Comments on: Germans hate customer service

By: max

max — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:18:07 +0000

the world dislike america. we dont want your [crap] and waste

Editor’s note: … and we don’t want your naughty language

By: Kompass

Kompass — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:39:10 +0000

German only, Volker Pispers, Dienstleistung (customer service):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im3dJp30-b8

By: Germerman

Germerman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:25:01 +0000

Germany is truly SERVICE HELL!

I´ve had a professor of economics who wanted to buy a real expensive new Mercedes but the dealer used all of his talent that he dont have too give away HIS crown of cars. Frustratet he owned a Lexus and thought why he worked so hard to save his money for that graet day. After this expericen he really seemd unmotivatet in his Job.

Strange? But that´s how it´s written!

By: Filky

Filky — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:45:53 +0000

But even these have nothing on KabelBW. When I first came here these guys asked me what kind of digital receiver I owned so they could send me an appropriate card. Then, when it didn’t work they tried to sell me a new receiver. I didn’t want a new receiver so they tried to take me to court for not paying for the lousy service they couldn’t deliver in the first place.
If it was just lousy customer service I could live with it, but they have moved onto something far more sinister than keeping you on the line to earn from the call.

By: michael_de

michael_de — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:32:40 +0000

Moin

Germans do not go to church (if I was a child I considered going to church oldfashioned, modern people do not go to church)

Germans pray to the god of efficiency, so they have to be honest, it saves time, it avoids misunderstandings.

Customer service is a luxury, it takes time, it decreases profit.

Having no customers decreases profit too.

This problem seems to be unsolvable.

German companys like the money but they do not like their customers. Unsolvable too.

If you have a product like a Miele washing machine then you do not need any customer service, such a product hardly fails.

Internet access or a telephone is much more complicated and therefore it could fail easier.

The german mind is good in inventing, building and selling a piece of hardware, the success is directly measurable.

If you put a girl on a telephone line to speak to customers in a polite and friendly way then the success is not directly measurable.

Germans do not like that.

By: SFGerman

SFGerman — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:19:51 +0000

I can see how it may appear like Germans don’t like customer service. But consider this: If you grew up and lived you whole life there, how would you know that customer service even existed? I only learned about it after I moved to the US.

By: Friedemann

Friedemann — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:05:15 +0000

No, Germans don’t hate customer service - they just don’t have alternatives to dealing with companies showing the behaviour mentioned above

By: titrat

titrat — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:29:32 +0000

Not only we hate the “customer service” (better name here would be “customer defence”), but the customer service personnel hates the customer, too.
They hide, if they can, they flee if they see a customer in the far.
If you catched one, they ignore you, if you’re lucky, otherwise they insult you.
Reason is our near-socialistic system, where you not hire a worker, but have to adopt him, with no real chance of firing jerks.

By: Till

Till — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Definitely true about the lack of customer service in Germany, especially Telekom. By the way, T-Mobile in the US is owned by them and their service is great. But T-Kom in Germany is truly kafkaesque.

As far as being penny pincher is concerned, I think this is true to a certain extent. But behind this is a mentality of efficiency and optimization. It is just not necessary to have someone pack your bags in the supermarket if you can do it yourself while your items get pushed over the laser by the cashier. I get annoyed when I see here how people just stand there and like being served instead of taking things into their own hands. This is noticeably the case for lower class/ lower income folks.

The interesting thing here is the discrepancy between the attitudes. Americans often balk at the German/European welfare system and say we are assisted and we should take charge of our own well-being. Whereas Europeans shake their head in disbelief when they see a social system from the 19th century still being in place in the US today, but where assistance in daily life tasks (e.g. ordering phone service or packing bags) is taken for granted and most of these tasks are streamlined by specialists to be really idiot proof.

There is a much bigger cultural divide than what I believed when I came here in 2001.

By: xion

xion — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:58:19 +0000

And who’s got the worst customer service in Germany? It’s definitely Microsoft. Paid 4 Euros to get an installation of Vista working again after upgrading hardware. They have a free “activation hotline” but the damn key they gave me didn’t work. The problem with MS is that you need them and they know it! Don’t get me wrong. I don’t usually use software from MS. I just need to make sure my applications are running fine on all operating systems.

By the way there sometimes is a “take a number”-sign. It usually consists of a number tied to the fuse of a plastic model of a fragmentation grenade. It’s so funny I could cry.