Chinese shop keepers in Spain (1 Viewer)

[MattR]

We're on holiday in S Spain and have ended up in three shops operated by Chinese staff and have been shocked as to how miserable or surly they have been. We have been followed around the stores by staff who then seem to find it disturbing when we've asked for help and we've struggled to get a smile or greeting out of any of them.

I returned some items today that had failed after one or two days' use and nearly ended up having a row as they nearly refused to accept the returns and then had the audacity to state that they did not want me returning any of the replacement items if they failed again.

I know that Spain has different laws regarding the sale of good acts, returns etc. but I don't expect to have someone try to shout at me because I had the front to return items that had failed so quickly. (The laws in the UK seem to be much more favourable to the consumer than they are in Spain).

I've never had such bad customer service; I have been to Spain many times and often use Chinese shops in the UK so it seems to me that Chinese shop keepers really don't care about their customers in Spain. Am I wrong? If I am not, what makes them so unhelpful here in Spain?

 

[jumar]

YEP...Agree 100% Buy Spanish.

 

[sallylillian]

Its a bit like the English speaking in a loud, slow but English language voice to a foreigner hoping that somehow they will understand, consider it in reverse. Maybe their natural tongue is Chinese, they speak Spanish.. how well? and now they have to speak English, not asking for a pint of milk but deal with an upset English person trying to return an item. Suppose you were Chinese, did not speak English trying to return a product in the UK with a Spanish counter assistant who spoke some English, its easy to see how things could become explosive?

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[MattR]

YEP...Agree 100% Buy Spanish.

Interestingly, it was only the Spanish shop floor worker that smiled, asked if I needed any help when I was browsing and guided me.

 

[ABZSteve]

你说中文吗 (nǐ shuō zhōng wén ma) perhaps you might have got a better response if you did, just a thought. I know I do when dealing with Chinese folks

 

[MattR]

Its a bit like the English speaking in a loud, slow but English language voice to a foreigner hoping that somehow they will understand, consider it in reverse. Maybe their natural tongue is Chinese, they speak Spanish.. how well? and now they have to speak English, not asking for a pint of milk but deal with an upset English person trying to return an item. Suppose you were Chinese, did not speak English trying to return a product in the UK with a Spanish counter assistant who spoke some English, its easy to see how things could become explosive?

Sure. They spoke far better Spanish than English but I wasn't upset at the start and only raised my voice after she had been shouting at me for returning stuff that had broken so quickly and she stated that I should not be returning the new items if they too failed. There wasn't a smile, apology or offer of assistance just a shrug of shoulders, instruction for me to find direct replacements and a load of cr*p about not doing refunds and then she dismissed me to try and serve the next customer. The conversation started in Spanish but I finished it in English as I did not want any of the other customers in the queue to mis-understand what was going on. It seems that the Chinese shop keepers just don't care about their customers, just the money that they can grab at the time.

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[MattR]

你说中文吗 (nǐ shuō zhōng wén ma) perhaps you might have got a better response if you did, just a thought. I know I do when dealing with Chinese folks

How about:
我不会说中国话，但如果你想要，我们可以在西班牙语交谈。请不要把我当成狗。

 

[Jim]

I know that Spain has different laws regarding the sale of good acts, returns etc.

I thought they were very similar to our consumer laws. Additionally you can report them with an official claims form. Though what good it would do is anyones guess.

For better satisfaction, you could Learn this phonetic phrase for your next visit. Doo-ooolie-Mo-Chow-Hi but only use it on leaving and be prepared to run, as it does ask him to perform a sex act on his mother.

 

[Geo]

I agree
The Spanish shop keepers in China are just the same

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[Jim]

That form Hoja de Reclamaciones

 

[Billy23]

What you say it true, they are all the same, well they are near my house in Spain.

I hear the the Spanish government have a deal with the Chinese government and Chinese shop owners do not pay Spanish tax for the first 3 years they are in business. Trouble is that every business has a new owner.........you guessed it, every 3 years. Now that just could be why they don't have to be nice.

