Interesting.
Which part of Canada are you from and where in Europe are you right now?
I think there are differences between customer service in different provinces in Canada and countries in Europe.
Also, can you describe how the CS is bad: are the people not smiling/polite or is it about the job not getting done and them lying about things.
I am curious about the world in general and would love to hear and INFJ's opinion since you seem so good at understanding people.
Some might say that technically I don't live in "Europe".
I live in England - have lived in London for six years. I also lived in Dublin, Ireland for a few years. Originally I am from the West Coast of Canada - British Columbia.
I've found that over here people tend to look sullen; they will often make you feel as though you're inconveniencing them when you are simply asking them to do their job and help you out; etc. They'll give you wrong info because they can't be bothered to check, or they don't know things that they really should know, and I think lying is probably fairly common too. If you ask in a shop if they have something in another size, they almost never say "let me check that for you." They almost always shrug and say "if it's not on the shelf/on the floor, we don't have it." Ie. you have to do all the work. (And often they wouldn't offer to order it in for you or whatever.)
I've had customer service agents be extremely rude to me on the phone when I had a valid complaint and was getting a bit upset (I don't mean screaming and swearing upset, just sounding annoyed.) One guy told me once to stop raising my voice at him and not interrupt or he'd hang up on me. He was, of course, interrupting me constantly, making me feel like an idiot and I was wasting his time. That was an extreme example but it was so bad I expected someone to jump out and shout "you're on Candid Camera." I've worked in customer service (reservations for a major airline, and also customer relations - ie. complaints - for another airline) and I ALWAYS tried to be professional even when I wanted to pull my hair out. I would never threaten to hang up on someone unless they were really abusive, which I certainly was not.
I have had major problems with my bank - simple things like getting a new credit card sent out, then it gets lost, and I end up talking to ten different people and every person says "oh, the last person gave you wrong info." Literally. I end up in situations where I have to shout to get people to do something for me. I'm sure they're calling me a bitch when the phone call ends but by then I don't even care...
It just seems like the training is poor here, or there's not an ethic for customer service like there is in North America. I know a lot of those jobs are badly paid and tough, but honestly, especially in this economic climate you should be glad to have a job and try to do your best - and hopefully move on to something better in time...
I find it's bad enough here that if people in coffee shops, banks etc etc smile and ask you how you are, you're like "wow - that person was so nice and polite!" It really stands out. Of course, I think London is worse in many ways than other parts of England (although I don't think Londoners in general are as rude as reputation would have it, a lot of people in London are very respectful of each other - it's mainly the customer service.) But I've travelled extensively in Europe (also, my mom is from Finland) and generally find Europe is worse than North America, often much worse. France and Italy, for instance - haha. Ok, that might be a little unfair. I think France is pretty bad for customer service (and I speak fluent French - apparently it can be hell if you don't speak French) but when I went to Rome a couple of years ago it was much better than I might have been led to expect. But my Canadian friend who has lived in Italy for more than ten years and speaks Italian like a native (and generally loves Italy) says that customer service is pretty awful generally - sometimes we swap stories about our banks, and suchlike