craftsman
Dec 10, 2006, 15:08
What do you think of this complaint?
"Customer service, may I help you?"
"The television set I bought at your store has a ghost in it!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"A ghost! A ghost! He won't let me sleep at night, and it's your fault!"
If you were the customer service person, would you not smell a rat?
"At first, we didn't know what she was talking about," a store employee tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "She's a woman in her 60s, she'd bought the TV the week before, and she insisted it was haunted. We said we'd take back the set and give her a refund. No, she said, that wouldn't do, the ghost wouldn't allow it.
So what did they do? Tell her to go sling her hook, on her bike, be off with her...? No.
We went to her house. She pointed to the set and said, 'Look, there he is!' Of course we saw nothing. We finally settled it by giving her 30,000 yen for an exorcism.
Yes. They gave her 30,000 yen. Der!
Later we heard from other stores in her neighborhood that she's pulled the same stunt with them. She's famous for it. Everything she buys has a ghost in it.
You mean there wasn't really one?
But she's not alone. There's this man...
a 42-year-old Nara man who apparently goes around hunting for bumps in the road to drive his Porsche over, so that he can demand compensation from the city for scratches on the car.
And this man...
"A middle-aged salaryman-type came back into the store after buying some canned coffee," relates a convenience store cashier. " 'This coffee I bought is cold,' he said. It was true -- it had just been put into the warmer. I offered to give him another can. No, he wanted his money back. Fine. I gave it to him. Then he said, 'No point in wasting the coffee' -- and drank it down. He'd done it on purpose, deliberately taking a can from the very back of the warmer."
And how about this man...
"There was a guy standing by the magazine rack, reading magazines. Not only reading -- he was ripping open the sealed pages to look at the nude photos. 'Don't do that,' I said. He got mad and shot back, 'They're not even completely nude!' Instead of apologizing, he was complaining! I said, 'Since you've torn it, you'll have to buy it.' 'Like hell,' he said. 'I'm not buying a magazine that lies!' He gave in when I threatened to call the police."
And lastly the bizarre story of an angry fan...
A certain CD shop was handling reservations for a local enka performance. Somehow one customer failed to get his ticket. He stormed into the shop. "Bring the singer here!" he demanded. "I'm entitled to a live performance!" The manager admitted his responsibility, but what the customer asked was impossible. Was there nothing else he could do to make amends?
Money? A voucher? A free CD?
"All right then," said the customer, "you sing. Right here. Now. In front of everybody."
OK. Time to call the police. No one in their right minds would sing....would they?
"Clutching a broom like a microphone, in an agony of embarrassment -- because, you see, I'm totally tone-deaf -- I sang. I croaked out four numbers before finally the guy says, 'You stink. That's enough' -- and let me off the hook."
So the message here seems quite simple - if you can think of any reason - any reason at all - no matter how bizarre and plain crazy - to make a complaint in Japan, you've got a good chance of getting what you want.
Based on an article in the Japan Times: 'Claimers' revel in causing a scene (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/fd20061210t1.html)
"Customer service, may I help you?"
"The television set I bought at your store has a ghost in it!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"A ghost! A ghost! He won't let me sleep at night, and it's your fault!"
If you were the customer service person, would you not smell a rat?
"At first, we didn't know what she was talking about," a store employee tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "She's a woman in her 60s, she'd bought the TV the week before, and she insisted it was haunted. We said we'd take back the set and give her a refund. No, she said, that wouldn't do, the ghost wouldn't allow it.
So what did they do? Tell her to go sling her hook, on her bike, be off with her...? No.
We went to her house. She pointed to the set and said, 'Look, there he is!' Of course we saw nothing. We finally settled it by giving her 30,000 yen for an exorcism.
Yes. They gave her 30,000 yen. Der!
Later we heard from other stores in her neighborhood that she's pulled the same stunt with them. She's famous for it. Everything she buys has a ghost in it.
You mean there wasn't really one?
But she's not alone. There's this man...
a 42-year-old Nara man who apparently goes around hunting for bumps in the road to drive his Porsche over, so that he can demand compensation from the city for scratches on the car.
And this man...
"A middle-aged salaryman-type came back into the store after buying some canned coffee," relates a convenience store cashier. " 'This coffee I bought is cold,' he said. It was true -- it had just been put into the warmer. I offered to give him another can. No, he wanted his money back. Fine. I gave it to him. Then he said, 'No point in wasting the coffee' -- and drank it down. He'd done it on purpose, deliberately taking a can from the very back of the warmer."
And how about this man...
"There was a guy standing by the magazine rack, reading magazines. Not only reading -- he was ripping open the sealed pages to look at the nude photos. 'Don't do that,' I said. He got mad and shot back, 'They're not even completely nude!' Instead of apologizing, he was complaining! I said, 'Since you've torn it, you'll have to buy it.' 'Like hell,' he said. 'I'm not buying a magazine that lies!' He gave in when I threatened to call the police."
And lastly the bizarre story of an angry fan...
A certain CD shop was handling reservations for a local enka performance. Somehow one customer failed to get his ticket. He stormed into the shop. "Bring the singer here!" he demanded. "I'm entitled to a live performance!" The manager admitted his responsibility, but what the customer asked was impossible. Was there nothing else he could do to make amends?
Money? A voucher? A free CD?
"All right then," said the customer, "you sing. Right here. Now. In front of everybody."
OK. Time to call the police. No one in their right minds would sing....would they?
"Clutching a broom like a microphone, in an agony of embarrassment -- because, you see, I'm totally tone-deaf -- I sang. I croaked out four numbers before finally the guy says, 'You stink. That's enough' -- and let me off the hook."
So the message here seems quite simple - if you can think of any reason - any reason at all - no matter how bizarre and plain crazy - to make a complaint in Japan, you've got a good chance of getting what you want.
Based on an article in the Japan Times: 'Claimers' revel in causing a scene (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/fd20061210t1.html)