SINGAPORE - Her litany of complaints over the years is long
and extensive.
Whether it's bus companies, supermarkets, department stores or
her neighbours, she has complained about them all.
So much so that two years ago NTUC FairPrice took the unusual
step of banning her and her elder sister from all its outlets to
protect its staff and other customers. This emerged during a 17-day
trial in which Miss Khek Ching Ching, 43, sued bus company SBS
Transit.
Yesterday, The New Paper reported that in May, District Judge
Leslie Chew found the bus driver to be negligent and liable for her
injuries suffered as a result of the incident on April 28,
2004.
Miss Khek claimed that she was thrown off her seat and hit the
knees of her sister, who was seated opposite her,when the bus
driver braked suddenly.
The court was told that Miss Khek and her sister, See See, 47,
both unemployed, were known to be difficult customers.
Evidence of their history of complaints against various
companies was put forward by SBS Transit's lawyer, Mr Anthony Wee,
to support his client's argument that Miss Khek had"simply
invented" the accident.
The defence described her as someone who "has a history of
lodging complaints against third parties for economic and/or other
gains".
Several witnesses testified about how in their dealings with
Miss Khek, "she had behaved, from their perspective, unreasonably,
complaining about various incidents".
Judge Chew noted that the "strongest suggestion of the
'unreasonableness' of (Miss Khek) and to a lesser extent her
sister" was the fact that NTUC FairPrice had classified Miss Khek
as "persona non grata" (an unwelcome person).
Yet, in a two-hour interview with The New Paper, the sisters
emphasised repeatedly that they were friendly and had no problems
with people.
Still, there was no denying that their relationship with the
supermarket chain was strained.
The court heard that from April 2007 to October 2008, the
sisters lodged 19 complaints with NTUC Fair- Price about various
issues.
These included gripes about customer service, poor quality of
products and even about injuries caused to them by the staff or
third parties at the outlets.
A NTUC FairPrice staff member testified that each complaint of
theirs was taken seriously.
The sisters would be refunded money or allowed to exchange
products they had bought even though it meant that NTUC FairPrice
had to deviate from its standard exchange and refund policy.
Under the policy, the goods had to be defective and the goods
and receipt produced no later than 15 days from the date of
purchase.
On some occasions when a refund or exchange could not be given,
the sisters would be given gift vouchers instead.
The company said it also took action, including counselling,
against the staff members whom the sisters had accused of poor
service.
Last Straw
But one incident the Kheks griped about was "the last straw"
forNTUCFairPrice.
The company found the complaint "frivolous and vexatious" and
said it "amounted to an abuse of (the) goodwillshown tothem" in
their earlier complaints.
The court heard that on Aug 8, 2008, the sisters were at the
Tiong Bahru Plaza store to return a bag of potatoes they claimed
wasof very poor quality. At the store, they got into a dispute with
two other customers.
Miss Khek See See alleged that one of the customers had"knocked
into" her younger sister'sabdomen,causing her "to feel discomfort".
She showed a staffmember a photo of the latter's surgicalwoundon
the abdomen. But she "became agitated when asked to give more
details" of the alleged injury. The customers also denied knocking
into either sister.
When she claimed that her younger sister was about to faint, a
staff immediately got her a chair from the office.
And upon her insistence, an ambulance was called to take Miss
Khek to hospital. The police were also alerted.
The sisters later lodged a complaint about the incident. After
investigating, NTUC FairPrice decided to ban the sisters from all
its stores.
The court heard that on Oct 9, 2008, a notice was sent to the
sisters informing them of the ban. NTUC FairPrice also warned them
that legal action would be taken against them "if they set foot in
any of our supermarkets island wide".
The supermarket chain had found that the sisters "were being
unreasonable to the extent of harassing our staff and became a
nuisance to other patrons", the court heard.
"They also caused our staff to suffer from mental anxieties and
distress in dealing with them." The sisters appealed to a member of
parliament to help overturn the ban but NTUC FairPrice stood firm.
