More Bad Service Elsewhere

I have been informed by a reader about more bad service stories elsewhere on the internet, here in Singapore.

You readers be the judge.

Bad Service From Recaptured, a home decor shop
Fraudulent Service From Best Denki

The stories will shock you.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Bad Service - PA Mart @ Sim Lim Square

I received this via email and thought I would share it with you readers.

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I would like to share my experience with PA Mart in Sim Lim Square.

I bought a MacBook during the IT show in Suntec Mall. Shopping around, I thought I found the best deal and with the friendly service from the booth girls, proceeded to buy the Macbook from PA Mart. The offer was a memory upgrade from 2GB to 3GB, including a free printer and screen protector.

They installed the memory chip on the spot but upon returning home and attempting to use the Macbook, it would not start and started to beep. Stopping the beeping and starting the macbook took 5 minutes of dongling the power cord and, pressing and holding the start button. I called the Asian customer service hotline who advised me to bring the Macbook to my point of purchase for an exchange as this was a faulty machine.

Bringing the macbook to PA Mart in Sim Lim, Mark changed the memory card but the problem persisted. He refused to make an exchange because I had registered the Macbook online with Apple. He advised me to call the local service centre and bring the Macbook there for repairs.

The local call centre said the problem would be the upgrade of the memory chip as the Macbook should be fitted with an equal memory module in each of the 2 memory slots. Hence the free upgrade to 3GB would cause a problem. I double checked this with the apple website and found it to be true. The call centre further explained that Apple's licensed resellers all know this and upon checking said PA Mart was not found to be their licensed reseller. He advised me to return to PA Mart for either an upgrade to 4GB or downgrade to 2GB.

When I returned to tell Mark about what the local call centre said, he asked his colleague, Azar, to do an exchange. We settled on 4GB which meant another S$45. Already unhappy that I'm topping up just to get the Macbook to work, Azar continues to astound me with his bad attitude and surly demeanor. His burly size ensures customer compliance. After installing the memory chip, he wanders off, leaving me to reattach a dirty screen protector and pack up.

I give credit that PA Mart eventually exchanged a faulty Macbook, but they appear to be dishonest in their selling practices.

1) Sending me on a runabout instead of exchanging the faulty Macbook.

2) Having to top up to get the Macbook working properly. S$45 is not a lot of money, but that free memory upgrade really isn't any free gift!

3) At the IT Fair, the memory chip was taken out of an unopened packaging. The subsequent times the memory card was changed at Sim Lim, PA Mart seemed to take random chips from behind a counter, leaving me to wonder if these are old memory chips or unauthorised ones. My queries on this were brushed off. Like I said, Azar is a huge man and I felt under duress. Mark later assured me that the memory chips had a lifetime warranty and I could return to PA Mart if there was any problems. I really don't know if I could trust that statement!

With bad publicity surrounding Sim Lim, I would not normally buy there but during the IT Fair, I failed to check if PA Mart from Sim Lim. I would like to advise consumers at the IT Show to be vigilant about the vendors. I would definitely avoid ALL Sim Lim vendors no matter where they set up their booths!

Kind Regards,

Fxxxxxxn (name edited for privacy reasons)

Author's addendum, added on 28/03/2009 - After seeing an apple advertisement in the newspapers today. PA Mart is an authorised reseller of Apple products after all. That probably meant they might be ignorant of their products which is a notch less than being dishonest!PA Mart is an authorised reseller of Apple products after all. That probably meant they might be ignorant of their products which is a notch less than being dishonest!

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Pet Lovers Centre - Making It Hard To Give Feedback

I make it a point to try and contact establishments after receiving feedback, just to verify the story and also give these establishments a chance to respond if the feedback is bad. After receiving negative feedback about Pet Lovers Centre from a reader, I tried to send them this article and get a response from them.

I went to PLC's website but nowhere on the front page was there a direct link to contacting them or giving feedback. Digging deeper, I found the link, in very small text at the bottom, and buried in sub menus at the top navigation bar. See picture below (click on the picture to enlarge).



