I remember, almost seven years ago when I first moved to Germany, declaring that I was going to boycott every shop where I was treated rudely. The Burger King in Berlin-Wedding was the first to go, after I complained that I had not received the meal that I paid for and they refused to correct the problem, telling me that they were too busy to take care of it. One after another, shops were added to my No-Go list. At Karstadt on Schloßstraße, I asked where to find the meat thermometers and was bruskly sent to another floor, the sales rep on that floor immediately sent me back to the original area, saying I was mistaken and couldn’t have been instructed to go there. A nearby bakery lost me as a customer after the baker screamed “WAS??? WAS???” at me when I asked for and pointed at “Zwei Brötchen” (two rolls). When Rainer and I went to KaDeWe, receipt in hand, to exchange the expensive bedsheets we’d received as a wedding present, that unfortunately didn’t fit our American bed that I’d brought with me when I moved, the manager refused. When I told him that this was bad customer service and treating customers in this manner was a sure-fire way to lose their business, he shrugged. And they all got away with it. Eventually I ran out of stores that I could visit and had to return to shopping with them. Shopping wasn’t fun anymore, it was a tedious chore that fairly often ended in an evening of tears.
I’m not sure if things have been getting better, or if I’ve gotten used to the German way of doing things, or both, but I have fewer stories of bad shopping experiences now. I did notice that things got better when I moved to Rostock, and I had a great experience jean shopping at the Sinn Leffers in Potsdam. Things seem even better here in Bavaria, maybe Berlin is in its own special league!
I had a truly above-and-beyond customer service experience recently when, as Oliver’s legs grew long enough that I needed to adjust the footrest on his stroller, I discovered that it didn’t work. At 20+ months since purchase, I was sure the warranty had expired. I thought that I’d bought the stroller at Baby-Walz, I remember we spent a lot of time there looking at the various strollers, and it’s in the Kowe Center, where I love to go for sushi and Thai food, so I stopped by and asked them how much it would cost to repair. The manager, Frau Bernard, made a phone call to the manufacturer for me and worked out that the stroller frame would be replaced for free. I just needed to return with the receipt.
I went home, dug out the receipt, and discovered that we’d purchased the stroller from Hiendl, a local furniture store. I stopped by that store the next time I was in town and spoke with the baby department manager. This was during Fasching and she couldn’t reach the manufacturer, Maxi Cosi, so she said she’d call me the next week.
When she called, she informed me that Maxi Cosi would send spare parts to our home and we could fix the problem ourselves, or we could pay a lot for the stroller to be shipped to them for repair. I mentioned the deal Frau Bernard had gotten for me and the Heindl dept manager asked me if I could call and ask who she had spoken to.
I called Frau Bernard at Baby-Walz and told her what was going on. She was unhappy with the deal Heindl had given me and after calling Maxi Cosi again, she arranged for Baby-Walz to take care of the replacement of the frame even though I hadn’t purchased my stroller from them.
There were a couple other mix ups along the way with the manufacturer (I won’t bore you with the details), but the Frau Bernard fought for me every step of the way and now I have a perfectly functioning stroller and had no repair costs at all.
Baby-Walz has gained a customer for life.
I’ll happily shop there in the future, and I’m happy to recommend the shop to my friends and all my readers. I won’t grudgingly shop there because there’s no other option, and look at how little it cost them.
Do you have a great customer service experience story to share?
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Baby-walz was one of my favorite baby stores in Frankfurt even though it was pricier than some of the other options.
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I have seen a huge improvement on customer service in Germany. I had to laugh about you boycotting stores. I used to do this too. Once, while shopping for shoes for my daughter and for me, the sales lady informed me that I should tell my daughter to stop dropping the shoes on the floor before trying them on. I looked at her and said why? (the store had carpeting) Puzzled, I asked “Since there is a rug there, what in the world is the problem?” She said, one does not do that. Would I do that at home? I said yes, we do that at home. I then dropped my shoes that I was going to buy on the floor too and walked out, but not before I heard her nasty comment about “auslanderin”. Oh yeah, never went back there again and now it is closed.
I have found the people working in the various amts to be a lot more friendly too and I make sure I tell them how much I appreciate their friendliness. Like to make them feel good that they are trying.
Unfortunately, at least in Berlin, a “customer” is defined as “an annoyance which interrupts my coffee break.” I’ve walked out of many a store, but most of the bad service has been in large stores, so the next time I needed to get something in one of them, I just made sure I got a different salesperson.
