Eloise HorsfieldEXCLUSIVE by James Bryce
A FURIOUS expat was so angry at the customer service he received at electrical shop Worten that he smashed his new printer on the ground in protest.
John Brenchley took the drastic action after the manager at the company’s branch in Malaga refused to offer a refund or replacement for the faulty item.
Brenchley, who has lived in Spain for 25 years, had been forced to repeat the 100 mile round trip to the shop from his home in Almunecar after getting home to discover that the colour printer did not work.
But after examining the printer- which was required to be in its original packaging – the store manager informed him that the installation CD was missing, voiding the warranty.
On realising he had left the CD at home, and in anger at the manager’s refusal to test it, Brenchley took matters into his own hands.
“I am sorry to say that faced with such injustice and the fact that I had just wasted a lot of time driving all the way back, I lost my temper,” the expat told the Olive Press.
“I picked up the printer and held it above my head and then crashed it down onto the floor with all the force I could muster.
“Unfortunately it was still in a salvageable condition, so I continued kicking it which made large clouds of blue and red dust fly into the air.
“I am not proud of the fact that I lost my temper but at least it provided some amusement to the other customers.”
Best to avoid the dreaded Wortens; they have one of the worst customer service and returns policies. This is the dozenth story I’ve heard about problems with faulty items and returns. It is best to use Wortens as a testing lab and then purchase online from a large supplier with a proper returns policy. Simples.
I do not know if that is a Spanish ,German or English etc etc. If I were you. I would write a letter to the company headquarters via email and request they provide you with a printer free of charge.
That’ sure to do the trick. Way to go, put the frighteners on ’em.
….. in my experience the printer usually works after you gave it a good bashing.
Maybe worth forwarding this article to their local and HQ offices offering to publicise the generous compensation and apology that they might like to offer their dissatisfied customer
Why didnt he buy another similar printer at the shop and remove the CD and put it with the faulty one he was returning ? job done !
Another Brit yob!
How does losing ones temper translate to the person being a “yob” Anna? Do tell.
Get it on Amazon and live longer
And when they (inevitably) go the same way as PC City, everyone will scratch their heads and blame ‘la crisis’.
Right on Brian, Wortens is a dead-zone with more staff than customers. Extinction beckons.
After 25 years of living here you should know that stamping your feet will get you absolutely nowhere with a Spaniard. And since YOU were at fault for not returning the entire product, the manager had good reason to refuse a refund.
That said, this company is not well renowned for it’s customer service and even if you had returned the complete package it’s doubtful a replacement would have been offered. So what’s wrong with the ‘complaints book’?. You can’t beat the system, you have to master it.
Now you have lost your product, wasted fuel and behaved like a spoilt child in the store. Para nada.
Agreed Amparo. What did the manager do wrong.
Gresham. What the manager did wrong, used to be called “dumb insolence” in the forces. Nowadays, it’s called, “at the wind-up”
Well, anyone who expects customer service in Spain is going to be disappointed.
M.K. You are wrong. You reap what you sow…..
I recently bought a faulty electrical product from LIDL. Using their website I complained. 24 hours later I received a phone call from the manufacturer in Germany asking for an image of the receipt by email.
Three days later I received a replacement via courier.
Further, the following week I received 2 phone calls from LIDL asking if the issue had been satisfactorily resolved.
In addition I have, over the years received similar reactions to criticising comments I have sent using the Mercadona website. And our local (Spanish) traders fall over themselves to ensure customer satisfaction.
Brian,
Lidls is German and Mercadona operates more like a northern European operation.
That said I bought a pair of shoes from Lidl that were faulty and when I took them back a trainee manager tried to make me look small by shouting at me in front of other customers – he made a big mistake – I’m not English but Celtic, that does’nt work on me.
So in my louder voice I slated him in German which of course the idiot did’nt understand and then said in Spanish that I was going to email Lidls head office in Germany and get him sacked. He threw the shoes in a bin and he ordered the cashier to give me a refund – the next week he was’nt there and the same female cashier that had given me the refund was smiling and happy to tell me he had been fired.
Brian I think the same can be said of 99% of small traders anywhere, their actions directly affect their business.
Stuart Crawford. So, presumably you would expect the manager of, say, Dunnes here in Andalucía to speak Gaelic, or maybe he of Carrefour in Málaga to speak French, or maybe he of the local Toyota showroom to be fluent in Mandarin, or possibly the manager/ess of Zara in Tokyo to speak Castellano. I doubt if they would be well pleased at being called ‘idiots’ at not being able to do so.