Well that's what my Spanish friend tells me.

 

[laird of Dunstan]

I'm at this moment working in an office occupied by Chinese both male and female ,I have spoken to them during ciggy break and found them to be OK ,the guys at the top definitely have superior syndrome but then again so do a lot of Brits ,I would like to say good morning to them in mandarin but don't know how too.
There is no excuse for the service that you were given ,perhaps their initial off handed ness should have warned you off ,if they had been like that to me I'd have looked elsewhere for the products ,don't know Spanish law ,but there must be an equivalent sale of goods act in Spain

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[MattR]

I thought they were very similar to our consumer laws. Additionally you can report them with an official claims form. Though what good it would do is anyones guess.

For better satisfaction, you could Learn this phonetic phrase for your next visit. Doo-ooolie-Mo-Chow-Hi but only use it on leaving and be prepared to run, as it does ask him to perform a sex act on his mother.

I thought that the had similar laws to us too but I didn't find much recent legislation when I returned and the information that I did find was not good. It appears that most stores offer 14 days return to them for repairs etc. After that, the item needs to be returned to the manufacturer directly. Some companies here seem print their receipts using ink which appears to fade within a month or so, even when kept in the box that the item came in. And, items must be returned in their original packaging. It doesn't seem as good as our system.

The shop that I bought the items from had a 7 day return policy (which I was within) which I believe is illegal but as others in the shop said, they are a law unto themselves and they get a away with it.

The value of the items wasn't even that much, it was the contempt that they showed for me as a customer and their flagrant breach of what limited return laws in Spain that peed me off the most.

 

[Eeyore]

Surely not fair to condemn all of the thousands of Chinese shopkeepers in Spain on the basis of one or two unfavourable encounters ?

The Chinese are not the most effusive people but we've always found them polite and correct where ever we've met them.

We returned a non functioning MP3 player last year and the shop keeper used his phone and a translate program so that we could explain the problem. We wrote in English on the screen, it tranlated, he read it and wrote in Chinese and it tranlated back to English and then Spanish for the benefit of a Spanish lady in the shop who' d helped as well by translating our poor Spanish into Spanish that the shopkeeper could understand. A lot of laughs on the way and we got a replacement MP3 player that still works.

Perhaps I should start a thread as to how helpful all China Shop assistants are....

 

[MattR]

I'm at this moment working in an office occupied by Chinese both male and female ,I have spoken to them during ciggy break and found them to be OK ,the guys at the top definitely have superior syndrome but then again so do a lot of Brits ,I would like to say good morning to them in mandarin but don't know how too.
There is no excuse for the service that you were given ,perhaps their initial off handed ness should have warned you off ,if they had been like that to me I'd have looked elsewhere for the products ,don't know Spanish law ,but there must be an equivalent sale of goods act in Spain

Agreed. However, the items that we wanted were not ones that would normally be expected to fail - I thought that I was on safe ground.

I was further surprised as to how cr*p the other items in the shop were - so many items at such low quality. It doesn't matter if the items are cheap - if they are too cr*p to use, you might as well throw money down the drain.

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[Jim]

,I would like to say good morning to them in mandarin but don't know how too.

That's easy. Mandarin and Cantonese would be a nod while saying "nee-how"
But Hello on the phone is always "Wai" Pronounced "Way"

 

[MattR]

Surely not fair to condemn all of the thousands of Chinese shopkeepers in Spain on the basis of one or two unfavourable encounters ?

The Chinese are not the most effusive people but we've always found them polite and correct where ever we've met them.

We returned a non functioning MP3 player last year and the shop keeper used his phone and a translate program so that we could explain the problem. We wrote in English on the screen, it tranlated, he read it and wrote in Chinese and it tranlated back to English and then Spanish for the benefit of a Spanish lady in the shop who' d helped as well by translating our poor Spanish into Spanish that the shopkeeper could understand. A lot of laughs on the way and we got a replacement MP3 player that still works.

