*Disclaimer, the
following post is going to make me sound like a pompous, uppity twit. While I
can be those things from time to time, I don’t intend to be here….my old
Customer Services colleagues will probably understand what is about to follow
more than those readers that have not worked in a public facing job. I say the
following because I have stupidly high expectations of customer services standards.*
We went back
into the city today to hire a bike, then we went shopping. The Maya Plaza is a
bit like a downmarket version of Westfield. It’s very shiny and very posh but
only has a handful of reasonable shops. Then there’s the type of shop where you
can buy £10 high street jeans imported from the UK for less than £3. It is a shame
that they are ‘mum’ jeans, which might be having something of a fashionista
revival, but which actually look hideous if you are not a fashionista.
 | ||||
| 'Mum jeans': still kind of hideous, even on celabrities |
TC buys some new
trainers. It’s an odd experience. The shop assistant seems reluctant to find
the left shoe, and takes AGES bringing it out. When she does and TC says he’ll
take them, she seems really happy about it. Later on, when TC has changed into
them and we’ve headed outside to catch the last of the later afternoon sun, we
see that they are actually different colours. This be the lesson: never trust
the lighting in shops.
| Artist's impression of 'Shoegate' |
The right one is
very much, very, very blue. And the left one….er, isn’t. It’s a grey/black
colour. So we go back to the shop and ask for them to find the black one’s
buddy. Here’s where it gets awkward. As soon as we walk in, the male shop
assistant smirks and says, ‘I know, I know. No refund. You choose another pair,’
‘I don’t want
another pair, I want these in black’ says TC.
‘You can have
Converse, Nike….’
‘I want these
ones, or a refund,’
‘No refund,’
Then a female shop
assistant comes over. She’s very small but she looks like she could kill you
with one brief look.
‘NO REFUND!’ she
says.
‘I wanted a pair
of shoes and you haven’t sold me a pair of shoes,’ says TC.
‘Manager,
manager’ says the girl.
The manager
comes over. He and the girl have a long exchange, which of course is in Thai,
so we don’t know what they are saying.
‘I have to phone
my manager,’ the manager says. But he doesn’t. I guess he tells a third
assistant just to refund, because then they ask for the receipt and they just
give TC his money back.
I’m not really
sure what happened here. Did they think because we are tourists, we’d just go, ‘oh
ok, I’ll take this pair of non- matching shoes!’? Did they refund out of
embarrassment? They blatantly knew that they had sold TC two odd shoes and were
obviously annoyed that we’d come back to get a refund.
It’s much easier
to stand your ground over this sort of thing in the UK. You can quote the Sales
of Goods Act. I’ve noticed many of the shops in Thailand don’t even GIVE you a
receipt. But we hadn’t been expecting a
fight about the shoes.
We go and do a
bit of food shopping after that, in the posher than M & S Rimping
Supermarket. The cashier is rude. She doesn’t smile and doesn’t speak and doesn’t
look at us. That’s fine, if she can’t speak English, I get it. But so far, most
(if not all) people we have encountered in shops and bars will respond with the
Thai ‘thank-you’ when you say it in English, or just smile and nod. Didn’t even get that.
I am really not
the sort of person that expects shop assistants or waitresses to be ‘yes ma’am,
no ma’am,’ but if I am approaching them with a smile, and a ‘hello!’ one back
would be nice!
Now we’re back
in 'The Overlook' Villa after what was to me, a totally terrifying bike ride back
on the highway.
 |
| I did NOT have a smile like this on my face |
Good news: there’s
wine in the fridge and I intend to drink it!
