I'm sick of all these threads moaning about things being better in other countries...

Scroll to see replies

Um... customer service? Not sure if you're being serious. Seems like an outrageously silly thing to base an opinion of a country on, especially since it varies so much between day to day, company to company, shop to shop...

Yes. I was being 100% serious. It was also just one example. There are other things the US does much better than the UK, and there are some things the UK does better than the US. I can't speak for the whole US, but I can speak for my experiences in Idaho, Utah and Colorado...and people are much nicer than in the UK. Customer service is so much better than the UK. Every shop, every restaurant...they are attentive, alert, welcoming and friendly. That just doesn't happen in the UK. Strangers are nicer. They want to have conversations. It is definitely part of the culture out here in the West.

I guess I was slightly annoyed by the OP which suggested that he was "sick of all these threads moaning about things being better in other countries" when he hadn't been to the United States to find out whether that was the case. I guess I'm biased, because I actually want to emigrate to the US when I'm older though. The West...just feels right.

Reply 61

Guy Secretan

self-pitying people everywhere

Reply 62

Kittiara

Original post by Gott

Well perhaps if it results in the death of people who cannot afford it, then there is a case for it but I would question if more deaths are not caused by an institutional lack of responsibility and accountability, such as that which I saw where a relative of mine was completely ignored by one nurse and told us of lack of attention from the rest. I will commend them however on keeping a massive file on whether or not they had said good morning and the like (do they do this in the Netherlands?), while being no more than, rude, incompetent, and I suspect, though do try not to sound cynical, evil people. The last obloquy, seeing as it was as clear as day that they only put her on steroids to get her into the hospice, then took her off them by saying that they could cause trouble breathing, which she probably agreed to out of fear of going back to Leister General Hospital. I was under the impression though that it was free on the continent but god knows it could be here with the continental model, with the waste of the current NHS and can you tell me as to the supervision which the nurses receive in the Netherlands, whether there are so many notorious hospitals, whether any of them would dream of waiting £3 B collectively, or whether any of them think they need a network of parasitic bureaucrats to fail to regulate the intuition but produce ample enough red tape to suffocate their patients with, and laughingly call it a health 'service', as if it where a propagandist show of labours socialist omni-benevolence

I'm sorry to hear that your relative received such horrible care :frown:

. My grandmother experienced that in the Netherlands. The worst thing was that a couple of years ago, when my grandmother had a lot of health problems and was in and out of the hospital, the doctors kept suggesting to our family that healthcare should be withdrawn - to let her die. My grandmother, at the time, wasn't herself. She suffered from what was thought to be dementia and delirium. She still had clear moments, though, and staff hadn't been subtle in her presence so she knew, and she told my mother that "they were trying to kill her" and she was terrified, because she didn't want to die. Eventually, the correct diagnosis was made and she had surgery and she had more than a year still of living quite happily, going outside again, and being clear of mind, before she passed away a few months ago due to something unrelated - when, again, the doctors suggested withdrawing all healthcare. I'm still left wondering what would have happened if my family had insisted she keep on receiving her medication and food and drink. I do know that if my family had given in two years ago, my grandmother would have never had that happy year, and that is what can happen when patients are treated as economic units.

As to your questions, though, I don't have answers, because I haven't lived in the Netherlands for several years now. A quick Google does show some notoriously bad hospitals and deaths of patients due to a lack of proper care. So, bad as these things are, I really don't think that they're limited to our country.

Reply 63

pinkteddyx64

Original post by jammy4041

Yes it DOES happen in the UK, just not everywhere. :mad:

Reply 64

navarre

Original post by jammy4041

I certainly found the South pretty friendly. But then, my experiences in the North East weren't great in terms of customer service. As I say, this is a huge generalization. It's just not something I care a fig for.

Reply 65

jammy4041

Original post by navarre

Well..I am in the west. Everywhere I have been in the west has been pretty friendly.

Reply 66

pinkteddyx64

Original post by navarre

I have always found the customer service in Scotland to be top notch in particular, as in south of Wales too. :h:

Reply 67

pinkteddyx64

Original post by jammy4041

Well I have since been to the US and found that the customer service and general level of friendlieness amongst people in general in the way that you mentioned was in fact the best in Vermont state and New York City. It was excellent in Boston, Philidelphia and Washington D.C too but just not to the same level as in New York City! :yep: