One Altitude

最近和友人前后去了两次One Altitude. 第一次是日本朋友Y带我去的,她说她知道一间很高档的酒吧,让我去见识见识,因为不会喝酒,本不想去,但又怕不好意思,就去了.点了杯叫做Singapore Sling的鸡尾酒,感觉苦苦的,这里的消费是每人$25,到63层的顶上,风景绝佳.但不胜酒力,在回去的地铁上狂吐,幸得一位妹妹和一位老着相助.后来又与另一位朋友M去了一次.这次我们点了三杯,一杯Singapore Sling, 一杯Lychee Martini, 还有一杯Mojito. 我主要喝了一杯Lychee Martini,其它两杯都是M喝的,M很喜欢这个地方,直夸Y很懂得享受.这次我觉得很好喝,甜甜的,也没有醉到哪里去,只是觉得身上的某些部件不大听使唤,但夜里睡得其好,大概这就是为什么有些人喜欢喝酒吧.

心情札记

前些天居然被恶人诬陷。靠，连这种事也会发生？况且那人既不认识我，我也不认识他，显然神经病一个。而且自发生这件事以来看到身边各种各样的人，有的幸灾乐祸，当听说此事不是真的以后，失望的表情竟无法掩饰。当然大部分人我也承认是好的，但这件事后令我对新加坡人产生了恐惧，虽然我也明白这不过是极少数新加坡的害群之马，但毕竟心头的阴阳需要些时日才能除去。决定从此后加新加坡籍人为好友时要慎之又慎，除非少数了解的，否则一律不加，其他国籍则不受影响。详情陆续披露。

在那几天阴暗的日子里，我不断地鼓励自己：亲，你可一定要hold住哦！坏人是迟早都会受到惩罚的，毕竟人在做，天在看啊！

从此也想到自己以后不但要做到不造谣，而且也不要跟着传谣，因为很多事情从表面上看我们未必能分得清真与假，传谣会为当事者造成伤害，也不要向偶周围的某些人那样幸灾乐祸！要做一个真正成熟的人。

Kanebo Coffret Dor Eyeliner Cream

I purchased one Coffret Dor eyeliner cream, which caused me to have a severe eye infection. Thus, I wrote an email to the company’s public relations officer. Hopefully I could get some sort of refund or compensation. Here is it.
To whom it may concern,
I purchased one Coffret Dor Eyeliner cream from OG Somerset. However, I found the powder always went into my eyes. Last Nov, it caused me to have a severe eye infection and I spent more than $80 and took almost one week of medical leave before I was able to fully recover. I sincerely hope that something can be done to help me as I still left almost the full bottle. I wish I may be refunded or at least allow to exchange the product for another one.
Your kind concideration will be highly appreciated.
Your faithful customer
Jenny

I received reply from Mr Koh of that company. She said she would try her best to settle this. But she also demanded for the receipt or medical bill. I told her it was quite some time ago and normally I don’t have the habit of keeping my receipts. As for medical certificate, it is understood that we need to submit to our company while applying for medical leave. Since I have the full package to show that the product was their company’s, what’s the point of asking for other supporting documents? She agreed to help and told me to give her some more time since it was just before the Chinese New Year.

Today however, I received the reply which surprised me. It was like this.

Dear Jenny,
Happy New Year.
Thank you for your patience.
As much as I will want to consider reviewing your request, however due to lack of supporting purchase documents &/or medical certificate, I regret to inform that I am not able to proceed further.
I seek your kind understanding to this.
However having said so, I have contacted Japan pertaining to this incident and have made arrangement to send the product back for a lab test to ascertain the cause of your said infection and for further investigation. I will then inform you of the outcome and offer an alternative resolution.
I will need your assistance to bring the product (together with the packaging) back to any of our counters at your earliest convenience for this arrangement.
Jenny, please advise which counter you will be visiting and when is it likely to be so that I can inform my Consultant to attend to you.
Please feel free to contact me at 6290 2064 for further clarifications if required.
With Regards,
Cheryl

I was very unhappy and replied as follow:

Hi, Ms Koh,
I believe it is ridiculous that I have not been refunded, I simply bring the product back to your sales counter. That means I need to pay some extra (say the transport) for the result that had already been decided. Since just now you have already mentioned that you will not be able to proceed, I would rather settle the issue myself by posting this issue to internet including my own website and Facebook etc to seek support from the public. I think I need to say that the worst case scenario this may become a court case. I need that as my proof. I do not understand why you need a purchasing document as it shows strongly that it is your product and really sold by you. So let the public decide.
Jenny

We reached the agreement finally. She came to collect that eyeliner cream from my office. She told me she would sent it to Japan for further testing and kept me posted. Meanwhile she gave me some sample of their other products.

