Look at the poor lion, it has its arms outstretched but no one wants to embrace the notion of being courteous and polite to their counterparts. Another failed campaign

Now, this happened last night. My brother had gone back to the counter which sells skincare because he is perturbed with his pimple problem. I bet he is trying to impress some girl lah, please. So preciously, when he was introduced to the product, the salesgirl told him that his skin problem could be treated with some gel cream thingy specially targeted at pimples. So last night, he wanted to find out more about the product and make the purchase as well. And I was with him last night. But this time, it was a different sales girl. 

So my brother went: 
Bro: "Umm, can I see that cream please."

The salesgirl started on the needless small talk (I tried so hard to smile politely, since you know, I cannot stand small talk) and all and took the cream. She then enquired more about what kind of face-wash he uses and blah blah blah. And she finally said:

salesgirl: "Use this one no use one! Must use this facewash and this cream then it is effective. just the gel alone is useless."

But then, the total sum of these skincare products amounted to like $57. Yes, I know that my bro has got his wages from his holiday job and all. But seriously, Nivea facewash (or even Gatsby or even St. Ives) and Oxy10 is much more economical right? And I am convinced that these cheaper products would work just fine. 

My bro, being the thrifty person that he is, hesitated and tried to wriggle his way out of the evil clutches of that darn persistent salesgirl. And made like lame excuses like he doesn't have enough money. From what I see, I think she is getting desperate on having people to buy the products, since they make commission right? She was like, "Oh, you can use your debit card...", "your sister can help you pay first..." (I am almost always broke, please)  and all. And by that time, I was fed up and she full knowing it, targeted her tactics at my bro instead. 

Now, a few minutes later, she was getting frustrated because my helpless brother is quite determined to consider the cost-effective alternatives. Look, our intention had been to go there and make enquiries. And (and only if) if the products suited us, we will make the purchase. And then she asked us:

salesgirl: "what are you all here for?"
and I answered:
me: "to check out the products."

Okay, this is where it all got dramatic, brace yourselves man.

She had the audacity to raise her voice at us and asked in a rather tyrannical manner, "Are you all here to play a prank on me?". I bet it was loud enough to cause the other shoppers in the vicinity to stare curiously in our direction.

Excuse me! If i had been a customer where I demanded her to take out a dozen products and not buy anything, she has the right to be frustrated. But I think that her sudden outburst was rather uncalled for, that bloody bitch. I take pride that I am a Literature/History/Econs (hahaha) student and argument is my forte. However, her reaction had left me rather taken aback and I was pretty stunned at that point in time to make any retort. 

And then, she dropped her voice a coupe of octaves lower and asked rather menacingly again, "Are you all here to play a prank on me?" My bro was rather unnerved now and he took the facewash and asked, "Any discount or not?" 

By this stupid statement, my battle was lost lah. I was formulating some kind of argument shooting at her lousy customer service and now my brother has spoilt it all. 

Eh please woman, I know I am very free (after A levels and all) but you think people actually go enquire about something for the fun of it? Seriously! 

My brother had been rather embarrassed by then and decided to buy one of the two products that had been pushed to him while I eyeballed the salesgirl the rest of the time. Yes, he went against his elder sister's better judgment and bought it. Damn it. And then, it was as if the skies full of rumbling grey clouds and flashing thunder opened and we saw that bitch of a salesgirl smiling and making small talk to my bro again. Obviously because she got what she wanted. When we finally left the store, she cried out in an nauseatingly gleeful voice, "Bye ah boy! Happy new year ah!" and "Bye ah jiejie! Happy new year ah!" 

eeeee, she called me jie jie. Has she any shame? She's got to be like twice my age. 


I am contemplating if I should write a complain letter, good grief. I am not pissed because my brother bought the product, I am pissed because she threatened us, probably because we were kids. Stupid bitch. 

Okay okay, the whole conversation took place in chinese, and that idiot of a salesgirl had a chinese accent. But I am not trying to generalise that all chinese salesgirls are like that. I have met some with impeccable customer service, but seriously, I think this one has gone to far. This incident, had left me creating hypothetical situations where I give clever retorts to unreasonable salespeople so that I would be better prepared when I meet these tyrants. 

