MAN FROM ESCALATE

 My to-ing and fro-ing with Starhub is finally over.

Although it took some effort on my part, I am glad I did it. For mainly two reasons.  

 First was obviously the money involved. I would have had to pay for:

# a supposedly extra router costing $300 that was not needed and was not installed;

# a transport charge that was waived (because it was not my fault) but still appeared on my bill, and

# a charge for HBO package that was supposed to have been FOC together with the Premier League channels. This was the offer made by the marketing officer when I opted for the upgraded TV services.

The other reason is to help raise awareness about checking your bills from some service providers. They can be slipshod as was clearly shown in my case.

I have related how tedious it was dealing with such providers in my previous post.

But here's the good news! The narrative changed after I emailed Starhub's CEO on Aug 23. I told him about my frustrations and asked him to read my blog.

Two days later, a soft-spoken  Starhub executive named John called to ask about my problems. I gave him the works.

Imagine receiving a bill that had three questionable items on it!  He understood why I was upset.  

It was apparent that he was specially assigned to deal with customers like me. He disclosed that he was from a section called Escalate. 

To cut a long story short, the Man From Escalate managed to remove all three charges from my bill even though he took about a week to do all the necessary checks.

My only concession was that I would not have the HBO channels for free. I didn't quibble over this as I am not into any of the old-time shows.

My hope is that John would realise what a mess the telco is in, at least where my case is concerned, and inform his Big Boss about it.

The ball is, ultimately, at BB's feet.

PS. I have another story to tell about the telco's upgraded TV service. Maybe for another day.

Tale of two telcos

It's been four years since I last posted. I am at it again as I find that life as a senior can be pretty frustrating, to say the least.

There are so many more challenges.  Especially when organisations, both public and private, that we older folks have to deal with, do not fully realised that this group of people are now slower, less alert and mobile, hard of hearing and often blurry-eyed.

We know there will be many more of us in the coming years as the authorities keep reiterating this fact to raise awareness.

So, what I do not understand is, why are those people involved in serving this group of seniors not give more thought on how to ease the problems facing them?

I know I've been slow in raising this. But two recent incidents involving telcos got me upset again.

One concerns telco Singtel.  Two latest bills -- me and my wife's -- have charges that do not seem right.

So I tried calling Singtel to find out the reason. And that was when the frustrations started. Press this number and that number but all I heard was a recorded voice.

 At that stage, one couldn't help but wonder whether the telco was trying to avoid talking to the customer at all costs.

Then I decided I should call a different number. It worked. There was a human at the other end!!! Turned out to be a business line. Hmmm, made me wonder even more.

I managed to speak to J. Long story short, he said he would try to get the charge for my wife's "usage" waived and call me back.

Guess what? He never did.

This morning (Aug 22), wiser and with another bill in hand, I called another business line. Spoke to a woman who put me through to a customer service officer named Devi.

Even though I had to wait more than 10 minutes, I was glad I didn't have to go through the pressing-buttons routine again.

Devi was very understanding when I told her about my problems -- and frustrations.

She said my wife's non-usage charge had been waived. She did the same for mine. Happy ending!

The second incident involved Starhub. It was easier to speak to a human in this case, but he was a call centre person who spoke with an accent that was hard to comprehend.

Here, the frustrations were numerous, arising from my decision to upgrade my cable TV plan.

1.  Starhub billing  is totally confusing. If I had not called to query and verify, I wouldn't have known what the charges were for.

2. The various sections apparently did not know what each one of them was doing. A charge that was already waived was still in the bill I received. A Starhub woman had called earlier to confirm.

3. The call centre person was hesistant and had diffculty answering my queries. He had to excuse himself three times to check and check.

4. The telco has a serious communication problem among themselves and with its customers,  both orally and in writing.

The customer service officer says someone will call me in 24 hours to explain. So it is still a running story.

Stay tuned.

y

  

   PayNow case:  UOB says 'Not our fault'

 My friend Julie is totally pissed off. After more than three months of waiting for something to be done about her daughter Natalie's suspected PayNow fraud case (see story below), it appears that they are back at square one.

    United Overseas Bank, which Natalie has an account and had $1,000 deducted mysteriously, has finally responded in a letter dated November 8, basically saying that it was not at fault.

    It says in the letter: "According to our system, a PayNow transaction of S$1,000 was deducted from your UOB One Account on 24 August 2021 through UOB Personal Internet Banking (PIB). Please note that for such a transaction to be processed, it requires the customer to log in to the UOB PIB service with a valid username and password followed by 2-Factor Authentication SMS one-time password (OTP) which is sent to the customer's phone number registered with the bank.

    "Our records show that the SMS OTP was sent to your registered mobile number ending with 2226 at 2.37pm on 24 August 2021 and this SMS OTP was verified at 2.40 pm on the same day. This indicates the successful login to PIB.

   "We have checked the SMS messages that were sent to your registered mobile number."

   What's interesting is that the bank, in the next paragraph, says "PayNow transactions can be done without the need for additional authorisation with a hard/digital token for transaction amounts less than or equal to S$1,000."

    This begs the question: So why did the bank say it sent Natalie the OTP message when the amount deducted was $1,000? Natalie says the OTP did not appear on her phone.

    Another obvious question is, what about the Elephant in the Room? i.e. the recipient of the $1,000. No one seems to be interested in finding out who this person is?

    Surely he/she could be traced as the name/ID was given in the SMS message to Natalie. Julie says the bank has refused to disclose whether this person has an account with the bank, citing client confidentiality.

    Meanwhile, Julie has turned to her MP for help as the newspapers have declined to publish her story and there has been no progress report from the police.  

