A case of good customer service

Two Sundays ago I was in JB. While waiting at a traffic junction next to a road divider in Bukit Indah, there was a sudden explosion and our car jolted.

In that split second, I thought that a tree had fallen on us, a car had crashed into our rear or worse that someone was in the midst of robbing us.

Instinctively I turned behind and saw that our rear windscreen had shattered into a thousand million pieces. Horror filled me as I feared that these pieces would rain on me and my children at any moment.

Thankfully our solar film held the glass bits together and stopped it from completely giving way. Safe that we were not in immediate danger I started to analyse what had gone wrong. It was then that I saw a grass cutter cutting grass near our vehicle.

Turned out that he had hit a loose stone and it flew straight towards our car and smashed the windscreen. Honestly how more unlucky could we be?!

Theo got out and tried to talk to him. We were doubly thankful that the driver behind us witnessed everything and joined in to help Theo with the translation.

The grass cutter called his supervisor over and I was almost immediately relieved when I saw that he was an employee of SP Setia, one of Malaysia’s biggest developer.

The supervisor left his phone number and told us to call back tomorrow as the main office was closed today. With nothing else that can be done, he left us.

I told Theo that there was no way we were going to drive home with our windscreen smashed like this. Not only were the backseat passengers in danger, Theo could not look out through the rear anymore.

At times like this, I am glad that we know JB pretty well. I knew that SP Setia had a showroom just round the corner and it was opened. We drove our car slowly there and went to look for someone to help us.

We found a helpful sales assistant called Grace and told her our predicament. After confirming with the earlier supervisor we spoke with, she got down to finding a solution for us.

For the next 3 hours, she called everyone she knew from car workshops to tow services and finally triggered the company driver to send me and the children all the way home while Theo drove the car slowly home.

The next day, the SP Setia Singapore office called to let us know they have arranged to get our car fixed. Within a week, we got a call from a workshop telling us to come down to fix up our new original windscreen, the only piece in stock in all of Singapore.

They fixed our windscreen and replaced our solar film as well at no cost. Apparently the Singapore rep had come by a few days before to make the full payment of $1,450 for the replacement.

And with that our car was back to original condition and we didn’t have to feel we were any worse off.

Perhaps you could say that SP Setia can afford such small expense but what really impressed me is how they went beyond their duty to bring us safely home and arranged to have our car fixed so efficiently and without hassle.

Honestly, they could have just said we were unlucky and we had to deal with it but as a multinational company, they had a reputation to keep. And I have to give them credit for it.

Though I still don’t like the designs of their houses, I might give them a second consideration if I ever can afford a second property.