opinios

Service With A Frown

In a continuing theme, one thing that has been very obvious to me about being back in Melbourne is the different levels of service in shops, compared to Tokyo.

In Japan the service is basically the same everywhere. Whether you are in a pub, a department store, a curry takeaway restaurant or a convenience store, sales attendants greet you with that well-worn phrase, irrashaimase. Sure, it might not be from the heart every time, but it's still there. And more often than not it is bellowed out with an unnatural level of enthusiasm that still warms the cockles of your heart, even if you know it is a bit forced.

It is rare to get rude service in Japan. We did get it once, at a pub, from a waitress who was somewhat distracted. Once. In two and a half years.

In Melbourne it is really hit and miss. The day before yesterday was a bad day. The apathetic, pimply 15-year-old boy at the checkout in K-Mart barely said a word while he scanned my items. The girl who I stopped and asked where I could find a toilet paper roll holder replied with a pathetic "Err, sorry, I have noooo idea, I just started... hee hee... sorry" and dashed off before I got the chance to demand that she find someone who could help me.

Don't even let me get started again on Bunnings.

And then there was yesterday, which floored me with the entirely opposite experience.

I had been searching all last week for a wire bracket to put on our gas stove top that would make using our coffee perculator less of a precarious balancing act. Apparently they are hard to come by. Bunnings sent me to Ray's Tent City, who sent me to Harvey Norman, who suggested I try some place that I gave up trying to find after 10 minutes of driving around lost.

And then by pure chance I wandered into an appliance store appropriately entitled "The Good Guys". The bloke there was friendly, helpful, and when I explained what I was after he reached to the nearest display stove, took off the small bracket and handed it to me. For free.

At which point I told him what a champion he was and went off to the food court to buy some ground coffee to celebrate. When I got there the lovely girl who served me informed me that the Irish Cream beans I had requested were her last batch and that consequently I could have them for free.

And at this stage I had a grin from ear to ear and felt entirely good about Melbourne's level of service once again.

That is, at least, until the next time I get Bunnings'd.