the(new)mediaslut

It seems like food establishments, small and big, are allergic to complains from their paying customers.

Local blogger Platoz complained about a small Ayam Penyat food stall at NTU and the owner allegedly “demanded” that Platoz stop complaining about his dish.

NTU Ayam Penyet stall owner asked me to stop criticizing him | Monk philosophy on everything under the sun via kwout

Privé, a more high end resturant off Keppel island, also decided to delete a comment from its Facebook community when a customer decided to use it to complain her displeasure at the service of the staff during a birthday dinner celebration.

Some might argue that Privé owns the Facebook group so it is in their prerogative  to delete comments that they don’t feel is right for the group.

That isn’t the point of this post.

Both food establishments have decided that the best way of addressing a complain is to take down the posts.

While they have erased the unhappiness in the short term, the long term damage is done.

Asking a blogger to take down a negative post or erasing a bad Wall comment shows that the establishments would rather sweep the damages under the carpet.

They forget that such actions can be easily propagated  with the Web2.0 tools that themselves hope to use to market their food offerings.

Their actions also creates a perception that they above their customers. In simple words, arrogance.

Would you want to part your money being served by service that is being portrayed as arrogant?

This blogger believes the two complainers are only looking for the two establishments to acknowledge their weakness, apologise for the bad service and improve their offerings.

Not a slammed door in their face.

If you think saying sorry is a sign of weakness, think again.

Imagine if the respond to the both parties was as follows:

We would like to apologise for the bad services experienced during your visit to our food establishment.

We have taken the necessary actions to look at how we can improve our services or food ensure your next experience at our food establishment on your next visit.

Again, please accept our apologies for the incident.

Would you want to visit the food establishment again?

It was with great fanfare over the weekend when Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong left a message on Reach Singapore’s Facebook group.

Wrote The Straits Times,

Putting on his spectacles, PM Lee confirmed four friend requests (adding to the existing 281), checked out photos of Reach events and typed a message on the wall of one of its friends.

‘Welcome to Facebook! Glad to have you as a friend. Please tell your friends too,’ he typed, signing off as ‘LHL (for Reach)’.

The profile was created two weeks ago and was made public to all yesterday. It can be found by searching for ‘Reach Singapore’.

Reach chairman Amy Khor said it was a necessary platform to engage netizens.

But it seems that the “Welcome to Facebook! Glad to have you as a friend. Please tell your friends too” message left by Singapore’s Prime Minister has been “deleted” from the Reach Singapore Group.

So was Minister Teo Ser Luck and Dr Amy Khor’s messages.

Does this mean Reach Singapore have to organise another Facebook posting ceremony?

This blogger overheard that Qualcomm managed to get a group of Thai Tech journalists to don their corporate blue at an event over the weekend.

One Thai journalist decided to protest in true Thai style and wore yellow at the event.

 He should have wore red which he allowed him to claim he was the red ocean, the rest were just blue!

Yes, the same Thai tech journalist that got thrown out of Paragon Bangkok for wearing an “anti-Thaksin T-shirt”.

Bangkok Post | Database | When things started to get nasty at Paragon via kwout

Speaking of blue, have you ever tried downloading something from Microsoft Windows website and it didn’t turn your Windows OS blue?

Bill Gates tried downloading Windows Movie Maker in 2003 and ended up with every single Windows update, but not the Window Movie Maker.

Bill Gates’ web experience: Byzantine, idiotic logic | IT Project Failures | ZDNet.com via kwout

Bill sends a complain email and guess who gets the blame?

Marketing.

Bill Gates’ web experience: Byzantine, idiotic logic | IT Project Failures | ZDNet.com via kwout

Yeah, everything is marketing’s fault.

You can read the full email transcript here.

From left, Third place, winner and second

This blogger was at the first Singapore Toy and Comic Convention on Sunday and managed to catch the finals of the cosplay:anime finals.

You have to pardon this blogger’s ignorance of the characters the top three winners were trying to portray. If you are knowledgeable of the anime characters, please drop a comment.

Cute wins another competition

Is it just me or Singaporeans prefer “cute” in general? Cutie-pie here won the hearts of the audience with a cute rendition of some Japanese anime tune. I thought the guy below with his extravagant cosplay costume would have won the competition straight on.

“Fallen angel” came in third

 Also seen at the Singapore Toy & Comic Convention:

Stormtroopers taking a break from hunting Jedis and playing a game of Wii Tennis

Magic: The Gathering enthusiasts

Comic artist demonstrating their fine arts on the spot

For more photos, click here.

Techgoondu via kwout

A group of tech journalists, mostly from SPH, have launch a tech blog at Techgoondu.wordpress.com

The bloggers include Oo Gin Lee who is with The Straits Times’ Digital Life, Ong Boon Kiat is with The Business Times BizIT team and Alfrew Siew is the technology correspondent for The Straits Times.

Aaron Tan was with ZDNET Asia and is currently pursing his Master of Library and Information Science at Syracuse University.