A New Beginning

After my little nephew was born, my sister will always get on my case for swearing in front of him. “Hey, be careful what you say, he picks up everything.” True enough, at four, he has already surpassed the little devil I was when I was 21.

Last year, he went to my cousin’s wedding and observed that the bride’s breasts were very shining (actually, he meant her gown). And early this year, he told a toddler, just two years younger, “Come come, uncle carry you.”

Lately, I am beginning to feel that my hard disks, Macs, and photographic equipment are all like kids too, and maybe I should not swear in front of them so much. Or, they will just throw a tantrum and show me some colors.

When my two Maxtors died last year, I got so fucking upset and just threw them down the rubbish chute. OK, to be exact, I sent one of them to three specialists, including one in Minneapolis, for thorough checks, before giving up.

They were then replaced by six Western Digitals, which served me well until lately. One started singing when I wanted him to do some work (what so difficult with your job, all you have to do is to eat data?), I recognized the tune to be the same one as one Maxtor made on his last days.

Now, WD Singapore 1 is sitting with two other uncooperative members of this household. Serve you right, play punk and you are out! OUT! OUT! Another member, WD Asia 1 has a plaster on her that says “SICK”. I will check on her later, after lunch that is, to see if she is really sick.

What exactly have I done for you all to be misbehaving? Tell me. When it is hot, I turned on the aircon for all of us. Once a week, the cleaning help comes and give all of you a nice wipe. When I go on a holiday, you get a break too.

Huh, maybe you chaps just don’t like to be chained together by Firewire 400. OK, tell me, I switch to USB2. We can talk right?

Or are you all just worried that I will do the same thing to the iMac globe? Yes, it was funny. For three years that he was plugged in, everything was working fine. The day after I brought home a new 20in and ship globby to a friend’s house, he just refused to wake up. Can u believe, just went to sleep forever.

See, now I have no choice but to bring in three Lacies. I like to call them replacement workers but they are not. These French babes are sleek, and damn expensive, but more importantly, they all have on-off-standby switch. And since this is a new relationship, I am going to try a different tact with them that I never thought of before – a mix of diplomacy, humanity, welfare, love etc.

Don’t get upset WDs, Lacie and Leica have exactly the same alphabets, and my Leica has never left me since 1993. Accept it, they are just in a different league.

For a start, these babies will not be fed to the brim. I am going to give them each a generous buffer. And since they are so flexible and accommodating as to come with options for Firewire400, Firewire800, USB2, and eSATA connectors, I might just try new positions with them once in a while.

For now, they are also very quiet, I hope they stay that way.

In a few more weeks, if these Lacies prove that they are worth my investment, I am going to be nice and add a few more to my stable. And, I might just get them a new playmate, someone who also have eSATA.

But most of all, I promise not to use bad language on all of you. Lets see how far that will take us. OK?

The Starhub/SCV follow-up

Alas, there are people who care. Within an hour after sending my complaint letter, I received a call from Cheryl Chan, a sales manager from Starhub. She had worked in the company for 15 years and was very professional, patient and sincere. She made no excuses for what had happened and explained to me what had gone wrong. When I asked if the mistakes were due to the fact that many of the staff I dealt with were part-timers, she told me very firmly, (paraphrasing) “It doesn’t matter. The minute he picks up the phone, he is representing Starhub, and no less is expected even if he is a part-timer.” Cheryl followed up with me every other day, making sure that the new cabling works, that my channels are clear and I am able to get my internet services. She also called back again yesterday to talk about the other services I am interested in. Some time during our conversations, I told her all Starhub customer service personnel should aspire to meet her standard. Bosses at Starhub, I hope you are tuning in …

ATROCIOUS SERVICE BY STARHUB

Just when I told my problems with Starhub were solved, more troubles came. So, here goes, a letter to the head of customer services of Starhub. Just to make sure I am heard, I have also copied this email to the CEO, President and a few other senior staff at Starhub. I promise to post any responses received.

Dear Miss Diana Lee,

First of all, let me apologize for writing this terse note to you and members of your senior management. But seriously, I have no other choice.

Perhaps if you have can be patient enough to listen to my complaints, you will understand why.