Upon entering the Contact Us page, I am faced with a whole slew of mandatory fields to fill in should I want to send feedback in writing. The alternative is a toll-free number.


The above is a screen capture of PLC's feedback form.

Name & Email, yes, that is understandable. However, if I am giving feedback, why is it necessary for me to fill in my designation, organization, address and contact number (Ok, the last one's debatable). In any case, not filling in those fields would render the form invalid and you are required to fill those mandatory fields in.

The irony of it, the last sentence. "Your feedback is important to us. Please give us your suggestions or comments. Thank you."

It seems as if PLC are putting these mandatory fields up to discourage people from giving feedback. If that's their objective, they certainly have succeeded but I think saying that our feedback is important to them is overstating it.

I have a suggestion. Do away with most of the mandatory fields. This is not so much a data gathering exercise but a way to hear what your customers have to say about you and your products.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Pet Lovers Centre Parkway Parade

I received this in the email regarding Pet Lovers Centre at Parkway Parade. You readers be the judge if the actions were called for from the staff. I have only edited the grammar but the essence of the story remains the same.

Name : GZ
Date & Time : Late Feburary 2009
Place/Website address : Pet's Lover Center at Parkway
Person Serving Me : Various
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : Hamster Items/Food
My Experience : After about 6 years of not taking care of animals, I decided to get a pair of hamsters to keep my girlfriend and I company.

A bit about my past here. I used to own a pair of hamsters, but poor birth control measures allowed them to procreate, up to about 30 hamsters at its peak. After the last hamster passed away, I decided that's that and stopped having any animals for a while. So you can say that I have experience in dealing with hamsters, especially baby hamsters.

We went to quite a few pet shops to look for hamsters, and the particular breed we were interested in is Winter White. They are much easier to tame and get along with compared to other breeds. I also did quite a bit of research before this on their habitat, food and items they need so as to refresh my memory.

We ended up at PLC (Pet Lovers Centre) where I saw the Winter Whites in the cage and proceeded to ask the staff how old the hamsters were. At first I was attended to by a Chinese staff, who told me they were about 3 weeks old. I take a second look at the critters again and felt that their size definitely put them in the 1 and half month range, rather than 3 weeks.

In the end, I didn't buy the hamsters from them, as I wanted a pair of young hamsters, about 3 weeks to 1 month old. This is because young hamsters are easier to tame and they get used to the owner's scent compared to the older ones. I never got to tame my first 2 hamsters before (about 2 months old) and they would often bite me, whereas their offspring are much better behaved.

I bought the WW from another shop near the area, but decide to go back to PLC to buy the items and food over there as they have a larger selection. I refused to let my girlfriend into PLC as I felt that it's rude if we walked into the shop with hamsters bought from another store (Editor's note - I see nothing wrong with that but I guess some people prefer not to, which is perfectly fine).

Unfortunately, for some reason or other, she followed her friend into the store while I was halfway through buying the items for the hamsters. What followed next is disastrous to say the least.

One of the store helpers wanted to see the hamsters, so my girlfriend showed them, and he then loudly exclaimed that the hamsters are too young to be sold. Mind you, this was during a weekend afternoon and there's a bit of crowd in the store. He proceed to dig inside the box and took out the hamster and showed it to his fellow keeper who start agreeing that it's "too young", and kept saying why the other store did that. I gave my girlfriend a "See, I told you not to come in" look, but the damage had been done. I was holding a pack of hamster mix food from a brand called "Marukan" and the shop owner keep telling my gf that this particular hamster mix is not good for the hamsters, as they were too young. He then start moving around the shelves and took down some small packs of food for the hamsters, which consists of meal worms, milk tablets and shrimps. He kept insisting that they need this as they are young, even after I told them I have had hamsters before and it is safe for them to eat the mix, since they are fully weaned.

Nonetheless, after constant persuasion from my gf, I bought those items instead of the Marukan mix so that I'm not labeled as "BAD OWNER" by the crowd, and probably, my gf.

