Know what you sell.

I recently bought a computer backup device, called Maxtor, at Low Yat, Malaysia's answer to Sim Lim Square. I was looking forward to having a simple way to backup my computer data. At first, all looked well. The box was impressively packaged - solid and secure. The Maxtor device itself is sturdily constructed. It looks built to last and to survive knocks that might take down the computer itself. So, I was impressed. However, it didn't last. Then, you see, I looked at the cables that came with the Maxtor device. One of them, unfortunately, was the strangest looking cable I had ever seen. Sadly, it was the power cable. Attached to the end of it, was a plug, the like of which I have never heard rumoured, never mind seen: it had DIAGONAL pins. That is, each of the flat pins (two of them) was set at a diagonal tilt. Not only that but they were pretty close together. I looked at them, somewhat disheartened. How, on Earth, were they going to fit into a power socket?

I tried. I really tried. I even attempted to squeeze the pins in the socket, with a little bit of additional force. However, they would not budge, not even with a special two pin socket adaptor. This power supply cable had been built for no country I had ever been to. Somewhere, in all the packaging I read the words: "Made in China". Ah, I see. Perhaps this plug fits Chinese wall sockets. However, the rest of the world had a different opinion about how to make a socket. My brand new Maxtor backup device was, as it was, completely unusable. I had been sold something which could never work, without me buying a new cable. Now, it strikes me, this is no way to do business. That rather well known Low Yat store, on the floor below the top of Low Yat really should CHECK what they are selling. They have no business selling devices with accessories that are incompatible with the power supplies in Malaysia. That is doing a disservice to their customers. It also means that next time I come to buy some electronic equipment, that I will look elsewhere, lest I find myself in the same situation.

I hope to be able to use the Maxtor device - which looks a great idea - someday soon. But first I shall have to go shopping, again. The real cost of this is much more than a single cable, of course - for I have to travel there and back again. So, it might add another 20 % to the cost of the device, just to get it working. That is unfair on every customer they sell to.

So, this is a message to every computer store in Malaysia: please get to KNOW what you are selling to your customers before you sell it. Why not actually open the box and look into it? It wouldn't take a minute, but would save your customers much wasted time and money.

The same message applies, of course, to computer stores in other countries. It is just that I have only experienced this, personally, in Malaysia. I would rather not be so inconvenienced again. So, stores, get checking!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
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I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

An unexpected quality of service.

Most people who have experienced taxi drivers, in Singapore, would agree that they can be an unreliable breed. They are fond of taking foreigners on "scenic" routes, much longer than a direct route (this happens to me a lot owing to my white face); they not infrequently don't know where they are going, or pretend not to; they won't stop to pick you up, for reasons known only to themselves; they will drive around empty for ages, waiting for a call out. Occasionally, the meter has been running for some time, before pick up, artificially inflating the fare. There are all kinds of tricks out there, for the unawares. Sometimes, I have even been in taxis that have become completely lost (though now with GPS this doesn't happen). Basically, it is a bit of a gamble what kind of driver you get when you flag down or call out a taxi. They are not a uniformly professional breed as I am accustomed to in the UK (black cab drivers).

It was a surprise, therefore, the other day to encounter a different kind of taxi driver in Singapore. This one took us home. At first he parked up where we told him to. Then, noting the lift entrance we were going to go to and the fact that we had heavy shopping, he manoeuvred the cab carefully to bring the boot as close to the lift entrance as possible. It was not necessary for him to do this - but he did it to make our lives easier.

Then he did something really unexpected, compared to what is usual with taxi drivers. He opened the boot, got out of his car and started taking our bags out of the back and putting them in the lift for us. There were a lot of bags - at least fifteen - but he took them out of the boot and carried them into the lift for us.

I was taken aback by the extent to which he went to render good service. My surprise was enhanced by my own "inner picture" of what a Singaporean taxi driver is like. His behaviour, however, was an ideal that I had come to discount as impossible here.

So, though I have been critical of the taxi service in the past, I would like to thank the unknown driver of SHB 5722L for his great service standards. He, truly, is what a Singaporean driver should be. Well done.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Surprise at McDonalds, Singapore.

What do you think of employees of McDonald's restaurants? Are they paying attention to the world or is it all a blur to them?

The other day, I got to find out.

I queued at a McDonald's restaurant that I had not visited for six months. As I got to the front, I recognized the staff member as someone who used to serve me. I wondered, then, if she would remember me.

She looked up at me, smiled and said: "Will that be coffee to go?"

I was quietly impressed: among all the other customers she had ever served, and across a gap of six months, she had remembered my accustomed order.

I rather get the feeling that some of the staff who work at such places could handle more complex jobs, if only they were given the opportunity: she certainly could.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Are Singaporean taxi drivers trained?

