ElAl Airlines has finally done something right

I have something that I am not going to complain about for a change!  ElAl has a new class of service, called Economy Class Plus which is a business class type seat without the business class service.  I have points on ElAl so the upgrade for my recent trip to Europe was well worth it, and I for one was very pleased with the seat and the price.

Contrasting Customer Service Experiences - Light at the end of the tunnel?

2 customer service stories to talk about, both happened to me this week.

I needed a new roof rack for my lovely Mazda 5, and I knew of a Auto Depot store in Bilu near Rechovot. It is about a 40 minute drive from my house, but I knew they had a large roof rack section since I was there once before.
Background on Auto Depot - it is a chain of about 15 stores throughout Israel that I think is owned by the same group that owns ACE (another store full of "winners").

I walk in the store, poking around the obviously confusing Thule roof rack section. Thule is a Scandinavian company that makes amazing roof racks which are about 2-3 times the price in Israel compared to America. It is easy to spend 5000+ Shekel on a roof rack, and I realized that going in, but I wanted to find a happy medium, get something spartan, and decent quality for under 2000 Shekel.

After standing in the Thule section in direct eye sight of the lady sitting behind the counter for about 10 minutes I begin to open up one or two of the boxes sitting there, trying to make sense of it all. There was NO ONE else in the store, but the horrible rude lady sitting behind the counter refused to budge. I usually find it annoying when people come up to me and try and sell me stuff, but in this instance, there really was no choice since it was pretty obvious by the set up that this stuff was special order and REQUIRED a sales person to write up the order.

So I give up and decide to pace the store looking for some cheaper alternatives. I manage to find some sort of cheap roof rack that I might be able to kludge (click here for definition) onto the roof. I then work up the courage to approach the unapproachable woman sitting comfortably behind the counter, and ask her about the cheaper alternative. She asks me what type of car I have, "2008 Mazda 5", and she then rather dismissively goes onto tell me why the cheap alternative won't work, as she turns her back on me and walks away!!

I make another vein attempt at the cheap rack, showing her the brackets that happen to be lying around that would enable me to affix the rack to the roof, and she again proceeds to ignore me by disappearing into the store room for a few minutes without saying a word.

I really needed a roof rack and seeing as I didn't have any option, I went back to the Thule section and called her over. She reluctantly came over and said right off the bat that it will cost upwards of 2000 Shekel. She said it in a very snooty way that just reeked of, "it's too rich for your blood". I was pretty offended at that point, but I kept my cool and asked her about the box that had a rack in it for around 900 Shekel. It was the most basic Thule model, but it looked like it would do the job, 2 basic bars that would go across the width of my roof. She then turned around and walked away!!!

I was in shock, speechless, I headed for the door and in a loud voice I said (in Hebrew) "Thank you for the wonderful customer service". I make it to my car, when she screams something which I am assuming was very rude in my direction, and I couldn't understand and left in shock.

I go home, look online, and find another store that happens to be in Rechovot, and they specialize in roof racks. I head over there (second time heading to Rechovot in the same day), buy exactly what I want for 1300 Shekel, and couldn't be happier.

I work in sales, and with 2 or 3 quick questions she could have qualified that I was serious, and with a little effort she would have had a guaranteed sale. It is obvious that Auto Depot values Thule and trains their staff on the product line. They devote over 15% of floor space to the brand, and even have a table and chairs with catalogs set up to help facilitate a special order sale. How do these companies expect to survive with such horrible service? It is deplorable and inexcusable.

Now for the second story. I had my eye on an expensive office chair for sometime now, in fact, close to two years now. I work from home and have a home office, so it is easy for me to justify a large office expense since I have so few. Every time I would go to the Dr. Gav in Modiin I would bug the sales people over this chair, I would haggle over price, and come very close to buying it, but never pull the trigger; I could never justify the expense. But that all changed about a month ago when I pulled my neck and I couldn't turn my head. I went to the Dr. and he suggested I get a new chair. That was all the excuse and justification I needed to spend the money, and I got the chair.

