Kev booked out late this evening, so I decided to have dinner with him at Jurong Point. We had dinner at the outdoors food court. It struck me halfway through dinner as to why despite the fact that it was outdoors and there was absolutely NO aircon save for a few miserable fans spinning on top, the food here pretty much remains at the same price compared to those in the interior of the shopping centre.

Seriously, I don't know. I always thought the reason why people pay for such overpriced food(that normally tatstes worse than hawker food fare) is because compared to a hawker centre, there's a better environment especially AIR CON. Very ironic hor? What a rip off, it's not like food from a food court makes it branded or anything. And it's not like my plate of Hokkien Mee was especially wonderful as well (at least the quantity was worth the price). If I didn't have the chilli, I would have found my meal a little bland, and there were too many of those white noodle strands (hate them, no taste). Worse, THE PRAWNS WERE UNSHELLED EEEEE! I confess I have absolutely no superior tongue twisting skills to get the flesh out of prawn shells, so such meals are a turnoff for me. No more hokkien mee from that stall next time! Maybe I can try their carrot cakes, hmmm...

So me and Kev went inside for a little shopping trip as I still haven't bought my diary. ( lazy la) We went into ArtBox and I went searching for some nice cute books. After spending close to 10 mins bugging Kev to choose a design, I proceeded to bring the books to the cashier. Oh and I must add, I was fishing through all the designs when I realised there were different price tags on the same design! One at $10.90, another at $7.90. But since the rest of the books were all tagged at $7.90 I felt that it was a decent enough price and wanted to buy them.

Imagine to my amazement when the 2 books I laid at the cashier churned out a whooping $20+ bucks on the cashier's screen. The unsuspecting girl looked at me and said," That's a total of $21.80 please." I looked at the screen again and told her,"Doesn't the price tag on your book state $7.90? How can it be the price on the screen?"

Immediately she called over some other lady to help her verify the price of the books. I heard blabbers of tag say this price, but scan say another price blahblahblah. And the verdict? It was indeed at a bloody price tag of $10.90. WHAT. THE. FUCK. $7.90 for some interesting design with undecorated and obviously fullscape paper bound together as a book, I can still tahan. Now you say $10.90? I was so tulan with it, I shot back at the girl,"Then why didn't you price your books correctly? So misleading!" The poor girl immediately apologised and said they priced their tags incorrectly with an apologetic face to go along.

At that very point of time, I wanted to continue unravelling the bitch inside me and start to rant on CASE and what shit that I could possibly conjure up to make the one who said the freaking "it's $10.90 actually" phrase paiseh (PRC, gah), but one look at the girl's face stopped me. Being in the service sector for a short while, I know how shitty it is to get slapped verbally in the face when unreasonable people complain at you because the customer is always right, and you can't argue back. So I just told the cashier girl I wasn't buying the books anymore and walked out of the shop with Kevin silently following me.

Once I was away from the shop though, I immediately sprouted my actual complaint to my poor boyfriend who STILL STAYED SILENT. Maybe he thought it was better not to say something. When girls get angry, what also can nit pick one, or at least me. Hmph smart.

p/s: apparently if a good is priced lower than supposed, the retailer is obliged to charge it at that price. My sister encountered this senario before and used this rule on the shop and got it at the lower price. Anyone cares to verify?

Then grumpy me walked into Guardian to buy some neccessities. I headed to the cashier and I was immediately struck by the scene around the counter. Not only were all the cashiers MALE, the queue actually extended to reach the entrance of the store. Ok male cashiers, never mind. Not like they haven't seen PANTYLINERS before right? Condom also won't paiseh, cuz they aren't really suppose to comment in the line of work. But a queue towards the entrance? Bloody crap. I had the vivid image of me waving frantically and jumping excitedly at the end of the queue holding my package of pantyliners while all the diners and passerbys stared at me. That's just how embarrassing it is. I mean come on la, which girl in the right mind will hold a package of pads in their hands and walk through a crowded shopping centre?!?! We need secrecy, secrecy, and I NEED SECRECY ALSO!!!

So I just queued silently and pressed the package to the side of my body that was facing the interior of the store. At that very point of time, I was thinking which retard started to queue towards the entrance forcing everyone to follow suit.

I was second in line to the cashier when one of the male cashiers popped out and was saying in a very meek and hesitant voice," Erm can you all queue the other side please..." while gesturing. So I just left the queue and went the other way while the rest...

JUST REMAINED WHERE THEY WERE. W.T.F. Tmd! Not only did I be a nice and cooperating customer, I sacrificed my 2nd-in-line-payment!!!! How nice can I get? But NO, everyone had to be fucking kiasu and the bugger originally behind me just moved up to stand in my previous position! Fuck kiasu Singaporeans even though I'm one also! I was glaring at them and none of them budged. At this very point of time, that meek assistant caught me looking and lived up to his name. "Erm can you all...." *flails hands a little. Then everyone ignored him and he just walked away, head in defeat (ok I made that up).

TMD!

To make things even better. The 2 cashiers made not a SINGLE move to assist their meek colleague and continued to take products from the fake queuers and Ti!Ti!Ti! "That will be $11.60. Do you have 5 cents? Do you have 5 cents? Do you have 5 cents?" The cashier that I was queueing up for was woefully inept in handling cards and was still going on with it when the fake queue finished. So I just went to the other counter.

I was so pissed with today's happenings that I told Kev that I wanted to go home immediately (even when I haven't bought the diary). And yes we did ( well I did buy some Lao Po Bing on the way) and I'm MUCH happier now drinking my bubble tea while typing this post.

Sometimes, life can be so much more pleasant with the cheap options near home. It's not everytime that going to a morden and glitzy shopping centre that will make you go home satisfied and happy.

Labels: complaints

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