Monday Madness

It's another 5-day week, and it's showing the signs of becoming a mad one! Crazy stuff on my plate.



How's yours?

*p/s: Melissa got that freaky egg with her nasi lemak over dinner at Six to Ten, (Section 17, PJ)

Weekend break

Traveling to Labuan today with some close friends. The boys and I haven't traveled together in a while, so this should be fun.

Catch up next week. In the meantime, please hop over to TwoSen.com.

TwoSen.com & your two sens worth

Jeff Ooi made a couple of generous mentions of TwoSen.com today. Thanks, Jeff!



TwoSen.com is a project that I am involved with to help raise awareness of current issues in Malaysia. This website keeps track of letters written to the major English newspapers and automatically aggregates them on a daily basis. For now, it pulls letters from The Star, NST, Malay Mail and The Sun.

Suggestions for improvements are always welcome. Drop me a comment or email anytime.

Related links:

• Lemak Lemang: Web extension to Letters to Editors
• Screenshots: Web extension to Letters to Editors

Standard Chartered debit MasterCard headache

My recent letter to Standard Chartered. I'll post updates as it develops.

Dear Standard Chartered,

I am writing with regards to a disputed eSavers debit MasterCard transaction. This email also outlines my experience thus far, as this matter has not been resolved, 10 days after first calling in.

On a recent trip to the local petrol station, I had the unfortunate luck of being there when their outdoor credit card system was offline. I then proceeded to the counter, and asked for a full tank. However, the sales assistant claimed that their indoor credit card system could only charge a fixed amount, instead of the usual credit blocking. She proceeded to charge RM100, and advised me that she would void the transaction if I pumped less.

My bill turned out to be RM94. I got the initial transaction voided, and signed a new sales slip.

I proceeded to call the Customer Service hotline to follow up on the status of the RM100 refund. I called once on the 14th, and again on the 16th. On both these occasions, I was told that the amount would be refunded within 3 to 5 days, as it was a standard procedure for the bank. I was advised to call again if the amount was not refunded by the 18th.

As the amount had not been refunded, I called again on the 19th, and spoke to Mr. Kunen. This time around, I was told that the debit MasterCard did not support voids / refunds, and I was supposed to have received a cash refund on the spot from the merchant. After clarifying my case, I was advised to fax in my voided transaction slip for further investigation. I was specifically told that the case would be
investigated within 3 business days. Despite the inconvenience of having to fax the necessary documents, I managed to do so within an hour of that phone call. I also called the Standard Chartered hotline again to confirm receipt of the document, and the personnel on the line acknowledged this.

Sadly, when I called again on the 22nd, I was told that the documents had just been received, and would take another 3 business days to process from that point. Mind you, this was a Tuesday, over 72 hours since I had faxed the document.

I am extremely disgusted with the runaround thus far. It's been 10 days since the transaction took place.

I would be grateful if Standard Chartered could clarify the following issues:

1) RM100 refund: what is the status of this process, and exactly how long would I have to wait?

2) Debit card limitations: can debit card transactions be voided? The information I have received from the Customer Service hotline has not been consistent.

3) Customer Service runaround: Why was I given the runaround? Mr.
Kunen indicated that the the fax was only received on Tuesday, the 22nd, when I had sent it 72 hours earlier. I am not aware of whether fax machines are available in most homes, but I had to go to a local copy centre and paid RM1.50 just to have my document faxed.

4) Implications to interest earnings: I stand to incur losses to my interest calculation until the refund is made. What is the bank's stand on this matter, and will I be reimbursed?

I had assumed that after consolidating my accounts and switching to Standard Chartered, I would enjoy a superior banking experience. I now hesitate to use the bank's facilities altogether.


Sincerely,

Praveen Rajan

Also read Melissa's recent poor experience with Standard Chartered:

• Melissa Lai: Oh Lordy Lord! I am now a complainer
• Melissa Lai: Poor Customer Experience with Standard Chartered

You can be anyone you want

With World of Warcraft =)

William Shatner: I'm a Shaman, what's your game?



