Questions for Americans Living In The UK!!

Also, I detest communal wards, where, even if you are on state care in the USA you still get your own private room with en suite bathroom and internet hook-ups for Wi-Fi and electrical outlets for such things as your own music-system and satelite TV!!

Not always.  Private rooms are definitely not guaranteed across the board in the US.  It is certainly the case in some hospitals, but it's not universal.  Blanket statements just don't work well. 

I'm probably only in the UK temporarily and not in it for the long haul like many of the folks here.  I miss a whole lot of things about my life in the US, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time there -- at least not for everyone. 

When you already have an obvious prejudice, it doesn't really matter how people answer your questions.

You can't generalize things about an entire country based on your limited experience in a certain area (i.e. you can't judge American airports unless you've flown in a few thousand to make an educated opinion).

I'm a UK citizen who has lived in the US on two occasions (for almost 2 years in total), so although I don't have all that much US experience, here are my thoughts:

1) I haven't really had a major problem with customer service here in the UK. The only real problem I've had with it has been in the last few weeks, when sorting out the gas bill and account in our new flat (the previous owners didn't pay their last bill and the estimated reading on the notice was almost 1000 units less than the meter says... it's been a nightmare getting them to change the reading and send us a correct bill!). What I don't really like is the US customer service where the staff are in your face and constantly asking if you need help... I've noticed that more UK companies are doing this now and it's annoying - if I need help, I'll ask; otherwise, leave me alone !

2) I don't really notice the taxes... yes, it's annoying to lose money in your paycheck and that frustrating that VAT is so high, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I just accept it. I've never owned a car in the US, so I don't know how much it costs to put one on the road there, so to me, car tax and insurance costs what it costs and that's what I have to pay if I want to drive my car (this thread has actually just reminded me to renew my car tax because it runs out at the end of the month).

3) Having spent much of the last 10 years working in retail in between university courses and finding a graduate job, I am so grateful for shorter trading hours in the UK! Sure it's annoying that the shops close early on Sundays, but I've had to work every other Sunday for the last 2 years and it was wonderful only having a 6-hour day and being able to go home at 5pm . I am also extremely grateful that I now have a regular M-F 9-5 job because if I'd still been in retail (I only left retail 9 weeks ago), I would have been working various shifts between 8 am and 10.30pm, including weekends, leading up to Christmas!

4) I'm not keen on the high cost of petrol in the UK, but that's just something I have to deal with if I live here (and I moved back to the UK from the US because it's the country I want to live in). I haven't got any utility bills to compare with in the US (all my bills were included in the rent there) so I don't really know what is high and what is low in comparison.

5) I am a big fan of the NHS - one of my big worries when I moved to the US was how I was going to pay for and deal with medical care there if I got sick (thankfully I didn't though). I have never personally had any problems with the NHS - I've never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes to be seen when I had an appointment and I've never had to wait more than about 48 hours for an appointment. My prescriptions are mostly free and all my appointments are free (upfront, of course). If I have an emergency, I don't have to worry about payment. I haven't ever had to stay in hospital or wait for a procedure though, so I can't speak for that side of things (the only thing that's happened to me is when I broke my leg at age 12... I was in and out of the A&E in 2 hours, after having had X-rays and a plaster cast put on and it didn't cost a penny).

I think the TV Licence is extortionate!! Over here you have to pay that whether you like it or not and if you have cable, then you have the monthly cable bill to pay ON TOP of the Licence fee, whereas in the USA you only have to pay the monthly cable bill and no TV Licence!!

In the UK I pay:
TV licence = £145 a year
Digital TV, broadband internet and phone line = £31 a month (£372 a year)

=  £517 a year

In the US I would have been paying:
Digital TV, broadband internet and phone line = $99 a month

= $1188 a year
= £752 a year

Which means that even including paying for a TV licence in the UK, I would still be paying about 50% more in the US for the same services.

3) Having spent much of the last 10 years working in retail in between university courses and finding a graduate job, I am so grateful for shorter trading hours in the UK! Sure it's annoying that the shops close early on Sundays, but I've had to work every other Sunday for the last 2 years and it was wonderful only having a 6-hour day and being able to go home at 5pm . I am also extremely grateful that I now have a regular M-F 9-5 job because if I'd still been in retail (I only left retail 9 weeks ago), I would have been working various shifts between 8 am and 10.30pm, including weekends, leading up to Christmas!

I mostly agree with all of this!  My shop opens 9-5 (but as a manager I come in early and stay late to do the banking / figures and get caught up on stuff) and not on Sundays, thank goodness.  My local little health food shop closes at 4:30 which I thought was annoying the first time I found that out.  I arrived at about 4:40 and was surprised they were closed.  Now I just work around that and it's fine.

