Growing up in the United States, I learned at a young age that the customer was always right.
One time, for example, I bought the wrong size shoes from a Chicago outlet mall and returned them two weeks later. Not only did I get a refund, but I was also offered a 20% discount on my next pair, an apology from a store that really had nothing to apologize for.
So needless to say, it took me awhile to get used to living in Switzerland, where a customer has very few rights. Last year, when the train tickets I ordered from sbb.ch were not delivered, the ticket office at the Baden train station refused to help me.
“You ordered online,” said the SBB ticket guy, “so you have to call customer service.” He sighed and wrote down the toll number for me, like he was doing me a huge favour.
So not only was I refused to be helped in person, but I had to call a number that cost SFr1.15 a minute for the pleasure of telling the SBB to get my SFr 500 order straight.
Apparently, this lack of customer service doesn’t bother a good Swiss citizen. Last week, I was having dinner at the Grandhotel Giessbach with a couple of Swiss friends, Tom and Peter, who are vegetarians, when the waitress brought them each a plate of veal, even though they had ordered asparagus ravioli.
They told the waitress it was not what they had ordered, but instead of sending it back, Tom agreed to eat the veal and Peter switched his plate with my husband’s, who had been given vegetarian risotto.
Then, when the bill came, we had been charged for the meat even though we had ordered cheaper vegetarian items.
“Well, we ate it,” said Tom, clearly trained in the Swiss tradition that the customer has no rights and should be honoured to have been able to eat at the restaurant at all.
“Well, you shouldn’t have to pay for their mistake,” I said, in true American style.
It took some convincing, but finally, my Swiss friends agreed I was right and more amazingly, the restaurant changed the bill. While the waitress didn’t outwardly admit she had made a mistake, she gave us each a glass of Moscato d’Asti after the fact, a small salute that perhaps there is hope for customer service in Switzerland, after all.
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This is almost unbearable, and gives the impression that there is no service in Switzerland. As a counter example, I recently pulled into my local garage to get gas, and when I opened the hood to check fluid levels, the owner came out smiling and topped up all of them without me asking for help. I think many of the scenarios you observe may have something to do with your personality than being in Switzerland. As for Tom and Peter making the best of a bad situation - common sense, why waste good food? And nitpicking about the bill afterwards, well, that’s just being cheap. Please write about something that has some substance, and is informative, rather than this continuous stream of petty slights that could be encountered in any country.
Part of the problem is that service staff get paid a full salary (and service is automatically included in the bill) whether they do a good job or not. Once I was in a department store and wanted to pay for something (along with 10 other customers). On the other side of the till, 6 staff were chatting. So I went over to them and asked if I could pay. They rudely told me I shouldn’t be on that side & I replied that I knew & that they should be working. Maybe we should campaign for the British or American system whereby service an is an extra 10-20% based on the level of service provided. (or maybe send Esther Ranzen over here with her “Jobsworth” awards).
Chigs - I’ve said this before & I’ll say it again. If no one criticises the status quo, nothing will change. Blogs like these simply point out the failings in an otherwise perfect country. Don’t you want to improve your country, if you can? There are a few exceptions but service here is generally bad. When I go to America or Britain, the first thing I notice is the high quality of service compared to here.
Well, I think you put your finger on it. It is not that customers have no rights in Switzerland; what it is is that they often choose not to exercise that right. You had to convince your friend that the bill should be changed, not the restaurant.
Having lived in Texas for 10 years, I didn’t find that customers had more rights over there. I just thought people voiced their rights more than we do in Switzerland. I think we are more willing to close our eyes on small things rather than make a fuss just to simplify our lives. Why make a scene for a couple of bucks? It’s just easier not to do anything.
My experience in Texas is that you never get anything by asking nicely, even when it is the store that is at fault. To get a refund or something replaced, we were forced to make a scene and refuse to leave for them to budge. I even had to go to the extent of threatening to sue a travel agency to get the plane tickets they had charged me for but never sent me.
I had good and bad experiences in Texas just like I’ve had good and bad ones here in Switzerland or any other countries I’ve lived in. It’s just life.
Chigs, dude! If you don’t like what is written on this blog - for god’s sake - don’t read it. I love this site and I love reading about the good, the bad AND the ugly of Swiss life. I’m a huge fan of Switzerland, but it’s not Disneyland.
Somewhere halfway would be good. I do agree, from what I’ve seen, that staff is much more helpful in the US. But having a salesperson come and ask 17 times how it fits and if you need another size is annoying, as having to actively look for a salesperson to ask a simple question.
