[steven]

I'm not convinced that the bad service I've had was a result of me being a foreigner at all... but YMMV. I've had certain instances where I'm sure I got better than average service because I was a foreigner.

However, in certain instances, I've seen plenty of bad service. I could make a list that would go on for years, but I'll just put a few that come to mind as even being bad service from where I come from.

1. During a lunch break I went to a restaurant. Despite it being a little crowded, I got right in. Service was quick to take our order if I recall correctly. After about 50 minutes of waiting, I had to leave... literally. There was no word what-so-ever from the waitress that whole time. This was a weekday. So I got up and left and said "sorry, but see ya" as I left. I don't recall an appropriate response.

2. I called a company called Roland about one of their products that I felt was defective. I explained what was happening and the operator was convinced that I was wrong and wanted to take me through a step by step trouble-shooting process. Despite the extremely long wait to get to her in the first place, I agreed to do it. It was long, redundant, and redundant. The sound was obviously not right, but as long as there was some kind of sound, I guess it was OK by the books. I put the phone up to the sound-source to show her... and she said (bluntly) "See, it's making sound." Obviously, ticked off I said, "you're missing the point of what I want to say". And she got angry with me.

3. Landlord/Apartment Company Experiences... just too many to mention. To give you an idea, they give me a nice cup of cold iced coffee with a big smile while I wait (service that looks good on the outside), we talk, and they say they'll come to fix the current problem in a couple of weeks (whether it be no hot water, broken vents, sliding doors, etc, etc.). Then some guy comes and "fixes" it, and the problem reoccurs less than a few months later. Rinse and repeat. I've been asked "has your landlord ever charged you for repairs?", trying to reason with me once when I complained. I thought that's what rent was for.

4. I'm purposely being vague about this. Trying to get certain official documents has been a joke on a couple of occasions. It's one of those situations where you wouldn't know anything about what you need, therefore you've gone to the official place for the documents to fill out. You fill out the documents and instead of them saying "that's everything, thanks a lot", they say "I'm new here so I don't know if that's gonna cover it..., I'll give you a call if I need anything else". These kinds of documents not only cost money to obtain, but have to be done in a certain time frame to be valid.

Anyways, I'll stop there with the examples. What I seem to notice in general is a lot of these places are quick on the draw when it comes to "Sorry to keep you waiting"-like lines... but they sure don't seem to give a damn about keeping you waiting. And while the regular "I'm sorry" lines seemed obligatory a few years ago, they seem to be disappearing even when they'd be warranted these days.

However, I agree with MMM's notion that when you get bad service repeatedly (or just once if it's that bad) then it's time to stop frequenting or using that business or service. I certainly haven't bought any Roland gear since then and I don't plan on buying anything from them in the future. As for the services or products that are good (and there are quite a few that I've discovered) I'll continue to use them. I understand that sometimes mistakes or problems can happen, but good service to me means properly (which includes promptly) dealing with the problem to MY satisfaction. It's rather unfortunate, however, that some services that I've experienced are unavoidable. That's the most frustrating thing for me.

It is my opinion, however, that it can be hard for a company who has bad service to make a good product. Like I said, it's nearly impossible to have a 100% track record, so it sucks for that small percent of your customers that get a bum product when they have to deal with your crappy customer service.

Likewise, it may just be me, but I think that any store that carries certain products should be willing to help customers out when things go wrong with that product. In other words, if the store decides to carry a company's cheap products from X-country, then they should be willing to deal with that the company on behalf of the customer. I go to some stores where they are willing to deal with all aspects concerning a products warranty/their extended warranty on that product. They go as far as filling out the forms (outside of names, phone numbers, and addresses of course) with all necessary information. They've even mailed said forms for me before. Obviously that's an example of excellent service... but I think it's interesting to note that there can be such great service even when there's bad service around the corner. I might be making quite a leap, but I think that maybe the average Japanese customer is less particular than they were say 10 years ago.