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	Create New Topic   My Posts   My forum buddies   Invite friends   Private messages Russian brides > Main Forum > "Customer Service" Author Post jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/16/2005 1:28:01 PM   The companies of the FSU are making strides, but for the most part they still have not quite gotten the hang of that little thing known as "customer service". I thought I would open this thread for anyone to introduce examples of situation that they have encountered in the FSU, to let fellow forum member know what to be on the lookout for. This is my own most recent example. I generally buy all of my airline tickets to the FSU from a very reliable travel agent. But for one reason or another I had difficulty getting ahold of him this time at the crucial moment. I DID get ahold of him, and buy my ticket from him, but during the interim I decided to check out Moldovan travel agents on line who SEEMED to offer very reasonable prices (price listed on web, though in Euros, was about HALF of what I generally pay). On further investigation, of course, I discovered that the listed prices were SEASONAL and included no connecting flights. In the final analysis, though my travel agent offered a slightly higher price I opted to go with him - because I knew I could trust him to be good to his word and that he would help in the event that any airline type problem came up - versus this unknown agency. My fiance called the Moldovan agency and informed them that we were not interested in booking through them. Shortly later they emailed me this message. Hello (jetmba), If (your lady...) has ticket why you contact us??? We have a lot of real work!!!! Our working is not free. -- Best regards, (name)/manager Wow. Guess I commited a sin asking for a price comparison. I'll sure consider dealing with this agency in the future! Some readers might also remember my story from some time back about Womans Day. I paid a premium price for delivery of gift items ON Womens Day (not before or after). (Agency was NOT associated with fiance.com I should mention). When the items were delivered a DAY LATE I emailed expressing my dissatisfaction. I had paid about $70 to $90 for what I knew to be about $12 worth of champaign and candy to be delivered and I said that they ought to refund my money. They sarcastically told me that they would be glad to refund my money and that they would send people to my fiance's house and get back the (already eaten) candy and champaign (one way or another). Onviously I kept the payment intact. But I would not deal with THAT company unless hell froze over. Ah... the wonders of the newly discovered concept of "customer service". izifaddag Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/16/2005 2:03:23 PM   You need to actually mention the name of the businesses so they can be avoided. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/16/2005 5:28:33 PM   Good point Izi: The company that I deal with all the time and have bought (so far) three complete round trips between Green Bay and Chisinau - alway with g GREAT service that I could not complain about is MTS Travel. I work with a guy named Octavian who is located at the ofice in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Octavian is the only authorized Air Moldova agent (I believe) in the US and as such he is able to provide great prices. I recommend him highly. The company that seemd upset that I have the gall to ask for a price quote - was Transaero Travel. They have offices in Chisinau, Moldova and Bucharest, Romania. Regarding the company about that threatened to take back the things already consumed from my fiance and her family - I have to admit I am reluctant to name it even now. MONTHS after the fact while in Moldova I discovered that they had, in fact, delivered TWO bottles of champaign to my lady - when they eventually made the late delivery, because thry recognized that the delivery was late. This was never explained to me by EITHER my fiance or the gift-service delivery company until MONTHS later and it certainly does not excuse the threat. The company had the word "Moldova" in its name. So if you are dealing with one that doesn't mention Moldova in its title - you are not dealing with this company. felicedate Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/16/2005 5:52:04 PM   You know, this is sad about business here. They still act like in the Soviet times. Young people who are coming have already learnt "how to smile to a customer". Old dudes havent. Just a fresh example I was shocked with myself. A tour company,our old partners. I don't like how they work but they have good price for different services. So I was sitting at them getting a couple of visa support packages and watched their work at the office... A woman came to them and spend around 15 minutes at their office asking for some tours and prices, I don't remember what exactly. They told her about the stuff but the most interesting