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Just got off the call with a building company. 2 days before the work was scheduled, they cancelled. I wrote them an e-mail, simply pointing out that I didn't find the communication on the phone very polite, considering my situation.
Afterwards, the wife of the builder called and told me that she didn't know why I found the previous call problematic and that she feels sorry if I had perceived it as impolite but she doesn't have to apologize for what she said.
This devalues the whole apology - why do you have to point out that you don't have to apologize, or that I need to have some understanding for your situation as a company when I am understandably upset by the cancellation and the fact, that they wrote me an e-mail saying that they can't give an alternative date? Throughout the whole call, she wanted to make a point about that the fact she was right and that basically I was too sensitive. In the end, they cancelled on the work completely just because I did not want to give in and accept that she was not being rude to me. WTF.
I hate it when they can't own their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions. I have experienced situations before, when I was upset and I tried to communicate that, but then in the end I was blamed for just being too sensitive or being dramatic. It's easier I guess not to look at yourself and admit a mistake. I freaking hate them all!!
Thank you. I guess due to the shortage of builders here they don't care about smaller customers. But why did they accept my order in the first place? And just because they are in demand it doesn't mean that I need to accept abusive behavior. Thankfully, no financial damage was caused. Only a lot of trouble.
A typical Berlin Customer experience: A couple of days ago I went to Saturn to buy a new body trimmer. Bought the device. Felt peeved there was no-one to help me, and instead witnessed a member of staff shouting at a customer and looking irritated that he has to ...do his job... and speak to members of the public and HELP them. In Germany there are never enough people working as assistants, so we have to wait around as customers like puppies yelping to be seen, only to be barked back at. Anyway, I bought the device and went home. Plugged it in, and it didn't charge or turn on. Brought it back to exchange today aaand, went to the huge counter entitled CUSTOMER SERVICE only to be told this only for online customers and I have to go to another counter. Get to the other counter and am told to go up to get the product myself, and then find a worker to sign something. So I have to traipse my butt up to the 4th floor, find the shaver again, and here the fun begins... try to find a free worker. I run up and down the aisles chasing them (puppy) and while I go over to one an opportunistic german comes along from the other direction and jumps in to the other assistant... think supermarket checkouts ... no queuing system, just a free for all... who can be the most dominant and pushy, and shameless. Only the bolshy thrive here, not the polite and considerate. Then eventually a brute spoke to me, distrusted me and didn't know where to find an electrical point/socket to test the shaver. Excuse me... this is an Electrical store, and I am the first person to have something wrong with an electrical device bought at your ELECTRICAL store?!?! He looked so confused and perturbed. Eventually he found one and I had to follow him...puppy...while he finds the electrical point. He realises I didn't lie and then makes me wait to make a photo copy... yes I said that, of the receipt I had brought. He then mumbles something about going to exit but didn't make himself clear. I, by my own initiative approached security and he checked that the new (replacement shaver) was security passed... it wasn't so the alarm went off. Where is the efficiency german ... where is the process? Where is the logical thinking one step ahead /foresight in thinking of the customer's experience. Stone age plonkers.
My plea for you is, leave this place ASAP. I left almost two months ago and I still have to deal with some sort of PTSD - I am not even kidding, I wish I was. What really pisses me off is that I have lost any motivation to learn German. I was doing well, but the depressive situation I was in when in Berlin together with the impossibility of finding a decent job just killed it. I am elsewhere in Germany now and I have some kind of fear of speaking and no willingness to improve it whatsoever. That fking place just made me lose my mojo.
Run, run as fast as you can.
I will try to articulate myself as much as possible:
1) Passive Aggressive: germans consider themselves as honest and direct, what I often see, is passive-aggressive behavior and nothing more, they are dead scared to say the truth and can only, at best, imply it.
2) They don't look around: I don't recall the last time i bumped into so many people, they just don't move from their path, I used to be thoughtful and always make room for people to pass through, recently I have stopped since I got sick of it. The outcome: a lady bumped into me (and I bumped into her), she was blaming me of women's hatred.
3) The language: It's not enough to speak the language, one has to comply to the way they speak it, otherwise no one will make the effort to understand you. I am a student who studies and german, write exams and exercises in german, but I have stopped speaking german entirely, as I feel no one understands what I am saying.
And at last, this techno peace of poop culture and attitude, my worst decision was to move to kreuzberg, I have become resentful hating male genitalia since I moved here, I was always dark and morbid, but now it's whole new level
What's up with the clothing style here? The best dressed are the tourists! Native Berliners wear things that weren't even cool in the late 80s/early 90s. Middle aged women seem to only wear ill-fitted shirts with leggings. Looks like rags! Young men wear shorts & t-shirts that are beyond ugly, and always in grey or black. Don't get me started on middle-aged men - denim shorts that are at least 20 years old, old techno-style t-shirts, old tattoos full on display. Actually, the best dressed Berliners are the children!
