Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Chicken Drama

Dear KFC,

As a Kentucky fried chicken eater, I would like to point out a couple of matters on the service level at one of your outlets.

It was a cold night and I was hungry. So, I decided to go to your outlet to buy a Variety Bucket and also to stock up on my stash of caffeine (Nescafe) at Giant. But the latter point isn't really relevant, but then again, come to think of it, it IS relevant (as shall be demonstrated later).

So, when I entered your outlet, I saw that there were 4 counters open for operation. Each counter had about 4 person lining up then. So, me being a really random and yet logical person, I decided to do a little mental math + stereotyping + wild guessing at the people waiting in line. I ended up lining up at the 2nd queue from the left.

That time was 9:25pm. [See how loyal I am? There was McD just across the road, but I decided to go to you instead].

The 1st lady lining up then was still looking at the menu and contemplating as to what to eat [obviously being very inconsiderate towards the hungry people lining up behind her, for one- me!]. But obviously that's out of your control, so I understand and shall not blame you for that. However, your staff manning the counter was all gay and welcoming and decided to wait with her. Can you imagine? The lady took 5 minutes to utter out what she wanted, AND your staff was an accomplice who took away 5 minutes of our lives.

OK after she had decided, here comes the horror. Nope, not cockroaches, but worse. Your staff was busy scrambling and running around looking for god-knows-what.

So, yeah, after the 4th person, it was already 9:55pm. Can you imagine? It took you 30 minutes to serve 4 people!! Wow, at the rate you're going and if you're not profiting exorbitantly from the Zinger Tower, you must not be making a lot of money. At that time, the 3 other people lining up behind me was already starting to mutter out curse words and sighing and shaking their heads. Oh thank God none of them took out a gun (or a parang in the Malaysian context) and started killing everyone at the scene. Seriously, in America, these things happen.

So, yea, it came my turn, and oh yeah, remember the statement above about the relevance of the caffeine stash story? I shall tell you the relevance now. My brother, who was lining up at Giant paying for my Nescafe the same time when I started waiting for your chickens (had 15 people queueing up in front of him) and he came back when I was just about to order my chickens. Hmm, kinda ironic huh? You figure it out yourself.

Anyway, came my turn. So I told him straight up. "Hi. Take-away. Variety Bucket. That's all". I saved everyone else the misery of "Hi, Selamat datang ke KFC. Apa yang boleh saya bantu?" [See how many syllables there are in that line?].

I looked at the display monitor which said "Hi. Nama saya Hanisah". I was thinking, "Man, Hanisah must be on some sick leave and they asked this poor trainee to take over her place". Anyway, this dude must be so new to the game that he didn't know which button to press on the cashier. So, he asked this other lady on the 1st counter, "Kak, Variety Bucket yang mana ah?". I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth.

So, that took away 30 seconds of my life. After he had punched in the button, he scrambled to look for the chickens and everything else the Bucket is supposed to have. See, I'm usually a very patient person, but this was really pushing my limits. I could tell that he has no clue what the Variety Bucket is supposed to have, cuz he kept looking at the big-ass menu on top of him.

3 pieces of Original chicken
3 pieces of Hot & Spicy chicken
1 (L) Nuggets
1 (R) Wedges
2 whipped potato

Not rocket science. How did I memorise that? Staring at the big-ass menu myself for 10 minutes while waiting for him to fill up the bucket kinda helps me to memorize.

Oh, apparently the nuggets are still frying. So, he came back to me and gave me a paper cup, with the bottom written "6" [yeah, that's my waiting number and I was told to wait for 5 minutes].

So I paid him and he asked, "Ada apa lagi yang boleh saya bantu?" I was tempted to say, "Yeah, shoot me and then go shoot yourself".

I took my almost-full Bucket and went to the seats and waited with my brother [who by that time had already engaged in a 20-minute phone conversation]. After waiting for 5 minutes as instructed, I took the paper cup back to the counter to "Hanisah" and gave my "WTF look" and showed him the "6".

He completely ignored me, as though I was invisible and continued to run around scrambling for more chickens.

So, finally after 3 minutes, he noticed me! Yay!! Hallelujah!!

He scrambled again and screamed, "Large nuggets dah siap belum?"

Yeah, 2 minutes later it was siap-ed. I took the nuggets and asked him for sauce and serviettes. He grabbed a bunch and handed them to me. I was like, "Where am I supposed to keep these? In my Doraemon pocket? Give me a plastic bag for Goodness' sake!"

He got the idea and dumped everything in a plastic bag and gave to me. I grabbed it and headed for the door, cuz it was already 10:15pm.

Now, KFC, you tell me what was wrong in the picture above and how can you improve it?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Wow, MBB, I'm impressed.

Ever since I got that letter from Maxis Broadband informing me that I have been "upgraded" from a 100mbps to 200mbps connection, I have always been curious....








as to why my internet connection is so friking fast!!

Seriously, it's even faster than a 200mbps. I would know cuz I have worked on a 1gbps line before. So, I was doing a little confirmation on my side. I went to the Start menu, then to Connections, and this sight nearly made me fall off my chair.




Wow. Period.