Only 3 things I miss from California/USA. You?

I thought you North London types were into ramen now...

North London types?   I'm no Islington hipster. 

Twickenham is south, and nothing like north London, I assure you. 

Don't miss much, but one thing I do miss is good customer service. It's so horrid here. I was trying to get a card (my son was here for Glastonbury and i didn't want to give him £) with money on it here. In the States you'd pop into a Walgreen's and buy a refillable CC/debit card. They don't sell them here, but i found that the post office does. And they had branches on Sunday! Yea, I went to 4 or 5. First one told me his Mom knew how to do them, but he didn't and asked me to come back the following day (wasn't an option). The last one actually had the cards, but the woman said "We have them but I don't know how to use them. Sorry."

I also find the UK has less choice. I WANT to support local businesses, but end up relying on Amazon (yay Amazon lockers) a lot. Tried finding Superfloss (used with braces) at Tesco. They only had three different brands of regular floss. Tesco Extra locations are stocked at the level of a small Walmart store in the States.

That being said, I don't miss the constant push to consume. Brits actually do have downtime. And I prefer the High Street to mega-malls any day.



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Oh and bacon bits on salad....lol

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First one told me his Mom knew how to do them, but he didn't

That's a gem!

Customer Service: Strategic Technologies, I'm Jason....how can I help?
User: Well my system is locked up. Tried everything....keeps saying a 429 Code X.
Customer Service: Hmmmmm....a 429 Code X? Hhmmmm....please hold a second...Mommm!

I am often floored by how unhelpful British customer service can be. Not always, of course, I've had many very helpful customer service folks - most of them Scottish, for whatever reason. But on multiple occasions I've been met with a blank stare when I ask for help with something they don't know how to do. No effort to try and figure it out, or search out someone else who can help. It's just like "This isn't on my predetermined set of questions and answers so you're out of luck."

Ditto on the customer service. How many times I've heard the dismissive, short "we don't have that in stock I'm afraid" (or something along those lines) without any kind of further effort to help. It is annoying. Luckily I do most of my shopping online 

What are you expecting them to do if they haven't got what you want?

What are you expecting them to do if they haven't got what you want?

If you're in a department store (Macy's, JCPenny'so, Herbergers) in the States a lot of associates would ask if you'do want them to check and see if another store had one to order in. They'd rather make the sale in a few days than lose you.

Or maybe let you know of something similar that they DO have in stock if you need it now.

Yup. It's just being helpful and reaching out..... rather than "we don't have that, sorry."

Not all of my customer service experiences here have been bad.

Once my husband was in M&S looking for wellies for our son, and the sales clerk said they didn't have his size. So my husband asked if she could check online, so she did (acting like it was the strangest request ever). She looks it up, and the computer says there are some in stock online, but for some reason the woman said they weren't. My husband was like, "Um, I can see RIGHT THERE that it says they are." And the woman was like, "Oh. I guess they do have some." Pause. "So... could you order them?" Pause. "I'm not sure how to do that." Silence. Finally my husband got so frustrated he just left. This wasn't some surly teenager, she was a middle-aged woman. No attitude or anything, just... lots of blank looks.

But like I said, we both have had some excellent customer service experiences here too.

Not all have been bad here for me either, but I've never had anyone go the extra mile either. In this case I traveled on 5 buses across town and no one even tried to figure it out and help me, even though it's a product they sell. In the States I've had people call others to find out how to do something in a similar situation.

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