Sam Soon against Ah Neh.....

Yeah. I did it again.

This time to a big company. The company which is supposed to give me one loyalty point for not taking plastic bag.

Most of the time, I dont take plastic bags. My two pints of milk and loaf of bread were perfect dumbells (esp the milk!), I could imagine my arms getting slimmer as I swing them on my way home. Slim and safe. No one will attack a woman walking like that with 2 pints of milk in her hands.

BUT they never gave me a single point! One evening I was curious and asked them, "How come I did not receive a green point? I have never received any so far" in a very friendly way when I got my receipt at the till.

Damn ah neh. Dunno why he must offend me.

Told me, " I dont know! If you want your point you can call customer service"... that kind of challenging looking, like it will be stupid to spend money to call for 1 point which worth is 1 cent. Do I look that cheapskate??

He picked the wrong person. By now, after 1 year here, I know these ah neh style. Not the first time.Whether the locals like you or not, they are always polite enough not to make you feel that you are discriminated. But ah neh in London, but not central London is one kind (Oxford street types are ok). Plus I was really pissed off that this is supposed to be for the environment, there is a big campaign about it, and yet here in my local stores they don't give you what was promised.

So I sent an email to their customer service (email is free)..


"... blah blah blah
..blah blah blah..
....Your staff told me to call you if i want my points. Do I really have to call you to get that 1 point or find out whether I can get my G***n point? I have figured out it will be much cheaper to text to the papers, to check if I am the only person not receiving the points or others have the same experience too".

I received their apologies. Now I get my points when I dun take plastic bag. Why can't they just be nicer in the first place?

Today I got another experience, another ah neh. All I wanted is to take home 1 form to apply for a credit card from the pile there. Not only he did not allow it, he also asked sarcastically whether i am above 18. As I have been in good mood but in a hurry, I was still polite and friendly. I just wanted to grab a form and go!

"Of course", I said.

From my short reply to his insult,he probably thought that I cant speak English. I am easy to bully, or probably the new cleaner on the block. I was wearing sports shoes due to my ankle pains, and an old blouse ( thanks to the mould). I am easy to bully, or probably the new cleaner on the block. To add insult to the injury, he tried to lecture me about there is something called "Data Protection Act", and implied that if I take home the form, I would fill in other people's details, and commit fraud!!In my fury, and my hurry, I just put back the form and walked off.

Hmmm. I am not sure if I want to complain, because

1) I sensed a racist discrimination in they way he spoke to me-enough to get him in shit
2) By trying to make me fill up the form and return immediately, he tried to coerce me to sign up for a financial product on the spot, not allowing me sufficient time to consider it, or go through the information which is necessary to make informed judgment-enough to get his whole team in shit
3) The way he said about the danger letting me bring a credit card application from is indirectly insulting my character, and i suspect this is a form of discrimination-even more shit.

Saw what happened to the Harrods' Santa?
Asked " asian couple" : "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be shopping in Tesco?" SACKED.

I never want people to lose their job, and wouldn't want my complain to cost someone their rice bowl. Too vicious. But I want to teach that chap not to be mean to a woman, just because she is not exactly of a SYT age. Because she gave you a 2 word friendly answer to your sarcasm about her age, it does not mean she cant speak enough English to retort you or is the cleaner of the university. Like I told my brother over msn, you want to bully people also think of the location you are at.

So shall i complain of or not?