"I don't know, I just work here"

Those were the exact words spoken to me when I went to the Golden Screen Cinema at One Utama Shopping Complex. My family and I wanted to watch “Johnny English Reborn” one Friday evening. I went up to the ticketing counter and wanted to purchase four tickets. They only have seats available for the first 3 rows from the screen. I asked the person manning the ticket counter whether for those seats I needed to lean back and stretch my head to get a good view of the movie. The lady who was attending to me at the counter simply said “I don’t know”. She didn’t look concerned nor bothered about the customer’s query. I thought she didn’t understand my question, so I asked again. This time with some irritation in her voice, she said “I don’t know, I work here. I don’t work inside”. I was rather shocked with her answer, so I said “Excuse me?” She repeated “I don’t work inside, I work here. So, how should I know what is going on inside there?” I was shocked beyond words and just shook my head in disbelief with this young lady’s attitude and rudeness. I replied, “You are working in this cinema, if you don’t know, shouldn’t you find out?” She looked confused and puzzled. Luckily, her colleague who was attending the ticketing counter next to her came to her aid. He said the seats are fine as the cinema has a relatively big barrier in front, so the screen is not as close as it looks in the computer monitor. I thanked him for his explanation.

I looked at the young lady and told her, “See it is not difficult. All you need to do is to ask your colleague or someone who knows”. I told her, “Golden Screen Cinema is one of the top leading chain of cinemas in Malaysia. My family and I visit the cinema four to five times in a month. As a shareholder of Perlis Plantation Berhad group which is a well managed company that owns Golden Screen Cinema, I feel that your attitude and behaviour could be better to reflect the high standard of the company”. I don’t know if she understood what I was saying, she just shrugged her shoulders which I felt again was a no-no when it comes to customer service. Perhaps she couldn’t understand what I was saying or maybe she was indifferent, I do not know. I can only hope this lady will learn and grow like all of us.