Customer Service

Customer service. Some would argue Russians have no concept of customer service, and I can agree with that, somewhat. On the other hand they could be said to have excellant customer service. What do I mean? Well, If you can put many cultural differences aside, they want to make sure you get a product that works. Every time you purchase an electronic product from a lamp to a television to a computer printer, they take the time to remove it from the packaging and make sure it works. They fill out and issue you a warrenty on the product you just purchased. Given, this whole process can take an abundance of time, but at least you (usually) get something that works. There are days I think that they take all this time making sure something works before they sell it to you so they (and you) don't have to deal with the hassel of returning something later. I won't even begin to tell explain to you what a hassel it is...

JB was at the reenock (market) the other day to buy batteries for one of Gavin's toys. He asked the gentleman behind the counter for batteries, and pointed to the pack of AA's hanging on the wall. The man asked him how many, JB answered him and paid for the batteries. When he arrived home, to his surprise, the bag only contained one battery...! He was really confused for a moment and then it hit him- When asked "how many?" JB answered,"1", which we would understand as meaning one package of batteries...But lets talk about customer service- you can actually choose HOW MANY you want and they will open the package right there and sell them to you individually- crazy thought. I love it. Welcome to Russia!