On 8th July 2006, we were looking forward to a good lunch at a
certain cafe in Tiong Bahru Plaza. After placing our orders, we
noticed another customer looking at a flyer promoting student
meals. Our request to change our orders was turned down by the
waitress as the food had already been prepared.
We queried the waitress on why the promotion was not pointed out to
us when we first stepped in. We were given an explanation that the
flyer was not on all tables and that we did not look like students.
In my opinion, a promotion at a restaurant should be made known to
all patrons before orders are placed, and never held back just
because someone doesnt look like a student.
Unconvinced with her answer, we approached the manager to get a
proper explanation and to feedback this incident. However, his lack
of empathy and tactfulness did nothing to defuse the situation.
Instead, he fanned the flames and aggravated the situation by
commenting that a promotion is a privilege, not something we NEED
to offer to you. Amazingly, he went further to say that he had
nothing to say to us and shrugged off the episode by asking us not
to come back to the restaurant again.
Not that we will ever patronize this cafe again, but we just felt
really short-changed by this level of service, or rather
dis-service. Our day and appetite had already been spoilt. We had
no choice but to consume the food.
As I was settling the bill, I invited the manager over, with the
aim of having an amicable discussion over the incident. Instead, he
was not in the mood for any discussion. He adopted a highly
defensive and hostile attitude. The moment I brought up the
incident, he blamed us for creating a scene and being rude. He then
stormed off saying he had nothing to say to people like you (us).
I wondered who was the party being rude - Customers who tried to
have a discussion and provide feedback, and an assistant manager
accusing them of being at fault entirely and being rude. In fact,
my whole discussion with the waitress had been very polite, and I
was not even angry at her.
This really got us incensed. My girlfriend joined in the argument,
and I was totally disgusted when he said dont shout at me you
WOMAN. All of a sudden it has become a case of sexism in addition
to the bad service. I demanded that he apologise. He refused,
warning us not to p**s me (him) off.
Totally furious by now, I demanded that he took out the service
charge from my bill for this bad service. He said you might as
well dont pay, implying that we were out to get a free meal.
Totally upset at the way he looked down on us, I demanded on paying
for the food I had, but not the service charge. We then told him
this was unacceptable behavior from a service personnel, what more,
an assistant manager. He barked at us that I dont care and told
us to just get lost and dont come back again.
This had been my worst experience at any dining outlet anywhere in
the world, and it had to happen in Singapore. I regret to admit
that even as we strive to achieve global standards in the service
industry, there are such black sheep out to destroy the effort that
the government and the whole industry had put in.
We do have the GEMs cards for us to nominate good service
providers, but I realize there is no platform for us to feedback on
negative examples. In this case, the assistant manager of the cafe
at Tiong Bahru Plaza, appeared so smug perhaps because he was
confident that there was no avenue for complaints to be lodged
against him ( there was no feedback form or email address for
customers). I am totally disheartened by this incident, and really
hope there will be a feedback channel for the service industry in
Singapore.
