Xmas Getaway 09 Epilode - A really dishonest Singapore bus service - Alisan (S) Pte Ltd, Singapore

This is related to my bus trip which I mentioned in:
http://nemesisv.blogspot.com/2010/02/xmas-getaway-09-day-5-kl-to-home-on.html

Basically we had some issue with delayed bus in KL and was told to go for a coffee and make the claim when we are back in Singapore. So we did and this was what follows.

I called up the bus company a few days later and the staff told me that the boss's mom or mom-in-law (I cant quite remember, but right now I preferred mom if given a choice) has passed away and hte boss is at the funeral in Malaysia. I thought its a bad things to really push people when they are grieving and I said I will call back in a few days. I updated the otehr group making the claim too.

A few days later, I made the call again. Guess what? One of their staff (a guy this time) totally denied it. He said that their staff will never do such a thing suggesting peopel to go drink coffee and make claims. And he did that almost immediately without even checking which staff was on the call on Xmas day. It was as if he was prepared and isused to handling this day in day out. I wondered how many more people are affected. I tried to reason with him and say it is after all their staff who make the suggestion. I would have nothing to make up a story like this. By this time, I am pretty mad. Originally I never really thought I wanted to make the claim. RM20 is like a trip to Starbuck and it is nothing to me. But this is a matter of principle and I am no liar. So I told him I will be back. I contacted the other group and he suggest we make a trip to CASE to see what we can do.

I did my homework and found out that CASE actualyl is not very helpful (unless you are a member for $25 / year). So I guess it doesn't make sense in this case. How about sueing? I guess it is possible, but then the only thing I have was a phone call and I have no recording whatsoever that their staff told me to make the claim. So I figured I do not have much to go actually.

But that doesn't mean I have to take it silently and let others continue to suffer the same scam. Alisan is basically very dishonest and they seems to be doing this very regularly and then making deny which they know we can't do much about it. The bus services was very late (for about 3 hours) and I get nothing like even an apology. All they said was its bus, schedule cannot be helped. WTF? The bus might as well be late for a week then? And to my knowledge, no other bus company was late that day. So just WTF happened to them? Was there really a big jam or was it some excuse they made up? I can go on and on, but its just the very unsatisief and angry me. I want you to read this in the most neutral way possible and judge for yourself.

Now, you know why I wished it was the boss's mom now. I guess there is divine retribution. Not many people get to die on Xmas day and if they do, it has to be karma. For the sins and lies of their children, they have to pay the price dying like this. I guess this makes my feel a little bit better. Its just unfortunately its over that I cannot send my congratulation to the family of the boss of Alisan.
We want to travel with such a company, be my guest. I just pray you do not get involved in one of their divine retribution!

Exit, but do not enter?

You notice the EXIT sign clear in the green light. However as you approaches, you notice that there is a sign that say DO NOT ENTER with a red circle sign on the door? I mean, WTF?

Good riddance to bad rubbish ~ SingTel

While I made my request to cancel my line to SingTel, I was told this will take place in 3 days time... I wait 1 week and the line was still active. So I called up again. This time I can't be bothered to wait in the queue which took like 45 mins. I just used one of the I lost my phone or something options to get an operator. I explained the situation and guess what? They notice it was not being processed. Then they tried to hold me back from cutting the line. The proposed a SPECIAL package which is only $6 / month. Emm... What can you get for $6? Well, nothing except 15 mins for airtime... so that whoever call you, you can still tell them you changed number. Lets do our maths and you will notice thats like 20 cents / min. Luckily I passed my maths. This is a really stupid plan as their last attempt to con my money. Without anything free means you will need to pay $5 for CallerID as well. Now, I told them plain and simple. CANCEL. I wont even want to explain why I am so fed up with them or how they had fcuked up over and over again for me. A quick answer, the operator say he can make a new request and it will be cut off before end of the day.

Now, doesn't that makes you wonder why they told me it requires 3 days to cut off in the first place? Anyway, I think I don't mind paying a bit more, but definitely I stay off the Evil Red company for now.

Beware of the SingTel Shop scam!

Yes, althought www.singtelshop.com seems really like a real shop, its a black shop. Look at what happened to me. I sign up, made the payment. Then they called me, told me that they cannot honor the purchase and slam the phone.

