Some country plain speaking gets the point across.
Customer service the Kiwi way ...
"New Zealand is the only country I know of which only works an 11- month economic year, because of most businesses being closed for a month over Christmas ... it's ridiculous!" writes a reader. "My brother in the US works in an office that was shut for a single day - the 25th. My offices in the UK and Germany (before moving here) were shut for 25 and 26 only. No business in those countries would want to be shut - customers are there all year round. Only New Zealand thinks the business owners come ahead of the customers. I was shopping locally on the last Saturday before Christmas and was with a friend who was making a choice in a shop. The assistant actually said, at midday ... 'I wish you would just make up your mind so I can close and go home.' Seriously, these businesses would be bankrupt anywhere else."
Student puts brakes on stalking parents
A 21-year-old theatre student, Aubrey Ireland, had to get a civil stalking restraining order against her parents after she discovered they'd installed monitoring software on her computer and phone. "My mum has always been very overly involved," Ireland said. "I would have to get on Skype all the time to show them that I was in my dorm room, or there were nights I had to leave my Skype on all night and my mum would watch me basically sleep." (Source: ABC Good Morning)
