I’m trying to buy tickets to Milano Expo 2015. I visit the website, but it’s really unclear where the tickets are sent after a purchase. I call the phone number for customer service. Not exactly easy to find, but whatever. I navigate the menu, choose English as my language, and push 9 to speak with an English-speaking operator. An Italian woman answers. She doesn’t speak English. She asks me to call back and ask for an English-speaking operator. I try to explain that I already did that, but it’s clear that my explanation has no meaning. I call back, navigate the menu, and push 9 again to speak with an English-speaking operator. An Italian man answers. He doesn’t speak English. He asks me to call back. I told him I just did that. After a few more minutes of frustrated conversation, I hang up and call back. Third time, same thing. Forth time, I reach an operator who claims to speak English but repeats several times that he doesn’t understand what I’m saying. Maybe it’s because I’m frustrated. Whatever. I tell him their phone system is totally screwed up – in simpler language. He acknowledges the problem and says they’re trying to fix it.
So right now, the only people who can get help from the Milan Expo customer service are those who speak Italian. Not what one would expect from an international expo, but seemingly par for the course in Italy. Things are promised, broken, promised to be fixed, and, well, who knows if or when that will ever happen. Love Italians but I worry about the future of this country.