Singapore's First Topless Car Wash

Today's New Paper headlines caught my eyes:

"S'PORE'S FIRST TOPLESS CAR WASH"

What? In Singapore? At first I thought it meant a car wash specially dedicated to washing convertibles otherwise known as "topless cars":



But no, it really meant topless the way lecherous men know it:



Let's hope that it is only a joke like this one:

What's Wrong With This Bank?

My Paper dated 10 Mar 09 published this article titled "Investors wary of big elephant HSBC". Investors are worried about its US$62 billion in outstanding loans at its HSBC Finance arm in the US and rising provisions in its business in Britain.

I am also wary of this bank. You see, early last year, I bought 2 insurance policies from its insurance arm, HSBC Insurance as well as 2 investment products from the bank. The bank committed several blunders which I find hard to forgive of such an established bank.

1. Wrong Policy Document Delivered

When I received one of the policy documents in the post, I was surprised to find an extra policy document inside the envelope. It was a policy document of another person! Luckily, mine was on top with my name/address showing through the transparent envelope window. Hence my policy document was correctly delivered to me. I looked at the address of the other policyholder. Since it was very near to where I am staying, I did both the bank and the other policyholder a favour and delivered the document to the policyholder personally. I wonder if another person would bother to do the same to me if he/she was the one who had received my policy document wrongly?

2. Wrong Notifications Sent

Recently I received 2 letters from the bank. It informed me that "no coupon will be paid" for two products. Alright, that was hardly surprising in the current poor economic climate. However, I was puzzled because those were products which I never knew I invested in! Indeed, a few days later, a bank staff called to say that the notifications were wrongly sent to me. He said that the bank would be sending out another letter to tell me so. To date, I have not received the letter.


3. No Record Of My Insurance Premium Payment

On receiving the "Premium Due Notice" for one of the insurance policies, I paid the full annual premium promptly at the bank's Marine Parade Branch. The payment was made in 2 parts - one portion was in cash and the other portion was a transfer from my savings account. Yet one month later, I received a "Grace Period Expiration Notice" from the bank, as shown in the photo below. Also shown in the photo are the 2 over-the-counter receipts for my payments made to the bank on 31 Jan 2009. When I called the bank's consultant to clarify the matter, he requested me to fax the receipts to him. It was indeed fortunate that I had kept the receipts as proof. Just imagine what would have happened if I had not kept them? All other insurance companies I have dealt with so far always send me an official receipt soon after I have made payment, without I having to ask them for it. Besides, what's so difficult about issuing an official receipt? I strongly recommend that HSBC Insurance adopt the same practice so that its policyholders will have peace of mind, especially in these uncertain times.



4. Deduction Of Premium From Savings Account With No Prior Notification

For the other policy, payment of premium was by annual Giro deduction. However, the premium was deducted from my savings account without any prior notification. I would not have known of the deduction if I have not signed up for "sms notification" of my savings account transactions:


And you know what? I just found out that if I did not have enough funds in my account for the Giro deduction, the bank would impose a penalty for the failed Giro deduction. I think this is plain ridiculous. Other insurance companies like NTUC Income will always send me a "Giro deduction due" notification before a Giro deduction. Why can't HSBC do the same? Hello, even if I have enough money in my savings account, my funds could be for other more urgent purposes, okay? Is it too much for the policyholder to insist on a "Giro deduction due" reminder from HSBC Insurance, especially when the Giro deduction happens only a once-a-year and the policyholder might have forgotten that the payment is due?

5. No Official Receipts Issued For Premium Payments

I did not receive any official receipts for all my premium payments. When I complained to the consultant, the bank sent me only a partial receipt for the first policy. I just went to the bank again last Saturday to give them "constructive feedback" about their poor service level.

Now, if you experience what I had experienced with the HSBC Insurance, wouldn't you be wary of the bank too? Come on HSBC, haven't you heard of GEMS? No, not Go The Extra Mile for Service but Got Enough Minimum Standard? You really ought to pull up your socks with regards to your service level. I am but one really dissatisfied customer. I wonder how many more are there out there?

Update on 17 Mar 2009:

This evening, I found a letter from HSBC in my letterbox. At first, I thought that the bank was so efficient in resolving my problems. But no! It was a "Lapse Notice". Damn it!


I am willing to give up the policy, HSBC. But please refund my 2 years' worth of premiums paid, not a cent less!

Update on 19 Mar 2009:

I finally received the 2 receipts for one policy in the post. There was still no receipt for the Giro deduction for the other policy. There was no apology or even a covering letter to explain what went wrong. Come on HSBC, is it so hard to say sorry when you have made mistakes? And so many serious ones some more.