I also intended to buy bathing sand for my hamsters but they didn't have stock on the one I wanted, which is the Sluis Chinchilla Sand, as many hamster owners on the net rave about it. The shop keeper brought this packet of sand which is scented, and claimed that a lot of people have brought it. I was very doubtful about it and kept asking whether it is safe to use, as I heard stories of hamsters having problems with some types of bathing sand and he keeps insisting it's good. He also kept trying to get me to get the bigger pack saying that its better for value but in the end I get the smallest pack on the pretext of trying it out.

At the same time, another member of staff kept trying to persuade my gf to buy coloured cotton balls for the hamsters, which he claims will give them warmth. I told my gf not to get it as I have never used cotton balls before for the hamsters. Also cotton does not break down easily compared to paper and tissues, which I have used for the hamsters. Not to mention that these critters will actually chew on any stuff and might accidentally choke on the cotton. They also tried to get me to buy the coloured version of the bedding I'm getting, which they claim gives more warmth.

By that time I was getting irritated by them and quickly made my purchase, which included a silent wheel, the 3 packs of small food, the white bedding which I originally wanted, the scented bathing scent and a toilet house.

Fast forward 3 weeks later. These 2 little critters have grown bigger and become fatter (lazier too). Here's the surprise...

The first thing, the food. THOSE ARE NOT FOR THEIR DAILY MEALS. It is meant for treats to the hamsters. Too much of it is unhealthy for them. It was only when I reached home that day and managed to look through the food topic that I realized it. I was right all along that hamster food mix is enough for them.

The second thing, which I'm peeved about, is the scented bathing sand. As seen in this topic, this owner apparently also bought the same brand of bathing sand from another PLC branch and it caused her hamster to develop rashes and drop fur. Luckily, I stopped my usage after reading this and promptly went out to buy Sluis bathing sand from another shop. It's also apparent that this brand and other brands of scented bathing sand have had compaints but PLCs still stock them when I last checked this Saturday at the Simei Branch.

Thirdly, the cotton balls? Those are dangerous for the little critters as they will actually choke on the balls if they start chewing on it, and who knows what the cotton balls are made from. Not to mention that it's dyed in colour. I have no idea what kind of chemicals they use.

Lastly, about the hamsters being too young. Well, they are currently running about in my cage.

I'm severely upset by the way the shop keepers drove down a lot of incorrect facts and how they tried to sell the products despite the numerous complaints received. It's as though they have no regard over the little lives. This is not the first time PLC has been under fire by other pet owners but obviously this is not going to improve either.

Overall Rating : 3 Brickbats, for the workers who are clueless and try to bullshit their way through, for providing incorrect facts and hard selling and finally for the fact that they still sell products that has problems even though there have been complaints about it.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Another Camera Shop Complaint?

Just two days back, I posted a user's complaint about a camera shop and today, there is another post on bad service from a camera shop, it seems. Perhaps it is the expectation that if one pays a large sum of money, and to many, a few hundred and above is a large sum of money, then one expects some form of service.

Again, I was in Clubsnap and came across this thread entitled, "Parissilk (Lousy service)" which obviously caught my eye.

I can empathise with the thread starter, that if I plan on buying a camera or a lens, I'd like to be able to do some preliminary tests to see if there are issues or not. Some lenses are notorious for QC issues and sometimes, the same two lenses from the same manufacturer might have different image qualities. If anything, almost all the time, I've had no problems with asking if I could test a particular lens or camera body.

While I also can see why the shop has a policy of not having test units available or using allowing one to test a lens on a brand new unit simply because once several people start testing a particular camera or lens, it soon becomes "2nd hand and slightly used", a better attitude could have been adopted.

Perhaps an explanation in a nicer tone could have been more effective? Afterall, if one is in sales, one is in the service industry. By answering in this manner, it makes the customer feel unwelcome and unless the customer urgently needs an item or there is no other choice, the chances of making a sale with such lousy and bad service is not going to happen.

