Too soft…
Am I too soft?
Businesses over here are slack as a wizards sleeve… I don’t know which annoys me the most – small businesses where every penny should count and yet the staff/owners can’t be arsed or the big chains who come over here but employ people who are incompetent/don’t care.
I bought some new glasses about 2/3 weeks ago and was told they’d be ready on the 13th August, which is fine… I can wait a few days for things to be ready and don’t expect them to be done next day. But when I went in on the 13th they are nowhere to be seen and no one seems to know where they are – the staff while friendly enough phone up to the magical back office store room and it seems that they have more interest in the weekends events than my glasses. Two more trips to see them and it pretty much seems that they’ve lost my glasses… thing is I just stand there nod and walk away saying “that’s ok” it’s just not in my nature to get angry and I figure I will no doubt deal with them again in the future and don’t want to have them pissed off or be embarrassed about it all. And yet…. They just keep getting away with it. I deal with customers who jump up and down and are horrible and I sit here and think evil thoughts but then deal with them professionally and don’t hold prejudice over them in future so why do I constantly roll over when I’ve been mistreated? I’m down £250 but at what point do I ask for my money back or get my money back? They haven’t upheld their end of the bargain but what can I do about it? Nothing? I contemplate writing a letter of complaint but realistically what will I get back? Some half assed apology letter that is meaningless? Meanwhile I’ll probably go down in some little book as “that guy who wrote a letter and got us shouted at” and will get even worse service ever after. Maybe I’m just paranoid.
Pizza King is an establishment and an owner I feel sorry for though – it’s very good at what it does. Good food and I would find it hard to name a take away on the Island that has as nice an interior to sit in while waiting for and eating food. Not to mention it’s opening hours. The owner is always friendly smiley offering great service and cooks a mean pizza. Her employees however are clearly not cut from the same clay. Barely able to speak English… and I don’t mean foreign, most of them appear to be Manx/British just completely unable to use the language they have had since birth. They look like they would rather kill themselves than be there and their ability to take simple orders off a menu and then calculate the right amount… or to be honest even know what things cost is quite frankly an embarrassment to the manx education system and their gene pool. Also the one thing that consistently annoys the heavily pedantic side of me is the sheer volume of spelling mistakes on their menu. I mean… Salapeno Pepper? Piza King Special? Donna Kebbab??? Frightening…
The service on the Isle of Man is generally terrible and not many retailers or those in hospitality seem bothered. There are a few exceptions that do stand out.