He Got Away With a Smile

It's one of those days when the stash in the fridge ran low, scavenging through my pile of takeaway brochures and finally found the menu for chinese takeaways. Ten in the evening and I'm racing against the clock, trying to decide what to order. Greeted by the operator, a sigh of relief, they are still open for business, mixed fried noodles and Manchurian Beef on the way.

In just a short eighteen minutes, the doorbell rang, I wasn't expecting him to be that quick (ya I know its a HIM coz I've ordered from them gazillion times and its always a HE, and being such a regular customer in the past, they've got my address imprinted in their system as well).

I ran to fetch my purse, DAMMIT Moo has taken all my small notes!!!!! All I have were fives, tens and twenties! At this moment, I felt like a carrot head (translated to chinese? Luo Buo Tou, in short a person who seemed to be a easy prey). With a frown, I fished out a ten dinar note.

Opened the door, and greeted by the friendliest deliveryman, "Good evening mdm, I remember you, you regular customer. Long time no see, you went on holiday?" Of coz he remembers me, one of his favourite customers, one of the CARROT HEADs!!! Its times like this that I blame Moo for stealing all the change from my wallet!!!

Like drug dealers in one of those old black and white detective movies, he handed over the bags of food, while I reluctantly slipped him the note. As many would have guessed, having takeaways, the prices were slightly charged higher than dining in the restaurants, surcharges for delivery (meaning the guy gets paid anyway!!!!).

And yes, he 'short-changed' me AGAIN!!! It's his way of saying, he's providing me with the best customer service I could ever get, and it comes with a price, and he decides how big of a tip he wished to dip in. Once again, he got away with a smile. You should be there to see the grin on his face, it's priceless. With the 'short change' I could have got a generous portion of spicy lamb chops, or two big portions of yummy hot and spicy soup, or ........ never mind,.... Sigh, one of those lessons never learnt. Guess I can't grumble too much, the food is pretty descent and yup, the customer service is indeed excellent. When it comes to great services, I'd always leave a tip, just that I don't like the idea of being forced into it that's all.