You say Singapore is a financial hub and whatever-else hub. Yes, I do admit it is a prosperous country, undeniably fine in all aspects (no pun intended). But customer service like that renders us the title of an "EPIC PHAIL" luh.

I SWEAR I WOULD BETRAY MY INTEGRITY IF I EVER FOUND YOUR PHONE AGAIN




I was at Jurong Point and I was leaving the place to meet Rebecca when near the rubbish bin, I spied (with my little eye) a phone pouch. Upon picking it up and opening it, I found like this white Nokia E72, a phone which I really wanted. So I was at a dilemma on whether to return it or to keep it. So I thought, "Even if I were to return it, to whom do I return it to?" 

At that point in time, I was running late I really didn't want to go through all the trouble to make a police report (eh like what onlyyyy, I am such an honest and decent person) or even to take it to the information counter (who would go and look for a phone at the information counter right?). It was as if god had seen the war between the angel and the devil inside my head and the owner of the phone called the E72. 

Owner: "oh, okay you found our phone!"
Me: (lamely) "Errr, yeah."
Owner: "Okay, where are you now? Can you wait for us? We'll go find you." 

Okay, he sounded reasonably flustered and up to this point, still polite, so being the nice goondu that I am, I told him where he could find me and all. 

And when I finally met the owner, he went,

owner: "oh where did you find our phone? how did you find it?"

I answered his questions, while holding the phone on my hand.

And the next thing I knew, he took the phone from my hand and walked away. HE WALKED AWAY! Without a single thank you! What the hell, I should have kept the phone, you asshole! 

 2 words only, is it so difficult? I was grieving for the lost of what could have been mine. Had I known that he would be audaciously rude, I would not have returned him the phone. 

JUSTICE STILL TRIUMPHS

Now before I condemn the rest of the world to one that is filled with vile rudeness that permeates through the human soul, so allegedly pure and nice (nice because I lack a better word) good still exists in the world. Just like how justice exists in Gotham, in the form of Batman, a land full of civil chaos and moral repugnance. I do have questions about Batman's warped sense of justice, but that was the best analogy I could come up with, so too bad.

Now, I failed to catch the last train going to Jurong East after a Christmas Party, so the next best option was to take the train which terminates at Kranji and cab home right? That was what I did, by the way. 

So the uncle drove to a point where there were 2 routes to take and he asked for my opinion;

uncle:" miss, go by Stagmont ring or KJE?"

Well, I am like some traffic noob, FYI. Until last week, I didn't know KJE actually stood for Kranji Expressway. I have always thought it stood for something like Keppel-something Expressway. Don't ask me why, I just thought so. 

My house was somewhere near a KJE exit, so I prompted him to go by KJE, which was the route where the uncle wasn't very sure of. So when he saw a KJE exit, he turned into it, only to find himself driving on the expressway which passes by Zhenghua Secondary School. 

I went (excitedly, but in a bad way): "Hey uncle! wrong way! Why are we passing Zhenghua?" 

The uncle explained really apologetically that he wasn't sure of the route and offered not to charge me the midnight surcharge. 

On the way home, my brother was calling me on the phone (spamming me with calls more like it) asking me why I wasn't home yet. And the uncle apologised again, this time, for taking such a long time to drive to Choa Chu Kang and causing my family members to worry about me. Eh please! What a sweet old man! I felt bad as well, cos it wasn't his fault but he just kept saying sorry for all sorts of reasons. Before I alighted, he told me "Customers are always right." 

Now where other moustachioed squinty-eyed cab-drivers would have cursed their way throughout the journey, and calculated the fare to even the last cent, this uncle took all the blame for taking the route and did not charge me the surcharge. 

So you see, humanity still survives! 

It is a common sight to see grouchy individuals on the roads these days, but I think we should all take an effort to pass the smile on. 

It only takes a spark to get the fire going. So make someone's day today!

Okay, the ending is rather lame, but is this another issue where I can only rant about and do nothing about it? I don't hope of changing the world, I think I have first got to change myself.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. Martin Luther King Junior