The Canadian broadcast CBC NEWS published the results from a recent poll where Czechs were rated as the 4th biggest complainers in the world when they spoke up about the quality of public services. The poll included questionnaire answers from 23,000 corespondents from 23 various countries. When it comes to our country, every 2nd Czech was unsatisfied with various public services in the Czech Republic, which made them out to be complainers no. 1 in the whole Europe! Even the Hungarians, the Polish and the Russians (!!) are complaining less! So what is the deal? Do Czechs have the right to feel unsatisfied or do they just like to complain?
Well, as far as beer services go, there is some validity there. You see, every forth Czech restaurant is serving a lesser quantity of beer than what they are supposed to (where restaurants in Ostrava and Brno are supposedly the biggest cheaters of all). The refunds are also quite bad since almost half of the respondents claim that most of them seem shady, plus one usually has to get into a fight with the clerk in order to get somewhere (or not). The state agricultural inspection also has a bad news as far as the quality of Czech food goes. 5,879 samples (out of how many??) of various fruit, vegetables, milk products, chocolate, meat and others did not meet the appropriate food safety guidelines.
And finally, one more revealing fact about the Czechs: they are one of the most timid people when it comes to complaining about a bad product! 13% of participants admitted that although they know they should complain about some faulty thing they have bought, they will not do it. So, what’s the deal? Do we just complain without doing anything about anything or are the reclamation services so bad that it’s not even worth trying and we have the right to give up and be grumpy?
The final question is, who is the biggest ‘complainer’ in the world? You may be surprised if I tell you that it is the Brazilians! 2/3 of them are not satisfied with their public services when asked…
Kandadsky server CBC NEWS pred par dny zverejnil vysledky z pruzkumu 23 tisic respondentu ve 23 zemi. Ptal se na vyhrady obcanu k sluzbam, se kterymi se setkavaji v kazdodennim zivote. Na nizkou kvalitu si stezoval skoro kazdy druhy Cech a svym morousovstvim to tak ‘vyhraly’ v cele Evrope. I totiz v Polsku , Madarsku a dokonce i Rusku bylo mene stezovani. Tak maji si Cesi na co stezovat nebo to jenom ‘hraji’?
CZ: Co se tyce pivnich sluzeb, na fnukani pravo maji, protoze se zjistilo, ze kazda 4. restaurace vam serviruje tzv. “podmiraka”, tedy mene piva nez jste si zaplatili (Ostrava a Brno jsou v tom nejhorsi). Reklamacni sluzby pry take nejsou k zulibani, skoro v polovine pripadu se ukazaly nejiste a navic se pry musi dostat do hadky s obsluhou. Kvalita jidla podle Statni zemedelske potravinarske inspekce stoji taky za kocku, zjistili totiz, ze 5879 vzkorku potravin (z kolika??) – jako je ovoce, zelenina, vino,maso, cokolady, vlecne vyrobky a ochucovadla – nevyhovuji predpisum. Pruzkum ale take ukazal, ze Cesi jsou obrovci ostychavci a to hlavne co se tyce nepodanych stiznosti. 13% Cechu prizalo, ze miva pocit, ze by melo neco reklamovat, ale nikdy to neudela.
Kdo ale vyhral toho nejvetsiho morouse sveta? Budete se divit, ale jsou to Brazilci se 2/3 nespokojencu. Ted se ovsem nevi, jestli sluzby v Brazili jsou opravdu tak strasne nebo jestli si lidi jen radi zastezuji.
Souce: http://www.novinky.cz/domaci/175820-cesi-patri-mezi-nejvetsi-stezovatele-na-svete.html
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!
Loading ...
I think it’s a bit of both, although many Czechs LOVE to complain, don’t you think?
Czechs have plenty to complain about in terms of public services, but I don’t think it’s because their services are less efficient than elsewhere. I think it’s because of the Czech love for making people stand in line. If there are two choices of how to organize something, and #1 would require 3 people to stand in line for 2 minutes, and #2 would require 100 people to stand in line for three or four hours, a Czech administrator’s very mysterious natural tendency would be to choose option #2. No one knows why.
Czechs’ hesitation to complain about shoddy products probably goes back to the communist days when that type of complaint wouldn’t have done any good. In Prague, in 1987, I told a woman that my mom once complained about some funny-looking substance in the oatmeal box. It turned out to be just compressed, slightly discolored oatmeal from the production line, and although it was perfectly safe, the company nonetheless sent my mother about $15.00 worth of coupons for free cereal. My Czech friend asked, “And why did they do that?” I said, “Because they don’t want to lose customers to their competitors,” to which my friend replied, “Here customers compete for products, not products for customers!”
