Service? What service?

In Malaysia, the service level is almost non-existent. This is not to say that there are no good service places to be had but they are few and far in between. If you are like me, just an average person, the places that you frequent usually offers customer service that are well below par when compared to countries in Europe or the US or New Zealand.

How many times have you seen restaurants with a sign 'Please Wait to Be Seated' up front but there's no waiter or waitress there and while you are waiting some other patrons just waltz in and seat themselves? Most people don't even bat an eyelid at this but I am always taken aback when it happens.

I mean why bother to put up the sign if you don't mean it? What's worse is that these supposedly posh eateries charge you service fees for service that are ultimately not rendered or not up to par.

Not only am I disappointed by bad services is so-called posh places, I also have tons of stories of bad service received at places that I do not even expect much service in the first place. One example is at those 'mamak' curry house. I go to one 'mamak' place for breakfast. The place is not really crowded but all the empty tables were not cleaned yet. I should have picked up this clue to slow service but it was early in the morning and my mind was running a bit slow.

So we picked one table and called the waiter to come clean up the table. After standing there for about 5 minutes with a toddler and a baby in tow, there's still no sign of anyone coming to clean the table. We motioned to not one but a few workers there to come clean the tables but they all gave us the 'wait' sign. I had half a mind to leave the restaurant there and then if not for the fact that the market was just opposite the shop and we need to go there afterwards.
When we finally got the table cleaned, we still had to wait for someone to take our order. All this while some other patrons that came later than us were promptly attended to. What service is this? I did not even expect much in places like these but they can botch up a simple breakfast experience in such a way! Cannot even follow a simple queue of first come first served. Needless to say I had blacklisted the shop and it is not likely to get my patronage any time soon.

It is not only eateries that offer bad examples of service. Even clinics are guilty. I am not referring to government clinics. This is a private clinic. A child specialist doctor to be exact. I brought my 4 month old son to the clinic early one morning. The clinic opens at 9am and we were there about 9.30pm

There were already quite a number of parents there at the time so we were prepared to wait for a while before the doctor got to us. When we registered we were told by the nurse that we had to wait for about 1 hour! We were shocked. Although there were people there before us, surely there's not so many as to qualify for a one hour wait. The nurse just gave us a apolegetic grin and we sat down to wait.

It was then that I realized why the wait was so long. Other parents had phoned in to the clinic and registered their child before even setting one foot into the premises. The nurse just put all names into one single queue, regardless whether you were present or not. So as we waited, we saw numerous parents just come in and was quickly called in to the consultation room.

I do not think that this is at all fair to people who are already in the clinic. How can you put all the names into one single queue? The clinic should do a 2 queue system and put priority to those who were already present at the clinic. Those who phone in should be put into another queue and when they arrive, they would need to announce their presence before they can be slotted into the present queue.

Private hospital emergency rooms are no better it seems. Although I cannot say it for all private hospitals, I can surely say it for one that I have been to not once but 3 times. Service is slow. The worst one was where we had to wait for more than 3 hours just to be seen by the doctor on duty. Why the long wait? There was only one doctor on duty after 9pm.

We were there shortly before 9pm and saw 2 doctors on duty. The ER was crowded and we registered our name and waited. After a while we realised that there was only one doctor left. By the time we left it was past 1am!

The main reason we went to a private hospital is to avoid the long queue but it seems that there's no difference at all. And we were in the ER no less! Although most of the cases do not qualify as a full blown emergency but it is bad service to let all those people wait for hours before getting treatment and then charging patients through the nose for all the inconveniences. People can get the long queues at government hospitals and the upside is after all the waiting, the treatment is FOC.