Filthy Mussie on the tram tonight playing his cat wailing Mussie music out loud on his iPhone, I politely asked if he had earphones, and he became very agressive. I thought, OK, it's on, so I sized up my MO and then realized in his other hand was a bottle of drink bottle, so I thought better of it. I have 5 days left here, so I just have to block the freaks and creeps out and just leave this hellhole to them, that's my best revenge.
Have you noticed how rude and unfriendly cashier are ? Be it at the Bakery,Grocery Store or Pharmacy they have no manners and can't even say "Hello" or "Thanks" . What I noticed is that the cashier are almost women who are extremely rude and unfriendly. Such filthy cunts...
Yes, they sometimes don't even say hello. There were 2 people in front of me in the queue and they were having quite a chat with the cashier. It took longer but okay, I saw it that she gotto relax a little, have a chat, I didn't mind. But then when it was my turn she doesn't say hello. I said Hellloo, can you no longer talk? I realized it was quite hilarious, I mean it cheered me up.
Migrants who call themselves "expats".
Speaking of feeling superior ;)
America is a sh1thole, centuries behind, sole place in western Europe w capital punishment and people fighting to ban abortion. You should be ashamed, Europeans are whenever we are related to you somehow. Not to mention the crass stupidity and ignorance. Disgrace.
Japan also has capital punishment and it is closest to being a first world country. Definitely economically and technologically superior to all of Europe. I guess if you like criminals then maximum sentences of 20 years make sense. People with brains don't agree, though.
Japan very much has the same set of values as Europe - its entire legal system is based on Central European law! The only distinction you can draw here is that they aren't white. But I have the feeling you aren't here to in any way defend your group's opinions because you aren't intelligent enough to view anything critically that the European Left says. I know this because you fail to see the contradiction of condemning capital punishment for *convicted* criminals as barbaric while claiming abortion is fine because an arbitrary age determines human life in the European Left's mind.
I am thankful that my ancestors abandoned this vile continent and create the most successful country in the history of the world. You should be happy that we rescued Europe in more ways than one over the past century. I wish we would have left you to be a Russian colony so we could see how well you'd be doing now.
Drop your crap, NO ONE LIKES YOU. You are fking deluded. You abandoned this vile continent, good, don't feel the urge to come back because you are unwanted. You are the ones who caused all the mess with the refugees and crap and still bragging about saving us from the Russians? Go open a book and go back to the shthole where you belong.
Being called stupid by an American is delightful, you made my day, Now I am done, goodbye.
Yeah, comparing capital punishment to abortion is completely silly because there were 35,000 times as many abortions in 2018 than there were cases of capital punishment in the US. I know it's difficult to critically analyze things when you've never been exposed to actual facts so I'll accept that you're "done" now. I'm glad you figured out how to upvote your own comments since you obviously don't know how to form an argument or have a coherent opinion.
And, by the way, Germany has more restrictions on abortion than the US so your argument isn't even relevant from your own view point.
Adults who try to "scandalise" you w kinkiness that wouldn't scandalise my grandma. Grow up, morons, you're in your thirties, even forthies, the age of rebellion is long gone. You're just pathetic.
If you want to make 25,000 USD per yearand pay 1500 EUR permonth in rent, this is the City for you.
Smoking virtually everywhere... you get out of a place and even your panties stink of cigarette. Yuck.
I used to love Berlin, when I was in my apartment, closed off from the Multi-Kulti zoo, the radical 'lefties' otherwise known as losers and fascist thugs, the druggies, the alcoholics with fried brains, the stupid idiotic 'casinos', the putrid hatred in the eyes of sexist victim-Feminists. The constant protests that are anti this, anti that and anti everythng else, but never with solutions from pea-brain fake anarchists.
The morons who follow like sheep, stupid trends, tattoos, kinky sex, piercings, brain-dead rap and techno, and then pretend they are alternative and individuals.
Berlin is full of poseurs and out-right fakes and flakes. In fact, the east-berliners are probably the most down-to-earth and real, mainly because they have good family connections, whereas most peple in Berlin have no immediate family to feel safe and wanted, so they try to get those feelings elsewhere, forcing them to fit-in with the crowd, no matter what insane trend is going around at the time.
Have you noticed how many idiots smoke cigarettes here.
If you ask if it is good to stay in Germany or not, I can say from my own experience that Austria is better! You don't have to want to go to Vienna. Austria has many great places. Job offers are on the internet and it is up to you what you do. Berlin is a city where people never smile and when they laugh so they are drunk or under the influence of drugs! I know from my own experience that Austrians and Swiss do not like Germans. Today I know why no one likes the Germans. When I arrived in Berlin some time ago I had no opinion on the Germans. After almost two years in this hell, I just want to get away. Do a good thing for yourself and stop believing that something good awaits you in Berlin. Visit Austria and you may wake up!