    Which, understandably, has led Julie to this conclusion:  "I am small fry and small cracker who cannot command the loud noise that the big shots can. That's why I am so pissed with the bank. If Nat is a wealthy or well-known client, would they treat her like a criminal who robs her own account?"

    She says her main objective is to apprehend the perpetrator as the bank says its system is not at fault.

    "But I think the onus is on the bank to help its 'valued' account holder and make things right instead of passing the buck to the client and the police. It is utterly wrong and irresponsible. 

    "Besides, its response is offensive, insulting and arrogant."

    The bigger question, however, is still  "IS OUR PAYNOW SYSTEM SAFE?"  

    Until UOB, the police and MAS succeed in cracking this mystery, the doubt will always remain,

     

 Is PayNow safe?

My friend Julie raised eyebrows last month when she posed this question in her Facebook account: Is PayNow safe?

She was relating her daughter's traumatic experience on August 24 at 2.45 pm when she received an SMS that says a PayNow transaction of $1,000 to someone she did not know (see bank notification) was successful.

At that time her daughter Natalie was watching Netflix at home and her phone was with her. "How could anyone make a PayNow payment from her UOB account without her mobile phone?" Julie would like to know.

Natalie immediately called up the bank but her call was not picked up till around 3pm. She spoke with an officer who was not able to explain how the transaction was possible. The officer advised her to make a police report before the bank could return her the missing amount. 

Mum and daughter rushed to the Serangoon Garden Police Post where the officer asked Natalie if anyone knew her bank account number. As it is a salary account, no one, except her company payroll department, should know, Julie says. "But that was beside the point because PayNow is supposed to be transacted using the mobile device. Unless there is another PayNow method that we’re not aware of."

Natalie then tried to send a copy of the police report via the email address the bank officer had provided, but it kept bouncing back. They had no choice but to rush to the UOB office in Suntec City to submit it personally. Natalie also terminated her current account and reopened a new one just to be safe.

What was infuriating was that none of the bank officers they spoke to could explain how the transaction was able to go through all the bank's security system.

 

When Natalie finally managed to connect by phone with UOB again, another officer told her it was in the hands of the police and her lost fund would only be returned after investigation. "Which means that the first officer had misled my daughter into thinking that a police report was a formality before they refunded her. Why couldn’t they check or do their own investigation immediately?" Julie asks.

After three weeks, what remains a mystery and of concern is how someone could access Natalie's bank account to pay by PayNow without the required device, her mobile.

 

Julie has the following questions for the bank to answer:

1. Is PayNow safe?

2. Is her UOB bank account at risk?

3. Why was not an OTP sent to her mobile, whilst a notification of successful transaction was sent to it?

4. Why was this amount transferred without an OTP security clearance?

Today (September 15), Julie has given an update on the situation in her Facebook account...

"To friends who have been concerned.

... the bank is dragging its feet over this lapse. It has been more than three weeks since this incident and I’ve not heard from them. Yesterday, we made a third trip to the UOB bank at Suntec to remind them that the stolen fund has not been restored and to expedite their processes.

This was my first meeting with the bank manager. I must say he was rather understanding and concerned and has given the word that he’ll “chase” those working on the case. Frankly in my opinion, they can take all the time in the world to investigate, but their first priority is to ensure that their client’s trust and confidence are not shaken.

 Their system failed us because it didn’t send the security OTP clearance that was required before releasing the fund. Therefore, it was an unauthorised transaction and it’s the bank’s responsibility to make restitution for their system failure. 

Why must my daughter lose her saving through no fault of hers? As far as we are concerned it’s not even a scam. It’s a theft that could have been prevented had the bank done its due diligence."

The bank will be contacted for its comments.

Why is UOB accusing us of wrongdoing?

LATEST:  Sept 30.

UOB has not responded to our request for comments.

Meanwhile, Julie informs me on Whatsapp that an officer (Angela) from the bank contacted Natalie and "audaciously implied that she did it to pay for Shopee.  Insisted they sent an OTP and also revealed that the recipient is from NUS, that the fund was sent to an IP (internet protocol) address, and whether Natalie worked in NUS and knew this person?"

An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. The protocol is a set of rules governing the format of data sent via the internet or local network.

Julie says the officer "kept harassing her to admit she knows such a person and she paid for merchandise.

"Then she was asked to go back to the police with more info, meaning that she hadn't told the full story or she was hiding something."

Julie describes the conversation between the bank officer and Natalie as "downright bullying'', wanting  her to say something they would like to hear".

Another thing that was inconsistent in the alleged purchase, Julie says, was the mode of payment. Natalie always pays for her Shopee stuff by credit card and not from her bank account.  

What is getting Julie depressed is "their harassment and insistence that my daughter did it. Do you think she's stupid? Why would she do such a thing to her own money and then report it?

"Someone took her money from her bank account and the bank turns around and points finger at her integrity. Would you not feel what we feel if it had happened to you?

"You entrust your savings to an institution and that institution lost it through no fault of yours, yet turns around and accuses you of wrongdoing! Where is the justice?"

After more than a month since the incident, it is indeed puzzling why the bank and the police have not been able to give Julie and her daughter some satisfactory updates. The name of the recipient is known. Surely they would have contacted this person and found out from him/her many things which we would all like to know.  

For example, if the bank says Natalie had purchased something from Shopee, what was it that she had purchased that cost $1,000, an amount that is beyond her purchase limit?

We would also like to know the identity of the recipient and whether or not he was indeed a seller of goods? 

If so, whether the recipient is registered with Shopee as a retailer? This can easily be verified with Shopee.

