I am highly disgusted by the kind of service your staff provide at your Clementi Mall outlet.
Firstly, when I entered your shop, I wanted to enquire one of your staff (whom I believe to be from China, as she has a strong Chinese accent) whether your bread can be kept overnight, but she gave me a very nonchalant comment in Chinese, "Yes...depends on what bread, and you have to put it in the fridge...".
So I thanked her and began picking out the bread I want. After figuring out where the queue starts, I headed over to the end of the queue and that same staff was mopping the floor.
Let me tell you, she was sticking the end of the mop out, and the area for customers to queue is quite tight! I had to step around the wet area and her mop, and she didn't even say "excuse me" or "sorry about that".
I queued for about 5 minutes, waiting for my turn at the cashier when the same staff bumped into me on her way into the back of the shop, where I presume would be your office or staff's corner.
Again, no "I'm sorry!" or "excuse me".
I started to feel quite annoyed, until another staff did the same to me!
Although I might be standing near the entrance to the cashier counter and office, can't your staff have the least bit of basic manners to ask me to step aside before pushing their way in!?
Now, I thought that was over, but the next part which I'm going to tell you really gave me a negative experience as a customer.
When I was paying for my bread (I bought 2 Hello Panda bread which costs S$1.80 each, but I didn't know it then because there weren't any labels at the tray where I took the bread), 2 of your staff were at the counter, and one of them is Nicole, who also has a PRC accent. I believe the other is from the Philippines though, judging from her accent...I shall call her "A", as I forgot to take note of her name...
I was opening my wallet as I was paying for my purchases and I heard "A" saying, "S$3.50."
I didn't have S$3 in small change so I gave her S$10.50 instead because I didn't want any more coins in my wallet. She then returned me S$6.10 (A S$5 note and one S$1 coin and a ten cent coin).
I told her that I think the amount of change she gave me is wrong and the two, Nicole and "A" started bickering with one another about what the change should be.
It dawned on me that the amount is actually different, so I asked how much is the amount again. "A" said, "S$3.60!", and continued talking to her co-worker about the amount of change I should be getting.
So I opened my wallet to hand her a 10 cent coin, and returned all the change she gave me back, so she can return the correct amount of change again.
So essentially, I gave her S$10.60 in all. And because my 2 Hello Panda Bread should cost a total of S$3.60, I should get S$7 in change right?
No! She proceeded to the next customer and totally forgot about returning me my change!
I calmly told her that they haven't done so, and they got into a bit of a panic as there were a few customers waiting behind me...Even a Caucasian lady who was a customer behind me in the queue told them to settle my change first before doing up her bill.
All in all, I don't know if it's because of the noise in the shop, coupled with her thick accent that I heard her saying the wrong amount, but the fact that "A" gave me the wrong amount of change even then (S$10.50 - S$3.60 = S$6.90, not S$6.10!!!!!!!!!!), and they can even forget about my change later.
It is understandable that it might have been noisy and hectic for them, to calculate wrongly, but when I checked my receipt, I realised "A" did not key in the amount I gave her, instead she put it in as S$3.60. Which means she did a mental calculation on her own.
Who knows how many other customers were shortchanged as a result of her bad mathematical skills!?
Also, I feel that the kind of service your staff provide is really lacking to what reputation your company have as a renowned bread shop all over Singapore and in the region. I frankly feel disgusted that you might have hired foreigners because of the "cheap labour" and as a result, their standard of spoken English just isn't there.
It is understandable that to gain more profits, you might have hired workers who may demand lower pay, but please at least do something to brush up their spoken English before they are required to serve a multi-racial nation with the English language as the main language used for communication, okay!
What if I weren't Chinese? How would the PRC staff have communicated with me?!
What if I wasn't paying attention to the amount of change I received?
I hope you can do something to improve the level of service your staff provides after reading my complaint.
Thanks.
