A Toyo Day

On leave does not mean on vacation, so, when ppl remarked upon hearing leave is vacation, its juz not, not all the time. Cuz even when on leave you have to take care of business. Which is what I did on my day off, taking my car for service. I must say that owning a car is a pain and servicing your car is part of that pain. Driving a Toyota is great but getting that milestone service is a gag of a time. Here is why, as procedure, you hafta call up for bookings, if ya wanna service on a weekends, call a month ahead of time, if ya wanna do it on a weekday, call two weeks ahead of time. Why's that? Cuz Toyota is the best selling non-national car over here. There is more cars than service centers (SC), plus each SC has daily quotas. The bookings are juz 1/3 of the pain, yep I sooo look forward to service my car here.

The other 1/3 of the pain is getting your car in, why? Well, as a procedure, Toyota will take in customers on a first come first serve basis, even if ya had booked for an appointment. So, as an unwritten know-how, owners will be there early, advisable, an hour b4 the center opens, if ya wanna get a quick service. So, I usually get there by 7.00am and drop my service booklet at the table. Today, I was kinda late, had a bite with CY, so, I arrived there around 7.30am. Outside the entrance there was seven blokes already there. Damn, I tot, this is gonna be a loong wait today. So I march in, head over to the counter, to my surprise, there isn't a single sign of any booklets! I was puzzled,

Me: WTF, where are the other booklets? Did they change the procedures?
CY: Dunno, never mind la, juz put down la.
Me: right.

As I walk back out to take a seat, I noted that there was an air of astonishment written on all of the blokes faces! Then, suddenly, they all followed suit and put down their booklets at the counter.

Me: Oie, how come they dunno wan?
CY: Dunno, looks like they have no idea.
Me: Shit, dun tell me they are all newbies ah?
CY: Possible, I notice there was a number of new cars outside.
Me & CY: bwhahahahahaha......
Me: Ya know, we juz saved like two hours man.
CY: hehehehe.

I can juz hear their minds going....

*brady hell, tat two guys got ahead of me*
*alamak, wasted*
*shit, i was early, whywhy*
*Mcb, i'm so stupit*
*T_u #$%^&*
*f_cker, f_cking, f_ck, f_ck!*

So, we were pretty lucky today, well I'm sure they have learned a good lesson today. I've learned that same lesson b4 too. The other 1/3 of the pain is waiting for the service, in the past, it is kinda slow, it takes them nearly two hours to get the car out, including washing. Toyota have been improving, this time around, under one hour. But the bill generation still takes them about 30 minutes, why, well I dunno, gotta be some procedures. We remarked that probably that they hafta fax to Japan for approval being procedural and shit. hehehe.

We also noted that there are some changes in SC on some areas,

CY: eh, look, got a young reception girl la.
Me: ya ah, i think it is part of service improvement.
CY: eh?
Me: ya what, more expensive liao, hiring a pretty grr.
CY: hahahaha, brady joker you!
Me: correct anot? bwhahahahaha.....

Seriously, now you can get free milo and kopi, DIY at the counter, there are more comfy chairs to seat on and there is a door person holding and door and greets you. Plus, early in the morning, we got served with a round of hot coffee by the Toyota staff. Not bad. Well there is still hope and here is hoping they can only improve further, cuz customer service over here is juz not what we come to expect. Cheers!