GRRRRRR� we have a gripe about living in Spain. We do not understand why businesses do not stay open longer during the day. For instance recently our car broke down and therefore was in need of a hire car. The company we contacted was reputable European-wide one. We contacted the national phone number to reserve the car. This was about 1.00 and we confirmed we were on our way to the local office, in Ourense. We were also given a confirmation number too. However when we got to the office it was closed. The sign on the door saying from 1.30 until 4.30. Another call to the national number they confirmed this was correct so did we want the car at 4.30? Unfortunately we had to be at Oporto airport by 4.40 (Spanish time) so the answer was no.
How can Spain do business in the real world, when it closes for half a day and then is open when the real world is then having it�s evening meal?
And don�t get us going about Government offices that close at 2 for the rest of the day.
Jer and Mad Sue�.. thanks for replying to my first post. (That is why it went into the wrong section!) :b: I know we will get used to it but it is sooo hard!
hey Doc, i know it is not easy getting a new biz off the ground but this is not the place to plug it.
please limit the references to your biz to the signature line in your posts.
thanks & happy posting.
back to the topic of this thread...
not only will you get used to it but you will come to love it!!! spain has that unique quality (amongst many others) of forcing one to slow down and enjoy life :cheers:
jer, I presume you deleted the post with the plug in it.
Thing is, I have now looked at The Doc's website, as you mentioned his signature. So it worked.
Speaking of unorthodox advertising, does anyone get annoyed with that La Estragon vegetarian restaurant, or whatever it is called, that is advertised in In Madrid and every other goddamn publication in this city? The one that is always upside down. Its downright irritating and I refuse to ever eat there, because while it has won them attention, I will NEVER succumb paying them money.
yes Cervantes, i give leway for people to use their sigs to mention/link to anything they like (within reason and subject to censorship ).
this helps everyone since the more thay participate on the board (eg. offering advice, helping others, etc...), the more their sig. will show.
let's not get off topic here, pleeeeeaaaaassseee!!! there is a thread on vegetarian eats HERE where "el estrag�n" is mentioned, you can blow off steam there if ya like
I've been here for more than a year and while I've gotten used to these business idiosyncracies and have grown accustomed to laughing about them and shrug them off, they really are detrimental to the country's future potential performance I think.
I'm in business school now, a top one in the world and even the school operates like a family business, with poor facilities, wacky administration and unacceptable facility opening hours. Foreigners come here seduced by rankings, Spanish 'lifestyle' and walk away totally bitter from their experience here with business. These are people with great ideas and quite a lot of money to invest. But come graduation they don't stay. It's sad to see that the business environment can't retain them.
I'd like perhaps get some opinions from everyone here on what they think are some reasons for a poorly perceived business environment.
Mike
"He who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture, hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition".
Posts: 334 | Location: New York, USA | Registered: 06 June 2003
on the up side, as an american in spain with his own biz, i have a huge advantage over any spanish competition.
you see, all the business i do is with americans, canadians and people from uk so you can imagine how relieved they are when they get a native english speaker on the phone.
i have had big corporate clients in uk come to me pulling their hair out after trying to deal with spanish companies that do what i do.
aside from the fact that i speak english, i give them customer service "as god commands" :jeje: ("como dios manda"), a customer service which they are used to back home.
this is probably the most outstanding advantage that i have over the spanish companies that i compete with and it is a HUGE advantage.
those who compete with me here and have that slack biz attitude are absulutely no competition when it comes to getting the foreign (native english speaking) client
Blanca, i know that you do customer service for vodafone and i am sure you do your job VERY WELL but the "big corporate client from uk" pulling their hair out that i mentioned above was trying to do business on the corporate level with vodafone spain and they just "could not deal with the incompetence and way too laid back attitude" they got. took that right from the client's e-mail. this client spent (wasted) 2 months trying to get in touch with vodafone spain (calling, getting passed around from dept. to dept., leaving messages, etc...) to no avail. they simply wanted to buy a large quantity of one product wholesale and they are a pretty big company in uk. then they found me, e-mailed me and i wrote them back within 6 hours.
Blanca� sorry about using the wrong words; perhaps I should have written the rest of the world� did not mean to offend anybody. :b: BTW I wanted to go to the airport at Oporto, Portugal. I was stuck in Ourense, which is a reasonable sized city/town(so I thought I would find the car hire office open).
Jer� I am also sorry to see that you think that I have broken a rule for this web site of yours. I certainly did not mean to, but seeing you sign yourself giving your other web site details I thought it was ok with my signature too. I have come hear to learn and join in, hopefully learn and to help folks.
Back on to the original subject� My original posting is a similar posting to what you said about Vodaphone. I will not name the car hire company but I can assure you that it was European wide. How can Spain do business with major players if it has this sort of attitude? I feel I have an advantage over the local competition too, but we will see! Having said all of that I can see that attraction of closing for hours too! :cheers:
i do not doubt your intentions as to having joined the board and encourage you to keep on participating.
quote:
I thought it was ok with my signature too.
you misunderstood me. i said that your sig is fine. i allow people to put what they want in their signatures. sorry if i was unclear.
what i had to delete was the talk of your house in your post itself (not in the sig.) but now that i look back on it, it was madsue who started it all by saying it was a good way to advertise your house. bad madsue, bad
i am just a bit over-sensitive lately sine some people (not you) have been trying to get in plugs for their businesses and it is getting tiring).
I work with two small hire car companies, and one Europ wide , and although the smaller companies still do close in the middle of the day, I do find them much more obliging. If my clients have problems, there is a 24 hour number to call on their contract, and they always go out to them as and when required. Perhaps that is the answer? Look for the local car hire companies, who are very likely struggling to survive against the biggies, and therefore willing to give better service?
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
)
). 
sorry all 
