Poor customer service experiences in Munich

They are only aloud to ask if they can look into your bag. This is voluntary. For a proper search they have to have reasonable suspicion that you have been shoplifting, mostly the store detective and the manager will request the permission to search your bag in a private back room. I strongly advise - if you really are innocent - to insist on their calling in the police in such a case and submit to having the bag searched in the cops' presence only, or you call a lawyer so you have an uninvolved witness. The store detective gets a bonus for each detected shoplifter, and the shoplifter is "fined" a processing fee in the same amount (what a coincidence!) even before the culprit is charged.

Damn, first line is "allowed", not "aloud". I have been up to long on the flight back from Cancun.

...personally I find it a challenge every time at Norma or Aldi or Penny to pack the stuff in the cart faster than the cashier can shove it to you. Try it once, it's funny to see them speed up to try and beat you! One of many German-baiting sports I like to play to counteract the frustrtaion of everyday life...

Another story for the books...

I went to pick up my dry-cleaning today at a place at the corner of Görrestr. and Winzererstr. Don't kow the name right now but will search it out.

First of all, it was 13:58. According to the sign outside, it opens at 14:00. However, I could see 4 different employees inside.

Of course I didn't see the sign first and tried the door, since I could see the employees. One at the counter glared at me when I tapped on the glass. I then realized that they were actually not going to open the door even though there were only 2 minutes to 14:00.

Finally they opened the door and let me and the other two people waiting (came in the meantime) in. Once again, even though there were at least 4 employees in the shop only one was "helping" customers. I only needed to pickup and had already paid, as is custom there. Finally one came over and took my receipt. He couldn't find one pair of pants, and looked around (quite desperate at points). Then the boss (guy seemed like the boss) took over and told me that it was possible that the pants hadn't been cleaned yet. I then asked how this is possible, since I brought everything in at the same time and they had told me it would all be finished on Thursday, and today was already Friday. Suddenly the first guy found the pants, and showed them to his boss. The boss then threw the pants at me (literally threw them...), completely wrinkling them.

I of course said, "excuse me, why did you throw these at me? They're wrinkled now. ", and the guy just muttered something, grabbed them, and threw them together with the other clothes.

I said "now you've lost a customer," and he said "gott sei dank" !!!

What is it? What?? What??!?!!

I seriously don't expect much. Seriously. I don't even really expect people to be friendly. But agressively unfriendly? Unbelievable.

F#$*#'em... Spike their machines water with bright blue dye..

They'll loose the rest of their customers also...

You really need to give us the name of the place so we don't make the mistake of going there.

I looked at telefonbuch.de to find Reinigung in both görresstr. and winzererstr, found this and a couple others on winzerer, and matched up the address to the intersection of görresstr and this one was left...

Niknafs Taghi chem. Reinigung
Winzererstr. 40 80797 München 0171 2 44 06 61

Does it ring a bell?

They need to bring over more Vietnamese here to do the cleaning.

I had similar crap service at my local neighborhood cleaners. I've abandoned them for my Putzfrau who dose all my ironing. If I need something dry cleaned, I leave a note for her as well as money and she sorts this out as well.

Of course, she's form Easter Europe!

is that like the easter islands? sorry, couldn't resist

That's go to be it, cause there aren't any other cleaner's at that intersection. Bastards.

Here's another story, that I personally found unbelievable!!!

My mum was here last summer visiting me and she wanted to see Salzburg. Since I could unfortunately not go with her, I arranged a bus trip who was supossed to leave Munich at 7:00 am and pick the passengers up in Salzburg at 18:00.

OK; I brought her to M-Fröttmaning, the place where the bus was going to leave from. I found kinda strange that the bus arrived only a few minutes before it had to leave, but didn't make a big deal because it was still on time. There were only 3-4 more people travelling with her. She called me after approx. 2 hours saying that she was already in Salzburg, everything went fine, etc. I was happy an calmed then!

When it was about time for her bo be on the road again (back from Salzburg) she called me and said that she'd probably arrive later than expected because the bus was not there yet. She said she'd call once the bus arrived. We kept the calm and thought that it wouldn't take too long, that it could be that the bus was stucked in a traffic jam or something like that. A considerable span of time passed by and she didn't call, so I called her back and asked what was going on. The bus was not their yet. She knew that she had not missed it because there were other passengers there waiting for the same bus. In the meanwhile they called the central office of this bus line and asked for information regarding their bus, to what the girl in charge of it said it would only take a few more mins., not more than 15-20. After 3 hours waiting for the freaking bus (standing because there was not a single chair or bench!) my mum and a couple of Mexicans decided that they would definitely not wait any longer and took the train back. The only one who decided to wait 'til the end was an old German guy.

