Best Posts in Thread: Stupid is as stupid does

This is spot on. Everyone wants what they don't have. But once they get that, then they don't want that either, and it just repeats and repeats until they die just after realizing they wasted their lives complaining.

 

Well...I agree saying a country or a group of people are stupid is a not a good generalization. I also agree that you have to lower expectations when living in the Philippines. I do not agree that common sense or customer service is common in the Philippines.

I'll tag along with the pizza scenario; I wanted a pizza, no mushrooms...I find them nasty little things that remind me of slugs. Was told they could not do that...WTF? I'm asking for a pizza with a less ingredient, not asking to replace it with something else. Actually had to have the manager come out and agree to make the pizza without mushrooms. Customer service...no, plus the pizza sucked.

Growing up, I actually worked at 3 different pizza joints, 2 are chains and I guarantee the only thing we ever pre-made was sauce and cheese and that was only when we knew a rush would be coming on. Obviously that was many years ago, but making a pizza is not exactly rocket science. The size of many these places are not capable of making and storing all pre-made pizzas.

Stating that ordering food that is not made to what the customer would like being "rules or policy" would reinforce the lack of common sense when it comes to a basic business practice.

I tend to believe that most expats staying in the Philippines do go with the "flow" more often than not and recommendations of bad service & food or great service & food goes a long way. Obviously we are a small minority of folks that visit establishments but I try to hit up places with the wife that folks recommend and we have found some gems and customer service is big for both of us.

Unfortunately the vocal ones seem to not be happy about anything or the ones looking how rosy things are and defend everything; the rest of us are just chilling out.

Shawn

 

I think you're spot on with your statement. People are like that almost in almost every country.

 

as long as I share and understand all the described frustrations, I still would say, that what makes no sense from one's eye, still makes sense to another one. It's their culture, not ours. Don't we expats all come from countries where more or less everything makes a kind of sense? So why did we choose to settle down here? Ask anyone in a positive way; mostly the answer is: The more relaxed lifestyle, things are more easy going, more personal freedom. So that's the way it is, and that means things are out of stock, people are not willing to work hard to fulfill our special wishes etc...Yes, it's not always that comfortable but I still prefer that the filipinos will not change their style, otherwise life wouldn't be so chilled here anymore. Btw; I wish to find a filipino forum with the same topic "Stupid as ..." about us foreigners, would be surely funny and surprising to read...

 

My partner previously worked at Lee Plaza for seven years and I asked her to read your post to disprove what you were saying. She was not a cashier but confirmed what you said as true. She does not know why, but it is Lee Plaza policy that only one bag for items is allowed. She says that Lee Plaza is emphatic about following rules and suspension and sackings are common for diverging. So the stupidity was not the cashier but that of management - I am shocked at the way the management generally treats their staff and the product contractors, but even more shocked that they get away with it.

 

It wouldn't be common sense if it's not common. In this case, common is a local thing. Common Seattle is different than common in Miami. Common in a tier 1 city is different than common in a smaller city.

Much of what people are talking about here is a societal knowledge. It takes a community to build good customer service skills of a waitress in a restaurant. There's always individual exceptions. One restaurant might be world class, but we are talking generalities here. The average customer service experience here is less than the average which people are accustomed to elsewhere. Skills and expectations take time to propagate through the local area.

I feel that if the Philippines were up to the expectations of people from the West, then there would be no Westerners here. We may as well be living in Japan or S. Korea. We made the decision to make a compromise. We take X and leave Y behind. If we chose compromise, then why aren't we compromising? Did we forget?

 

Probably because you made them remove the mushrooms.

Foreigners to the Philippines need to stop kidding themselves thinking they never experienced businesses with bad customer service or policies that didnt make sense or common sense. Once you are in the PI it is easy to bash the things you hate because humans always see greener grass on the other side than where they are.

I always have said moving to PI is not for everyone.. In fact I would say that it isnt for most.