Imagethief

That's exhausting to listen to. My mental image was of a boot, stamping on that guy's face -- forever.

(Apologies to George Orwell.)

I really started cringing at the moment the guy adopted the "I have a lesson that you need to learn" attitude. It's not so unfamiliar to me, I am a bit ashamed to say. So true, though, that what could be "possibly legitimate advice" becomes pure abuse once your tone and demeanor cross a certain line.

Oh, that and when you call the service provider a f*ing b*tch.

The guy is a complete jerk, and the girl should be promoted for being not only professional but for refusing to apologize for providing a different service than their competitors.  Kudos for whatever food chain it is, they have some very impressive employees.

I would have to go with what Shannon and Chip said. I have been a Sourcing Engineer for quite a few years and have never heard such abuse and ignorance. Unbelievable, what an idiot.

Trouble is there was no legitimate advice offered in that phonecall. Nothing even possibly legitimate. The girl was incredibly polite and professional. Had I been her manager, I would've picked up the phone and told douchebag where to insert his attitude. The moment douchebag expected whatever restaurant he called to provide the service he demanded he crossed the line- no, the moment he expressed that expectation as if it were his God-given right to demand and get whatever service from whatever business he calls, he stepped way over the line.

Not really relevant, but: I almost say the Chinese edition of this at lunch today. The difference was the fat bastard in question stopped at expressing his disapproval of the fact that the restaurant clearly marked as 'lanzhou lamian' and not having anything cooked or served on any kind of a stick on the menu would not have chuan'r. He could've gone two doors up and got everything on a stick he needed, but he chose the lamian joint. Still, like I said, he expressed his disapproval of the lack of chuan'r, ate his noodles, paid his bill and left. So he was an arsehole, but, unlike douchebag of Shanghai above there, he didn't make a right dick of himself.

the worst part is what he wanted "the same 2-for-1 deal from ONE burger chain, that another burger chain was offereing" - what kind of moron thinks Sherpa's can provide the promotion switch like that?

To be fair to the guy I called to be booted in the face forever (!) I think he was both drunk and desperately lonely.

He was trying to get human interaction. His way of going about it was broken and mean, as previously discussed. But then he was drunk...

I'm trying to keep an open mind. But wouldn't Occam's razor tell us: "assume a fake unless confronted with significant evidence to the contrary"?

"idiocy over conspiracy" -- fair enough and that's always my underlying assumption as well. My original thinking, insofar as it was coherent, was that a fake like this would fall into the "idiot" (i.e. stir up the ant nest) category. But I'll back off on the whole fake theory now that i'm paying more attention and see that it was in fact Danwei that posted the sound file. Pretty painful sad sack bloviating if true.

The guy said if they didn't offer the 2 for 1 with that service then he would just go to Blue Frog on Monday, and they would lose his business on Mondays, which was probably a lot of money over the weeks,  months or years.

To which she replied, "Ok".   Perfectly fine with her.  It sounds passive aggressive to me.  And when he called her on it she was patronizing, not sincere at all in her apology.  He had to ask for the manager a lot but she never put him through.  I think she was being passive aggressive and hiding it behind an unruffled demeanor - which is a common social behavior one finds in China.  Obviously she wasn't working to save his patronage, she was being totally passive - another vestige of a "harmonic" education system.  

Another problem is that his expectation of dealing with someone who could see a problem and solve it does not quite translate into many levels of Chinese society.

In the end, he is castigated for being foreign, fat, rich, and arrogant - but who the hell are any of us to judge??  But then, we accuse what we know ourselves.

I wish I knew which service it was, because they would lose my business too.  And if she worked for me she would be trained or let go.  Replaced until the next staff member's incompetent service reared its head.

But then, I was trained in customer service.  There is a whole lot going on here beyond angry customer vs "innocent" CSR.  

When a customer has loyalty to a service he or she has a right to expect satisfaction and not to be treated like a random person - or he is free to take his business elsewhere.  It's the business that will suffer the loss of a customer as well as reputation, and who knows what opportunities.  But in China, the norm seems to be, if a customer is loyal it means he needs the business, and therefore the business has the upper hand.

Having spent a number of years in Shanghai I have seen countless businesses open and close inside a year - probably never knowing the true reason for failure.

running man - you are thinking far too much into this with your "passive agressive" presumptions. Sounds to me her english level was not so high so her ok was simply a way of acknowledging his statement.

like the first poster said, any sympathy for this guy - and any question this is a fake - went out the window the second he called her a "f**king bitch"

a sad, lonely man who wanted to feel better about himself. probably put the phone down and muttered to himself "that showed her!"

Yeah, you're probably right Mike.  I didn't catch the curse, either.  

Perhaps it was just her bluffing and not actually speaking English well enough to understand him.  Certainly that is possible, and common!  Anything off script, you know.

I've seen this type of problem before, I don't think it was staged.

However?  I'm leery to call this type of service if I have a recorded complaint that ends up online and in the human flesh search engine!  I LIKE complaining sometimes! And some of them are even legitimate!  :)