I'm honestly fed up
I'm aware I'll be getting many down votes, but I could not care less. I'm here to vent and tell the reality I'm living.
Cyprus is not a perfect country. Let me be clear, NO country is perfect. I've lived (yes, lived, long term, not only visited) in a fair amount of countries and I am very aware of that. But in Cyprus, the worst, by far, is its people. And that is very sad.
This land has a beautiful mountain, surrounded by the amazing mediterranean sea with stone and sand beaches. Not too big, not too small, so you can get pretty much anywhere effortlessly within the day. Great weather for the most part of the year (if you like it hot). Every day more services are popping up and are covering more and further areas. Everything is pretty god, but the people...
Dealing with people is the worst, by far. It is *not* everyone bad, but most of my experiences so far are, are the very least, disappointing.
- I get AC workers at home: they do not put the furniture back, they do not clean the mess they did on the wall or the dust on the floor, and when I mention it, they do a half assed job to get out of there as soon as possible and looking at me like they are making me a favour. Full of clippings of material cut thrown out in the garden. Not to mention that I wanted them to do a proper vacuum and cleanup with nitrogen for a good amount of time (very old installation) and they were trying to get away without doing it. And for the cherry on top, smoking.
- Tiling services: you can install the tiles as close as 2mm with rectified ones. I see gaps with obviously more than 2mm (measured) and when I say something about it, they call me out saying that they have more than 30 years of experience. And they say so being upset and angry at me, talking down on me, that that's the way and that it cannot be done better than that.
- Car garage: AC does not work, I stop by, tell them the story of what happened and they just say they will do a check. He plugs the AC lines into a machine and leaves. 30 minutes later he asks for 50 euro because "Gas, oil replacement and pressure test". WTF. I thought this was just a pressure check, but in reality is a complete replacement of those things. No proper communication upfront of what they would do or how much it could be. I'm not expecting a proper exact to the cent quote, but at least a reference as I have no idea what that machine is for. Best thing: that was NOT the problem. So I ask ok, give me a reference of what the cost would be depending on what's broken. It's obvious I do not care about 20 euro or 50 repair, but if I need to replace the compressor or who knows what, a reference on the price would be nice. He "very nicely" tells me that he cannot make 100 calls to different people asking for prices. WTF again. Is there not a range he could give me? Instead of being polite about it, my questions upset him. Oh, and when I try to tell him that he didn't tell me about the price of the replacement in advance, he "threatens" me, asking whether I want it to be drained. And when I ask if it was empty to begin with, all of a sudden his english was not as good and I had to repeat myself 3 times and even still didn't get a straight answer.
- Home water filter: I say I have a leakage, if someone from the company that installed that filter can come and check it up and fix it. Dumb me, I thought this would be covered by some service warranty as it's a leakage. Anyways, they come, ring the bell, ask for 60 euro (approximate, I don't remember the exact amount) and how I want to pay. I'm surprised. They say they have already checked and fixed the leakage and that they also have replaced the filter... wait, what? why? "It needed to be replaced". Well, ok, but why don't you ask first? Act like a decent human being: ring the bell, get into the property, say that you are here and are going to check the filter, check, ring the bell, tell me what you see, what it needs to be done, how much it'll be, and if I agree, proceed with the replacement and then I pay. No. That's way too much effort.
- Labour quotation for renovation: I go to a shop and they very nicely tell me that because I already got some services from them, they could do labour for bathroom renovation for 2000 euro each. Ok, I ask for proper quotation and when I receive it in my email: 3500 euro each.
- Going to random small shops: when they are busy with a client (I understand I have to wait) not even a "kalimera" or "hello" or "yassas". Let alone a "I'm helping this person, I'll be right there when I finish". Nothing. It's ME who's making them a favour even though I'm going to pay for that product or service. Not to mention the outrageous prices for certain products or services and then they make a "discount", instead of coming up with honest straight up prices for everyone.
- Not having contacts: here everything works in a way that if you know people you are much better off. It's not about offering a good service or product because you are a customer, an opportunity for them, and want to help you. You are for the most part an inconvenience, and only when you know somebody you are treated somehow decent.
- Disrespect: it does not matter how much you know about a certain topic. Maybe because it's your hobby, maybe because it's your job, or you used to work in the field in the past. They disregard your opinion, they always know better. And they do it in a very patronising way.
- Appointments or quotations that never arrive: I have a personal, bit of a niche project. I checked with 5 different companies. Most of them do not even show up when scheduled and when I call "something came up, let's reschedule". Some come, and on top of being late, they say "we'll have a quotation in a week". Last time I heard from them. Most of the time I have to call chasing them... when I'm willing to pay them money to do the job!!
- When making a small "good deed" like helping someone, or getting out of their way so that they can pass effortlessly because you see that they are carrying something heavy, or calling someone when you notice that the person being called didn't notice. No "thank you", or "efcharisto", nothing.
- Buying a ring with small diamond stones: they tell me I'm going to get a "proper" certificate. It's a bit strange because of my previous job I already know that proper certificates are only given for rings that are of certain characteristics and the one I was buying didn't get there. So I ask if it's going to be a GIA certificate or IGI, but she does not know, just that it's going to be a proper certificate. I tell her that only stones of certain characteristics get one of those and she was like: "yes of course, this one has it". Anyways, I give in, I wanted the ring anyways, let's see what they give me. I pick up the ring a few days later and the "certificate" is just a piece of cardboard with their logo, handwritten inside the carat of the gold and the diamond. Shameful to say the least. These people will tell anything to get to sell whatever.
- D&Y shop: tired of dealing with people like I described above, I decided to learn how to do some things myself. I need certain chemicals for the pool, so I call the shop and ask whether they have sodium bicarbonate. They ask and I repeat again, making sure I spell it properly because I know these things can be tricky for people that do not know these products. "Yes we do have some bags in stock". Ok, I get in the car, drive 15 minutes to the shop, they point at where the bags are, and when I get there I see in very big letters "sodium carbonate". I could not believe it. No "sorry", no "we made a mistake", no nothing. They just say, ah, let me call and see when we can have it. At least that was nice of them, but I still had to drive 30min for absolutely nothing.
- Driving: what the f guys? What's your problem with tailgating? I'm overtaking this guy at 120km/h, can you not keep the distance for 10 more seconds before I move? No, you gotta be a f hazard for my family, yourselves and other people on the road.
All those are just within the past 2 months! This is not about some people, this is the majority of people. Been living here for almost 3 years now and almost every time I deal with Cypriot people, something like that happens. If they can rip you off they will, if they need to lie they will, if they need to give you empty promises they will.
And all this without getting into the "public workers" troubles: some friends are struggling to get the yellow slip (not even getting an email answer to get an appointment), request building permits, solar panels cuts, water cuts etc.
In general, people here are dishonest, liars, uneducated, trying to take advantage of you. There's lots of good people, but the majority of bad people make me want to leave this country and not look bad. And that's sad. Yeah, sure, foreigners go back to your countries and whatever, but some of us come here and try to integrate like anybody else, we are not filthy rich people paying our way to get whatever at whatever cost. And honestly, if you think that way, you are just as narrow minded and ignorant as the people who have been treating me (and many others, including other Cypriot people) like I described above.
There goes my rant. Am I the only one here?