Customer service or not

[RBM]

On 10/25/2019 at 7:14 PM, Mick said:

Sort of on the same subject, one thing that p's me off is when they bring the main meal with the starters, I always tell them to take the main away until we are ready, then if it comes back cold if gets sent back again, the wife hates me doing it, so now I have to make a point to them not to serve the main until we have finished the starters, does not always work, and they seem confused as to why. 

What we do is first order drinks, when they arrive usually were ready to order a starter. 

Never order more than that to begin so as to ovoid everything arriving together. After we have finished wave a waitress down and order our main.

Not sure just us, how ever we never able to eat a main each, always share and its ample without being bloated. Its at times mind bogging to witness what some of the locals are able to consume, without seeing one could not believe.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Probably not what you would call customer service but last week the wife was visiting to bring my boy to visit me but anyway we were out and I asked her to go across the road and withdraw some money while I did something else.

I was waiting for them to come back and as they were about to cross the road a Marshall walked with them putting his hand up to stop traffic as it approached.

To me it was good of him.

[Mike J]

22 hours ago, RBM said:

Not sure just us, how ever we never able to eat a main each, always share and its ample without being bloated. Its at times mind bogging to witness what some of the locals are able to consume, without seeing one could not believe.

I know what you mean.  My wife and I help sponsor Christmas parties for small groups of kids.  Last year I was seated next a little girl that was maybe three years old.  Her older sister gave her a plate that was HEAPED with food.  There was easily two to three times that amount of food on her plate as mine.  I had to smile to myself thinking that big sister was thinking ahead to taking home what was left on the plate.  The little girl ate every bite and then ask if she could have another juice box and desert! I have a suspicion that some of the locals might be hollow?

On a more serious note.  I was talking to one of the other sponsors about how much the little one was able to eat.  Turns out the mother in the family went to Cebu City and never came back.  The father is a pedal trike driver who struggles to keep three children fed.  They survive mostly on corn as they cannot afford rice.

[davewe]

On 10/19/2019 at 5:39 PM, hk blues said:

It's all part of the lack of trust everybody has for everybody else here. This is one of the few things about the Filipono character I don't like - the instinctive belief that everyone is out to deceive you. Now, I know plenty are but how sad to live thinking everybody is.

In US theft from stores is a multi-billion dollar annual industry. Most stores have sensors so that when you steal a siren goes off. Is that lack of trust or the reality of retail business. Frankly I prefer a human face to a siren wailing :)

[hk blues]

On 10/31/2019 at 8:13 AM, davewe said:

In US theft from stores is a multi-billion dollar annual industry. Most stores have sensors so that when you steal a siren goes off. Is that lack of trust or the reality of retail business. Frankly I prefer a human face to a siren wailing :)

Yes...but it permeates every single interaction here. To listen to such inherent lack if trust is one of the most negative aspects of life here. Example - my neighbour advised me not to take my cd player to be repaired as the technician would remove all the good parts and replace with cheap ones! Well, if he really has the time and parts to do that, and then somewhere to use the 'stolen' parts then I'll admit my neighbour was right. My neighbour, of course, was wrong and no such thing occured.

[davewe]

12 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Example - my neighbour advised me not to take my cd player to be repaired as the technician would remove all the good parts and replace with cheap ones! Well, if he really has the time and parts to do that, and then somewhere to use the 'stolen' parts then I'll admit my neighbour was right. My neighbour, of course, was wrong and no such thing occured.

You do realise the inherent humour in the example you gave. Only in the Philippines is there a booming business repairing CD players. Only in the Philippines would the parts in a CD player be deemed so valuable that they're worthy of theft by the CD technician. And only in the Philippines would a neighbor advise you not to use a technician to repair a valued CD player as the tech was likely running a profitable, big time peso generating CD parts theft ring :)

[Jack Peterson]

1 hour ago, davewe said:

. Only in the Philippines

 Says it all  Methinks  Then again, some do  not listen and Learn  

Edited November 2, 2019 by Jack Peterson

[Heeb]

My wife and I went to BDO bank to find out if she could use her U.S. identification to remit a large sum of money we needed to by a used car, we talked to the bank manager and he said "sure no problem" so I transferred the money through Remitly and my wife goes to the remittance counter while I have a seat. My wife comes back and tells me the bank is offline, I ask my wife if the girl had any idea when it would come back on, she goes to ask, comes back and says "no she doesn't" I ask her to find out how long it's been out, she comes back and says "it's been offline since last week"

I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that the bank manager nor the teller thought it was important information to tell us or that my wife didn't bother asking the teller on her own. 

Edited November 2, 2019 by Heeb

[hk blues]

16 hours ago, davewe said:

You do realise the inherent humour in the example you gave. Only in the Philippines is there a booming business repairing CD players. Only in the Philippines would the parts in a CD player be deemed so valuable that they're worthy of theft by the CD technician. And only in the Philippines would a neighbor advise you not to use a technician to repair a valued CD player as the tech was likely running a profitable, big time peso generating CD parts theft ring :)

I don't know if you are being serious or not. However, i have had several small appliances repaired here with no issues. Now, maybe the crafty technicians did swap the parts but given most such things are Chinese made nowadays, I'd imagine they'd have a hard job finding even cheaper parts! Also, as I said to my better half, so we decide not to repair the item and it remains unusable - is that a better option? 

Just my own outlook, but sometimes you gotta go with it and que sera sera!

[Dave Hounddriver]

44 minutes ago, hk blues said:

i have had several small appliances repaired here with no issues. Now, maybe the crafty technicians did swap the parts but given most such things are Chinese made nowadays, I'd imagine they'd have a hard job finding even cheaper parts

Would you know?

 I had my Panasonic air conditioner fixed (couple of years back now).  The guy took it to his shop and it came back fixed.  Great, it was only the capacitor.  A couple of years later it needed to be fixed again, this time for another problem.  The repairman charged me 7500 pesos for a "motherboard".  I said:  "The darn thing is only 5 years old, how is it that it needs a "motherboard"?"  The repairman said:  "The aircon is only 5 years old but the motherboard is at least 10 years old, where did you get it repaired last?"