I have the impression in the US that you can actually make it a sport, complaining to get extra free stuff. And it may be true that you kind of have to “earn it” to get a service in Switzerland.
However, in your example, they should have complained about the veal/vegetarian mistake and they certainly should not accept to pay for the error. While I do agree that Swiss people probably don’t dare complaining, the people in your story do not me representative to me…
And it’s not uncommon to get the coffee free after a good meal.
checking into 5* hotel in UK today and kept waiting for 15 minutes whilst receptionist talked to what appeared to be her friend on phone - i was not in a hurry so didn’t scold her. I moved to Switzerland precisely because it is NOT like the US or the UK. Perhaps it is in someways similar to the way the uk used to be 30 years ago - people were generally more polite and helpful, and health and safety did not overrule common sense (e.g. got threatened on the street early this evening walking to restaurant). I enjoy the higher Swiss standards of almost every element of my life here; i don’t think anything mentioned on this blog will have any effect on the status quo, other than to misinform those who are unfortunate to not have experienced life here for themselves.
To say if you dont like it dont read it is being a little obtuse. Fact is that regardless of whether you like it or not it is important to see how Switzerland is being represented to English readers.
I suggest that the article and those before are supposed to be tongue in cheek and therefore taken with a pinch of salt, however perhaps for the next few articles, they could be humourous by another way, since once or twice is humour but constantly on this slight raises questions of the writers true feelings. While the argument that raising these points gives an opportunity to correct the wrong things in a country is particularly weak - this is a country and city which is undeniably more right than wrong and this is nit-picking. The fact too that this blog is on a public platform gives everyone the RIGHT to comment on it by all concerned. If you dont like the COMMENTS then dont read them could be a counter argument.
The biggest problem with this article and others is in my opinion Ex pats are often whiners and being an ex pat I believe you should show respect living in a foreign country and be sensitive to your “label”. Dont take cheap humour shots at your hosts constantly. By all means laugh at the Swiss, since in my experience they are often happy to do it themselves, but be careful and sensitive to those who are reading the article in how you portray your host country and its people because by putting it out there it would show responsible and professional journalism more than anything else.
If humour is a goal here then perhaps it is time to change the blog name and objectives since criticism should not be “A BLOG ABOUT LIFE IN SWITZERLAND”.
chigs - how is this misinforming anyone?? You can’t deny an experiance and a blog post based on that experiance. It is about your point of view.
My eating out experiance is CH is definately LOWER quality, LOWER customer service, LOWER cleanliness then my experiances in the US. I pay way too much for way too little. For me, it’s not about having a simpler life and not making a fuss, it about getting what you pay for and not letting people take advantage of you. My husband is a vegetarian and I would DEFINATELY send the veal back. It’s disgusting to feed a vegetarian an animal product. For him, it’s like putting a plate of vomit in front of him.
Like I said before, it is all about your PERSONAL experiances. If you can’t seem to take a personal experiance with a grain of salt, don’t read blogs. Chantal has every right in the world to talk and write about what happened to her and her own feelings.
I sooooo agree with what you wrote. But then sitting down and having to give my opinion just moves the balance half way. Yea, yea all right I am Swiss, laugh it out hahahah well I do. I’ve travelled quite a lot through USA, where I moved 6 months ago with my husband. I have to admit that every time I came to the United States one of the first thing I noticed that I enjoyed was customer service. I love how nice, so polite and just there ready to help out and come your way people are. It makes things so much easier sometimes. “Goodness, you actually DO get a customer service here!” I agree with the fact in Switzerland it is more tightened, less “giving for free” style and sometimes very, very way too strict. But let’s be clear, this shows also in other contests. Ex. in school. Do you think you can ask your Prof. for an extension or an understandable cause of delay on an assignment? No way! The first time I learned you could actually talk so freely to a Prof. was in usa. I think the difference goes more deeply in a bigger contest, called culture. And Switzerland it self it’s divided in 4 different ones. Try to explain how different lives are in ZH, Lugano, and Lausanne. But at the other hand Switzerland is a small country with a high standard that shows in everything. It’s exquisite in so many levels and you just can’t expect to be like other places, cause it’s not. And that’s the beauty of it. Cause you can like it and sometimes not. Fact is it makes it self unique and excellent maybe for exactly those parts we like less. High in efficiency, punctuality, uniqueness, high standards.. you have to get them somehow. Granted, I hate to be in a restaurant and almost afraid to ask something to the waiter cause you can tell he’s soooo unhappy with his job and he would kill you if you ask him for something extra or simply the check. “well I could leave without paying goodness!” or “why doesn’t he change his job??!”. But hey, I hate to go to the store here and wonder if what I’m buying is something that someone else has already used who knows for how long and then took it back. I love my Country so much, and along with customer service there’s other things I don’t like. And you know what? The very thing we can talk about it, laugh it out, and goodness.. even be a little more compassionate makes it possible maybe for a little change in better? I think so. And act on it even better. I love this blog! Thank you!
