Wild women of the wild, wild West

And I don't mean the Perthlings. You know who you are.

399 is like a small village community. Everyday we see the same old people patronising our foodcourt. We know who is who, who likes to eat what, we share news, we are friends.

Yesterday, three ladies came to complain to me about certain food they ordered that didn't turn out right. I noticed they have been patronising us only for the past week or so. I bet they're planning out their modus operandi during this stretch of time.

Some customers, tenants and workers came to me today to share with some things about these ladies.

Apparently, they're consters.

I also bet that they didn't take into consideration that tenants have stalls elsewhere and not just one stall in one foodcourt in the whole of Singapore, that even their workers move from outlet to outlet and that our dear, old customers do eat elsewhere too.

These conwomen have a baaaad reputation in the wild west of Singapore.

They target food establishments for freebies or goodies by picking on lousy service or lousy food. They do this for a living. They had this impression that FNS is a new company. What they didn't know is that we do already have several other FNS outlets which are part of a bigger company which has been around for many years.

Obviously they hadn't been to other FNS outlets and thought FNS 399 was one small company and the only FNS outlet around. I mean they can't pick a food establishment to con more than once right?

Now that I recall back to yesterday, yes it did seem they're trying to pull a fast one on me.

Firstly the auntie pulled me aside looking urgent while I was in the middle of interviewing someone for a job. Bah! Crap acting! Clue No 1.

So anyway, the first thing she hit me with was a sob story. Clue No 2. Before anything, she already started by telling me that the kids whom she was with weren't hers. They were her late sister's kids who passed away last month. Yeah, sure. Uh huh.

After that she tried to win me by saying that the kids loooove FNS 399 so much and they aaaalways go there as they enjoy the food and ambience so much. Clue No 3 but I wasn't buying.

Then she said that she had no intention to benefit from this (Clue No 4) but she felt that it was the right thing to do. She felt that it was her God-given duty to inform me that the boiled eggs they were served were spoilt, the kaya on the waffle was sour, the ice jelly dessert had one big ant in it and that the fried banana fritters had one piece of hair.

This was 1830hrs ladies and gentlemen. How in the world did we get through the first 9 hours of operation yesterday without one single complaint and now suddenly, FOUR at a go? Clue No 5.

According to my customer friends, tenants and workers, they finished everything they were served including the free goodwill replacements before they went to me to complain. Clue No 6.

Nevertheless, I apologised for the unfortunate series of mistakes.

All this time her partners in crime, two of her "nieces" entered the conversation one by one to pressurise me.

I didn't budge.

I'd like to think my management skills have improved ever since working for this company and one of the stronger attributes I believe I possess is "equality to all". I treat everyone fair and square.

During our conversation, my supervisor tried to come in to defend herself and I said no. Go away. I wanna listen to the lady first and after that I'd attend to her. Even when the tenants tried to butt in when they needed my help, I said no, later.

After a while, it occured to me that they were looking to benefit from this afterall. They're just going on and on saying that it's not about the money but kept quoting examples of what they gained from the past from complaining to hotels and a few other food establishments like getting free vouchers, free this and free that. They're totally contradicting themselves. Clue No 7.

I didn't budge.

Then they brought in the fact that one of the "nieces" works in a hotel and that if someone was to bring up something like this to any one of them, they'd definitely bend over backwards to make up for their "mistake". Why the need bring this up if you're not looking to benefit? Clue No 8.

If they thought I was gonna kow tow to them, grab a knife and commit harakiri in shame in front of them, they thought wrong. I'm not the kind of guy you pick on for these games.

I didn't budge.

Then the other "niece" pretended to call someone on the phone called Patrick to give the impression that she's lodging a complain while the others threatened me in a subtle way "You don't want news of this to spread to the local papers, do you?" and "You don't want this to affect your cleanliness rating, riiiight?" Clue No 9.

Nice try, but no. I didn't budge.

Finally I told them look, I was in the middle of giving an interview to someone and I need to get back to him right then. For the benefit of the doubt, I admitted there were a few mistakes but I wouldn't be able to take any action by continuing to sit around at the table. I have to then listen to my supervisor's side of the story, verify the problems and rectify them and to do those, believe it or not, I must actually leave my seat.

And then they went berserk. Clue No 10.

Suddenly I was blamed for not doing anything about it (Whaaaat?!?!?!). Suddenly they pointed fingers at me that whatever I and we do behind the scene, God is watching us as though they're accusing us of trying to cheat our customers deliberately. Suddenly I was accused of not giving a damn and they knew that I thought that I could afford to lose them as customers as there will always be others. Suddenly they accused me of not addressing their concerns enough and they felt I was putting a time limit on them.

All the while I was calm, cool and composed. I think I actually pissed them off.

Excuse me, did I not attend to them immediately even though I was in the middle of an interview?

Did I not tell my supervisor to shut up and go away when she wanted to butt in to defend herself as I wanted to hear their side of the story first?

Did I not tell my tenants to wait for I thought these women's concerns were more important?

Another thing was, I thought after attending to them which I thought would be short (but I thought wrong), I could finish up my interview and then attend to my tenants' needs as my appointment with God (evening Maghrib prayer) was coming and that is more important than anything else for me. I had all of ten minutes left by then before I had to go to the mosque.

But I still did. Not. Budge.

I think they gave up on me. For once, I was happy to be given up upon. Anyway they asked for my superior's number. They finally decided I was a waste of their precious time. Hmmm, maybe they they thought they should try another guy to con since they've already put so much effort into this? I gave them Eric's.

Eric came and went.

I knew Eric would diffuse the situation. We're like two ends of a magnet but we work well together. He's more of Yes man than I am. He says what other people want to hear. He apologised profusedly.

That makes him the PR person between us. I just do the actual work around.

On an aside, I didn't really like the way Eric tackled this problem or other problems in the past. His goal has always been that as long as the problem-making element walks out the door, the problem is solved.

But the problem is still here, in us, the tenants, my supervisor and I. He pacified the conwomen but he didn't give us much of a chance to explain what really happened on the ground when he wasn't around.

To him, he da man but to the tenants and my supervisor, I da man. I am da man among manly men. I am - The Calamity Man.