On another note, I have added a link with a poll on Clubsnap conducted by a user and details which shops have the best service according to the various voters. Interesting stuff!

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Brickbats For Design T-shirts Store Graniph, Bugis Junction

A story here about how nonchalance and a could not care less attitude can earn a store brickbats. A nice store, really nice products, but let down by slipshod service, or in this case, almost non-existent service.

Name : Gareth
Date & Time : 22/02/2009
Place/Website address : Design Tshirts Store Graniph, Bugis Junction
Person Serving Me : Did not bother to find out, you'll see why.
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : T-shirt
My Experience : I stepped into the Design Tshirts Store Graniph at Bugis Junction. This store sells some of the coolest designer t-shirts around but sadly, they hardly ever have the size I am after (Large). I understand the constraints of stocking and am not expecting them to stock every single item in my size. However, I have noticed on two occasions when I went into the store and could not find what I was looking for size-wise, the sales people there did not bother to approach me but seemed quite occupied chatting among themselves. Ok, perhaps the policy is to leave the customer alone, fair enough by me.

When I asked about the availability of my size, the answer was rather nonchalant, more along the lines of "I'm sorry but there isn't one in your size." without even making any effort to perhaps check with the other outlet, located at Plaza Singapura. Today I saw at least two designs I really liked and the sales guy said I could just unfold it to look at. I said, I could not find any in my size to which he mumbled something along the lines of "oh, then too bad" and walked off.

Instead of offering to place an order for me (I'll be more than happy to make partial or even full payment on the spot and wait for my items to arrive), or even calling another store, he even told me on my first visit there a few months back, that I can go to their website and see what's coming in. Think I will go one step further. I will go to the Graniph website, see what is available and place my order with the online store.

It is fine if you do not have the t-shirt I want in the size I wear, but surely a call to one other outlet is not too hard to do?

Overall rating : 2 brickbats. Nice store, nice T-shirt designs, lousy sales staff. This definitely ranks as bad service from a potential customer's view.


Design Tshirts Store Graniph at Bugis Junction, awarded 2 Brickbats.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Dell Customer Service Takes Hits

In an article dated 20 February 2009, technology portal Cnet.com reported that Dell's customer service has taken a massive hit.

Reading the article, it states in a survey that Dell's service ratings have been slipping over the last few years.

What's interesting though, are the comments that come from readers of the article. It seems many are in agreement with the article and have found consolation that they are not alone. But if you ask me, to read such comments shows a clear sign that many are unhappy with Dell's service. One reader has even gone on to describe the experience as Dell Hell. It's encouraging to know Dell are taking measures to improve their service to their customers but some have questioned if it is already a little too late. How many times have we encountered situations where after buying an expensive item, the after sales service is shoddy at best and we hardly get any help at all?

In my opinion, computer manufacturers, distributors and resellers need to constantly evolve in the aftersales area in our increasingly wired and tech based world to win consumer confidence. Consumer confidence in your brand will only come with continued support from your backend and a constant improvement in offering better support and service to your customers, from the marketing to the aftersales end.

Here is a video I dug up, dated 11 March 2008, where Dell's Steve Schuckenbrock, president of global services and CIO at Dell, talks about the bad customer service reputation they have been getting.


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Insensitive Staff at Carl's Jr Marina Square

Name : Gareth
Date & Time : 28/10/2008
Place/Website address : Carl's Jr Burgers, Marina Square branch
Person Serving Me : N/A
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : Burgers
My Experience : We went to Carl's Jr Marina Square for dinner. As we both do not take beef for religious reasons, but loved their burgers, we went for a little something different.

I ordered the standard Santa Fe Charbroiled Chicken while she had the Portobello Mushroom but instead of a beef patty, we requested a change to Chicken Patty. This was duly recorded in the receipt given to us.

Well, considering the "special" order, we were prepared to wait awhile. Then the burgers came. First, my Santa Fe, followed by her Portobello Mushroom with Chicken Patty. Somehow, I asked her to take a small bite to see if they indeed changed the patty. I am not sure why I told her that since it would be assumed, quite wrongfully I might add, that the change would have been done.

