Customer service is amazingly good in our little corner of Costa Rica.
There are no self-service or automated car washes near us. To get your car washed you go to a place where they do it by hand.
So, I took our SUV to the car wash and I still had my mountain bike in the back...both rows of seats folded down.
No fewer than 4 young men descended on the vehicle, I told them not to worry about moving the mountain bike. I was more interested in just getting the outside washed and the front seat area vacuumed etc.
They wouldn't hear of it.
Not only did they take the bike out of the vehicle, clean the cargo area then put the seats up so they could clean and vacuum each row, they also insisted on washing and drying the mountain bike!
Then, of course, they folded all the seats back down and loaded the bike back in when they were finished. It took something like 40 minutes.
The total?
$10 bucks.
Of course, I gave them a tip on top, but this isn't really a tipping place. Pretty sure they did the job with no expectation of a tip.
Another example?
We had a contractor paint and do some other work on our condos. He showed up early for both days and finished on schedule and budget. We tipped him an extra $20 after the job. He actually came back the next day to tell us we had paid him too much and bring us our change, apologizing for not realizing we had overpaid him originally.
A week later we texted him and asked if he could pop by the condo next time he was in the neighborhood because we needed a light bulb changed on a 13-foot ceiling and we don't have a place to store a ladder.
He showed up about an hour later. It was a Sunday afternoon. When I offered to pay him he refused saying it was just a light bulb.
I explained to him that it was Sunday, which I know is not a workday for him, and that I never expect someone to work for nothing. He did finally accept 5,000 colones (about $7.25) with my sincere thanks.
Anyway, just letting you know.
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