Vignette #3 - Customer Service
I approached a pizza restaurant in a food court of a mall, finally deciding after great deliberation to just get something already. Observing the menu, I saw some "Combo Meals": various entrees that came with sides and a drink. The number 1 combo was a piece of cheese pizza and a beverage. The number 2 combo was a piece of peperoni pizza, cole slaw, and a drink. I ordered:
"I'll have a number 1, please."
"Um... uh... let's see..." the awkward teenager behind the counter stammered. Here we go, I thought.
"We don't have any cheese pizza..." She seemed confused. This is not rocket science, I thought.
She glanced behind her to a slightly older-looking awkward teenager who appeared to be the acting Senior Teenager. He surveyed the situation, and then matter-of-factly turned to me and said:
"Get a number 2."
Aaaand we're off. I responded "I don't want cole slaw." An excellent point, I thought, and this seemed to stump him. Another subordinate teenager joined the debate and they all 3 exchanged words in a tight pizza-place-employee huddle. They were undoubtedly weighing the pros and cons of whatever solutions that they could concoct. After a few minutes (seriously), the Senior Teenager breaks the huddle, gives me a businessman's smile and says "We'll take care of it." I pay for a number 1 and wait.
When I met back up with Paige with my meal and explained why it looked the way it did, she laughed. I wasn't so entertained. I cursed the Russian customer service and sat down to eat the piece of pepperoni pizza I had been given. All of the pepperonis had been pulled off.
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4 comments:
Well get used to that. These people hate their dead-end jobs and they hate, the customer, you for making these jobs suck even harder. But the same goes for almost every profession in Russia. Doctors hate patients for being sick, and airport employees hate pretty much everyone.
Anyway, I've stumbled your blog, and it's great. It's always fun to look at ourselves from the outside. If you're still in Moscow and get bored sometimes, drop me a note to kovalever@gmail.com, I coould show you a couple of nice places.
That's hilarious! :)
Ha! Welcome, people who aren't among the 3 family members that read this!
This isn't my first time living around these parts of the world, but the "foreign experience" never stops being interesting and surprising.
Thanks for commenting!
Hi, i liked you blog a lot.
I'm Russian living in New York for 14 years and I can really understand both sides i believe even though the church portion was a bit weird for me.
You should have your students read your blog during one of your classes and have a discussion around it ... im sure it will be beneficial for everybody;)
p.s. the strainer from Ikea part was my personal favorite ... american ingenuity at best!
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