Russian Customer Service

[slim 1,514]

as only 2 of the 3 men are depicted as total losers. And Slim...you have relatives in Texas?

I have a lot of loser relatives, but none so loserish as Texans. (Man, there's just no way to get this forum fired up anymore, is there?)

Thanks Slim - I am compiling a list for the next trip to the магазин.

I wish I knew more. I'm kind of a novice when it comes to Russian cinema. Truth be told, I don't fancy it very much.

[K1researcher 0]

i watch alot of Russian cinema ...

for me the soviet era Skazki (fantasy, childrens tales) and comedies are great. I like many of the Krushev era war movies, but they are very sad.

from perestoika until recently mostly utter gargabge came out. Unless you love movies that glorified the mafia ...

If you want some cool entertainment watch eisenstein movies October, Alexander Nevksy, Potomkin. The awesome historical inaccuracies make them a hoot plus it was manual crank cameras which is even more entertaining.

If you have never seen Ny Pogodi (ill get you) or Cheburashka .. you should! Ny is like old looney toons and Cheb is excellent stop motion animation.

[Brad and Vika 129]

as only 2 of the 3 men are depicted as total losers. And Slim...you have relatives in Texas?

I have a lot of loser relatives, but none so loserish as Texans. (Man, there's just no way to get this forum fired up anymore, is there?)

Thanks Slim - I am compiling a list for the next trip to the магазин.

I wish I knew more. I'm kind of a novice when it comes to Russian cinema. Truth be told, I don't fancy it very much.

You are worlds ahead of me. I am limited to what Vika will sit through and translate.

for me the soviet era Skazki (fantasy, childrens tales) and comedies are great. I like many of the Krushev era war movies, but they are very sad.

from perestoika until recently mostly utter gargabge came out. Unless you love movies that glorified the mafia ...

Vika likes this stuff too, so I will no doubt be watching it. As for the mafia movies, I have the directors cut of the entire Brat! saga.

[mox 298]

If you have never seen Ny Pogodi (ill get you) or Cheburashka .. you should! Ny is like old looney toons and Cheb is excellent stop motion animation.

Ny Pogodi is awesome, but Cheburashka is just WIN all around. Some of it makes absolutely no sense at all, which is part of the charm.

[PJB 0]

Favorite (and good quality) russian war flicks......

Korsanty- The Cadets......was a Russian TV special series a few years ago, now available in America with English subtitles.

Kakushka- The Coo-Coo....Russian film that has 3 lead characters who each speak a different language, get the American version with English subtitles. The version from Russia has everyone's speaking dubbed into Russian which ruins the directors original plan to make the viewer feel the characters frustration in not understanding each other. If you understand Russian the jokes are funnier.

We saw Defiance. Liked the movie but the "Russians" in the movie all were definately portrayed in an insulting fashion. We think that since it was a movie made in Lithuania with mostly Lithuanians as cast and crew that it was a slap at Russia done on purpose. Also everyone spoke Russian with a Baltic accent.

[slim 1,514]

We saw Defiance. Liked the movie but the "Russians" in the movie all were definately portrayed in an insulting fashion. We think that since it was a movie made in Lithuania with mostly Lithuanians as cast and crew that it was a slap at Russia done on purpose. Also everyone spoke Russian with a Baltic accent.

That may be possible. My Lithuanian neighbor who did time in Red Army wasn't too fond of Russian Army. They did speak with a Baltic accent, but they nailed it, didn't they? Even the Americans had a good "Baltic Russian" accent. Liev Schreiber sounded so much like my neighbor, I almost thought it was him. About 10 minutes into the movie I started suspecting that he must've had a Lithuanian voice coach. Staying after and watching the credits, I realized it was a Lithuanian production. Now that makes sense. He'd spoken some Russian in that flick he did with Ben Affleck (Sum of all fears?) but his "Russian Accent" was a more pronounced in this one. (Or should I say, "Baltic accent?")

[Brad and Vika 129]

Still compiling the list. Vika got me to watch several episodes of Ликвидация (Liquidation I think), a tv show set in Odessa back in Soviet times.

[K1researcher 0]

Watched Transsiberian last night..

Other tha the ####### audio ... i hate Blu-rays with only DVD quality audio ....

it was ok. But jeeeeeez the 2 Americans were incredibly stupid and naive the whole movie...

plus what kind of visa did they have? notice their passports when passed to the Spaniard did not have a Russian visa in them ;-)

hahahaah

who would take a 7 days train in a shared cabin?

Also you know, i have never had service that bad in Russia.. of course i dont ask the tea lady about a toilet.. cuz i am smart enough to know it is not her responsibility :-P

[eekee 182]

I also like the Soviet comedies and the movies which are just about daily life, like Афоня.

I recently watched Пыль, which is about a guy picked for a medical experiment by the FSB. It is really cool, although quite strange. I'm not sure if it has been subtitled or anything though, since it was never released in the US.