She said a man she corresponded with in the US sent her a pair of jeans once and that the thing that struck her then was that it was the first time in her life she’d ever had a perfectly made product.
It could be tough to return a product even in the years right after communism. Around 1993 I bought a tape recorder with a warranty, and I found that it almost always ate the tapes. I took it back to the “elektro”, where the owner said repeatedly, “To není moje záruka!” and instructed me that I had to take a three-hour ride to the manufacturer’s repair facility. She lied and said she had no contact with the facility. In total, I had to go to the store three times, and a neighbor one time, in order for me to get the lady to send it back for repair. With that kind of history, I don’t wonder that Czechs hesitate to return products, although I hear the situation is much better now.
Czechs may rank highest among the world’s complainers, but also I think that if someone ever did a study of the nation most likely to get jealous and wish evil on others, the Czechs would be near the top. Many Czechs are very sweet and concerned about everyone, but a huge percentage of them act very much like the witches in their own fairy tales. If you spend time there, you start to realize two things: 1. Where those fairy tale characters came from, and 2. Why communism was tried in Eastern Europe first.
I must agree with you on that last paragraph you wrote. In fact, I am going to write a post about it soon. I am not sure how the audience will take it though. I may have to shut down after that.
You know i was born in czech but grew up here in the us and i must say that as bad as it sounds i have to agree with you guys on the last paragraph. I love being czech and love my heritage but alot of czech folks seem always find something to complain about.
Ohledne toho ze Rusove si stezuji mene nez Cesi….v Sovetskem Svazu koloval stary vtip:
Americky novinar se pta nehodneho chodce v Moskve , jak se mu zije v SSSR… sovetsky obcas se bazlive
ohledne kolem sebe a rekne ” Njemogu zhalovat’sja” (Nemuzu si stezovat :))))
I think Czech love to complain but are scared or lazy to take actions and correct things. It is quite logical,
if they corrected the problems there would be nothing to complain about and one of the most favorite entertainment would go down the drain 😉
Tady je dalsi vtip, ukazujici, ze se nevyplaci si v Cesku stezovat…..
V restauraci zakaznik si obedna hovezi polevku , konecne mu ji prinesou a zakaznik zavola cisnika a rika :”Pane , tady v te polevce plave moucha” …. a cisnik odveti: ” No a co, to pan tam chce mit celou kravu? ! ” 🙂
Nekdy opravdu je lepsi ten problem spolknout 🙂
Albert, I think it’s because we learned if we were saying positive things to others then those people would start to be jealous of us and we did not want that on our hands. It’s better to pretend that we are miserable and that way we are accepted better in the Czech community 😉 What a twisted world, right?
Hello all. Boy, are you all so right. Many of my relatives always complain about something and when you have a sob story to give they are all ears, but if something good is happening and you talk about it, guess what? They shift th conversation right back to their problems again. Is it in our blood? Plus, many of my relatives were born here, so they never even experienced living in Cesky. Very interesting article.
Greg
Greg, it is in our DNA. It simply proves that Czechs come from another planet 🙂 We are so different from the rest of us 😀
Vlastimil,
We are different alright. At least we can admit it. =) Fortunately, when we complain here (USA) we can at least get something resloved, even if it still takes 2 or 3 calls to get it done. Are you living in Cesky or elsewhere?
Greg
Hahaha! If you say something good is happening to you out loud it either means you are stuck up or you are hiding something really bad and trying to cover it up with smiles :))
Tanja,
It’s funny, but you are so right. When things are going well, people always seem to ask, “Are you sure your ok?” It’s sad that some people can only be content when things are bad. I think they almost feel if things are going too well, something is around the corner to balance the scales sort to speak.
Exactly!
Greg, I live in New Jersey, the state with high property taxes, biggest pottholes and the most obeze women 🙂
Vlastimil,
You live in Illinois #2. We have high taxes, incompetent politicians, corruption up to our you know what and a broke state. Other than that, Illinois is great. We at least have a large enough Bohemian population to keep the Czech stores and restaurants open. You would think with this many Bohemians here, the state would have plenty of $$$ in their mattress. =)
Greg
Nevertheless NJ is beautiful