Recently, i seemed to be attacked by a strain of virus that is becoming more and more common in the Retail industry.. The name of the Virus? "Incompetency".
Yesterday, after my failed attempt to buy my paper lanterns in Chinatown, i decided to try my luck at Giant supermarket. I was lucky to find a pack of 12 lanterns going for $5. So i took that and went to the customer service counter to pick up the wooden sticks for my lanterns. At the counter, there were 2 Malay girls attending to customers. I asked one of them for my sticks, and she handed me only one.. So i told her i had 12 lanterns, so i need 12. She looked at me as if i was being unreasonable, and then turned to her colleague standing next to her and talked to her in their mother tongue.. i did not understand what she was saying, but could figure out that she was trying to ask if i could have 12 sticks for my lanterns. I couldn't believe it! It wasn't so much what she said, but HOW she said it, with an irritated kinda attitude. That totally pissed me off. So i looked at her, and said: "Look, i have 12 lanterns here, how can you give me only ONE stick?!" She then very relunctantly took a bunch of wooden sticks, counted 12 and passed them to me. Al was there with me, so we just exchanged looks and i rolled my eyes..
This morning, i brought K's handphone to the HTC service center below my office. His touch screen had failed to work, which literally meant his entire phone doesn't work. I had a Filipina attend to me after a 5 minute wait. To cut the long story short, this lady don't know her stuff.. I don't even understand how she qualifies to be sitting at a service center. First of all, she doesn't know if the data in the phone can be backed up. And she didn't bother to ask.. When i called K to inform him of this, the girl just sat there staring at the phone instead of asking her colleagues or calling someone to enquire so she can answer my question. I had to put K on hold, then asked her to please process my request before she took some action. A while later, another one of her colleagues arrived, and i ended up talking to this colleague 90% of the time instead. The Filipina just sat there totally lost. I then decided to test her. After she handed me the service request form, i paused and waited for her to say something. When she didn't, i asked her: "Don't you need the warranty card?" Then she went: "Oh yah!" and started filling in the warranty details. After that, she handed me my warranty and then there was a pause. So i asked her: "Is that all, can i go now?" She said: "Yes." By then, i was losing my patience. I replied: "So what's gonna happen, is the service center gonna call me, am i supposed to call them, how long will this take?" all in one breath. But it was her neighbour who responded, not her.
I am just pissed off at the way many companies like HTC are saving their money by hiring cheap labour like the Filipinas to do customer service, and at the same time stinging on their money too on training these people! I mean, it's one thing to hire very polite and patient Filipinas who can keep smiling and remain calm at a yelling customer. But it's another to put an unqualified person there at a service center attending to customers when all they can do is smile and be polite!! It's okay if they're doing customer service on the phones cause it's easier to put people on hold, but when it's a face to face encounter, it's very frustrating!
SIGH.. what's happening to our Service and Retail industry?? It's being swarmped by all the foreign cheap labour, but cheap does not necessary mean good! Is this the start of an era where consumers have to settle for incompetent and lousy service if we want low prices?!
Yesterday, after my failed attempt to buy my paper lanterns in Chinatown, i decided to try my luck at Giant supermarket. I was lucky to find a pack of 12 lanterns going for $5. So i took that and went to the customer service counter to pick up the wooden sticks for my lanterns. At the counter, there were 2 Malay girls attending to customers. I asked one of them for my sticks, and she handed me only one.. So i told her i had 12 lanterns, so i need 12. She looked at me as if i was being unreasonable, and then turned to her colleague standing next to her and talked to her in their mother tongue.. i did not understand what she was saying, but could figure out that she was trying to ask if i could have 12 sticks for my lanterns. I couldn't believe it! It wasn't so much what she said, but HOW she said it, with an irritated kinda attitude. That totally pissed me off. So i looked at her, and said: "Look, i have 12 lanterns here, how can you give me only ONE stick?!" She then very relunctantly took a bunch of wooden sticks, counted 12 and passed them to me. Al was there with me, so we just exchanged looks and i rolled my eyes..
This morning, i brought K's handphone to the HTC service center below my office. His touch screen had failed to work, which literally meant his entire phone doesn't work. I had a Filipina attend to me after a 5 minute wait. To cut the long story short, this lady don't know her stuff.. I don't even understand how she qualifies to be sitting at a service center. First of all, she doesn't know if the data in the phone can be backed up. And she didn't bother to ask.. When i called K to inform him of this, the girl just sat there staring at the phone instead of asking her colleagues or calling someone to enquire so she can answer my question. I had to put K on hold, then asked her to please process my request before she took some action. A while later, another one of her colleagues arrived, and i ended up talking to this colleague 90% of the time instead. The Filipina just sat there totally lost. I then decided to test her. After she handed me the service request form, i paused and waited for her to say something. When she didn't, i asked her: "Don't you need the warranty card?" Then she went: "Oh yah!" and started filling in the warranty details. After that, she handed me my warranty and then there was a pause. So i asked her: "Is that all, can i go now?" She said: "Yes." By then, i was losing my patience. I replied: "So what's gonna happen, is the service center gonna call me, am i supposed to call them, how long will this take?" all in one breath. But it was her neighbour who responded, not her.
I am just pissed off at the way many companies like HTC are saving their money by hiring cheap labour like the Filipinas to do customer service, and at the same time stinging on their money too on training these people! I mean, it's one thing to hire very polite and patient Filipinas who can keep smiling and remain calm at a yelling customer. But it's another to put an unqualified person there at a service center attending to customers when all they can do is smile and be polite!! It's okay if they're doing customer service on the phones cause it's easier to put people on hold, but when it's a face to face encounter, it's very frustrating!
SIGH.. what's happening to our Service and Retail industry?? It's being swarmped by all the foreign cheap labour, but cheap does not necessary mean good! Is this the start of an era where consumers have to settle for incompetent and lousy service if we want low prices?!
Posts
September 16, 2008 at 5:19 AM
i keep hearing that this year. that all the retail places have been taken over by foreigners.