I'm so angry - so unprofessional and rude!!!!!!!

[pookie]

Hi,

My wife just arrived in Shanghai with China Eastern airlines on a 24 hr stop over on the way to Tokyo and then Taipei.

I recently posted a thread asking if she'd need a visa

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/7498-urgent-visa-info-for-taiwanese-help

We checked with the airline (once on the phone and once at the checkin desk) to confirm that even though she's Taiwanese the airline will still provide the special 24 hour visa they give to all foreigners on these flights.

When she got to Shanghai she experienced the most aggressive, intimidating, and unprofessional 'customer service' ever. Firstly she needs a visa and had to wait one hour before being given a form to apply for one. Then she needed her Taiwanese ID card (why why why???). This is in Taiwan. They wouldn't let her use their phone to call Taiwan, so she asked where there is an international payphone in the airport. They said 'you're so stupid, there are no international payphones inside the airport, you have to go out'. Obviously she couldn’t. She then had to wait an hour until she found someone kind enough to let her make an international call on their mobile. She had to call her parents in Taiwan and ask them to fax over a copy of her Taiwanese ID.

In the office where the fax machine is located she waited another hour, because the customs officers were watching their favourite soap opera and wouldn’t check the fax machine until it was finished. Once she had the fax she went back to the clearance department. Once her place in the queue reached the desk the officer was extremely rude and said 'you're so stupid, why didn't you get a visa before, look - you're holding all these people up'.

My wife was eventually let through only to find:

She's missed her baggage claim and had to wait another hour to collect it

She'd missed her transport to the hotel the airline had booked - the next one is due in 3 hours!!!

She can no longer meet her Shanghaiese friend she'd arranged to meet for the evening.

My wife is normally very strong but this drove her to tears. Being a young Taiwanese she was never too keen on going to China. I doubt all the money in the world would persuade her to visit again.

Deep down i just knew they would make trouble for her and treat her meanly whilst they were at it!!!

I think I'll pass on China in the future, I'll stick to Taiwan.

Sean

[LFCLOUDS]

My sympathies, a shame to be put off China but I understand your anger.

Please reconsider coming someday, remember that its not all like that.

[roddy]

Yeah, can't blame you for being angry at all. Even if someone does turn up without the right documents (what was she travelling with, Taiwanese passport?) there's no reason to show a bit of common courtesy.

[pookie]

It hasn't really put me off going to China, but i think it's a different matter for the missus. A lot of Taiwanese I know snatch at anything for a bit of China bashing. I've been tempted to join in myself on occasion, one very recently in fact....

[mind_wander]

Pookie, how I am reading correctly, your wife is Taiwanese. I kinda understand about the China/Taiwan political conflict, some of the reason's why other countries are treating Taiwanese people like crap. I know that my uncle as a Taiwan citizen had to go through a long process in China. I felt really bad about this for anyone who is Taiwan citizen, but I am an Asian American kinda half Taiwan/China/US. So I hope one day I do visit this conflict is over with. Well, at least there is a U.S embassey to get anything.

[ala]

Two types of people get treated like crap by mainland airport/customs workers: 1. Taiwanese citizens, 2. PRC citizens with US green card.

[HashiriKata]

Two types of people get treated like crap by mainland airport/customs workers: 1. Taiwanese citizens, 2. PRC citizens with US green card.

Why "PRC citizens with US green card" ? out of jealousy ? or for being "US-contaminated" ?

[owshawng]

Two types of people get treated like crap by mainland airport/customs workers: 1. Taiwanese citizens, 2. PRC citizens with US green card.

How would they know if the PRC citizen has a green card? Does the PRC mark their passport or enter the data into their electonic file? The green card (actually orange) is a separate card from a passport. Otherwise, unless the US immigration official issued a temporary green card that which gets attached to the passport how would the PRC workers even know? Even if the temp green card is in the passport, the customs worker would have to look thru the passport to find it.

I guees the worst treated person would be a Taiwanese citizen with a green card and married to a westerner.

[sisi041]

that is permitted and common in china. never worry about it

[wushijiao]

Could this have something to do with the fact that China Eastern is a horrible, horrible airline?

[magores]

Not to be a "bad man", but ...

Why wasn't she carrying her Taiwan ID?

-As a US citizen, there is 1 thing I always carry in the US... My drivers license. (Official ID)

-Usually carry, Social Security Card (Not official, but it stops alot of questions)

-As an American in China, I carry my Drivers License and my Passport and my residence permit.

No matter what, if at all possible.... Carry the ID you need in order to prove you are allowed to:

1) Be where you are.

2) Go somewhere else.

Makes sense to me

M

[Ncao]

I wonder if she received poor customer service because she was an ethnic Chinese and from Taiwan? I heard they treat non-ethnic Chinese better.

[waiwai01]

Sorry to hear what happened to your wife.

Then I have 2 conclusions:

1stly, those custom service people were far more impolite/unprofessional than what I thought...I thought they would treat people better...It was obviously their fault to say things like "you are so stupid..blabla" and reject to help.

