Crazy Yanks

[lesliedocherty]

Hi,

Every week we sell a few t/shirts to the states and every week we get 1 customer coming back saying they have been overcharged, they say 'ibought a t/shirt at $30 i got charged $60, can i get a refund'

i tell them our site is based in uk, we charge in £ Pounds, they always come back and ask whata pond is and how much its worth.

Does anyone else get this ???

 

Well just look at there president .

we have this problem frequently,must be something to do with being a superpower.

Earl

 

[AdamJ]

I was once returning from our site in Atlanta and asked the Sales Manager where was the nearest place to change some dollars into Francs and Lira. He asked why, I explained I was going back to Blighty via France and Italy and it was good to have some cash when I landed and I may as well get rid of the dollars I had left. He responded "but I thought you all used dollars in Europe?".

 

[She Says]

Yes we get the same, even though the website clearly shows a pound sign and the url is .co.uk.

 

[lesliedocherty]

I got my Best Western Loyalty card through last year, i had put my country down as UK, they put on card Ukraine, go figure.

Thats why our website is .com and not .co.uk , we found ot yanks dont trust anything except .com

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Their current president, a millionaire in his own right, hadn't ever left continental America, until he got the job...

That says it all!

 

[telemax]

I live in Canada 19 miles from the US border and most Americans have no idea about a country on their doorstep let alone on the other side of the Atlantic. We allways get stories about Americans who live 50 miles away from here arriving in Canada with ski's in July!!!!.

Even better , someone I know here in Canada went to the US on business, he got asked "Does Canada use metric time"?, meant totally seriously by a secretary at the company he was visiting.

 

[Dawg]

Their current president, a millionaire in his own right, hadn't ever left continental America, until he got the job...

That says it all!

What does it say? That he is rich? And...? That he hadn't left one of the biggest, most advanced land masses in the world. And...?

And.. Sirearl

Well just look at there president

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw black kettles at they're frendz leeders.

 

[ExpandOnline]

I recall one conversation when I was in USA:
"Where are you from?"
"England"
"Where's that, France?"

Most Americans have not travelled outside of the US, with I believe less than a 1/4 owning a passport.

I found this video on how US passports are made: http://video.state.gov/?fr_story=500ae66aab764fc28956fdd296f76cebb720f4d9 I like the bit at 4:50 where "the operating system is loaded onto the passport chip" I wonder if it is Windows or Linux.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

A lot of anti-US bias here. Don't forget that the US is very large country - how many Brits have travelled outside Europe? Would be an interesting comparison.

 

[AdamJ]

I think the 'no Americans leave the country' is a bit of a red herring. Its a huge country - you want desert? Mountains? Sea? Spanish-style towns? Its got the lot, so you have to think, why leave? Particularly if its so far from anywhere. The only thing they miss is seeing different cultures. Also, as posted above, how many Brits never leave Europe?

That said, Americans do provide some great humour:

Our IT manager was at the West Virginian site and commented she was flying to Spain for the weekend when she got home. The chap she was with said that Brits seemed to fly a lot, to which she responded that if we want to go anywhere its kind of important to fly or get the ferry, the UK being an island. And the response: 'really, what island is it on?'.

 

[reggiemental]

how many Brits have travelled outside Europe

All of us!

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

anti US bias?

Well, if that is how reporting facts are interpreted (assuming everyhing is factual), so be it.

 

[Cornish Steve]

It may be common for people to travel outside Britain today, but it was quite unusual for my generation (I'm in my late 40s). Frankly, as a child and teen, I didn't know anyone who had been overseas. Maybe my part of Cornwall was unusual, but I don't think so. Hearing someone speak a foreign language was a cause for a day's gossip - at least. Going to university was amazing; I met people from other countries for the first time.

And how good are we about geography? What's the capital of Malta or Moldova or Slovenia? What's the currency of these European countries? What language do they speak?

As for Americans thinking your prices are in dollars, view it as a business problem to solve. If you're winning business from the US, make your site more friendly to American visitors. It will surely pay off.

 

[Craig Dewe]

Ok, if they can't work out where the UK is, I don't feel so bad that they have no clue where New Zealand is.

I regularly test Americans I meet (ones that are actually travelling outside the US) by drawing Australia and asking them to point to where NZ is. 90% say above Australia, right where Papa New Guinea is.