Most importantly, the bank has to assure us that its PayNow system, already an established form of electronic payment here, is really robust and secure. This question has to be resolved quickly as the consequences of delay are unimaginable.  There cannot be any doubt cast on its integrity.

Needless to say, the sooner those in charge get moving and provide us with the answers, the faster will our minds be at ease.

UPDATE -- October 13

Julie asks her MP for help

Last week, a police officer called to assure me that they are looking into the case. I had earlier alerted them to my blog. 

Today, Natalie's mother Julie told me that she had asked MP Dr Tan Wu Meng (Clementi) for help as she remembers him as the parliamentarian who had recently called on the Monetary Authority of Singapore to investigate OTP cases.

"Dr Tan in turn got my Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Gan Thiam Poh to call me," Julie said. "Mr Gan assured me he would help me with the case."

It's been almost two months since this story broke. We can well understand why Julie had to contact Dr Tan for help. Because to date, nothing has happened to give Natalie and her mum some comfort.  

And to think we are a financial centre known for our efficiency!!!

Singapore Airlines -- a grate way to fly

Now I can understand why Singapore Airlines is no longer the world's best airline.

I do not travel as often as I would like to, but each time that I do, more often than not, I would encounter something that would upset me or my fellow travellers.

The latest is my upcoming trip to Phuket. I had booked online four economy-class tickets earlier this month. This included paying for our seat selections, a marketing strategy that obviously is profit-oriented but cleverly promoted as one of service.

Having settled the hassle of maneuvering through the still unfriendly website, I thought I could relax and just look forward to the holiday.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Last Saturday, as I was checking my email, out popped a bunch of messages from the airline informing us of a change in flight schedules and operating aircraft, together with seat allocations that were arbitrarily done, never mind the fact that we had paid for our selections.

Of course, the airline promised to refund the seat selection fee, but that was not the issue I had problem with.

My unhappiness was that the airline had conveniently given us alternative seats that were way back in the new aircraft.  Why couldn't it have assigned seats in a similar location? After all, I had taken the trouble to book early and surely deserved the right to have equivalent seats.

It was obvious that the airline didn't bother considering our right because when I called the hotline to complain (vigorously, I might add), more acceptable seats were offered.  The question is, why couldn't this have been done in the first place?

Was this because it was dealing with 'cattle-class' customers who could easily be ignored, or maybe pacified by simply refunding their seat selection fee?

Such high-handedness, I must say, leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.

As a customer, I can accept unexpected changes and disruptions in flight schedules and the attendant consequences. But when they happen, is it too much to expect a little bit more consideration, even for the cattle class?

 I believe the airline knows the hassle one has to go through trying to get in touch with its customer service officers whenever such a disruption occurs. And one cannot help but feel that it makes a deliberate effort to avoid speaking to its customers.

As a Singaporean, I have been proud to see our airline flying high for so many years. However, it is sad to note that with intense competition from the Middle Eastern airlines, it is struggling to maintain, what it used to boast about, the "service that other airlines talk about".

My feeling is that complacency has started to set in. However, my biggest fear is that it has somewhat lost its way while it was up there in the stratosphere -- and there is no longer Lee Kuan Yew around to bring it down to earth.

Bee Choo's a gem
It's been more than a year since my last post. I am back at it today as I've just met someone at the National Eye Centre who went the extra mile to show exemplary service.

Although I had told her that I appreciated what she did, I thought I should put it down on record if only to remind me that there are still many around us who know the meaning of service.

I went to the eye centre this morning - with a lingering concern - for what is known as a "pre-op" check-up before my cataract surgery next month.

I told the woman who handles admin matters about it. She was kind enough to pick up the phone to check whether I could see the doctor for "just three minutes".  No luck. Doc was overwhelmed with patients.

The next stop -- to check my heart and take my blood pressure -- was where I met nurse Bee Choo and her colleague.

Procedure done, I got talking to her while waiting for a report to be signed.  I told her of my concern over my astigmatism and a few other things.

Bee Choo, cheery and articulate, readily answered and explained every query I threw at her.

I asked whether my surgery was going to be laser-assisted or by ultrasound.  Off she went and before long, was back to say it would be the latter.

On my failed attempt to talk to the doctor, she assured me confidently that she would pop into his clinic to clarify with him about my concern.

Know what?  By the time I finished paying my bill, she was ready with the answer.

Bee Choo obviously has a way with people. She's a gem, no doubt.

A bouquet for the lovely lady

Len gives Devi of URA a bouquet

My friend Len makes it a point to show his appreciation whenever he comes across service staff who makes an effort to understand his problem and feedback.

He wrote this note (below) to me to convey his "thank you" to the URA lady who attended to him.  I had earlier alerted the statutory board to his feedback in my blog.

What's more sweet of Len is his offer of our symbolic bouquet 🌹🌹🌹 to that pleasant lady. 

                                                                                          

URA Website Saga

Thank you for helping me get the attention of the URA concerning their website.

A rather nice lady named Durga Devi called and we went through the various steps I took to try to pay my parking fine. She too, expressed surprise, at the lack of helpfulness of the website and the inordinate time it appeared to take to download info to their data base. Point taken by her and I believe she will nudge the system into efficiency.

What impressed me was her pleasant attitude and the genuine attempt at getting to the bottom of the problem. We didn't solve it at the time, but I'm sure she will give it a good go.

May I offer a bouquet for this attitude displayed and say how pleasant it is to deal with officialdom that tries hard to fix the problem and not dive under the bush of excuses.

