Where in the World Isn't Bob Saget?

[JenniferS]

Technology is handy at times but harmful at others. Before all this proliferation of networks created by cable we enjoyed much better entertainment and after the installation of a roof top antenna and a motorized rotor we could get all the available channels and didn't have to listen to the massive hot air that we have to endure now. I can now get 147 channels and I regularly watch about 3 and those are the ones that show reruns of the programs I loved back pre-cable. Even then I doubt that I watch over an hour a day. As for the internet, well, I spent close to 4 hours a day just sitting here and watching stuff like You Tube or Discussion Boards as it all slowly turns my brain into mash potatoes. I keep threatening to get a hobby that might occupy my time, but I can't break the internet habit. I quit drinking and smoking quite easily and that was after 40 years of being a heavy smoker. This has me in it's grip.

Same thing with cell phones! For years and years I was on the road most of the day and never had a phone. I did have an answering machine so when I got home I had any important message I needed and NO ROBO CALLS. None! Never even gave it a thought. I owned a level 4 nursing home and when on a trip to WDW, once a day, I would find a payphone in the park and check in on how things were going. I even had to order a new freezer for the place while I was standing next to Main Street USA. I now go into a minor panic if I forget my phone and have gone past the point of no return to go back and get it. I am in a constant panic wondering if someone important is trying to reach me for something, almost no one important needs to speak to me when I have the phone with me.

We only get 8 or 9 channels through the RV antenna at the park here. Luckily one of them is Global, which is the station I watch for news, and it’s a major network affiliate in the evening. Another channel we get plays Matlock, Beverly Hillbillies and My Three Sons in the morning. The other stations are French, TVO (educational programming), or are too garbled and pixelated to stand for long.

For the Blue Jays and major US news stations (CNN and Fox - both very helpful this week, what with the Titanic sub and the who knows what the heck that was in Russia), we have to stream through the Rogers Ignite App on the iPad and hook it up to the tv.

First World problems to be sure.

 

[Bullseye1967]

We only get 8 or 9 channels through the RV antenna at the park here. Luckily one of them is Global, which is the station I watch for news, and it’s a major network affiliate in the evening. Another channel we get plays Matlock, Beverly Hillbillies and My Three Sons in the morning. The other stations are French, TVO (educational programming), or are too garbled and pixelated to stand for long.

For the Blue Jays and major US news stations (CNN and Fox - both very helpful this week, what with the Titanic sub and the who knows what the heck that was in Russia), we have to stream through the Rogers Ignite App on the iPad and hook it up to the tv.

First World problems to be sure.

Just curious, do you or Mike speak French?

 

[PUSH]

It now says the internet won't be repaired until 10:30am tomorrow. It's absolutely ridiculous.

 

[JenniferS]

Just curious, do you or Mike speak French?

Mike, not even a little. I took it all the way through first year of university, but that was almost four decades ago, and I haven’t used it since.

I could probably still cobble together enough rudimentary phrases to get by; and when I read the French side of any (mandatory) bilingual packaging up here, I understand 80% of it.

What they teach in school is Parisian French. What they speak in Quebec is anything but.

In France, oui sounds like “we”. Dans la belle province, it sounds more like a duck quacking “way”

 

[Goofyernmost]

Mike, not even a little. I took it all the way through first year of university, but that was almost four decades ago, and I haven’t used it since.

I could probably still cobble together enough rudimentary phrases to get by; and when I read the French side of any (mandatory) bilingual packaging up here, I understand 80% of it.

What they teach in school is Parisian French. What they speak in Quebec is anything but.

In France, oui sounds like “we”. Dans la belle province, it sounds more like a duck quacking “way”

You sure they aren't just saying eh??

 

[PUSH]

They now have trucks here, and they're in what I assuming is the room with all the internet cables and wires down in the basement. Hopefully they figure it out.

 

[PUSH]

Literally a second after I made my last post, the internet came back on.

It took them no more than 2 hours to fix it. Just shows they don't work weekends. It was down for 71 hours.

 

[trr1]

Literally a second after I made my last post, the internet came back on.

