Curious Customs: Tips for Visiting Japan, Part 2

Advantages: A great adventure
Disadvantages: Leave that handkerchief at home!

...as a Visitor** Of course, foreign visitors are not expected to know about the intricacies of Japanese gift culture and customs but it's still as well to be aware of their existence. As a visitor, you're quite likely to receive small gifts from people you are introduced to and you are not necessarily expected to give anything in return in those circumstances. Once when I went in to a bank in a small town to change some money I was served personally by the manager (probably because I was one of the few foreigners they had ever encountered in this backwater) and was taken aback to find myself presented with a gift-wrapped wind chime at the end of the transaction. Don't expect to receive that sort of treatment in Tokyo or any other big city though! If you visit people at their home or if you are taken out somewhere as a guest you should...

Mitsudan 22.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Customs (Japan)

Yamaha Stage Custom Drumkit

Advantages: GREAT DRUM KIT 4 OUTSTANDING PRICE!
Disadvantages: NONE?

...This Drum kit is amazing. If your a beginer or even really good this drum kit will suit you this kit is awsome if your looking for a reasonibly priced drum kit this is for you. I bought this kit about 2 years ago ive only made 3 adjustments like putting remo pinstripe skins on it and buying anew cymbal pack and buyong a mapex double bass pedal but thats what ive done this is a great kit and i would recomend this product to nearly anyone. The most affordable all-birch Yamaha drumset ever! An incredible value, the legendary tone of an all-birch Yamaha drumset is now available in the Stage Custom series. The low fundamental and warm tone of Yamaha's birch drums have been the top choice of drummers for over 30 years. The Stage Custom Birch series is great for the beginner or the working professional. The staggered diagonal seam allows us to...

ReviewDude12345 04.01.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Yamaha Stage Custom Drumkit

acCUSTOMed to your home comforts ??

Advantages: Good transport links
Disadvantages: Everything else

...My daughter ( L ) , my granddaughter ( S ) and myself recently stayed at the Custom House Hotel , Docklands , London as part of an overnight package which we had booked for the purpose of seeing the Phantom of the Opera on stage in the West End . Because we took a package deal the hotel was included , and we didnt have any alternative choices But having said that , had I made my own selection based purely on the rather attractive brochure photographs and brief description I may well have considered this hotel independently ,. My impression of Docklands , although I had never visited this area , had been of a smart , thriving up and coming area with high standard , modern hotels and facilities , well placed on the river front . That will teach me to make assumptions . On our arrival at the hotel at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon we...

Janej47 30.10.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Custom House Hotel, London

Being a Customer Adviser..

Advantages: Career progression, decent pay
Disadvantages: Have to deal with rude customers!

...For almost two years I was a Customer Service Adviser at top UK fashion store, Dorothy Perkins. I was in sixth form at the time, so only did a few days a week, but feel that my length of stay in that employment taught me exactly what working as a customer adviser is about. The most important thing you need to do is in the title of the job: Customer Service! It's important to keep the customer happy, and if that is out of your control, to calm them down and give them what they want. The amount of times I had a customer who demanded a refund because the dress they purchased didn't fit, who were rude, obnoxious, and indignant despite the fact that it is their fault for trying it on in the first place, and I've had to smile whilst they've sworn at me and apologised profusedly whilst giving them their money back! So what sort of things does...

Stephoohla 19.08.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Customer Services Advisor

very rude customer service at cleckheaton store

Advantages: no advantages of tesco customer service at cleckheaton and batley branch
Disadvantages: many people are wanting employment and tesco staff should be made to be polite

...i always do my shopping at tesco but recently have found the customer service to be very rude and not helpful at all. infact they are downright nasty and i have been embarassed and made to feel very foolish for the 3rd time in a matter of a few months. if the staff (customer services) feel that it is a acceptable to treat customers this way then i can see customers going elsewhere to do their shopping. i for one will not be going to tesco again. 1st time i was made to feel a fool was going to buy tobacco at customer service (cleckheaton store) they have a rail for customers to go round on this occasion there was noone at the counter so i went straight there only to be told i had to go back and walk round the barrier (how stupid) 2nd time (cleckheaton store) i had purchased a toaster from batley store which when i got home and plugged...

craigwinslade 17.02.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Tesco Customer Service

