All because of a paper bag....

I met a really ridiculous customer today. It'll be more accurate to call her a crazy b**** but i'll refrain from that.

I had no idea how things turned out this way but i suspect that it was a mis-communication on both sides. What happened was, well, I have no idea how things turned out this way. Let me recap to the best of my effort.

I served this lady and her son, who was carrying a large Taka bag. Since she bought only 2 items, i gave her a small bag and she asked for a long bag instead. Those the Galleria used to put the wine boxes.

That was a strange request. NSE does not have such bags. Our bags only comes in small, medium and large, and rectangle - all of them. We don't have any long bags, maybe, the large green bag which was longer than it was wider. But that couldn't be it, could it? it's only 2 small items - a moisturizer and a hair spray. I offered her a medium sized bag and she refused.

She said some things extremely quickly and all i could catch was "i want long bags" and "my son" and "bags". Huh?

I asked politely for her to repeat again and slow down because i can't catch what she said. After all, it was pretty busy that time and there are a lot of noise.

She repeated and said something along the lines of, "scissors." and "have to put into the paperbag for her son to carry." Her son seem to agree carrying the stuff inside the Taka bag. I mean, he was nodding.

Deducing that she wanted to put the items into the bag, fine, i got her a bag of scissors to cut the bag open, put her stuff in, and used a scotch tape to seal it again.

Thing spiraled downhill faster than you can say Speed. She lost her temper and started scolding. Of course, in such situations, me as the service representative should be the one apologizing. And that's what i did. After all, customers are always right. But said woman went overboard.

"Are you a christian? you do believe in the afterlife? Because you just made my son carry such a heavy burden, how are you going to repay him in your next life? You owed my son...."

"You are so vicious to make him carry such a burden. I want to see your manager." She demanded, ignoring her son who was desperately trying to pull her out of the place. A customer nearby rolled his eyes at her in disgust, or so Newbie told me.

I got PL (one of the 2 senior) since boss is not around. When i came out, the lady was not around. Well, she appeared a few minutes later back in the showcase, with her kid running after her. I guessed the kid must have successfully dragged his mother out into the lift lobby, before losing the battle.

Anyway, You know what that crazy woman demanded? she demanded a name card from her. We're DSRs - the lowest dept in the company hierarchy. "Where on earth does she expect me to get the namecard from? Does she expect me to give birth to one?!" PL had exclaimed, after the showcase was closed. But anyway, back to the story....

And Ms Crazy can still say, "either give me a name card or I'll write in to the general manager. I don't want to blow the matter up."

Dudette, the matter is already blown up wider than universe. In the end, PL returned and told me that apparently, all she wanted was a paper bag. There, i'm confused. I had offered her the bag, she refused. Apparently, PL was confused as well. PL knew that if the woman wanted it, i would have given the whole crate to her. That's how generous with paper bags NSE is with the customers. PL also said that the woman beat around the bush often. She was also confused by her as well.

Gosh, All because of a paper bag... thinking about it, alright, it may have been my fault but there was no need to be so insulting.

In the first place:

1) It's just an extra moisturizer and hair spray. How heavy can it get? I don't think her precious son is so weak and pampered as to not be able to carry 2 items?

2) If said woman is such a strong believer in kharma, then the kharma she owed me for being so vicious is greater than what i owed her son (or so E said). What have me being a christian or not has to do with the whole situation?

3) She's being an embarrassment to society. In the first place, for causing such a huge scene, she's disgracing herself and her son. For another, she's holding up the queue and troubling the other customers.

She didn't feel embarrassed by her actions but her son is. I kinda pity her son, really. He had the desperate, embarrassed, Oh-no-not-again look. So i guess this is not the first time something like this happened.

As DSRs in NSE Singapore, we faced and endured scoldings before. NSE is a MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company. Our distributors will most likely face a great amount of pressure and stress. After all, people working in MLM tends not to have many friends (they're all afraid of you) especially with the negative impression Singaporeans have of MLM (it's being linked to Cons, depsite the positive light the media had tried to cast on it).

We understand - perfectly. After all, who are the ones they vent their anger on? Us.
I always believed in providing the best services which is straight from the heart and genuinely hope to help better their business. After all, that is what i told myself to do as a Distributor Support Executive. But some distributors really crossed the line. They became demanding, rude and unreasonable when they don't get their way.

Often, we as DSRs became sandwiched between the company's policies and the distributors' demands. The company came up with the policies but we are the ones facing the customers and more often than not, the company end up giving the OK signal to bend the rules. It often seems like the number of times we bend the rules are far more than the distributors actually obeying them. If that's the case, what are the policies implemented for?

Instead of an enriching, uplifting culture, what the company had managed to produce is a materialistic, greedy and ungracious culture. I even suspected the new policies are a weak attempt by the company in controlling the distributors. Too bad, too late. For capitalism, the company had bent over backwards to please an ungrateful, self centered crowd - It's stuck in that position.