The next time I go to Franfurt I will visit Lidl there and let off steam in my mother tongue to see how they react. Probably the same as the unfortunate soul you had a go at here.
By using the Complaints Book you would have scared him into realising his error and offer you a refund/replacement and he would have learned a lesson. A win win outcome.
Instead he has lost his job and Lidl now has to recruit and train a replacement. Who do you think will pay for that not inconsiderable task??. A lose lose outcome. Nice one.
Just for clarification:
Worten is a Portuguese retailer.
Here we go again at Wonderful Worten!
I purchased an ink cartridge for my Hp printer only to find when I opened it that is was damaged. I immediately returned it to the store in Mijas where purchesed and requested a replacement, needless to say I included all the original packageing plus, my purchase reciept. All to no avail. The very rude young man I spoke to informed me that there was nothing he could do to help me and I would have to purchase another cartridge at full price. I requested to see the manager only to be informed that he was busy and if I cared to wait about two hours he may be able to see me? He then handed me a complaints form and walked away. If this is the standard of service we can expect from Worten I suggest that we all walk away from them?????????????
Gerry
Gerry Aylward**** So why did you waste your time going to a trader with known lousy customer service standards?. Did you fill in the complaints book?.. If so the consumer dept is obliged to take the appropriate action.
I know amparo will not agree with me here. However my experience of the Fuengirola Worten is not good either, perhaps other branches are better. I understand we are in Spain and that we should make some attempt to speak the language (Stuart does. After all in England we wouldn’t expect staff at the local Comet to speak Spanish. The situation is very different on the coast though. If it were not for the vast potential local English speaking custom then Worten would not have opened up. Then, of course, the products they sell are of a technical nature needing a better understanding of the Spanish language. I have found on some visits absolutely no English speaking staff
No winners here as I would avoid them unless buying something very simple, the cost of which you can write off.
In the past I have written to Portugal HO with no response there either.
Perhaps amparo will enlighten us to how the Complaints Book system works. I cannot be the only one that loves the coast and the friendly people, who once challenged in the slightest become withdrawn and rude
I took issue once with a Mijas restaurant who were allowing smokers in the dining room. They pointed to a licence on the wall (presumably legal)issued by the Town Hall on payment of a fee. That just about sums up that system. What makes you think the Complaints book system is any better
*** John Simpson*** Correct, I don’t agree. In England, if you go to a retail shed, you get a no frills transaction and although, clearly this is no excuse for lousy service (in either country) you would not expect multi lingual staff, correct?. So why should Spain be any different?. If you want a multilinguistic service (English is by no means the only major component of the coastal mix of idiomas), you go to a more upmarket store and expect to pay a little more. Worldwide, you get that which you pay for. You might take some comfort in knowing that Worten will probably learn the hard way.
You ask for the complaints book and complete (in Spanish) the form in triplicate, one copy for you, one for the consumer dept (which you should take or send by correo certificado), and one for the business. From then the consumer dept will follow their procedures which can vary slightly with each municipio. And if they refuse to hand it over, using your mobile, you call the consumer dept whilst in the store and report their refusal. Chances are they would hand it over before your call is answered.
The holding of a business licence is not an authorisation to permit smoking on the premises, that requires a different public advice.
Sorry amaparo but you haven’t understood my mail which I wrote very carefully so as not to offend. If you read it again you will see I don’t expect shops in England to be multilingual but on the Costas there is a VAST English speaking population whether they are British or not. Most Europeans now have English as a second language. Without that population shops such as Worten and endless other tourist attractions might well not be there.
It is, as you say, in the pocket that Worten will feel it and if that is our only recourse the so be it
I understand the system of the complaints book now and it seems on the surface to be a good one, but is very longwinded. Would it not just be better that the shops adopt a basis of customer service at the point of sale. This clearly doesn’t happen at Worten and the managers behaviour – given that the story is true – is plainly unacceptable.