Singaporean taxi drivers often strike me as among the least knowledgeable of their breed. Indeed, Singapore is the only country I have ever visited, in which the taxi drivers quite often don't know where they are going. It seems needless to add, but add I must, that Singapore is such a small country, that it is, in fact, a modest sized city, and that to not know where you are going, within it, as a professional driver, is quite some feat.

It is apt that I should comment at this time, for the largest taxi fleet is set to raise the flagdown rate of its taxis by a rumoured 30 cents and has hinted at other ways to raise revenue (read: increase pricing), as well. This comes upon the huge rise in call-out charges some months back.

The big question is, of course: are these price rises justified when service is so poor?

Before any prices rise, the taxi fleets need to address the issue of driver competence. Singaporean drivers are often a poorly informed and not particularly honest bunch. They don't know where they are going - or if they do, they deliberately take very circuitous routes. They do anything they can to inflate the fare and cheat the passenger - particularly if, like me, that passenger is a foreigner. I have seen all sorts of ploys - all of them calculated to deprive me of rather more dollars than is justified by the journey embarked upon. Some drivers have even driven off with the passengers' belongings. (Some 20,000 dollars worth of wedding gifts, for instance, in a famous recent case.) So, all in all, a Singaporean taxi is something to be wary of, for one reason or another.

A recent journey brought me to ask the title question. We booked a taxi (and paid the exorbitant surcharges), since we were going to a wedding. Rather than give him our precise location, we told him to drive to somewhere obvious, nearby.

"Jurong Junior College.", we requested, as we got into the cab.

"Where? I don't know.", he replied.

Ah, I thought, he doesn't know where the Junior College is.

"You show me.", he continued, pointing ahead at the mystery of the roads, on which he drove daily.

So, we were to show a professional driver, in a very small city, where to go...

We got to the first meeting of roads and he slowed. "Which way?" he asked, without embarrassment.

It was clear, then, that it was not the Junior College that he didn't know the way to. He didn't know the way to Jurong. That flabbergasted me - for it meant he didn't know the city at all.

As the journey proceeded, this man, who had the nerve to call himself a taxi driver, would ask us for instructions at every single meeting of roads, junction or turning, all along the way. He quite simply knew nothing at all of the geography of Singapore.

Finally, as we neared our destination, my wife said: "Just turn left at Jurong JC."

"JC? I don't know what JC is." he said, in utter mystification.

My wife and I looked at each other. There is something you should know at this point. Only Singaporeans are allowed to drive Singaporean taxis. That means that all were born here, educated here and grew up here. As you have no doubt noticed, JC is the abbreviation for Junior College (which we first asked him for). So, even if he had been a foreigner - which he couldn't possibly be - he should have known what JC was. Yet, he was a native. He had been through the school system - yet he had managed to do so, without knowing the names of the schools.

I grew really uncomfortable then. Was our driver senile? He didn't look old enough to be, being in his fifties at my best guess. Or was he just lying about his lack of knowledge? Was his "I don't know where I am going", just a ruse to ensure that, on average, he always travelled a longer route than otherwise, because his passengers would tend not to have the best route knowledge?

In a way, I rather hoped it was a ruse - for I find it incredible that someone of so little mental competence, as not even to know the most basic things about the society he grew up in - not its geography and not the names of its institutions - could actually be allowed behind the wheel of a taxi.

Was he truly that mentally incompetent? If so, he shouldn't be driving - and a system that can allow such a driver on the road, is seriously flawed. Clearly, there is no real training of these drivers. It is not infrequent to step into a cab driven by someone who hasn't got a clue where he is going. That should never happen. No-one should be allowed to drive until they know their way around.

In London, where I grew up, the cab drivers prided themselves on The Knowledge - an examination in the routing between all destinations in London. All cab drivers had to pass this test. As a result, I never had the experience, in London, of being driven by a taxi driver who didn't know where he was going. Yet, in Singapore, I have that experience several times a week. Singaporean drivers simply don't know Singapore. Furthermore, those that do, often use that knowledge of best routes, to avoid them and give the passenger the longest, most expensive route possible (at least they do to me, a Caucasian). It is truly a disgrace to the nation. Yet, instead of addressing the issue of useless, incompetent and dishonest drivers - what are the authorities going to do? They are going to raise the price of taxis again. That is the second time in a year.

Before they raise prices, they should first take off the roads all the dishonest drivers - and all the incompetent drivers. All new drivers should be exhaustively trained in the ways and byways of Singapore. Then, and only then, should they even begin to consider raising the price. They should remember that it is called a taxi SERVICE - and attend to the service part, first.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Artfriend and customer service in Singapore

On Friday, 21st September, we went to Artfriend, the Singaporean art supplies shop.

