I just had my first encounter this trip with what the Dutch call “customer service” – called the apartment management company about a couple of things, found the electrician won’t be here until probably Friday (and meanwhile the main light fixture in my living room is out – might just be a bulb but it’s a halogen thingie and it’s entirely not obvious how to change it without breaking anything, and anyway things ought to work out at the start. They couldn’t just get it all fixed before I got here because apparently the last guy in this flat just moved out over Easter weekend. (If they had bothered to tell me, I could have stayed in the hotel an extra day, of course. But the electrician would probably have been ‘too busy’ to come out then anyway.) Also, I realized I really ought to have an extra set of keys for when Ted gets here – they informed me these are “certified” keys, so not only can I not change them myself, but they have to special-order them and it will take 3-4 weeks. And they’ll charge me for it. (I will get the company to pay, since after all they’re saving the money on Ted’s hotel.)
I bet people here wonder why foreigners are always so unpleasant to deal with.
Actual customer-oriented customer service is one of the things I will really miss about Taiwan; they’d have probably had someone out to fix stuff the same day.
Edited to add the sequel: I just found out that the dripping sound under the kitchen sink is an actual drip, into a bucket someone must have set there to catch it. When I called the apartment management company, the woman there told me she’d just given the key to the handyman and he’ll be out today. Glad I found the drip before he got here!! The previous tenant must have not spent much time at home, to not change the lightbulbs or report the drip.