Apparently the level of customer service in Switzerland is a touchy subject
Of course, it all depends on your background and what you got used to growing up. I can only speak of my experience here, that’s why it’s great that you all leave comments about yours. It would be easy to write entry after entry about how enjoyable and beautiful Switzerland is, but we all know that–even if Zurich has fallen to spot #2 on the Mercer scale (must have been this year’s weather). My goal in writing most of these posts was to start a discussion more than anything else, so thanks for the feedback. The whole customer service thing can go the other way too after getting used to living in Switzerland. When I return now to the U.S., some aspects of customer service really seem overboard–like the waitresses that never leave you alone and are way too perky for someone carrying around constant 32 oz refills of soda. Still, I do appreciate other things–like being able to easily return items with no questions asked and sometimes even being given an additional incentive for my “trouble”.
I like this CHIGS persons view and the way the writing comes across.
I’m Swiss and always a bit insecure when visiting the old country - ready for what ever.
There though is every which kind of service available and with some knowhow [smile, friendly banter, good manners] the person one has dealings with usually becomes nice and downright human.
Great blog, yours, here.
Thanks.
Cheers from Alaska.
We’ve been here for 3 years and had good and bad service - just like in the States.
However, I did have my most “what the heck was that?” experience in a mountain restaurant near Lenzerheide last Fall.
I wanted the Apfelstruedel and as I have a nut allergy (Walnuts) asked the server what kind of nuts they used in the Struedel. She replied “Haselnuss” so I ordered it. 1/3 through, I though it tasted funny as well as I was feeling lightheaded. I started picking through it and there were large chunks of Walnut in the Struedel. Fortunately, my friend had Benadryl on her and we kept my symptoms down to adrenaline rush/lightheadedness.
I quickly let the server know the mistake she made and my allergy to which she replied “So, you don’t want the food then?” She didn’t ask me if I wanted anything else either. And then she tried to get me to pay for the Struedel because “I had eaten some of it.” I was very firm in my reponse that since I had inquired before as to the ingredients, she had made the mistake and the food made me sick, that, NO, I would not be paying for it but I would cover the cost of my coffee.
Now that, would definitely not happened in the States. You just have to laugh - as long as you’re not on your way to the hospital.
Well, by far the worst service I ever encountered in my life was in Berlin. Berliners are flat out the rudest people in the world, as even they will admit. It’s often hard to know there whether one is regarded as a customer or a criminal. It is also the only place I’ve been where people swear and yell on the street for no apparent reason. Hey, count your blessings. I got used to the Swiss ways in my 13 years there. I seldom was served or sold anything in Switzerland that was not pretty nice, so I tended not to complain. In fact, I got to appreciate the quiet, discreet and very civilized kind of service I got most places. And no tipping in restaurants. I miss that!
@Susan - that’s a really unfortunate experience and could have ended much worse! When you asked about the nuts did you emphasize that you have an allergy, or just ask what type of nuts were in the strudel? I had never heard of nut allergies until I was 30, so unless someone made it clear to me, I would not recognise how grave such a situation could become. It’s a bit rough asking you to cough up for it though, no pun intended
In the states I guess there would be a lawsuit. In Malta once I had a cappucino that had a cockroach hidden in the foam, and only noticed when i took a big gulp. And they too wanted me to pay for that! I think some places are geared up for trying to charge for what they can, and other more classy/prices places have some give and take.
This weekend I and a friend of mine travelled to Grindelwald to see the notorious Eiger North Face and take in the sights and sounds of a couple of glaciers along the way.
What started out and ended as a lovely and delightful day trip was only slightly marred by the rudeness of the SBB’s (Swiss railway) restaurant staff and ticket conductor both of whom couldn’t have been more obnoxious and unfriendly had somebody paid them for their efforts.
Having changed trains in Switzerland’s capital Bern and heading towards Interlaken we decided to enjoy a much needed coffee in the restaurant carriage and sat out gear as well as ourselves into some relatively comfortable seats and waited to place our order for two. The carriage was anything but full, with only three out of the dozen or so tables occupied by other thirsty and hungry passengers.
