26 November 2012:
踏破鐵鞋無覓處
If you were following me on Weibo, you would've known that I almost bought a Russian book. Turns out that the book I wanted was out of stock at Marine Parade's Popular Bookstore, and there were only two at Bras Basah and Jurong Point respectively.Today, I called Popular to ask about the book again. My first time calling was bad. I tried calling the Bras Basah outlet but it was engaged. So, I called the main branch. Still, it was engaged. Finally, I called their Customer Service hotline.
A guy answered me after going through certain automated machine rounds. I was unable to give him the ISBN (which would have made things much easier) so I gave him the complete title.
I was told that Popular doesn't carry the book at all. I was suspicious cos yesterday the lady at MP was able to tell me that there was stock elsewhere. Therefore, I tried another book that was similar. This one I'm very sure that there is, cos I was holding on to it yesterday. Again he said the same.
I hung up and decided to get the ISBN. In retrospect this really made things easier for them. Whenever I offered to give the ISBN they seemed more eager to help.
Anyway, I decided to call the outlet at Sing Post. A girl answered; I think she's also a sec sch graduate that's helping out. She was the one that told me one was in BB and another at JP. You could tell she was an amateur cos she told me 'I help you search ah' and 'got one at JP uh Jurong Point'. Still, thanks to her.
Moving on, I called Bras Basah. They were again engaged. I then called the customer service hotline again. This time a lady answered, not that guy. She was so helpful and was able to hell me get through to Bras Basah.
Half an hour later she called back and told me that they do not have the physical stock although it's in the system. Therefore, she would call JP and check for physical stock as well.
This time, she didn't call back for about two hours. I called back (cos I now had her direct line) and she told me that they had the physical stock and would transfer it to MP. The process takes around seven working days though, but staff there would call and tell me once it arrives.
Many thanks to all that helped me in this episode. Especially the clueless guy; I wonder what system he was on. Hahah.
TTFN.