She took one bite, showed me the meat and we both realised it's NOT been changed. It was beef! I got rather upset, seeing as how we SPECIFICALLY asked for the change, which was then reflected in the receipt! I went up to the service counter and informed them, asking to speak to the manager.

The manager was apologetic, to be fair, as was the guy who took our order. They made the change and upsized it to a double BUT the damage has been done. Unlike a simple screw up in an order, this one touches on religious issues. As such I am less tolerant towards insensitivities to ANY religion. I noticed the guys at the kitchen were still pretty nonchalant about the whole issue and when the manager came over to ask how was everything, I seriously was in no mood for anything more than curt replies.

My point is, if you want to be in the F&B line, I expect you will be taught to be ATTENTIVE, SENSITIVE and HAVE BASIC KNOWLEDGE of differences and sensitivities in food tastes, preferances and taboos.

Anyway, I sure won't be going back to the Carl's Jr outlet in Marina Square.

Overall Rating : 4 Brickbats. The manager did service recovery but I think the damage had been done. In this case, there really is little that can be done once a sensitivity has been breached so service personnel should learn basic religious sensitivities and taboos whenever possible.

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Unethical Prices & Bad Service - Ultra Supplies at Queensway Shopping Centre

This story was received together with the previous good experience, PC Themes at Sim Lim Square. In this, the result is negative feedback as you will see.

Name : GZ (user chose to use only initials)
Date & Time : June 2006
Place/Website address : Ultra Supplies at Queensway Shopping Centre
Person Serving Me : N/A
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : Printing services and materials for projects
My Experience : As my courses relates to landscape design, I have a few projects where we need to print out A3 or larger sized drawings for submission of reference. We didn't know where we can find CAD printing shops and after recommendation by our lecturer, we went to Ultra Supplies at Queensway Shopping Centre for our printing needs.

It was located at the top floor of the shopping centre, and our first visit was less pleasant than it would have been. I remember at that time we need to submit an A3 CAD drawing of our project and after stating to them that, they quote us a price of S$12, which is quite expensive. (Editor's note - I remember printing large A0 architectural plans for significantly less but oh well...) I asked them why so expensive since it's only printed in black or white (we were still new to printing big sized drawings) and the worker replied curtly that it's the standard without looking at us. Having no alternative, we had no choice but to pay for the ridiculous pricing, which came up to about $40+ per group due to 3 to 4 sheets of drawings. I thought this would be the end of the unpleasant experience. When I went home and tried to plug in my thumb drive which was used at Ultra Supplies earlier on, I discovered that all my drawings and backup data was gone. Not only that, my thumb drive was infected with virus which proceed to destroy the data on my computer. I was pissed off!

Moving on to Year 2, we had to print our projects again, and I was very unwilling to patronise the store as I didn't have good experience with it. But some groups went to Ultra Supplies to print and they came back with different pricing for the printing, which is weird because we are using standard A3 size and it was in colour, so the pricing should be standard. My team went down to Ultra Supplies as we had no other alternatives and we were once again quoted a ridiculous pricing,(by now we realised that they look at people before quoting their prices).

At which I start to make a ruckus at the place as I feel it's not right to do so. The manager quickly came out from the store and tried to explain to us the pricing, which I saw. Indeed their staff have been charging prices according to their whims. I told the manager about it but he said it's impossible since the pricing is standard(AGAIN SAME BULLSHIT EXCUSE). At that time I was very pissed and intent to make a complain at CASE (Consumers Association of Singapore).

The manager, seeing that the situation is getting bad with the customers at the shop staring at us and the commotion I was making, tried to give us discount for the prints we needed. I accepted and waited calmly for the paper to come out. I would have thought the matter would have died down by then but I get even more pissed when I saw that they tried to scrimp on it by giving us a lower quality colour printing. Another round of commotion and threatening to report to CASE finally got us the project printings at good colour quality, and "discounted" price.

