Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Whose fault? / 谁之错?

Early this week, when I took MRT to work, we heard an announcement when we reached Marsilling MRT station, “There’s a sudden train fault. Please alight.” In a rush, I left my notebook on the seat. The staff-in-charge on the platform took my contact number and promised that I could collect it back at Bukit Batok MRT station where I’m staying. But when I went to collect it, the staff at BB seemed did not even know what’s going on. They called Marsilling station. The manager at that station did not seem to know either. “What time did the incident occur?” “Around 8am.” How come they do not have a record? I was completely puzzled. After further investigation, the manager of Marsilling station called me. “There’s no way that we can find your notebook.” “Why?” “Our staff informed Woodlands station soon after you reported. But when the train reached Woodlands, their staff went to check and found your notebook was not there.” “How come? The passengers, your staff on the platform and myself saw with our own eyes that it was there on the seat after the door closed and there was no one on the train. …..” “Hello… hello…” The line had been cut off. The next morning, that staff on the platform called me. “Sorry, I forgot to call you. They did not find anything after the train reached Woodlands station.” I was puzzled, hence, called the customer service.
“We need to investigate, and we will let you know.” Later, he called and told me, “The train was back to normal after a while. So, it didn’t go to depot as we thought. Instead, it went to Woodlands, and picked up passengers there. After that we can’t find your notebook.” “But I informed you before you picking up the passengers. You should do something.” “Sorry, it was rush hour. We have no time to search for you. After all, it’s your responsibility not to leave anything on the train.” “But it was not the normal case. Your train was faulty, and we rushed down to cooperate.” “Yes, in our announcement we simply informed you to alight the train and board the next one. We never asked you to leave your stuff on the train…” I was indeed unhappy with their service. Of course it passengers’ have a responsibility to take care of their own property. But in such an emergency cases, the Railway had caused so much inconvenience for us. On top of that, they refused to find my notebook for me even though I had reported to them before hand. And more, they never apologized to me! Instead, they simply put the blame on me. Is this really the world class service that they claim to be providing?