From ‘Can’t recall wife’s birthday, so no help from telco’, 11 March 2011, Voices, Today
(Jimmy Ng Kim Kok): Two days ago, I received a frantic call from my wife who is on holiday overseas, saying that her handbag containing her mobile phone had been stolen.
Immediately, I called M1 to ask for her phone line to be suspended. I was asked to provide my wife’s name, phone number, address, postal code, IC number – to all of which I gave the correct reply. Then, I was asked her date of birth. When I said I could not really remember, I was told my desperate request could not be acceded to. Weren’t the correct replies I gave earlier sufficient for them to act?
As the last straw, I was told to call my wife to ask for her birth date. How could I, when her phone had been stolen!
I hung up the phone and am now waiting for the phone bill to come.
Strange cliffhanger at the end, with the complainant resigning to being charged an extravagant phone bill from the culprit rather than finding means of retrieving such information without crawling in shame to his wife’s friends or worse, his in laws for help. Which is why everyone should have a Facebook account, in case people forget their significant others’ birthdays, full name or their favorite colour, so that they can obtain such details discreetly without making a fool of themselves. It’s really not that uncommon for husbands to forget birthdays in brief moments of panic, especially when you have a spouse who expects you to recall multiple anniversaries, all her dental appointments and even your pets’ birthdays. But it takes some astonishing nerve to broadcast your failings for the whole world to see, which includes not just his wife, but his children, his wife’s friends, and the in laws as well. You could almost hear the collective awkward whispers of ‘Oops’ from everyone in the country and beyond reading this incriminating complaint.
To top it all off, he then proceds to divert the blame from himself to the telco for abiding by protocol, when the sensible thing to do here would be to find out which hotel his wife was staying in (where she would most likely be after losing her hangbag, not shopping) and just call her directly, if she weren’t calling from someone else’s mobile phone already. Which was what the staff at M1 probably meant anyway, before Jimmy hung up the phone and started sulking instead of doing something with a little more common sense than telling everyone you can’t remember your wife’s date of birth. Top pick for the ‘Unintentional self-shaming’ award.
Filed under: 2011, Corporations, Customer service | Tagged: customer service, telcos | 1 Comment »
