Good customer service in Munich

There are a lot of rants here on the board, so I think it’s time for an anti-rant, or whatever that’s called in English…

Last Friday I wanted to buy my snowboard gear to go boarding the next day. I bought the board, but for the bindings and shoes I went to Sports Experts at Olympia Einkaufszentrum. It’s a pain in the ass to get there (when is the U1 finished??), but the store has a large variety of all kinds of sport equipment.
I came there at 19:30, just half an hour before it was supposed to close. I walked in with my brand new board, asking someone to help me out with bindings and boots. The next ten minutes (at least) he explained what options I had, didn’t try to talk me into the most expensive stuff. At the end of his story he asked me when I was planning on going to the mountains, so I said “tomorrow�?! Then he said that I could better rent the gear tomorrow, and go back to the store from the 26th on, because then they have the winter clearance sales. I was happy and surprised at the same time. On the one hand happy because now I can get my boots and bindings for about 80 euro’s less, and surprised that he mentioned the clearance sales a week and a half beforehand!
I still needed gloves and goggles for the next morning, and he was willing to give me a 20 euro discount on the goggles, since I was planning on buying almost a full boarding gear there (I already knew which boots to buy).
At 20:10 I was ready to pay, without even one “it’s closing time, get out of here�?-look from the salesperson.

So between all those rants here, this deserves to be mentioned!

End of anti-rant

Hurray!
Can I also give a big cheer to the Vinzenzmurr butchers in Spar at Rotkreuzplatz for being generally lovely and doing lots of special cuts and orders for me?
The staff even say hello when I see them in the street.
I like anti-rants
Katrina

Glad to hear it Sparty. With all the anti-German threads that go on it's always nice to hear the things that people are happy about.

Or maybe he just fancied you and wanted to see you again. Either way, it's good service

The people in my local ironing parlour are really very nice - they always fold stuff that doesn't need ironing nice and neatly, rather than shoving it in my bag, and they always do my shirts very well, and are extremely pleasant to me when I am there. A bit like my Mum does, only more expensive... So there we have it - some German customer service is really quite good, actually...

Keydeck! Don't spoil it! This might actually be a whinge-free thread

Yes, the ranting's been a bit much lately, hasn't it? I've certainly been in a ranting mood but I think it's due to post-holiday blues.

Glad to know there are businesses out there who actually appreciate the fact that you want to spend your money there, and who entertain the idea of getting you to return.

The pizza delivery service that I'd started using lately offers a free bottle of wine if you spend over €30. The first time he came to us he forgot the wine (bill was about €35). About a week later we ordered again from them and even though the bill was only about €17, he remembered us and brought the vino. It's the little things like that which make me go back to a place again.

I stupidly left my purse (with abou 35 Euros in it) in a taxi. The night after it happened I got another taxi and asked that driver how I could try to track my purse down. He wasn´t very confident about me seeing my purse ever again, but he did do a lovely thing - he switched off the meter and then charged me only 10 Euros for the taxi ride, which usually costs 20.

Just when you are talking about your purse there, I have a little story of my own.
It's not so much good customer service but really just demonstrated to me how honest some of the German people are.

I was heading back home after my student work placement had finished, I was flying out of Munich to Brussels and then on to Belfast. When I was at Brussels airport I lost my purse in the shopping area. I searched high and low, asked lots of people but it wasn't there, it had disapeared I gave it up for lost and got on the plane home, really very annoyed.

I arrived back in Belfast and a few hours later I had a call from my flat mate here in Munich, she had my purse! Unbelievably, a man from Munich had found my purse in Brussels airport and thought that I was perhaps flying back there. Since he had my ID in the purse he delivered my purse directly to my flat in Munich. Not a cent was missing and he didn’t even ask for a reward or anything.

I just couldn’t believe it.

we regularly get a free round of drinks in a certain non-expat bar/eatery that a group (of about 10) of us frequent... and proper drinks, not just sours...

the staff have taken the trouble to find out our names and where we come from and regularly engage in some good humoured banter... which is nice... not telling where it is though, want to keep it non-expat

furthermore, i've just helped my girlfriend through the anmeldung and arbeitsamt process and the all of the people we met were extremely helpful and understanding of her non-existant german and my pigeon german... which is in stark contrast to the experiences we had tryinig to extract information and documentation from the muppets that occupy the corresponding posts in ireland before she came over...

wooohooo! Anti-rant!!

I've lost my wallet twice, and got it back twice, both times with all
the cash in it!

Once I left it in a Taxi, at about 10pm ... No street address ID, just Bank Card,
Credit Card, Deutsche Bahn Card, and some other bits and Pieces.

The Taxi Man dropped it into the Police, and I got it back the next day at about
7pm via a nice police officer who frightened the shit out of me when I saw
him through my spy-hole.

Other time was at Oktoberfest. Well - lost it after Oktoberfest.
Was handed into a bank, (as I just had bank card and Health Insurance
card - all else cleared out of the wallet beforehand!). Bank called me, and I
went to the branch where it was handed in.

I really don't think it would happen in any other country.

That lost wallet thing is actually quite common in Germany though it surprises me nonetheless. My boyfriend's lost his wallet a couple times and it always gets returned, missing nothing, in two days or less.

Last week I had a sudden "I need my hair cut day". I was in town when this thought occured, so I looked around as I came out of the "zwilling" shop ? and on the corner above the shops was a hairdressers, can't remember the name of it.
A young heavily pregnant young woman agreed to take me immediately for a cut and blow dry. Although I looked nothing like the cut I described, it was nevertheless, well cut and very nicely styled. I was well chuffed especially when it only cost 51 euro, a mere fraction of what I would normally pay and all achieved in 30 minutes.
Germans are not all bad, in saying that does anyone want to take Opa off my hands, he's working from home and driving me to distraction!!

In general, I must admit that the crowd-handling is going a lot better over here during traffic hours than in Holland.
When you walk on Kaufinger strasse on a regular Saturday afternoon, everybody walks wherever they want to walk. Sometimes a little annoying, but I guess you'll have to get used to it.
BUT...every morning I have to change at Odeonsplatz during traffic hours, and even when I am standing on the other side of the train, I never have a problem of getting out of the train. I noticed that the people that are almost leaning against the doors and don't have to get out of the train step out of the train to let people out and walk back in again. Try that on a regular weekday in the Netherlands...you'll have to make sure to get to the doors at least two stops in advance, otherwise there's no way you can get out!

Well, People in Vinzenzmurr at Pasing (not the one at HIT, the other one) are also nice and friendly :-)