Berlin FAQ Blog

I know it's traditional among ex-pats to dis customer service in Germany (e.g. as non-existent), but it is (horror) better than its reputation. Quite often. This morning I popped out for my morning walk down to the mail box - down and up five flights of stairs, exactly the time it takes for the tea water to boil - and to my shock the newspaper was missing. Absent. Not there. There were no signs of forced intrusion, and I knew Mrs. Penguin couldn't have taken it, so I could only guess the poor sod who delivers the things at some unhumane hour of the morning had screwed up, or stayed in bed.

OK, Scheiße ereignet sich, and that's what customer service departments are there for. I usually dislike calling hotlines, because they usually involve being put on hold paying extortionate rates for the privilege of listening to crummy music [*], but it was a Berlin number and at the second attempt, after waiting for less than a minute, I got through to a real live person, explained the situation, and was momentarily speechless when they asked if I'd like the missing paper delivered. Like, today. And 90 minutes later it was there. No note of apology or complimentary compensatory choccies or anything like that of course though. Still, mustn't grumble.

[*] and if you're dealing with an organisation in an English speaking country, an opportunity to engage in a series of mutual misunderstandings with "Barry" from Bangalore.

Update: erm, this is a little embarrassing, but about 3 hours after I called, the doorbuzzer buzzed and someone said "Ihre Berliner Zeitung für Sie". Aaaah ja. Whoops. You see, thinking back to my initial peek into the letter box, I remember seeing two newspapers in there but thinking they were the freebies which had been delivered the day before and which I usually leave in there for direct transportation to the recycling bin. However the Berliner Zeitung on that particular day was not swollen up to about 3 times its actual size by glossy advertising leaflets and was easy to mistake for one of the freebies, especially when one is not awake. My apologies to the maligned delivery person.