How many times does it need to be said and in how many ways? You are tarring the whole ****ing nation with the same brush and that is what makes you sound so ignorant. I've lived in Australia previously and have experienced none of the problems you seem to endure. Of course there's the usual shit that comes along with day-to-day life - the same shit I endure here in the UK. If I got off the plane at Heathrow, stepped out of the terminal and got my bag snatched would you *really* be happy if I then said 'England's a ****ing shit-hole, populated by half-witted thieving morons and good only for nuclear bombardment' ? No? Well that's what you do, on this forum, in practically every one of your miseable self-centred posts.

'excellent'- sorry arkon but you have just made my day It has just taken me 10 mins to read this out to hubby.

We've had the same experiences dealing with companys, especially the builder who managed to leave of our termite collars, we phoned twice to tell them they weren't there and they went ahead anyway. When I phoned and complained they told me I was being unreasonable.

That's just one of many none too pleasent experiences.

We were warned though by our Australian friends who said to us on arrival.

"welcome to australian customer services, there isn't any"

I took my car to be fixed at a registered VW car dealership here in the UK. The gearbox had been making funny noises and after a quick examination the garage told me that it was ****ed beyond repair and that we'd be needing a new one and that'd be 1200 quid excluding their fee. So I said I'd source one, which I did, from a breaker's yard - it was fully guaranteed as working. It got shipped to the VW garage, they fitted it and then phoned me up and said that the spare box was broken. I sighed, got the broken box sent back to the dealers, who informed me that the box had been working perfectly when they sent it and that the incompetent ****wits at the VW dealership had clearly ****ed it up - there was evidence of bits being forced on box. I put this to the VW dealership who told me to tell the breakers yard to **** off. I ended up paying the courier costs (200 odd quid) and had nothing to show for it. Then my BIL (who is in the motor trade) put me onto a specialist gear box repair company that the trade use. I had the original knackered box sent to them - they told me that the VW dealership had been talking out of their collective arses and that the box with very repairable. So I gave them the go-ahead and they repaired it, at a cost to me of £100. It was sent back to the VW dealership who managed to fit it without ****ing anything else up - and charged me 350 quid in labour costs. All in all, it nearly cost me the price of a brand new gearbox just because of a bunch of incompetent English arseholes.

So there you go. An example of absolutely piss-poor customer service here in the UK. I, and I'm sure everyone else, probably has a billion other examples. You sound, for all the world, like nothing shitty *ever* happened to you before you landed in Australia. Do you ****ing morons seriously believe it's *any* different here? Do you think that by flying to Australia with your families, a magic wand was waved and the UK suddenly becomes some incredible service culture where nobody gets ripped off and everything works and there are no dodgy builders, no rip-off car garages, no cowboy car clampers, no brain-dead shop assistants who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, no third-rate schools, no school bullies, no piss-poor run-down clapped out domestic holiday destinations, no insanely over-priced property, no idiot estate agents to sell your insanely over-priced property, no traffic-clogged roads, no road accidents, no four hour queues in casualty, no sink estates, no old people snuffing it on trollies in hospital corridors, no 11 year old kids with cystic fibrosis getting stabbed to death by 14 year olds, no bored teenagers kicking the shit out of strangers and filming it on their mobile phones and that everyone's shit smells of Chanel No.5?

You get shit service everywhere - welcome to the 21st century. If it's happened to you, then boo ****ing hoo, everyone else's life is obviously a great big bowl cherries and *everything* always works out the way we want it to.

It's not. Australia's. Fault.

Tried so hard to give you some karma for that, but it won't let me.
Well said...

Are these the 3 degrees you are talking about?
http://www.soultracks.com/the_three_degrees.htm

In any country that includes immigration there will be always be people of different heritage, however Im not sure that I follow your logic Sean. According to you, race is only determined by external features, therefore someone can say that the Scottish are dull & tiresome or that the Welsh are all arrogant & stupid & that's OK cos there are lots of people of different heritage there, so its not consdered racist? Wonder how the scottish or welsh would feel about that :scared: . What about americans or canadians? So if we said that all americans are moronic rednecks or that all canadians are narrow-minded boors, those comments arent racist either? What about England & someone of pakastani heritage? Or West Indian? So despite the fact that they may have been (or their parents may have been) born in England, they arent English, they are forever going to be pakastani or west indian or whatever? England is full of immigrants just like australia in your example, so none of them will ever be classified as English either? So the English only comprise that very small percentage of the population that can trace its roots back more than 250 years or even better still right back to norman days? What is the magic cut-off figure for how long you have to be around before you become a race? It just doesnt make sense.