I had retail shops over a period of 30 years and can see both sides of an argument but I still find the disinterest by the average Spanish shop assistant as very rude, even allowing for language and cultural differences. Nothing we can do as foreigners in your country is going to change that so we have to vote with our feet
One simple thing they could do is provide English instructions with their products. Most of them include Spanish, Portuguese and occasionally arabic and Greek but no English. On occasions I have obtained English instructions from HO’s or the internet but if they are not available at point of sale and the staff don’t speak any English it is an uphill battle
Perhaps if I were to pose an offensive question would you prefer it all the English speaking, non-Spanish speaking residents went home to their respective countries and left you with even more massive unemployment and near desert conditions through lack of finances for local services. No I thought not so please support us in simple requests. It works two ways
Again you haven’t understood my comment about smoking. The law is there to prohibit smoking for medical reasons and therefore for the Town Hall to sell licences to circumvent the Law is obviously wrong
To make an example here in my UK home town the council banned the placing of advertising on the pavement so as not to cause obstruction to those with sight issues UNLESS the business pays for a licence. So does this suddenly make the signs visible to the visually impaired – funny old world
John Simpson – “Perhaps if I were to pose an offensive question would you prefer it all the English speaking, non-Spanish speaking residents went home to their respective countries and left you with even more massive unemployment and near desert conditions through lack of finances for local services.”
Talk about an entitlement complex. As if because you are an English-speaker from the UK you are some kind of blessing to Spain.
How about you just learn the language of the country you live in instead of expecting them to provide you with special services because you never bothered to do so?
Like I have said many times – this is the main issue that causes difficulty for people in Spain. They don’t learn the language. And secondly, they don’t learn the culture.
And another thing – if you move to a country and don’t learn the language it is seen as extremely disrespectful. Especially if you live there and are not an obvious tourist. Tourists get a pass. Residents don’t. If people are rude to you (which is questionable, given that Spanish culture often seems ‘rude’ to the British) perhaps you deserve it for not learning Spanish. You were rude first, after all.
Consider that, in Spain, culturally, it is not considered “rude” to act in certain ways that would be “rude” in the UK. In the UK if you complain the staff might bend over backward for you – that “politeness” is a part of UK culture. You can practically spit on a British person and get a polite response. Not so in Spain. In Spain it is completely normal for a standard interaction to be curt and seem ‘rude’ by UK standards. (Hint: if you’re a charmer and speak Spanish well the opposite is true – the Spanish will bend rules for you and treat you like family.)
No matter how many foreigners are on the coast, despite what you may think, the situation is not different. You’re still in Spain. A majority of the population is still Spanish. Hardly any natives speak English. You’re in a Spanish culture. The Costa Del Sol is not the Southern UK Company.
Take your example of the bar in Mijas with people smoking. You arrive – people are smoking. That’s the way it is run in that bar, legal or illegal. And then you get upset because the entire bar doesn’t conform to your expectations. You expect the world to capitulate to you rather than adapting to the circumstances around you. This is what is causing your issues.
The fact is, you are welcome in Spain. The Spanish don’t have any issue with you. It is not like you are a Moroccan or Romanian. I’d wager you’re welcome in the smoking bar in Mijas, too. But when you get bent out of shape because the world around you doesn’t conform to your standards – be it British cultural expectations, smoking, your interpretation of the law, people in a store not speaking English, etc. – then you’re the one who is at fault.
If you can’t handle people smoking in a bar you simply need to find another bar. If you don’t like Worton then don’t shop at Worton (although you’ll probably find it is the same everywhere). If Spain is too radically different culturally or linguistically for you to cope then you might actually be happier elsewhere.
I am not saying “get out” by any means. But the reality of it is that many people simply have too hard of a time adapting to Spain (or any foreign county) to live here comfortably. You can’t be bothered to learn the language. You don’t understand the culture. You think people treat you badly. The Spanish aren’t authoritarian; they bend the law. They smoke in some bars. You don’t like that – you’re an authoritarian who wanders into their bars and tries to play police. People don’t stand in neat queues. It’s like a feminist trying to live in Saudi Arabia. It just doesn’t work for some people.
Reality,
you keep coming up with tne same b/s.
Spain just cannot come to terms with the 21st century but is only too happy to accept lots of money from northern Europe – time we stopped and let them get on with all the problems their corrupt mentality has created.
I now live in France – they brought in a no smoking in bars/restaurants law – guess what Reality – the French as a whole obey the law – why can’t the Spanish.
You keep making excuses for them – why. If they don’t like the EC it’s simple – leave – ah – no more subsidies.
