Have you in your daily life ran into something involving one particular nationality, and then when you’re complaining about it to people you know you’d sound like a bigot.
Examples:
I used to sell on ebay and had other online businesses, for whatever reason people from Portugal were the one nationality that refused to use any translation programs and did not speak a word of english. I was very accommodating to non-english speakers but damn I’d be running emails written in Portuguese through google translate and coming up with “engrish” so I often just had to go meh! Example I’d tell someone with a .pt email what payment methods I accepted and they would respond “no I pay at the house” :smack:. So I’d go oh no a .pt email addy!
My wife worked in the postal service in Trinidad, she does not speak Spanish and she worked at a little kiosk inside a grocery store without all the bells and whistles of a full post office(there was a main PO down the road from her).
Cubans started coming to her kiosk wanting to mail trash bags full of clothes and electronics to Cuba, literally in trash bags. She told them by the rules she cannot accept anything in a trash bag, it has to be in a box. Cubans bringing trash bags of stuff to mail in trash bags became her biggest frustration, I even sent her some text to print and show to them.
THEN she got scolded by the postal service, once she finally got the Cubans putting the stuff in boxes Cuba had returned some saying there was a limit on how much stuff by weight could be mailed there. The main office was not pleased her kiosk was generating all these expensive returned packages.:smack:
So when we would talk she’d say oh god some damn Cubans came in again today!
The worst customers to be stuck with at the RV dealership I worked at were Asian. The salesmen there referred to them as “too-highs”. They never bought anything, just came in and wasted your time looking at expensive motor homes; then when the price was quoted the response was “oh. . .too high”. No counter-offer, mind you, just “too high”. It was amusing to see sales people suddenly find something important they had to do when one of these folks came in the door.
That’s also been my experience since then, when I’ve sold things on Craigslist. If an Asian man calls, I know it’s going to be a no sale, regardless of what it is and what the price is. It must be a cultural thing, but they’re lousy bargainers.
In the hotel where I used to work housekeeping would come down and demand from me “room 17: they’re Saudis, right? Right?!” They always were.
Now, I don’t think it was a cultural thing. I think it was that they were really, really rich and that at home they had so much staff they just got used to throwing stuff on the floor. But their rooms were filthy. I mean really filthy. They would leave bloodied pads lying around and drop food and then walk it into the carpet, that sort of thing.
Personally I had nothing against them, they were always very friendly.
You’re probably talking about Chinese, and it may be that they just bargain in a different way. I suspect they think the same of you wrt your bargaining ability. Stupid American, he could have sold me that, but he actually wanted me to make the counter offer!
Was going to reply the same way. Asians bargain in their daily lives way more than Americans do. I’m sure as he was walking away, he was shaking his head, talking about what a lousy bargainer you were…not even making another offer after he told you the first was too high.
Heh I started this thread due to some bizarre combination of other jews in the grocery threads, and imagining how it would sound to an outsider hearing a convo.
Ask an American contractor what groups he dreads most, and “Indian” will be his answer. If not, it will be his second answer.
Now ask a nurse which group of patients will stay a week in the hospital after having a baby (average is two days I believe) and use the nurse as their own personal assistant.
Ask anyone who’s ever sold anything on Craigslist what nationality the guy that drove 2 hours for a $25 printer–and then insisted they could only pay $20–was(to the point of actually walking away from the sale).
Maybe it’s a Texas thing, but I’m getting terribly close to refusing to do business with Indians.
Not domestic Jews, but Israelis. I developed three business credos early in my career: don’t do business with
1 Lawyers
2 People who have not been in America for at least five years
3 Israelis
Early in my career I was asked to design a carport for a recent immigrant from Israel now living in West LA. I asked $200. Much eye rolling and head shaking. Fifty dollars was his counter offer. I didn’t even take the trouble to tell him to go shit in his yarmulke.
The impression I have gotten is that they feel EVERYONE is out to get them, and they must strike first. I think this is called the Masada Syndrome.
Brazilians. Not in any real life situation but when I used to play World of Warcraft. When I grouped up with someone from Tol Barad (the Brazilian server) the person would not or could not communicate in English and they were almost always lousy at the game. Seriously, when I saw someone in my group was from Tol Barad I’d think “Goddamn it, a fucking Brazilian!” There were several other people in my guild with the same attitude and we all felt kind of bad about it.
There was one exception though. I went into a dungeon with a Brazilian player and he or she did a fantastic job tanking. Once.
