My (old) experience with V&D (Part 2)

Apology from V&D
December 9th, 2008

Friday last week, my bf & I left a complaint letter at V&D mailbox. And guess what??? Today we got a call from V&D. They apologized. I did not talk to the person from V&D though. Did not feel like talking to her although she wanted to speak to me in person. She told my bf that it was not supposed to happen that way and also offered me a cup of coffee by V&D. Oh yeah, she was not the shopkeeper but the supervisor of the shopkeeper who maltreated me.
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To this day, this experience is still fresh in my mind.
Whenever it crosses my mind, I still get furious. Like a cup of coffee will make everything all right. That shopkeeper should have been fired.
And to this day, I still can not say that I'm very happy with the quality of service here.
There is no such thing as 'the customer is the king' here.

But to be fair, I have met a few friendly people here.

My (old) experience with V&D

This post is also posted in my friendster blog. The reasons I post it here are:
1. I am not active in FS anymore.
2. I want to have most of (if not all) my postings in one blog.
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Klantvriendelijk??? NIET!!!!
November 28th, 2008

I went to V&D this afternoon at around 2.15 pm in my city. V&D is one of the major department stores in the Netherlands. Bad experience with one of the shopkeepers there.

I went to the fitting room to try on some clothes - 2 long-sleeved T-shirts and a pair of pants. There was no one to watch the fitting room… but this is not unusual at V&D. And I’ve been to many V&D’s for so many times so I know the routine. I went in… looked for a ‘room’. I saw one of the bigger rooms was empty… naturally I went for that. Who would not if you could get a bigger room??? Someone had used the room. I saw a hanger and a price-tag lying on the floor. That is also not unusual in a changing room. So I went on trying my clothes. None was good. When I went out the fitting room, a shopkeeper with short blond hair and blue skirt (V&D uniform) was taking care of the clothes left-behind by other fitters. That was not unusual so I took no great notice of that and went on my way to return my clothes to where they were. In front of the fitting room, I stopped to look at some other T-shirts. The shopkeeper who seemed to be around 30-40 approached me and asked for the clothes that were still in my hand. I still had the clothes that I meant to return to their racks. I thought… ‘now… unusual’. They don’t usually ask for the clothes you bring out of the changing room after you are well away from the changing room… But I did not think much about it because by giving her the clothes, I would not have to return them myself to their original racks. So I gave her the clothes. Then she stuck out the hanger with the price tag from the ‘room’ I used. She said something. I assumed she was asking about why there was a left hanger in the room. I said, in my limited Dutch, that it was not a clothing I tried on and that I did not know anything about it. She asked to look inside my bag. I started feeling that something was not right. I felt that she suspected me of stealing the lingerie that used to hang on that hanger. But ok, they do that all the time - look inside someone’s bag if they suspect something. Usually if the sensors by the shop’s entrance/exit make those beeping noises, though. But I was nowhere near the entrance/exit. I was IN the shop, still shopping around. But ok, I did not want to cause a scene so I let her look inside my bag. So she did and saw nothing there. I thought that was that. But no. To my irritation she pressed on. She asked if I could come back to the fitting room to see if I did not have the lingerie on me. I said “I did not even try the thing on.” She said, “Are you sure? Because now you still have a chance…”. A chance for what? A chance that she would not turn me in to the police if she found the lingerie on me???? I said again “I’m sure. I did not even try it on.” She pressed on. “Are you sure? Because you had so many clothes…”, she said again and she went through the clothes I tried on, which by now already hung at her “clothes rack”. By that time I was so irritated that I spoke louder that I usually do. I said,”I am sure. You can look if you want.” She kept pressing on. She asked if i could open the coat I was wearing so she could see the strap of bra!!! That was outrageous. But I am by nature not a person who is confrontative. And it was embarassing so I just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible. So I did what she asked. She saw no stolen bra and she said ”ok”. That’s it. No apology. NOTHING. She had on a long face during this ordeal. Not even an ounce of politeness.

