Cheap KTV in Singapore? It's too good to be true.

If you know me in person (or even if you do not), it is not difficult to guess that I frequent karaoke places quite frequently.

With the uprise of karaoke places, the prices are getting competitive - and I would say many are offering cheap rates for a few hours.

There is this particular KTV which I am sure many karaoke goers may be familiar with - It's so freaking' affordable ($10 for 5 hours session!?) and with the offer of free-flow drinks, what is there not to love about the place, right?!

NOT.

Yes,  I am not going to mask the name here because I feel that everyone ought to know how they have been treating their customers - in such a way that will leave them feeling emotionally scarred. 

To the management of Ten Dollar KTV Club, it was not my initial intention to post about my negative experience but I really felt that the customer service rendered was too outrageous for me to leave it at that.

So what did we get for paying the $10+ price?

- Being accused by your staff

- The receiving of long, cold, hard stares

-Being shoo-ed out even before our last song ended

Let me elaborate on what happened before anyone thinks I am just being unreasonable. Well, you guys can judge for yourselves whether these are acceptable if you were in our shoes.

As Ten Dollar KTV Club claims that there is a free-flow of drinks (in other words, unlimited) , of course we would utilise it, right? (We even did it reasonably by ordering the next drink ONLY after we finished our first)

And the only way for us to order the drinks is through the service button that's provided in the Karaoke system. (It works in such a way that the staff will only come in upon customer's request after activating the button)

The first time I ordered my drink, I just felt odd that there was a weird vibe (which I ignored) from a male staff who came in. He opened the door with a poker face and looked at me.

'I would like one iced honey water'. I gave a polite smile and said my thank you.

Without a word nor acknowledgement , he turned around and went off. 

Alright, that's fine. I was not really bothered about it. 

(He did serve me the drink eventually.)

As we sang our hours away, we had to order more drinks. Afraid that we would trouble the staff too many times, my friend decided to go the extra mile and walk to them instead to place our orders.

Surprisingly, he came back in soon after with a puzzled look.

He was not sure if the staff acknowledged his orders.

"I am not sure.. He did not look at me when I was talking to him and kept playing with his mobile phone," he said.

He attempted to order a second time.

"So you girls want 1 cup of Barley each right?" my friend confirmed again.

Before we could even answer him, the door swung open and in came the male staff.

He did not seem amused. He looked at my friend and started his accusations.

"你跟他們說我沒有理你？我是有聽到！我沒有不理你！" (Translation: You told them that I did not give a hoot about you? I DID HEAR you okay?!)

All of us stared at him as we were taken aback by his sudden outburst.

"Huh?" my friend stared at him blankly.

The staff stared back and began pointing his finger at him.

"You told them that I DID NOT give a hoot about you right?!"

At that moment, I was sure that he had misheard my friend when he said the word "BARLEY" (which sounded like 沒有理妳)

But he did not stop to listen to any explanation and went out.

After a long while, he came in (black-faced) and placed our drinks on the table. 

HE DID NOT EVEN GET MY ORDER RIGHT. 

I ordered barley and he brought in a coke. 

But well, I did not make noise about it so as not to make matters big.

(Seriously, we did not dare the drink them anymore as the male staff looked as though he would've spat into them anytime)

And this was not the end.

When 3 of us made a trip to the toilet, we spotted him sitting on a chair as we walked past him.

After we were done, he had a colleague with him and both of them were giving us LONG, HARD stares as we walked past them - All 3 of us saw and felt the stares ; it was most uncomfortable.

Like erm, hello?? Did we offend you in any way?

But well, again.... This was NOT the end.

When we were finishing the KTV session, we were already at our last song. 

Suddenly, the counter girl came in and started to MANUALLY switch off the electricity. She switched off the TV, etc and said nothing to us. She did NOT even look at us in any direction at all when she did all these.

The message was clear. 

We were totally not welcome and they couldn't wait for us to leave the place.

And all because of? I could think of nothing that we could've offended them. I mean, I would understand if there was anything that we said or did wrongly - but for the whole time, we did not and all I could remember was them giving us a bad attitude right from the beginning.

Yes, I understand that the prices are seriously one of the cheapest in town - but that does not mean that the price I am paying is inclusive of such treatment, making me feel like an unwelcome/unwanted guest.

 I was even very polite throughout the session,  smiling and saying my thank-yous. 

If your staff was losing patience because of the fact that the customers kept requesting for drinks after they had finished theirs, then why on earth would your company offer "FREE-FLOW" drinks and making it compulsory for us to request for service every time we need a refill?

Seriously, get a container and I would not mind refilling my own drinks.

And to the staff who offered such a bad attitude, why on earth are you still working there if you are really THAT unhappy about your job and taking it all out on the customers?

After all, we DID PAY and just wanted a pleasant karaoke experience - Is it that difficult to grant such a simple request? 

Honestly, this was not my first time experiencing black-faced staff from the same place - but I did not pursue previously as I deemed that as a small matter. 

But to the extent of accusing, staring and chasing us out? That is just too much for me to stay silent anymore.

If you guys are planning to head down to Ten Dollar KTV Club, be sure to check out their faces. Almost ALL of them are black-faced (which I have no idea why) - I guess one of the criteria to be able to work there is to have a default black face?

Oh well.

GO AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU WERE WARNED.