Many thanks,

Leonard McCully
20th March 2017

Unfriendly URA website sends Len on a merry-go-round; then he discovers AXS

My friend, Leonard McCully, will not forget to display his parking coupon the next time he goes to Amoy Street.  He learnt his lesson after being given a runaround -- twice -- when he tried to pay a composition fine online.

Here's his story: "I foolishly parked at Amoy Street last Sunday (March 5) after church and failed to  display a parking coupon thinking it was free parking on Sundays. 

The attendant came and left a ticket on my car. No excuses, I should have put a coupon up.

Now the fun and games started. On the notice was the offer of composition at $30 and failure to pay within 7 days, the threat of an enhanced penalty would take place.

I went into the URA website  ura.sg/pf. Went through the steps and got absolutely stuck when the computer said my notice number was incorrect. Several reattempts and no joy. So I called the number given and got the runaround to go back to this unhelpful website. 

So I called the hotline and a nice fellow instructed me to try the website again in two days as their system may not have been updated. He said it usually took two days to enter the data. Hmm. Then why the threat of action after 7 days??, Why not 7+2 days??

Right, I waited three days to make sure and again I was given the runaround by this unhelpful website yet again. I waited another day and tried again and this was Thursday. My 7 days was fast expiring as I anticipated they don’t do any work on Saturday and Sunday. So on Friday I went back to the hotline and another nice fellow heard me out and suggested I get to an AXS machine to pay.

I found that rather inconvenient and said that there ought to be a more friendly way of doing things. Then he told me I could download the AXS application and do it from there. 

Eureka!! In 5 minutes I was done. Thirty dollars left my bank account and I was done. I guess I should have looked at the rear of the penalty notice and I would have spotted the AXS  pathway. Did you know you can pay for lots of stuff on this app.

But, my issue with URA, is that their main website should be working and for that matter, their data entry should also be more efficient in this day and age where their officers scoot around with cameras and electronic tablets that should be downloaded in a jiffy, instead of two working days. Where is this efficient Singapore we proudly tout?

Wasted a lot of time. If anything, this taught me to remember to put a coupon up the next time I go to Amoy Street."

M1-StarHub saga continues; it's the fixed-line now

The frustrations of my move from StarHub and M1 continued this morning. This time it was over my fixed-line telephone.

In my last post, Moving from StarHub to M1, meeting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I related my frustrations over the service I had encountered for my broadband.  But fortunately, it ended up well only because I was able to get the help of a computer-savvy friend, not the M1 contractor.

The fixed-line problem started last Thursday (March 9), a day after it was switched from one telco to another.  All the phones in the house suddenly went dead.

I called M1 to find out why.  I managed to get customer service officer Melanie on the line.
She was the officer who had called me after my first blog posting as she wanted to find out more about what had happened.

As she wasn't able to send a technician to my house, she decided to guide me on how to troubleshoot.
After what seemed like eternity, she finally gave up and said she would arrange for someone to come over to get things fixed.

She also warned me that the technician would have to charge extra if there was a need to run extra wiring.  I agreed as it seemed fair.

Come Saturday (today),  another M1 technician named Teo came, with his chubby son tagging along.  He asked me for the location of the box containing the splitter.  I didn't know and he also couldn't find it.

Later, I brought him to a room on the second floor where the old StarHub router and the new M1 Assus router were.  He simply disconnected the StarHub router, came downstairs to my computer room where the Huawei modem was, plugged a line into one of the ports and then connected it to the telephone wall socket.

He tested it and, hey presto, it worked!  Soon, all the phones were ringing.  I asked Teo what he did.
He said he just had to pull out the StarHub line that was still in the router's port.

Then came the surprise --  he said he would have to charge me $50 extra.This was in addition to   what he would be billing M1.

Was there any extra wiring done?  No.   Was he doing any extra work that was outside what he was contracted to do by M1?  I don't think so.

So what was the extra $50 for?  In his invoice, he wrote: "Install a link-up tel point at ONT".
I don't know what ONT means, but there was certainly no installation of a telephone point.

I told him that I disagreed with what he was charging, but I would still pay him as I did not want to have an argument with him. I also said that I would be bringing the matter up to M1.

And this is what I am telling M1:

1.  Your installation service sucks.  You do not know what your contractors are doing. You allow them to charge your customer for service that is supposed to be part of the contract. The first M1 contractor wanted to fix a extra router that wasn't needed. And he didn't even complete the job. The second was just doing what he was contracted to do and yet had the gall to bill me for $50.

2.  Your customer service officers are generally good but are not sufficiently empowered to ease the pain of your customers. Telling them to say, "Sorry, I know where you are coming from.." does not help. Do allow your customers to speak to someone with the authority to resolve their woes.

3.  You are understaffed.  You cannot be trying to solve technical problems through explaining to us on what to do over the telephone. Many of us are just not tech-savvy.

4.  You cannot keep reminding us about your service charge. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth. When you send a technician to our homes to look into a technical problem that is really yours to resolve, remember that this is a service that you have to provide -- if you hope to withstand the fierce competition that is at your doorstep.

As a shareholder, it is my responsibility to see that you remain tip-top...even if I have to go to your AGM to raise the issue as there seems to be no one with authority to whom I could speak to.

Maybe it would also be a good opportunity to meet up with Ms Karen Kooi. 😊

Moving from StarHub to M1, meeting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I spent Saturday morning trying to complete my broadband moveover from Starhub to M1, and to set up the half-completed fibre network.  Believe it or not, in that short period, I was able to encounter the Good, the Bad -- and the Ugly.

