I was refused buying meat in Tengelmann

I am infuriated. I have just come back from my local Tengelman which has a meat department. I asked for 4 slices of Beinfleisch which is shin from beef with the bone in the middle. I asked the butcher if he could cut it all up into goulash taking the meat off the bones and put it all together in the bag. He refused as he sid it was not a gulash meat and that this was meat for the soup that you cook in slices and he would not cut and then he would not sell me as he walked away it as it should be cooked in a soup and not as gulash!!! I could not believe it the guy was refusing to sell me the meat.
Just another case of German bad service. In England the customer is always right and they will do what the customer wants with the meat. I have been here over nine years and this is still something that still shocks me here how rudely customers are treated.
I am waiting for Sainsbury or Tescos to come over here and show the Germans a thing or two about good service. They would wipe out all these home bred consumer unfriendly supermarkets in days!!!

Did you ask to speak to the manager?

Tengelmann is rubbish.
Try going to a proper butcher, they'll normally do stuff like that for you.

As I was standing in the queue to pay, of course the would never dream of opening another till, the acting manager arrived to cancel some item and I told her. She said she would take the matter further and went over to the meat department where she playfully kicked and boxed the butcher!! URGGGH

How would they do that. Bring all their friendly english employees with them?
It didnt work out for Walmart...

It's a matter of training, with the prospect of losing your job if performance is not up to par. Of course, the problem being trade unions...

I tried to buy Loferl (those socks with the calf warmers to wear with lederhosen) at Hertie and when I told the salesman they were for a woman and I needed small ones he wouldn't sell them to me because these are for men! And yes, I was speaking in German.

We wonder why the economy has been so bad!

Another problem would be german customers who favor low price over good service.

Go to a Turkish butcher, they are more flexible and they tend to know a bit more about customer service.

LauKatOD...well, that is way beyond normal lesbianism...still, he could have just said "they don't make'em that small, sorry..."

I am struggling to understand how anyone can be refused something in the ways described. I just can't get my head around it. If I want to purchase something that is within reason for the shop to sell me there is no way in hell I am going to take no for an answer.

You obviously haven't been here long enough!!

Going on for 10 years now.

That's well and good but also depends on your patience threshold at the time. Sometimes you can't be arsed with all the hassle, but if just before that time of the month and I'm looking for a good fight... bring it on!

And also kill off all the small traders where you have real choice, quality local produce and great service, even in Germany . Tesco (and Sainsbury too, but to a lesser degree) are certainly not good for the UK consumer, and I don't want them here.

Edit: If you want good service then go to shops where you get it, and simply don't go back to Tengelmann.

Hi Keydeck don't mean to sound rude but maybe you don't get out enough? Ho ho!!!

Englishrose,

What I don't understand is how you could walk away. I would have stood there and demanded that the Arsch get back and cut my damn meat the way I TOLD him too.

Although his behaviour was unprofessional, your passivity is equally hard to comprehend.

So that's why the small traders are still alive and kicking, because of the shit quality of service and produce of the supermarkets... it all makes sense now. What a way for an industrialised country to function.

Exactly. I've asked for (shock) 6 Nürnberger mit Pommes at Augustiner Biergarten. Most of the time I've been given it, and one time the German guy behind me said he'd have the same, but once I was told it wasn't on the menu. Of course the fucker was happy to offer me them with Sauerkraut and then give me a side of Pommes when I asked if they were on the menu, but I just couldn't be arsed. Even after 10 years I still get surprised at how unhelpful some service folks can be.

@Johnny English
Monkstown is AWOL - I suggest that we take advantage of the situation to supermarket-bash unopposed. Any takers on a why-don't-any-of-these f*cking stores-accept-credit-cards thread while we're at it?

I'm thinking it might have something to do with the attitude of the kaufer... most salespeople I have met here - with the sole and bitter exception of Deutsche Telekom have been decent to a fault... Tescos better? ... truly laughable.

I agree with Keydeck, actually.
OK, on the meat at Tengelmann thing - I wouldn't put anything past Tengelmann, though. They surely win the prize for the worst customer service and the most poorly managed stores in the whole of Germany. As HellesAngel said, avoid them like the plague if you're wanting good service.