Never in my whole life had I been treated like I was a thief before - and an already convicted thief at that. Whatever happens to ‘not guilty until proven otherwise’? Whatever happens to ‘klantvriendelijk’ (client-friendly)? Whatever happens to ‘politeness’?

This kind of klanvriendelijk-NOT can only be experienced in the Netherlands. Last year, when I was still a student, I also got a bad experience with one of the chain clothing stores in the NL, namely H&M. But that was not so bad compared to this experience at V&D. By H&M it was just a teenager shopkeeper who made a mistake but he did not apologize. Today was a much more irritating and degrading experience.

Klantvriendelijk???? These dutch people should have their dictionary check. Which part of klantvriendelijk that they don’t understand???
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A new note on this: If I could, I would have done it differently. I would have fired my anger at this particular shopkeeper right there right then. Next time something like that happens to me again, I WILL get angry and demand to see the person in charge.

The Netherlands and The Weather

Why do the Netherlands like to talk about the weather?
I never really thought about this until one day an educated Dutch told me why. This educated Dutch was (and still is, I guess) a professor of a Hogeschool (and no, hogeschool does not mean highschool). He told me that it is most likely because the weather is the only thing that a Dutch can not control nor plan.
The book Doe Maar Gewoon by Hans Kaldenbach also says similar thing. It says:
"In hun wereld waarin alles geordend is, blijft alleen het weer onvoorspelbaar" - meaning "In their world where everything is in order, only the weather remains unpredictable" ('their world' mean the Dutch world).

But however often they complain about the weather, not many Dutch would want to move to a place with a different climate.

My friend A for example. He complained about the cold during this winter but still he would not want to move to Indonesia where it is warmer. And now he 'complains' about how hot it is but still he would want to move to Iceland or Norway or anywhere else that is cooler.

Noisy Neighbour

I know the Netherlands always talk so loudly but this is too much.
It's 00:35 sunday morning and the neighbour across the street had some friends coming over. They talked and laughed so loudly and the music was also loud.
Don't they have any manners at all????

Ah... finally the last guest went away and I can now go to sleep.
But I still wonder about their manners.

Weer Joran van der Sloot

Once more Joran made the news. And once again in a not nice situation. He is now linked to yet another murder. A girl (Stephany Flores, 21) from Peru is found dead with a broken neck on 30 May 2010 in his hotel room. She was beaten and stabbed. Her body was left there for 3 days before it was found.
Joran would be officially charged with her murder once he's back in Peru.

5 years ago he was involved with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway who went missing on 30 May 2005 in Aruba. He is still the prime suspect in this case but somehow he got away.
He is also charged with blackmail by the court in Alabama, USA.

This is one troublesome guy. If he is indeed guilty, I hope he gets the maximum sentence. If he did not kill Stephany, then at least he is involved in that case because she was found dead in HIS hotel room.
Note the dates of the two cases involving a girl. Same date, 5 years apart. 5th anniversary???

On 11 February 2010, his father died of a heart attack. He was Joran's knight in shining armor during the Holloway case and he helped Joran got away with the charge. So I guess no knight in shining armor this time for Joran.

To this date, there are only these 2 major cases linking Joran and the murder of a girl. Could there be more?

In any way, he should not be released so easily since he is clearly involved with both Natalee and Stephany.

Netherland's biggest waterfall

Netherland's biggest waterfall at Loenenseweg, Loenen:

Frankly I was a bit disappointed when I saw it. In my mind I had an image of a great and majestic waterfall... one like that we see in travel magazines. I forgot that this was the Netherlands.

The 15-m high waterfall is located somewhere in the forest along the road between Beekbergen and Loenen (Loenenseweg N786), about 10 km’s south of Apeldoorn.
Parking space is available - look out for the sign "P Waterval". The waterfall is about 200-250 m from the car park.

Bus 43S, 109 and 693 will also take you to about 350-500 m before the parking place.
Alternatively, if you're pretty sportive, you can always cycle here.