The first thing I did was to call Alex, a technician working for an M1 contractor, but as expected, there was no reply.   Minutes later, surprise surprise,  he returned my call.

First thing he said was, do I want to an extra router to enhance the wifi signal in my TV room.

He had the day before quoted a charge of $160 for the router plus installation.  I declined the offer.

He then told me to call M1 to fix another appointment for him to come back to complete his job.  He did not finish it yesterday (Friday) as he could not receive a signal from the OpenNet fibre network.

The OpenNet people, two very pleasant workers, came a few hours later to get the connection fixed.  A job well done. One of them was from Myanmar.

Soon after, I left a e-message for Alex to tell me when he could come to complete his job, but there was no reply.

This morning, in my eagerness to get everything sorted out, I called  M1 and told a woman called Crystal about the uncompleted setup, hoping for someone to come down to my place later in the day. 

She said she would not be able to do so as Saturday is a non-working day.   She added that there would be a charge for someone to come to my place to fix the network.  I lost my  cool and told her: "Are you mad?" 

How could M1 charge for what is a free installation job which was not completed?

In a subsequent call, Crystal said she would get a technician to help me.   The technician, Norman, rang a short while later.  He explained to me,  pleasantly and patiently, how to go about fixing the router and the modem.

And it worked -- for the internet! However,  the Asus router supplied by M1 could not be used to boost the wifi signal in my TV room.  Reason:  two routers --  Asus and my Apple routers -- were located at different places.  These, he said, had to be connected with another line before it could function fully.

Although I wasn’t  sure he understood exactly what I was trying to put across to him, I was happy that the internet fibre connection was successful.  The weak wifi signal in our TV room remains an issue.

With the fibre connection fixed, the next step was to set the ball rolling for the move -- from Starhub to M1.

After consulting M1 about the rollover, I went ahead to cancel my broadband link with Starhub.  The woman from Starhub who took my call, asked why I was terminating my broadband account.  I told her briefly that I was not happy with the service  I had received at its Plaza Singapura outlet. 

She said I could not cancel my broadband without cancelling the phone fixed line at the same time as they came as a bundle.   She said I had to go down to one of its outlets if I wanted to do so. Strange!!!

I forgot to remind her that  my contract with StarHub had expired and therefore I  should be able to give up only what I wanted.

While talking to her, suddenly my fixed line went dead.  More strange!!!.

Minutes later I called Starhub again, this time on my iphone.  I was served by a lady called Arlene.  I told her what had happened and she went to check.   She returned to tell me that the broadband account had been cancelled --  at 11.44 am precisely -- but the fixed telephone line account was still active.  Even more strange!!!

Was the first StarHub woman who attended to me, trying to pull a fast one because I was switching telcos? Pity I did not ask for her name.

I leave it to you to identify who's the Good, the Bad and the Ugly . 

Overwhelmed, UberEATS fails to deliver

Celine wanted to make sure that her guests could be fed before they started their regular Friday meeting. So she pre-ordered 30 packets of various rice sets a day earlier from Mini Wok, using her UberEATS app.

She was also afraid that her order might be too big to fulfil, especially during the Lunar New Year season. But UberEATS went ahead and accepted her order.

Confident there would not be any hitch as she had used  the same company before, she waited patiently for the delivery, scheduled between 6.45 and 7.15 pm.

When 7.15 pm came and went, she thought the delay could have been caused by a traffic jam as a result of rain.  At 7.25 pm when there was still no sign of the food courier, she called UberEATS to
check.

"The guy who answered my call said it would arrive in 10 minutes.  But in the app the estimated time of arrival displayed increased to 7.50 pm as I continued to wait," Celine recounted.

At 7.41 pm she called the Call Centre again to ask what had happened.

"This time, a different guy told me that their couriers could cancel any delivery without giving any reason," she said.

"So I had 25 hungry guests at 8.10 pm with no food. I wonder what happened to the 30 packets of food that were already prepared, supposedly."

What upset Celine was that UberEATS failed to inform her that it might not be able to fulfil such a large order. There was also no warning about sudden cancellation.

She said: "If they did so, then there is nothing to complain about as I took the risk knowingly."

Later that evening, UberEATS messaged her to apologise, adding that "the massive influx of orders, & the lack of couriers available"  were the cause of the non-delivery.

It was not unexpected that UberEATS would be overwhelmed during this festive season,  but  inadequate management and poor communications were something else -- and inexcusable. 

For that, UberEATS deserves a big BOO-QUET.

 