It took them no more than 2 hours to fix it. Just shows they don't work weekends. It was down for 71 hours.

I hope you get reimbursed for the 3 days of lost Internet

 

[PUSH]

I hope you get reimbursed for the 3 days of lost Internet

I did a chat with someone, and they said they'd do a credit for a week. We'll see.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

I'd like to share with you the challenge I'm willing to take on regarding going to Denmark.
I asked a question in English to the email address for the Customer Service folks at the Copenhagen Railroad.
That was a few days ago...but today I received this reply: (seemingly an automated preprogramed reply)
"Vi vil gotr bedste for at sarve dig indenfor 21 hverdage..."
There was a bit more but that's enough to give you the idea.
*
*
*
*
*
I went to Google Translate and it provided this translation:
"We will do our best to answer you within 21 working days"

Twenty One Working Days!? My question was fairly simple...probably very common.....and by the way...........
I've actually already received my answer from a Copenhagen Denmark resident who kindly gave me feedback on a Tripadvisor forum.
*
Based on this experience, I imagine.....(now anyone can set me straight).....but I imagine that I'll find that the culture of Denmark's citizens puts more emphasis on "personal leisure" and Denmark culture places less importance on "customer service" and doing a great job for your company than we do in USA/Canada.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Having been to Denmark I found the customer service there to be just as good as over your side of the pond. They were always pleasant and spoke far better English than you probably speak of their language.
The 21 days was probably a computer generated confirms reply to your request , rather than a person. This is pretty common practice in companies world wide.
To make an assumption of their culture would be equivalent of us thinking that all Americans are rude and arrogant based on cultural stereotypes. A fact that is plainly wrong .
The real problem seems to stem from an expectation that everything is going to be dealt with instantaneously. This is a problem nowadays that sadly seems to plague everywhere.

 

[Lilofan]

I'd like to share with you the challenge I'm willing to take on regarding going to Denmark.
I asked a question in English to the email address for the Customer Service folks at the Copenhagen Railroad.
That was a few days ago...but today I received this reply: (seemingly an automated preprogramed reply)
"Vi vil gotr bedste for at sarve dig indenfor 21 hverdage..."
There was a bit more but that's enough to give you the idea.
*
*
*
*
*
I went to Google Translate and it provided this translation:
"We will do our best to answer you within 21 working days"

Twenty One Working Days!? My question was fairly simple...probably very common.....and by the way...........
I've actually already received my answer from a Copenhagen Denmark resident who kindly gave me feedback on a Tripadvisor forum.
*
Based on this experience, I imagine.....(now anyone can set me straight).....but I imagine that I'll find that the culture of Denmark's citizens puts more emphasis on "personal leisure" and Denmark culture places less importance on "customer service" and doing a great job for your company than we do in USA/Canada.

My experience in travels in Europe and living in the USA , hands down USA has better and friendlier customer service compared to Europe.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

My experience in travels in Europe and living in the USA , hands down USA has better and friendlier customer service compared to Europe.

I bet that's true @Lilofan ! ...and since that was an auto generated response...that means their own people have to wait 21 business days for a reply as well. Only Steve asks questions 5 weeks in advance. By the time people get their answer, it is too late.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Having been to Denmark I found the customer service there to be just as good as over your side of the pond. They were always pleasant and spoke far better English than you probably speak of their language.
The 21 days was probably a computer generated confirms reply to your request , rather than a person. This is pretty common practice in companies world wide.
To make an assumption of their culture would be equivalent of us thinking that all Americans are rude and arrogant based on cultural stereotypes. A fact that is plainly wrong .
The real problem seems to stem from an expectation that everything is going to be dealt with instantaneously. This is a problem nowadays that sadly seems to plague everywhere.