The chair was delivered, and it just did not feel right, it felt like it tilted to the right a little. So I took out my level and placed on the seat and saw it did in fact tilt by about an inch! Call me crazy, but this inch bugs me to no end, especially considering how much I paid for the chair. I got on the phone with Dr. Gav expecting to fight, and I was pleasantly surprised when the customer service rep told me someone will come out to the house to take a look. I explained I would be out of the country the following week, and they said, "no problem, that they will follow up".

While I was away I had a VM from them and I returned the call and scheduled a repair tech to come by and look at the chair. Someone came by today, I pulled out the level, showed him it was off, he politely smiled and told me a new chair would be sent to me next week! No questions asked, no arguing! I felt like I was back in America! It was an amazing experience, finally a company in Israel that gets it!

Such a dichotomy; two companies heading in total opposite directions. The chair cost around the same price as the top of the line Thule, so why was my experience so varying? Moral of the story? Don't feel that you have to take horrible customer service anymore in Israel, there are options, and if enough people express their opinions and exercise our options the stores with weak customer service will evolve or disappear and the strong stores will only get stronger.

Way to go Dr. Gav, and shame on you Auto Depot Israel!

Content Not Available From Your Location

Here is something I don't understand, " Content Not Available From Your Location". Websites won't let me view or listen to content because I am out of the United States. I can list 40 different websites that will give me access to the content that they are refusing me access to, and all it is doing is causing more piracy and more resentment.

I would gladly pay for Netflix streaming, or Amazon, or Hulu, but since these short sighted people with no knowledge of how the internet works decided to block content based on my IP location, I can no longer watch what I want to watch. do they really think that they are winning this battle? do they really think that the average web user will just give up and not look for the content on other non-authorized sites? Pathetic. I just tried watching the highlights of an NHL game on ESPN.com and I was told "Not Available", why not? What could possible be the reason? A TV show or movie I understand their paranoia (even though I don't agree), but an NHL game which finished 12 hours ago? Who are they kidding!!!???

Not only that, but radio stations are now blocked! Who is the genius who that of that one? What possible reason could there be to block USA talk radio from the international market? Makes no sense to me on any level.

Israeli consumers suffer from lack of choice and high prices.

I just got back from America, and I was guilty of a favorite past time of mine - bad mouthing Israeli commerce (or lack of). I still find it difficult to buy anything in Israel, from clothing to electronics, and here is why.

Here I will list what I believe are Israel's problems, some are addressable, some are insurmountable. Keep in mind that I am not an expert or an economist and anyone is free to post in comments how they agree or disagree.

1. Taxation - ever wonder how much you are actually taxed while living in Israel? around 40%-50% right off the top of all gross income goes to taxes. Almost everything you buy has a VAT (value added tax) added onto it around %15. Almost all items imported have some sort of tax, cars are taxed at 75%-100% of their value! Basically, the government is taking anywhere from 60%-75% of your gross earnings. These are rough numbers, I am not an economist, and I may be wrong, but if you can prove me otherwise, please do in comments. One simple way to reduce prices is to stop redistributing the wealth of the average Israeli. These taxes are mainly to pay for the defense budget and wealth redistribution. We do not need to fund social services so heavily, those that do not want to work by choice should not be receiving redistributed income in the form government benefits.

2. Isolated Economy - I have been involved in exporting (from USA to the rest of the world) and people sometime make comments like, "I wish Israel had a Target or a Walmart", and I do my best to explain to them why this most likely would never happen. Let's take any other country in the Middle East as an example. If a wholesaler of floor fans wants to do business in the Mid East he does his best to take advance orders, then brings in containers of fans to a central distribution point in the Mid East, like Dubai, and then they proceed to distribute throughout the whole Mid East.
From Dubai distributors can ship to countless countries, and even reshuffle over stock from one country to the next without having to worry about repackaging and relabeling. This gives the importer greater security, greater buying power, and more ability to negotiate with the Chinese manufacturer to get lower pricing.
Israel is a relatively small and isolated economy, once the goods are in Israel, there is no financial alternative other than to sell them. No one dumps merchandise, no closeouts, no selling overstock internationally. Items that have Hebrew packaging can't be moved to Saudi Arabia to be sold, can't end up in Jordan, over stock can't be sent to Egypt. Items end up here and need to be sold at full price no matter what, otherwise, chances are the importer would lose money.