It's a new series of ads featuring B-Movie legends like Mr. T, Vern Troyer, Van Damme and William Shatner. Cool!

Lost trust in postal service

My friend, Marina Lynn, recently faced an ordeal with Pos Malaysia. She wrote to the papers, and got her opinion published in The Sun and NST.

Last year ended for me in a most shocking way. It was supposedly the season for receiving and giving but sadly that was destroyed by Pos Malaysia.

What happened?

Read both letters at TwoSen:

• The Sun - Lost trust in postal service
• NST - Lost gifts: No faith in parcel service

Tune Card stole my money! - Update (3)

Issue RESOLVED - 12 days since I first blogged about the missing ringgit.

Tune Money has credited RM1 back into my account. Mind you, they credited this amount, so it's not just a user interface / web issue.


Yesterday I decided to send another reminder, but this time I copied Tengku Zafrul, CEO of Tune Money. Thanks to a little bit of luck, I managed to guess the correct email address.

Within 27 minutes, Tengku Zafrul responded, and got the ball rolling. Just over 12 hours since that email, the issue has been resolved - AND on a Sunday!

The thread below captures our communications over the weekend. Scroll down for a surprise.







And then, to cap it all off they spoil it with a typo-filled email response, from "Custtomer (sic) Service" a.k.a "Portal. Helpdesk":


In summary:

• Number of days to resolve: 12
• Number of public holidays during this period: 2
• Number of emails I had to send: 5
• Number of phone calls I made: Not at 78sen per min!
• Number of hours spent: Countless
• Reason / explanation for screw up: None given

I'm glad this matter has been resolved. To the team that responded, thank you! However, it does raise lots of questions pertaining to the quality and efficiency of the Tune Card / Tune Money service, 45 days since launching in November 2007. I will leave that to your judgment.

Lesson to be learned: If you're on Tune Card, or any other ATM / debit card for that matter, do check your transaction records frequently. In a recent comment, Adrian Oh summarises the impact of how banks can potentially profit out of these hidden scams:


As for me, it's Strike 3. I've taken the Tune Card out of my wallet. On to better things.

Related posts:

• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (2)
• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (1)
• Tune Card stole my money!
• 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Advertlets.com hijacked - Update (1)

Advertlets is back online. They had an "issue" with their domain name.

I've decided not to put them back on my blog.

Related post: Advertlets.com hijacked

Advertlets.com hijacked

Ranga pointed this out a few minutes ago (thanks "bro").

If you've tried to visit my blog over the last 24 hours, you would probably have been redirected to Adbaaz.com, a notorious advertising network. Unfortunately, this was due to the Advertlets banner that I had running in the sidebar - my apologies!

Turns out that the guys behind Adbaaz have hijacked the Advertlets domain name (advertlets.com) after it expired on January 3, 2008. This is a terrible crisis that could have been avoided for no more than US$10 - that's how much it costs to renew a domain name.

It's strange that this crisis has hit Advertlets. One of the founders, Josh Lim, was the man behind the WhoIsAdamKing.com "coup" in 2002. I guess karma does bite you back in the ass.

I think this may spell the end of Advertlets, especially in terms of reputation; but let's wait for them to give their side of the story.

What you will never see at a 5-star hotel

Spotted at the KL Hilton car park (P1).



The entrance to the hotel is located in the background, just a few meters away.

Welcome to Malaysia!

Tune Card stole my money! - Update (2)

It's been 6 days since my last post and still NO RESPONSE from Tune Money.

My account is still missing RM 1.

What's up?!

Related links:

• Tune Card stole my money! - Update (1)
• Tune Card stole my money!
• 10 things I dislike about Tune Card

Hello 2008!

First post of 2008 =)

Good luck and cheers to all the very best in 2008.

For a list of 2008 public holidays, point to http://HolidayCal.com.