Why Singapore’s Service Standard Can Never Improve

From the Straits Times Forum
http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_353774.html

Wishing to express their gratitude, some people wrote in to the Straits Times forum.

Forgot ATM cash but...
'There are Singaporeans honest enough to return what
does not belong to them.' 'MR R. SIVASUBRAMANIAM: 'On Feb16, I withdrew $160
from the POSB Siglap Branch 2, but instead of removing the money, I made another
transaction - transferring money to my credit card account - and left the ATM
machine. When I reached home, I realised I did not have the money and I must
have left it at the machine. I thought that, by the time, if I went back,
someone would have taken it and was resigned to the loss. Instead, I received a
letter subsequently informing me that the money had been credited to my account.
My sincere thanks to the person who found the money and gave it to the POSB
branch. There are Singaporeans honest enough to return what does not belong to
them. The POSB officials took the trouble to trace the owner and credit the
money to my account, living up to their slogan that they really care for their
customers.'

Which drew this comment:

Hey Mr. R. sivasubramaniamI presume you are an innocent foreigner and donot know much about ATM. (By the way do you have ATMs in India?). When you draw money in ATM and forget to take it, the money will be witheld by the machine itself..!!!!!!! So the bank will credit the money into the same account. Did you think somebody took the money and went to the POSB to deposit it? Are you a kid? (Even in that case how can the person know whose account it is). I have seen many people coming from India so amazed at Singapore that they never close their mouth which they wide opened.

Posted by: ganesharmak at Tue Mar 24 09:23:05 SGT 2009

Eh, ganesharmak, you last time blur blur take the money out of the slot and left it on the machine and nobody return you is it? So upset for what? AH I KNOW. YOU SAW THE MONEY WANT TO TAKE THEN SOMEONE ELSE TAKE RIGHT!

You never saw what happened, and neither did I. Let’s not make the hasty conclusion that Mr Sivasubramaniam got his money back because the machine retrieved it, or that someone wanted to pocket the money but was not allowed to.

Mr Sivasubramaniam is grateful for receiving his money back. No matter how or why he managed to get his $160 back, he has at least bothered to show his gratitude.

How many of us do this in Singapore?

Ganesharmak, if you want to make snide comments about someone’s compliment, perhaps it would be advisable for you to read the entire post PROPERLY. Mr Sivasubramaniam never once mentions that the person who found his money deposited it into his account; he merely says that person returned it to the POSB branch, and even talks about POSB officials tracing the owner.

Even if you are the programmer of the machine, who may have had to work overtime to incorporate the function of retrieving money that was left in the slot, I still do not feel that need for you to lash out at Mr Sivasubramaniam in this manner.

Of course, by reading Ganesharmak’s comment about the following post, we can all see that he 吃饱没事做.

Gracious gesture
'A Filipino had found my wallet and handed it over before he
left the country.' CAPT A. HARI: 'After a cricket game, I lost my wallet in
Rangoon Road, with cash, credit cards, IC and driving licence. Needless to say,
this was a nightmare and after a lots of searching and retracing my steps, I
gave up finding it and went about doing the needful. On Sunday at noon, I
received a call from Mr Rahmat of Changi Airport Auxiliary Police who said a
Filipino had found my wallet and handed it over before he left the country. I
went to Terminal 1 to retrieve the wallet. My faith in mankind went up several
notches when I found it intact, with nothing missing. I commend Mr Rahmat and
the Filipino.'

Capt Hari,Just say you lost your wallet in Rangoon Road. Why do you prefix it with 'After a game of cricket...." You want everyone of us to know that you are a cricket player? This lazy game has no followers in Singapore except you and your colleagues. Better play it in India. We love soccer.
Posted by: ganesharmak at Tue Mar 24 12:54:32 SGT 2009

Run out of ‘witty’ remarks about how stupid it is for one to be grateful when one’s lost items are returned? Or perhaps, in this case, you had to grudgingly agree that Capt Hari should have thanked the people for returning his wallet intact, but still wanted to have the last say?

We, Singaporeans, are guilty of the crime of not showing our gratitude enough. How often do we smile at service staff? Or say “you’re welcome” when they thank us for our patronage?

But do we, Asians who love our ‘face’ so much, dare to thank people when doing so could result in us being ridiculed by faceless members of the public?

I’ll never forget the time when I just returned from a trip to Australia. Say whatever you will about them looking down on Asians; our service standard is a far cry from theirs. I bought a bus stamp at Clementi Interchange, and because I was so used to it, after the sales person handed it to me, I smiled and him and said ‘thank you’.

He stared at me, as if I was insane.

Yes, I guess I am insane. Up till today, I still don’t understand why he didn’t smile back. (Ganesharmak-type-reply: coz you smile like lecher and he scared of you)

“Courtesy begins with me”. But how long can your pool of courtesy last if nobody around wants to reciprocate it? Or, even worse, if the whole world puts you down each and every time you try to show your gratitude?