Strange nominee in my Krisflyer account

I stumbled upon a strange nominee in my Singapore
 Airlines' Krisflyer account early last month. Apparently
the name had been in my account since 2001 and I had
spotted it only by accident.
      Curious to know how it could have happened, I wrote
to SIA to ask for an investigation. I also wanted to know
 whether my Krisflyer  miles had been used without
authorisation.
       More than a week later, the airline replied through
one of its customer service executives (CSE).  I found the
response hilarious if one was able to ignore the
seriousness of the matter.
       Without a word of apology, she said that it was not
able to "determine on the info as it was created in another
earlier database."
        However, strangely, she was able to state categorically
 that as the nominee was in my account for 14 years,
no redemption of tickets or Krisflyer miles were redeemed
for that passenger.
        To me, it sounded like speaking through two sides of
the mouth.
         But that's not all.  The CSE went on to advise me to
update my nominations "to avoid any unwanted nominee
or misuse of the Krisflyer miles".
        Amazing! Why would I want to update my nominations
when there is no need to!!! And how is it possible
 to misuse the Krisflyer miles when no one is authorised
to do so, except by those SIA staff who are authorised.
        The CSE also explained to me how to go about
deleting unwanted nominees online. But there is a price
to pay.
        The applicable fee for successfully removing a
nominee is US$30 or 3,000 Krisflyer points.
         Wow! Why are they penalising me for
something that is not my fault? Unusual customer service,
indeed! Maybe it's their way of deterring customers
 from giving feedback.
         What takes the cake was how the CSE ended her
email: "In view to (sic) this, we are offering you 1000
 Krisflyer miles for the inconvenience caused."
         The story, of course, didn't end there.  I wrote back to
say how amazing -- and amusing -- I found its reply.
          More than a week later, the matter was escalated to a
customer service manager who called to explain
 and to acknowledge that its response was wrong.
         She promised to investigate further. When she called
 me again, she did not have any good news, except to stress
that they had checked thoroughly and still could not
 determine how the intrusion into my account had taken
 place.
         I accepted her explanation but also told her that it was
a serious matter of security, especially for an airline.
        Another week later, she wrote to say that the strange
name in my account had been deleted.  But there was still
not a word of apology or anything to show that the airline
 had taken matter seriously.
         I decided that I should respond to drive home my
concern and to put it on record.
        The following are parts of my email:

       "I...do not sense that there is a
recognition of the seriousness of this
whole thing by your senior management.
 I am not sure whether you have surfaced
this to them. If not, may I ask that you do
 so urgently.

       "Please tell them that they are running
an airline and safety should be their top priority.
For something like this to happen, it must
mean that the safety of your system has been compromised. It does not matter that this
 happened many years ago. The fact is,
someone or some people were able to get into
 the system and fiddle with it.

       "If I were in your management, I would
 want to find out who this "strange nominee"
 is and perhaps this person could help to give
you some clues in your investigation.

       "I dread to think of worse things
happening if other areas of your
airline operation were to be compromised."
 

          

        
         
     
    

Samsung promotion that asked for too much

In trying to create goodwill by offering food vouchers, some companies often fail to realise that they are achieving just the opposite.
      I came across a recent example of what a promotion should not be when my four-year-old Samsung fridge broke down last Friday and I had to purchase a new one, even though the compressor of the old one was still under warranty.
      I decided on a new fridge as it would have taken too long to replace the compressor plus the fact that the Samsung man who came to examine it, had warned my wife that there could be other things wrong as well. It meant that there was the possibility that I might have to pay for other repairs.
      But what sealed our fate was that Friday -- the day the fridge decided to take a break -- was marketing day and my wife was left with no place to store her perishables.
       The long Vesak Day holiday weekend did not help. Even though we had purchased the new fridge that same evening, delivery could only take place the following Tuesday.
       However, everything went smoothly with the delivery, and the subsequent removal of the broken-down fridge.
       Then something else got me a little flustered -- I had to do a lot of nitty-gritty stuff to redeem a $100 food voucher which Samsung was offering to  customers under what it claims is a "super deal" promotion.
        Apart from having to give my personal details, I had to submit the delivery address, purchased product details -- model number, serial number, store of purchase, date of purchase, purchase amount and invoice number -- plus attachments to show proof of purchase including the original tax invoice and cut-out serial number.
        It is obvious that many of such details are known to the dealer from whom I had purchased the fridge or Samsung company itself. Question is, why are they not collating all of these themselves?
        Why put their customers through such a hassle for a food voucher worth only $100?  Surely they must realise that there are some who may not know how to provide what they are asking for.  Are they going to deprive these people of the $100 voucher.
         I must say this is definitely a promotion gone wrong.
            

       
       
       

Cheers breaks the Haagen-Dazs cold chain

The Lims love desserts and ice-cream is one of their favourites.
Two Saturdays ago (Feb 14), they decided to have their cherry jubilee ala mode (that is, topped with ice-cream).
      So off they went to a Cheers Store and bought a tub of Haagen-Dazs macademia nut ice-cream.
      Imagine their disappointment when they arrived home, all eager to enjoy their dessert, but ended up discovering that the product was unfit for human consumption. 


Haagen-Dazs...icicles not ice-cream

      It was apparent that its cold chain had been broken. To keep ice-cream fresh and fit for consumption, it has to be stored at a temperature range which must not be broken.
      "It was quite obvious that the tub of ice-cream that we bought had melted and was put back in the freezer. It should have been discarded," a member of the Lims said.
       The irony of it all was that it was sold in a shop in the Tan Tock Seng Hospital.  I guess the health-conscious environment didn't help.

Cheers? Nothing to cheer about

DBS' letter of unfulfilled promise

The turnover of DBS' relationship managers (RM) must be giving the bank a bit of a headache. Each time someone leaves a job like this, it has to introduce the replacement to its customers. 
      I get a letter every few months to inform me that I will be having a new RM and a promise that he "will be in touch with you soon".   I know this will not happen as I have received many such letters in my years as a customer. To date I have not been contacted by any of the new kids on the block.
       I do not know the reason for the lapse but I would like to assume that it is because I no longer use the bank for my financial and investment matters.
So, if there is no business to be done, why bother?
       I guess it is really a practical approach.  Just cut off those who are happy keeping their money with the bank and only need service occasionally.
       If that's the case, it should refrain from routinely sending out these letters on the assumption that the RMs would fulfil its promise of getting in touch!!!