BTW, the racist bit is nothing about not liking a country - if someone doesnt like a country (as a country) that's fine, I have no problem with that. If someone doesnt like the way something is done where they live - once again that's their perogative, they either build a bridge & get over it or move on. Just because I disagree with it, doesnt mean anyone is right or wrong. But when they start coming out with comments like no Australians have an IQ over 18 & other derogatory & what I see as xenophobic & racist remarks that I have a problem.

Funny how someone's attitude to me can change dramatically once they find out that I am, in fact, not british but an aussie .

Edit - all those remarks about different races were only examples, not what I think of them before someone makes a comment .

It's no good getting all wound up defending a country you've yet to experience living in for an extended period of time. I to used to post in the same vein as you and I've watched countless others go through exactly the same change in attitude. Once you've lived here for a while you'll realise that everything that's winding Arkon up so much does happen and is just part of daily life. Most of us just settle into the system nicely and get used to it. Arkon is still going through the motions of fighting against it. Eventually he'll either learn to accept it or go back to the U.K.
Life here is different especially in the more rural areas. My business thrives on word of mouth recommendations because as many of my customers tell me I return telephone calls and I turn up when I say I will. Not difficult things for anyone to do yet no one else here seems to bother. In my part of the world you can book a job in for a Monday and if the surfs up tough shit, no call no explanation it's just accepted that when the surfs up the blokes surf instead of work. It's all part of the beach culture.
Sure we can all make sweeping generalisations and itemise events to support our respective points of view. I could give you loads of instances of both excellent service and piss poor service here and in the U.K. Until you've experienced a year or so here you just won't understand. "Rose tinted specs" was a popular term banded about the forum a while back, a bit derogatory yet quite appropriate in some instances.
I love my life here, so does my family. For all the bad points there are more good [in our case anyway]. We've integrated into the local community made a lot of good friends and live a much happier lifestyle than we did in the U.K. Sure shit happens here, it happens in the U.K too. Wild horses wouldn't drag me back though

Is there somthing you wanted to get off your chest?

a) I have lived there for an extended period of time
b) I'm a dual national australian

Then you should be more than aware already of the shall I say more relaxed approach to the way a lot of business is conducted here in Australia.

Didn't I already say that? Did I stutter or something? I have no problem whatsoever with the idea that there might (god forbid!) be poor service from some companies in Oz. What I strongly object to is the idea that it's *only* in Oz and that the UK is some shining beacon of light, something Arkon has suggested on more than one occassion.

Exactly.

The "laid back" culture all so often means that nothing gets done, nobody cares, no-one is responsible etc etc. It's IMO far more prevalent along the coasts for obvious reasons. It's intensely irritating and such a waste of a country, but in the end we find it's a better place to live than the UK and have no wish to go back.

As I have said in another thread, anyone coming to Oz who is prepared to work at a business and really look after customers can do really well - if they pick the right place and business. There's no real competition!

I totally agree, I am still finding it so frustrating and irritating, probably made worse by us settling where we are. To have ago at me for saying a lot of these problems are because they are caused by Australians is just plain wrong. Fact they are caused by the laid back attitude to work and absolutely no attention to detail or customer satisfaction. This attitude might well exist back home but it’s far more prevalent here and due to the lack of any decent competition made 100 times worse. And yes I am still battling it and getting wound up because of it, but slowly I am getting more used to it, I will never like or totally accept it but it’s like a nagging wife, you eventually learn to sleep with your eyes open.

To say these annoyances aren’t caused by the Australians themselves is a gross mistake, if it’s not caused by them then who the fxxx is it caused by then? You 100% right that if you come here and are prepared to do a full days work for yourself, return calls promptly and turn up when you say you will you can’t fail to make a success.