Belgium has Europe's worst customer service!

Belgium has a great reputation when it comes to things like beer, chocolate or waffles. But any Belgian will tell you that when it comes to customer service, their country ranks among the worst in Europe. If you googled Belgian customer service you'd have anough reading material for a week.

But now, there’s a television program that’s attempting to take on the biggest offenders, while showing Belgians they don’t have to take it anymore. The show is called “Basta,” which means “enough.” It’s part “60 Minutes,” part “The Daily Show,” and part “Punk’d.” It’s made by four self-described “young, stupid guys” who got their start as a comedy sketch group.

Jelle De Beule, one of the four members of the troupe, said that Belgium is really a “goody two-shoes country.” He added that, “During history, we’ve always been conquered by the Spanish, by the French, by the Austrians. But all we do is mumble and get a little mad about it. We don’t fight the system. We just go inside, sit in our living rooms, and get mad about it.”

So, how does Basta try to get Belgians off their couches? “We inject a little humor,” De Beule said. “We don’t try to be too political about it. It’s better to put a little sugar on the spoon to make the syrup taste better.”

Case in point: When the Basta boys wanted to expose the horrible customer service of Mobistar, a major cell phone company in Belgium, they hid in a large shipping container, and then had the container plunked down right in front of Mobistar’s executive parking lot, blocking the entrance.

Mobistar’s security guard called the number on the outside of the shipping container, which rang straight through to the Basta team inside, on camera.
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One of the next targets might be the Belgian government itself. After all, he said, the country’s been without a government for more than 250 days. Why not, he said, give voters the chance to punk the politicians who can’t seem to get their own act together?