Guess what? They already charged to my credit card! I called and they insist they will not honor the purchase and will not send the phone to me.

Tell me if this is not a scam, what is?

I strongly advise anyone to think again if you are really buying from singtelshop.com. Or in the first place, does SingTelShop even belongs to SingTel? they have such differences in prices. For all you know, this is a phishing site!!!

Anyway, I am going to call my credit card company to cancel the purchase.

Singtel fcuks up again!

I am a bit boilling to talk abt the whole incident, but I would like to archive the letter to Singtel here. I will talk about it in another post.

To singtel :
I had placed an order 100****** online because I wish to avoid the queue at the shop. I had followed all the intruction, scanned the student pass for the student line etc, However, next working day I got a call to say the order is cancelled!!!I was told that ST cannot honor the signup done online and I had to do it at the Hello Shop? WTF? Then why have Singtelshop.com at all? It even wasted mt time to scan and upload the image!
Then I checked at the HelloShop... The price of the handphone is doubled!!! Why do you published price which you cannot honor at all? You had totally wasted my time and my opportunity to sign up with SH or M1!!! If you so desire to do so, you might as well put all your phone at $1 on Singtelshop.com since you cant honor the pricing anyway!

Cetis Cisco Crow Massacre Unit

I am pretty sure we all hear the gunshot and see the strange black van moving around shooting down crow in the neighborhood. I got a close look today was to be honest was a shocking experience.

I heard a gunshot and immediately recognized it and I saw it up close. This belong to a Crow culling Unit of Certis Cisco Singapore. What I cannot stand was what happen after this... I saw a crow injured and fallen to the fall maybe its wing got it or something... The man with the shotgun cross the road to reach it... Then all a sudden I see him raise a gun and take a shot into the air on a flying by crow and it fall right onto the road where car are passing by. I recall how much train we all had about using a rifle in the open space. Even a police officer has to make a difficult judge to take such a shot in open public, yet this man did not. In a total of 3 shot, he took down 2 crow. I am really concern such use of firearms in public area may some day lead to a tragedy (I recall a man killed while feeding dogs some years back, probably by the same group of people?).

Well that was still prety ok. He picked up both the crow and one of them was still quite kicking. What shock me was what happened immediate there. I saw him took the crow at one wing and slam it against a nearby tree until it stop moving. Come on, if he had already wasted 3 shots and now he is saving it by smashing the crow onto the tree? I know crows are pest, but I did not think what he did should be consider human. If this is so, we might as well equip them with morning stars and club those crow to death. Luckily no children saw this. I am sure it will project a very bad example to children.

A few things I wonder.
1. The Maths. 3 shots 2 crow. 2 guys in a van. How does the cost justify the means? Does killing 2 crows solve anything?
2. The use of firearms in open public. Has this been so open now that its pretty ok to just pull you guns and shoot when there are people walking around and car driving pass? Does the shot and crow not hit onto someone passing by?
3. Crow slamming. Does what these people do not be govern under animal cruelty? Has SPCA got anything to say about it? Or is it just because they are crow its ok to club them to death. I don't know. But in this case, maybe its ok to pull off heads of rats and electrocute the fishes in the reservoirs because they are not consider animals?

Goodbye SingTel! Hello Starhub

Let me share a story. I love the LG Viewty Phone, well for the price vs function anyway. I had been a SinTel Page, Mobile, Landline user for like since they started. So when my contract is ending, I gave them a call to see if they can work something out for me.

On the phone, I speak with the operator for hte latest promotion to renew. They apparently had nothing much. Their LG Viewty is $250 more than Starhub. So after some ping pong, she directed me to the manager. I asked her again to see if they can do something to keep a old customer. Guess what? She told me to go to a fair somewhere in Parkway Parade where they can give me further discount... I asked how much? She replied $50 less. OK, maybe their maths is not very good or they think my maths is not very good.