dialogue was after she left. It was between a manager and their head, a man of around 55 years old who was working at this company I guess from the 70th or 80th. Head: - Why you spent so much time on her. I bet she will not buy a tour. They all only inquire and buy tours somewhere else. Manager. - What did I have to do? Head. - Our head office in Minsk already takes money for consulting. We also will charge 5-10$ for consulting. Here I interfered. - Are you kidding here? I guess we are all in one business. You know I also have a tour agency that works ONLY with the foreigners. It is a good variant if only every 10th guy who inquires orders our services. But I know that not a single person would pay me for the answered calls and e-mails. And this is normal. The guys didn't seem to understand me quite well...:-) The matter is that in the Soviet mentality it was not the buyer who was doing a favour to a shop assistant by buying a kilo of cheese like it was in all civilized world(the shop assistant gets his salary from this money). Here most shop assistant were doing a big favour to to you by giving you what you need. They had fixed salary, they could not be fired for rude attitude, a customer had no choice to go to another shop as usually he was standing in a queue to get his product for a long time. Some things change, some not... ensata Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/16/2005 10:36:44 PM   Jet - You are absolutely right about MTS Travel and Octavian Necu. Great service, but also the the lowest prices I could find. For my November trip MTS was about $ 1000 lower than anything else I could find. For this June trip the price was as low as the discount/surplus places, diff being that you could actually get the tickets at the price. I had to alter my trip specs a few times without any problem. Octavian is refered to as MT's "European Specialist", so I suppose he arranges flights to Russia and others as well. For my heathen breathren here at the forum I will warn you that MTS bills it self as "The leaders in Church, Mission and Releif Travel". But they will surely take the pagan's bucks as well lol. Jet, it must have been you that turned me onto MTS last year.... Thanks! jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 12:23:52 AM   Glad to do it ensata. On my last trip to Moldova - I happen to be standing in next to a man and woman who's intent was to adopt a Moldovan baby. They were from North Carolina I think. They noticed the familiar MTS oval shapaed yellow tags on my luggage and asked me if I knew Octavian Necu. They had gotten the best price, of course, from him as well. As I left this couple, the man ws actually "detained" by Moldovan authorities. Seems that they were bringing a lot of things into Moldova for the orphanage through which they were working. Though this gentlemen had successfully wrestled the stuff through airports etc. form North Carolina to this point, they would not let him take the items through customs without assistance. He was "required" to let a few airline workers "help him" at a price. The only meassge he was able to get to his wife is "Its okay - they just want money." Felicedate - I am certain that you are right. This behavior must be a holdover from Soviet times. And agin I mention that this company Transaero seemed to actually have a beter price than even MTS Travel (a situation I have never heard of before) by several hundred dollars. But I went with MTS Travel anyway - because I KNOW they will be cooperative if I have a problem. This Transaero Travel company only affirmed that I made the right decision. Cycleserg Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 1:09:57 AM   As we are bagging on the FSU agencies, lets not forget our own State department passport agency. Have you had to sit on hold for half an hour or more listening to the same song just to find out they have no new information about your passport. This is after you should have received it? I originally ordered a passport in early May for a trip in august. But because of my work schedule I had to change my trip to late June. Next week as a matter of fact. As soon as I changed my vacation I called the passport agency and told them I wanted to change my passport to a rush order. The lady said no problem, took my credit card info and that was that. Well I called several days later to see if it had been changed. Well you guess it, nothing had happened. So this new lady took the info again. Well now my passport was in process but the processing center in San Fransisco did not get the second request in time. They finally mailed it back to me using the post office. I asked for a tracking number. Well they did not have that either. I finally received it today and drove 135 miles from Tucson to Phoenix, to AFA's offices. AFA told me they would help me rush my Ukrainian visa. So now I should hopefully receive my visa on Wendesday and my flight leaves Thursday. Hows that for stress. As you probably know I will probably