X'mas Eve

Spent a simple X'mas Eve dinner with babobei & his forum friends at Coca Steamboat buffet @ Ngee Ann City. Overall dinning experience was 1/10. Well, due to the service attitude! Just as we were enjoying our buffet half-way, we were told by the manager that we would have to leave by 8:00pm as there was a reservation by another guest. Alas! Have you heard of buffet dinner whereby they "chase" you out while you were half-way dinning? That is besides the point. Most vital of all, they didn't highlighted to us initially that there was a time-restriction during festive season. Not even so when we made repeated ordering of food. That tupid auntie waitress even argued that she did stated so when baobei made the reservation over the call. Where got? She only asked him what time he wanted to make the reservation, at 6pm or 8pm?! Worst, she even claimed that out of good will, she gave us a private dinning room... and asked us to give in and leave at 8:30pm. Come on, no one pre-empt us that we can only dinned till 8:00pm, sianz.... The guy manager's attitude was bad too, entering abruptly and asking us to leave soon. Is that how a restaurant treats a paying customer? Finally, when serene talks to him again and displayed our real unhappiness, he replied that we can stay as long as we wanted to and its ok. In the end, we stayed till about 9 plus, and continued our casual chi-chat and food. And just when we were about to foot the bill & leave, they decided to offer us a complimentary platter of fruits to appease our unhappiness. But we declined and don't gave a hoots for the fruits. And mind you, through out the entire incident, not even a word of apology from the manager, except that one of the "sissy" waiter whom tried to cheer us up asking us not to be angry etc. He was quite funny, making small-talks, jokes but not forgetting to "suan" us even. But we did the same to him, haha... Last but not least, guess this will be the 1st & last time to patronise this restaurant. The food selection was so so, not worth the kind of price we paid for per head which was about $40.
Not even worth the price for the kind of service attitude. This makes me think of recently, I've just attended a "Think-Customer" training organised by my company. Whereby one of the interesting topics was, there are generally 2 types of customers, 1. Talker - customers whom will immediately feedback their unhappiness at that moment. Which is infact good for the service provider to turn a dissatisfied customer into a satisfied one. 2. Walker - customers whom will not show or tell their unhappiness at that moment. These are the dangerous ones whom will after the incident, tell of their experiences by "word-of-mouth" to another 10 of their friends. This makes it practically impossible for the service provider to make amends for complaints etc. Guess I myself is more like a walker, hee.... but also depends on the situation.

Ok, enough of this unpleasant dinning experience. After which, we went to look for a quiet location to continue our chit-chat, drinks and waiting for the count-down. Most important, to avoid the car & human traffic.

So, wondering how did you guys/ gals spent your X'mas eve? =) Sincerely wishing you all a very Happy & Merry X'mas!!! With boutiful gifts & wishes coming true during this festive season! And most vital of all, to be with your loved ones enjoying the moment. (",)

Awww... I'm so happy to hear a good news from my ex-colleague, Kitson. His baby boy, Shane was born early this morning. A X'mas Baby! Congrats to his bundle of joy & what can be more special than spending your christmas with a new little ones to celebrate together with. Can't wait to see pictures of baby Shane or IRL, hee...