3. Government Regulation - The government puts up many hurdles regarding importing, especially electronics. Most people don't realize this, but every electronic item shipment for resale (and others as well) has to go through special testing and deemed safe for the Israeli consumer. These tests are done by the Standards Institution of Israel מכון התקנים(click on link for a taste of the craziness). This is a very expensive hurdle, and prevents people from bringing in smaller shipments. For example, someone wants to import 12 rechargeable flashlights for resale has to pay the same certification fee as someone who wants to bring in a container. And once he sells out of those 12 lights he has to pay the same fee for the next 12 lights, even though they are exactly the same lights!

This from the above linked website - I highlighted the important part

Goods embodying the highest danger level to public health and safety. For example: children’s toys, electrical home appliances, pressure vessels, portable foam fire extinguishers. No changes will occur with respect to issuing a certificate of conformity to the standard for release from customs. That is, an examination of each shipment is still a requirement for release from customs.

It is cost prohibitive for someone trying to bring in smaller shipments, and therefore smaller retailers have no options for importing items independently, and they are forced to buy from the larger importers. This leads to monopolies where only the larger importers who know the ins and outs of the importing bureaucracy can afford to bring items in. Monopolies lead to less options, and higher prices, and lower quality goods (walk into any Ace for an example). Us as consumers suffer, and we see higher prices as a result.

How to make it better? There is nothing Israel can do about being isolated and alone in the Mid East, so most of point number 2 needs to accepted as is. Number 1, the solution is relatively simple; lower taxes, and let the free market economy redistribute the wealth on it's own, without the help of the government.

Number 3, and this is the most important, get rid of the importing hurdles! I have dealt with a lot of countries int he past, and the only country that is more difficult to work with in regards to importing is Brazil. Brazil deliberately caps imports, and makes it difficult to import any goods. Brazil does this in order to protect their local manufacturing, which unlike Israel's is relatively capable; this capping is actually noble (if not wrong and misguided). Israel's placing of these numerous hurdles hurts the consumer, by nature only protects the larger conglomerates, which then stifles competition, which then leads to monopolies, which then leads to no choices for the consumer. And of course the more hurdles there are, the more bureaucrats are needed to enforce them, which leads to larger government, which then leads to more thumb twiddling, thumb twiddling inevitably then leads to more regulation since the bureaucrats need to show that they are actually working, and the cycle repeats itself!

And now the biggest problem is that El Al just changed their luggage policy which means I can only travel with one suit case. That means that I can't buy as much as I used to from America and bring it back with me to Israel. It actually forces me to consider buying certain items here in Israel. The conspiracy is growing!!!

My Iphone's home bottun doesn't take me home

The home button on my Iphone doesn't work. Say what you want about Blackberry's at least they always seem to work!

Balckberry Roaming while in Israel - DON'T DO IT!

As far as I know the only company that has a special data roaming plan is AT&T. I know Verizon and T-Mobile recently dropped Israel from their roaming plans, so if you plan on traveling check ahead to be sure you are not going to get killed by data roaming charges. There are some caveats - some plans will only allow you to send and receive emails, but no longer allow web browsing, just be sure you know what your service provider allows. This goes for Iphones as well.

Some misconceptions about roaming - Using your phone on Wifi while in Israel will not cause roaming charges! Just be sure that under connection settings you un-check your mobile network as soon as you turn on your phone, or do it on the plane before you leave your home country. Even better, ALWAYS keep the "Roaming Data" feature disabled on your phone to avoid accidental data usage while roaming. The second you suck down one email onto your BB while roaming you will pay through the nose. Once the mobile network is unchecked, go ahead and scan for wireless networks and email all you want for free.

Prepaid Blackberry plan in Israel

I don't have a huge amount of details, but I think there might be some good news for those of you with Blackberry's that don't want to get screwed. Orange now has a plan for Blackberry's for under 100 shekel a month (I believe 80 NIS) that works similar to a prepaid plan. You do not need an Israeli ID, and the data is capped, but it should be enough to get you your email, BBM, and limited web browsing. All you will need is an unlocked Blackberry that is GSM capable and you should be good to go. I will try and find out more info when I get a chance, happy roaming!