The waiter arrived after about ten minutes and, as planned, I ordered two cups of coffee for us. The waiter told us that coffee wasn’t available and we should choose something else instead. Without giving it further consideration I instead ordered a pot of tea for two. However, the waiter also thwarted this attempt of ours to quench our thirst. Rather unconvincingly the waiter explained to us that he was unable to serve us anything that requires heating. A little perturbed I asked the waiter what on earth he was talking about and was told that there wasn’t any electricity with which to run the kitchen. His explanation seemed a little odd to say the least. Not only was the carriage’s electric lighting in perfect working order, the train, powered by a modern day version of Robert Davidson’s chief invention, was also moving rapidly thanks to the overhead lines providing ample amounts of electricity. Odd as the waiter’s explanation seemed we let it be and continued watching the lovely scenery fly past our window seats. Twenty minutes past and the waiter returned out of nowhere. He asked us whether we had looked at the menu and wanted to order something from it. This time, using and pointing at the menu, we once more tried ordering another two cups of coffee, but alas to no avail. The waiter then told us we would have to vacate our seats and leave his little empire consisting of about a dozen tables and twice as many chairs. Slightly surprised by him demand, I told him to mind his own business and watched him leave in the opposite direction he’d come from.
Minutes later the waiter reappeared in the company of the train’s ticket inspector, who must have taken lessons at the same school of charm as did the waiter. The inspector repeated the waiter’s demand we leave, unless we order something from the menu. We laughed and told the ticket inspector we had already ordered from the menu and that it was hardly our fault the waiter couldn’t deliver our plain and simple order, consisting of nothing more than two straightforward cups of coffee, as requested by us previously twice before. The ticket inspector continued to insist we leave and got quite upset with our request for two cups of coffee. I then took a different approach, told him he was totally out of line, as the restaurant car was not exactly overcrowded with passengers wishing to be wined and dined and promptly requested a pen to write with.
A bit confused, the ticket inspector asked me what I might need a pen for, upon which I retorted that I’d like to write down his name. “I don’t have anything to write with”, he spluttered. “That’s strange”, said I, “you have a pen in your shirt pocket. I can see it sitting from here. May I now write with it, please?”. The ticket inspector continued to play for time and countered he didn’t have paper on which to write. “Don’t worry about paper, the train tickets will suffice”, I pressed on, “now may I have your pen, please?”. Reluctantly the ticket inspector handed over his pen, watched me write down his name that adorned the name tag clipped to his blue shirt and grabbed the pen from my hand the moment I had finished taking note of his name. The ticket inspector then repeated his demand one last time that we leave the restaurant carriage and with that we took our gear and left.
The following day I complained to SBB, the Swiss railway service, as well as the Swiss tourist board. I, of course, have yet to hear from either. Encounters such as these simply don’t thrill tourists travelling across Switzerland. A country, I may point out, that is quite heavily dependant upon tourism. For our part, not being tourists, but living and working in Switzerland, we have got used to the complete and utter lack of customer service in this country. Nevertheless, one does wonder quite how the Swiss can be so unrelentingly square and narrow minded…
My cousins came over one year for a 2-week visit. At the end of their trip, they asked me how I had survived here for so long without killing anyone. Maybe I’m just good at hiding the bodies
Alex’s story hardly sounds like it was the waiters’ fault. He assumes they had electricity, but does not know for sure. Perhaps the boiler was broken, the fuse gone, whatever - if the chap could have served coffee, can we really believe he would make such a drama? One can be sure that if one starts off treating people poorly, they’ll return the favor. Maybe they should have taken Alex’s name and report him for being bolshy.
Dear chigs,
Unfortunately for the waiter as well as the ticket conductor, and unbeknown to myself, my friend recorded the entire incident on her mobile phone. It’s quite entertaining to be frank with you. The matter is now being investigated by SBB and Swiss Tourism, as they both agree we did nothing wrong
After all, we wanted to consume something and thus spend money, however, our attempt to do so was foiled by the waiter’s poor manners and total inability to serve anything and nothing.
