The Lonely-turned-Disastrous Dinner

The Lonely Dinner

It's Friday. Yes TGIF, you may say. I am still in school at this unearthly hour due to project liabilities. The discussion actually ended earlier at around 6 pm but since

1) I don't want to squeeze into the train with the rush hour crowds, and
2) I haven't eaten since my breakfast of one piece of bread and lunch of a cup of Olive Cove's iced mocha,

I decided to stay around the West first for my first meal of the day - the brunchinner. More letters from 'dinner' since it's technically dinner time. Most unfortunately, the friends of the West are tremendously busy people (it's Friday after all, who stays in school on Fridays to type out blog entries like this? Me loh.) so I decided to have a lonely meal in school - a first since I got matriculated into university. Not surprising though, for I don't usually have meals alone - unless I really have to.

I trotted along Arts to N.US BK for one of my favourite meals in the world - the Mushroom Swiss Double meal. Walked to an empty table, put down my stuff and went to the counter to place an order without hesitating. It's gottabe Mushroom Swiss, nothing else.

An Indian girl was seen backfacing me behind the counter, talking endlessly with another colleague, a Minah to be exact. So I waited.. and waited... and waited. Apparently, I was still being ignored after 10 seconds, afterwhich she turned to pass someone before me his burger. I was not furious, just a little annoyed, but I was lazy to open my mouth anyways so it's partially my fault. Never mind about standard "dos and don'ts" of staff over the counter.

Me: Hi, can I have a Mushroom Swiss Double meal please?
Indian Girl, IG: Upsize? (Her voice was so soft (not the soft spoken sort, but more to the can't-be-bothered sort of soft) I had to strain my ears to digest whatever she was saying before I finally understood.)
Me: Yes please, change the drink to Sprite, and having here. Do I need to show you my matric card?
IG: *mumbles something*
Me: Huh?
IG: S$5.70.

(Whatever happened to the response to the question I asked? Okay, never mind.)

*proceeds to give a S10 bill*

(To put it bluntly, any idiot would know what's the exact change for a ten dollar bill for a meal costing S5.70 - subtract 5.70 from ten, you get 4.30. Any idiot cashier would also know the exact change is automatically calculated by the cash register and is proudly displayed for him/her to present it to the customer.

She opened the cash register, took out a 5 dollar bill and lifted her hand with the bill in it, ready to pass it to me before she hesitated for a bit. Inside my mind, I was screaming "The magic number is 4.30, the magic number is 4.30!!!" but I didn't say it out loud, coz I was really hungry and this kinda stupidity is partially bearable.

What she did next made me want to bang my head on the counter until it bleeds profusely and I die from excessive bleeding.

She put the 5 dollar bill back into the till, went to the back for a while, and when she came back, she brought with her a

CALCULATOR

ZOMG, I screamed in my heart.

If she was nice and friendly from the start, I'd not have minded the lack of intelligence from not being able to calculate... erm... primary school mathematics? But she showed her back at me when I came by. One thing I forgot to mention is I don't believe she didn't see me, if she really did not, her fat Minah colleague would have seen me as she was facing me while talking to her and she'd have alerted her of my presence in front of the counter. But who cares, I went there to have a proper meal, not to pick on these bad service people. So I let it go.

And then she gave me black face and horrible attitude while taking my order. I know I'm being judgmental here but she looks the sort who'd get fired from all the restaurants in Singapore and only N.US BK is willing to hire her. Her working attitude in the service line is unsurprisingly negative and plunging rockbottom to negative infinity. Bad service = No Service. But I still let it go, I came to BK to take my meals, not to be disgusted by bad service personnel.

The final straw has gottabe the calculator incident. I tell you, I really really want to throw a banana at her! And this time, thank god she got her math right... If she hadn't, I really wouldn't know how to react. Perhaps I'd just throw a whole fruit basket full of rotten fruits at her.

So she got the change right, finally. She proceeded to take out 2 2 dollar bills from the till, and then - please do not choke on reading this - 1 fifty cent and 1 twenty cent coin. OMT OMT OMT. Really, too bad N.US does not sell bananas so late at night, else....

This time, she hesitated again, but only after she closed the freaking cash register. So she told me to wait while she served the customer behind me. Meanwhile, fat Minah was supposed to process my order, which she did a few seconds later. At the same time, the Indian girl finally gave me the correct change after she took the order from the next customer.

Me: Can I have chilli sauce please? Thanks.

Fat Minah opened the cupboard, took out a few pieces of serviettes, rummaged the cupboard to get a few packets of chilli sauce and THREW THEM ON MY TRAY. I wonder where did "You're Welcome" go. Maybe it is holidaying in Msia and forgot to come back to N.US BK.

I went back to the table and ate a pretty unhappy meal. I am quite traumatised by the service standards of N.US food outlets. First it was Subway, now it's BK. I wonder which is next.

This incident is not meant to insult any particular race, it just so happened that these two service personnel were not very service-oriented. I'd have retold the story here anyway if it were any other race.

This story isn't exaggerated in any sense, every single part of it was recounted to the best of my memory, and as you all know, my memory rocks. It is a true incident and not a figment of my imagination, maybe except the bananas and the rotten fruit basket. :p