On 22 of March, I received a call from her, said that the company was willing to give me a lipstick as the compensation. I’m quite happy about the result. It at least shows that the company is really concerning about their customers. Their other products like lipstick, eye shadow, foundation etc are quite good. I’ll continue to support their products.

On 19th of April, she came to my company and delivered the lipstick to me personally. It’s a nice piece. I’m happy that it’s finally a happy ending.

Bill Dispute with Starhub

I rang Starhub in June 2010 after being billed $70+ for the month and not $46 as it supposed to be. They explained that because my package had not yet been updated. They reassured me there was no worries as the balance would have to be refunded in the following month (July). Come July there was no refund and worse still, the bill was even higher ($75+), and they had charged my credit card without providing an itemized account for each costing! I called and the staff member informed me that the system was being upgraded and that delays would be inevitable. However, I should be refunded by the following month (August). I requested him to contact the ‘Standard Chartered Bank’ and clarify the account. He agreed to call me back when the matter was resolved. But I did not receive any call from him until today, which is 10 days later. He stated that his name was ‘Moziz’ (or something which sounds like that). He was very rude and insisted that no further progress could be made until I first pay the bill. Totally different from our previous agreement! I refused and reminded him that it was illegal to ask people to pay without a bill. I realised that he was not going to be able to help me and so I requested to talk to his manager. He said it would not be possible. His attitude was extremely poor during the whole conversation. The company’s failure to resolve the situation is a poor reflection on the organization and its employees.
P.S. This problem has been solved in Jan 2011.

Whose fault? / 谁之错？

Early this week, when I took MRT to work, we heard an announcement when we reached Marsilling MRT station, “There’s a sudden train fault. Please alight.” In a rush, I left my notebook on the seat. The staff-in-charge on the platform took my contact number and promised that I could collect it back at Bukit Batok MRT station where I’m staying. But when I went to collect it, the staff at BB seemed did not even know what’s going on. They called Marsilling station. The manager at that station did not seem to know either. “What time did the incident occur?” “Around 8am.” How come they do not have a record? I was completely puzzled. After further investigation, the manager of Marsilling station called me. “There’s no way that we can find your notebook.” “Why?” “Our staff informed Woodlands station soon after you reported. But when the train reached Woodlands, their staff went to check and found your notebook was not there.” “How come? The passengers, your staff on the platform and myself saw with our own eyes that it was there on the seat after the door closed and there was no one on the train. …..” “Hello… hello…” The line had been cut off. The next morning, that staff on the platform called me. “Sorry, I forgot to call you. They did not find anything after the train reached Woodlands station.” I was puzzled, hence, called the customer service.
“We need to investigate, and we will let you know.” Later, he called and told me, “The train was back to normal after a while. So, it didn’t go to depot as we thought. Instead, it went to Woodlands, and picked up passengers there. After that we can’t find your notebook.” “But I informed you before you picking up the passengers. You should do something.” “Sorry, it was rush hour. We have no time to search for you. After all, it’s your responsibility not to leave anything on the train.” “But it was not the normal case. Your train was faulty, and we rushed down to cooperate.” “Yes, in our announcement we simply informed you to alight the train and board the next one. We never asked you to leave your stuff on the train…” I was indeed unhappy with their service. Of course it passengers’ have a responsibility to take care of their own property. But in such an emergency cases, the Railway had caused so much inconvenience for us. On top of that, they refused to find my notebook for me even though I had reported to them before hand. And more, they never apologized to me! Instead, they simply put the blame on me. Is this really the world class service that they claim to be providing?