We could not call to complain the next day because it was a Sunday and obviously there was no one there, but when we did it early on Monday the reply we got was that my mum would not get her money back because the minimum time she must have waited for the bus in order for her complaint to be officialy taken (and so her money to be refunded) was 4 hours. WHAT??? Is 4 hours an acceptable time to wait for a bus which trip is two hours long??? I could not believe this, especially coming from a country where punctuality is considered so important!

My boyfriend (German guy) and his friends could not believe this story.

Carolina

P.S. I'm also one of those getting horribly stressed when I can't pack my things in Aldi as fast as the cashier would want me to! I have tried and tried to be fast, but it doesn't work. I kind of gave up already and follow the strategy of: put the things back in the shopping car, go to a corner and pack them with calm. I hate it, but there seems to be no other choice!

I don't let them stress me out, its not a race, I pack my stuff up, then I pay! And I don't them rush me. I smile the whole time at them. Drives them crazy!

If I am at Aldi or Lidl and have a shopping cart, I usually just throw it all back in and put it in bags after. However, if I'm with my daughter in her stroller (obviously without a shopping cart) I put everything in the bags before I pay- I don't care if the cashier gets all impatient looking!

**BTW you can now pay with EC cards at Aldi, another bit of time to get all that stuff packed!

I try to put the items on the belt in a "logical" order to be able to pack them more easily (tins and bottles first, veg. last, that type of thing)
but I absolutely refuse to be rushed.

I'm rather proud (in a childish way) that I have bag packing at the checkout down to quite a fine art and can usually bag a weeks shopping whilst keeping up with the cashier blipping the bar codes. Just takes safe hands, no slip-ups and forward planning!

Yesterday I did my grocery shopping at Kaufland. I had to buy tons of things because I was already running out of basic things in my apartment. I thought the cashier (and/or the other people on the queue) would get a bit desperate, but she was super coold and patient about it! Just in case, I did the same thing you suggested: pack first, pay later...so that she cannot start with the next client before you're done!

Good idea!!

Carito

Sunda we were at the Therme Erding. We had bought a Therme Card which is like a gift card that you can load up with money and then you get a discount (blah, blah, blah). Well, it had been 6 months since we had been there and we didn't know if there was any money left on the card. We handed it to the cashier, she range in the charges, and then we said 'oh we don't know if there's any money left on this card' to which she responded in a very nasty tone 'you are supposed to tell me this BEFORE I ring it in'. My boyfriend just explained the 6 months thing and she got all exasperated. Stupid bitch - you are in a customer service position!!

I must add that a few days ago my other half and i were in OBI and looking for dimmers! MY other half is German to get that out of the way so there are no excuses for not understanding etc etc etc

We went to the switch section and noticed (for the first time in your life) an Array of SWITCHES an array of dimmers etc etc. So we asked the grumpy bastard working there If he could explain to us which and what best dimmer to use.

And that’s where he started – “take a look mate, The whole section is for dimmers�
My other half responds.

“but which one is to be used for this one (and he pointed to the size we have at home�

he says – “I just told you…. How many times more do I have to repeat myself – THIS WHOLE SECTIONS is for dimmers – take a look and see what you need�

My other half – “Oh my you do speak allot and out of line�

Knob head - “Sometimes the sales man can say more than the customer�

My other half was about to snap the little bastard…. And says in the most high German

“you know what your – your F---ing attitude stinks, and I’m taking my business elswhere

just wanted to say - that i have had some great service too

oh so its you creating long checkout queues then. Thanks

great service at media markt yesterday

I have had a couple of bad customer service experiences as well..
One was just recently at Walmart, where the lady in front of me wanted to use her EC card to pay and it took her ages to remember her PIN. I thought the cashier would call for "next" but she didn't ( I guess she was new at work ).Finally, I had to put all my stuff back into the trolley and move to the next counter,which was pretty annoying.
The lady was still trying to remember her PIN while I was packing up my things after paying!!
This weekend I was @ Norma and I really liked the service. The lady at the counter helped me put my stuff in the trolley as they had really small packing area.

So, Werewolf, that is a 'good' customer service story about WalMart - that the cashiers are so patient with the, obviously, stupid woman in front of you. WalMart isn't to blame for the stupidity of their customers.

That's a fucking pathetic idea. Do that in front me and make me fucknig wait to get through and I'll push your shit to the side. What makes you so special that everyone else should wait for you to take your sweet time?

If it wasnt you but someone else holding up the line you'd doubtless be on this thread bitching about the piss-poor service of the cashiers who don't tell people to pay first and pack afterwards so that the rest of us can get the hell out of the store and get on wth our lives.

woof.