After this incident, I have sworn off this store and would never patronise them EVER. In fact, I make it known to all my course mates so that they would also avoid getting ripped off by them.

The good news is, the printing shop near my house have upgraded their printing services and this includes printing A1 size and colour printing, which fits my project needs perfectly. Not to mention that I had years of dealing with this shop and this upgrade came at a good time for me. The best thing? Inexpensive and good service. Subsequent projects, especially our last Landscape Design projects (which consists of almost more than 20+ CAD drawings) were all printed out from this shop.

Overall Rating : 5 Brickbats (I would add more Brickbats if it allows) Such shops with shoddy dealings should not even exist in the first place.

Editor's note - It's very obvious that bad service travels faster than good service and that people almost always remember bad service as well as good service. Even after 2 years, the memory of bad service remains. The point is, be ethical, be honest and be fair in your dealings with your customers. I have a personal experience with one of these printing shops, something I will post up soon, as the circumstances, although different, showed a lack of ethics and honesty with the company.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Bad Experience - The 360 Restaurant & Bar at Ski 360°

I received this story from a friend via email, entitled "Worst ever dinner at a restaurant for Group Vday." My friend brought his fiancee to 360 Restaurant and Bar at East Coast Park, overlooking the cable ski for a Valentine's Day dinner with a group of around 9 other couples. He experienced several instances of bad service, coupled with the fact it's Valentine's Day, could mean paying more for the occasion. This certainly leads to an extremely bad experience!

Name : i_used_to_be_fit (User chose to remain anonymous)
Date & Time : 14/02/2009 Dinner time.
Place/Website address : The 360 Restaurant & Bar at Ski 360°. At East Coast park, overlooking the cable ski.
Person Serving Me : The whole kitchen and service staff are clueless!!!
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : 18 couples turned up for dinner. We had a set menu of 3 types of main course to choose from, 2 deserts to choose from and coffee, tea or soft drinks.

My Experience : Firstly, the soup turned up late and the quality of the first batch and 2nd is vastly different. (Why do I know that? It's because I tried my fiancee's soup to test it out for her, she can't take food with a buttery taste).

Main course wasn't great in taste , but I have had worse . So quality of the food is okay, passable . But nothing you can't find at any decent cafe or restaurant. One big minus , is that the food is cold! Nowhere close to being warm. And they forgot about at least 4 diners of our group who ordered pork loin for main course! I finished my meal and my girlfriend hasn't had hers! (I definitely shared my meal with her, of course)

Dessert of apple crumple was cold. It was GROSS. I was hoping for a piping hot one with cold vanilla ice-cream. When I got mine first with 3 others, to my dismay, no ice-cream. The lady opposite me asked what happened to the ice-cream.

The waitress mentioned it will be served separately........ Huh? I was bewildered. Never before had I have separate apple crumple with ice-cream . It was the first time I have ever heard of that but decided to give them the benefit of doubt anyway. But in the next 15 minutes, The rest of the cold apple crumples were served with ice-cream????!!!!!!!!!!!???????

I didn't want to kick up a big fuss. So I just ate my dessert without the ice cream.

Another complaint , no dessert fork was given. I got to get it myself , and I got 3 more for those around me who got their dessert first.

Drinks never arrived till the end of the dinner!!! I always thought drinks should come first? We got tired of waiting half way through our meal. So myself and another friend just went to the counter, unscrewed the 2 litre bottle of coke and started serving ourselves!

We discovered a whole basket of bread on the serving table. Too many for the rest of the diners who came in pairs. And we were speculating that, it's our bread to go with the soup which they didn't serve us.

Ice water was refilled only once by the staff. My pastor went to get one jug and ended up offering to pour for us.

From another table group of 2 diners on another table. I overhead that they had been waiting for their meals for 1 hr . Nothing arrived. Saw another waitress serving the desserts to the wrong table. I thought this type of errors only happens in the hawker centres.

Overall Rating : 4 Brickbats. No way will I ever go back there. I rather throw my money into the sea!

