You run to the bakery at 5 minutes to 6 p.m., which is still closing time in small towns throughout Germany, because you have run out of bread. The saleswoman gives you a dirty look, utters a groan of exasperation, then tells you that it is after closing time, even though it is not!

Or, I once wanted a steak really badly, so I went to a restaurant in Nuremberg which had been recommended to me by a German friend. It was 5:30 p.m. when we arrived, the place was empty. I asked the waitress where we could sit, but she answered that we could only have something to eat if we promised to be done by 7.

And, no, Germans have no concept of standing in line and waiting their turn. It is a free for all at the bakery or the butcher shop. Make sure you scan the crowd to get a head count of how many were there before you. Count how many get served, while nonchalantly pushing your way forward to the counter. When your number is up (which it is up to you to determine), and the clerk asks who’s next, just start blurting out your order more loudly than the others who have come in after you. You have to be assertive, or you may get stuck waiting at the counter all day…

Editor’s note: … and we don’t want your naughty language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im3dJp30-b8

I´ve had a professor of economics who wanted to buy a real expensive new Mercedes but the dealer used all of his talent that he dont have too give away HIS crown of cars. Frustratet he owned a Lexus and thought why he worked so hard to save his money for that graet day. After this expericen he really seemd unmotivatet in his Job.

Strange? But that´s how it´s written!

Germans do not go to church (if I was a child I considered going to church oldfashioned, modern people do not go to church)

Germans pray to the god of efficiency, so they have to be honest, it saves time, it avoids misunderstandings.

Customer service is a luxury, it takes time, it decreases profit.

Having no customers decreases profit too.

This problem seems to be unsolvable.

German companys like the money but they do not like their customers. Unsolvable too.

If you have a product like a Miele washing machine then you do not need any customer service, such a product hardly fails.

Internet access or a telephone is much more complicated and therefore it could fail easier.

The german mind is good in inventing, building and selling a piece of hardware, the success is directly measurable.

If you put a girl on a telephone line to speak to customers in a polite and friendly way then the success is not directly measurable.

Germans do not like that.

As far as being penny pincher is concerned, I think this is true to a certain extent. But behind this is a mentality of efficiency and optimization. It is just not necessary to have someone pack your bags in the supermarket if you can do it yourself while your items get pushed over the laser by the cashier. I get annoyed when I see here how people just stand there and like being served instead of taking things into their own hands. This is noticeably the case for lower class/ lower income folks.

The interesting thing here is the discrepancy between the attitudes. Americans often balk at the German/European welfare system and say we are assisted and we should take charge of our own well-being. Whereas Europeans shake their head in disbelief when they see a social system from the 19th century still being in place in the US today, but where assistance in daily life tasks (e.g. ordering phone service or packing bags) is taken for granted and most of these tasks are streamlined by specialists to be really idiot proof.

There is a much bigger cultural divide than what I believed when I came here in 2001.