Customer is always right-less, or - how they treat clients in Russia

In Russia, a customer has no right, no matter what the law says. A customer could very well be treated like a thief, humiliated, disdained, neglected, robbed even, and still expected to pay and be happy he - or she - is even served anything for his money at all. And I do not mean waiters alone, that's the most easier example and I'll get to others later in the post.

I do not know if this kind of behavior is widespread or not - certainly, it's not to be seen in Moscow or St. Petersburg so very often - but in my city, Rostov-on-Don, clients are roughly divided in two groups: those looking handsomely rich and those who are not. And of you happen to be put in the second group, you are gonna be neglected as much as possible. It doesn't matter if you are ordering a dinner in some cafe or having someone do a job for you, or buying something from a boutique - if the person who are supposed to be your manager (and is paid to do what you want from them) thinks you aren't "rich enough", your life gonna suck.

Let me show a few examples. When I started living in Rostov, I was always scrawny and thoroughly neglecting any fashion trends, because i couldn't find female shoes of my size and had to wear either male or unisex models, thus forced to dress accordingly male-like or sport-style. So i looked much like a poor student who cannot afford any fancy shoes, dress and those gold bells and whistles females are supposed to wear.

If I wanted to go to a caffe - say, to have a coffee and a cheesecake, like everyone else - I had to wait so long that people who came after me were served, ate their whole dinner course and were long gone, all before my order was served. The longest record was 1,5 hours for a coffee and a piece if cake; the waiter was resolved on not serving me at all, it seemed, and i was resolved to not go anywhere until served first, and used their free wifi instead. Guess what? They kicked me from the wifi network because i was occupying the precious space some other client, a more welcome one, could be sitting on!

I stopped going to anywhere but McDonalds for several years, unless with my father - he always looks kinda like a businessman who could afford to buy your ass from under you.
When I went to shops alone, I was regarded with much disdain, and no one would came to help me browse or find the right size. With my dad around, managers would line up in hopes he'll buy something really expensive and they'll get a cut. Much like in that old Hollywood movie, "Pretty Woman".

After some time I racked some wealth of my own, and started to go out again. Even if I had a photo camera worth nearly $3,000 total on me and wearing clothes bought overseas, I was still thoroughly neglected, because average morons would not recognize its cost or origins, and i had no state-of-the-art cell phone that they would recognize.

By the way, a cell phone in Russia is what defines your income in the eyes of other people - and everyone are buying cells they could't easily afford, going as far as to buy a new one long before they finished paying off the credit they took to buy the previous one. Because, you know, the new phone is so NEW and so HOT and everyone around look like they could afford it, but you. Morons.

After a few years, dad gave me his old car to use, and finally I could breath easily! As soon as I sat, I would take my car keys out and put them in plain sight, the keys obviously showing I drive a SUV and not some cheap shit, therefore I am to be welcomed warmly.

To tell the truth, personnel in restaurants and cafe are being schooled out of this outrageous behavior, because many Moscow networks began settling in our market, and they are aware of the notion that people should be served equally, being all clients, and not discriminated. But in other field, people are still pretty much unbearable.

Two weeks ago, I went to an atelier because I needed two of my dresses enlarged in the breast area - they became uncomfortable. An easy task, that could take two days at most, and I know that for sure because I can sew by myself, just don't have a sewing machine at hand these days. But this isn't like I was ordering a new dress - my order would bring much less income to the atelier. When, after two weeks of silence, I went to check upon my order, you guess what?

My dresses weren't even out of the package I brought then in, and everyone fucking FORGOT what I wanted in the first place!!! So I had to tell and show them all over again, but not before I had to wait over an hour first for some old lady to figure out, what kind of blouse she wants ordered. Oh, they said they're sorry, because they had some "urgent orders" and there were dresses to be made for school graduates and such - like I should give any fuck and agree that my cheaper order is to be put out as soon as someone comes along with another one!

And if that wasn't enough, there's an average disdain for clients, any clients at all, in many places. Like you are some beggar on their doorstep, and not bringing their salary at all. Shops where managers are plainly hiding from clients to talk among each other, and turn their back on you pretending they are deaf and blind both. Managers at car service, who would browse the web with no other clients around and tell you to go and stand somewhere else ten more minutes, because you came these ten minutes early. Managers at a book shop, who would openly stalk you because they've been provably told people are coming to steal their book, not to buy them; and with signs telling you of hidden cameras all around, when your wallet is stolen in their shop, suddenly no one were watching these cameras at all, they were too busy stalking someone else at the time!

Once, my new jacket beeped when I entered a store, a manager jumped at me and I've been told openly to either leave or undress, or they wouldn't be able to tell WHEN I'll steal something of theirs, unable to see would it be my jacket beeping or their stuff. And another time - a long time ago, when I didn't knew they had no authority to do so - I was forced to undress down to my undies and be searches by SportMaster store security, because after trying some things one of the markers stuck on my sock, and I beeped when trying to leave the store. I dunno, maybe they though I stuffed a shirt up my vagina to steal it? Fuckers.

Oh, and more of those: in almost every store you are forced to leave whatever you had with you, a bag, a package, stuff bought in another shop, in case you'll hide something In it and steal it. If someone steals your stuff in turn, the shop's administration claims to be impossible to be held accountable in such a case, though the laws say otherwise, but you would have to sue to prove it, court expenses would cost much more than anything you could have possibly lost.
Security at a cinema were searching people and confiscating bottled water, because the water is also sold by the cinema's bar and they want everyone to buy theirs, so they made up a rule "no water past this point" and are enforcing it.
All of it is absolutely illegal, against both federal laws and constitution, but it's no use arguing, because what would you do if some beefed-up security asshole won't let you enter or take your stuff? Call the police? Like they'll give any fuck...

Check this out: in my building, there's a small food store on the first floor. I was looking for some bread, they had none, so I bought a bottle of beer and went to check other shops for bread. I wasn't given any cheque for the beer, though I should have been. When I did not find any bread, I came back again and wouldn't let me enter, unless I leave that bottle! The security guy, who perfectly saw me some ten minutes ago, spoke looking me in the eye, that they wouldn't be able to tell if I stole this bottle - like he is not seeing me entering with it! - and that I have no proof of purchase - they did not give it to me!! - and If I enter, he will make me pay for that bottle AGAIN, and just see if he would not. This was the absolutely most outrageous, infuriating experience of them all, and I was pretty happy to dance when these dicks went bankrupt and closed.

Fucking asshats, I can see why half of the world is hating Russians, if they see ones like these come and shit all over the place with such kind of behavior.