I called Starhub last week because I was moving house and wanted to have my cable and wireless internet service transferred. I called early because I am moving from a condo to a rented house and I know there will be some issues that needed to be sorted out.

The customer service officer Jeffrey(1), told me that he was not trained to handle landed property sales but he will ask someone who is to call me. But despite that, he spent quite a bit of time gathering information from me. I can only assume that he was taking all the notes and passing it to the next person who could help me.

I waited 3-4 days and nobody called. So I called Starhub again, and spoke to a Justina(2). To my horror, I was told that there was no record of my conversation with Jeffrey. I had to tell Justina what my request was.

I got very furious and asked to speak to someone senior and a Simon(3) came to the line. He confirmed that there was no record of my conversation with Jeffrey. Again, I had to repeat my request to Simon.

It became very clear to me that nobody is taking note of my request, which explained why I had to keep repeating my addresses and my telephone number.

Next, I got a call from Angie(4), who took a lot of pain to explain and sort out my situation. An appointment was finally met for a contractor to hook up my line May 2. But to my surprise, she did not know that Simon had also called me.

Just when I thought everything was settled, I received a call a few days later from a Alan(5) (he said he was from direct sales). Alan’s first question was whether I have any account with Starhub. Do you know how atrocious that sounded?

I told Alan I didn’t think I should be talking to him and asked him to get someone from 1630 to call.

Minutes later, a Dino(6) called. He said that Alan was not supposed to call me and he didn’t know why either. I asked to speak to Angie but she was on leave.

Dino called again and I tried to make sure everything I had settled with Angie are still in order. I asked him if my five-year subscription at my new address can be terminated after one year (length of my lease). He said NO. I told him Angie told me I could, he said he had to check.

Upon my request, someone senior came to the phone. Kelvin(7) was very cool and reassuring and told me Dino was wrong and what Angie told me were correct. I asked him how was I supposed to feel if I had been put through all these?

Today, Angie called again to check on a form that was supposed to be faxed. After sorting it out, I asked her about what I went through and if they were normal. She said no, and the staff are going to be counseled. But she confused me this time by telling me that actually, Jeffrey did leave a message after all.

OK, are you counting? Are you lost? Are you frustrated? Do you feel my pain? I hope you are answering yes to all my rhetorical questions.

Let me help you. It took seven of your staff to settle one very very small request.

In my last shot, I told Angie very sternly: promise me that I get my service on Friday and nobody irrelevant will call me from now on.

Well, I don’t know how you are feeling now, but I have been boiling over this saga since it started.

I don’t know whether my complaint is going to be serious enough to warrant an apology from any one of you.  But I am going to post it on my blog and get some moral support from people who may have gotten the same bad treatment from SCV.

Shame on you.

Kay Chin

Complaint/Compliant

In a Straits Times April 7, 2008 article, Singapore scores better than average for customer satisfaction, it was reported that “Service standards in Singapore are not far behind South Korea and the United States, although there is still room for improvement.”

“The nation scored 68.7 out of a 100 in the first ever national customer satisfaction survey, compared with 72 and 75 for South Korea and US respectively.”

“The (survey) also dispelled another belief that Singaporeans are the worst when it comes to complaining – the country only scored a national average of 6.3 per cent for complaints, compared to 14 per cent in the US.”

You do realize that the two findings are a little contradictory right? We complain less, therefore we appear to be quite happy with the service standard.

Anyway, if they had surveyed me, the percentage would definitely have been much higher. (who can I complain to for this?)

In this humble blog, I am going to complain (ok, if you so desire, I will change the word to discuss) about why we don’t complain enough, and how those who are aggrieved and don’t complain are just making things worse.

I am a habitual complainer and I am quite proud of it, because I do get things done. For the record, I called taxi companies no less than 20 times last year. I have also filed complaints to all telco companies in Singapore. Some concerned friends told me I should be careful because one day, I may end up with no mobile phone service and no taxi will pick me. Well, so be it.

Inevitably, I always get labeled as an unhappy person, and also a quarrelsome one. But guess what? When some of my friends have a complaint, who do they sometimes turn to?