But refusing to sell you socks I just find bizarre. Would have put my foot down on that one, big style.
Have been here for 12 years, for what it's worth, and have never personally experienced anything like this.
They have been abrupt to me on occasion, but then I'm equally abrupt back and they always always always back down.

Oh I had similar in Dallmayr about 5 years ago.

Wanted lamb medallions, "service" person tried to give me the funny-shaped ones, so I said no, I'd like those next to the ones offered please.
Instead of giving me what I wanted, she said they were the same, I disagreed and said no they are lopsided, my dinner will look crap, it's for a special event and I'd like to buy what I've ordered please.

No came the reply.

So the manager was called over and shop harridan then started crying so I said that no they could keep their lamb, I was off to Käfer (who sold me non-wonky lamb without blinking).
The meal to be cooked would have had 3 slim medallions in the plate centre, to buy the uneven end pieces would have been silly, as they wouldn't have looked right (was a "meeting the parents" kind of thing and I wanted to impress).

Later that evening, I made a complaint via email and their General Manager called me at home, still saying that their employee was in the right. I said well, you've lost my custom permamently as the customer should get what the customer wants within reason and I'd take my cash elsewhere. The manager said he was sad to lose me as a customer but he also has a staff management function... hmmm.

Which I've done since - have never spent a single cent there afterwards.
And I buy my meat elsewhere from local Neuhausen butchers (at the time of this event, I lived in Schwabing) and have great service.

Saint, I thought I'd go elsewhere and buy some fish instead for dinner...he may have taken the meat into the back and spat on it!!!
As for Tescos killing local communities, it could just give the Germans the kick up their arses that they so obviously need in the retail world

to the tune of Candle in the wind, or England's Rose:

Get out Englishrose
Though you may want some Beinfleisch
You had the nerve to ask me
To cut it off the bone..

How could you not know Beinfleisch
is not meant for stew, rather for soup
I said you are the customer
And the customer is wrong

And it seems to me
You want your fleisch
For not a soup, for a goulasch
You can forget it
I won't serve you
This is Germany

And I would've liked to serve you
But I am always right
Your goulasch plan died long before
You stepped foot into my store

(I'm totally bored already today)

I am now officially in love with MoiLV.

woof.

I can understand how you are refused at the butcher, he has the meat uncut and behind the counter. If he doesn't pick it up and cut it, well you aren't getting it without causing a scene. However the sock thing is another story, pick the ones you want and go to a cashier.

I was once at the Hidelberg farmers market and saw a ball of cheese that I really like and it is hard to find. So I tell the lady behind the counter that I want the ball. She proceeds to explain that they are in fact closed and have been since noon. What time is it do you think 1 or 2?? Oh no it was precisely 12:04 (church tower beside me). I think, surely she misunderstood and thought I wanted just a piece of it and she didn't want to have to wash up again. I then tell her that I actually will take the whole ball of cheese in the container it was packaged in, all she had to do was hand it to me and I would hand her the 5 or 6 euros. Response...no, we are closed.

Anyone know of a good local butcher near the Frankfurter Ring U-bahn stop, then? lol

As I've said before, one of the best experiences when I go home is the service I get while out shopping. My friends think I'm crazy but it is such a great feeling after the crap you go through over here. And the best part is going to pay and finding the longest line having 2-3 people in it. Not to mention the manager always nearby monitoring lines to eagerly open a new register should the line get 5 or more people.

SERVICE - lets all hope that Germans finally learn the meaning of this word. (not holding my breath)

Dolfan that is just like another time I wanted to buy something from a shop and they were closed for lunch even though the lady owner was in the shop she wouldn't let me nip in and pick up and pay for a pair of childrens slippers I had put aside.

They NEED the big supermarkets here to put the small shops out of business so we don't have to take this bad service no more

When I go home to Ireland , I'm appalled by the shopping experience ... rubbish pikey attendants in Tescos , many of them hungover from the night before , half of em unable to speak English ... prices absolutely outrageous in comparison ... here I and my chic are regular customers at the local Plus , they always greet me by name , if I or my woman is not there they always question where the absent person and it's a completely positve atmosphere... dunno what u lot are doing wrong.

