Service with a smile or a scowl?

I recently bought cooked food items at a local hypermarket. The food concerned was quite tasty and reasonably priced.

As with a lot of good concepts, sometimes the potential is very much reduced by the attitudes of the staff who face the customers. I am referring to the staff who manned this food counter, especially the older Malay lady who cooked the food. Her attitude left much to be desired, in fact it bordered on the outright rude. On the first occasion when I enquired if the food were ready at around 11.30am, she brusquely replied 'lepas pukul dua belas!' - (after 12.00 pm!). Okay, so I was early – it wasn't my fault to ask. On the second occasion, I asked her if a particular dish was chicken or fish, she practically shouted “ikan!” (fish!) at me. I had to ask her as the dish was non-descript – I couldn't tell if it was chicken or fish. Was it too much to ask such a question? Was it her attitude that those who purchase such affordably priced food had no right or dignity to enquire?

I have always felt that if a person wasn't happy with the job or felt the work was beneath her, she could always quit and apply her talents elsewhere. I am sure she is not there by force. There are probably lots of people who would gladly fill her shoes and smile in the process too. So I wrote up a complaint note and prepared to email it off to the management of the hypermarket concerned. As fate would have it, my complaint couldn't get through their server – was it possible they purposely set it up to reject complaints? No complaints coming through means that everything was hunky-dory, right?

Anyway, I went there a third time, determined that it would be the last and final time I would go to that counter – the abuse wasn't worth it after all. Surprise, surprise – the same woman was at the counter, instead of glowering at me, she was actually smiling and struck up some small talk with me. I am sure she didn't get a talking to by her management as my complaint didn't get through their computer server. I came away feeling non-plussed with this about turn of attitude, even more confused about the moods of people in this world. At the same time too, I was glad my complaint didn't get through – God only knows how many dependents she has to support from this job. It wouldn't bear well with my conscience if she got sacked because of my complaint. Oh well, live and let live.