British Customer Service - does it exist?

There seems to be a glut of TV programmes focusing on customer service and attentiveness in this country ('Michel Roux's Service' and 'Mary Portas - Secret Shopper' spring immediately to mind).  Maybe with good reason; surly service is almost part of our national character.  But is it really that bad?  

I personally prefer 'aloof' service to the fawning American-style "have a nice day!" Maybe it's another British thing, but I hate being fawned over; it embarrasses me.  The most notable 'fawning' occasion I remember is when my husband and I had just got engaged and we treated ourselves to a weekend break in Monte Carlo (which was just lovely).  We went window-shopping along the exclusive 'designer' district and I was tempted to try on a £3,000 Yves Saint Laurent evening dress, as you do...a snip at the price and there are so many places I'd wear it in Southend, after all.  So we wandered in; me somewhat awkwardly, and the shop assistant couldn't have been more helpful, taking the dress into the changing room and finding some lovely high-heeled shoes for me to try on with it.  All very glamorous.

Except...the dress looked awful!  It was made of clingy black satin that squashed my chest (which really doesn't need much squashing to resemble an ironing board) and though I've got a relatively flat stomach despite all the chocolate and cheese scoffing, somehow it made me look as though I might possibly be pregnant.  Ordinarily I'd have taken it off and thrown it aside in disgust.  But my husband and the assistant had congregated outside the changing room so I had no alternative but to show them how it looked.  I threw back the curtain; my husband took one look and stifled a laugh.  But the assistant acted as though J-Lo herself had just emerged from the changing room, insisting on taking a photo "because you look so beautiful!"  I didn't get the dress (really?) but it made me understand why some celebrities go out looking as though they've got dressed in the dark.  If you're surrounded by that kind of sycophancy twenty-four-seven, you probably become immune to its insincerity after a while.

And it's sincerity that I like from my service-providers, even if that doesn't necessarily mean it's polite as well.  I'm not saying that service with a genuine smile doesn't go amiss because it does, and when it happens here, which is more often than some commentators would have anyone believe, it's a nice day-brightener.  But in the main I don't really care; be surly and vague when you serve me if you like, if that's how you're feeling.  Rather that than a fake smile any day.