So, it was Starhub for me. I called them as well. I told them straight I am with SinTel and I asked if they can make me an offer I cannot reject. Straight away, they gave me $100 voucher for ANY plan with them for 2 years. Great, that makes a $350 difference with SinTel now. Ok, if consider the Parkway fair, $300 difference. Then the operator was pretty nice. I swear I did not sweet talk her, but she suggested I check the newpaper... There is a better offer... Oh, OK. So I did. One of Starhub's reseller was offering a further discount and package which is another $50 less plus free gifts. Emm, so there I was, grabbing my phone and line. Total. I saved $350 compare to if I stick with SinTel. But SingTel I had Caller-ID for Free due to the SingTel-UOB Card. So, in a way its kinda $60 more per year for me. But Starhub was willing to give me 3 months for free which means its $60 + $60 - $15 = $105 more for the whole 2 years contract. Big deal.

At this point, I need to stress that SingTel-UOB has scrapped that benefits without warning and its no longer FREE. And on top of this, Starhub has extended my 3 months to 1 year of FREE Caller-ID. That means that comparing SinTel and Starhub, I had a savings of $60 instead. Totalling my savings from the start to $410.

Niow, about the FREE gift. As I was no big fan of Jeff Chang, I gladly sold away the pair of tickets at low cost taking back another $120. Total, that means $530. Ok, I wont say how much I pay for the Viewwty, but apparently if you maths is not too bad, you will know its not just free. I have nett profit instead for changing a new phone...

You guys in the red, I don't know what else is holding you, but the patch is definitely greener here.

I DO NOT work for Starhub nor SingTel. This is totally based on my own experience and is not fictionous.

SingTel - UOB Card Caller ID is no longer FREE

There were some good reasons to switch over to the other providers. I had the SingTel-UOB Card who promises as long as you hold the card, your Caller-ID will be FREE. I guess contract means nothing to these corp nowadays. They can change it whenever they like it.

If you cannot read the babove, you can always read it here:
http://home.singtel.com/upload_hub/consumer/st-uob_promo08.asp

Its funny why this is even put inside PROMOTION... Apparently, if you are not using Classic, Premium 700, Premium 1500 or mio plan, they will CHARGE you for Caller ID without warning from 1st April onwards. I mean, WTF? At least they should have the courtesy to tell me in advance in Feb or March about this change. All a sudden you will all receive a phonebill with charges for Caller ID. Then I seriously doubt whats the whole point of holding this card? Or for that matters stucking up Red's ass.

There is always a Greener patch out there... I will leave that in another article. P.S. The Green company gives you Caller ID for free for 1 year. In your face, SinTel.

F*cking Bitch TAKES ALL at Expo Popular Sales

Ever wonder why certain items as advertise is never available at the sales? Today I met such a bitch in Singapore Expo. There was this item on sale and I arrived early at 10:10 (it starts at 10am). There I saw a bitch pulling a truck of 10+ of THAT item. Straight away I know its shitted. I went around to ask and guess what? Its OUT OF STOCK! Why? One fu*king bitch bought it all. Thats the reason why they should always limit to max number of item per customer. Does this not make sense. I mean, you buy 3, nothing to say. Buy 10+ WTF? Go cut yourself into pieces har? (Btw, its a paper cutter).

OK, lets join me in a prayer that the f*cking Singaporean Bitch cut herself in her eyes (ok , lets make it better by cutting her childrens and grandma as well) while using it...

Why there is no enough space on public buses

The pictures says it all. Well done, Singaporean.

M18 Pearl at OG

It was a sunny day and I just drop by OG to stock up on my regular supplements. OG offers a different variety of brands from Robinson and other places, so I can find more option for Bee Propolis etc. Anyway, there was always this Pearl shop at OG, well, at least in Bugis OG. With a purchase of $20, you can collect a voucher which you can collect a free pearl from them. Then after that they will try to sell you their silverware, necklaces at overprice rates.

I had always been very unhappy with this shop, and so happens that day it turns out the chinese girl and her chinese manager REALLY pissed me off. So, I had to pick a fight with them on this very day.

They used to give unlimited pearls as long as you have vouchers and receipts for $20 or more each. Then they limited it to 2 per person. That I can still understand, and in the past, I even totally give up on it due to the queue. However, today there were NOBODY at the queue.

First, there was a sign which I find damn offensive. Pearl ONLY for people 18 years old and above. WTF? Must show IC to collect now liao? I dont have the problem with this age limit, but really.. WTF? Imagine a rich 17 years bought some expensive clothes. Does that means she cannot collect? Does it? And why the hell 18? Does it contain some adult stuff? Drugs (like cigarettes)? To me, this is down right discrimination on age.