For the Love of Laundry? Celine finds no evidence of that

For the Love of Laundry is a catchy business name no doubt. Unfortunately, it is not providing any tender loving care for one of its loyal customers.
     Looking at Celine's laundry list of complaints, she must have been pretty tolerant about the dry-cleaners' negligence and poor service...until now.
     The latest issue in the long saga over its awful service is the loss of her dress -- for more than a week.  "It's a big blue stiff dress, impossible to misplace," she whats-apped me. 
      I could imagine her exasperation when I read the list of her encounters with service neglect and indifferent attitude.
      But what really blew her top this time was the silent treatment she received when she emailed the company to find out what was happening.
      And when she finally found time to call the cleaners' office today,  she said "no one could tell me anything."
      Here are past issues she has had with them...
* spoilt a Zegna polo shirt; they said they "could not make it better" but it was rescued by another dry cleaner
* failed to return a belt from a dress after dry cleaning; they had it with them all the while but never bothered to let her know until she discovered it herself when she went to search for it.
* black streaky stains on her white shorts; again said they could not be removed without bothering to try, but the other cleaner did it for her.
* said they would repair her clothes; even wrote on the receipt but it was not done, and they did not even bother to tell her it was not possible.
* buttons on her suit cracked because they failed to wrap them up when cleaning.
* folded a man's work shirt when they were specifically told to hang it.
* put her clothes on the floor when she sent them in. When asked why, the woman there said "This is what we always do".
      Despite all these bad experiences, Celine continued to patronise them because the United Square location was  a convenient drop-off point and she was also hoping against hope they would change.
     Now, after this latest episode, she is having second thoughts.
     "They are supposed to be upmarket dry-cleaners but they never seem to learn from their mistakes," she said.
     For the Love of Laundry is said to be the first company here to use a toxin-free technology that is environmentally-friendly. It was started by banker Wee Cho Yaw's grandsons -- Teng Wen and Teng Chuen.

Johnn waits and waits for reply from SPH

       I can understand my friend Johnn Ong's frustration when he told me this morning about his attempts to give feedback to Singapore Press Holdings on his Straits Times' digital subscription and how he ended up without any sense of satisfaction.
      Johnn, a subscriber to both the print and online versions of the newspaper for many years, told me that his iPad service was abruptly cut off early this month.
       He subsequently learnt that his older model of the iPad was no longer compatible with the changes that had been made for the digital service of the newspaper.  But there no notification given about the changes, he said.
       His wife called SPH customer service and was "truly aggrieved by the services provided."  The people who attended to her were not able to answer her queries satisfactorily.
       Johnn said it took him a week before he realised that SPH was not able to service those subscribers who were using the older version of the iPad.
       As his iPad was still in good condition, he did not think he should buy a new one just to get his daily news from the tablet.  What irritated him was the fact that he was not made aware of the changes made to the delivery system that rendered his iPad obsolete.
       He tried to speak to a senior manager about his problem but somehow his attempts were blocked. So he decided to write an email to a customer service officer. That was on September 8. To date, he has not heard from SPH.
     Johnn now wants to know whether SPH would compensate him for the remaining part of his subscription as he believes it was not able to deliver a service that was part of the contract.






      


 


   


        

Newly-wed's letter to Ryanair -- 'The best complaint letter ever"

    

