Zero Customer Service

Hey friends,

The good brother that I am, I gave away my earphones for my iPod to my sister who has lost hers. She claims they aer expensive in London so I should get another one here. So I was at Deira City Center last night looking for new ones. Guess what? Not a single shop has them! I mean, if you are selling iPods like crazy why don't you have their accessories too?

From Radio Shack to Plug Ins to the local electronic store, no one had them, and I realized then that I gave away the best earphones I had ever used. So, my final resort was Virgin Superstore. As I was browsing through their iPods section, the staff approached me.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked away.
"Sure. I am looking for earphones for the iPods?" I told him.
"We don't stock them here."
"Do you know where I can get them from?" I inquired.

Ok, I don't know what happened, but someone blew this staff's fuse. He took a step backwards, raised his hands in the air and said out loudly "everyone wants the freakin' white earphones." I was little surprised by his attitude. He made a moody face and was expressing disgust at me for my choice.

"You shouldn't buy Apple's earphones. They suck. I am telling you," he started ranting off loudly, "Panasonic and Aiwa make better earphones."
"No they certainly don't," I spoke back, "Apple's earphones are the best because their bass is excellent."
"Sir," he said, almost shouting, "Take it from me! I have sold 1000s of iPods, I am telling you, their ear phones are the worst. I am sorry to say this, but they are worse!"
"Well, I know that Panasonic are not better than iPod and I am looking for the Apple ones!"

He just started rambling on and on and made me feel very uncomfortable. I don't know what it was. Did the fact that he was an employee at Virgin went to his head that somehow he was a cool person? Was it something personal he had against Apple? Or it because there is usually bad customer service here in Dubai anyways?

I was trying to figure out all night why this particular employee was ranting at me, saying it to my face that Apple earphones suck and that I should buy Panasonic. Who the heck was he to tell me things like this? I think he went overboard with his duty. When I want his opinion, I will ask for it. I don't want to hear someone like him telling me what to do when I just ask for earphones of a particular brand. I think the staff at Virgin have deluded themselves that they are the coolest or hippest people working on this planet. Almost always you see them do attention-grabbing things. Plus, customer service in Duabi is next to zero. When you go to UK and US, they are much moreh helpful and always believe the customer is always right. They will exchange or refund your money. Refund for money is non-existent here in Dubai.

I know I am put off by Virgin now and have decided not to go there for as long as I can avoid. I also plan on writing to the newspaper about this zero customer service here.

Mansur