English Customer Service

So recently I had a few overseas cheques from Vancouver that I wanted to deposit into my bank account here in HK. I went to the bank and asked them to help send these cheques back to Canada to get them authenticated.

Dad had told me to speak in English at the bank, so I thought I was already being smart when I started conversing in English. The lady at the counter told me that they usually have a commission fee of 250HKD per cheque for this type of service, but that she was willing to change this fee to just 100HKD per cheque because I was a “valued customer”. So I went home pretty happy that day.

A few days later, I get a call from the bank telling me that there was a problem with my cheque. Apparently each cheque had a have a minimum of at least 200CDN on it, which one of the cheques didn’t have, so it couldn’t be cashed for me. They asked me to pick that cheque up.

So the next day I returned to the bank and picked up the cheque. I asked whether the 100HKD service charge would be waived now that my cheque had bounced. The lady at the counter said that they couldn’t do anything for me since they had already tried to send it. I went home pretty unhappy that day.

I told my Dad about it that night and he scolded me for not being insistent enough. This was Hong Kong after all. “Call up the customer service line and start speaking in English. You will get your money back.” So I called. And I spoke in English. I sounded indignant and dissatisfied. The lady not only gave me my 100HKD for the cheque back, she also refunded the other cheque’s service charge.


So the morale of the story?


Learn your English well so that you can take advantage of people in HK, because Eurocentrism pays off. At least on the phone.




 
Take care, and speak Engrish!
 
Tin