I’m 2 days late for this post!

Apologies my friends. What’s the reason? I’m sure you can see it right now. (note: if you really can’t tell by looking at this site, it’s alright. You’re probably a new visitor, just read my next post and you’ll surely see)

Day 7 fell on Monday, 26 February. I was at home the entire day.

Now as I’m writing, I’m doing my best to recall if anything nasty took place that day, and if I were able to resist the urge to complain. But, hey, nothing came to my mind!

Hmm…

So why not I tell you some little surprises I encountered on that day.

I called the Town Council, as advised by Ed to check on my tiles and a friendly lady attended to me. Without me asking, she automatically listed my case as “urgent” and promptly called the technician on my behalf to arrange for him to come down and take a look.

To make an appointment usually takes 3 working days (haven’t we already knew this from this movie?), but she’s slating mine for the next day! How sweet, isn’t she?

I’m grateful for her help.

Later, she called again and relayed to me that since the tiles are in my bedroom, therefore it’s not under the Town Council’s area of responsibility (Ed, I told her about your case and she told me that’s kitchen, bedroom’s different ha!) but the Housing Development Board (HDB).

Then she gave me the number to call, which I did. Again, 3 working days are required to schedule for an appointment. Lucky stars must be shining on me, for the officer actually came and looked at my damage the next day.

No, I didn’t have to pay extra for express service. I merely called and very politely asked them to help me expedite it, before I get too comfortable used to the hole in my room and decides to camp inside there instead. ;) 

The verdict was: as the tiles didn’t come with the flat when we bought it (during that time, which was more than 20 years ago, flats weren’t as lavishly done as the new ones now), therefore it is not under HDB’s jurisdiction either.

In short, it means we have to fork out our own money to get new tiles. Period. 

I didn’t utter a single complain. Why? Because in all, I’ve spoken to two friendly officers over the phone, got the technician to come and view it the next day who also happened to be very friendly as well, and slightly apologetic that he couldn’t help me replace the tiles for free.

In fact, my mom made use of his visit to ask him to check on other areas at home which had been troubling her and he happily obliged.

I guess when you’re nice to people, generally they will reciprocate.

I’m grateful for the assistance the two ladies gave me, even though the outcome wasn’t leaning to my favour, which I had expected too initially.

How often do we meet nice and courteous customer officers? We do most of the time, don’t we?

But how often are we good customers ourselves? After surviving the multitude of choices you can make before coming to this option “To speak to a customer service officer, press “0″”, our patience tend to get thinner and who else but the customer service officer who will bear the brunt?

I am nowhere any better than you. In fact, I once told a guy off for making me waited for a good 15 minutes before getting to speak to a human voice. And the matter on hand makes it necessary for me to speak to an officer, rather than getting it solved by pressing the number keys on the phone.

And why am I able to appreciate them more now than before? That’s when this awareness to not complain and be grateful comes in. I’m not sure if this has kind of garnered a positive energy, that when I called one of the banks later with a hidden agenda to ask for the waiver of a credit card’s annual fee, I was blessed with an officer who had this miraculous ability to guess my purpose of the call and said he will do it for me when I haven’t even made my request! Telepathy! 

When such things happen, I had to suspect that perhaps my mind waves had done the asking for me in advance. Either that, or they had a pin-hole camera installed somewhere in my room. That’s too far-fetched I thought. Believing the first option seems more empowering for me, so I happily adopted that!

I recommend you to adopt that belief too. That when you are focusing only on good things, they will come to you.

That’s Day 7. The last day of my week of gratitude.

The finale wrap up will follow in a new post.

Technorati Tags: days of gratitude, customer service officer, town council, HDB, complain, good thoughts, positive energy