__ Life's hard

Working at a Departmental Store..

Today i started my first day working at a departmental store. Haha.. Isetan is having private and mid-year sales so they hired us to do part-time for a few days. I worked as the person redeeming vouchers for the HSBC and beauty bonus promotion. It is super troublesome to work in a departmental store because you cannot bring a too big bag, cannot walk by entrance, cannot use the escalator, cannot do alot of things la. Very restricted lo.. But it was another experience for me la, nonetheless.

So ya, as usual, when you're in the service sector, u get all sorts of customers. very gei gao kind, very nasty ones, unreasonable ones, and of coz the nice ones. Thanks to those nice ppl, us working in the service sector won't go crazy. LOL. That is the problem with alot of singaporeans. They expect good and cheap stuff but where in the world does that kind of thing exist? Like seriously.. If not is when they are working, they give bad attitude but when they are customers, they expect good attitude. What kind of unreasonable theory is that? Or else there'll be some irritating ppl. thinking that they are educated and maybe well-off then they have their noses up in the air. For wad? Looking to see when a pile of bird shit is gg to fall on them then go buy 4D ar? Aiyo.. Cannot stand these ppl...

For example, there were several times, I realized they are all guys, who will come up to me to redeem a FIVE DOLLAR voucher (Meaning not a very big amount). The promotion requires customers to produce their card, charge slip and receipt before they can redeem. Not because we doubt that they lie to us or wad but because we need to send the records back to the bank and we need to take down their names and card numbers. Then unreasonable ppl will have this kinda conversation with me. (N I repeat, they are all GUYS.)
Me: Sorry Sir, I'll need your credit card pls...
Male customer: What?! Aiyo.. I thought just now see already? What is the problem with you all? See n see... N it's juz only a FIVE DOLLAR voucher! (meanwhile reluctantly fiahing out his card from his wallet)
Me: (Irritated) Sorry sir, but we need to take down ur CARD NUMBER because we need to send this back to the bank
Male customer: (ignoring what I said) This is very ridiculous... Very inefficient. I'm in a rush you know? N it is JUST a five dollar voucher! So troublesome!
Freaking ridiculous.. Deep inside I was thinking, if you think so lowly of a 5 dollar voucher, y do u even bother to redeem? N y is it only 5 dollars? Because u are a stingy man and refuse to spend more. Seriously, if you spend 1K, I would not hesitate to exchange 50 dollars worth of vouchers for u lo. Simply dun make sense. That's y I say, juz because u are educated does not mean others are not. By kicking up such a fuss, u are only embarrassing urself... Again, I want to repeat, this happened a few times. So it means that there are quite a few such customers in Singapore. To think that there was a guy who came up to redeem the full 200 dollars worth of vouchers and was so much more polite than everyone else added together.

Another instance. Because there were 2 promotions ongoing, isetan management decided to have 2 queue-lines to redeem vouchers. However, when it becomes kinda busy, I'll be the only one redeeming vouchers for both sides. So there was this very effeminate guy hu came up to the HSBC queue and stood there for a while (I was sitting at the beauty bonus queue). Then eventually, he asked in a very annoying manner:
Effiminate Guy: Errm.. Excuse me. It says this queue is for HSBC redemption but I dun see anyone sitting here.. So, wad are we suppose to do?
Me: Oh, sorry.. I'm the one redeeming for both HSBC and beauty bonus. If you could wait a while, I'll attend to you shortly...
Effiminate Guy: But this doesn't make sense! Why do you even bother to have a barricade here and separate the 2 queues when ther's juz one person redeeming for both? This is very inefficient!
Me: Sorry, juz give me a moment..
Effiminate Guy: Murmurs to his 'friend'
Haix.. Another one of this kinda rubbish customer. N he is not even the one redeeming the vouchers. It is his 'friend' hu is redeeming lo. Make so much noise.. For what? Dots.. Lucky his fren is more polite or I might juz punch them in the nose...

Digressing a lil, I saw the same thing happened at BBDC the other day. I went there to queue and apply for my PDL, hu noes got alot of ppl so I ended up waiting for close to 2 hrs plus before my turn came. Juz when I was about to be done, a couple came up to the counter next to mine. Then the guy started making alot of noises. N to think that the lady at the counter was so polite to him. She was more polite than the laday attending to me hu juz talked in single syllable lo... So unfair...
Lady at counter: (smiling) Hi, good afternoon! What can I help you with today?
Angry Man: You know u ppl are working very inefficiently? I waited for 2 hours plus! This is a very bad system. How can you let us wait so long? (continues ranting...)
Lady at counter: (still smiling and processing their stuff for them) Haha.. Is it? We are also trying very hard to clear the queue..
Angry Man: (cuts in) This is terrible. I cannot believe how bad this is... You should really do sth to make a change... (continues ranting...)
Lady at counter: (still smiling.. I seriously admire her) We know, we are also trying to clear the queue. All of us haven't had lunch yet. We look at the queue we also din dare to leave the counter. You can feedback to our staff downstairs at the counter regarding this...
Man: (continues blaming the poor lady)
I ended up shaking my head and leaving the counter before he was done venting his anger. Seriously, what gives these ppl the right to vent their anger on the poor lady who cannot do anything much to help the situation? It's juz very unfair. N as usual, I've no idea y, that guy was not the one who needs to get stuffs setttled. It was his gf who needs to get things done. So he could actually leave if he wants to? Wadeva.. I juz dun understand y muz ppl step out and talk for other ppl? To say the truth, IT IS NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS! I will not want anyone to speak up for me. I have the mind and intelligence to speak for myself. Thank you.

In conclusion, I feel that working in a different environment short-term is kinda cool but not long-term for me, I guess. I cannot take the sitting down for long hours. My back and body ached like crazy end of these 2 days. But lucky for us, despite all those annoying customers and boring hours, there was a cute guy there for us to see. Haha! Eye-candy! Lol.. Ok, (trying not to be despo...) Haha... But he looks cute and interesting la. Would be good to have him as a fren and find out more abt him but dun dare to talk to him... *shy* LOL.
Ewww... I'm disgusted with myself. Haha.. But I guess this is what happens when you are wayyyyy too bored. :p
Anyway, haix.. shld have taken the chance to talk to him when we were alone in the lift. Too bad la. Parkway so far.. I guess I won't see him again le ba. Unless I go back there.. Hee... Dunno if he's part-timer or full-timer.. Hmmm... Wadeva la!

How easy it is to lose contact...

Saturday, May 16, 2009