Definitely pauper!I do not know about other people but to me, nothing sucks more than customer care in Rwanda. Goodness, it’s like people here are not interested in making money. Either that or they think money will make itself! Personally, I like trying out new venues when it comes to food but most places are swarmed with staff members doing less serving and a lot more gossiping. At one place, I practically had to stand up and walk over to the waiter myself to ask if I could order! My experience at a salon in UTC almost left me in tears. After paying at the reception counter, the ladies couldn’t even be so polite as to show me where to sit while I waited. I waited and waited and while I did that watched about 4 other women who seemed to be daily customers walk in and get their hair done before me, then waited some more. All this time, no one had the liberty of explaining anything to me. That is all I needed, not to sit their feeling like an abandoned child!Another time I was at lunch with a friend and after making our order, were assured that in 15 minutes it would be ready. About an hour, and 2 glasses of juice each later, we were still there, waiting! We probably would have forgiven that waitress for the delay had she not made it a point to serve another table of white folks with so much enthusiasm, completely forgetting about us. Proof that she had forgotten about us, was the fact that we had to call another waiter and ask him to inquire about the order we made almost a century ago!I have been to the bank countless times and there is always that teller who makes me want to break the glass, jump over the counter and shake her till she learns that people have things to do. We can’t just stand there watching her flirt with who ever on the phone! Rwandan’s haven’t yet mastered the art of running business smoothly and until they do, business will suffer.Even moto chaps leave you puzzled sometimes. On most occasions if I do not scream out for one they just fly past me! The point is for them to get as many passengers as they can, but how they do that when they seem to only notice you after you scream is beyond me. I know walking is good for me, but nothing angers me more than seeing about 3 motorists just jazzing at the stage not bothered to look around and see if there is a passenger walking up towards them. Customer care in Rwanda is as thick as a spec of dust. There are a few places that really try to pamper their customers and that is why I am now limited to those places. I hate having to try out a new place only to leave later mad at the world. It doesn’t matter how great the food is, no one enjoys poor service! Some waitresses even pull up chairs and instead file their nails. When you call them (after shouting and hissing), they walk with such lethargy that you are almost compelled to withdraw your order.Language barrier being my biggest problem here, you have no idea how frustrating it is to not be able to tell someone they are wasting your time. Yes, for me it is not enough to just walk away and never come back. I feel obliged to let them know somehow that they should be apprehended for such service or never allowed to operate again. But I can’t, so I suffer in silence. We need help and we need it now. There is no such thing as the customer is king (at least not in most of these places.) And what is even more annoying is they think they have the right to a tip. So engrossed in themselves they are that one waiter found it fitting to tip himself with my change! He just never brought it back till I realized I was waiting another century for it and asked. He answered without a twitch in his eye, “Is it not for me?” “Are you kidding me????”