Stuart – “Spain just cannot come to terms with the 21st century.”
This is called ethnocentrism. Spain is in the 21st century. So is the United Kingdom, Uganda, Somalia, the United States of America, Indonesia, etc. There is no country living in a time warp. We’re not talking about a remote or excluded tribe that has been cut off from the rest of the world. We’re talking about the fact that Spain simply has a different culture – it isn’t required to accept or endorse a different culture if that isn’t what the Spanish people want.
Saying “they aren’t in the 21st century” is the same type of British ethnocentrism that, in the past, referred to other cultures as “savages” and used it as a justification for colonization. Similarly, you are attempting to use the EC as a justification for why Spain should change its culture.
You left Spain and now you live in France. Spain didn’t work out for you – you couldn’t cope and adjust here. That is fine. The culture didn’t mesh with your expectations when you came here. You found someplace that more closely resembles the order and authoritarian nature of your home country. That is good. For many of us, we actually prefer Spanish culture to French culture. Or to British culture.
You also seem to have a bit of a disconnect between the Spanish people, Spanish culture and Spanish legislation. Spain also passed legislation banning smoking. Spain is in compliance with the EC as far as that is concerned. However, this does not mean that Spanish culture or the Spanish people are going to change as a result. And the EC doesn’t require that.
To use the bar in Mijas as an example – it is obvious a majority of people in this bar want to smoke. They are the regulars. I know of other bars like this. The police will not take any action because they respect the liberty of the regulars. No one has to bribe them. No corruption is involved (corruption exists everywhere, of course, but not in this example). It simply isn’t a part of Spanish police culture to enforce a law unless people are actively complaining about it. Even then it takes a lot of complaining.
Another example – in Madrid I have actually seen people smoking marijuana on the street in front of the police. The police see and do nothing. This is very common in Andalucia as well. In Paris I witnessed two police officers follow a man smoking marijuana, find the discarded remains and proceed to beat him violently before making an arrest. In Spain there is a strong emphasis on personal liberty. In France there is a strong emphasis on authority and law.
The EC does not require Spain to send a military-style police force through the country and drag people kicking into the street should they refuse to comply. This is a more common police response in France – thus the high level of police fear and compliance. It’s a reflection of French culture – not the EC or the century the country is in. You’ve got more order in France (sometimes – remember the riots), but you have less liberty. That’s a trade off and part of the French culture.
Other countries you might like – the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, USA.
Other countries you probably wouldn’t like – Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece
None of these countries are more “advanced” or “cultured” or “civilized” or “in the 21st century.” You’ll notice they don’t all fall into neat categories. Some have strong reputations for protecting personal liberty, but lack economic prosperity (Greece, Portugal). Others are strong economically and protect personal liberty (Canada, Belgium, Netherlands). Then you have authoritarian states with strong economies (Singapore, UK) and authoritarian states with weak economies (Indonesia, etc.).
So it is up to you. We see that you no longer live in Spain, despite the inordinate amount of time you devote to commenting on Spanish affairs. You didn’t make it here. You didn’t adapt. However, there are many places that you can live that fit your mentality and expectations quite well. You may find out that France is too difficult for you as well after some time. But I would take the lessons you learned from Spain and don’t make the same mistakes there – you’re not at home in the UK. The culture is different. It may be more similar than Spain, but you cannot expect everything to function as it did in the UK and then play the victim – crying about how backwards it is – when you’re the one who failed to cope and had to leave at no fault other than your own.
I hope the authority you so despise is there when you next rub the wrong person up the wrong way.
You again miss the point. I was not complaining – at this time – about the smoker, nor against the restaurateur but against the principle that the government can pass a law (that most civilised people within the European Community and beyond would observe even if they did not agree with it)which the Town Hall can then override at the drop of a few quid in the coffers
My wife and I have been regular visitors to the coast for twenty years and have taken lessons without success. Our custom and our presence has almost always been treated with friendliness but on the occasions I describe we have been less fortunate. I don’t know whether you live near the coast but most of the business people here are extremely keen to talk in English, for all the English speaking visitors who are not as gifted as you claim they ought to be.
Recently I attempted to order a meal in a local restaurant only to be asked reasonably politely to “talk in English please as you are doing my head in”. The waiter had obviously taken a practical English lesson which made us all laugh
You on the other hand appear to be totally humourless.
