As many of us who live in the bay area know. Customer service is almost non-existent in many places in Chinatown. Well, welcome to THIS place, which is just a bigger version of San Francisco's Chinatown.
There have been MANY (and I mean MANY, very MANY) cases of no customer service, however, I'm just going to describe a few as describing all would just be tooooo many.
SITUATION 1
We (my family) had a friend visiting from Hawaii. She is a Singaporean but her husband is American and they live in Hawaii but they are semi-retired and visit Singapore rather frequently. This was going to be a rather short visit for her and we only managed to squeeze in a breakfast appointment. Attendees were my parents, my brother, myself, our family friend and her sister (who does live in Singapore). We decided to do breakfast at a hotel that sits at the end of Singapore's main shopping strip. I'm not going to name the hotel (I'm not sure if I should as things around here are not really "freedom of anything") but those of you who know Singapore will figure it out. It's a certain hotel that is also the name of the main shopping strip.
Anyway, we got to the hotel, got seated and proceeded to order. Everything was hotel prices and since that was the case, I decided to just go ahead and do the breakfast buffet. After the order was taken, I walked around and noticed an "Omelette Station". There was a young man behind the counter preparing omelettes and that sounded good that morning. I wanted a ham and cheese omelette but when I told him what I wanted, he pointed to some ingredients in front of him. I saw cheese but no ham. So, I presumed that he was telling me there was no ham and not being too enthusiastic about the other ingredients, I changed my order to a cheese omelette. He nodded. Then I told him that I wanted more cheese and he stared blankly at me. So, I motioned that I wanted more cheese, sought of speaking to him in untrained sign language while still repeating that I wanted more cheese. He continued to stare blankly at me. I repeated my hand actions one more time while again repeating "more cheese" and he replied to me in mandarin "Bu dong" (I don't understand".
So, here is this hotel in the middle of Singapore's tourist district, most of the people around me were white and there the person who is preparing omelettes doesn't even understand "more cheese". WTF????
At the same meal, my brother ordered a "Eggs Benedict". I can pretty much assume most of you can already picture what an order of "Eggs Benedict" would look like. He saw that the waiter did not quite understand him, so, to aid the waiter he pointed to the item on the menu. One would figure that this would be the most foolproof way of ordering... NOT!
His "Eggs Benedict" came... working from bottom up... English Muffin, Ham... that was about all that resembled an "Eggs Benedict". On top of the slice of ham was a HARD BOILED EGG and then there was no Hollandaise sauce. When he asked the waiter, the waiter replied that that was the way they prepared their "Eggs Benedict". I do not claim to be extremely well travelled, but I think I'm above average when it comes to traveling and I have NEVER seen an "Eggs Benedict" looking like that... especially no Hollandaise sauce. I believe that is the main ingredient of "Eggs Benedict" because even when Jessica has ordered "no meat" versions, they ALWAYS come with Hollandaise sauce. And again, let me remind you that this is a hotel situated in the main shopping/tourist district of Singapore.
There was NO discount given whatsoever.
SITUATION 2
Jessica and I went for dinner and drinks with her good friends and their spouses. 6 of us total. Nothing very fancy, but not the cheap meal that you can get very readily here in Singapore. When we were done ordering, her friend's spouse told the waiter: "Could you please inform us when happy hour is about over" hoping to maybe get one more round of drinks ordered before the end of happy hour (alcohol is fucking EXPENSIVE here). The waiter looked at him and said: "9 o'clock" and walked away. We know it is fucking 9 o'clock that happy hour ends. We have fucking watches. But last call for happy hour doesn't end the same time as happy hour ends... dumb ass.
SITUATION 3
This actually occurred at an interview I attended. It is with a global bank whose name I shall not mention, but to you Americans, it is a non US bank that is expanding very rapidly in the US. You have been seeing them pop up in the Bay Area.
When I got to the interview, to the floor I was supposed to go, I encountered a reception desk that was manned by 2 receptionists. I told them what I was there for and one of them got up to show me the way. We got to an "L" shaped corridor and as we turned round the corner, she stopped and motioned to me saying: "3rd door on the right". I acknowledged her instructions and walked to the 3rd door on the right and entered the room. I was about 10 minutes early. But as I sat there, I realized that I had entered a room that was dark, the lights were not on and also there was water on the table in a carafe and 4 glasses but I was not sure if I could drink it. My interview time was 3pm and right around that time, I see the same receptionist walk by my room accompanying a man. She shows him to the room next door to mine and I hear her asking the man: "Would you like something to drink?"
Man answers: " Yes, coffee please."
She replies ok and proceeds to a coffee machine which is across from our rooms. She makes him coffee and serves it to him. Before she leaves, she says: "Please call me if you need anything else." and walks away. She glances in my DARK room, at me, as she walks away.
The guy was white.
In the US, if I am treated this way, I surely would not stand for it. However, I understand that I'm a second class citizen in the US as I'm not white. However, I'm treated like a fucking second class citizen in my own fucking country. This is fucking bullshit!!!
As promised, I am trying to keep it at bite size postings. So, I will leave the rest for me 2nd therapy session.
