Customer Service in Ireland
You’ve heard me mention that I don’t like customer service in America.
Because you hear voices presumably.
Whatever the reason, it’s true. And last night I was reminded why, in contrast, I like customer service in Ireland.
I went out for a dinner last night. It involved going to a part of Dublin I haven’t been to for many years. As such the area has changed significantly and I was going to one of those changes.
Boarding the bus at the terminus in town I asked the the driver how much the fare was to where I wanted to go, and he told me it was 1.60 euro.
So then I asked him if he could give me a shout when we got there. And he said no.
Okay he didn’t actually say no; I’m paraphrasing. What he actually said was that I’d know it when I’d see it - even though you might think that asking him to tell you would suggest you have no idea what it looks like nor where on the bus route it might be.
But just in case you were in any doubt as to whether he was really saying no he clarifies by adding that he wouldn’t remember to tell me anyway.
As it turned out, luckily enough the bus was packed with about 20 people standing, so it was almost impossible to see out and somehow recognise a place that you had never seen before.
So I resorted to that old method of just following my nose and getting off the bus when I sensed it might be the right time. And give the bus driver his due for as it turned out I had indeed picked the very stop I was supposed to get off to go to my destination.
Alas this story of Irish customer service doesn’t have a happy ending for the driver recognised me as I got off and insisted I get back on and travel one more stop.
So I did, and bearing in mind that bus stops in Dublin are much greater distances apart than the single block distances of KC’s metro routes, together with not yet knowing that my previous deboarding (is that a word?) was at the correct stop, well an extra 20 minutes was added to the travel time to my dinner date.
Oh, and remind me not to use phrases like “dinner date” again.
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