Take a pill and get off you soap box
John Simpson – “most civilised people”
This is the attitude that makes it hard for people in Spain. It’s that colonial British attitude; “Oh, how uncivilized! The civilized countries don’t do that! We should force them to!” And it would probably make it hard to live in most places around the world. The idea that because people act differently, or that because the system functions differently, they are less than “civilized” is ethnocentrism. Spain is civilized, believe it or not. It is just different.
If a law were passed in the United Kingdom that you could not eat fish and chips on Wednesday I think that, without question, restaurants would stop serving fish and chips on Wednesday. People wouldn’t fight it. They would simply obey – because that is the law. And that’s the culture in the UK. Just do it because that’s the way it is; obey the law; be civilized.
Not so in Spain. If a law is passed but you have a group of people who really don’t like it they are going to find a way around it. They will try to get it changed, get an exemption, find a loophole, or if all else fails just ignore it. A bar that has always been full of smokers is going to keep smoking. They will just put the cigarettes low if the police pass by. And the police we see it out of the corner of their eyes anyway, but ignore it.
That does not make the Spanish people less civilized. They are not barbarians because of this. We’re not talking about cannibals running around in loincloths. There are no human sacrifices. People can read. And – this part may surprise you – there are roads, cars, television, radio, even doctors and scientists. There are engineers and architects. There are molecular biologists and brain surgeons. Spain is just as civilized as any other place in the world.
Oh for goodness sake what is wrong with you? You seem to have a chip, of the non-potato kind. However I’m unsure whether you have an inferiority complex or a superiors one. Perhaps you can enlarge in boring detail on that.
If you think it is OK that I and my family should breathe in cancerous fumes from civilised people from any country then you are sadly out of touch.
For my part I love the Costa Mijas way of life but as in the UK we do have freedom of speech which unfortunately also means we have to tolerate all your diatribes
Reality,
what a pompous prat you are and you manifestly hav’nt got a clue about the Spanish mentality.
Spain does’nt work out for a lot of foreigners be they Brits/Dutch/German or French. All these different nationalities operate slightly differently from one another but basically see the world the same way. There are no illegal builds in Britain/Germany/the Netherlands/Belgium or France and all these countries have proper planning regs.Also they don’t have judges that are bought so easily.
You hav’nt got a clue about me as a person so how do you know how we coped – we coped very well and one of the reasons we always chose to live amongst the Spanish was because of foreign morons like you.
How do you know what life is like in France – have you lived there because you seem to know everything about everything.
All those countries you have mentioned – have you ever lived in any of them and don’t try and b/s us that you have because then we can be sure you are not only a mouth merchant but a mendacious one as well.
I’m not at all sorry to burst your bombastic balloon but I have lived and worked in the Netherlands and Belgium and learnt to speak Dutch quickly, working with men that did’nt speak English. I have many Dutch and Belgium friends and shock horror they think exactly the same about Spain and how it operates.
John Simpson – Reality is ‘the nowhere man’ in fact I’m not sure that he is’nt Further Beyond (they could be twins) – have you ever seen so much poo come from one mouth. Also it would be good to hear what the hell he did/does for a living – can you imagine having to work alongside that mouth of his.
Reality – I have to salute you as the most pompous prat I have never met face to face which is a shame because I would love that encounter but I know for sure you would’nt.
To all other posters – there is only one way to deal with this mouth merchant as Fred has already said – don’t feed the troll – just ignore him. When no one responds to them, they will eventually disappear back round the s-bend.
***Reality****John Simpson****
Por el amor de Dios, ¡Cállenese!
This facility is here to express views on Olive Press reports not as some kind of Speakers Corner in Hyde Park where anything goes.
Amparo: Stick to the point on Comment Corner? Perish the thought! It should be renamed Ranters Anonymous.
OK point taken but it is difficult not respond when someone is being deliberately mendacious
My point backalong is that Worten and shops on the coast, whether reality likes it or not, have a VAST core of English speaking potential customers. If the retailers cannot communicate with them, or provide English instructions, it will be their loss and poor customer service to boot will not help.
***John Simpson***. So don’t take the bait.
No-one denies there is a substantial % of English speakers on the coast. Those few traders who ignore such potential within their customer profile deserve to suffer lost custom. P.C. City was a good example.
