You are right, as a German myself. I wouldn't. I guess if you are used to American customer service and manners in general, German directness may seem very rude

You are right, as a German myself. I wouldn't. I guess if you are used to American customer service and manners in general, German directness may seem very rude and I wont deny, 'good' service can be hard to find in Germany. But when Germans complain about that, most don't really mean Service with a smile, but rather competent, to the point service without to much sales pitch or grumbling. I would think fake smiles would be looked at very suspicious over here. I guess in the end its a matter of taste, if you prefer your bad service personnel to be hiding between shelving to avoid customers or serving you a fake smile while staring through you and wishing they were dead.