I was not ignoring you. Lilofan quoted me so I thought he was the only one who responded. You did not quote me or chose an emoji on my post so I accidentally missed you. Just now I noticed you shared a lot. I would like to disagree with you. I don't want to argue...just disagree in one very specific aspect. If I sent an email to America's Amtrak, that train related customer service would likely promise to get back to me in 7 to 10 days. 10 days is "at the most". It DOES seem reasonable to conclude that a country that thinks getting back to someone only after 21 business days....so in a calendar sense it might be 30 calendar days....getting back to a customer a month later is unacceptable here. Yet naturally, Europeans are FAR SUPERIOR in learning a second or third language than Americans. Most Americans who speak English lack any ambition to learn any other language....except to pass the foreign language class in High School.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

As an experiment, I just emailed Irish rail and asked them if it "would be possible to take a train from Galway to Killarney?" I will report back as to how many days pass before I receive a response. My guess is by this coming Monday night...one week from now I will have an answer. I was going to try the same experiment regarding the UK, but I settled for taking this photo instead.....

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

I was not ignoring you. Lilofan quoted me so I thought he was the only one who responded. You did not quote me or chose an emoji on my post so I accidentally missed you. Just now I noticed you shared a lot. I would like to disagree with you. I don't want to argue...just disagree in one very specific aspect. If I sent an email to America's Amtrak, that train related customer service would likely promise to get back to me in 7 to 10 days. 10 days is "at the most". It DOES seem reasonable to conclude that a country that thinks getting back to someone only after 21 business days....so in a calendar sense it might be 30 calendar days....getting back to a customer a month later is unacceptable here. Yet naturally, Europeans are FAR SUPERIOR in learning a second or third language than Americans. Most Americans who speak English lack any ambition to learn any other language....except to pass the foreign language class in High School.

"I don't want to argue"
Yet you continue to disparage a country based on one automated email. Well I do apologise as it's clear from your "evidence" that good old USA is a world leader in customer service and those Europeans are just lazy and inefficient .
Why do you even want to visit such a backwards country ?

 

[trr1]

"I don't want to argue"
Yet you continue to disparage a country based on one automated email. Well I do apologise as it's clear from your "evidence" that good old USA is a world leader in customer service and those Europeans are just lazy and inefficient .
Why do you even want to visit such a backwards country ?

no we are not the world leader.most of our companies outsource to another country, some scammers also come from that country its neighbors are China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh..

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

"I don't want to argue"
Yet you continue to disparage a country based on one automated email. Well I do apologise as it's clear from your "evidence" that good old USA is a world leader in customer service and those Europeans are just lazy and inefficient .
Why do you even want to visit such a backwards country ?

Calm down. I will meet many nice people in Denmark and have a great time. I will say "please" and "thank you" constantly. I always act respectfully and nicely when in Europe or in Asia. I certainly am not against the Danish people. I just think their rail customer service response...their standard is very laid back compared to Ireland and your UK. So clearly I am not saying Europeans are lazy. Kindly refrain from being so over the top dramatic. I got a nice response from a Copenhagen citizen on TripAdvisor and I look forward to people helping me once we are there. I am open to learning about and visiting other countries thus a discussion like my Original Post interests me. Just learning and expanding my horizons. Gee wiz

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Calm down. I will meet many nice people in Denmark and have a great time. I will say "please" and "thank you" constantly. I always act respectfully and nicely when in Europe or in Asia. I certainly am not against the Danish people. I just think their rail customer service response...their standard is very laid back compared to Ireland and your UK. So clearly I am not saying Europeans are lazy. Kindly refrain from being so over the top dramatic. I got a nice response from a Copenhagen citizen on TripAdvisor and I look forward to people helping me once we are there. I am open to learning about and visiting other countries thus a discussion like my Original Post interests me. Just learning and expanding my horizons. Gee wiz

Why should I calm down. Maybe read what you are about to post before hitting post reply. You are slating a country based on one automated email . How is that "expanding your horizons "
Perhaps I should use my interactions yesterday with a selection of American cruise ship passengers to form an opinion of your country.
Going by my experience you are all
Loud . Does no one have an inside voice?
Rude. There is plenty of space for travel on both directions on the pavement .
Ignorant. Why would you use a marked crossing when you can walk in the middle of the road.
However I understand that this isn't a fair representation of your country. The majority of people over there are kind and considerate people .

 

[Bullseye1967]

no we are not the world leader.most of our companies outsource to another country, some scammers also come from that country its neighbors are China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh..

Don't forget India!