Customer Service

What a week for getting my goat up! I have to say I despair at the service Cork people put up with and I have to wonder if bosses and owners actually know how their staff behave behind their back. At a time when value for money is equalled only by great service here's a couple of humdingers for you. A buddy of mine was in the market for some DIY help for his new house and walked into a store in Douglas on Monday morning.

It was the Monday morning after the weekend before and so the staff assistant was in deep mobile phone conversation with his mate, retelling the escapades of the weekend, in full flow like you do. Having walked the floor waiting for about ten minutes my pal, softly asked the "assistant" if perhaps he should come back later?, at which dorkquemada remove the phone from his lughole and shouted at him "if that's your attitude you can f*** off out of here!".

My mate was building an entire new house and needed glass, wooden floors, tiles, you name it. Serious sale lost there.

That story was only just beaten by another tale closer to home which involved my daughter's eardrum, which had been paining her for days before she eventually went to her GP, same GP that looks after my wife, not mine I hasten to add.

My guy has never let me down, even calls to the house (an endangered species). Not only did the GP say there was nothing to worry about regarding the ear, he charged €60 for the five minute visit, he also loaded her down with prescriptions. My daughter's ear drum burst during the night, oozing all manner of stuff, including blood.

Next morning, Saturday morning, no response from her GP, just an answering machine instructing the sick and infirm to go call Southdoc, whom I wouldn't advise touching with a barge pole.

Not that it mattered, even Southdoc don't work Saturday morning. My daughter's ears were killing her so we resorted to calling friends for numbers of their doctor and we eventually tracked one down. This doctor was livid at the shabby service provided by a doctors surgery to cash paying customers and said all GPs have a responsibility to provide cover at all times, not just to fob you off with a recorded message.

I wouldn't have been so annoyed if it wasn't for the fact that a few days later my wife visited the same practice for treatment herself only to have a doctor look up a medical book to try and diagnose the problem. Look up a book! She didn't even have the cop to go out of the room to do it, or look up the net if she was so clueless as to the condition.