But what really gets up a Spaniards nose is the notion that this attitude is inherently typical. It is not. English is compulsory all through the education system. Even on the coast a generation or two will pass before it becomes the second language as in for example Holland. In the meantime there are, for those who find Spanish difficult (or are too lazy to learn it), a plethora of traders who try very hard to capture foreign custom.
Long ago, my one and only lamentable visit to a well known Tottenham Court Rd store left me seething after I had asked a staff member of the ‘innit’ culture to speak more clearly and his reply was “oh, for f***s sake”. Fortunately my English half brother had furnished me with an impressive repertoire of Anglo Saxon expletives from which to select a suitable response. I then bestowed upon him a extra appellation which rhymed with ‘banker’ and consoled myself knowing that swearing in another language would not require a month proffering hail mary’s. I found solace in that oasis of customer service, Sainsbury, and they had my custom.
So, is the most cosmopolitan city of the UK any different?. No, it’s arguably worse. Which is why our complaints book system is far more effective, so long as it’s used.
Nice and I will try.
I understand what you are saying. The for ****’* sake breed is a tribe of it’s own an increasing too rapidly. Blame the media. London may well be most cosmopolitan but spread over a vast area.
John Simpson – “If you think it is OK that I and my family should breathe in cancerous fumes from civilised people from any country then you are sadly out of touch.”
Who is forcing you to breathe cancerous fumes? No one is trapping you inside a bar. You entered at your own free will. You have the option to leave. It’s like going in a strip joint and saying “They forced me to look at a naked female body!”
Personally I don’t smoke – if I’m in a bar with smokers I’m choosing to breath their cancerous fumes. They’re not sneaking into my house at night and blowing it in my face while I sleep. No one is forcing anything upon me. I’m making the choice myself. I’m accountable, not them. You should be accountable for your own choices too.
Why do you think it is okay to take away the liberty of people in private establishments so you don’t have to smell bad odors. (Remember – car exhaust is more dangerous than cigarette smoke. Lets ban it). Why can’t bars decide if they are going to permit smoking (or kids or whatever). Then if you don’t like a bar you can leave and find a new one.
Bars are private places, after all. Funny enough, if you’re walking down the street someone can follow you around and blow smoke directly in your face. And that’s in public. So we’re going to take away the liberty of people – banning their behaviors in their own private spaces – while letting the exact same behaviors occur in public paces.
Stuart – “All those countries you have mentioned – have you ever lived in any of them and don’t try and b/s us that you have because then we can be sure you are not only a mouth merchant but a mendacious one as well.”
I’ve lived in a few different countries – most not in the EU. Depending on how long you consider “living” you could count Italy or Portugal if you’re talking between 1-2 years. Aside from Spain that’s it in the EU.
Serbia, Romania. Honduras. Singapore. Malaysia. Indonesia. Mexico. Yes to all. 3-5+ years, depending.
So I see people complaining about corruption in Spain, or how bad it is that a traffic cop pocketed their money (by the way, the Olive Press just ran a story about a ‘rogue’ officer doing some prison time for collecting bribes. Imagine that ever happening to a cop in Mexico.) I see people saying Spain is a “third world” country or that it is “uncivilized” when it’s actually a super-cushy, easy-to-live in country. I suppose I’m used to seeing, you know, actual oppression as a daily norm.
For the British, they are “oppressed” and their rights are “horribly violated” if their 300,000 Euro luxury home is declared illegal (despite nothing actually happening anyway, so effectively they can just ignore it). People complaining about getting a ‘fine’ from a traffic officer when I’ve seen people beaten within inches of their lives for not having enough cash to withdraw from an ATM. “Journalist censorship” because someone got fired for not pleasing the ruling political party (“Oh no it’s like Franco!”). When it’s common to see dismembered bodies of journalists hanging from bridges.
So it seems to me like a bunch of rich retirees posting about how difficult Spain is and I think to myself – wow, there is a whole world out there. And if they can’t cut it in Spain, Dear Baby Jesus help them should they venture out of Europe and try to live in a different country that doesn’t pamper and shelter them.
So congratulations on leading your privileged life in Belgium and the Netherlands. The judges are incorruptible and you can build expensive houses without having to have even the slightest wits about you. It’s obvious to me that your life has been so incredibly sheltered that even a safe Western European country is difficult for you to live in. It has given you a completely distorted view of what real corruption is and what it really means to live in a country – countries that millions of us still live in comfortably despite the issues – with crime or corruption issues. And, essentially, what the world the rest of the 99% (to use an expression) actually live in.
