>Lessons learned: While faxing in English works, calling them directly (in German) would >certainly take far less time as I never got an immediate "translation" of any of my faxes >to them. Apparently, Germans don't put a high priority on "I need an answer tomorrow". On >the other hand, I wasn't particularly in a hurry as I am in the process of restoring my >van. I highly agree on this, I just called a local shop to ask for the clear turn signals. They answered, that they have more than 30.000 parts on stock and cannot tell me the pricing on phone, I should show up myself. Service culture is a very small written word in Germany. But anyway, to place an order you have to send a signed fax. If you call, you may be lucky to find a young English speaking person, but it isn't usual. But I recommend to send a fax if you have no German knowledge. But this will take some time. I had this experiences myself during some conversations with Volkswagen South Africa. They needed four weeks to answer. Helmut '80 Camper |
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