A rant on customer service in Poland

Seriously, I don't want or expect a lot from people in customer service. It's a hard job, and I've done it before. I just want to be sold what I ask for and for that product to be in reasonably good condition.

In the past 24 hours alone, bought the Mekong Duck at Noodle w Pudle and there was no duck. My box says duck, I paid for duck. No duck, no veggies. Just noodles and some bamboo shoots. Oh, and this was after the delivery guy tried to trick me into giving him 10 złoty extra. He had the card terminal, but said he preferred cash. So I got my cash, only had a 50, then he says he has no change. I have to argue with him to use the bloody terminal which HE HAS. Call them up, will they fix it? No, of course not.

At Inglot cosmetics, first I get sold the wrong powder. Now, this wasn't miscommunication. The person actually held and looked at the powder I wanted. I take it back, and by some miracle they do agree to exchange it. Problem solved yes? Oh no. No, they exchanged it for a jar that's completely empty except for what stuck to the surface of the container. This I didn't expect to have to check for. I have a feeling I'm screwed on that like I was the duck.

I wish this was just a random stretch of bad luck, but really, it's not. Different cities, different shops, doesn't matter. I've been sold bogus codes for phone credit from Play itself. I've been sold bad meat I don't know how many times from Kaufland. I could go on and on. It's any shop (excepting the corner shops) where I'm not directly picking what I want and taking it to the counter myself. Granted, I can generally get these things fixed, but it's time wasted having to go back to a shop and deal with this nonsense.

Rant over.

It sounds cheap as heck. No duck in the Mekong Duck? Just cheap fillers? Sounds like they are trying to cut corners, putting nothing but cheapest ingredients in your take-out.

And you want this in Poland... ?

It clearly shows here Duck: noodlewpudle.pl/menu/danie/3/1

That looks really good! Maybe there was a mistake and they forgot to top the noodles with the duck and veggies?

I despise FALSE advertising. For example, restaurants listing crab item on the menu. In turn, ends up being that fake crab junk!

Or the guy delivering it could have eaten off. Let's hope it's not that.

I've ordered from there before, and they put tons of duck, veggies, some weird sweet things in it. I get it, mistakes happen, but then they should correct the mistake.

I have been the victim of false advertising before, however. Paid a pretty penny for some artichokes in a posher restaurant in Wro and got sauteed onions (not even listed as an ingredient) and two tiny slivers of artichoke.


Touche.

YES they should definitely do that!

Actually, that is a distinct possibility. Maybe he knew I'd not go along with his, "Oh, I don't have change" shenanigans and thus ate my duck as preemptive revenge.

If that's the case, very very unprofessional. What about complaining to a manager?

I feel your pain. The apathy that is common in Poland is manifested in the worst way when it comes to customer service. It is probably the thing I hate the most about the country. The rest of the quirks I can deal with as all places have some. I have had several incidents of things being broken out of the box and the saying "send it to service" instead of replacing it or refunding. They seem to have zero concept of responsibility and will not correct errors as nobody will ever accept blame which involves admitting a problem. Not going to happen here.

And Play has to be the worst phone network in Poland. Good prices but **** service that has a lot of empty coverage and network problems. I took about 10 trips to various Play shops over the course of ONE month fro problems and got nothing but excuses and runaround. I am back to Orange.

I'll try that in the morning. I did ask to speak to the manager, but they claimed he wasn't there. Probably with be too late, but worth the call.


I was actually rather pleased with them initially, and liked them better than Orange. One of the odd quirks of them, at least in my experience, is the credit doesn't expire when it should, making prepaid cheaper for me than a subscription. But, besides the nonsense with the cards, Play has started not delivering international SMSs to me. I can send them. I've also tried two different SIMs in three different phones. It them, not me for sure. I'm going to Plus next.

Yes, the customer service is a bit special here. And I swear PKP is actively trying to unseat Ukraine as the most frustrating customer service ever.

Beckski, I can't speak for the USA, but over here, "chicken flavour" and "chicken flavoured" isn't the same thing - which is why chicken flavour soup can be kosher-pareve lol. Back to Polish customer service: you have to be tough - if they take the pi**, I just dump the stuff on the belt & tell them I'm going elsewhere, just like over here. It's not the PRL era any more.

That's the thing...they don't care where you go. And they don't care if you are out money. They just don't care at all about anything but exact change and going home.

If they are concerned about going out of business, they should care. This customer should get a complimentary meal for her trouble.

