Our gas heater gave us a scare last night, so we decided to call the service place first thing in the morning. This morning, we pulled out the warranty booklet, which listed the name of the store where the heater was purchased, and the name, phone number, stamp and signature of the servisní mechanik who personally installed the heater in our apartment on March 21, 2005 and who was listed under the Important Numbers/Service Center. I’ll call him Mr. Vácha. Below is an abridged version of my phone conversation with him from this morning.

I dial.
On the other end: “Hello?”
It is common for private Czech service providers to answer the phone with a mere “Hello”.
Me: “Is this Mr. Vácha?”
Mr. Vácha: “Yes.”
I introduce myself and continue.
Me: “We bought a gas heater from you a year ago and something happened with it last night. There was a small explosion and we could smell that something had burned. We were wondering if we could get someone to come and take a look at it.”
Mr. Vácha: “You didn’t buy it from me.”
Not a good start. I’m annoyed but keep my cool.
Me: “Proheat on Moskevská.”
Mr. Vácha: “Oh yeah, Proheat. What’s the model?”
I read the model number off to him.
Mr. Vácha: “And what is the heater doing? Are any lights lit on it?”
Me: “The light on the left is lit orange. The other lights are off because we haven’t been using the heater since last night.”
Mr. Vácha: ”It’s fine then. If it was broken, all the lights would be off.”
Me: “Yes, but last night the heater made a loud noise and we could smell something burning.”
Mr. Vácha: ”What were you doing when it happened?”
Me: “I ran hot water.”
Mr. Vácha: “So run hot water.”
I run hot water.
Me: “The heater’s behaving normally and a light turned green.”
Mr. Vácha: “So it works.”
Me: “Yes, it seems to work, but I’m saying that it looks like something burned inside last night.”
Mr. Vácha: “It must be dirty.”
Me: “Dirty?”
We bought the heater 14 months ago and still consider it new.
Mr. Vácha: “Yes, it may be dusty inside and some dust may have burned.”
Me: “So a gas heater needs to be cleaned yearly?”
Mr. Vácha: “Maybe yearly, yeah.”
Pause.
Me: “I see… Do we need to clean it?”
Mr. Vácha: “Well, I don’t know if YOU should clean it.”
Pause.
Me: “Should we call someone to clean it?”
Mr. Vácha: “I can come on Tuesday and clean it.”
Pause.
Me: “So do you think that it was just some dust that burned and not a wire or some connector inside the heater?”
Mr. Vácha: “Everything is possible.”
Pause.
Mr. Vácha: “Everything is possible.”
Pause.
Mr. Vácha: “Absolutely everything is possible.”
Pause.
I’m starting to feel like Alice in Wonderland.
Me: “Ok, so in your opinion, can we continue to use the heater or not?”
Mr. Vácha: “Well, it works, doesn’t it?”
Me: “Yes, it works, but is it safe to use it?”
Mr. Vácha: “I don’t know. It’s as if you asked me if it’s safe to drive a car.”
Me: “I mean, is it safe to use the heater in the next few days?”
Mr. Vácha: “I said, it’s as if you asked me if it’s safe to drive a car.”
I feel I’m losing it. I start speaking slowly and clearly.
Me: “Based on what I have described to you that has happened, can you tell me if we can use the heater before you come on Tuesday, or do we have to shower somewhere else? We don’t want the heater to blow up on us or something. I’m just trying to understand…”
Mr. Vácha: “I’m trying to explain it to you! It’s as if you asked me if it’s safe to drive a car! I don’t know if you can use it or not. The heater is secured. If something should go terribly wrong with it, it’ll just break. It’s not broken, is it? If all you need to do is draw a bath or take a shower, maybe it’s fine to use it for short times like that. But if you have a five-year old kid, maybe you should turn it off.”
Me: “We don’t have a kid. So I guess we’ll just keep an eye on it and continue to use it and if something happens, we’ll stop.”
Mr. Vácha: “Yeah.”

I’ve been asked a few times including here on the blog whether or not it is common in the Czech Republic to return merchandise to a store and get a refund. I’ve always answered no. I would still answer no, but I had a pleasant experience today that may mean that the times are a-changin’.

I bought a bracelet at the Promod store at Nový Smíchov on Sunday. When I tried it on at home, it quickly became clear that even though the piece looked beautiful, the design was not thought out that well because the bracelet kept twisting the wrong way on my wrist. It bothered me enough that I realized I wouldn’t wear it, so the sensible thing was to go back and see if I could return it. Mind you, this wasn’t faulty merchandise. The jewelry had a design issue that was unacceptable to me but may be acceptable to other women.

