I am so sick of hearing "No, that's not possible." whenever I ask a customer service rep for the slightest little thing!!! Is this the Dutch national motto?!?!
I hear it everywhere it seems, at the bank, rental car counter, gym, everywhere. The latest was at the Hotel New York restaurant in Rotterdam. I ordered a ham and cheese tosti, and asked the waitress if they could leave the tomatoes off the sandwhich. What did she say? You guessed it! No, that's not possible. Really?!?!? It's too much for a paying CUSTOMER to ask the kitchen to leave the tomatoes off???? So sick of it
Sam05 said:
I am so sick of hearing "No, that's not possible." whenever I ask a customer service rep for the slightest little thing!!! Is this the Dutch national motto?!?!
No, it's not a national motto. It's much more fundamental to their being than that.
I find you get a much more helpful attitude at Turkish or Chinese shops and there are plenty of restaurants run by foreigners.
tuliper said:
It's not the country that makes a good country, it's the people in it. Happy be kind to someone Day!
True... but let that day be in the summer, you're not likely to get too many at this time of the year being particularly happy never mind being nice. I keep seeing people looking like death!
haagseboy said:
So, Wygal, you'd pull a knife on someone because you got tomato in your sandwich? Not helpful, not funny, not acceptable. We dont like violent thugs. If you truly enjoy cooking, you'll love it here. Try Googling the number of Michelin starred restaurants within 100k of Rotterdam. You're only 2hr 20 by train from Paris, where they do understand a bit about food. I doubt if there's anything you could teach them. For chickens... my local Albert Heijn has bio chickens, freerange chickens, industrial chicken (cheap) and usually a poulet or two from La Lande. Standard cuts, breast, thighs, whole birds. All pre killed. Dont panic so much, dont listen to the trolls. To get good service, try being polite, better still, learn a few words of the language. Try the English words first, ie please, thank you, good morning etc. That is, try acting like a grown up.
I don't pull knives on people, I pull them out in a kitchen and I use them to make wonderful creations. I can tell you don't know how food is prepared in a restaurant but back in the kitchen, we all have our own knives. Tools of the trade. I said I would go back and take out my knife, show them how to not put a tomato on a samie. We slice the veg, then rather than put it on the samie, we put it to the side or wrap it up and put it in the walk in. Heck, they were most likely preped by some prep monkey and they just put them on because someone forgot to write the order or the chef forgot and put them on, then made it the customers problem.
Come to where I cook, taste the creations we put on and you will know, we grew up a long time ago because kids can't create the food we like we do.
Franklin said:
Then that makes two of you.
The rest of us non-NL-Koolaid-drinking expats experience the "niet mogelijk" thing on a daily basis.
Whats Koolaid?
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" refers to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre; the phrase suggests that one has mindlessly adopted the dogma of a group or leader without fully understanding the ramifications or implications: at Jonestown, Jim Jones' followers followed him to the end: after visiting Congressman Leo Ryan was shot at the airstrip, all the Peoples Temple members drank from a metal vat containing a mixture of "Kool Aid" (actually Flavor Aid), Cyanide, and prescription drugs Valium, Phenergan, and chloral hydrate. Present-day descriptions of the event often refer to the beverage not as Kool-Aid but as Flavor Aid,[10] a less-expensive product reportedly found at the site.[11]Kraft Foods, the maker of Kool-Aid, has stated the same.[12][13] Implied by this accounting of events is that the reference to the Kool-Aid brand owes exclusively to its being better-known among Americans. Others are less categorical.[10] Both brands are known to have been among the commune's supplies: Film footage shot inside the compound prior to the events of November shows Jones opening a large chest in which boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool-Aid are visible.[14] Criminal investigators testifying at the Jonestown inquest spoke of finding packets of "cool aid" (sic), and eyewitnesses to the incident are also recorded as speaking of "cool aid" or "Cool Aid."[15] However, it is unclear whether they intended to refer to the actual Kool-Aid–brand drink or were using the name in a generic sense that might refer to any powdered flavored beverage.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid
Remember the PM I send you recently, mr. fook. 
mrfook said:
Whats Koolaid?
http://bit.ly/A5DoSU
Funny for someone who (claims) to come from the UK to use american slang.... :)
And isn't Franklin an american name?
Where did you get it? Benjamin Franklin or Franklin D ?
mrfook said:
isn't Franklin an american name?
Maybe you're using a coin-operated computer, and can't afford to look up these simple questions for yourself. 
"Franklin" originates from Middle English.
