As I write this I am quite angry at the way my sister and her husband have been treated, and it has reignited memories of all the times that I too have experienced similar treatment and service.
I am talking about one of the areas that we are particularly lacking in on the island and one that I am sure will resonate with every reader… customer service.
I had genuinely thought that after the crisis hit, businesses/organisations had become more humble, and that there had been a shift in attitudes. You see, prior to the crisis, the island had a peculiar back-to-front attitude with its customers, whereby instead of the organisation/business being grateful for the custom, the customer was made to feel that the business/organisation was actually doing them a favour instead!
This was evident in the shoddy service, the way that customers were spoken down to, the lack of good exchange and return policies and the presence of one of two attitudes; either stuck-up or indifferent.
Some years ago I went to cash a cheque in a bank (one of the Greek ones). The cashier was talking on her mobile phone and waved me over dismissively. She then started the process of cashing my cheque whilst planning her bank holiday weekend with her 'koumera'. I heard every detail and the conversation was continuing way after she had served me. Instead of moving on, I stood there waiting for to finish and acknowledge me as a customer and human being but it didn't happen. So I interrupted her conversation and told her that it was incredibly unprofessional of her. She started shouting, I started shouting and the manager came out to see what was going on. At this point you are probably thinking he would apologise and discipline his employee. Instead, his response was "what's your problem, she served you didn't she?" I shouted at him, he shouted at me, the cashier shouted at me. It was unbelievable and I have never set foot in any of the bank's branches since.
My sister's unfortunate experience this past week was with a well-known estate agent with whom she had her flat registered with for rental. Without asking her or arranging a meeting, the female agent called her and told her that a deposit had been taken and the tenants were to move in at the start of August. At this point, a family member had decided to take the flat so my sister had to let the agent know that it was no longer for let. There ensued a chain of abusive emails from the agent and even emails from the prospective tenant who had paid the deposit and was told the landlords were no longer interested. My sister was bullied, harassed and intimidated. When her husband went to collect the keys from the agency, the agent was again rude and insulting to him. At that point the manager came out and can you guess what happened? That's right, instead of apologising for his employee's disgusting manner, he proceeded to also abuse my brother-in-law who was left incredulous. He told me he had never been spoken to in such a manner in all his life and left furious and shocked.
And so there we have it, the attitude of 'we are doing YOU a favour' is still prevalent and it doesn't look like the leopard will change its spots anytime soon.