Poles accept this **** service as it's "normal" for them so they will not go out of business. "Should" is a word used a lot here.

If I got Mekong Duck with no veggies or duck, I wouldn't buy from there anymore. I would make it myself.

Thats the same as Heyah. Also, my voice credit expired and months later I'm still using data.

I've given up on restaurants providing what they say on the menu. Fish is a problem, I don't think I've ever got Sea Bass, its sea bream every time (costs half the price but they charge the same for it which is a give away).

I once ordered Chicken and Thai basil and got no Basil. They sold out by Friday and still found it acceptable to serve a dish without its main ingredient..

Magda Gessler did an episode on "Kuchenne Rewolucje" about the place (Koh Samui) - maybe they have cleaned up their act. Poland's restaurants need her .

I had this recently in Galeria Alfa in Białystok. There were three little slivers of duck; just a taste. Noodle w Pudle is a nice idea but 22PLN for a carton of noodles? I go to a little place called Asia to go near work and get chicken with noodles for just under 10PLN. And they offer a wicked hot sauce and chopsticks.

with regards to your delivery guy. we had this happen once. they delivery guy didn't have change for 100 pln. ok- 30 pln tip- I don't think so. so my husband told him to come back with change- this is all he had. we took the food and they guy got change and then we paid. I don't understand the obsession with exact change in this country. there is an effing bank on every corner- if you have a store or service then you need change. I have a store- I have change.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!


Exactly, you cannot provide a service without having change for your customer! I use a local indian takeaway from time to time and the delivery guy always brings exact change to whatever note I give him! The only place I have ever experienced this from though!!

In the case of shops I don't know why they are so weird about change....they have it. Nobody has ever given me a plausible explanation as to why they look so pissy or sad when you don't have it.

In the case of delivery I bet it is a lie most of the time to try and get more money. I have had taxi drivers do the same and I said you can take this and give me change or give me the ride free...and they somehow find it. To be fair I have also had some take 20zl for a 25zl ride etc when faced with the "20 or 100zl is all I have" statement.

WatWat

Poland and customer service arn't two words that sit together comfortably. I have had crap service from Multimedia and don't get me started on Citibank.

My local shop is particularly bad for that. They always want the exact amount and are quite unpleasant if they have to give change. However several times a day they empty the draw in the cash register, brimming with coins and turn it empty.

Added to that, there's no concept of a cash float here. Most shops start the day with an empty till.

Perhaps the discovery of the Higgs Boson will explain this.

hehe :)

Seriously, it's not that long since I was asked "do you have 98 grosze" in a MarcPol in Warsaw, for shopping which cost 13,98 PLN. No, I'm not joking.

I replied "how about I give you 14 PLN and you give me 2 grosze change?" You should have seen the look he gave me, lmao. They don't like it when you answer back.

And they like it even less when you say "give me that look again and I'll **** off to Carrefour instead". :D

Do they really give a damn though? Their slightly better paid supervisors tell them, "Collect coins, collect coins. I don't know why, just get them. Don't worry about the lengthening queue, those bastards are just customers anyway." We could go on and on, couldn't we? Service; customer. Do these words collocate? Still, try Russia.

Probably not... for now. ;) But if everyone was like me, they would soon be out of work... and then they would care. Either that, or working for Carrefour instead lol.

Merged: Bad customer service experience with Poland

Okay so I love Poland but there is no denying that Polish people aren't always the best when it comes to customer service.

How about we all give some examples of when he didn't get the customer service we expected. Here is mine.

I was in a little Polish shop today, buying a few things. I get to the till and the lady tells me it's £4.15, I hand over my £10. She looks bemused and says she won't be able to give me change for that. Now I look confused. She asks if I have 15p. I say I don't, the £10 is all I have. She asks if I can pay by card. I say the note is all I have on me. She looks frustrated. I stand there and say 'so what now?' I tell her I did not realise she would have such problems. She thinks for bit and looks even more frustrated. Shen then takes what seems to be the last of the coins in her till out, along with a £5 note and hands me my £5.85. I thank her, she doesn't say anything and walks away from the till.

I had so many thoughts of what I could say to her, but I'm just too nice when it comes to these transactions and didn't do it.

How is it my problem if they have enough money to give back in the till? It's not the first time this has happened either. They treat you like you are at fault and should be more considerate, as a customer. It's incredible. This is why I don't like going in to Polish shops much. I'm not saying it's just Polish folks, there might be people from other countries who are similar, perhaps slavic ones, but I know that so far I have only had this crappy attitude from people in Polish shops.