Worst Service Provider in Singapore

The worst customer service provider is OCBC. Since last year, their service has been consistently poor. I have had lots of problems with them. At first (starting from last April), we had some dispute which supposed would be easily solved. They promised they would call me after they checked the account. But who knows if they ever did and after a while, I also forgot - as I’m a working professional under the severe stress from both work and family. In the end, I experienced delay in my payment and a penalty. Of course, I wouldn’t agree to pay for other people’s mistakes. That caused a big fight between us. Each month when I received the bill, the amount would become higher by at least S$60 dollars more because of the late payment charges and interest. Until the End of the year, it went up as high as S$350+. I was so angry that I lodged a complain against them to their headquarters and that finally escalated the entire situation. I was disturbed so much as they called me each day more than 20 times to chase me down to make the payment. (oddly they only called me when seeking to collect the payment. Other than that, it’s quite difficult to find them).
After that, they tried to persuade me to apply for two more credit cards. They said as long as I spent any amount, I should be able to get a S$20 rebate for each card. Until January, I didn’t receive anything. I called them and they said “not so fast“. It should come in the following month. In February, I received a rebate from one of the cards. So I called them again. They told me the other one would take longer and they said that by March I should get it. Until the March bill came, it was still not there. Again I called. This time, the staff said the promotion was only eligible to certain people. I told them right from the beginning that they had already confirmed that I was one of the eligible candidates. He said he needed to check and that it would take three working days. He would call me the following week. In fact, this is their practice. They always tell customers the check will take a certain time and they will get back to them - just like what happened to me last year. But they will never call. Just as what I had predicted, I never received any call from him. I’m very experienced since I went through it all last year. After almost 2 weeks, I thought I couldn’t wait any more. Again this time the staff told me exactly the same thing. I asked him why the check took such a long time. He promised me he would definitely call me the following day. On the phone, I told him this would be the last time I trusted that bank. If by the following day, I still did not receive any call from him. I would guarantee him that I would not back down. I wouldn’t be so patient any more and I told him do not test my limit. He assured me I could definitely trust him. But guess what happened? Nobody called me the whole day. Next day, I called and a lady answered phone. She again said the same thing. But this time, she finally called me back and told me I shall receive a S$20 Best Denki voucher not rebate by next time. Though it is different from what they promised and voucher is not as good as rebate, I decided to give up. Let’s hope I really will receive the voucher by next month.

Not as Good as a Fish / 人不如鱼

最近世界杯足球赛进行得如火如荼，虽然未能捧红哪个球星，或哪支球队，却意外地捧红了章鱼歌-Paul。话说这Paul，那来头可就大了，他生于英国，长于德国，见过大世面，而且还是出身名门望族呢，他的妈妈便是个百发百中的算命师。难怪他那么得厉害了。听说他预测西班牙将夺得本次比赛的冠军，那还等什么？听罢我立马便买了一张足球彩票，希望能借这位海底黄大仙的光发上一笔。比赛完后的清晨，妈妈便打电话给我，声音激动地在颤抖，“恭喜你，终于中奖了。”
等到领奖那一天，我兴冲冲并小心翼翼地递上自己的彩票，用虔诚的眼光看着并期待着这一神圣时刻的到来，毕竟这是俺第一次中奖哦！这时意想不到的事发生了，当职员打入我的身份证号码后告知我，“对不起，你没中奖。”“什么？”我简直不敢相信自己的耳朵，“为什么？”“因为西班牙没赢，它们和了。”“你没看电视么？这么大的事你都不知道，西班牙把奖杯都抱回家啦，人家正在庆祝呢，怎会没赢？”“只算前面的90分钟。。。”只觉得一阵的晕眩，接下来她说的话什么也没听见，踉踉跄跄的走回家，给爸爸打电话，爸爸听后也觉得诧异，经分析爸爸才得出结论，这不用说是Singapore Pools算错了赔率，赢得人太多了，他们没钱给了，只好耍赖。要说着Singapore Pools也真够惨了，拥有那么多的硕士，博士，还有什么精算大师，居然算不过一只章鱼，真悲哀哟！可他们又不能听章鱼的，于是造成了上述惨剧。唉！

The world Cup Soccer Match in South Africa was definitely the hot topic this year. But not even one individual or a particular team gained the limelight. The only one who gained popularity was an octopus – Paul. Paul was born into a famous family. His mother was an outstanding fortune teller. He inherited such intelligence from his mother and made only one mistake in his life time. My father said that he predicted Spain would be the champions this time. Then why wait? I must quickly do something. I rushed out to buy a lottery ticket. I had hoped to be able to make my fortune through him! The next morning, mother called me, voice already trembling, “Congratulations! You won finally!”
When I went to collect my prize, I handed in my ticket carefully, yet also excitedly, waiting for that sacred moment to come. You know this was the first time for me to strike a win on the lottery in a lifetime! After checking my IC number, the officer told me, ”Sorry, you have not won a prize.” “What? How can this be?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “Because Spain did not win, it was a draw game.” “What? You did not watch TV? Spain brought away the trophy and now they are busy celebrating.” “We count only the first 90 min, so…..” I felt a sudden dizziness, and did not really hear what she said. Walking home stumbling, I called Father. My father also felt surprised. Finally he concluded that It must be because the Singapore Pools miss calculated the odds and too many people won the game. Therefore, they could not afford to pay. With so many master and even PHD holders, Singapore Pools was not even able to compete with a fish. But how could those so called experts bow to a fish? Alas!

沉痛悼念保罗的不幸逝世，保罗永远活在我们心中！