, a local business with a good reputation, sending them photos and measurements, asking them if they could send someone around for an estimate.
They replied we needed to come to their shop.
So off we went, on our bikes, to the shop. We told the staff what we were looking for, only to be told 'dat wordt heel moeilijk' - that's going to be very difficult. She advised us to choose a fire and build the chimney around it (sounding as if she thought: 'that's what normal people do'). I stressed we bought an old house with existing marble chimneys. In that case, she said, I could make an appointment for an assessment by one of their experts.
My comment, that that was exactly what I had asked for in the first place, was ignored. The 'appointment' was 'somewhere between 1pm and 3pm'.
You can't hear me, but I am screaming.

Meanwhile, our Estonian, Ukrainian and Moldovan builders are doing excellent work, putting up lamps, mirrors, laying a floor, installing outside sockets.
You can't see me, but I am smiling.

And contemplating emigration.

1 opmerking:

  1. Emigrating to Estonia, The Ukraine or Moldova? The Dutch are great with water dikes and tulips that it's shocking how lacking they are in the customer service department! It makes for a fun story, though!

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