Albert met a salesman with a 'darkened face'

Shoppers Albert Wee and his wife are pretty upset by the way they were treated by a salesman at Toy Outpost Singapore in Plaza Singapura.   
      The couple were shopping at the mall on June 16. His wife had bought two iPhone earpieces for $10.
      Albert said there were a few colours to choose from but his wife chose two without noticing there was a pink one as well. 
      Later, when she realised she had missed picking the pink one, she asked the salesman whether she could have it changed.
      Albert said he "showed a face"  (obviously a sour one) and ignored her request.
      To test whether the salesman would behave in the same manner again, Albert went to another display box which had the same earpieces on sale and had more colours. 
      He said: "I asked for one in blue and the other pink. 'World class
service' was again rendered.  The salesman also ignored me and again showed his darkened face.
     "As such services were being shown,  we decided to leave but not
before informing Livia (another sales staff) about what had happened."
     Minutes later, a dissatisfied Albert went back to the shop as he wanted to confront the salesman to ask for his name as he thought he should complain to the management about the rotten service.
     Albert said this was how the dialogue went between the two of them:
     Salesman: “What you want my name for?"
      Albert:  “Cause I want to let your management know of your excellent service."
      Salesman:  “My name is confidential, cannot give you."
       Albert: "Are you afraid of me complaining to your management?"
       Salesman: “No, I’m not."
       By the way, Toy Outpost Singapore is a consignment shop concept. It rents out lockers to anyone to sell their products.

UOB's inflexibility over credit card payment annoys Shionge

      For blogger Shionge, her unhappiness with UOB started when she  received a new UOB Visa card to replace the one that was expiring soon.      
      She says: "I took it along with me to Hong Kong and started using it for my first transaction in Macau Hard Rock Hotel.  It didn't go through.
     "Luckily, a friend used her Visa to pay for me."
     Shionge says she found it strange that the UOB Visa transaction could not go through.  So she tried another outlet --- G2000 -- and  again it failed to be cleared.
    "For a moment I thought the card was faulty and I was embarrassed that it had been rejected twice," Shionge says.
    "I returned to Singapore and told the bank about this, and it was then that I was told by the Customer Service Officer that for a new replacement card, I must inform them before I leave the country so that they could 'activate' it for overseas transactions."
     Her question to the officer was: Why didn't the bank inform her about this in the first place??
     Shionge's annoyance did not end there. While she was on the line with the officer, she requested for a short extension of the due date for next month's payment as she was going to be away again in mid-June till early July. This was to avoid the late payment penalty.
     She says UOB's due date usually falls on the 3rd or 4th day of the month but she will only be back in Singapore on July 6.
     Shionge says her request was rejected by the officer without any consideration.
     "I told the bank officer that I am making known to them that I will be travelling and by rejecting me outright, they are merely discouraging customers from carrying their UOB credit cards overseas," she says.
      Shionge thinks that the bank's accounting system can be more flexible.  "Afterall,  I have been a loyal customer and pay my bills promptly," she adds.
      Maybe the moral of the story is:  Loyalty does not pay!

SingPost apologises for 'lost' parcel but Betty is not happy

SingPost has apologised to Ms Betty Ong and her partners “for the difficulties and inconvenience” over a “lost” registered parcel sent from Taiwan last month.
        In an email to her yesterday, SingPost said: “After analyzing the issue and conducting several internal reviews, we have also extended the search in our Post Offices. Despite extensive search conducted, we are unable to locate the item.
        “We will officially declare item as lost by 05/06/2012 and Taiwan Post office will be notified. Investigation reports will be forwarded to them for their reviews on the compensation claims payable to the sender. This is as the sender would have the prior right of claims to the item.”
        Betty is obviously not happy with its reply. She says: “I have placed a $5,000 deposit on the items (sent) and (is) likely to lose it, so who do I go to for my compensation? ‘’
        The deposit to her Taiwan supplier was for “crystal and jadeite samples sent over for us to view and show our customers”.
       She says: “No business people will just send things over without some sort of payment first. The agreement was that once we have seen the items and want to buy, then we go from there either sending the supplier more cash or return the items to get the deposit back.
       “Hence if the parcel is lost, I won’t be able to get my money back and, to be honest, I believe the items are worth more than that.
      “I am so very displeased with Singpost. It is irresponsible and takes no accountability for items under its charge. If this is the case, isn’t SingPost encouraging its staff to mishandle items as they don’t have to account for them?
       “I am sure my supplier in Taiwan will not take this quietly as well.”