Service Industry Needs To Buck Up

AS everybody knows in Namibia the car accident rate is very high. Fortunately I had only two encounters with damage to my car in recent years.

The latest only a week ago, where the question who was wrong was plainly clear. The culprit was driving a rented car from a car rental company.And the problems start when it comes to claiming.The employee behaved as if it was the first accident claim in her life, giving the impression I was very unwelcome.She had to phone the head office, so that her boss could try to intimidate me.I brought three quotations from panel beaters my car dealer had recommended.She demanded that I go to two more panel beaters, which are their partners.I also did this.She wanted also a statement from me, instead of getting a copy of the accident report we gave to the Police (which took already half a day to complete.) A few days later someone called me to assess the damage of the car (obviously an assessor in the service of the car rental company.He asked me from which companies I got quotations (instead of doing his homework and checking in with the car rental).He demanded that he must see the car at one of the panel beaters where I had already been before.At this point I was angry, because everybody sends me around wasting my time and money for damage caused by their client.After I dropped the phone, the car rental place phoned again, then it suddenly was possible that the assessor came to my place to see the car.Then I had to shout at the service woman, because she didn’t listen to my complaints, just trying to shut me up.(When a customer is forced to shout, then definitely the service attendant was wrong.) Then she was commanding me not to ever shout at her.This behaviour of especially some young female white “professionals”, who always treat you as if they are your mother-in-law, really enrages me, so I disconnected.This state of the service industry is really pathetic.If something like this happened in USA where Budget Rent-a-Car comes from, this service amateur would be fired.Namibians have to learn to be polite and fair, even if the situation is not pleasant – that’s how you earn your money in service.The problem here is that many companies employ the same untrained people, who learn their attitude by seeing their mothers chasing the domestic worker around.J Becker, WindhoekThe culprit was driving a rented car from a car rental company.And the problems start when it comes to claiming.The employee behaved as if it was the first accident claim in her life, giving the impression I was very unwelcome.She had to phone the head office, so that her boss could try to intimidate me.I brought three quotations from panel beaters my car dealer had recommended.She demanded that I go to two more panel beaters, which are their partners.I also did this.She wanted also a statement from me, instead of getting a copy of the accident report we gave to the Police (which took already half a day to complete.) A few days later someone called me to assess the damage of the car (obviously an assessor in the service of the car rental company.He asked me from which companies I got quotations (instead of doing his homework and checking in with the car rental).He demanded that he must see the car at one of the panel beaters where I had already been before.At this point I was angry, because everybody sends me around wasting my time and money for damage caused by their client.After I dropped the phone, the car rental place phoned again, then it suddenly was possible that the assessor came to my place to see the car.Then I had to shout at the service woman, because she didn’t listen to my complaints, just trying to shut me up.(When a customer is forced to shout, then definitely the service attendant was wrong.) Then she was commanding me not to ever shout at her.This behaviour of especially some young female white “professionals”, who always treat you as if they are your mother-in-law, really enrages me, so I disconnected.This state of the service industry is really pathetic.If something like this happened in USA where Budget Rent-a-Car comes from, this service amateur would be fired.Namibians have to learn to be polite and fair, even if the situation is not pleasant – that’s how you earn your money in service.The problem here is that many companies employ the same untrained people, who learn their attitude by seeing their mothers chasing the domestic worker around. J Becker, Windhoek