The Better Service

The Better Service

Every weekend a year ago, my friends and I would order fried chicken to share together, and the chicken would be delivered within ten minutes. That is one of the reasons I really enjoyed the good delivery services of China in the past twenty years in my life. Everything is served fast and with high quality. That reality has forced me to change a lot now that I am living in Chicago. I think Chinese service such as food delivery, package delivery and customer service are the top in the world. Although I miss that kind of service in China so much, I still need to get used to living in Chicago.

Food delivery is faster than on may expect. When I was living in China, I used to live in the college dormitory for about two years. There was no public kitchen in the dorm, so I used to order food twice a day during the week. I had even been a food delivery guy for three months during my vacation, and I knew how it worked. There were so many rules that were set by food delivery platform which I needed to follow. The most important rule is the food had to be delivered on time, so the food would be fresh and hot when it came, otherwise, I would lose money. In addition, I could order food anywhere and anytime. In China, I ordered the food at mid night, if the restaurant was very far away from the downtown. For instance, restaurants in nearby cities, I could always get it at the designated time on the applications. However, in Chicago, it is completely different. Last month, I ordered a pizza online. It took half an hour to deliver to my house, but the restaurant was just a few blocks away. When the food arrived, it was already cold. I was so disappointed because it was too late, so it was a bad idea to order food delivery here. Perhaps I will order less takeout in the future.

In addition, I think package delivery is much safer than in Chicago. I'm also a shopaholic, I prefer to shop online rather than in stores, so I care about package delivery. During these three months after I settled in Chicago, I usually ordered some daily necessities and snacks online. However, three weeks ago, I brought headphones and the delivery guy just put the package in the front yard. In addition, they didn’t conform my identity. At the same time, I didn’t know what I would do if the package were wet or stolen. One year ago, when I was living in China, I could choose to put the package into a receiving machine if I was not at home, when the package arrived, I would receive a message including a pickup code. Using this code, I could pick up the package in my free time. At the same time, if the package was expensive, they would verify my identity before picking it up to prevent theft. I am afraid that the package will be missing someday. I guess I cannot find that kind of convenience in Chicago as in China.

 Furthermore, customer service is much better in China. I always used the customer service when I needed helping. In December, I opened my bank account. For reasons that I did not know, my online banking was locked by the bank. I decided to call the customer service for help. It took one and a half hours for someone to answer my phone call. It was the slowest I ever experienced. Almost two months later, my bank account was unlocked, but some functions didn’t work well. In my experience, this situation wouldn’t happen in China, so I am afraid to call the customer service again. It is too horrible.

Since I settled in Chicago, I have changed a lot and sacrificed a lot. Something here seems to be inconvenient. I may have no chance to get Chinese service anymore. There is no fast-food delivery, no high-quality package delivery, and no efficient customer service. In these three months, I have learned living in a foreign country is very tough. However, I must get used to it because I am going to live in here for a few years. I hopefully believe that it will be getting better in Chicago.