My PC Is Back!

I finally got my PC back yesterday. It had spent a total of 12 days at the HP Customer Service Centre.

I arrived at the centre at 2.55 pm but had to contend with a large crowd:


Some of them were sending in their equipment for servicing while some of them were like me, there to collect their equipment.

While waiting, I spotted a coffee machine which served complimentary drinks:


Ho sei liao, I thought to myself as I could make the wait worth the while by drinking as many free cups of coffee as I could. But alas, all clean paper cups had been used up and I was too lazy to go wash one. So I reluctantly gave up this privilege.

After a 35-minute wait, my number flashed on the monitor and I collected my equipment at the counter.

But the girl at the counter had a surprise for me:


Inside the box was this item:


Wah so thoughtful of HP. Next time during the long wait for my PC to be repaired by HP, I can squeeze my ball.

Have A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year.

HP Customer Service - Some Rights And Some Wrongs

Two years ago, I signed a 24-month MaxOnLine contract at Sitex and got a free Compaq Presario PC. Well, it was not exactly free because I opted for better specifications, a bigger 19-inch LCD monitor, as well as a 3-year extended warranty.

That turned out to be a smart move because near to the end of the first year, the PC's automated SMART (pardon the pun but it stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) reported that the hard disk was in danger of imminent failure. It further advised that important files should be backed-up and the hard disk be replaced as soon as possible.

As first-year service was on-site, I called the HP Customer Service Hotline and a service personnel was sent to my home within one or two days. The service was impressive and efficient. Ever since the replacement of the hard disk, the SMART message did not appear again.

However, two weeks ago, my PC gave this occasional error message on boot up:


Whenever that happened, the PC would shut down automatically.

As the PC was already 2 years' old, I had to "carry it in" for service. This I did on Mon 10 Dec 2007:


The service centre was quite crowded and there was an estimated queueing time of more than half-an-hour. Luckily there was a very thoughtful "quick drop" service so I deposited my PC there. I asked the counter staff how long it would take to repair my PC. She said that it would take 3 to 5 working days. She also said that HP would call me once the repair was done.

Hmm... so far so good. And to top it all, HP even gave customers who drove a complimentary parking ticket:


But alas! My good impression of their service did not last very long.

On Thu 13 Dec 2007, I called them to find out if my PC was ready for collection. "Not yet, we are still investigating" came the reply.

Alright, it was only 3 days. Maybe it was a complicated problem. So I called them again 2 days later. This time, I was put on hold and made to listen to music for almost 10 minutes until the line was cut-off. I called them again and another staff answered the call. She again put me on hold for a long time.

It seemed like the longer the wait, the shorter my temper became. I hung up and called a third time. This time I lost my temper and almost shouted into the phone, "Don't put me on hold again! Both times I waited until the line was cut off!"

"Sir, but it was a different person who took your call", came the not-too-apologetic reply. "You can call the desktop service department directly at this number xxxxxxxx."

"Why didn't your colleagues give me this number earlier?" I asked angrily.

I called the number given and to my surprise, I received a voice message saying "We are sorry, we are closed for the day. Our operating hours are from 9am to 12.30pm on Saturdays..." I looked at my watch and it was 12.40pm. Dammit.

I called the Hotline again immediately and spoke to the same guy who answered my call earlier.

"Oh ya, they are already closed. I will ask them to call you first thing on Monday morning," he said nonchalantly.

Monday came and no call was received by late morning so I called them again.

I said, "What's taking you so long to repair a simple fan fault? If I sent my PC to Sim Lim Square for repair, I would have got it back within half an hour."

"Sorry, we have a lot of repair jobs at this time. I will ask them to expedite the repair of your PC."

I called them again today and demanded to know the repair status of my PC. Again they promised to get the engineer to call me.

Thank goodness, this time an engineer named Bryan (or Brian?) did call me back. He explained that he tried switching on the PC for about 10 times but never encountered the said problem at all. I said that I encountered the problem about 50 percent of the time and have a photo (first photo above) to prove it. He said that he was not doubting my account but only called to clarify the matter. He said it was not necessary to see the photo and he would replace the CPU fan for me as a precautionary measure. But the next day was Hari Raya Haji and they were not working, so I guess I could expect to wait a few days more.

Sigh, 10 days on and I am still without my PC. This partially explains why I have been blogging infrequently during this period. I am using a 7-year-old slow and archaic Pentium III PC to blog this entry.

This bad service experience certainly negated all the good service previously provided by HP. And to make matters worse, I recently re-contracted my MaxOnLine for 28 months and they would be giving me a Compaq Presario laptop for $299. However, I will have another long wait until after Feb 2008 to get it because the stocks have run out due to "overwhelming response". I do not intend to take up extended warranty for the laptop as I now know that the word "extended" applies more to the waiting period for repairs than to the warranty itself.