The ban remains to this day.
Two years before that, the sisters had complained about Yue Hwa
emporiumin Chinatown. They had been walking along an aisle in the
emporium in October 2006 when Miss Khek said she tripped on a
raised metal strip on the floor.
She had just come from an acupuncture session and was shopping
with her sister then.
The sisters claimed that this aggravated an existing swelling in
one of her legs and demanded compensation of close to $10,000. The
emporium eventually paid them about $6,000. Pointing to these
incidents, Mr Wee told the court that Miss Khek "ought to be
considered as someone who was unreasonable, making unreasonable
complaints frequently, often exaggerating claims and
complaints".
The Khek sisters should not be allowed to "run rings around
unsuspecting retailers and service providers and be allowed to
benefit and unjustly enrich themselves by filing frivolous
complaints", the court was told.
The court heard that Miss Khek had also been injured on buses on
two occasions in 2002.
The first was on June 6 that year when her right ankle was
bruised after her foot was caught by the closing doors of a bus she
was travelling on.
Then, about a month later, she sprained her right knee after
knocking it because a bus she was travelling on had suddenly
braked.
In 2004, she said she was again injured when the driver suddenly
braked. This time, she sued SBS Transit - albeit three years
later.
Judge Chew found in her favour and awarded her about $82,000 in
compensation. Even then, she is unhappy with the amount and is
appealing.
We don't create trouble, say sisters
WE ARE amiable and enjoy good rapport with others, said the Khek
sisters.
And they do not agree that they are habitual complainants.
Miss Khek Ching Ching, 43, said: "My sister and I are very
friendly people. We have no problems elsewhere...and we have very
good rapport with people, you know.
"Those in our neighbourhood know us, we don't create trouble for
them."
But when The New Paper visited the Khek sisters at their
one-room rental flat at Chin Swee Road on Tuesday, two police
officers were at their door.
When we asked the sisters later why the police were there, they
declined to say. But The New Paper understands that they were
unhappy that the smell of soap from their neighbour's flat had
drifted into their flat.
The sisters confirmed they received a letter from NTUC FairPrice
in October 2008 informing them they had been banned from its
outlets.
Miss Khek's sister, See See, 47, said: "They said that we can't
go there any more." When The New Paper asked to see the letter, See
See pointed to a huge stack of documents on the table and said it
was somewhere in the stack and that she needed time to find it.
The sisters claimed that before they were banned, they would
visit the NTUC FairPrice branch at Tiong Bahru Plaza for groceries
three to four times a week. Each time, they would spend $70 to $80.
The older Miss Khek said they would sometimes buy food in bulk when
there was a discount.
Unhappy
As they could not carry everything home at one go, they would
ask to leave some items at the counter and collect them another
day.
When told by supermarket staff that they should not do so, the
sisters became unhappy. "Now we go to wet markets to shop for
groceries. There is no point going there (NTUC FairPrice)," she
added.
Miss Khek Ching Ching had told the court that she suffered a
sprained ankle and tenderness in her chest as a result of the bus
incident in 2004.
She said she later developed a more serious medical condition
known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) - a chronic
condition in which patients experience continuous and intense pain,
usually in the limbs. Since then, she has not left home without her
sister.
She still has difficulty walking and would lock arms with her
sister as they walk side by side.
But surveillance footage tendered by the defence showed her and
her sister shopping in Chinatown Point and that "she was not so
severely hampered in her physical mobility".
So do they think that they complain a lot?
Miss Khek See See said: "No, it's not true that we complain too
much. We don't agree that we are being difficult, it's not
true."
She claimed that she had also been injured in the bus
incident.
"If we were like what they said, claiming for economic reasons,
I would have claimed from SBS Transit. But I didn't," she said.
The sisters used to run a paper doll-making business which was
wound up in 2007 after it lost money.
They are jobless but declined to say who is supporting them.
When asked, they said they did not have other siblings and their
parents were "not around". "We have only each other," the elder
sister said.
