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Maybe the word genuine was not what i was looking for, i dont expect cusomer service ppl to like me, or to join a best friends forever club. What i was thinking is that the places in the UK where u get good customer service are usually in companies where the staff actually care about their company/jobs/policies and therefore are genuinely interested in whether the customers have got the stuff they were looking for and had good service..so that they will come back...places like John Lewis... for example.
I dont think UK can compete with the US in CS because in the US u get good CS nearly everywhere....
I was in Anthropolgie in America and I wanted to buy a top but the last one had a mark on it...the sales woman gave us 40% off and said if the mark didnt come out, I could take it back That was brilliant!
I think if u come from America... u are gonna have a tough time with customer service in any country you go to.... The US have got it spot on with Customer Service....
A Friend of mine fell at Food Lion by mistake and The Manager of the store told her she can purchase anything she wanted up to a certain amount.
Yesterday I was getting car insurance quotes, when I called this one company who had some cool music. This is one time I didn't mind being left on hold and got a little annoyed every time the intermittent message came on apologising for the wait. I just wanted to enjoy the music.
I ordered soup at a restaurant in New Mexico. It was so spiced I could not eat it and the waiter offered another choice and took the soup away. I told the waiter it was my error in ordering the soup, but he insisted.
My companion from Germany was amazed. "That conversation would never happen in Germany"
I was at a big function dinner at a hotel in the UK, and complained to a waitress that the roast potatoes were not cooked through. There were 700 people at this dinner, so I didn't expect to get much of a response.
Five minutes later she was back with three bottles of complmentary wine for our table, and the chef's sincere apologies.
It was a company 'do', so we weren't paying or leaving a tip.
I ordered soup at a restaurant in New Mexico. It was so spiced I could not eat it and the waiter offered another choice and took the soup away. I told the waiter it was my error in ordering the soup, but he insisted.
My companion from Germany was amazed. "That conversation would never happen in Germany"
I'm glad they were nice about it. OTOH the opposite happens too. I ordered a meal at a US restaurant and the side dish came with a sauce on it that I didn't like. Also, I don't recall the menu mentioning this.
I said to the waitress, I can't eat this. She said, next time you know to ask for it without. Well, I stiffed her on the tip and there was no next time. I probably should have spoken to the manager, but didn't want to bother at the time.
I think there are 2 UKs. London and outside London. London is one of the worst cities in the world for customer service. London without question has the rudest bus drivers in the Western world. And you quite often get rude people serve wherever you go.
Outside London, I've found the service is really good. And the people generally are a lot nicer. You go to places like Liverpool (among the friendliest people i've ever come across) or up to Scotland, out to places like Bath or Cardiff you get much friendlier service.
That's been my experience of 4 and a half years living here. I find it a bit of a shame that people get their impression of England (and the UK) from London.
I am English and have had the odd annoying discussion with customer service people over the phone. Absolutely no different to the hair pulling out, screamingly frustrating (and ultimately futile) discussions I have had with Directv and cell phone companies over here in the US. They are 'polite' in a 'I have to sound nice but have no intention at all of helping you kind of way.'
Then there's the comuter companies like Dell who transfer you off to India, and the discussions with health insurance companies who ever so pleasantly assure you that you have always paid an extra fee to see the doctor, even though I have never paid anything more than my co pay in years before.
I agre that service in restaurants tends to be better in the US, but that's about it.
Customer service often sucks. Not just in the UK, but all over the world, and that includes the US Raggy dee Ann.
The UK is the one place in the world where customers are afraid to complain, therefore UK customer service sucks. For example, today my hairdresser said to me that THAT would be the last time he would cut my hair because I "was difficult to work with". Let me exaplain. I asked him to take a bit more hair off the right as it didn't look quite symmetrical. My telling him how to do his job pissed him off. WTF?? I think it is quite normal telling my hairdresser how I want my hair done, right? At least when it's my hair and my money we are talking about. He messed up and he should have acknowledged it and apologized, but insted he took a defensive stand. All hairdressers I've been to in the UK are like this, they never want to take direction. This is because, broadly speaking, Brits don't like to be told how to do things, and also because they don't complain (if I never complain, don't you complain to me). I didn't exactly complain, I suggested. Anyway, in addition, most services in the UK tend to be extremely bureaucratic and inefficient, the NHS is pathetic, GPs are incompetent beyond belief, public transport is totally unreliable yet expensive and bus drivers are rude, houses are sh*t yet expensive (beautiful victorian house my ass), council tax is too high yet rubbish is collected every 15 days, recycling does not get collected if there is a can in the plastics box (which could have been put in there by a passer-by), laws protect criminals, social benefits are too generous and promote laziness (go to any Jobcentre Plus and you'll see a bunch of layabouts drinking beer at the entrance), restaurants are prohibitively expensive yet British food is pretty mediocre and boring, there is a joining/administration fee for just about everything, and everything has to be done on a 12-month contract. What I've just said constitutes a stellar mess-up yet British people tend not to like being told when they've messed up. Nevertheless there prevails a sense of "British pride". Well, British boys and girls, you are missing out SOOOOOOO MUCH!! The grass is greener in many other countries. Lucky I am moving to Spain for good after the summer!
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That was brilliant! 