We went there to buy art materials, subsequent to our meeting with Mr. Loh, a Singaporean artist, who was having an art show and Claude, an Art manager, (and Mr. Loh's manager through a firm known as Art Management) at The Coffee Connoiseur, known as "The Gallery" in the Raffles Place area. Mr. Loh had wanted to see some of Syahidah's works (Claude Verly's idea, who represents Mr. Loh). More of that meeting in another post, perhaps.

Now, Singapore is famous for its shops. This fame is not unfair, in terms of the infrastructure: there are a lot of very highly presented, polished and beautiful shopping malls. So, the architectural element is there. Where Singapore fails, however, is in the human element. Customer service is not a tradition here - indeed, the populace seem to think of themselves as being above service. This attitude creates a situation in which poor service is a daily occurrence - in every aspect of human interaction, here.

The trip to Artfriend was a typical example. We went there with two particular items in mind. We had chosen Artfriend simply because it is the biggest art supplier in Singapore, with the greatest number of shops and the best locations. One would have thought, then, that it would be good at what it does. This is not, however, necessarily so. Artfriend it may be called, but a friend to Art it may not be - as we shall see.

I approached a sales assistant who appeared to be busy with daydreaming: "Excuse me, do you have Unipin pens?" At least, that is the name of the pen I thought I had been given.

He led me to a rack of pens that looked nothing at all like the one I had seen. He assured me that these were it. Large, thick pens stared up at me. "Do you have smaller ones?" For the one I had seen was much slimmer.

"No, these are the only sizes we have left."

I marvelled, then, at their capacity for stock control. Surely, someone in that shop (and there were perhaps a dozen or more staff), should have noted the declining stock of pens, such that the smaller sizes - in all colours - were now missing.

Nevertheless I took two of the pens in question: one black, one white.

The next question seemed to stump them.

"Do you have marker paper in higher gsm, than 70?"

The first staff member I asked said: "Wait." and went off to get someone else.

That someone else appeared after a minute or so.

I repeated my question.

He went, "I don't know..." and went off.

He returned with a third person.

I repeated my question.

He replied with a puzzled silence and kind of wandered off, while I wasn't looking.

No-one else came to help.

I decided to look around the shop for myself - but could find nothing that matched my need.

So, I braved the remarkably uninformed staff again.

"Do you have coated art card?"

"I will get someone." came the unknowing reply.

Someone came.

I asked my question again.

"Coated art card?" He repeated, as if hearing an alien tongue for the first time.

He wandered off.

No-one came.

Finally I collared a sixth member of staff and asked my question again.

"We don't have it for art", he said, at least knowing what I meant, "It is just for printing." Then he turned to leave, before I could reply.

"Wait," I requested, he paused, mid-step, reluctantly, repressing an urge to speed away, "show me."

He turned slowly around and came back to where I was. Then he passed me and showed me a wrack of papers alongside one wall. "There."

I noted that they were glossy. "Do you have matt?"

He sort of shrugged - combining not knowing and not caring in one gesture.

I tried one more question - a central one to all artists, who care about the longevity of their work.

"Is it acid-free?" I asked, clutching one piece of the art card, between the fingers of my left-hand.

"No.", his head shook, that was something he was sure about, "We don't stock acid-free card."

I was flabbergasted at that. Singapore's leading art supplies shop was selling materials that would guarantee that anything created on them, would crumble away in a few short decades. Like I said "Artfriend" they may be called, but a friend to Art they may not be. It is irresponsible - and unfair - to sell art materials to artists, that will not endure. It seems such a waste of all the effort put into creating something.

He turned to leave but then, in an afterthought that constitutes the first piece of real service since I had entered the shop, he said: "Try Straits Commercial on North Bridge Road." I had never heard of Straits Commercial - and he had to spell it for me - but one day, soon, we will have to go there. Perhaps they sell materials worth making art upon.

Oddly, just as we were about to leave the shop, we met Claude, the art manager, buying some materials of his own. He didn't seem in a mood to speak, so the conversation was a brief one.

"Singapore is so small..." I began.

"Especially for the enlightened." he agreed.

I left with one thought in my mind: a shop, in my childhood, manned by an elderly Polish couple, who had survived the most terrible of events in the World War II. It was a stationery shop. What was notable about them was that they had offered everything that Artfriend had not. They knew everything about everything in their shop. Whatever you asked, they would know instantly where it was and what it could do. They were friendly, too, talking widely about life. Even as a child, I had appreciated the way they were - and chose them over the stationery chainstore that was their nearby competitor.