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I’ve had a few bad experiences in Gent (in Belgium where I expatriated to), although I bet Brussels and Antwerp are probably worse. Mostly though staff is nice enough when you can actually get their attention, although when it comes to returning things it can be a nightmare. I have a big long story about a blender but I’ll just say that I try to avoid Krëfel now if I can.
Oh, I’ve been lurking for a month or two now and I really like reading your blog.
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I knew that this
‘I remember, almost seven years ago when I first moved to Germany, declaring that I was going to boycott every shop where I was treated rudely’
would lead to this
‘Eventually I ran out of stores that I could visit and had to return to shopping with them’
because it happened to me too (iirc, I moved here the month after you did).
I can’t recall great service like you got. Nowadays, I consider any service where I don’t get yelled at good service. Sad, isn’t it?
@maria: It is pricier, but getting good customer service is worth it. I wish other stores would catch on to this!
@jo: I had a similar shoe experience. I don’t remember where it was, but I was trying on sandals from the clearance rack and speaking in English to a friend who was with me when a salesperson came up to me and said I needed to have stockings on to try on the sandals and how disgusting it was that I was putting my bare feet in them. I asked why she wasn’t telling the other three white, German women who were trying on shoes barefoot the same thing and she just gave me a dirty look. As I left, I heard her make an “Ausländer” remark too. Being a bit self-conscious, I asked the next several times I was in shoe stores if I should put on stockings and they all said no – how you try on thong sandals while wearing stockings is beyond me anyways.
@ed: I think Berlin is just especially bad in the customer service area. We had a lot of bad experiences in bakeries there. Once Rainer was in a bakery near Oranienburger Tor, they were out of Brötchen and he asked if they would be making more anytime soon, then he’d stop by and pick them up later. The lady gave him a lecture about how she had better things to do than to bake bread for him. Nice huh?
@lilacspecs: Welcome and thanks for delurking! Returning things can be a nightmare here too, but that has definitely gotten better over the last 7 years.
@j: LOL, I think it’s a pretty common experience for expats. Perhaps the area you live in is also one of these areas where service is especially bad.
I have an interesting customer experience for you. It hasn’t ended yet, but things are looking up. The experience is this:
Last year in May I rented a car in Paris from Sixt. On arrival, I gave the agent a different credit card than what is saved in my profile because that one had expired. The agent confirmed that the replacment card would be used. Mid-July, I get a letter from a collections agency in Germany stating I hadn’t paid my bill at Sixt France and would now have to pay over €100 in handling fees to the collections agency. I tried to get Sixt to remedy the situation, a call center agent in Pullach agreed with me, the person at the collections agency agreed with me, but someone at the customer service center in Rostock came back and said it was my fault and that was it, nothing more doing.
Okay. I was upset, but I liked Sixt, because I usually get a 1 series BMW instead of the Seicento or Twingo that I would get at Hertz and Avis. So, next time I am in Lyon (a month after this go-around with the collections agency) I book with Sixt again. My booking is confirmed, I have my confirmation number, I fly to Lyon, and I try to pick up my car. Not quite. After a few go arounds with the computer, the agent calls her call center and it comes out that because of the non-payment in May, I am persona non grata at Sixt France and I won’t be getting a car. So I hoof it down to Hertz and they are more than happy to give me a car and since then I have done just Avis and Hertz depending on who is cheaper.
I always meant to follow up with Sixt corporate and make my opinion known, but just never got around to it. Well, once a month, I get a SIXTFlash spam mail and each time I get it, I mean to follow up again, but never do. Until yesterday. I write out the entire history of the events with receipt and booking numbers and send it to the Sixt contact address. I then do a little research and find the names of the board of directors of Sixt and discover someone at Sixt with an email address that looks like first.last@sixt.de or sixt.com… so I copy the email addresses of the board of directors on my little rant as well.
Today, I got a phone call from the managing director of Sixt France apologising for the whole deal and promises that he will look in to it and is sorry he is only hearing of it now (my fault, I should have complained to the higher ups sooner) and he states that the next rental is on him (which I will have to think about because the rentals are usually business, but I had to pay the collections agency fee personally!). So it looks like Sixt may win me back as a customer after almost a year of strictly avoiding them.
I wish there was a Consumerist.com Germany.
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