Complaint or wail

This is a companion piece to the letter in The Jakarta Post, (June 24, 1994) under the heading: Complaint from Ms. Hausjah.

Ms. Hausjah has, it seems, taken a common occurrence, post- purchase hostility, very much to heart. She thinks she has been singled out to be denied customer service. No. She has only been shown her place.

We, poor mortals, tend to forget that power names like Louis Vuitton (LV) stand for class, not gripe. They are accustomed to customers who go in for a new piece every time they travel, because the LV products are not storage bins, they are super credentials, making a statement about the users.

The airport conveyor belt is their catwalk, where their patrician owners allow the pieces to regally parade for a couple of rounds before they gather then delicately and wheel them out, nose up and eyes aglow.

A battered, patched up LV on the conveyor belt would be an affront, an outrage, if not an outright disaster. Such a travesty can't be countenanced, much less assisted or encouraged by an after-sales service. So the staff at LV, by their disdain, are only holding the product banner high, lest it be sullied by the likes of Ms. Hausjah.

Daft as it may seem, even the place where such products are sold are not shops, but salons, their ambiance, up-scale, frosty and forbidding. So, someone who tries to take a peek at the price openly or furtively is a vulgar bargain-hunting jerk. And, of course, one who asks and learns about the price and sheepishly thinks that something funny is afoot or speechlessly squirms, is not a customer at all -- either a passing rustic or one who had undergone a lobotomy and does not know where he is.

It must be comforting for Ms. Hausjah to know that I also have my tale of woe. When I saunter into a fancy watch shop, only tension, not prospects, is raised. Lingering there, trying to browse the calligraphy on the prostrate pieces, has only intensified the consternation around; made it so palpable that the satpams (security personnel) start taking real interest.

To boot, I have tried wearing a fancy watch and taking care to flaunt it; to no avail. The watch was seen as a fake or as some sort of a diabolic bait. Again to my utter dismay, and chagrin too, I excite only the satpams.

So, dear Ms. Hausjah, you and I belong to the majority who are made aware of many ways that names like LV do not look for customers, they want patrons.

Having to wail and not be able to complain and obtain redress is a fact of life. So, let us not lose heart.

G.S. EDWIN

Jakarta