The store receipt said that merchandise could be exchanged within four weeks. Nothing about refunds or even store credit. I went back to the store expecting that I would probably have to buy something else right there and “exchange” it for the bracelet. It would have been a bit tricky because I pretty much bought everything I wanted to buy on Sunday and I’d have to struggle to find something else now, only five days later. But lo and behold, I was offered a refund. What’s more, it was given out in cash even though I had made the purchase with a credit card. The whole transaction was quick and easy, the girl at the counter didn’t make a face, didn’t give out a sigh and didn’t call a colleague to discuss the “non-standard situation” created by a “non-standard” customer. She filled out whatever she needed to fill out, thanked me and said good bye with a smile.

It may be that the times really are changing. Maybe if foreign-owned companies come in and bring customer friendly policies with them, Czech customers will gradually get used to a certain level of service and, with time, will begin expecting and demanding the same level of service from everyone. I hope it’s only a matter of time.

In one of my posts back in October, I wrote that customers are presumed thieves in the Czech Republic. Now I know why. According to the Czech daily MF DNES, the guards at an average hypermarket (a large supermarket) catch thieves trying to steal products worth a total of 300,000 - 500,000 CZK (roughly 10 - 20 thousand EUR/USD) every month. Products worth a similar amount are actually stolen on a monthly basis.

So it’s official. According to a research done by the Czech daily MF DNES, over one third of grocery stores in the Czech Republic sell bad or expired food. Items are either left on the shelves past the expiration date, or, in worse cases, repackaged with a “new” expiration date printed on them. (iDNES article - in Czech)

A manager of the Julius Meinl meat department in České Budějovice is facing two years in jail for having ordered her staff to rinse expired meat. Employees were instructed to rinse bad meat products in a mixture of water and vinegar to remove any smell, and to cut off bad parts. The meat was then sold to customers. (iDNES article - in Czech)

I’m unfortunately used to seeing expired food on the shelves. It seems to be quite normal at some small grocery stores in my neighborhood where expired butter, chocolate or packaged ham aren’t hard to find. Since moving back to the Czech Republic a year ago, I’ve learned to check the expiration date of each and every product I put into my basket. It makes shopping take longer, but I’d rather spend the extra time to not have to throw away the contents of my bag after coming home. Not that it’s never happened and not that checking expiration dates always does the trick.

A few months ago, Jeff and I made a decent size shopping at the Delvita on Karlovo náměstí. We wanted to stock up on meat (we had bought meat there previously and were happy with it), so we bought two packages of pork tenderloin (panenka, the most expensive cut) and a package of chicken breasts, all marked with a future expiration date. When we got home and opened one of the packages of pork to cook it for dinner, we were greeted with a horrible smell that didn’t go away even after we let the meat “breathe”, refusing to believe that “our Delvita” actually sold us bad meat. We checked the other package and it was the same. To our astonishment, the chicken was bad as well. We threw out all the meat and were left with no dinner. But wait, that’s not all. I remember throwing out another item from that day’s shopping. Was it moldy bread? Maybe. Anyway, the Delvita on Karlovo náměstí is not “our Delvita” anymore.

Another similar experience was recently provided by the Carrefour Eden in Prague 10. We shop there regularly. Among other things, we used to buy fresh fish there because we can’t find it anywhere else within a reasonable radius from our home. Around 7 p.m. on September 6, we bought our usual salmon fillets and we also splurged and got two cod fillets. Not the cheap cod. We got the more expensive kind. You can imagine our surprise when we unwrapped the fish around noon the next day, looking forward to making our favorite baked cod, and, yet again, our noses were hit with a sickening smell. So, after striking Delvita on Karlovo náměstí from our list, we also no longer buy fresh fish at Carrefour Eden, or do so rarely and with a sense of taking a chance. The fact that one of the fish counter employees routinely uses his teeth to open the plastic bag before wrapping your fish in it isn’t exactly appealing either.

I’m not even going to elaborate on Carrefour’s fruit and vegetable section where one can happily select from rotten apples and grapes and tired-looking tomatoes. Sometimes I stand in front of the displays of rotten fruit and quietly wonder if it is for real or if the store is trying to play a joke on us. But no one ever laughs.

Tesco and Carrefour announced an asset swap on September 30 where Tesco will take over all 11 Carrefour stores in the Czech Republic. What does this mean for shoppers? I have shopped at the Carrefour stores in Nový Smíchov and Eden and sure hope it means improved customer service, more options for fresh fish, and nicer looking vegetables.

More details about the deal can be found in the Tesco press release and on cee-foodindustry.com.