That aside, since it did not affect me, I was told I can only collect 1 pearl. Err... OK, I have kinda like 6 vouchers. I told her imagine I queue again la, just give me one more at least 1 pair or something... The uncle peeling the pearl is at least kind and he say 2 is ok la... Then guess what? That F*cking china bitch come in took all my vouchers away and stamp all my receipts!! What? Scare I give other people take or what? Then guess what? She still insist on giving 1 only because that is THEIR rule she say.

Under the situation where there is a big crowd, I will just cool off. But there is NOBODY there. So, I decide that this will be THE DAY. So I insist to complain. I want to talk to their manager. Ah, f*ck, I did not get her in the picture, but she is the one wearing white and she stood and say she is the manager and give me a damn sia lan face. I explain that I had purchase so much from OG, take one more is also ok la... Moreover, what will I do with 1 pearl, I dont want to have a one sided earring. then she explain and say this one not her problem, they are not from OG and whatever we bought is not her problem and blah blah...

I think that totally reflect very badly on the whole. OG must had selected a very bad company to work with. Don't want to give, dun pretend to be generous! What try to promote people to buy more? OG should just tell everybody to buy only $20 cos you can't get more than 1 pearl anyway. And even I reason that so if I queue again cannot meh? that bitchy manager say she will regconise me. So, now its personal ha? I totally blow my top. I decided that I need to reach higher authority to resolved this and she has picked a very bad day to have this fight with me!

So, I went calmly to the OG service center and ask for the OG manager in charge. So, a lady in black came. I tried to explained it as calmly as I can, but I seriously don't think I did a good one at that kind of blood pressure. Nevertheless, she offered to accompany me to the Pearl store again.

Things after that does not come with a twist anymore. As usual, she talked to the manager and the manager tried to argued with her etc... In the end the OG manager made her give all 6 pearl to me. I thank the manager at least at solving this. Seriously, if they had given me 2, I will not even have to come to this. I also understand the difficulties and that they problably think they lost money on this. I do hope OG stop partnering them in the future...

Things to take from here :

1. Can't stand the queue, don't bother. Its for 1 f*cking pearl only.

2. Somehow the pearl are for adult only. So, if you look under 18 and do not want to risk IC checks situation, don't bother.

3. Don't by any overprice stuff from them. Lets hope they fold soon with such bad ass sale bitches.

Microsoft Hardware Warranty

I wonder how many people actually needed this. J once had a mouse that did not work out of the box. Sent it to the SLS shop for replacement. Took about 10 days. BUT I just realized there was a better way to RMA with Microsoft. And you will never believe this.

It was little known that Microsoft actually has a support number for hardware. Well, its the same number to activate your software actually. So I called, but only after returning the retail shop and realized that I can't return to the shop. But at least they gave me the Microsoft contact number, so I am not going to bad mouth them. :)

I called and asked about hte RMA procedure for the Microsoft Mouse. Well, here is the surprise. I need ot be in front of a computer... where I was not. Anyway, what will happen is actually they will ask you to run some checks to ensure that the software is not the fault... Things like not plugin in the USB properly, driver not installed etc... Anyway, once they confirmed its a hardware issue. They will ship you the NEW hardware via courier. Cool right? How come nobody told me about this?

Anyway, I will post the Singapore Microsoft support number here for future reference. BTW, I had tons of Microsoft keyboards and mouse. And this is the only time I had to RMA.

Microsoft Support (Singapore)
6882 8899
800 852 3543

Don't Know English, is it?

Look at these bunch of bicycles parked at Boonlay Point (its a long story, but I refused to call it Jurong Point when its actually at Boonlay MRT and not Jurong East MRT). Whats wrong, see the sign? Ok, if it is not even obvious at the notice board, there are more at the pillars.

Well, just in case you really can't see whats on the sign it say : PLEASE DO NOT PARK YOUR BICYCLE HERE. Don't Know English, is it?

Scary Night Shopping

This is the new promotion logos about a few owls shopping late at night... However, I do not know if its intentional, these owl can also look as horrifying skeletons with big eyes and huge teeths... I have circled out the 2 huge eyes and the big mouth with white teeths. See this :

Scary?