Bila Ana Jahat

Caution: Ana was in one of her bitchy, post-PMS moods when she experienced all these so she had to wait until she is finally rational after a looong bath and a cup of good Vittoria coffee. This might come quite delayed but all the more still relevant to anybody out there who has experienced any kind of frustration of the same sort.


I have a certain set of pre-conceptions of how customer service should be provided to clients primarily because clients pay money for the service while the person who serves would ideally represent their organisation/corporation. Though, I often ask myself if I'm setting the standards too high for these people who rightfully do not owe me anything at all. Okay, to give you a clearer idea, I'll just relate a situation where I was pretty pissed off with the service and simply couldn't tolerate the lack of professionalism or politeness. So, you tell me whether I am fussy or some people just don't know how to treat others.

A blazing hot afternoon at Bangsar:
I was accompanying Durra to do an important banking transaction at a bank, naturally. As the electronic beeper alerts us that we should proceed to counter 6, we dutifully approach the empty counter and a stocky man at counter 5 looked at us with a half-effort glance and said "counter 5, counter 5.. counter 6 kan kosong" (like, hallo! how are we suppose to know?? knowing how busy bank counters can be, i thought we were supposed to wait patiently like all good citizens should do). Being the sweet, little creatures that we are, we followed the instruction and Durra went on with the transaction.

Pakcik : Ni nak buat apa ni?
Ana : Nak withdraw duit
Pakcik : Owwh.. takde kad ke? (sly look)
Ana : Hurrmmmm... nak aktifkan akaun kembali sebab dah dua tahun tak guna akaun
(if you're wondering why I'm talking, Durra was diam and not answering, so I did)
Pakcik : Okay... tapi kena masukkan duit dalam akaun juga. Keluar dan masuk
Ana : Owwhh... ye ke? Saya diberitahu hanya perlu keluarkan duit di kaunter
Pakcik : Tak tahulah.. Kadang-kadang orang ni bagi maklumat lain-lain. Suka hatilah
Ana : Transaksi masuk sudah pernah buat dalam masa terdekat ni sebenarnya
Pakcik : owwhhh... dah buat??? oklah.. suka hatilah (asks for the forms and IC)

Pakcik checks the forms and insisted that Durra should put some money into the account regardless of the information I gave. (lantak kaulah, pakcik)

After a few moments of trying to authorise the forms, he seemed to face some difficulties...
Pakcik : Ni macam mana ni? Sign tak match pun... Bila buat akaun ni, sign sama tak?
Durra : Errr... tak sama rasanya. Sebab dah lama buat and tak pernah guna buku akaun
Pakcik : Ye ke?? You all ni buat saya rasa tak sedap hatilah.. Sebab yelah, orang suka tipu pakai akaun orang lain ni, terutamanya orang pencen punya. Sekejap saya tanya pegawai saya.. yang ni, kita tak boleh main lepas sahaja

(Bisik hati kecil Ana sementara pakcik in his selipar jepun goes on to meet his pegawai: Hallo, pakcik! On that account book, it did state that Durra was born in 1985, takkan dah pencen kot??! Plus, the ic number in it matches with her IC yang terang-terang ada mukanya. Kalau ye pun the fault is hers for not having the same sign, you shouldn't have said yang you tak sedap hati seolah-olah you are making a direct accusation that my friend is a delinquent)

Pakcik: oklah, you datang lepas sejam... kita kena tunggu fax dari cawangan lama you. You pergilah makan dulu ke ape ke... Lepas sejam, you boleh datang balik (dengan lagak ketua kampung pisang)

After an hour or so, we came back and I decided not to accompany Durra at the counter now for fear that I would make comments on how easy the problem can be solved and he shouldn't have treated us as an unnecessary fuss. Luckily, Durra was served by another person who appeared very professional despite his apparent young age. Still, the pakcik selipar jepun felt obliged to shout out the necessary procedures from his counter 5 to counter 9 as if the guy who was handling Durra's transaction didn't have the brains to do it(the guy did seem pretty annoyed, mind you), causing the whole bank to know that Durra didn't have a matched signature.

Pakcik selipar jepun went on to call Durra to his counter to give a short ceramah on how much trouble they went through because of this and why she shouldn't change her signature. I just looked on from where I was seated in the waiting area because by then, I was keen on taking his selipar jepun and turning it into soup for him to drink so that he can learn how to treat people with a level of professionalism as this is not a transaction in Kedai Pau Pak Abu where you can say anything and I wouldn't care.

Well, it wasn't so much of what he said but rather the way he said it that made me feel that I will never open a bank account in that bank. If you're so lazy to please your clients, then try to ask for another position where you can wear selipar jepun and I wouldn't give a rat's ass. . And they say that "our principle is that our customers are always right"... Yeah, right!