Quality of customer service in Türkiye

In my experience (I lived in many countries before (Netherlands, UK, Luxembourg, Hungary) the service in Turkiye is the best, I tip quite well and they know that.

-Staff in general very freindly and helpful and accomodating if possible.

-We do not have many complaints, quality of meat can vary and so can the quality of grilled chicken, what is annoying is that even butchers ask for cash payments, we prefer cash. If we want to pay, we pay by card and give a tip in cash.

-I think we are treated differently than locals, but that is fine and logical. We are by now regular clients with many businesses, restaurants, hairdressers, supermarkets, wool-shops, .... they recognize you as a regular customer and that helps.

-For good treatment tipping is useful.

Hello cdw057,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That is quite interesting.

You mentioned something that caught my attention:

I think we are treated differently than locals, but that is fine and logical.”

Would you mind elaborating on that? Do you mean this in a positive or negative way?🤔

@Cheryl

I feel neutral on this, we are treated more as experienced tourists, money making machines, and we are and we indeed spend, I personally do not care as long as approach is not agressive (and locals are definitely not agressive), we are not really ripped of. I am happy on how we are treated here, there is always something to complain, but in the case of Turkey not really.

I agree with cdw057 with regards to being treated differently than locals, in that we are assumed to have more money and some see us as easier to exploit, particularly since we are out of touch with the relative cost of services/goods.  Others offer sincere extra attention because of their hospitable nature.  I'm not an expat yet so I'm not familiar with what things should cost and discovered after the fact that I overpaid at  restaurants and for taxi fares.  I will become an expat in late summer and I can't wait.

The quality of service is very friendly and accommodating.  I've only had very few distasteful instances in the past.  I will have to add that customers behind me are very impatient and without hesitancy will jump in front of you with some being very rude.  This seems to be a common occurrence. 

We have noticed that, as expats, we are sometimes treated differently, and on occasion the service can verge on being less than welcoming. There is a perception that we are “made of gold,” which leads to higher prices compared to those offered to locals, along with an expectation of tipping. This can feel discouraging, especially since we earn our living in the same way as everyone else.

That said, it is important to acknowledge that not all experiences are the same. We have also encountered genuinely kind and friendly customer service, which makes a positive difference and reminds us that fairness and hospitality do exist.

@Fedy23

As soon as you are considered to be a resident and possibly return they do their very best (considering they know how much competition is around), however tipping is very much (perhaps too much) appreciated. So we pay by card and tipping in cash. We pay by card for two reasons: 1. For Ikamet extention we can easily show that we contribute to the local economy (restaurants, shopping (my wife ALWAYS pays by card, even for cigarettes and alcohol she buys for me). 2. For supporting official records of the restaurants (even tipping is off the book).

The exemptions we make are for my hairdresser (mostly shaving), bread and the market (done by my wife) and also still currently for taxis, soon to be changed.

@Gino_C

We are cash-machines and we are (honestly). Probably we pay much more than locals, but I see it as acceptable, and even comforting in a way. Businessmen are not stupid, probably more clever than we are. It is uncomforting truth that money (even a little) can buy something extra. One example, my wife goes out nowadays not only for groceries, but also for cigarettes and alcohol (both for me). I tended to buy with local cigarette/alcohol merchant and he delivered at home, but with a significant mark-up. Local merchants now know my wife and it helps (and she likes to walk (I can not properly)).

It really depends. I've been hit by a "foreigner tax" where someone has seen I'm a foreigner and assumed I'm made of money / don't know the value of goods. The reality is I've been in Turkey for years and I earn Turkish wages, so that really rubs me up the wrong way! But I believe the same people also treat other Turkish people the same way - if they think they live overseas or can otherwise afford it they will overcharge them too. Unfortunately that behaviour drives a lot of the expats here away from small businesses towards big chain stores where they can be sure it's one price for everyone - they might be paying more but at least it's by choice. Tars all smaller businesses with the same brush, sadly.

Here in Didim restaurants and cafes can be a bit mixed too. Service is usually well-meaning but occasionally quite slapdash. But most small businesses go out of their way to be friendly, kind, generous and helpful - I think that sums up Turkish culture and attitudes towards guests perfectly.

I find corporate customer service here really variable. Aydem, our electric company, is shocking. They're an advert for opening up utilities to competition! In our block they caused an electric current to run through the walls of our building when they replaced all the meters and didn't secure the wiring properly, causing a short circuit that we noticed when two people suffered electric shocks! We paid for an electrician to come out to diagnose the problem but Aydem wouldn't refund his fee. They came out and fixed the one meter that was short-circuiting at that time but left the others hanging loose off the wall! We gave up asking them to fix it in the end and paid someone to make it safe at our own expense. Türkiye Sigorta also got nul points when they stalled for a year on paying out really quite a small amount of money on a road accident where their customer was 100% at fault by his own admission!

On the other hand Turk Telekom staff are really helpful and will go out of their way to fix an issue. So I guess it depends!