HP, in a tie-up with Starhub, has been "giving away" many "free" PCs and desktops. It is inevitable that some of these hardware would need service and repair within the warranty period. Obviously, HP's service centre has not been beefed up to cope with the increased demand. It should rectify this critical situation as soon as possible. If not, its service level and reputation would surely suffer.

Could HP be biting off more than it could chew? Currently, it should not claim to have a turnaround time of "3 to 5 working days" for service and repair jobs, at least not in my case.

55 Is Not Always A Lucky Number

If you notice something is not right, what will you do? How far will you go to try put it right?

Here, I am not talking about confronting litterbugs or smokers. To do this, you need to be very tactful and have some guts. Of course, it helps if you have a burly look and at the same time, if the culprit looks meek and puny too. (My friend Walter does not look burly by all accounts, so he must have been either very tactful or gutsy.)

I am talking about situations that are not right. You usually don't need to be burly or gutsy to do this. For me, I will not hesitate to point them out to the authorities and insist that they put them right. One example is when I informed the authorities about a misplaced rubbish bin blocking the view of a zebra crossing. Although, there was some initial red tape and delay, the situation was finally put right before any zebra or people was killed or seriously injured at this location.

Needless to say, some effort is required to bring the matter up. You also have to speak to the right people. Not only that, you still have to follow-up to make sure somebody is acting on your feedback. Otherwise, your effort in raising the matter would have been wasted. Once a while, due to oversight or the bo chap (couldn't be bothered) attitude of the people whom you complained to, your feedback may not be relayed to the right people and nothing is done about the problem. I believe that it is because some conscious effort is required to report a problem that most people just don't bother to do it. Some might even think that there will always be some other people who would do it. And as joke goes, in the end nobody does it.

Almost every Saturday morning, while my younger son is attending a 90-minute tuition class in Simei, my wife and I will be window-shopping in nearby Tampines Central. I always park my car at Century Square where short-term parking is cheapest - first-hour parking at 66 cents is even cheaper than HDB/URA carpark rates! Where to find nowadays? Because of the cheap parking rates, this car park is extremely popular with motorists.

Two Saturdays ago, I was looking for a parking lot in this car park. I thanked my lucky stars when I finally found an empty lot (no. 55).


But while reversing into the lot, I noticed that there was a sharp-edged hoarding protuding 1/3 into the lot.


It was not easy to spot it as it was painted in white. In any case, no one would expect such an obstruction in a car park lot that was opened for parking. Luckily I realised it and stopped my car just in time, only a few centimetres away from the hoarding. One third of my car was still outside the lot, jutting out into the driveway. So in the end, I parked my car in another lot.

When I walked passed the lot, there were 2 other motorists who like me, attempted to park in this lot. I waved them away, signalling that it was impossible to park in this lot, unless they were driving micro-compact cars. They should be grateful to me because I probably saved them the trouble and costs of repairing their rear bumpers. However, someone else was apparently not so lucky - I inspected the hoarding closely and saw that it was already crumpled. Obviously someone's car had already knocked into it earlier on.


I immediately reported the dangerous situation to the carpark's Customer Service Centre.


The female carpark attendant inside the booth (not the guy in the photo) did not appear like she was very interested in what I had told her. So I reported the matter to the Information Counter instead.

The pretty lady manning the counter was a stark contrast to the woman in the carpark booth, not only in terms of looks but also in terms of service as well. She smiled and asked me if she could help me. When I told her the problem, she gave me the office number of someone by the name of Rachel, the shopping centre's Operation Manager. However, she told me that Rachel might not be in the office as it was Saturday. When I requested for Rachel's handphone number, she called Rachel rightaway and I managed to speak to her in the end. Rachel promised to do something.

Indeed, when I passed by the lot again an hour later, an operation staff had already barricaded up the lot. (He requested not to be identified so I have blurred out his face.)


So remember my friend, 55 is not always a lucky number. Not unless it is your age and you have money in the CPF to be collected, just like this guy.

CB Has Opened Up, Cocky No More

Yesterday I received an email reply from CB about my earlier complaint feedback. I can't help but feel that the email looked rather like a standard reply. The bank probably only filled in the blanks with my surname and the date of my email:

"Dear Mr Koo,

Thank you for your email dated 03/02/07.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you had experienced.

At CB, we place significant emphasis on the quality of our service and customer satisfaction. We truly appreciate your time in providing us your feedback and we will endeavour to continue to improve our level of service in order to serve our customers better.