This is why we see headlines such as:
“Dangerous Crime Spree Alert: British Tourist Loses Wallet On Beach.”
“Scary Men From Africa Selling Counterfeit Items. Beware.”
“Man Fails to Resolve Agricultural Problem With Neighbor. Requested to Remove Cactus.”
“Man steals food for poor people. Expats up in arms at potential price increases.”
“Man Smoking in Bar; Police Notified.”
“Teenager at Worton fails to speak English; Chaos Ensues”
And everyone expresses outrage as if their most basic human rights have been violated. As if they were simultaneously infected with Ebola, forced into detention camps and had their loved ones sold into slavery.
Rememer folks, don’t feed the troll.
OK Fred
Am aspiring to be better not worse
I was referring to the astrotroll, Reality. Tomorrows headline will surely be:
“Reality says nothing we don’t already know: Boredom ensues.”
Yep realised that. I meant that I would rather aspire to greater heights in human behaviour than lower standards to those reality has endured
Reality makes sense, the English residents have a reputation for grassing people up round here or reporting every little thing to the police rather than approaching the person directly first.
I can’t stand the English in spain – I try not to mix with them, its bloody embarrassing.
UK expat
Pass through then or change your acquaintances
I know this thread is old, but anyway I have to say something. I completely agree with Reality. From my point of view, it is quite clear that Simpson and Crawford do not like the Spanish, for whatever reason. Their ethnocentrism is clear to me, so clear that I am not going to waste my time commenting on it.
Reality, you have a very enlightened mind, you seem to have a very, very good understanding of things.
Just one thing about “Spain just cannot come to terms with the 21st century but is only too happy to accept lots of money from northern Europe”: Crawford, PLEEEEEASE (now you cannot say I am a rude, lazy Spaniard who leaves saying “please” for tomorrow), PLEEEEEEEEEASE shove your money up your **** and go back home, because the French are innocent as well, and they do not deserve having to put up with you.
“Reality” Now there’s a name to conjure with. A real rave from the grave. Wonder who “Reality” morphed into ?…..
After reading most of the mail complaining about service I must be the luckiest English person in returning electrical goods (very rare) purchased from Worten or Carrefor. Flat T.Vs never had problems, but I recently purchased another external hard drive from Worten and when plunged in it didn’t work. I immediately returned and it was replaced there and then on the spot.
I also recently purchased an electrical kettle from Carrefor (not a cheap one) and again the flip top was not working correctly. Again immediately returned and it was replaced.
I have also found no problem in both places if you ask for a English speaking person especially in the T.V and computer section, but English staff are available.
I must admit it can be frustrating to find instructions
not carrying the English language in some cases but it is not the fault of retail companies but the manufactures.
I suppose next there will be complaints that purchasing a computer in Spain is in Spanish and before there is a deluge of replies I know it can be translated but to a new computer user it’s very frustrating and don’t really know what to do.
Spaniard, where on earth do you get the idea from any of my correspondence that I dislike Spain or the Spanish. Totally untrue.
Caccia, this post is anything up to 2 1/2 years old and I have noticed improvements in the handloing of returns
@Gary Wisdom
FEBRUARY 1ST, 2012 9:38 AM
You said:-“Why didnt he buy another similar printer at the shop and remove the CD and put it with the faulty one he was returning ? job done”
Just stop and think what you have said.
That’s two printer he would have purchased.
He could have gone to collect the disc he had left behind, it was his problem and not the retailer.
That mean’s another printer with a disc missing.
Could break a returning contract with the manufacture placing the problems with the retailer which was no fault of theirs but purely the fault of the purchaser.
Get my drift.
I recently bought a PC at Worten and after 5 days the screen began to crack. I had not dropped it or anything like that
The girl in worten just kept saying that I had dropped it and that there was no replacement. Really they should prove it had no defect , no me
Their customer service is absolutely terrible _ third world. Just avoid Worten. In Marbella only foreigners like me are stupid enough to buy there
If you have to buy in Worten always use American Express
Spain doesn’t do customer service, Worten is one of the worst. I bought something that was the wrong size for my appliance. They would not, change it even though I had asked a member of staff which to buy. When confronted he lied through his teeth that he had advised me.
One place I do recommend is El Corte Ingles, they are excellent