Patience is Virtue

And only God knows how little I have left in me right now.

I couldn’t wait to show off my small workspace of my own in my rented house in KL. Finally I will have a proper chair to sit on while doing my work. All this while I am using a kiddie chair & kiddie table (implied meaning: I am not that fat! I can still use kid’s chair okay~yeah, I know although I broke 2 of them in the process).

My house will also finally have a proper shoe rack. I think it can fit like 50+ pairs of shoes. Why we need that much space I don’t know. Only 3 of us (all guys) live in the house if you are curious.

The shop promise to deliver everything on Sunday 6-8PM (we bought them Saturday noon). And even after waiting until 11PM+, not all items are delivered. Earlier at 6PM the delivery guy called me telling that they will be a little bit late because they are still in Balakong and they will take dinner first (for about an hour) before sending the item to us.

I am okay with they guys having their dinner first, but for one hour? And when he knows he is already running late? Heck, I don’t use one hour for lunch when working although I can. I am in no mood to argue so I just say to him, please be here by 10 PM or I am afraid we will be asleep after that. We go to bed early (although that’s not the case).

They know they can’t play ball with me so after that they call my friends. If they call me I will refuse to pick up saying I am already asleep and the next day call their boss complaining that they didn’t deliver on time and threaten to cancel the order. No, I am not a pain in the ass customer. I know and understand well that some customers are impossible to please, this is my field. But I can and will be a pain in the ass if the seller/contractor are not professional.

When they arrive, they deliver the sofa bed and my chair. But they say they just realized that the console table which we order have a missing drawer (after opening the box in front of us) and the shoe rack have a bad back (without opening it up in front of us)

Well, I work in this industry. And I am a businessman myself. I can smell bullshit 10 kilometres away.

They blame the missing drawer on the warehouse personnel for not checking first whether all items are there or not. But I don’t believe them. From the way they open the sealed box I know already that there are something going on already. And while discussing the missing drawer, they mention that the shoe rack has a bad back.

In my head, hey guys. How come you know that the shoe rack have a bad back without taking it out of the box first but missed the missing drawer for the table? After all, both of them are in their box? A BIQ question mark.

At first, I refuse to say anything to them. I said, I don’t know. They are the expert in furniture. Not me. I just know how to buy them. Call and discuss with your boss to see what she have to say. Easy.

Judging from their behavior I know they are hiding something from their boss. But they said no need to call the boss. This is a very simple matter to solve. We can solve it among ourselves. To add to the insult, they said this.

The shoe rack has a bad back. If it is **** client, they will put it up and just tape the broken part to hide it. But because we are brothers (of the same race), we don’t want to give you a broken products.

Awww! Now it seems that they are doing me a favor. Oh please. You can’t play racial card on me. I know people don’t use the racist card if they have nothing to hide. I hate racist people. They give us all a bad name. A Malay who do a sloppy work will tarnish other Malay’s name. People will generalize that we are unprofessional. When people say something like that (or something along that line), this is what I will hear.

We don’t give this bullshit excuse to the **** because we cannot bullshit the **** . They don’t tolerate shoddy job. But we brothers, we are born to be sloppy and lazy. So I know you will understand. That’s why I give you this bullshit excuse.

I don’t tolerate double standard. If you say one thing to one person, and the other to one person, that’s mean you have something wrong with you and you are not proud of what you do. If it is up to me, I will definitely decline everything and call their boss tomorrow. But then my friend said, its okay.

So we accept the sofa bed and the chair.

This morning I tried to create a scene. Aha. I call their office phone but unfortunately it went to the fax machine. I then Google and list down all their branches. I also found the hp number of one of the staff at the branch. Nobody is picking up the phone still. I google their HQ contact information and tried to call them. To no avail.

Then I found an hp number belong to someone who work in the HQ. He picked up the phone. I asked him if he has the number that I can use to call the Setapak branch. He politely said he did not have them as he is not in the office right now. He add that they are having an annual dinner tonight so it is a holiday for them. He also gave me a few alternatives on what to do.

Because that guy is professional with his answer I am not that furious anymore. He is frank and give me a few options that I can choose to take. That’s what is professional customer service in this modern age guys.

Be transparent, courteous with your reply and give your customer a few options for them to choose from. You don’t lie to them and forced them to choose the only option you want them to take. Its not right. Plus, don’t use racial card to hide your incompetence. It tarnish the reputation of the whole race. Not all people from that race are as incompetent.

As a conclusion, I was just disappointed not to get my toys yet. Ahaxz. :p

But really I need to shake off this feeling. I am usually have a higher level of tolerance toward unfavorable stuff that happened to me. I don’t want to be bitter like this, but the feeling that you get after being lied to was not great. I could not help not to feel cheated. Maybe I have become a cheater-phobic now. 😉

On a happier note; Wait for pics (my sofa bed was awesome)! Its something I wish I have as a kid. 🙂

Sabri