I was going to stay out of this but I feel that I need to put in my .02 worth.
Being a “yank”, one of the first things that I noticed about the people in Britain (all races/creeds), is that put milk/lemon in the wrong type of tea or provide a poor tea and it was “A Call to Arms”, time to go to war type of thing. BUT, let someone bend you over and shaft you on consumer goods, construction, repairs (home, car, etc) and it was oh well… they TRIED and you do NOTHING!!!
I was in a bed share in Milton Keynes once and they had to have the plumber come and replace a sink and do the plumbing. He showed up, stated he didnt have the parts and had to go to the depot to get the right pipe pieces. Was gone almost TWO freaking hours, returned did the install and then put the TWO hours he was gone on the bill!!! I told the owner in NO way would I have paid for that as in MY opinion, he should have surveyed the install FIRST and THEN showed up with the parts in his truck. The funniest part is the owner PAID and said nothing :crazy:
So all I can say is that until the peoples of Britain stand up and start fighting this shiznit, it wont get any better. Being a YANK, any place in the US that you go to will bend over backwards to help you and make you a customer because they know a) they can get in BIG trouble over not delivering b) there are another dozen companies waiting to take your money for the same thing and c) good customer brings one more customer, bad customer drives ten away!!! No business can stay in busines for long if those rules are applied. No customers = no income = no business!
So I say write to your reps, write to the company (certified for future proof) and stand up for your RIGHTS as they currently are and let them KNOW that you are not going to take it anymore!!! Here in Spain, we have Media Markt, now part of Dixons :(. They changed their policies a couple of months ago and guess what… they dont have a tenth of the customers that they had back then. They have made it clear that they are going to stick to their guns, the customers have made it clear that they dont like it. Result = yesterday three of the stores announced that due to “economic” reasons they are shuttering their doors. All of this within two months because customers refused to accept their new policies and be screwed over!
All I’m saying is that all your bad experiences have skewed your view a little in my opinion. I hope that you get a better experience at some point that could help change your views on us Brits. Of course you being a Brit as well means that from your previous posts you are also busy providing crap services and ripping folks off…n’est pas??
I generally agree with the sentiment, but disagree again with the contention that all Brits are bad at business and the US is great.
Without going into a long anecdotal diatribe about the various stints where I’ve lived abroad (US and others), I have had good service and I have been ripped off or had bad service. Same here I’m sure for many people.
You do make an important point about return customers and the negative affect that a disgruntled one can wield over a business. It costs about 6 times more to convert a sale with a new customer than it does for a referral or repeat. Good businesses undertand this…shysters who are in it for the quick buck do not.
To summarise - there are good and bad eggs everywhere in this world and sometimes a little bit of nous and research can prevent a shafting and if it doesn’t then shout it from the rooftops. But please don’t tar entire nations with an image of hand rubbing crooks and lazy idiots.
i think everyone should keep writing really long boring drawn out posts so we can all not bother to read them…on the other hand please continue…as i’m having some trouble sleeping…
That’s one thing I love about the armchair whingers, like the one’s who complain about rude or nasty crap on TV… you’ve got a choice… if you don’t want to watch it, JUST TURN IT OFF!
Always makes me laugh to find a life that’s so empty, it has nothing better to do than complain about what other people are doing with theirs…
Peac and love all, Britain isn’t a bad place, but being a down trodden friend of the underdog has made us all easy meat for being ripped off… I’ve had enough. And I reckon from my POV (to which I will hear many sighs of relief, non doubt ) I think I’ve said all I need to say…
If you are too soft to moan about it to the trader then don’t come on a bikers site and complain that british tradesmen are all sh*t. Screw you and bugger off. You have moved to britain because…? Oh yeah its not all that bad here is it. If you don’t like it then maybe you need to up sticks and go back to mummy.
i returned to the uk last year after 15 years living in canada, estonia and finland. england doesn’t feel like it belongs to me anymore. my estonian wife even says london doesn’t feel english. i can’t and won’t complain about immigrants because i’ve lived in other people’s countries and racism and genralisation is wrong. it’s a strange feeling though, living in estonia, i knew i was in estonia, ditto finland and canada. here i don’t know so much. bit off topic, but this conversation got me thinking.
Oh yeah, truly cleared that up… a fantastic assessment… “This is the way it is, if you don’t like it P!ss off…” Brilliant, utterly utterly brilliant, truly took ages to work out that level of insightful analysis and thought didn’t it…
Give it a rest PJ. Debate needs strong and weak views, but it needs to be “outloud” if anything is going to be discussed… do you feel intimidated by me raising my views, do you feel personally attacked when I say how I feel… saying something like… that’s how it is, if you don’t like it **** just smacks of such a childish response… its like the van driver who leaned out of his van and told me I was a speccy 4-eyes… the guys was in his fifties. That kind of insult is for 8 year olds in the playground…
dude- personally I reckon you have every right to have a bit of a rant. Perhaps per capita there are more dodgy tradesmen in the UK than in Germany or Poland (because all their dodgy tradesmen moved here?) but I also believe it is a very characteristic trait of the Brits to have a moan about it. I don’t see that much of the stiff upper lip.
have a good moan, get it off your chest. Post some negative reviews online re. your tradesmen. … why not go one further and hassle the f%*&$£’s? you should have their contact details right? Get your own back…
and of course come and post here to tell us what you did.
Tobs mate read through this and am not looking to get draw in to the whole debate (might need to put my other hat on;) )
but I just wanted to know did you contact the plumber to come back a sort out the sink and flood?
See you on Thursday, I’ll rant with you off site:cool:
Toby, i understand your rant and do sympathise, however surely if you are not happy with the job you don’t pay them until you are happy, and if like the water problem then i would have been onto them sharpish, calling them and leaving messages until they come back and sort it.
I hope you get it sorted, maybe next time you could ask on here if anyone is able to deal with a trade you are not comfortable with.
You’re absolutely right fella. That was the first port of call, when that failed I went somewhere else, and sadly experienced a similar lack of quality despite the guys most honest intentions, and paying a better rate in the hope I’d get better skilled labour…
The combination of the continual on-going screw ups, plus the ludicrous capital outlay, with seemingly NO result at the end of it is what prompted the outburst…
Sure I rant, its better than violence by a long shot… and if you’re really bored or just want a break from work, it can sometimes be an entertaining read… otherwise its mostly harmless really…
:crazy:
Peac and love all, Britain isn’t a bad place, but being a down trodden friend of the underdog has made us all easy meat for being ripped off… I’ve had enough. And I reckon from my POV (to which I will hear many sighs of relief, non doubt 