We wish to thank you for taking the time to provide us with this valuable feedback. We have since forwarded it to the relevant parties to assist you directly with your queries.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Sincerely,
JS
Direct Banking"

At slightly past 7 pm tonight, my handphone rang. I glanced at the caller-ID display - it was an unfamiliar handphone number. I answered the call. It was JY. He had called to offer me his apologies. He said that after reading my blog, he realised that he was "too much" that day. He explained that he was not himself that day. So it must be his identical twin brother whom I spoke to that day.

I said that I hoped that he learnt something from this incident. Not everyone was a pushover. He said he surely did. I reminded him about Helen, the coffee lady and told him that I accepted his apologies and asked him to convey my acceptance to the bank.

Now that JY had apologised, I am willing to put this incident behind me and I hope that CB and JY could too, without any hard feelings. Please don't retaliate by raising my loan interest rate some more. I am really at your mercy. On the other hand, it would be good to show how genuinely apologetic you are by slashing the interest rate.

Actually, I would very much have preferred JY to offer his apologies by commenting on my blog. Then, I would look less like Mr Lee Dai Soh telling a one-sided grandfather story here. Yes, it would be nice if JY could do what bluemad did, when I complained provided feedback about my not-so-pleasant experience when shopping around for an LCD TV.

I know what Mr Lam Chun See is thinking - that I look more and more like a difficult customer who likes to complain rather than that the service standards in Singapore sucks, am I right? Sheesh.

Singapore's Cockiest Bank Officer? (2)

I got a queue number for Priority Banking (PB) customers. A Relationship Manager (RM) in his 20s looked unengaged so I asked him if he could serve me or would I have to wait for my number to be called. He replied curtly and without smiling, "Ya, your number will appear on the display. We have other things to do." Okay fine, I waited. Meanwhile, I noticed that the normal queue was moving faster than the PB queue - What priority? What irony!

My number finally flashed on the display and I was to be served by the same officer. "S***, just my luck", I thought. He gave me a cold look as I sat down. No smile, no shaking of hands, no "Good morning, Sir", "Hello" or "May I help you" from him either. Didn't say who his father was. Didn't introduce himself or hand me a name card. As the silence was getting awkward, I had no choice but to start the conversation:

Me: I am here to find out if it is worthwhile to partially redeem my housing loan with my CPF money since it is paying me only 2.5% interest and your bank is charging me 4.55% for the loan.

RM (as if interrogating a suspect): What is your IC number?

Me: xxxx134B

He typed something on his PC and looked at the display for a few minutes, without saying a word. (A customer-oriented officer could say something like, "Please wait a moment while I retrieve your records. It won't take very long.")

I cocked my head to peer at the display. He realised what I was doing and immediately swivelled the PC a little away from me. I got the message and looked elsewhere. Such hostility was unjustified - wasn't I only looking at my own records?

What seemed like an eternity passed.

I finally broke the silence: Actually, if the bank didn't introduce the new way of calculating interest recently, I wouldn't have wanted to redeem the loan.

RM (looking bewildered): But the bank is losing money.

Me: How can the bank be losing money? So would the bank rather lose a customer?

RM (dropping the bombshell nonchalantly): I think so.

WTF! Frankly, I was stunned by that uncalled-for retort. Now I know why the bank's name has the letters 'CB' in it. At this time, my wife came and sat beside me. While the RM was away getting some forms, I told her what happened. My wife was furious. (Hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned poorly served.) The RM came back after a while.

Wife: Can we see your supervisor or manager?

RM (looking cocky): Today, I am the one the way and the truth.

Wife: Okay, then can you give us the necessary forms and the contact number as we would like to reconsider our options more carefully.

He wisely did as told to avoid incurring the wrath of a woman.

I don't know why I bothered to thank him but when I did, he just nodded. The much awaited "You're welcome", his last chance at a saving grace, never came. Before leaving, I took one of his name cards from his table. No, not to write him a letter of commendation, of course but to know the identity of what could be 'Singapore's cockiest bank officer'. Ah, so his initials were JY.

So JY, if you are reading this post, I have this to say - I think you are in the wrong line. You are doing a disservice to your bank.

Make no mistake, my banking experience with CB has been positive until recently when they started to squeeze so much money out of me. And lest any of you think that I am a difficult customer, well I am actually not. I have previously encountered a few RMs of the same bank who provided impeccable customer service. A few years ago, I even gave feedback via the bank's website, commending another RM in its Marine Parade Branch. By the way, her initials are YW and her customer service, attitude and looks are excellent. But most important of all, she knows how to smile. (JY, if this word sounds foreign to you, its definition in my dictionary is 'a curve that can set a lot of things straight'.) You will understand why I still prefer to go to YW whenever I have dealings with CB. It's just that I happened to be in Tampines that day. Damn it! And it turned out to be a wrong decision.