PRS SE Custom - quality PRS guitar for the money conscious

Advantages: great value, versatility, good feel, beautiful instrument
Disadvantages: no singlecoil pickup - limits number of styles, no locking trem - if you need one look elsewhere

...In summary: a great sounding intermediate guitar, excellent bang-for-buck and a versatile range of tones. The name PRS is usually associated with professional quality, high end electric guitars in excess of £1000 or £2000, so to see a lower priced model you'd expect PRS to be cutting an awful lot of corners, resulting in a substandard instrument. However, with the SE Custom, this is not the case. The guitar is admittedly made with much cheaper materials than the higher up models but the trade off in sound is not as dramatic as you'd think. The guitar feels extremely solid yet surprisingly light. The neck is smooth and easy to slide across, while the tuning pegs are snug enough to hold your strings tuned. Even the strap pegs are well made and the strap never seems to fall off, which is the largest cause of guitar damage and has been...

mot393 02.03.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of PRS Se Custom

tesco grocery site not customer friendly

Advantages: the experience of knowing how tesco online staff are trained
Disadvantages: the experience of knowing how tesco online staff are trained

...Tesco website NOT customer friendly. in my opinion as I wasted two hours of my life. I decided that I would try grocery home delivery service through Tesco. I am not a web novice so I was pretty confident that I can take in most of the details on display and could work out the format used by tesco. I found the Help page which had numerous headings and many links to query pages - I checked a few which I thought would be relevant. I did not systematiclly go through all as there were a lot. after that I proceeded to find my way around the virtual shop. Initially I could only find tesco's own brand products coming up on display . Two hours later ( I had been warned by colleagues that the initial shop at tesco's site was gruelling) I reached the checkout page. I blythly put in my card details - which were rejected...

moniclare 29.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Tesco Customer Service

Very impressed-Tesco customer service succeeded where Sony failed

Advantages: Very fast resolution, over and above what I was expecting.
Disadvantages: None

...I bought a Sony VAIO laptop from a Tesco store in January for approximately £360. It was the ex-display / demonstration model. I was assured at the time of purchase that this would not affect the warranty. Some months later the "P" key fell off. I contacted Sony and they said the warranty was invalid because it was the ex-display model. They quoted me £230 to fix the broken P key. I contacted Tesco customer services on the phone and they said that, despite teh fact they thought the Sony warranty should not be affected, I could take the laptop back to store and they would swap it for a similar model or give me a full refund. I took it back and there was a slight problem because I didn't have the original receipt - I only had my bank statement to prove I bought it from Tesco. Tesco resolved this issue very quickly and I was given a full...

jonwatts 06.10.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Tesco Customer Service

Tesco customer experience POOR

Advantages: Value for money
Disadvantages: Poor management and customer care

...You can't complain by email, as they would not be able to cope with the volume. Once people find out they either have to phone and wait or write, most people do not bother. In my local Tesco Metro, you have to queue up for half an hour on a Saturday to get lottery, cigarettes. There are only 2 tills available (used to be 4) and you can have up to 3 items of shopping. Most of the time only one person serving as the other is dealing with customer services desk. Managers are just strolling around chatting and not giving a damn about the customers. Today I queued for 28 minutes, and 1 poor girl serving. The management of Tesco Metro, Victoria Centre Nottingham want sacking. The manager walked by and was smiling with other staff walking about and didn't even look at the queue. 700 students moved in across the road from Tesco, and its chaos in...

gjw2009 13.12.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Tesco Customer Service

Whirlpool Customer Care they DONT CARE

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Caused Damage, Didn't Return Calls, Atitude was Tough.

...Whirlpool Customer Services and spoke to someone giving them all the details, She said ?that is our senior engineer for the area I am sure he didn?t know he had damaged the floor otherwise he would have said something?, they then put me on hold while they called the engineer. Apparently the engineer denied he had caused any damage to our floor. I suggested they get the engineer to come back so I could show him the damage as it certainly was not there when he arrived, the operator said he was on his way to another job so he couldn?t. Even though the engineer had said he didn?t do it the operator said to get 2 quotes for replacing the floor and to post it into them with a letter detailing what happened. So after ringing round lots of companies and several visits and even having to pay a £30 charge for producing insurance quotes, I posted off...

pottmar 20.06.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Whirlpool - Customer Service