I realize that I may sound like a stereotypical American in this post but I just need to take a moment to vent.
When we first moved into our current accommodation, we asked if there were laundry facilities on site or if there was someone on staff we could pay to do our laundry. The answer was the latter so we took our laundry down the next day. Turns out, this was supposed to have been an under-the-table arrangement since they had technically stopped offering laundry service. (Maybe that would have been a helpful thing to mention?) Fortunately for us, they agreed to start it up again and we had clean laundry at the end of the day for a fair price.
On Monday, we took our laundry down again and spent all day at the apartment waiting for it to finish. When Dan finally went downstairs to check on it, everyone had left and we had to scrounge through the few remaining clean clothes we had to find something respectable to wear to dinner. The next day, we tracked down the laundry woman and got MOST of our laundry back. The sheets, pillowcases, and towels – the very items that contributed to a larger than average bill – were conspicuously missing. After pointing this out, the items were returned later in the day.
On Friday, Dan went downstairs with another load of laundry in anticipation of our trip to Singapore. He paid, they took the laundry, and we thought it was settled. Instead, the woman who does the laundry came rushing back after him with our clothes and basically said she didn’t feel like doing it today. She would do it on Saturday but it wouldn’t be ready until Monday and she wouldn’t wash underwear. (Note to readers: They use washing machines. We were not asking anyone to hand-wash our underwear.)
This is when I really started getting annoyed. Okay, the customer service had kind of sucked up until this point but at least, eventually, we were getting clean, dry clothes. But when a service is offered and you pay for that service, there’s a reasonable expectation that the service will be performed. On top of that, if it’s really so inconvenient, just charge me more. I’ll pay it. Really. I’m happy to put a price on dependability and convenience. Plus, I’m still thinking in dollars. Take advantage of that! Just take my money and give me clean clothes by the end of the day. You have the facilities, the time, a willing customer, and you claim to offer a service – why wouldn’t you want to be a little enterprising here? It truly boggles my mind.
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On a semi-related note, we had an experience in South Africa that set off the same this-is-not-how-you-run-a-business indignation with me. We were returning overdue books to the library for Dan’s aunt and she owed a fair amount of money. It turns out we were short one book. Since we had the money for the late fee with us, we offered to pay for the other books while we were there. The response: an unequivocal “no”. They wouldn’t take the money until all of the books were returned since they didn’t have a process for collecting partial late fees. I have to admit that I was incredulous. I probably said something along the lines of “Why don’t you figure out a process to take this money??!! I am trying to give you money that you are owed!”
Let’s just say that this is not how I would handle my business transactions. I would definitely take people’s money PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY OWED IT TO ME.
Tags: Business, Kuala Lumpur, Laundry, Library, Money, Singapore, South Africa, Travel
