I think, therefore I write. (我思,所以我写。)

Cogito ergo scribo

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Lousy service

Our group of friends had a gathering today to celebrate PT's birthday. It would have been a great evening but was spoilt by two lousy places. Fortunately, the evening was saved by the birthday celebration at PT's house; as usual we ended the evening after having an enjoyable time eating and chatting.

There were a lot of new shops opened around our neighbourhood recently. We wanted to try out the two new places this evening - a new restaurant called Marco Polo Kitchen and a new pub called Library. I have now blacklisted both and would not patronise these businesses ever again.

Marco Polo Kitchen serves Italian and Asian cuisine. Firstly, the service was nothing fantastic. In fact, from the look of the restaurant (which attempts to make it like fine-dining ambience), i would even say the service was considered bad.

Then the worst part was the food. We ordered pastas, which supposedly to be their speciality but they could not even get the basics right - pasta must be cooked al dente but the ones they served were either over or under cooked.

The spaghetti that PT ordered was so hard that it was like half-cooked. She told them to change it but the waiter claimed that it was not hard but al dente. I was so pissed and told them off. I told them that the pasta was under-cooked and not al dente at all, and even told him to try it himself. The manager then came over and took the pasta away. We thought they were gonna re-make one for PT (which was what a restaurant with standard would do), but it turned out that they actually re-cook the one that she had (either cooked in pan or microwaved it), which were already tossed with the sauce and ingredients. All of us gave this restaurant two thumbs down.

After dinner, we wanted to chill out at the Library, which was a nicely renovated pub just opened recently and were always filled with customers. When we were there, the pub was still quite empty but most tables were placed with the 'reserved' notice. We stood there for quite a while and no one came up to greet us at all. We then approached a waiter who stood there doing nothing and asked him to show us to a table that is available for 6 persons.

After that, i was really at a loss and did not know what they were doing at all. The waiter did not show us to a table but handed us over to another waiter (who was also just standing around doing nothing). That waiter did not bringing us to any seats either and did not even bother to tell us anything. The few of us just stood there and did not know what was really going on. It was just as if we were totally ignored and they did not bother to do business with us at all. We were so pissed and just walked out of the pub. With such horrendous service, i will not even want to go there again anymore.

I have actually had countless encounters of lousy service at various places in Malaysia. Quite a lot were like these places with expensive renovation but low service standard. It was just like what people always talk about "first class facility but third class (or no class) service".

The worst part is that these businesses really couldn't be bothered with the complaints at all. As they still have lots of customers, they couldn't care less about the negative feedback. In their minds, even you do not patronise them, they still have a lot more other customers. Malaysians in general also seem to accept such low service level and hence indirectly condone such attitude and mentality.

I guess there is still a long way to go before our businesses become truly service-oriented.

Labels:

if only everyone has perfectionism in mind, not only just in restaurants but also all other services. And workplaces too. To say many condoning low standard service is not entirely true, when there's less or even no competition. And given mentality good service comes with premium, every extra effort comes with cost and not many customers willing to part the extra buck lor. Many businesses opt for cost cutting and you pay peanut, you get monkey, especially the worker is outsider and even foreigner. Perhaps we should reflect also our half-hearted sloppy job in work before demanding betterment from others , ok, ok , i'm not talking about you ... then again, what to expect when owner/investors themselves don't know how to cook and busy counting money. If it is ambience rather than food that attracts most customers, why bother the latter when throwing money on renovation is much easier than finding good skilled chef and upkeeping frontline good trained waiters. managers also do have role, ever heard there's no bad company but bad managers?

gee, i better stop commenting much otherwise it might invite other cogitations hijacking your blog, probably waiters from the restaurant. sigh, again good people flocks abroad, e.g NZ so what is left in the country is only bad stock so there's nothing to complain about the bad service, not until these talented people come back and settled down ... oh, lastly, your story reminded me of a friend when he worked as a part time waiter during his school days - there was this customer complained about the food or his service, so he added extra taste from rag or tablecloth before brought out to the complainant . his advice - never offend a waiter, and i think you should heed one too ... have a nice sunday and hope you had fun with your friends minus the bad experience :). cheers.

Share your cogitation



Monday, October 15, 2012 @ 8:00 pm: Deepest condolence
Monday, October 15, 2012 @ 6:49 pm: Treasure hunt - Foon Yew 99th Anniversary
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 @ 5:33 am: A little story of two frogs
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 @ 4:59 am: Went to gym
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 4:03 pm: Nothing
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 4:02 pm: Random thoughts on blogging
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 @ 3:19 am: Farewell gifts
Saturday, September 29, 2012 @ 3:13 am: Upgraded
Friday, September 28, 2012 @ 4:46 am: Power Searching with Google
Monday, September 24, 2012 @ 5:26 am: Second wave of change