I dont want to call this is a sequel, so much as a partner-blog or an extended version of the last. But today, our topic is Customer Service! As we all know, this is rarely a happy subject but disrespect, laziness and pure carelessness has taken on a new meaning for me.

I dont just mean disrespect to me and other customers, I mean the environment too. A few weeks ago, me and my friends from work went to the open market and sat at some tables outside to have a drink. The waitress took like 20 minutes to even acknowledge us, 15 minutes to bring us a menu and once she served our drinks, we didnt see her again for 30 minutes. We had bought hot dogs and had our paper plates and napkins on the table. The waitress asked us if she could clear the table for us and we mumbled "Yeah, yeah sure" as we continued our jumbled English-Spanish-Portuguese conversation. As she used her arm to sweep all of the trash onto the pavement we all stopped talking and dropped our jaws in awe. She walked away (never to be seen again) and we looked at each other. "Did that just happen?" "Should we pick it up?" It was outrageous but that is exactly how Cariocas (people from Rio) are, they dont care about the environment nor being friendly.

Another restaurant example is the waiter who decided to give us something we didnt order and then charge us for it. Fanny and I went for a quick drink after work and ordered Caipirinhas (typical Brazlian mixed drink made of cachaça, Brazilian sugar cane alcohol, lime, and sugar). He chose to put vodka in it, no idea why and then charge us double. That sounds like a fun game... put whatever you want in our drinks then say we have to pay for what we consumed. Think again buddy. My Portuguese isnt fantastic but my common sense and no-bulls*** is in top shape. He got a piece of my mind and you better believe we didnt pay for that vodka. And he didnt get a tip either.

This goes beyond dining services, I had quite the adventure trying to buy a domestic flight from Rio to Sao Paulo through TAM, a Brazilian airline. I don't want to get into details as to why I need to leave from Sao Paulo to Mexico but the point is: I need to leave from Sao Paulo to Mexico. Therefore I need to get from Rio to Sao Paulo, obviously. It's not exactly close, about a 6 to 8 hour bus ride. And as much as I like those long bus journeys, it's actually more expensive and I offered to work until my last day here so it's logical to fly (which os only like an hour ride). TAM, among others, is a domestic Brazilian airline and had the cheapest flight I could find. But apparently only Brazilians can use it because they ask for a CPF number, which is a Brazilian SSN. I called the customer service line and they said it's because they have another website for foreigners. So i went to that, switched it to English but then they don't accept international credit cards. Of course they didn't explain this clearly when they kept denying each of my cards (after entering the same info 10 times). So I called again, obviously frustrated. I NICELY explained to the gentlemen my situation and he says,"it's your card." I waited for more information or a suggestion... nothing. "How can it be that all of my cards aren´t working on your website but they work everywhere here in Rio? It´s not my card..." He replies, "Well just try again later." At this point, I just have to laugh. "Are you kidding? Then what? I try again later and when it doesnt work, call you again? You know, for Customer Service you sure arent helping me at all." He said, "Why dont you just go to a TAM store in one of the malls and buy it in person?" I said, "Why dont you just let me purchase it over the phone?" They dont have any credit card machines to run the card. Of course not. At the end of the call, I asked for his name and employee number in case I had more problems (or want to complain and get him fired). "Ronaldo." . . . . "Ronaldo...? Ronaldo what? What´s your employee number?" "We dont have those." Of COURSE you dont... I guess Ronaldo isnt as dumb as I thought. It gets better. We walk to the closest mall, find the TAM store and the man says they ALSO cant make my purchase because they dont have a credit card machine. And no, they dont accept international cards (that was the problem that my friend RONALDO didnt inform me of). My only option is to go to the airport and purchase it there. My seat reservation would last 2 days... "Thanks... for nothing." So we leave the store and as we´re leaving the mall we think, "Wait? Can we pay here in cash? Can we pay with Ricardo´s card which is Brazilian? Could we have paid with his card AT HOME, from the beginning and avoided this all together?" So we turn around, and ask Mr. TAM all of these questions. He responds, YES we could pay there in cash, YES we could pay online with his card. "Why didnt you tell us all of that before?" "You didnt ask." Wow... you really dont want my service do you? So then we ask how much it will be to pay in the store and he says a price that is $50 Reals more than the original. "Subiu (it went up)." In 2 hours? Really? "There's a fee to pay in the store rather than online." Wait, so WHICH IS IT? the price went up or there's a special fee?

I rather just stop here because I think Ive made it more than clear that customer service is horrendous here, and I thought it was bad at home! Always having automated women pass me from one line to another then to a human who doesnt know the answer. But Brazil wins, hands down. In the end, I got my ticket. It's all taken care of and Im counting the days to go home (I'll save those details for the next blog).