Another afternoon at Glasgow's People's Palace
What do you do on a snowy - but not snowy enough for snowy fun - afternoon in Glasgow? With the library being shut (how hard to librarians work that they need to have so much time off as they do in our district?) we decided to head into People's Palace again.
The reason I'm blogging this is to vent a little about the quality of service you receive here in Scotland; be aware of this, you North Americans, if you're planning on visiting this beautiful country - do not expect the level of courtesy and service as you currently enjoy...
We stopped in the Winter Garden for a coffee and soft drinks. I ordered a cappucino, but decided to change that for a regular coffee. The person serving - and bear in mind, this person will be serving people from all over the world who have spent good money traveling to Scotland to see the sights and visiting tourist honey pots such as People's Palace - made such a fuss about changing what she'd entered into the till from a cappucino to a regular coffee that I actually said - twice - 'no, no, just leave it as it is if it's that much trouble..'.
I mean, what are we talking about here? Canceling the cappucino on her till and then hitting the button for 'regular coffee'. It's not like I'm asking her to re-tile the public toilets blindfolded and without the use of grout.
But this is indicative of the poor level of service you can expect here in Scotland. My view is, if you don't like SERVING people, don't be a waitress or work in an industry that makes its money SERVING people.
Don't let this put you off heading to Scotland on holiday; the scenery and the people in general more than make up for it...
posted by mark - tartanstories.com @ 5:20 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I remember a deli along the street from me here in Leith called 'The Clock' (now under different ownership, thankfully). They were under the misapprehension that they were upmarket and trendy and therefore could act in a far superior manner to those customers they considered 'common'. If you didn't come in air-kissing and squealing "Daaaahhhling" in cut-glass RP, you were a low-life. I once went in to get a plain baguette, and stood for 5 minutes whilst 5 staff ignored me and one serving decided to ignore me even though her customer had spent three minutes trying to make up his mind about something. Other shops would have taken your money for the 1 item whilst the ditherer was coming to a decision. But not this one. I grew more and more furious. In the end I turned around, dropped the baguette back in the rack and walked out.
Suddenly the whole shop seemed to notice my existence, as they ALL threw me the FILTHIEST looks I've ever had the misfortune to have thrown my way. Yeah, as if it had all been MY fault.
I never gave them my custom again, and they eventually went out of business - hah !!
The wee deli, Fleurs, just a few doors down from me is still going strong after over 15 years, despite the coming and going of various 'trendy' delis staffed by the 'beautiful people'. Why ? Good service, good food and chatty, friendly staff.
Karma, Mark. They'll get their come-uppance in the end ;-)
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