Pet peeves about Singapore Part One: Service

SORRY CANNOT
You want salad dressing on the side? "No we cannot. It comes with salad dressing." If you push them, they will call a manager to your table to discuss if they are allowed to put your dressing on the side. You might need the owner to be called and they might also need to consult with the cook. I've had to order a separate glass of champagne and an orange juice in a fine dining restaurant because they did not have a button on the computer to put a mimosa on the bill. I had to order a soy milk and a black coffee in two separate glasses to make my own (very messy) iced soy latte at the table because they were not authorized to pour the soy milk into my coffee. These basic creative problem solving skills are absent from your guy at the till often right up to higher levels of management. It doesn't matter how obvious the solution is, unless they have written permission on a piece of paper in front of them, they cannot.


TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH
If you ever have an issue with anything and heaven forbid you have to call customer service the very first tactic they take is to lie. It's called saving face and it's culturally OK to lie when you are trying to avoid embarrassment here. Even if it's a completely stupid and obvious lie, it's a way of saying "please don't make me admit wrong doing, I'm ashamed." They won't suddenly say, "I'm so sorry we lost that order, let me deliver the correct item to you today" they will say "you never made that order sir." You can ask a sales person for something but they most likely will say "we don't have, sorry." If you look around, you'll probably see what you are looking for on a shelf somewhere. They don't know all their stock but don't want to have to lose face by saying "I'm not sure let me look for that for you."

CALL US, WE WON'T CALL YOU!
Big chain stores and tiny boutiques alike will post a phone number and an email as their contact information. If you call they won't pick up and they won't have an answering system or even a generic message with store hours. If you email a business you typically get a reply to an enquiry months later or never. You can call every hour for a day or two or get in a cab and go in person. I don't really get it. Don't they want our business?

GOOGLE CAN'T FIND THIS LOCATION
Why oh why can't google.sg find anything? Because businesses in Singapore don't bother to look up their listings and put correct information in. It seems like a pretty basic thing from a westerners point of view but you have to realize that 23% of the households in Singapore don't have computers. 23%, seriously, have a look at the census.  Sure they all have flashy cell phones and those Aunties can text like a 15 year old but computer skills are not there. I don't get as mad about this one because it's clearly a socioeconomic issue but it sure does make life difficult when you pull out your smart phone to look up an address and you get the wrong location. Especially since you can't call them to check their address because they won't pick up the phone...

So there you have it, 15 months of pent up rage.