I like the first Брат, but the second one was one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. The older brother is quite funny in the second one though.

[slim 1,514]

Also you know, i have never had service that bad in Russia.. of course i dont ask the tea lady about a toilet.. cuz i am smart enough to know it is not her responsibility :-P

I remember stepping up to the "informatsiya" booth at the airport and waiting... and waiting..... and waiting..... until finally the woman looked up, very disgusted, and said, "WHAT?"

[mox 298]

I remember stepping up to the "informatsiya" booth at the airport and waiting... and waiting..... and waiting..... until finally the woman looked up, very disgusted, and said, "WHAT?"

WOW!! You got an English speaking customer service person at the airport? How'd you pull that one off?

[Rob_Lesya 4]

I remember stepping up to the "informatsiya" booth at the airport and waiting... and waiting..... and waiting..... until finally the woman looked up, very disgusted, and said, "WHAT?"

Reminds me of my first couple of trips to Russia back in the day. I'd usually stay at the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow for a couple of days before heading off to whatever far-flung outpost I was headed to that trip. When checking in, there would usually be three girls behind the counter. Each of them would just be leaning against the back counter, arms folded, doing their best to ignore me. They'd occasionally glance over at me for a second and then just look away. Me, being the wise-#### I was at the time, would just stand on the other side of the counter with my arms folded staring back at them. We'd have a contest to see which one of us would crack first.

The odd thing was -- once that initial barrier was broken, once contact between us was actually made, these girls ended up being some of the friendliest and most accommodating people I've ever met... often going well out of their way to take care of personal errands for me.

[mox 298]

Hehe.

The funny thing is...when you tell these stories to somebody who's never been, you can always see a shadow of doubt crossing their face. Like they think you must be embellishing the story. Anyone else run into this?

[slim 1,514]

WOW!! You got an English speaking customer service person at the airport? How'd you pull that one off?

No, no. She was speaking Russian. I just typed in English because the stickers on my keyboard that were never supposed to come off already came off. Now I'm not so sure where each Russian letter is.

Hehe.

The funny thing is...when you tell these stories to somebody who's never been, you can always see a shadow of doubt crossing their face. Like they think you must be embellishing the story. Anyone else run into this?

My buddy from out of town came here to visit and after a meal together with my wife he said, "dude, I thought you were exagerating when you were telling me stories of things she says to you. I see now, you're not!"

[mox 298]

I think I've told this story before, but it's one that really sums up the whole "Russian Customer Service" experience.

Once, when connecting through Moscow, my flight was late, traffic was miserable between SVO2 and 1, and I wound up missing my flight by literally seconds. As I got up to the checkin counter, the sign changed to "Flight closed." No amount of pleading would help, and they finally directed me over to the manager. The manager was a tall redhead who could have been a Bond girl. I tried to get her to let me on the flight, but she just kept getting angrier and angrier with me. She finally took my ticket, wrote something on it, handed it back to me, and refused to speak with me further.

I went over to Aeroflot "Customer Service" (you really need to use air quotes when you say "Aeroflot" and "Customer Service" in the same breath), to get myself booked on the next flight. This lady sets me up for a flight leaving in 25 minutes. I told her there's no way I'll make that, and she insists I can make it. So I get the ticket, make my way through the initial baggage screening (can someone PLEASE explain to me why they scan baggage twice?!?!) and just as I get up to check in to the flight--and I am not making this up--the sign changes to "Flight Closed." Once again, no amount of pleading would work, and I was directed to yet another manager's office. So I go into the office, and the guy spoke pretty good English. I explained to him my situation, including the fact that I was assured by Aeroflot that I could make this flight, "no problem." At first he keeps repeating the party line of "flight is closed," but he finally took pity on me when I explained my visa was about to expire in 2 hours. So he picks up the phone and calls someone into his office. And who should show up, but the tall Bond girl redhead who, by now, hates my guts with every fiber of her existence. Their conversation was in Russian, but basically it boiled down to him telling her to get me on the flight and her telling him no way in hell, and just when I think she's about to beat the living ####### out of the guy, she screams something at him, and turns around and storms out of the office. The guy, whose face had been drained of all color, looks at me with eyes that you usually only see in soldiers who have just seen their entire platoon slaughtered, and says "follow her." And I was like, "um...YOU follow her."

Anyway, I did follow her (the door closed hastily behind me), and she got me checked into the flight, cursing at me in a combination of Russian and English the whole time about how I was disrupting the entire system because I am so selfish American, and when she put the boarding pass into my hand, she held onto it for a moment, looked me straight in the eyes, and said very slowly, "Do not come back to Russia." I hastily agreed that this was a very good idea, and beat feet to the gate before she changed her mind. The plane, by the way, was 2 hours late. I'm not sure how I disrupted the entire system to the point that I made the arriving plane 2 hours late, but I'm sure there's a logical explanation.