Still on the topic of customer service, today I had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre. It was not exactly a place where I expected to get a very contrasting customer experience. But I did.

I went to order a cup of tea from stall no. 01-90 (金成号饮品冰室). The middle-aged stall lady greeted me with a smile and a "Good afternoon". When I paid for the tea that she served personally to my table, she said gratefully, "Thank you very much." I was so impressed by her service that I spoke to her, commended her good service, shook her hand and even got her name (Helen) because she did not print name cards. When I told her that I wanted to blog about my good customer experience with her, she thanked me some more and asked me to bring my friends to her stall. So go on and try her, I mean her coffee and tea. Give her an impromptu test and let me know whether she treated you differently.

JY, looks like you could learn something from Helen, the coffee lady. She only sold me a cup of tea that cost a mere 60 cents and yet she took pride in providing good service. On the other hand, you know that my dealings with your bank run into several hundred thousand dollars and are worth several thousand dollars in annual earnings to your bank, part of which pays your salary. So did I really deserve the service that I got last Saturday?

I would like to consult my dear readers on what further action I should take, if any, besides blogging about this experience? If I lodge a complaint via the bank's website, JY could be in serious danger of losing his job or his next promotion (for I am quite sure that he's not the Bank President's son). I don't want that to happen because this may be his first job and he may really need it. Should I send a personal email to him highlighting this post so that he may improve? (I got his name card, remember?) Or should I wait till he or his colleagues find out about this post (and I am sure they will, in time). Please give me your views as I am still in a state of shock and cannot think properly. Oh, I nearly forgot, thank you very much for reading this post and giving your views. Hope to see you again and have a nice day.

Singapore's Cockiest Bank Officer? (1)

I am still servicing my housing loan with an established foreign bank. Previously, this bank used to have a very attractive way of calculating my loan interest. It worked this way - I deposit my excess savings in a 'check-and-save' account. The monthly balance that I maintain in the account will be deducted from the loan principal before the monthly loan interest is calculated. For example, if I have a $300,000 housing loan and I have $240,000 savings in my account, I effectively pay loan interest only on $60,000, i.e. $300,000 - $240,000.

However, everything changed in October last year. The bank introduced a 'novel' (read profitable) way of calculating loan interest. With immediate effect, only 2/3 of my savings could be used to offset the loan principal for the purpose of calculating the loan interest. For the balance of 1/3 of the savings, the bank pays only a measly 1% interest which they claim 'is still higher than what most banks are paying'. Some consolation.

Many of the bank's customers, including yours truly, were caught unaware. Because of the recent property boom, some had signed up for a housing loan with the bank only a few months ago. Within that period, the interest rate, being a floating one, had been revised upwards a few times. As for me, I restructured my loan with the bank in early 2006. I had to pay more than $500 in administrative charges then. Immediately after the restructuring, I was enjoying a low loan interest rate of 1.6% p.a., but not for long. Now, only one year later, I am paying a hefty 4.55% p.a., almost a 3-fold increase.

To add insult to injury, the bank slapped us with the new way of calculating loan interest which was obviously aimed at squeezing even more money out of us. I have calculated - I am now effectively paying almost 6 times more interest compared to what I was paying early last year. Let's rework the sums using the same example above. With the new method of calculation, I can only offset 2/3 of my $240,000 savings or $180,000 from the loan principal of $300,000. This means that I have to pay interest on $120,000 instead of $60,000 previously, a two-fold increase. Coupled with the nearly 3-fold increase in interest rate, I am paying almost 6 times the original interest amount. This is simply ridiculous!

A few letters of complaint written by irate bank customers were published in the forum pages of our mainstream newspaper in October 2006. The bank replied, explaining that because of the rising interest rate environment, it had to raise interest rate for housing loans. It also refused to budge regarding its new way of calculating loan interest. It even tried to convince us that customers 'do not end up paying more interest than before'. What crap! Does the bank think that all of us failed our Primary School Maths?

Because of the above developments, I was at the Tampines Branch of the bank last Saturday to find out if would be worthwhile for me to redeem part of my loan using CPF funds. (CPF is paying me only 2.5% interest while the bank is charging me 4.55%. However, I have to pay 1.5% in penalty charges since my loan is still within the 2-year lock-in period.) As if to rub more salt into the wound, the 'Relationship Manager' who served me gave me extremely poor service despite the fact that I am a 'Priority Banking' customer.

(To be continued)