Furthermore, you are totally missing the point. It doesn’t matter whether there was a technical problem or not. What matters is that the customer should receive a friendly explanation and apology, for the inconvenience caused by whatever glitch there might have been, not marching orders for having done nothing wrong except wanting to order something from the menu. Fact is Swiss customer service, nine times out of ten, leaves the mind boggling. Instead of going the extra mile for a customer the Swiss aren’t even willing to offer the mere basics of customer service. Five years I and my wife tried buying an HP laptop at Interdiscount (who do not really sell anything at discounted prices btw). Nevertheless, they had the machine we desired and the store was on the ground floor of the building where I worked at that point in time. To cut a long story short, we knew what we wanted to buy, we were not in need of any advice regarding the machine, and so the plan was to walk into the store, spend about CHF 2′500 at the store and walk out again with our new purchase. Nothing more simple than that - one would think. But, oh no!! We were told they have no time to fetch the box from the back store room for us, because it’s lunch hour and they had other customers waiting! Our attempt to simply spend money, without even requiring customer service, had thus been thwarted LOL We ended up going to Manor instead, where the service was and still is first rate, I am happy to report
Fact is Chigs, customer service consists of a lot more than just taking people’s money and running off with it, or in Interdiscount’s case not even managing to do that LOL
Go to North America, go to the UK, go anywhere but Switzerland and you shall receive sensible and friendly customer service. Also, I fail to see why you feel the innate need to defend the Swiss regarding their total lack of customer focus. Why defend something that is simply rubbish? How about encouraging the Swiss to be more customer focused, especially in these economically harsh times? I mean, is it really asking too much for Swiss people to be friendly to their paying customers? I think not! If only because in the traditional sense of the meaning to be in service is to be employed as a servant and servants are there to serve, be polite and this is especially true if they are being paid to do so in the first place! I really fail to see what is so wrong or terrible about being polite to paying customers…., but I’m always happy to be enlightened as to the error of my ways
Dear chigs,
Thought you might love to know that my complaint didn’t fall on deaf ears after all. Just received a phone call from SBB customer service informing me the waiter was fired two weeks ago, because other customers had also complained about his poor mannerrs and foul behaviour. The ticket inspector is also being investigated and further feedback will follow regarding his treatment of customers as well
Satisfaction at last and well done SBB, I say!!
Dear Alex, only you can be the real judge of your interaction with the waiter and how much of the argument was due to him, and how much due to you. I feel sorry that someone loses their job though, as that is often the beginning of further troubles.
I think this article, and some of the comments have really struck a problem here in Switzerland. Of course, there is good service and bad service like anywhere, but from my experience service in Switzerland is genrally poor, with only a few exceptions.
Hi Freddie, I think another problem is that many service workers in Switzerland do not work for tips so they really have no incentive to offer great service.
I read the entire posts with fair amusement.
I can feel deeply for the incidents where one gets such horrible customer service, as I been there, had it.
It is a bit of over generalisation to compare it in such way. Between Swiss and other places like UK. I live in the UK but there are still horrible customer service experience here.
Personally, I will say this. Not as an attempt to undermine previous comments about people who is honestly expressing their opinions, I find that there is a generalised view of expecting the highest possible level of service from being a paying customer.
I have the money. I am the paying customer. You, waitress/counter person/conductor, etc. work for money and I expect you to treat me with decency.
When the balance of power tips too much of the mentality the customer is always right, the approach of a mutual respect in a sales encounter diminishes.
In a position if I think I am a service worker, would you imagine that I would want to serve you with proper respect if you have a rude attitude? I may be a very nice person who likes to serve. You may know that you can complain if my service falls below your expectations and your complains and rants especially to a much higher level will cause me my job. I would hate to lose my living that way.
Still, do I deserve to be treated with little respect only when most customers think they are the kings?
Now. Isn’t that a strong point one may need to consider? I am not a salesperson or in such a service provision. I am an author on happiness.
If we start and consistently deal with service men and women with great respect, you will find that such experience would been more pleasant.
That comes from my own experience as well. No, I don’t get 100% pleasant encounters all the time. However, I get it 9 out of ten times. Sometimes, the chemistry is not right, the person behind the counter had a bad day (maybe her pet just died) or it could be anything, you maybe let down.
However, that is a part of life.
When more people practice greater tolerance and respect to others, life and working encounters would been so much better. Imagine going to work daily knowing you will help lots of nice and friendly faces. The horrible person on some occasions may ruin the day, but that won’t be too bad when one learns to accept it.
I only started wanting to say a few sentence of how much I love Switzerland it’s high level of:
Class.
Culture.
Sophistication.
And to say I feel and emphasise deeply with everyone’s experience here.
We can continue to make ourselves unhappy over them, or we can look forward to make our simple selves a bit happier, and I hope in that simple process, snowball it to greater things in life.
Thank you if you have come this far.
I’ve lived in several countries in 5 continents, and believe me, Switzerland has the WORST customer servicer ever! If this country breaks its bank system, they’re going back to the time they were starving and drinking horse’s urine.
Since there was never a time we were starving and drinking horse’s urine, we have nothing to fear. Maybe we have the worst customer service in the world but somehow, we have the best service in the world. Go figure that one out!!!!