Customers from HellThe customer is always right. And yet, as 'listentomyopinion' writes, this is utter bollocks.
Tell us of the customers who were wrong, wrong, wrong but you still had to smile at (if only to take their money.)
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chthonic, Thu 4 Sep 2008, 16:42)
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Customer from hell: MEA lot of these posts are about stupid rather than unpleasant customers so I think this one's vaguely on-topic.
I learned German at school and used to go to Germany and Austria quite regularly, so my command of German got to be quite good. I was by no means fluent, but prided myself that I could reserve hotels, order food and do other essential stuff in German with reasonable confidence.
Learning Czech after moving to Prague ousted most of my German from my brain (there's not a lot of room in there, I guess!) and so my German these days is as rusty as an unlicensed minicab. But still I try, sometimes with disastrous results.
I was taking the car from the UK to Prague, and as this is a two-day journey I stopped overnight in a little German town near the Rhine. Treating myself to a well-deserved beer after the long drive, I was pleased that I could still manage "Guten Abend" and "ein Bier, bitte" without too much difficulty. Flushed with my success as a cunning linguist, I lit up and realised that I needed an ashtray. I called the waiter over and with my best accent I asked
"Haben Sie ein Arschloch, bitte?" Cue look of stunned amazement from waiter and people at surrounding tables. Thinking my pronunciation to be at fault, I repeated it while making knocking-off-ash gestures to illustrate. Eventually I got my ashtray.
Those of you who speak German will know why I received the reaction I did. For those who don't - the German for ashtray is Aschenbecher. I'd asked the poor chap if he had an arsehole.
I don't even know why the word Arschloch featured in my limited vocabulary. Too much German porno, probably.
(, Mon 8 Sep 2008, 17:30, 2 replies)
German is fun..... my company is German and some items we make are waterproof, or 'Wasserdich' as they say, 'WD' for short. Of course, W is pronounced as V, so when the guy asked my if I wanted this item standard or with VD, I cracked up. He didn't get it, so I translated, and to this day my very limited German knowledge is enhanced by that lovely word 'Geschlechtskrankheit' (sp) or VD.
(, Mon 8 Sep 2008, 21:00, closed)
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