Better yet: first take a few items and go as fast as possible to the cashier, to get a place ASAP. Then go on and do your shopping, item by item, while the cashier waits for you, not you for the cashier. I'm sure you're already used to (blissfully ignorant of?) the burning looks you're going to get from the people who wait for you to get your sheet together.

Edit: stupid grammar.

I think you need to calm down! How could you push through if she hadn't yet paid in any case. There is really no point in getting terribly uptight in the queue. People should be allowed to go at their own pace or would you also shove past the old ladies who can't pack as quickly as you?
I used to get annoyed waiting but no I just think about something else and even, heavenn forbid, let people past me if they have a lot less than me. I certainly don't let red faced angry people past me.

Due to a severe shortage of express lanes in German stores, I almost always let people with only one or two items in front of me (unless I also only have a couple items or the person is digging into a purse/pockets trynig to find enough pennies to pay with). I usually offer them the opportunity, just as it's usually offered to me.

In reference to pushing, I push the person's stuff to the side of the counter and tell them to pay first so that the rest of us can get the hell out. The rest of the people in the queue norally start nodding their heads.

woof.

I was actually packing super fast!!! The problem was not that I was slow, but that I really had too many items! It even took me two car-to-house door trips to bring everything in. My packing speed was very good, but of course it is not comparable to the speed of the cashier passing my articles by the scanner. She works there 6 days a week whereas I go to the supermarket max 1!

Well, the rest of them need to stop worrying about always being in a hurry. It isn't good for you to stress about these things. I would just refuse. It is just bullying. What makes you think you have the right to do that to someone? What if they are doign their best and can't go faster? What if a man coming and acting so aggressively scares them. You can''t just think of yourself. Seriously, just switch off from the supermarket and go to your happy place

Oh, the irony!

What makes them think they have the right to determine the pace of my life? I'm at the store after coming home from one job and on my way to a second. I have 15 minutes to get to the store, get through it, get home, change, clean up and be presentable. Or I'm on my luch break and would much rather spend that brief time eaiting and talking with mates than standing behind some shmuck at the store who thinks because he has nothing better to do that I don't either.

woof.

Indeed. I was pointing out your comment about why they should dictate your time spent waiting.
It isn't a personal attack that people are taking a while. If you are that pressed for time just ask politely if you could pass through. No need for the rage and agreesive shoving aside of their stuff.

Um, has anyone thought of offering to help packing the stuff into the cart while the other person is paying up? Off the topic but after the last posts the idea just popped into my head.

Yep! If you asked me to let you pass through because you're in a hurry I would surely let you! There's no need to become aggressive.

i was in a express lane max 10 items in walmart.woman in front of me had a full trolly.i pointed out to her that this was a express lane.she told me to mind my own business.checkout girl said nothing she could doas the company policy is that the customer is always right.2 things came straight to mind . customers are taking advantage of this policy and people are becoming more selfish these days.sad

Ah, but that's a German thing, being impatient, wanting to pay and get out the store once you're sorted. Ever noticed how speedy those old grannies can get when a 2nd cash register opens in a supermarket?

but he wouldn't know before your stuff had been through the checkout that you consider it ok to be inconsiderate to the other queue members - probably too late by then

he he, yeah - I had to drag one back by the collar who was attempting to jump the whole queue (her reasoning being - my husband is outside waiting for me).

agree with you here BD.
just cuz certain people aren't in a hurry and have time to pack all their shite before paying the cashier, doesn't mean those of us behind you do! in certain shops there's no space for you to pack by the cashier anyway (ALDI/Penny for example) so just load your shite into the cart, pay the cashier then go pack your shite in your own time liek the rest of us do.
I've actually seen cashiers say this POLITELY to customers in Aldi.

Agree too. If your ever hit by a pack of frozen beans and wondering who it was... WHILST YOUR PACKING SLOWLY .I'll tell ya!

Oh oh oh oh i just have to tellyou - thats been said to me!!! and my comment was

"So's mine so wait in line"

I swear to you - everyone cracked up - which embarrased me more than the truth!

sorry but ihave to reply reply reply...i have the time ...

There is no Service culture here so whats the use of opening a 10 items or less register - people dont give a rats arse!

me too, at the Aldi where I shop they have a packing area with boxes you can use and you can also discard excess packaging in the containers there too. the cashiers politely tell customers not to pack at the till area where there is NO space to pack at all. am cool with this.
must confess I'd be a bit miffed if I was waiting to be served and someone in front of me was spending ages packing their stuff before handing over the cash cuz I usually shop in my lunch hour.

