Thursday, September 04, 2008

Malaysia Tak Boleh


I've had it with the lousy customer service and negative working attitude in Malaysia!

People are constantly saying "Tak dapat buat apa-apa lah!" (Translation: "There's nothing we can do.").

If only I get a penny everytime someone says that to me. Seriously.

Whenever there is any complaints or disputes, it's instantly "Tak dapat buat apa-apa lah!". Well, if you actually bother to give it a minute, you might actually be able to think of something. But I guess that's just too much effort.

Without undue tooting of my own horn, let me just say that I'm the most easy going and pleasant customer. Sales assistants simply LOVE me! I never have unreasonable demands, nor do I give an attitude, and I'm very generous with payments or tips.

But in Malaysia, that just means that you're an easy target to be taken advantage of because you do not know how to stand up for yourself.

It makes me feel like nice people are actually being punished for being nice. Do we really need to be nasty in order to protect ourselves? Can't we all just get along?

It's almost pathetic how consumers have no rights at all in Malaysia and people just don't give a rat's ass about their work.

The incompetences are appalling! How does one manage to repeatedly make the same mistakes with the same type of job you're doing everyday? Why do employers employ workers who can't even understand the customers, let alone carry out decent communication?

And whenever a mistake has been made and the customer actually inquires about it, no prizes for guessing what common reply we get.

"Tak dapat buat apa-apa lah!"

And no matter how strong you make your argument and how ridiculous the mistake is, the same answer is being repeated to you like a broken record.

In the end, you can only walk away feeling extremely pissed off and helpless because, seriously, there is just nothing we can do about it.

How does a country move forward when everyone is pointing fingers and unwilling to acknowledge their mistakes, let alone finding a solution?

On what ground does a country proclaim to the world "We can!" when we're being told "Tak dapat buat apa-apa!" all day long?

I apologise for my ranting, but I'm not exactly the happiest creature today thanks to:

  • The crappy "exclusive" service from Platinum Parking service at One Utama, which was supposed to "enhance efficient and convenient parking and hassle-free shopping". It was really more efficient and more convenient and more hassle-free had we not chosen to use your "exclusive" service!
  • The parking attendants and customer service staff of One Utama who not only "tak dapat buat apa-apa", but successfully caused us to completely miss our movie. And did we get any compensation for that? Nooooooo, because we were the customers stupid enough to patiently wait for you to make calls to 100 different personnels who, by the way, all declined responsibilities), only to be told "We don't know what happened, there is nothing we can do.".
  • The incompetent customer service of Maybank Platinum Visa who had failed to get back to us as promised (why doesn't that surprise me?) and basically doesn't give two hoots about our queries. What was Maybank's motto again? "Making every moment count"? RIGHT!
  • The Jusco cashiers who not only not know the promotions they are having, but immediately dismiss the customer's complaint by putting the blame on us when we're SO obviously right! I'm sorry if you can't read a 3-digits price tag correctly, but I CAN! So don't tell me where to look, because I was looking in all the right places and you're the idiot who can't do a simple job right!
  • The Streamyx staff who need to understand that when we asked for our plan to be upgraded, we did not ask for our connection to be terminated until it's convenient enough for you to drop by and fix it. We would really appreciate it if we were told up front that we're paying more money to cause ourselves more inconveniences. And there is really not much point to guide us through 45-minutes of trouble shooting on the phone only to hang up on us when they didn't work. You're wasting your time and ours, because the problem wasn't whether or not we switched on the power (duh!), the problem was/is with your stupid system!
Okay, all these bitching actually made me even more upset than before. So I'm just gonna stop and go think some happy thoughts.

"Tak dapat buat apa-apa lah!"