Take Cold Storage, for example. After their cashiers broke two of my debit cards within a week by forcing them too roughly through the slots on the till machines and thus rendering them unusable, the second incident reducing the cashier into peels of laughter, I complained through the Cold Storage website. I was later contacted by the store manager who offered me the inspirational piece of advice that, since the cards were broken, I should 'replace it with a new one'.

Or Delifrance? They recently sold me a product as vegetarian which, upon consumption, contained ham. Although I later received an apology, I was told in my initial contact with them that ham was, in fact, pork and not considered vegetarian, a fact which I have been aware of for many years now.

Few services in Singapore are more sub-standard than the handling of service complaints.

Steve Armstrong