Perhaps I should start a thread as to how helpful all China Shop assistants are....

Feel free to start the tread. As I said before, I've not had bad customer service before. It is, however, coincidental or bad luck that of the three Chinese operated stores in the village / town, all three of them have provided miserable service over the last few days.

 

[MattR]

This is the legislation that I was expecting to see applied; it seems to be ignored by many retailers according to the threads that I was reading.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV:l32022

The shop keeper did (begrudgingly) offer to replace the items that broke but as both failed in the same place, I didn't have any confidence in the replacements from the same batch.

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[jumar]

I bought a Glue Gun from a Chinese shop here in Totana, after using it just 2 times it shorted out and virtually melted, So I should know better that buying electrical items from such a shop, well I do know better and also know its not worth the effort to drive back into town and request a replacement, as per the first posting. I just threw it in the bin, after it had cooled down, and got the Bostik out, bought from the same shop, do not think it was Bostik but a copy, called Bostic.

 

[Geejay]

Good to national stereotyping is alive and well. Thank god us Brits are perfect, esp the ex-pat types.

 

[The Dudess]

Think the Chinese shops are brilliant, if only for their variety of stuff and they are often situated in smaller towns - always been able to get what we wanted there and saves trawling round the big towns looking for something you don't even know the Spanish name of and probably won't be able to find. I don't expect (or get) John Lewis type service but I can usually get what I want.

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[chaser]

What iv seen of Chinese shops it's all rubbish, some of the things they sell, you would think it would be no harder to make them better, for maybe an extra penny or two, instead of going to all the time and trouble to make something that is useless.

 

[Billy23]

Good to national stereotyping is alive and well. Thank god us Brits are perfect, esp the ex-pat types.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Masman]

Just come back from peuto del Carmen.Talking to a local hotelier.The Chinese are getting tax benefits.There are at least 8 shops opened up this year all selling the same Tat.We went in a couple,I felt like a thief.They followed us around the shop.If you picked something up they pounced.Dropping the price instantly by 2 euro's.I think they are desperate to sell you anything.

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[BreweryDave]

As in all things - you get what you pay for, and that includes service.

If you want a washing up bowl - go to the chino and pay €2. If you want a pair of headphones - go to an electrical store and pay €50. (Other items are available as examples!)

The chino stores are great for cheap disposable items (aka pound land and wilko etc) - pile it high sell it cheap an throw it away if it breaks.

In fact - to keep their costs down they buy tills from china which have no 'refund' button on them !!!

 

[sdc77]

As in all things - you get what you pay for, and that includes service.

If you want a washing up bowl - go to the chino and pay €2. If you want a pair of headphones - go to an electrical store and pay €50. (Other items are available as examples!)

The chino stores are great for cheap disposable items (aka pound land and wilko etc) - pile it high sell it cheap an throw it away if it breaks.

In fact - to keep their costs down they buy tills from china which have no 'refund' button on them !!!

Couldn't agree more.. and that's not stereotyping. It's just common sense.

 

[bubble63]

I go to Sal, Cape Verde a lot

All the shop are Chinese, they follow you to make sure you don't steal anything
They work incredibly long hours and don't make much money
They know their products are bad quality, they just need them to last until they are out of the shop

They don't smile, I don't think they have much to smile about

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[Irishrover]

I've encountered staff following me around a Chino shop also, Was only in the place because of the wife wanting sandals....never again.

 

[Geejay]

I really don't see the point of threads like this. Why broadcast it to the world? You had an experience, get over it. All it does is give the knuckle draggers an excuse to vent their prejudice and stupidity.

Really makes me despair when there are so many helpful and thoughtful posts connected to motor-homing on here.

 

[Jim]

All it does is give the knuckle draggers an excuse to vent their prejudice and stupidity.

Sure does.

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