You mean to say that I should be tolerant when a Comfort taxi driver slammed the trunk cover on my head and accused me of being slow? And that I should close an eye when the taxi driver taking me home was closing both his eyes on a busy PIE? How about the maniac who decided to ignore my repeated requests to slow down in a residential area?

Credit card companies are also some of my “victims”. Wait, I thought I was the victim.

One sent my replacement card to an old address, and having realized the mistake days later, decided to cancel both my existing and replacement cards, thus leaving me penniless in Seattle.

I think I dare say that in my bitchy way, I have contributed to some improvement:) For the record, the (good & patient) people from Hyperdrive/Colorspace have responded to my previous blog. There will be at least two improvements to the product soon.

Some years back, I also got a full replacement for a computer I bought even though different channels I complained to insisted the fault with my unit was too minor and that there was nothing they could do. It took a very senior management with common sense to say, “OK, lets do it.” And yes, I am still using the same brand now.

Today, I had the displeasure of calling Singapore Cable Vision (SCV). Three days ago, I called their customer care hotline to find out about activating new service at a new place I am renting. The customer service officer (what a mouthful for what he didn’t do) said he would be asking someone to call me. No sound, no picture, for the past three days.

I found out from my calls this morning that there WAS NO RECORD of our conversation. Therefore, they also don’t have the contact number I left for them to call.

I have been promised by someone more senior that I would be hearing from them. Oh damn, he didn’t really say they would be calling. So does it mean I have to call? But then why did he take down my numbers in the first place?

Damn, so much for just wanting to give business to SCV.

Just a quick update on the SCV saga ..

A duty manager at SCV just called. She had heard about my problem. I basically had to repeat some of the facts for the fourth time. I asked Angie, (paraphrasing) “Why is your company so screwed up?” “Why do I have to repeat my address again? You know this is the fourth time I am telling you my address?”

And her reply, “I am so sorry, we are looking into these (all my complaints).”

You mean to say that the people I spoke to before did not make note of what we discussed? Then why waste my time? That the announcement that “please note that your call may be monitored for quality control” was just to humor/scare me?

Tell you something equally scary: Angie was shocked that another manager, Simon, had spoken to me. Sigh sigh sigh.

Right, Angie. I still want to believe you since you have a rather sweet voice. Can I encourage you to complain to your company that if your other colleagues take customers’ complaints seriously, you won’t have to complain about my complaints?

Yes, I am enjoying it. Complaining, not complying.

btw, I did my research before starting this blog, here are some background info …

source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compliant

5 results for: compliant

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) – Cite This Source – Share This
com·pli·ant Audio Help /kəmˈplaɪənt/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[kuhm-plahy-uhnt] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. complying; obeying, obliging, or yielding, esp. in a submissive way: a man with a compliant nature.
2. manufactured or produced in accordance with a specified body of rules (usu. used in combination): Energy Star-compliant computers.

9 results for: complaint

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) – Cite This Source – Share This
com·plaint Audio Help /kəmˈpleɪnt/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[kuhm-pleynt] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. an expression of discontent, regret, pain, censure, resentment, or grief; lament; faultfinding: his complaint about poor schools.
2. a cause of discontent, pain, grief, lamentation, etc.
3. a cause of bodily pain or ailment; malady: The doctor says I suffer from a rare complaint.
4. Law. the first pleading of the plaintiff in a civil action, stating the cause of action.

HYPERDRIVE COLORSPACE II

Last week, I wrote a very damning blog about the above product. I also suggested that nobody from the companies was going to contact me. I WAS DEAD WRONG AND I AM SO GLAD THAT I WAS PROVEN WRONG.

Alas, there are people who care and are responsible.

I took the original blog down because I appreciate what the individual who called and emailed me has done. Let me assure you that I didn’t accept any presents for this, neither was I threatened. I like to place on record my sincere apologies for assuming the worst. Sorry.

At this stage, I would just like to say that the individual will get a chance to fully examine my unit. I was promised a full report of the findings and when appropriate, and if possible, I will post it for everyone to see.

I should say that such good customer service is rare and I, someone who is not easily impressed, is convinced that it means business.

I just hope that whatever the problems are, they will be able to resolve them.

Peace.