Blogging is hard work

Who would have thought writing (a blog) would be such a hard and time-consuming work?
Today, although the weather is pretty reasonable, it is quite cold and windy outside.
If I hadn't visited most of the cities in the Netherlands, I would have gone somewhere because it is so boring to sit inside all day. In fact, this morning I had a fight with myself whether I should go to Leeuwarden or not. But in the end, after checking ANWB Routeplanner (here you can see how long it takes and how much it costs to go from one place to another by car), I decided not to go. If I did, it would have costed me 32 euro in fuel only. Instead I decided to work on one of my blogs - the Reiskoffer, my travel blog. I'm way behind and I thought let me work on the Baltic Trip story. It took me 3-4 hours to finish one posting about one day during my trip to the Baltic!!! And I even wrote non-stop!!! Not even to go to the toilet!!!

Den-Haag-Rip-Me-Off Day

Last week I had to go to Den Haag to get my new passport.
And it seemed like that day was a day to rip me off.
First the bus driver ripped me off twice:
He stamped one strip too many - should have been 2 strips but he stamped 3.
Then I notice the time indication on the ticket was not correct. His stamp showed that it was 10.30. And why it was not correct? Because at 10.30 I was still on the train to DH. And it was the 11.07 bus. So I was ripped off 30 minutes.

In the Netherlands, when you use the strippenkaart for a public transport, there is a certain limit of time you can use the same 'strips' thus you do not have to pay again for the second trip. In my case, for 2 strips I am allowed 1 hour to use the public transport. Now because the time-stamp mistake, I had to pay again going back to town from the embassy although it was very well within the 1-hour period. It did not take more than 30 minutes to get my passport from the embassy.

Secondly, I was ripped off at La Place. For this story, see my Zielig Maaltijd post.

Way to go, Holland.
Lang leef de ripping-off of foreigners.

Zielig maaltijd of arme me???

This was my lunch during my day-out in Den Haag. Mixed grill.
Well, the only mixed thing was my feeling. I remember thinking, "That is all I get? Four pieces of sad-looking meat and a couple of fries? Poor me... can't even get a decent lunch."
I bought this meal at La Place, V&D for 7 euro (with discount coupon). The normal price should be 9 or 9.50 euro - could not be sure because the coupon and the board at the restaurant said different things.
I had expected more from this 7-euro meal. At least a bit of garnish - salad or veggie or even sauce - would be very much appreciated.
I felt so ripped off.

Trick to solve your blocked-wc problem

Once my wc was blocked. I tried everything I could think of before finally resolving to call the plumber (loodgieter). Asking for a 'service-man' in the Netherlands is not always as easy as it sounds. In Indonesia, you pick up your phone and the man will say if and when he can come. If he can't, we just call the next plumber we can find. It does not work that way here. If you're living in a rented place that most likely you can only call one designated plumber or else you bear all the risk - you have to pay for the plumbing job and if the plumber messed up, you are responsible for this.

Anyway, the plumber called me back and the first thing he asked was if I had a basin in the toilet. I said yes and he asked if the basin was also blocked. I said no then he said that there seemed to be something blocking the water flow in my wc. Then he asked if I had a trashbag. Now... what a strange question coming from your plumber. But I played along and said yes. He asked me to get one and fill it up with water to the size of a soccer ball. I even asked him again if that was what he said. He confirmed and gave me another strange instruction. I had to put the toilet brush inside the trashbag and push the bag-brush combo into the wc. And albeit having a funny feeling about it, I did just that.

First try... nothing. Second try... nothing. I told him that it did not work. And he replied, "Did not work? Hmmm..." So I said that I would try again. This time I pushed a little harder then I flushed the wc... and, voila.... it worked.
So I told him that it worked and that my wc seemed to be working properly again. I said thank you and he wished me a good day and the conversation was done.

If you ask me how I solved my blocked-wc problem, I'd answer with the phone. :)
Anyway, joking aside, I learned a good trick to solve this problem myself for the next time.
Something we could try in Indonesia if it happens???

Created at 10.32 local time.