not sleep until I get it. All of this because of our own people. Moral to this story, you are still dealing with government workers and people who probably don't care does not matter what country they are from. Maxirat Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 2:02:40 AM   Felice Well said and completely correct- in the following written by you. “Soviet mentality it was not the buyer who was doing a favour to a shop assistant Here most shop assistant were doing a big favour to you by giving you what you need” Cycle Big difference with you comparison is – in the western civilized business world etc. You can make a formal complaint and go higher up in command at a business or government agency and generally get correction or recognition of your complaint. Here in FSU – you would be completely wasting your time. I am going to post more examples and my observations of FSU ways in my Coal Face post latter. Worldtraveller Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 7:18:35 AM   felice, felice hard to understand, but i agree completely with you :-) it is the habit of the old soviet times. first i felt this in moscow hotels in jeltsin´s time. i was treated as i was only disturbing the staff of the hotels. jet, i think i know this transaero office. it is located quite in the centre on blvd. negruzzi. once they changed my flight without taking any fee. but on all other occassions every lady of the staff tried to show how busy she is, just to be free to deal with any new customer. i usually order my tiket via internet from tiketpools. i have some links to international social organisations in moldova, which give support to orphanages, disabled children in homes and so on. but nearly every local one, who is involved into the transport and delieverin of supporting materials (books, clothes etc.) expects to take first his own share. absolute coldness towards the poverty of the most poorest ones........ wt Nadya Moderator send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 8:45:49 AM   yes quality of customer service in Russia is rather poor. but it is getting better in comparison with how it was 10 years ago. so hopefully 10 more years and it will be up to world standard Maxirat Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 9:29:04 AM   Service - "What service" 2pm today -- Ring taxi company from apartment. No answer. Try another - ditto Try another get answer - will ring back in 3 mins 10 mins later ring back. Taxi be here in 7 mins. Result = No Taxi turned up after 40 mins Walked instead !!!!!! The rain had stopped so perhaps the Taxi company knew we only wanted to save getting wet. GLTALLTOAD Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 11:16:40 AM   Call me weird, but everywhere we went in Tyumen, the quality of customer service was at least up to par with western standards. OKOKOKOKOKOK...without the smiles, though. The shop clerks were polite and helpful. I did notice somewhat of a preferential treatment at times. Some, Lena explained, will do it because they're probably trying to overcharge you while others simply think you're a crippled for not speaking, dressing or even walking like one..:)) We had fun with the taxi companies we called. After a couple of weird drivers we found Sasha and hired him to give us rides everywhere we went. By the end of the week, the poor kid was exhausted but made more money with us in 6 days than he usually makes in a month. nasfan6 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 6:29:19 PM   I found the waiters in the nicer restaurants to be as excellent as any here in the states. We ate quite a bit at a place called Our meeting Place, well that's the english translation. I took Larisa and some of her friends to dinner there we had dinner and drinks and the meal came to 156 Hvrynia. About 29 USD. I went to leave the Waiter a 20 Hvrynia tip and Larissa told me that was too much. I said dear little girl, you and I couldn't eat at Joe's Crab Shack for 29 bucks and you ran this poor guys ass off and he did it with a smile, maybe it was all the pretty women with me? The tip stands! Customer service is directly proportional to the quality and class of the customer. nasfan6 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/17/2005 6:32:47 PM   I found the waiters in the nicer restaurants to be as excellent as any here in the states. We ate quite a bit at a place called Our meeting Place, well that's the english translation. I took Larisa and some of her friends to dinner there we had dinner and drinks and the meal came to 156 Hvrynia. About 29 USD. I went to leave the Waiter a 20 Hvrynia tip and Larissa told me that was too much. I said dear little girl, you and I couldn't eat at Joe's Crab Shack for 29 bucks and you ran this poor guys ass off and he did it with a smile, maybe it was all the pretty women with me? The tip stands! Customer service is directly proportional to the quality and class of the customer. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/18/2005 5:34:19 PM   Mommy tended to grab the tips I left on the table in Moldova - even 20 lei (less than $2) telling me (my fiance actually) that if I had that much to leave I should give it to Mommy. Then she would MAYBE (not always) replace it with perhaps 5 lei. Got really annoying as I tried to insist that the service was CERTAINLY worth it (and I have to agree I was never disappointed in a restaurant) but MOMMY already had it in her purse. Couldn't even argue directly with her as she spoke barely a word of Englsih. When i was with my fiance alone - which was fortuantely most of the time - leaving 10 0r 20 lei was always either met with resistance as it was too much. But sometimes it was as if she was impressed, provided the service was especially great. Ah... the FSU - where you can impress a girl by leaving a $1.65 tip. GLTALLTOAD Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/18/2005 9:47:30 PM   Lena and I discussed tipping customs beforehand. Lena, "Sometimes, local men with money but little else tip excessively when they are trying to impress or take home a waitress...I would not be happy if you give a good looking waitress a big tip for no other reason than good looks" Toad, "Fair enough, wherever we go, deciding how much to tip will be your job, then" I worked well toad ensata Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/18/2005 10:53:35 PM   What I found curious, and really quite annoying in Moldova is what would tanspire at the banks and booths where I would exchange U.S. bucks for Leis. They would not give you their misirable Leis unless your U.S $ 20, $ 50 or $100 buck bill was in pristine shape. If the bill was worn, torn, marked or wrinkled in the least they would not take it! When they handed my less than perfect $ 100 bill back to me, and Lucy told me why, I honestly thought it was a joke! What the hell is that about??!! I brought plenty of cash, but the crisp bills were running low. Lucy did know of one place that would take the Junk bonds. Was some desperate lil hole in the wall money exchange buisiness. Well this time I am bringing only mint bills. Crazy Other than that I found the service fine in Moldova. Tho all the sales and service people never smiled. Were they just being proffesional, or were they bored, indifferent or unhappy - I don't know. wmferg Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/18/2005 11:04:25 PM   It is not only Moldova ensata. I had the same experiance in Kyiv on my first visit, before I left for my second trip I visited the bank and they had to go through numerous cash drawers to find new bills for me. I had no problems with the new bills. when I tried to pass a twenty or fifty it seemed they tried awfully hard to find a reason to reject them so on the second trip I took only $100 bills. Bill jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/19/2005 1:37:05 AM   When I first went to Ukraine we were advised to bring all brand new, unmarked, unwrinkled twenty dollar bills. We were advised to bring a few fifties and hundreds as well, but mostly twenties. I perceived a possible problem at the time, because the NEW twenty dollar bill had just come out - with the larger presidential portrait. I figured that some changing places might not be up to speed so I requested ALL bills be the OLD style. Couldn't even get my request honored at my local branch - had to go to the main downtown office and give them several days to come up with the $1,500 I needed. I was glad I did it. Several other Americans on the trip brought the new twenties which were immediately REJECTED by allk the changers as NOT BEING REAL. Maxirat Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 6/19/2005 4:03:28 AM   Don’t start on the "$$" Exchange booths !!! They really wind my dial. Must admit haven't been having quite the same problems this trip, but last year 20% of my US$$ were rejected. Got to BKK and no problem. Above mentioned service from waiters etc. Agree, no problem and as good as most other countries (well the few that I have visited) It is the people with the frontline "important" positions that rub me up the wrong way. And most shop assistance and owners have the PR of a wounded Rhino. Looked at a nice German Cutlery set yesterday, was going to buy it, then the assistant started getting impatient with my non committal to pulling out the Pingers, I still had a lot of looking to do and did not want to haul the purchase around the rest of the market so said I would get latter. Well, she spat the dummy and muttered and burbled away. Apparently Lena said she was angry I not take it then and NOW and said I was wasting her time. Don’t know what else she would be doing, I was probably the 1st potential Punter she had spoken too in hours !!! Anyway, I decided not to go back there, will they learn -- NOOOOOOOO Your Reply: Your name:   New Registration Password:   Forgot password?   refresh Code:   Russian brides > Main Forum > "Customer Service"
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