This does not surprise me at all. I'm sure, like many others, we have had our fair share of good and bad service. Unfortunately, it's more of the latter for me.

Recently, I called a telecommunications service provider to terminate my mobile line. I was transferred to a department, which exclusively handles line terminations. The customer service agent I spoke to was not rude. Overall her service level was curt and average, but I was just taken aback by her conversational English.

I was really surprised that she punctuated her conversation with a lot of 'hor', 'lei' and 'lah' words. She was literally speaking to me in a mixture of Singlish words, which I find totally unacceptable.

I have always had this impression that for a long-established telco, surely one would expect to be talking to someone who is not only competent, but also professional.

Another recent incident was when I had sent in an online query for an education loan to a very well-established foreign bank. I received a call from someone who claimed to be from the said bank. The reason why I was so unconvinced was that his conversational English was appalling.

He was very unprofessional in the way he presented himself, spoke really bad English to the point I had to ask if he was really from the bank, to which he replied: 'Don't believe me ah, never mind, I send e-mail you to believe.' I hung up, feeling rather perplexed.

I had written in to both organisations and, as usual, have received their standard template replies. I sincerely hope we can improve our service quality. There's so much that can be done, it's a matter of just how much effort you really want to put in.

It's indeed worrying that because we've been told so many times about being the best in the world, we've started acting and thinking like we are always going to be the best in the world. And that is the surest way to fall.

Sharifah Abdul Jabbar (Miss)