Quality of customer service in Costa Rica

Ticos  tend to be pleasant, attentive, and helpful,

In supermarkets where they still bag your groceries and some places will transport your packages to the curb and wait till your ride arrives.

Some places have policies that are rather Byzantine (like banks, where I have experienced  many runarounds).

As an example, it rliterally equired seven (7!) trips to the warehouse store to arrange for a new delivery; get a refund; and have the item delivered for the second time to my residence.

I wasted a lot of time, tip money, and Uber fares cleaning up the mess for a defect in a Chinese factory,

The staff in the "warehouse store" could not have been more pleasant and desirious of bieng helpful.

The protocols struck me as loopy.

It's helpful to speak Spanish to faciliate transactions.

If something is complicated, consider asking a Spanish-speaking friend or neighbor to accompany you.

Outside San José and the tourist or beach enclaves, do not presume that you will encounter someone who has mastered conversational English in shops, stores, or restaurants.

I would have to say that I had HEINOUS customer relations experiences with one of the three main mobile telephone companies, but did not take it personally when friends, neighbors, and even Uber drivers all assured me that they experienced the self-same thing.

I dumped that company and transferred my business to the competition.

I have yet to find an international FAX service within twenty miles of me in the Central Valley.

Everyone whom I've asked has been helpful and offered advice (all of which turned out to be incorrect).

I virtually never have a bad expereience with a Tico-a, from bus drivers  to Uber drivers to hotel concierges (like the massive Air B&B in which I stayed in Barrio Escalante).

The occasional lazy and surly Uber drivers; nasty bank manager on the platorm; and disinterested customer service agent for the cell phone company have proven to be the exception to the rule, at least in my purview.

I suspect that things would be much more difficult in exurban or rural areas for those who lack ability in conversational Spanish.

I have never encountered anyone trying to hoodwink me with t a "Gringo" price (e.g., inflated to take advantage of a tourist or expat).

I literally witnessed it happen to someone in the lobby when staying in Barrio Escalante when he approached the night concierge desk and complained that he paid more for an "orange taxi" fare from SJO airport in Alajuela to San José than he spent on his one -way airfare from the southern USA.

It's the same story: 1. "An educated consumer is our best customer"-- SY SYMMS, NY clothier. 2. "Never give a succer an even break"-- P.T. Barnum; 3. "Cabeat emptor"/Let the buyer beware"--ancient Latin proverb.