There is a difference between the shops of my London childhood, and the ones of Singapore. The ones of London did not glisten like the Singaporean ones - but they shone in another way. The staff really knew their jobs - and cared about their customers. Here, in Singapore, the staff know nothing about their jobs, and couldn't care less about their customers.

I don't know the cause of this situation. Is the pay so low that staff turnover is so high, that no-one works long enough to learn anything about their jobs? Or do they just not care? Whichever it is, the result is the same. It took the asking of six people - perhaps half the staff in the rather large shop - to find one who could provide me an answer - and that answer was in the negative.

Shopping shouldn't be like that. Nor should any other area of customer service. Singapore has the gloss - but now it needs to work on something else: a smile for the customer that means something - and competence on the job. Right now, few, very, very few shops in Singapore, can boast of either.

As for Artfriend: why not ensure that all your stock is acid-free, in future? That will help make sure that Singaporean art has a future.

When we got home, we tried the pens. Neither worked - or at least could not be made to work, seemingly lacking ink. Nor were they of the brand name sought. Ah well...

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

SMRT an unfair taxi fare

This is a post for Singaporeans or those who are to visit Singapore.

Like many who live in Singapore, I not infrequently take a taxi. They are often more convenient than other forms of transport and, because they don't stop at regular intervals throughout a journey, like buses or trains (the MRT), they tend to be quicker. Yet, sometimes they don't seem so good.

A few days ago, I booked a cab. My wife made the call and, seeing that there was just no way on Earth that the cab would arrive before 9.30 am, we thought that we would avoid the penal surcharges that are levied for a booking before 9.30 am. For those who are unaware, the standard starting rate for a taxi in Singapore is $2.50. However, if you book a taxi in the morning, there will be surcharges amounting to another $6.00 making the starting rate $8.50. This comprises a "peak rate" of $2 and a booking fee of $4.00. So, it is more than three times more expensive to take a taxi before 9.30 am, if you book, than if you wait until after 9.30 and don't book. At least the starting rate is that much more expensive.

We got into the cab at 9.39 am - well after the watershed of 9.30 am - and journeyed to our destination. I was rather surprised then, when we arrived, to see the "booking fee" of $4.00 added to my bill.

"Why are you charging me this when your cab didn't arrive until 9.39 am?" I read this time from the receipt.

"Ah, that one is the taxi company: they charge you from the time you book."

He pointed at the time on the booking record: 9.27 am.

Great. So, because my wife picked the phone up at 9.27 am we were charged as if we were travelling at that time.

So, in Singapore it is not the time you travel that determines the charges - it is the time you decide to travel that really counts!

Unless it doesn't bother you to be charged three times as much for the same journey, I would suggest waiting until after 9.30 am to make that call - unless you cannot help it. (Though there is a surcharge for calling after that time, too - though less).

I tried to point out the illogicality of charging a customer a rate for a time not travelled at to "customer service" - but they weren't having anything of it. He mumbled about having to charge that rate "otherwise we have no business...ah".

It is funny really - but the customer service rep justified the charge - and its timing - by saying that his company needed to make money out of the customers. He seemed to be supporting the idea that a company should do what it can to exploit its customers if it gets the chance. I nearly laughed - but instead I put the phone down. It was much more satisfying.

Now, I don't normally complain about poor service or exploitation of the customer, here, simply because there is just so much of it. So I generally "suffer in silence" - it is just that that morning I was so surprised to be charged a surcharge for a time I hadn't actually travelled, that I actually picked up the phone and complained: not, of course, that it did any good.

Yet, it was interesting to learn that, here at least, poor behaviour on the part of a company, is justifiable by its employees because of the desire to make as much money from the customer as possible. I wonder how many other companies around the world, providing a public service, like transportation, would publicly espouse that view?

I had this experience with an SMRT taxi. I don't know if the ruling applies to bookings with Comfort or Citicab or Premiere or any of the smaller firms - but I would not be surprised, since they don't really compete with each other, but tend to move in unison, in the market.

The conclusion from this is that you should not book a taxi in Singapore during the peak period - if you want to travel later than that period - because you will be treated as a peak period traveller, from the point of view of the booking surcharges, no matter what time you subsequently travel.

Happy journeying, all.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The effect of fame on customer service

Something odd but sweet happened today.

My wife and I were in a restaurant. The server was a young man of about eighteen. He clearly recognized my wife and was all smiles. She requested that a drink of water be brought to the table since we were in a hurry and she wanted something to cool her tea. He brought it without delay. What was both surprising and touching was what we saw as he set the cup down on the table. His hands were shaking with nervousness, the water sloshing in the cup.

Though my wife is a pretty woman, she had never before managed to make a man shake with nervousness! How funny this is all this.