By Reza Ganjavi
OMG! I ended up at a car dealer/mechanic shop in canton Zurich for a specialist repair. The head of the mechanic shop was such a jerk. So racist. He was also treating his employees so bad and talking down on them and they mostly had Balkan ethnicity.
I happened to come across a senior mechanic, from Albania, who was a very nice guy and very competent and helpful in addressing the complex technical issue.
In the communications with his manager in person and via email I realized what a jerk the native-Swiss manager was – so incredibly arrogant, and he had this superiority attitude which I call Swiss Supremacist attitude which some native-Swiss friends have told me they were taught this in school, i.e., that we are the best, etc.
My first interaction with Switzerland this also came across immediately – at the Los Angeles Swiss Consulate, the lady told me everybody is honest in Switzerland blah blah, which is a big lie in itself – I’ve come across so many lies, deceptive behaviors, and in fact the biggest liar I’ve ever met other (than Donald Trump whom luckily I have not met) is a native-Swiss. As soon as going, gets tough morality is out the window and big lies are cooked up, and in such a small-horizon way that it’s so easy to debunk.
Of course, I also know many honest Swiss people. But just the notion that everybody is honest in Switzerland is false.
Anyway, the mechanic manager was so racist that he was also talking down on his staff, on top of saying psychologically complex nonsense in related to the repair case.
It turned out that the staff was also fed up with him. I confronted him rationally, calmly, logically, by challenging the irrational nonsense he was saying. When I was leaving the Albanian senior mechanic and others gave me a blink and thumbs off of “good job”. Because they need their jobs and can’t confront the bully racist manager.
I ended up having to escalate the matter because the racist guy was just interested in monkey-wrenching the process.
I wrote to the CEO of the parent company and before you know it everything turned around for the better for me, and the problem got solved, as the racist manager was ordered by the big boss to comply.
This is one email I sent to the racist manager:
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Sorry I am not your type. I don't get engaged in irrational dog fights.
1) You're obviously more interested in stupid discussions than a civilized friendly exchange, which is the way I started it. You weren't even courteous enough to address me by name in your email yesterday, which is the norm for formal business professional communications. And in case you've forgotten, we are your customers, and you owe us courteous professional communications. Also, if you've forgotten, I've always treated you with respect. But when your lines go in the direction of stupidity, I have to call them out.
2) I can't believe you have the nerve to bring up the transmission case. The drama you're referring to was entirely due to your mismanagement. Should we go into the details? I can illustrate it for you point by point.
3) Once again, your communications yesterday was very unprofessional, inappropriate.
4) In the transmission case there was not a problem of getting others involved, when you wanted to be involved. So, there's absolutely no precedence. I happen to be a professional and have served top Swiss banks and international organizations in key positions. I'm also an intelligent person who understands when someone says "go through me" it means "go through me". So, for you to copy 7 other people and engage us in an internal communications was totally unprofessional, disrespectful and unnecessary.
If you want to dodge the tire issue and make a fuss about it to not deal with it, try a different way. Because your communications so far have been at a very very low, unprofessional way. I can't believe your management tolerates such behavior. And to follow your style, I'm copying your boss whom I'm sure understands the respect every customer deserves, regardless of their ethnicity.
See you Friday at 4 pm.
Regards,
R. Ganjavi
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