	I have just read a complaint letter to budget airline Ryanair that I would consider "the best complaint letter that I have read".   It is so brilliantly written that I thought I should share with you. It is pasted on Facebook and has garnered thousands of "like". Enjoy... James Lockley April 24 · Posted to Ryan Air today; Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing for the attention of your customer experience team. I am definitely a customer, and believe me, you didn’t fail providing us with an experience. My wife and I had booked to fly from Stansted on the Thursday 17th April, evening flight to Bratislava. After 2 hours of fun, fun, fun, stuck on the M25 doing 20 mph, we arrived at Stansted check in with just one hour until the flight. Knowing the strict Ryan Air policy on ‘check in closes 40 mins before the flight’ as you are the Low Fare Taxi of The Skies, we went straight to the Ryan Air assistant and explained our plight. She said we were still within the time and all would be fine but we had to make the attendant at check in aware and he would assist from there. We approached the attendant as instructed and explained. Unfortunately, in the main part, due to him being a child, and forgetting to bring his mother to work, he heard only half of the words before his brain fell apart like a wet cake.  He led us to the line for closing gates, advised we should wait and all would be ok. We stood patiently in the line for 20 minutes. We got to the front of the line and the lady, who we shall from this point refer to a Vacant, explained that she had literally just that second closed the flight and we had missed it. We complained that we had done as instructed and she said it was the child’s fault because he should have advised her that we were trying to board a closing flight and that because he hadn’t told her it was therefore our fault we had missed the plane. Confused by this process of blame apportioning, another check in clerk, who we shall refer to as Not That Bright, tried to blame us for not responding to the last call for the flight as we should have made ourselves known. I argued that the last call had not been made. Not That Bright then questioned Vacant on whether she had done a final call. Vacant did what she does best and looked, well,…… After establishing that the child had not informed Vacant we were here, and Vacant had forgotten to do a last call and that all of this was irreversible, and my fault, Not That Bright and Vacant conferred to agree this was not a problem they wished to deal with and told us to get in a very, very long line of very, very unhappy people at the quite wrongly titled ‘Customer Services Counter’ as it was in fact a Customer Shouting Desk. We complained and requested the attention of a manager. Out came Colin, a man so angry all his hair had literally fallen out. He was so aggressive I can only assume he had accidentally inserted something sharp into somewhere private and been unable to remove it before he came to work. He was definitely a middle Gimp. I know this as Vacant and Not That Bright were clearly quite scared of him, and he can’t have been a Big Cheese as he was talking directly to customers and we all know from the papers that no-one in Big Cheese management at Ryan Air has ever seen, let alone spoken to an actual customer. Middle Gimp had clearly listen hard at Ryan Air Middle Gimp school as he managed to take two perfectly calm and sane adults and in a matter of seconds reduce them to angry people considering violence. ‘Check in opens 3 hours before the flight’ he barked repeatedly as if it was the answer to every question in life. We tried to ask Middle Gimp direct questions about why it was necessary for us to miss the flight because the Child had forgotten to do his job, and Vacant had forgotten to do hers. ‘Why is this our fault, and why should we miss the flight because Ryan Air staff have admitted they made errors?. ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ ‘Do you acknowledge we have just cause for complaint as we tried to do the right thing and the only reason we are not on the plane is because of communication failures with Ryan Air Staff?’ ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ ‘What colour are my trousers?’ ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ ‘Do you think economic sanctions on Russia will diffuse the escalating situation in Ukraine?’ ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ ‘Were Man Utd right to fire David Moyes?’ ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ ‘My tinkle is hurting, could you take a look if I promise not to tell anyone?’ ‘Check in opens three hours before the flight’ Middle Gimp then conferred with Vacant and Not That Bright, and agreed that this was all our fault as we should have noticed that Child had made an error and we should have called the flight ourselves to assist Vacant in doing her job because she was clearly busy being, well,…... Middle Gimp then insisted we go to customer the Customer Shouting Desk, as he was definitely not going to do anything else. This was handy as the queue was very long so that by the time we would reach the front the plane would be half way to Bratislava and the problem would be solved. We waited patiently in line as customer after customer stood at the desk to hear the same song; ‘No, no, I can’t do that, no, there are no Middle Gimps available, no, no, sorry, no, give me all your money’ We got to the Customer Shouting Desk and explained our plight to the lady there (who was actually very nice and clearly should not be working for Ryan Air as a result). She apologised but explained that Middle Gimp had finished being angry for the day and had returned to his padded cage and there were no other Middle Gimps around.  We would have to book in to the flight for the next day and we would have to pay £110 each to change the ticket. When she tried to re-book the flight she said that the flight we had tried to get was actually delayed by 1 hour and still at the air port and that what we should do is run to the gate with all our luggage, she would call through and they would check our bags into the hold at the gate. We ran as fast as we could, which is not very fast because I am fat, to security to do as instructed. Security advised us that because our flight should have left, even though it hadn’t, the ticket machine would not open the barrier for us and we would need to return to the Customer Shouting Desk. We waited patiently in the very long queue yet again for about 40 minutes to discover the nice lady had also gone home now so we had to explain the whole thing again to a new lady that looked like all the joy had been removed from her life at birth. She recited the Ryan Air customer services song with a sterling level of apathy and dreariness, I am surprised she could muster the will just to breather and stay alive. ‘No, no, I can’t do that, no, there are no Middle Gimps available, no, no, sorry, no, give me all your money’ She recited it with perfection, Middle Gimps across the world would have been in awe and the effectiveness of the techniques taught in Middle Gimp School. Seeing no other option but to hand over all our cash and come back the next morning we happily paid and got new flights. As the new flight was at 6.25am in the morning we decided to get a hotel, we paid £79 for a room and got a taxi. So, our customer experience was insightful and liberating. From the incompetent Child with a brain so full of girls and Vauxhall Corsa modifications he couldn’t actually listen or speak, through Vacant and Not That Bright who decided on reflection that anything they did wrong was our fault for not pointing it out to them, right through Middle Gimp who made a Tasmanian Devil look calm and Zen like, and the sad one, oh so sad, having every last drop of life sucked out of her by her chosen career at the Ryan Air Customer Shouting Desk.  I very nearly jumped over the desk just to give her a cuddle and tell her everything would be alright if she could just muster the will to leave the Ryan Air Customer Shouting Desk and find a more fulfilling job, like starting the very first Israeli pork pie factory, or being a parking attendant in Tower Hamlets, or in fact just resigning herself to a slow and uncomfortable death would have been indistinguishable from the current position and would require much less effort. The net result of this ‘experience’ was; New Flights - £220 Hotel £79 Taxi x 2 £50 Worlds most expensive sandwich in the only hotel we could get £35 1 x significant breach of Tort Law (2008 as quoted by Lord Atkin) by Ryan Air, Google it, it’s a cracking read. I will leave you to decide the monetary value of this. 1 x very angry and upset wife, in particular with Middle Gimp for being so unbelievably rude. 1 x Missed wedding reception for our Slovakian family (sorry, forgot to mention this nugget earlier) who all turned up from all over the country to see us for an event we were forced to miss, because Child and Vacant are clueless at best and Middle Gimp has anger management issues. So, thank you Ryan Air for a comfortable and enjoyable experience. I have watched a program called the news so I fully expect this to land on the desk of the customer services team underneath the empty bottles and sandwich wrappers that you also file there. You treated us badly, you cost us money and made us miss our wedding reception through a display of incompetence I have not seen since Greece was allowed to have money and a cheque book. I sincerely doubt you will do anything about this, compensate us, apologise, or even respond according to the news, so I have sent this recorded and sign for delivery to absolutely confirm my opinion of Ryan Air and that it is not just ‘lost in the post’ Regards You bunch of……………. DJ Lockley P.S. Maybe Middle Gimp in particular, but Child, Not That Bright, and Vacant should purchase one of your reasonable priced tickets and go to Slovakia (assuming they were actually allowed on the plane. The Ryan Air employees there are smart, clever, bilingual, helpful, and polite and they should in my opinion experience an example of how they should do their job. The Slovak staff could explain it to them, but they wouldn’t be able to understand it for them, so it may be a waste of time after all.