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An American in Spain has sparked a furious online debate by calling out Europeans for their subpar customer service.
Adam Pecoraro, an expat from New York, took to TikTok to share the cardinal cultural lesson living in Europe has taught him: “Nobody in any of these countries gives a flying f–k about anybody else’s time,” he raged, captioning the video with the caveat “I really love it here, but urgency is a very North American concept.”
The fitness coach then detailed how a leisurely meal on the Iberian Peninsula amounts to, at minimum, “a four-hour ordeal.”
He underscored that this relaxed pacing isn’t about a culture of enjoyment or the establishment wanting you to relax and live “la dolce vita” but rather “because the service is genuinely bad, objectively horrific.”
Pecoraro then outlined how his average restaurant experiences have played out across the pond.
“When you walk into a restaurant, you’re lucky even to get seated,” he said, adding that after they take you to a table, it takes 10-30 minutes to get a menu from the wait staff.
“When you finally order, you’ll never see the server again,” he said, noting that after the food is delivered, waitstaff will “disappear; they’ll scurry away and they’ll go somewhere – you don’t know where. Their job is to serve, but you’ll never see them again,” he griped.
His diatribe continued, noting that it’s nearly impossible to get another round of drinks, and when it comes time to pay, servers are all but absent.
“Of course, they don’t want to rack up a bill,” he reasoned, “They don’t really care because they’re not getting tipped. That’s why the service is so bad.”
Pecoraro suggests that the absence of gratuity explains the lack of effort but does not justify the lack of efficiency.
“If they don’t want to be there and they don’t want to do their jobs, at least come back to see how things were and then cash me out because it’s better for both of us,” he said.
“I can leave, and you get rid of me quicker.”
The comments section was absolutely ablaze with hot takes.
“We are relaxed in Europe because we DO value our time,” said one European commenter.
“It’s a cultural difference; we want to be left alone, we don’t want to be rushed out or bothered,” added a British poster.
“I really don’t know how to tell you this but…. A server’s job isn’t to be your personal, underpaid butler and entertainer. If you need anything else, you raise your hand, and someone will come to help. If you don’t ask for another round of drinks…. Then no one will give it to you. I know, crazy, maybe you wanna sit down for this one,” illustrated another.
One commenter reduced the clip to a two-word review: “Rage bait.”
“I lived in Spain for 10 years. and none of what he says is accurate in the least,” said another.
“Good service in the USA = rude, fake, and disrespectful in Europe,” explained another.
A fellow commenter echoed these sentiments, saying, “What you call ‘good service’ is incredibly annoying, intrusive, and designed to kick you out of the place ASAP.”
“Americans will work 80 hr weeks doing 3 jobs, have 10 days of pto a year, zero parental leave, zero sick leave, and tell us we don’t care about people’s time. Hilarious,” added another.
“Americans think eating is a race,” distilled another.
An Italian illustrated the differences between Europe and America in the following monologue:
“Most servers in the United States exist in a state of semi-feudal slavery, where they have to scrape and fawn to get tips to support a minimum standard of living. In Europe, at least, we have a minimum wage, and servers and kitchen staff value their lives, lifestyles, and personal time more than their customers’ expectations. This is as it should be.”
