getting into the spirit, part 2

Monday, December 24, 2007

Reading ST Forum is one of my favourite activities. The letters that people write in really say a lot about being Singaporean.

Like this one:

Shocked over gift-wrap encounter at toy shop

MY WIFE and I bought a 14-inch Beancurd Asst Colour (a huggable soft toy equivalent) for $19.95 from Action City Store in Marina Square on Dec 14.

After I paid for the item and walked out of the store, we saw a signage that promoted free gift wrapping for items that cost $20 and above. My wife signalled to me to see if they could gift wrap this item on our behalf. What I encountered next left me speechless.

I walked up to the woman and asked if she could wrap the item that I had just bought from the store. Her first comment was: 'Your item so big'.

She called out to her colleague in the store. A man came out, looked at my item and told me that my item cost $19.95, five cents short to qualify for free gift wrap.

I pointed to him that the difference was small and hoped that he could make this generous exception to have my item gift wrapped. He repeated his point about the shortfall.

I offered to give him the five cents shortfall so that my item would 'qualify' for the free gift wrap. He (obviously and understandably) declined and again referred to the notice posted.

I then appealed to his goodwill to overlook this five-cent difference to establish good public relations with his customers and making them happy. The 'stinger' came when he rebuffed me and reiterated that it was 'company policy' and walked off leaving me standing there.

This was about 7.30pm when the crowds were heavy and there was much human traffic. About three people who saw what transpired were also shocked by the behaviour of the staff.

A nice elderly Caucasian woman came up to me to ask if I was all right. She comforted me by suggesting that these workers were probably 'temps' and that they were young. She said that in the UK, people were more flexible and gracious with their customers as they based their service on building relationships and loyalty and not just dollars and cents.

As I reflect, I realised that this male worker was not skilled to deal with situations 'out of the box'. He just kept repeating the same thing over and over again without engaging me in the appeal that I made.

As Singapore progresses towards promoting tourism and graciousness, I wonder if more can be done to assist our sales personnel to raise their level of professionalism.

Ng Bock Hon

Okay. While I agree that in general service staff here are not very flexible, I think to a large extent it's not their fault, because many of them are just employees and don't have any authority to extend favours or discounts. But the disgraceful behaviour that really stands out about this letter - to me at least - is that of the writer's! I mean, he clearly didn't qualify for the $20 minimum for FREE gift-wrapping and he still has the nerve to ask for it and bitch about not getting it?? Seriously! This is the worst kind of Singaporean - who assumes that he has "rights" as a consumer and insists on exercising them. Disgusting.

As if that wasn't enough, another disgusting consumer left the following comment on his letter:

bluefairy

i am not surprised by the lack of flexibility in most of the people here. i went to a well known ice cream shop in clementi and bought a tub of hand made ice cream. the boss herself scooped the ice cream onto the weighing machine and it was slightly over 700 g that i was buying, about 20g more, and know what she scooped some of back and make sure she give me the exact amount. the staff just follow her example.

As another astute commenter noted, this customer would definitely have kicked up a big fuss if she had gotten 20g LESS ice cream. What right does she have to make a snide comment about not getting MORE ice cream than she paid for?? I cannot believe these people. It was bad enough when people complained about getting a bad deal, or having to pay more than something was worth - now they're complaining about NOT getting things they DIDN'T EVEN PAY FOR??

I hope they all have the miserable Christmases that befit such misers.

P.S. This post is called getting into the spirit because, in the spirit of the season, I have been kind enough not to get into the deplorable language standards displayed in the above letters.

 posted by zyn :: 11:49 AM :: 3 Comments :: permalink


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