Once an old lady asked me to get her some chicken from the freezer cause she couldn't reach. She asked me to put it into her little shopping cart.
Then she was infront of me in the line; while she was paying, I offered to put her stuff in the cart.
She said Nein, Nein , Nein

Of course, my german sucks, so maybe I offered to put the chicken in her ass.

Same here...get your shite and get the hell out of my way! I don't have the time to stand around while you slow fucks delicately pack and sort through your items. Throw that shite back into the cart, pay, and move your ass to the side and let those of us who have better things to do with our time than stand around with our thumbs up our asses get on with our lives. Thank you.

Better hang on to them then, sounds like good service.

call me an old git but i think the attitude these days is like i said SELFISH,a load of cxxxx . whats happened to community spirit

Deutsche Post,

I weighed a parcel in the office and took it to the post office, It weighed 6 kilos in the office, but 11 at the post office. When I questioned this, she took great offence, swore at me and told me it was no wonder they say the Scots are tight. (I did laugh, albeit inwardly ) Anyway I took it to another post office and yup, 6 kilos. It seems that the owner of this post office is making a wee bit extra on the side by upping the weight of the parcels.

I did complain to the head office and they sent her off for some retraining, but then when I went back to the shop she wouldnt serve me.

My advice,
THE POST FILLIAL in einstein strasse 1, Martinsried is crap, unfriendly and will embezle your hard earned cash.

Dont go there

Plenty of community spirit here: BD, robbieinmunich, Jo Public and I will all jointly throw your shite to the side so that we can get on with our lives. Let's all hold hands and sing campfire songs while we're at it...that would be a sight.

guess I will just have to use the cash I earn slacking on TT

Ok I have another one.

Last October, I decided to turn over a new, healthier leaf and begin going to the pool on a regular basis. Since I didn’t own a proper swimsuit in my previous, pre-leaf turning life of junk-food-eating debauchery, I decided to go out and buy a new, motivational state-of-the-art Speedo. As is often the case in Germany, the dressing room I chose was full of dismissed tried-on items of clothing that apathetic salespeople had neglected to return to store racks. Not realizing the clothes on the hooks might actually belong to someone, I began to undress and made it down to nothing but my embarrassing, faded pink cotton grandma pants that I only wear when I’m certain no one will see me in them. All was well until I looked into the mirror and noticed that a woman was standing behind me in the cabin with a disapproving look on her face. Even worse, she had yanked the curtain wide open. With the Speedo pulled up to my knees and the faded grandma pants completely exposed to passers-by, I politely asked what the woman was doing in my changing room. “You’ve got it all wrong,� she barked, “those are MY clothes hanging there, and this is MY changing room!� I apologized and asked her to leave for a moment and please close the curtain while I got dressed, but she wasn’t having it. “I’m going to finish trying on these clothes first,� she growled, and proceeded to try on two pairs of trousers, curtain still open, making sure to press me into a corner so I couldn’t reach for my clothes or get out. I suggested that her behaviour was inappropriate, to which she answered “the worst part of this whole thing is that you think you’re right.� She finally left the cabin and left me to get dressed, and when I came out I saw her complaining about me to a saleswoman, who also frowned in my general direction and pointed me out to the store manager. I hurried down the escalator, traumatized, and wound up buying the Speedo in another shop.

I think the problem with food shopping in Germany is that supermarkets don't exist. Hence no shops with 40 checkouts where people will help pack your shopping should you need it and there is plenty of room if you happen to be a bit slow.

Personally I find this more of a customer service affront than the poor people (basically everyone) who are forced to shop in the unclean hovels they call 'supermarkets'.

For a different spin on things :

Recently some dipshit of a truck driver made a nice big dent in the side of my car while I was stuck in a traffic jam. The
catch is that I was standing still - he tried to squeeze past and I noticed this by the sideways movement of my car (normally
the car goes backwards and forwards - but not sideways, so you can imagine my surprise). Anyway he got out and said
(in thick Bavarian) "ja spinnst du oder was??" [are you crazy or what?]. He went on to tell me (and the police) how I drove into
him - quite impossible (as I told the cops) as I was standing still at the time. It was actually quite funny, the truck driver
got into a huge argument with the police (which I didn't think helped his case very much) and I remember the officer pointing
out to the driver that his wheels' tread was quite run down.

I made an appointment at Mini for them to look at the damage. The guy from Mini was super nice, very helpful and
professional. He advised that a "Gutachter" [guy who assesses damage] look at my car and called one for me.
The Gutachter took photos, drew up a report and once again was really friendly and helpful. Also really good at
what he does, he pointed out almost immediately things that I didn't notice (damage-wise) that strengthen my case
that I was not at fault. In the end I even got a free car wash (upon my suggestion of course )

Sometimes you can get good service too