British shop assistants are incompetent

[lulie]

Dear Headington branch of Carphone Warehouse,

When I come in asking about the features of the iPhone and iPhone alternatives, I would actually like to know the features of the iPhone and iPhone alternatives. "What features would you like to know about?" does not help me, because I do not know the features. That's why I'm here. That is why I came

Comments

[konora]

I suggest you sack your employees and replace them with enthusiastic Americans. Americans have a work ethic: they actually try to help you find what you're looking for, and explain what's available, and help you to want the things they're selling.

Have you been to America? I'm not asking to be rude, I'm genuinely curious as to where you're getting this perception from.

While there's definitely hard-working Americans working in retail out there (naturally!) I think this is more a matter of "stop hiring idiots who don't know what they're doing", and less about nationality. XD We've got the same problems.

But omfg, that IS pretty bad service. :\ I'd take my money elsewhere.

[lulie]

Have you been to England? It's not just 'some employees are lame' here, ALL of them are like that. You'd be very lucky indeed to find one that actually tries to sell stuff to you (in the 'shows why a product is good / persuades' way).

[konora]

Hmm... but I'd say that most American workers (at least in retail jobs like the ones described, unless it was a commission-based position) are also like that. I've worked in retail (food service and product selling) and I can say that comparing the two experiences I've had, the quality of the worker comes down to two things: the individual aspects that cannot be easily influenced (personality, how much they want the job, etc.) - and also the training that goes into them. At my current job, even though we aren't working on commission and are paid minimum wage, we go through extensive, on-going training for customer service. We're encouraged to know things about the product, and if we don't know something, to ask someone who might know, or look it up in the (many) resource guides we have lying around

[konora]

ALL of them? Isn't this an error by induction?

[lulie]

I was speaking imprecisely for the sake of getting my point across. You'll notice I imply that they exist in the next sentence.

I meant that the general culture here is that they are not like this. I haven't met one here yet that has the qualities I'm thinking of.

[konora]

You didn't offer an explanation of why you think it's like this generally. You jumped to a conclusion from your repeated observations. Isn't that what the error of induction is?

[konora]

holyee shit. pwnd

[ockeroid]

Nice