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Last week, I wrote about the importance of customer service after an extremely frustrating experience trying to use a gift certificate in a mall. The article drew in a lot of reactions from readers, almost all of which had their own horror stories, and was even circulated by the major car companies through their HR departments to underline the value of providing good service and the consequences of not. 

The responses ranged from angry, to somewhat humored by my misfortune, to downright bizarre. So I decided to dedicate this week’s column to sharing the most polarizing reactions with you. 

One letter comes from a lady who simply calls herself a devoted mom, and writes:

“You really made my day James Deakin. I don’t usually buy newspapers but when I came across the STAR and your article you really amused me in one of my usual depressing days. I was eating & reading at the same time in megamall’s chowking when I almost choked to death laughing upon reading your amazing story of neglect & misadventure that fateful day. But please be reminded that you are NOT ALONE in your predicament. You’re so funny. I love it! Thanks for making me laugh because I’ve been having my depressing twilight saga at 58 since my daughter moved to the US about 3 years ago. I’ll try to buy STAR and read your article once in a while. I’m sure you have a good wife & wonderful kids.”

Regards from a devoted mom.

In stark contrast, however, I received another letter, this time from a lady who shall remain nameless solely because I was not able to get a reply or permission to reveal her identity. I only share her letter here (verbatim) with you to allow her the voice that she feels has been denied the privilege of being given space in a national daily. She writes:

Dear Mr. Deakin, 

I am writing about your column “CSI: Customer Service Importance” dated September 5 2012. I am coming from the point of view of the rest of us Filipinos who do not have the privilege of being given a regular space in a national daily to express “disappointing” experiences such as yours. 

Mr. Deakin, as much as it turned out to be a bad day for you and your kids, have you given thought to the rest of the problems the country has? Can you compare your GC to classrooms that have been waiting for repair for years but cannot be attended to by the government? Or to the wives and children of soldiers in Mindanao who cannot get their salaries and benefits on time and can even see their families regularly? You are blessed that you had a credit card option and eventually an ATM option. But how about the rest of the population living below poverty levels and those who have not received any education much less awareness or exposure to even know what a GC is? While you rant about your disappointing experience and use your space as a chance to get back at companies by naming them repeatedly—how about the rest of the Filipinos who can never be heard? 

It was worse when you tried to connect your topic to motoring. I think the word is “mababaw” I am certain that by this time whoever gave you your freebies or that mall has also contacted you to appease you. Sad to say, millions of suffering Filipinos can never have their cake and eat it too like you do. Your last line “Just saying” says it all—how you have just used your space for personal reasons. 

So please do ask yourself ‘What would Jesus do?” in this circumstance. And then apologize to those who have deeper problems because the flood swept everything they own or the fields they take care of will not reap harvest or because their foreign employee almost raped them so they had to jump out of a building and go home without any money for their families. 

Then tell me how important a P1000 GC is and if it was worth it. How disappointing. 

Before I address the points raised, I would like to say that I am grateful for every letter or comment I receive as I truly believe that there is no better barometer than the feedback of our readers. And so long as they are written respectfully, devoid of profanity or hidden agenda, I do value each and every opinion (no matter how polarizing) and try and use them to better serve the public with a deeper sense of empathy and balance in my columns. 

My reply, dated September 7, is as follows.

Thank you for your letter. I am always grateful for the feedback.

But while I appreciate where you’re coming from, a national daily newspaper needs to have many voices in order to properly inform the public or address the endless topics that concern us all. I am just one of those voices. And while my experience may come across as insensitive to you, I have received many more letters and comments from people who felt grateful for bringing this topic to light—people from various social economic backgrounds who have also been cheated or made to feel like second class citizens for using a prepaid GC.  

As a motoring columnist, I am tasked to write about motoring, the industry and general consumer issues surrounding it. We have many more columnists with the freedom to write about other national issues—like the need for more classrooms, the plight of our soldiers, abused OFWs, the RH bill, floods and poverty in general. I agree with you that those are far more pressing issues, but if I were to heed your advice, then there would really be no point having a motoring section at all. After all, writing about the pros and cons of multimillion peso vehicles is truly insensitive to those who have nothing at all. Come to think of it, we may as well remove the lifestyle section, technology, real estate and any other section that fail to address the issues that you have brought up. 

But we do have these sections. Because as trivial and shallow as they may seem to some, these are of interest to others. And just because its level of importance may not rank that high in the hierarchy of national issues, it shouldn’t make it exempt from commentary. 

I’m sure you have nothing but the best intentions and I admire your sense of social responsibility. But while I’m certainly not comparing hardships, try and put yourself in the shoes of that consumer who paid the casa something and didn’t get anything in return. Or the victim of the insurance company that weaseled out of paying a claim, leaving the poor owner bankrupt with a million-peso debt and no asset to speak of. Who speaks for these people? I do. 

Consumers have rights too. And just because they may be on a higher income bracket than those you have mentioned, they should not be discriminated against because of it. They also have a right to be represented fairly and given a voice, which is all I’m trying to do.  

After that column came out, I received a phone call from the mall’s management. It turns out that the establishment I was trying to use it in does accept it after all. The mall’s management were quick to react and handled my complaint extremely professionally and have since corrected the problem and vowed that it would never happen again, which helps the next person using it, not me. And that is exactly what I set out to achieve—use my personal experience to influence change for the better. In short, I did my job. 

In hindsight, perhaps I should not have repeatedly named the company. You have a point there. But had I not, I sincerely doubt I would have gotten a call and forced that change. Therefore it would have just remained a rant, which would be of no value to anybody. 

I’m sorry if my column offended you. That was never my intent. But while I’m not an overly proud person, I cannot see how my column warrants an apology to those who have deeper problems any more than Laser Xtreme needs to apologize for entertaining the middle to upper class when there are so many other pressing issues facing the under privileged. 

With respect,

James Deakin 

PS. I’m curious to know how you knew it was a P1,000 GC when I never mentioned the value.

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