Industrial Prostitutes

I know, I know.... lots of you out there have told me a zillion times that when we start a business, we have to take the good, the bad and the ugly. And trust me, after 5 years, I've seen lots of good bad and unfortunately, ugly (like Mdm W!!!! Ugghhh!!! Uweeekkkk!!!!!) What I can deduce out of the different portfolios I carry, there is this common trait I see which is quite disturbing. I'll call them industrial prostitutes. Why? Because there is this group of people who will make you do everything (and most of the time, more) and then complain that you've not one enough. Then, they will make sure that they squeeze you dry from any form of profit because they feel that no one in this world should make a profit out of them. And these people are unfortunately (and I'm very ashamed to say this) MALAYSIANS!!!! I've never encountered such issues with foreign clients. Be they for interior design consultancy or the freight forwarding business.

Case in point. I have this new client who have this urgent (take note, urgent!!!) cargo that is on it's way form Hong Kong via sea. They frantically was requesting for us to be their forwarding agent and they have no idea how to start. Fine. So, here we are trying our best to educate them, explaining to them the costs breakdown and what needs to be done and so on and so forth. Since it is an import cargo, we basically don't make anything except for a small agency fee. Guess what??? These jokers only want to pay us RM30 for all that running around, getting their import permits done, their tax cleared and their goods reach safely on their doorstep!!! GILER BABI WEH!!!!! Well, I told then that they can go shop around and the pricing is pretty much standard (of course, lah!!! Almost everything is charged back-to-back anyway!!) So, after haggling, and the shipment is almost reaching, these jokers start to panic and then said, fine, we will appoint you all. But MUST GIVE FURTHER DISCOUNT! Hapende lagi discount nak kasi if we are making a measly RM100 from this lot of shipment???? Clear from A-Z you know??? Not just clearing Delivery Order!!!! So stupeed!!!! Then, tell us that they want to apply for their import permit themselves (kononnya want to save money lah) Tak tau buat, pagi-pagi buta call people and disturb. Want free advice. Lepas tuh, bila dah buat salah, said want to charge me for the resubmission.

Is our Malaysian mentality of wanting freebies and haggling attitude getting out of control? If we are, then we should not be making fun of Singaporeans for being kiasu because I feel Malaysians have surpassed them on this matter. Malaysia Boleh!!! Yeah right! I shall quote Patric Teoh's blog on this matter that I feel really disgusted about our bad habits...NIAMAH!!!!