Surely you jest!

Expecting to be able to buy what we want, apparently.

god, that sounds just like something out of "Are You Being Served". I remember there was one episode where the staff deliberately tried to stop the customers from buying!

As regards wishing and waiting for Sainsbury`s and Tesco`s to start up here, I fear you`ll be in for a long wait. The german chains have a stranglehold on supermarket retailing here, others have tried and failed, given up and gone home, most recently of course WallyMart.

I was back over in England recently and was pleasantly surprised by the efficient - and friendly supermarkets there, especially Marks & Spencer`s "Simply Food" outlets, nothing like it in Germany. Friendly and polite staff who smile, no long queues, none of this, place all your items on the conveyor (yourself) - and then back it up (yourself). Sheer bliss. German supermarkets are like something out of the old eastern bloc.

Englishrose, don't you have a knife at home? I don't think it would occur to me to ask a butcher to cut up 4 Beinscheiben, I'd do it at home when I got back and make sure all the fat and stuff was trimmed off properly. Scaling/gutting fish now would be a different matter.

Reminds me of a line from the movie A Good Year (with Russ Crowe):

"Remember, in France the customer is always wrong!"

I think that the point is that it's unheard of in the British Isles or North America for someone to have to deal with a shop employee who refuses to do something - especially what the OP asked.

Either you're stupid (or being charitable: not very good at living outside your home culture), or that's a wind-up and I'm stupid for biting.

As Keydeck has pointed out Germans sometimes require you to showa sense of determination, a certain amount of aggression, for them to respect you. Turn up and behave like a wet blanket and they'll walk all over you, turn up and look like you want to kill them and you'll get what you want.

Here endeth the lesson.

that's a good point parnell.

I just got back from a week in Dublin. Popped to my local Tescos (which is massive), was such a disappointment (again): for a start it is literally twice the price as what I would have paid for here. Sadly it seems that although the fruit and veg look good, they are in fact worse than what you get on a bad day in Tenglemans - practically everything is pre-packaged and tastes either awful, or of nothing at all. The staff were unfriendly, and the queues for the cashdesk were massive, granted there were loads of cashdesks open (but not all, or even close to it), and every single person had a massive trolley filled to the gills.

Here I just go to the local shops, it's cheaper, the staff are friendly and the products are better. Avoid Tenglemans like the plague if you can...

My supermarket gripe (not meat related!):

I like to buy Patros feta cheese with "Kräuter" as opposed to "natur". Anyhow, Rewe stopped stocking it after the changeover from Minimal Then recently (summer) I noticed it was back on the shelves So I merrily bought it every week...only to discover a couple of weeks ago it had disappeared AGAIN. The woman was just stocking the shelves so I asked her if they were getting more in...the answer "No, it's only a summer product"! WTF!! Who are they to tell the customer which season to eat what food products...seems plain feta is ok for winter but not the one with herbs...I'll never understand their logic no matter how long I live here.

That sounds like what my grandfather used to say about the germans: "the Hun is either at your throat or at your feet"!

And once the small shops (who are more likely to give you service) have closed the big supermarkets wont bother with service either because you have nowhere else to go!

In my experience, this logic can be applied all around the continent and not just in Germany, however it's little comfort when a conflict is required to get even the most basic things done.

Why is it I can go to a fantastic french supermarket in Dubai but not in fellow EU country and right next door Germany. Something fishy going on there.

If you want to read something about Walmarts failure in germany:
NY Times


... and the animosity against foreign companies, I might add.

That might explain my disappearing cookie dough and other products (which have slipped my mind, but yes, I think are dairy related...)

BB, because there is no demand for a fantastic French supermarket here.

Whilst M&S might be providing tasty looking produce ready for the microwave and a friendly service, the actual nutritional value of most of their produce is minimal (at best). I prefer the food quality available in Germany any day. But its nothing new that Germany fails miserably in the service area... its just another annoying topic propping up forums like TT.

because there is no demand for a fantastic French supermarket here.

The problem is that they don't know any better - Walmart is not a good example of a quality hypemarket. Open a decent Carrefour and they will come.