Merepek

A couple of times a month, I will pop by one of the branch office of the tigerbank to check on my current account transactions. It is quite simple and fast actually - the staff at the customer service counter will just punch a few buttons, I give a quick glance and I'm on my way.

And this morning after my appointment in PJ, I thought I'd just walk over to the tigerbank at the next building. I greeted the staff standing at the customer service counter and put through my request. "Tunggu ya, Puan" she said. A short while later, she directed me to another officer who was sitting further inside.

I then walked towards the officer who was in the midst of shuffling and filing some papers. Greeted her, but she did not reciprocate; maybe she doesn't know any better. I repeated my request and without looking up, she said, "Pakai internet banking lah". I told her that I do not use the facility and just wanted to see my transactions only but that bozo continued, "Register sekarang juga." Exasperated, I patiently repeated myself for the third time and that woman, still shuffling the papers, just said, "Duduk sana tunggu dulu." Oh my, that was rude! For a second, I thought I was at one of those gahmen departments.

Expletives was already at the tip of my tongue but civility on my part prevailed. Took a deep breath, just leaned towards her a little and told her in the most polite way I could muster, "Maaf lah. Nampaknya kerja Cik punching holes urgent sangat. I jumpa officer lain saja, ya?" I walked away and approached another lady officer who was just plain polite and helped me with my request without any fuss.

I would say that nowadays most banks are quite customer-friendly unlike years ago whereby you would find sullen-faced tellers manning the counters whose idea of a good workday is perhaps to frightened away as many customers as possible. Currently, competition is real stiff and thus the banks now invest heavily to improve and to be a cut above others in all aspects of customer care and customer service. But I guess a couple or so of the bozo-types somehow managed to escape the overhauling process.