But it happens some time...I was once kicked out of the train 6am in the end of Dec (-10 degree outside), at the Russian-Latvia bord, coz of some problems with visa, while I was supposed to meet my bf in latvia in the moring. No one (officers) could help, but they suggested me wait for 10 hours in a crappy little train station (without heating) for a train back to Moscow...They didn't even have internet...

I took a taxi to a bigger town nearby with another 3 women of the same problem, coz someone said the consulate over there might help. But then I found they couldn't when I arrived. Then a lot of stupid things happened - bought a phone card but didn't work, looking for internet cafe all over the town...then realised that still had to return to Moscow bcoz received my bf's email that he was on the way to moscow....when I reached the station, found that their computer system broke down - couldn't give tickets, so ppl all got stuck there...........a lot of shit.....but finally, everything was solved...hard, but solved..

So, yeah, when I was mad at those officers, I was so grateful for those ppl who helped me..

I'm about to blame those Shanghai custom ppl and airlines again for that manners...and I hope they will change some day.

2ndly, from your side, it's always necessary to make sure what is needed and what is not with official information. You can't count on what "other people" said coz that might be empirical stuff or whatever...When you travel, you always need to carry your useful documents (even insurance sometimes), not to increase trouble but to avoid it.

I understand that it MUST bring a bad impression to your wife of "going to china" or "going to china again"....but it will decrease with time, psychologically. As for me, I now start to miss Russia a lot, no matter what crap situations I met there, I just miss it coz there are so many things I want to see over there... :-?

Gotta go to sleep.....Hope everything goes fine with your wife, and you.

[Ncao]

Being rude to a Taiwanese at immigration and customs doesn't help in the reunification cause. It helps Chen Shui bien and the other Taiwanese separatists. If I was a Chinese Immigration & Custom officer I would try to be more courteous to the Taiwanese then any foreigner.

[dekko]

Hello Sean

I could not help noticing you comments about how Chinese people are so unprofessional and treated your wife like dirt.

She is not alone I too have witnessed many many incidents while my time in China. I flew from Guangzhou to Osaka with Japan Airlines and the service was great, smiles, friendly, helpful, just 100% great. The services are just as good as Emirates. Flying back with Southern China Airlines. So bad, so rude!! no smile, so unprofessional, alot of tut, tut i sent a complaint email to them to say how your crew staff are so bad and should learn from Japan Airlines how to give customer/passenger service otherwise your airline will start getting a bad name.

Manners in China is way below human standard. I witnessed Businessmen in a posh restuarant in spitting on the floor and treating the waiteresse like shit and nobody did anything about it. If this ever happened in the UK you would be thrown out no matter who you are.

I could go on with many stories. Its came to the point i will China soon and go to Japan. The chinese people could learn a thing or two from the Japanese about human standard.

Derek

[adrianlondon]

There are billions of Chinese; there's not enough time in the day for them to be nice to each other

Also, it's quite common it seems for customers to treat staff like crap. Same happens in Singapore. At first, I wondered why some staff (especially in shops and on aircraft) treat foreigners so much better than the locals, but now I know why; we treat them better.

I think it's because I'm from an area (western Europe) where staff costs are high, so shop staff for example are treated as close to equals. Whereas in Asia, where staff costs can be very low (e.g. the mount of live-in cleaners, nannies, chauffers etc) so those earning the "good" money look down on those who don't.

IMO, as always.

[hakkaboy]

For the record, shop staff in London are paid the minimum wage of £4.80 an hour. We do not treat them rudely, and they do not treat customers rudely, not because they are paid a grand sum - in central London their customers are often on £50,000 or more a year - but because Western culture does not approve of treating people with disdain because of their salary level.

[imitation]

Your sample size is too small for you to start bashing chinese, there are many many nice ones obviously.

Also I could easily say that every Taiwanese person i've met treats Chinese mainlanders with such disgust and looks down at them as second rate citizens of their OWN country, but I've only met a handful so it would be wrong to say all Taiwanese are like this, but they have given me personally a very bad taste for ever wanting to visit Taiwan.

[pookie]

I've been dead lazy replying

I agree with the post stating that CE is a very bad airline, althought these are found all over the world, not just in China.

Regarding her ID card:

1) I guess she never envisaged needing it outside of Taiwan

2) We live in the UK where ID is not carried as widely as it is in a lot of countries

3) Psychologically she would be very reluctant to acknowledge needing her Taiwanese ID card in China as she views them as totally seperate countries

She is ethnically Chinese (Han, Meow) so maybe that didn't help

Thanks for the empathy wai wai. She's fine now and soaking up the sunshine in Kenting (south Taiwan).

Derek - she had 110% great service on her flight to Japan and whilst in Tokyo Narita airport. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with the Chinese service that made her so animated but she couldn't stop singing their praises

China has a long way to grow up, I guess we just need to be patient when we have to. But there's a cultural barrier too. I was in China Town London at the weekend. Had dimsum for lunch and Sushi for dinner. The difference in service at the two restaurants was staggering.

[geraldc]

Ooooh! Treading on dangerous ground here...

You can't compare the service in a Japanese Sushi restaurant and a Cantonese dim sum restaurant. They're totally different situations, you can't compare the service you get in a restaurant for breakfast/lunch with the service you get in a restaurant in the evening.