Reading Is A Thing Of The Past?

We have noticed that MANY applicants do not read our policies before applying. And this is why they send non-compliant applications.

Then, if they are first-timers, I will send them the link and ask them to please read so that they have a chance to resubmit (if they wish to). And yet, they don’t read.

The policies are in three languages, and yet, they don’t want to read.

Then, to make it “easier” (I’m guilty on spoonfeeding them simply because I want to reach out and help as many as we can), I created images for a step-by-step application. It’s all in pictorial form.

And if they STILL refuse to read what is in the images, I give up.

I’ll describe my voicemail conversation with a new applicant just a few days ago. This is an applicant who cannot read English or BM, but she reads Chinese. So I spoke in Cantonese using voicemail.

First she said she didn’t know what to do because she could not read English or BM (and this is a young person, so one wonders what 11 years of schooling has taught, but never mind that). I said the policies are in THREE languages (including Chinese) so could she please click on the link I sent, scroll down and read the Chinese part?  And this is also written right at the top of the policy page:

For Chinese version, please scroll down. 对于中文，请向下滚动.

Obviously she did not bother to read or did not even bother to click on the link, so she just kept telling me that she didn’t know what to do as she doesn’t know English and BM. You know how insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results, right? I didn’t want to go insane, so I started telling her how to do the photo collage.

I said “download Moldiv, even our elderly non-literates know how to use it”. She said she would try but after sometime, still could not get it done, so since I was being exceptionally patient that day, I did one and showed her.

Then she asked me, what to do next?

Read the link, I said.

But she said she still didn’t know what to do.

So I sent an image of a sample write-up. By now, I was wondering if maybe, just maybe, she could not read Chinese as well….and maybe that is why she didn’t know what to do?

But what do you know, the moment I sent the sample write-up…she sent one back, about her animal, written in Chinese! So, wow….she CAN write Chinese!

And she asked me, what to do next?

That’s when I drew the line. Obviously, she CAN read, right?

So I sent a few long voicemails about how we have thousands of applicants and that it isn’t possible for me to guide each applicant as I was doing with her, and that is precisely why the policies are written in THREE languages. My apologies for not putting in Tamil but from our experience so far, all our Indian applicants can read English, so there was no need to include Tamil. It’s many of the Chinese applicants who cannot read English or BM (sad, isn’t it….and they grew up here, in Malaysia too). I teach college, so I can go on, but I’ll be digressing very badly….

So, getting back to this case, I explained that all she had to do was to CLICK ON THE LINK. Why don’t you just try it, everything is written clearly in there.

Here…this link: www.myanimalcare.org/aid/.  Just click on it. 

I swore to myself that I wasn’t going to tell her what to do next. I’ll make her click on the link even if I had to die trying.

So, she had no choice but to click on the link and voila!! She knew that the next step was to post the form and receipt to us!

Success!!

Hooray!!!

But on hindsight, I was spoonfeeding and I shall not do this anymore. No, No, no! I’ll go mad, for sure.

So, is reading a thing of the past now? Or are people just to lazy to read because there will always be information in other forms?

Talking about reading, let me digress a bit and share this with you.

It’s almost funny, you know.

If you’ve been following this blog, you’d know that besides helping street animals, we also promote “Going Meatless As Often As Possible”, being “Environment-Friendly” and “Using Products that are Not Tested on Animals”.

Last month, I was searching for youtubes and I came across an advertisement of this brand of skincare that was started by a certain celebrity. Since she was so famous, I decided to read up on it and I HOPED it would have no animal ingredients and would not be tested on animals. After all, isn’t the whole world moving towards this trend now, with more awareness and all.

Out of curiosity, I decided to find out. I checked the official website, but nothing was written about this, so I wrote to their support hotline. Below, is the correspondence:

My first email to them:

I would like to know if your products contain animal ingredients and if they go through animal testing.

Thank you.

Their reply:

Dear Customer,

“We thank you for your email.

We regret to inform you that we were unable to locate your customer file in our system using the e-mail address or name provided.
Please confirm the name and email address used to place your order and the reference number mentioned in the welcome e-mail that was sent to you.

Upon receipt of your confirmation we will then proceed with your request without further delay.

If you did not get an email, then it is likely you did not successfully sign up for the website.

Thank you for your interest in our products.”

My second email:

I have not signed up yet as I need to know if your products are tested on animals or have animal ingredients.

Can you not just provide an answer without me signing up?

Thank you.

Their reply:

Thank you for your email.

To view our pricing and ordering options, please visit (link provided), enter your information and press submit. By pressing submit; you will not be obligated to purchase anything but will be directed to the next page where our pricing options are displayed.

Thank you for your interest in our products.

My 3rd and last email:

This is getting to be painful.  I did not ask for your pricing.  I asked if your products have animal ingredients and if they are tested on animals.  Is it so difficult to provide an answer to this?

I’m not holding my breath to wait for their reply, of course. Suffice to say, if people were to ask me which skincare brand is not tested on animals, this brand is definitely not on my list!

So, talk about not reading?  And mind you, this company is located in the US, not in Malaysia. I guess it’s just standard replies that they give?  But this is customer support, you know. Where is the “support”? And I know there is a human behind all these replies because earlier on, I contacted their Malaysian customer support and the (Malaysian) person who replied was extremely rude, so I wrote to this same support hotline and received a favourable reply from them, so yes, there IS a human replying to all these. It’s not a robot.

Anyway, reading will soon be a dying art.

World wide.

Cats don’t need to read the printed word, they read minds.

Pole: That is why we will rule the world…one day. 

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2019/01/03/reading-is-a-thing-of-th..

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