"It's like that one!"

I think this line is very common in Singapore, especially in customer service. And the conclusion is that there is a very bad customer service culture in Singapore. Aiyo, how can you tell the customer that "it's like that one!" when the customer finds his purchase less than satisfactory. You will fume even more! The root of the problem is NOT solved at all.

I experienced this at I-Digital photo printing shop at Loyang Point recently. Though granted I was abit dumb but it was my first time developing digital photos and the shop HAD the responsibility to explain to me that 4R photos will not develop the whole image!! But the staff did not do so. And so happily I took the developed photos back only to be more and more horrified by the next photo. Wah lau, crop my head abit till my forehead, crop my legs cannot see my shoes, etc. Who see these kind of photos will be happy? Who see these kind of photos will use them?

So I trodded back to the shop to check but the service was damn lousy. The aunty has horrible customer service. After half an hour exchange with her, I vowed NEVER to develop any photos there again!!

Me: Hi, I like to check why the people in the photos have some part of their heads & legs/ shoes cropped off.
Horrible Aunty (HA): It's like that one. (in Mandarin)
Me: What do you mean it's like that? No one told me it will be cropped off before I sent it for developing.
HA: Customer should know, we don't have time to tell every customer this.
Me: This is my first time developing. I went to other shops, they all explained to me properly.
HA: The customer should know. See, all these customers also have photos cropped.
Me: But you should have told me whether you know or do not know I am developing for the 1st time.
HA: We don't know. You should know. Now you don't know, become my fault.
Me: I don;t know, so how can you say it's my fault. I spent $50 on this, all my photos so ugly cannot use. How can?
HA: There's nothing I can do.
Me: What do you mean nothing you can do? You think customers see the photos like that, they are happy? I photoshopped these and add in words, you cut off halfway. I cut off your head halfway in photos, you see you happy anot lah?
HA: Aiyah, it's very difficult to explain to you how our processing works.
Me: (fuming, fuming, fuming) These photos are very ugly, the effects are different from what I expected. You should have told me it wil be cropped. If cropped till so ugly, what for I waste $ developing?
HA: The customer should know.
Me: So what are you going to do about it? You have to redevelop for me if not I will never come back here again.
HA: I cannot do that.
Me: Then what can you do? Why don't you ask your boss?
HA: There's nothing I can do. It's like that one.
Me: Why don't you give me your boss phone number I check with him?
HA: (silence).

In the end, she asked me to pick out those photos with people and she will try to redevelop for me properly. Which I picked out only 10 pieces because I felt super disgusted with her attitude. If her attitude had been better, I may have just blamed it on my bad luck but she was really the limit. Anyway, the next day I had really bad stomach spasms and my chinese doctor said I shouldn't get so angry. HAha.

On the other hand, while I was in Japan, I had the best experience ever in terms of customer service. I was in this Japanese eatery waiting for my food to be served but the staff suddenly asked us to move to another table so he could arrange a bigger table for this couple who had lots of dishes on the table. While in Singapore, this is very common and no one would take much notice of it, the couple (2 ladies) were surprised at the staff's gesture and kept bowing and thanking him. Not only that, they kept bowing and thanking us, like they were super grateful. The feeling was great though, to know that people actually appreciate small gestures like this.

The best surprise was at the end, as the restaurant owner actually gave us free dessert and thanked us for our act of kindness. It was a really nice feeling to be appreciated and to know that such kindness exist. In addition, the restaurant owner/ chef has the initiative to do such things to make his customers feel welcome. It was only a small thing for us to move to another table but they made sure we were soothed and happy. Wow! If only everyone in Singapore is like this, knowing when to take initiative, demonstrate understanding of the customers and even practise some autonomy. Perhaps then, the customers will not be so demanding!!