Shahd Alhamdan
Saudi Gazette
Many Saudis complain about the poor state of customer service in the Kingdom. Their reaction to bad service depends on their personalities and the situation. While some Saudi customers respond passively when they suffer bad service, others react aggressively, shouting and sometimes abusing staff. For others, they air their complaints online via social media, or websites.
One Saudi female in her late 20s, Sarah Youssef, who lives outside the Kingdom told Saudi Gazette that one day she ordered a pizza online, but the delivery was delayed 40 minutes. After an hour, she called the restaurant and the employee asked her to wait for a few minutes as the driver was on the way.
“After 15 minutes, I called the restaurant again and explained to the employee that we called before and I asked him to call the driver and know his location, especially that my husband has a class and needed to leave,” she said. “The employee apologized and asked us to wait until the driver arrived.”
When the pizza finally arrived, Youssef found it completely cold, so she complained to the restaurant online via Twitter. The restaurant apologized and ask her to file a complaint on the company website, but she has received no answer yet.
Waheeb Al-Dakhil works with one of the Kingdom’s media channels. He explained that one day he went to a fast-food restaurant to get a SR20 meal. He ordered extras but was overcharged a riyal by the staff.
“I asked the waiter what is the extra riyal, but I did not receive any answer, so I refused to pay and reported to the Ministry of Commerce, which started investigating the case,” he said.
He added that the restaurant was shut down for a week after he sent his complaint to the Ministry of Commerce. The regional manager of the restaurant came by his house, so he dropped the complaint and received free meals every week for a month.
On another occasion, a store tried to force Al-Dakhil to pay SR450 for an item with a label price of SR300, saying the label was wrong.
“They force you to buy it with the new price, but I refused as one of the Ministry of Commerce regulations is that the buyer should pay the showcase price and any mistake in the price the shop is responsible for,” he said.
Another Saudi who won’t tolerate bad service, Salma, which is not her real name, said that shouting is the only way she’s able to get good service.
She said she once fought with staff in a private hospital in Jeddah. She went for an appointment, but there was no line to pay, so she waited 15 minutes. Another patient suddenly came and asked the receptionist to let him pay and go see the doctor. The employee let him, and none of the other patients complained.
“I asked the receptionist where is the line after 15 minutes and if my appointment will be cancelled since I passed the time,” Salma said. “He said yes the appointment, if I was late, must be canceled. I asked him to allow me to enter since he did the same with another guy, yet he refused.”
She started to scream but the receptionist ignored her, so she went to the hospital supervisor, who told her to tell the receptionist that she had permission to enter, but the receptionist refused. She kept shouting until the supervisor came and forced the receptionist to let her pay and enter.
Eman Abdul Qayyoum works in customer service at a private company. She said: “Most of the customers who lose their nerves are a learning source for us, because they are either angry due to poor customer service, a lack of information sources, or because of bad management.”
She explained that the staff usually receives no training in handling customer complaints. She said a smart employee should make customers feel they are important and try to calm the customer by listening to them and trying to solve the issue.
