just minishorts.

Just the other night a friend, who was having a senseless tiff with her darling over a case of 'why doesn't he ever buy me anything without me asking him for it' situation, called me for a hearing shoulder to cry on.

Now on any other occasion where I was caught in a more private position, I would have been the fire-stone (batu api) bitch. I would have cheered her on with a 'you go girl, this kind of guy, you can sure f* him up when he gets back.'

As God would have had it, I was caught while sitting in a middle of a very horrible jam near the Rothmans roundabout, with a scowling boyfriend who was obviously fuming with anger at the non-moving crawl we were stuck in, and when my friend's distress call came a-beeping on the mobile, I ended up saying something more sensible like, 'Well hun, he CAN'T be as sensitive as we'd like him to be. I mean… if he were sensitive, he'd be a woman.'

So after a while, over-the-line hugs and it'll be okays done, I clicked the offline button and then Eric, nostrils flared up and voice gruff, said, 'How come you're not THAT sensible when we have our arguments.'

I was very very tempted to snarl at him to say, 'Oh well, that's cos you're a different kettle of fish, altogether', when then, I realised. Like oh yeah man. Did I just surpass myself or what?

So today I'd like to urge daughters, sisters, girlfriends and wives all over to remember this each time you start to think 'Why isn't he not sensitive to what I need?'

Here's the universal truth that you probably knew already deep inside, 'cept you didn't really have the guts to admit it, 'Oh well, hun, if he's sensitive, he'd be a woman.'

So there's that.

If you're a manager for Guardian Pharmacy, and you so happen to read this… I wish to implore you to try to ignore some of the occasional swear-word which I will be presenting in this customer complaint post and see the message that this very disgruntled customer is trying to put across.

I'm going to tell you about what happened over the weekend. Well, specifically, last night after dinner.

Now what happened was this. Eric and I went to Sunway Pyramid to catch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. After getting our tickets, I noticed that the bf seemed to having the onset of a runny nose, so I decided that he needed some Clarinase and we headed for the nearest pharmacy we knew of, which first happened to be Watson's Health and Beauty Store.

Unfortunately, this Watson's branch did not have a pharmacy counter, and I went up to the nearest sales assistant, who was this sweet young lady standing around the shelves ready to provide assistance. Conversation went like this.

Me: You don't have a pharmacy here yeah?
She: Oh I'm sorry, maaf lah, here we don't have pharmacy. So sorry. You could try Guardian downstairs.

See see see! Where got people so nice tell you to go to a competitor's shop one? That's Watson's for you. She even went all the way to tell me how to get to Guardian. "kat Giant bawah tu…' she said, and so I went downstairs.

Well, I did not expect Guardian to have any pharmacist on-duty, knowing Guardian. Now speaking of which, Guardian has a horrible set of pharmacists who are never at the counter when you need them the most. You go to the end of the store near the counter, and you see a schedule, and they're always either off duty or on lunch breaks. Which is hilarious. I'm not sure which huge company policy decided that pharmacist for the Guardian chain works on the normal office shift hours… which makes it impossible for office workers like myself to ever get anything from your counters.

But a bit on that later. Today I'm going to complain about the Store Supervisor first.

So well, I went, Eric was at MPH next door checking out on stuff, and I went to the end of the pharmacy, hoping to get the pharmacist before she got off. A schedule board said that the pharmacist was not in, and I also noted this.

Mondays to Fridays: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A Store Supervisor happened to be lingering in the corner, scowling or something I don't know lah but I decided to ask her anyway, 'Hi Miss, I noticed that the pharmacist is not in.'

'She not on duty,' said the sour-faced woman.

'I see. What time will she be back?' said me, hopeful.

'You come back tomorrow. She's off already.'
'Urm. Is there any other pharmacy in the area where I can get a pharmacist?'

At this point, the stupid bitch stared at me with an expression so blank, you'd think that I had said something idiotic. So I repeated the question again, 'You know? I need something urgently, and it's not really a prescriptive drug. It will be great if you can tell me where I can go to get what I need.'

'You can walk outside. Sure got one.'

KNNCB.

WHAT KIND OF STUPID RESPONSE IS THIS? From the store supervisor some more.

To top up with the atrocious lack of courtesy, just as I was about to say 'Thank you', the bitch turned away just as I uttered the 'Th…'

Guardian Pharmacy and etc., I can say this for sure, your customer service simply SUCKS.

Now since I'm at this, I also want to point out the problem with the Pharmacist On Duty schedule that Guardian has… it's bugged and it makes no sense. You have a Pharmacist on duty from 10 am to 6 pm daily, except for Sundays, where the pharmacist is most likely enjoying his or her holiday like the rest of us. I also recall that if I choose to visit the pharmacy during lunch, the pharmacist is also very likely to be on lunch break.

I'm sorry but there's just no sense in this. This just means that for me, the potential customer, to get anything from your pharmacy, I'd have to take some time off work just to get to the pharmacy in order to catch the pharmacist… that is, if I'm lucky that she'll be in when I get to go.

Also, since I'm at the office from 8 am to 6 pm daily, this just means that it is completely IMPOSSIBLE for me to ever meet a pharmacist on duty at Guardian pharmacy, which leaves me no choice but to run to your direct competitor, Watson's, who of course, has better and more polite sales assistants and a far superior pharmacy, if a branch just happens to have a pharmacy counter.

For example, on Thursday night at around 9.30 pm, I went to the pharmacy at Watson's Midvalley, and a very helpful pharmacist was at the counter ready to provide professional assistance. I'm quite certain that if I were to walk into Guardian instead, there wouldn't be a pharmacist at the counter.

I surfed the net and I checked this off the list of Commitments and Principles at the Guardian website.

Commitment #2 Offer excellent customer service by always having customer's best interests at heart and striving to surpass their expectations.

Principle #2 A customer is not an interruption to our work. He is the purpose for it.

Principle #3 Show enthusiasm in all things you do. It is contagious!

Well, I'd say this, if Guardian's version of 'enthusiasm' is exemplified in the way the Sunway Pyramid branch's store supervisor spoke to me, I'm not quite sure if it's a good thing to say that that attitude ought to be contagious. Right now, as far as I'm concerned, Guardian has got a lot of things to do about training and teaching their workers how to be polite and helpful to disappointed customers like myself.