Cara Van Miriah

I was at the Owndays outlet at Bukit Panjang Plaza last evening, slightly before 8pm. My husband wanted to get a pair of progressive lenses. After taking down his particulars, a member of the staff – a man – said that there would be two before him for the eye test. We went to the Don Don Donki outlet shortly after 8pm and returned 20 minutes later. A female staff member told my husband he was next.

While we were waiting outside the eye-test room, a man appeared and stood outside. When the optician/optometrist came out of the testing room, the female staff said I would be next in line. The optician took what looked like a random box on a counter and asked my husband if the name on the sheet of paper was his. he said no, because it was not his name, and the optician/optometrist rudely asked him, then who is this? Like, seriously, how the hell is he supposed to know? My husband told the optometrist his name, which he ignored, and went looking for the person whose name was on the sheet of paper. We are not sure what happened, as I tried speaking to the staff but they all appeared intent on ignoring me. The man who had appeared while we were waiting conveniently went in!

So we held our peace and waited.

After what seemed like 45 minutes, the man came out, and as my husband prepared to go in, another client mysteriously and miraculously appeared! So the female staff said that to the optometrist that it was that guy’s turn, because “he went to eat”. She and all of the other staff ignored me as I protested that it was supposed to be our turn. Yes, ignored. Unless they were deaf, they would have heard me.

But the point is, nstead of being next in line, my husband was made to wait because two people magically emerged and suddenly, it was their turn!


It was 9pm by then and my husband and I decided we would not wait because people kept showing up before his turn.

If anything, Owndays has been consistent about one thing – and that is providing very poor service.

Several years back, my son – who is autistic – was made to wait at your Jurong Point outlet.

And before that, when my husband wanted a pair of glasses with a slight tint at the AMK Hub outlet, one of your staff insisted that he should get a darker one, and when he said he wanted a light tint, he was told it would become lighter once they processed the lens. That never happened. He ended up having a pair of sunglasses with prescription lenses.

We will be using our neighbourhood optician or Lenskart in future.

Had a meltdown upon arriving at this airport. My transit to Berlin was in an hour. What greeted me at the immigration was a long queue with 2 counters opened. My flight wasn't the only one arriving early in the morning. The queue moved like bloody snails. 20 minutes in, a security broke the queue and told some of us to take lift to another counter. Temporary relief. Just as I cleared immigration 25 minutes later, I had to walk and walk to bag-check. There, another long snaking queue. I was left with no more than 20 minutes to my connecting flight to Berlin. I did the unthinkable. I had to shout across to get the security's attention that my flight was leaving!!! Only did he allow me to cut queue. Nightmare not over yet. Body, shoe, bag check – it was as if they hired the sloths to do the job! Jesus. I ran to my gate and was out of breathe...just in time to board. The flight waited for another 7-10 minutes or so, and left. Anyone heading my way wouldn't have made it through for another 20-25 minutes - queue and screening!