Editor's note - It is Valentine's Day, and the way the staff handled this whole matter suggests poor training & product knowledge as well as a couldn't-care-less approach to what is essentially a special day for many couples. I hope The 360 Restaurant & Bar at Ski 360° can learn from this feedback and seek to improve their service levels at many levels. Good service should come from within and should not be seen as incentive for recognition, but rather, a norm.

Addendum 22/02/2009 - The author has requested a reduction to 4 brickbats as the establishment has passed on the vouchers and ski passes to him via the organiser of the event for his group.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

True Yoga? I Wonder...

I read a report in the Straits Times Online today about a fitness chain, True Yoga, entitled "Wellness Chain Gets Flak." The gist of it is that the number of complaints against True Yoga at the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has doubled last year as compared to 2007. This year alone, the complaints have already numbered around 15, mostly against the chain. A link to a similar report can be found here.

I did a little digging around, using the keywords True Yoga Complaints, which turned up the following pages, almost all within the first page of the search results.

True Yoga
True Yoga staff... Passion for health or money?
True Yoga complaint
True Yoga? True Crap!
True Yoga Is A Black Shop

I hope they (True Yoga) do something about it. The poor service their customers got, if they are indeed true, will give customers a lousy experience and word has definitely spread. Most people tend to do their research online or through word of mouth, and I am absolutely sure at the very least, potential customers and signups will be extremely wary of this poor service. There are of course people who do not research a company or the service levels before signing up, and hopefully, this will change.

To customers or potential customers, please read the terms and conditions of any contract carefully and if you are not sure, ask the staff to explain. If they cannot do so satisfactorily, you might need to consider before signing on the dotted line.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Bad Experience with Comfort Cabs

I just received a story I thought I'd share with you guys. A friend of mine lost his mobile phone in a cab a week back and here's his story.

Name : Glenn
Date & Time : 07/02/2009, 9-9.30pm
Place/Website address : Comfort Cabs
Person Serving Me : N/A
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : N/A
Any Other Relevant Information : None
My Experience : I lost my mobile phone last week when I left it in a cab. I called the cab company and they're the ones who contacted the driver. It's not so much the phone, but the info inside the phone that's important to me. What really gets to me is why the cab company doesn't want to give me the cab driver's phone so I could deal with him directly? And to think I didn't even get the fare change from him after the ride (Editor: Glenn left a tip for the driver, I am presuming).

Their customer service even told me that they can't force their cabs to call me himself or even comply to my request even after I offered to pay the fare + extras, and the only way I could make it happen is for me to file a police report. God knows how long that process is gonna take, and by the time they do get a hold of him, my phone might be re-processed in JB (Johor Bahru) or somewhere. So I told them, "Fine, he wants to do it the hard way then." I filed the report via on-line form, got a report the following day but until now, no peep or puff from anyone. A lesson learned? Maybe...

The wife sure did a lot of teasing after that experience though, as I have never lost a cellphone ever. Umbrellas, yes, but not phones. Looking at the bright side, I got the phone that I really wanted, the Nokia E71.

Overall Rating : 5 Brickbats

Editor's Note - I was shocked when Glenn told me this story, as it clearly shows many customer service officers are still buried in red tape and will blindly follow instructions. Perhaps there is a good reason for them not to put a fare in contact with the driver but surely an explanation as to why this is so is not too hard? This could have been handled much better, Comfort! For one, many of us now use our mobile phones as more than just a phone. It is very often a way of life for us, where we keep many details and information in the phone. I think Comfort needs to relook at how they handle such matters in future.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Sim Lim Square Complaints

I am an avid amateur photographer and, in some ways, a tech geek. I love nothing more than to spend some free time during my lunch hour break looking through the various tech gadgets on sale at Sim Lim Square, a local electronics mall, quite like Japan's Akihabara district albeit on a smaller scale.

I was looking through this Singapore photography website, Clubsnap and came across a thread which sums up many users' experience with Sim Lim Square and their rude salesmen.

The thread about rude salesmen in Sim Lim Square can be found here.