The only time I ever "needed" to go to a store very late at night was coming back from a club (back in my younger days) or from playing music somewhere.  I lived in the city and usually walked.  I'd pass a WaWa or a Rite-Aid that was open 24 hours and would go in to get some munchies since I was usually really hungry at that hour.  But my lifestyle has changed and I don't live in a big city like that anymore so no need really.

As I have said in a previous post, I am a British woman born and bred but have lived and spent time in the USA over the past 2 decades mainly due to my late husband being American. I eat, sleep, breathe, drink and LIVE America and prefer America to the UK anyday!!

Well, bully for you!

1) How do you all find the Customer Service over here, or lack of it?? Do you find it totally different between the 2 countries??

Personally I don't find much difference. I find that I am served by mostly decent friendly people doing an often tricky job as well as they can, for not a lot of money. I don't swan around with an enormous sense of entitlement, looking for reasons to complain.

2) How do u find our taxes here, like our crippling TV Licence and the extortionate road(car) taxes and the fact that everywhere you have to pay to park your car??

The taxes are worth it to fund the brilliant NHS (see below) and the other benefits of living here. The TV licence is worth it for Radio 4 alone. I don't drive and I find the public transport where I live to be totally fantastic, if a bit pricey.

3) How do you cope with our wacky trading hours, when virtually everything(particularly grocery stores) in the USA is open 24/7??

I never want to go shopping at 3 AM.

4) What about our extremely high utility bills for electricity and gas and water, as well as the high price we have to pay for gas(petrol) for your car??

They aren't so bad.

5) How do you find our NHS and its sub-standard healthcare, as well as the poor, Victorian, delapidated hospitals, compared to the fantastic healthcare in the USA(after all the USA is home to the world famous Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital!!)

I think on average the standard is about the same. The US has Johns Hopkins and the Mayo, the UK has Addenbrookes and Great Ormond Street. Both have good and bad. I prefer the NHS way of funding healthcare, which I think is fairer.

Personally I have found your questions very irritating and biased, and I expect I'll get flamed for this, I smell "troll", to the extent that you seem to be asking to have an argument. And could you try rationing the exclamation and question marks to one at a time?

I know quite a lot of wealthy Americans and when I have been over there and told them all about the UK and the taxes(like the TV Licence and the huge road tax for example) and the state of our healthcare system, etc. they have all been in utter shock and even said that after what I have told them they dont think they could ever afford to move over to the UK to live!

You Americans that do live here must be all totally brainwashed and programmed into thinking that the UK is so fantastic, thats all I can say!

Our warm beer must have got to your brains!!LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Grrrrr
TROLL comes to mind             


Rant over.

Grrrrr
TROLL comes to mind             


Rant over.

No kidding. Between this and the chain restaurants thread methinks someone is trying to push all the UK-Yankee-controversial-thread buttons.

I'm surprised we've made it 2 pages without hearing about mixer taps.

You Americans that do live here must be all totally brainwashed and programmed into thinking that the UK is so fantastic, thats all I can say!

I think you might be happier on the Fox News message boards.   

I know quite a lot of wealthy Americans and when I have been over there and told them all about the UK and the taxes(like the TV Licence and the huge road tax for example) and the state of our healthcare system, etc. they have all been in utter shock and even said that after what I have told them they dont think they could ever afford to move over to the UK to live!

You Americans that do live here must be all totally brainwashed and programmed into thinking that the UK is so fantastic, thats all I can say!

Our warm beer must have got to your brains!!LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Are wealthy Americans the only ones you know?  Perhaps nobody has clued you in to the fact that most Americans are not wealthy.  But, something tells me that the opinions of "other" Americans don't matter to you.  

I have to deal with these kind of people quite a lot.
They been to america a few times, and think its "oh so wonderful", But unless you've actually lived and worked in america,then you have absolutey no idea what its really like.
You think america is so amazing? How about this... when I was 18, I was in a car accident. Being as I was 18, I didnt have any medical insurance. So I was treated like a piece of crap in the hospital. They legally had to xray me to see if I had any broken bones,but once they seen I didnt, they kicked me out. They actually tried to kick me out naked. (The paramedics had to cut off my clothes). I had to BEG THEM for a pair of scrubs to wear until I got home.
How about this as well...  I had a fantastic job working in finance, I'd bring home between $2000-$3000 a month and occasionally I'd get a monthly bonus ,but since I didnt have any kids or dependants,when tax season rolled around, I had to give the government almost $4000 because they think I earned too much money

Anyway,it sounds to me like you're an "american wannabe". and you, yourself must be "totally brainwashed and programmed into thinking the US is so fantastic"

A little quiz for everyone on here:

Which country is having loads of student riots at the moment due to its government hiking extortionate raises onto student fees?? Is it

A) The USA
or
B) The UK

I have never heard of any student riots in the USA because of excessive student fees, mainly because the US Government is more fairer to its people!!

I have locked this topic as it is becoming unsavoury.  Name calling has no place here.  We debate as adults or we don't debate at all.