A little background on Sim Lim Square (or commonly known as SLS). It is a mall that is packed with electronics, computers, accessories for computers, cameras and almost anything related to IT. There are shops selling such things as CCTVs, games, game consoles, peripherals and the like. Some shops in Sim Lim Square have been blacklisted by the Consumers' Association of Singapore (CASE).

Having said that, if you have done your homework (ie research on prices, quality of the product you are keen on etc), good deals can be had there. There are also, several shops that are just there to make an honest living, where their staff are generally polite and helpful. Sadly, it is a handful of black sheep that give the whole mall a bad name.

In any case, I will still buy some of my IT gear from Sim Lim Square. I just go to a handful of shops I have done business with and although they do not sell at rock bottom prices, do offer me good service and a fair deal. Considering how prices at most shops in Sim Lim Square aren't that competitive anyway, the other option would be Funan the IT Mall.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

How To Submit An Experience

Got a personal experience to share? Simply email me, bouquetsnbrickbats@gmail.com with your story.

To make it easier, below is an example template you can use. The more details you provide, the better of course.

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Name : Your name or a name you wish to be addressed by.
Date & Time : The date and approximate time your experience took place.
Place/Website address : Name of establishment/outlet/store & branch if any or if it is an online order, the URL of the website
Person Serving Me : The person who attended to/corresponded with you if possible.
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : Some examples could be an online purchase, a pair of shoes, a television set, or even a tour package.
Any Other Relevant Information : This includes information such as any special promotion advertised, length of stay if writing about a hotel or travel experience etc. If none, simply put N/A or None.
My Experience : Write your experience here. Be responsible, civil and above all, honest in your feedback. Credibility is an important aspect of this site and if need be, we will verify your story. We want to be fair to everyone.
Overall Rating : 1-5 Bouquets (1 being satisfactory, 5 being you would certainly recommend this to all your friends) or 1-5 Brickbats (1 being could be improved, 5 being No way will you ever go back there and in fact you'll tell all your friends about the horrible experience you've had).

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Ensure you are using a valid email address that you check often as we may verify your story via email.

It's as simple as that. We will do the rest (formatting your story, editing for spelling errors or grammar if need be etc). We will not, however, dilute the essence of your story so do keep the language adult & civil. We may not publish all stories, and those we deem to be personal attacks on establishments or personnel will not be published.

Take note however, that Bouquets-n-Brickbats may verify your story and as such, as much details of the story as possible should be provided.

We believe in being fair and responsible. Establishments have a right to respond to your stories.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. Bouquets-n-Brickbats believes in privacy and will never sell your story or personal details.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Welcome to Bouquets & Brickbats

Welcome to Bouquets & Brickbats, a website dedicated to sharing experiences on customer service with people. This site looks at good and bad service experiences you may have had in Singapore.

As Singapore has no natural resources, we rely on our people a lot. One of the core industries that our nation depends on is the service industry.

This site was started as a way to share my experience as a consumer with everyone out there and I will be putting up posts and reports on my experience as a customer. Whether I have experienced good service, bad service or just no service at all, I will share my stories here, no holds barred. It will be civil, but I will not pull punches when it comes to service.

However, let's be fair here. I won't be putting up reports on issues such as buying food at a supermarket chain and being given bad "service". This blog is more relevant to the items where one would expect some form of service, like when one buys an electronic device, a tour package, dining at a restaurant, shoes, a piece of property or even a car. Basically, if the service level goes as expected, there's little need to write about it, but if things go beyond the expected, or even below the expected, than it is safe to assume, one can share their stories.

I look forward to constructive feedback and as time goes on, would like to be able to do more with this site so that users can use this as a reference point. If you want to share your stories here, I welcome them but do email me, bouquetsnbrickbats@gmail.com for details on what information is required when sharing your story. I would like to be fair to consumers as well as service providers as well. There's always two sides to a coin.

So do feel free to give suggestions on how to better improve this site.

Gareth Phua
Bouquets & Brickbats

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.