Category: Service

• Bouquet of Bears

  12.12.06 |Craft, Gift, Service| Permalink | 7 Comments

  A few months back, I was surfing the online florist for a special gift or a gift idea. However I pretty much had some lousy experience with online florist who did not delivered what was posted on their website. Besides that, it is pretty costly or should I say overpriced for the items sold.

  
  
  

  I wanted to give something to a special friend on her birthday and I saw a bouquet of bears, not flowers. Something that is pretty unique. As I was shopping, I saw this shop having bears for sale. I grabbed some and created this bouquet as in the picture. The cost of material is not very expensive. It is 20% of what the online florist would sell. Hey do you think I can make money selling this in Ebay? How much should I sell it for? I want to rent some Ebay space to test the market.

  By the way, it took me only 20 minutes to do a bouquet like that.

• Local Share Investment

  10.04.06 |Finances, Investment, Service, Shares| Permalink | 9 Comments

  I never invested in local shares before and I never knew how. I do have an account in US to invest in US shares. That was because my company has a benefit share plan for us to purchase our company shares at discounted rates.

  Anyway, last Friday, a courier package came and it was from StemLife. The company is going public listed. Cool. 😎 I didn’t read the prospectus, it was as thick as my programming books. I read the form and was tempted to invest. It was a 2 pages form, but the things I have to do, to successfully apply for the shares, is exhausting. I received the package on 29 Sept, the dateline is 5th Oct. Not much time to work with.

  Things to do:

  1. I have to apply for a CDS account to be able to buy any local shares. Fortunately I know a friend who works in the share trading company. I got her help to get me the CDS account on the same day. 1 obstacle done.

  2. I have to make a copy of my IC, front and back on the same page.

  3. I have to fill in the form carefully. No liquid paper can be use on the form.

  4. I have to get a banker’s cheque. Personal cheques are not allowed. I blog about it yesterday, it was done too.

  5. I have to buy two 50sen stamp, one for A envelope and one for B envelope. They will send you back the A envelope with your cheque if it is not successful.

  6. I need to send it, it says using Ordinary mail. You can opt to drop it into their office if you are staying in KL. It is really impossible for people outstation to send ordinary mail and reach the destination before date due. I send it using Express Mail, not sure whether they will reject my application. By the way, register mail is a no no because PO box cannot sign when receive. :giggles:

  7. Mail it and wait for response. Phew.

  Now all I have to sit back and wait for them to tell me if it is successful. By the way, the company will ballot, if you get pick, the shares will be sold to you. If I don’t I need to go back to the bank, to claim back the money.

  I just learn that you can do all the above except for number 1, using Internet banking. In order to do that, you need to setup the account first by submitting a physical form. For Maybank, you can use ATM or Internet Banking. Somehow, I don’t know why StemLife was not listed.

  It was a great experience though to beat the deadline. If it was from some company that I don’t know, it will probably end up in the bin.

  Anyone want to know how to invest in US share?

• Thumbs Down Service

  10.03.06 |Service| Permalink | 11 Comments

  I went to the bank to get a banker’s cheque. Usually I will just go straight to the counter 7, get the form, filled it up, pass to the officer to process, go to lunch and come back to collect. Easy, fast and efficient.
  

  Today I walked to counter 7 to get the form. Officer gave me the form, request me to get a ticket number.
  

  No problem, fill the form up and get a ticket number. Go to counter 7, pass him the ticket and form. He told me to wait for number to be call and other counters (1 to 6) can service me. He was servicing another fellow who came after me while I was getting the number. I told him, the last time I did that, the officer counter 1-6 will refer me back to counter 7. He asked me to wait.
  

  I waited as he was still servicing the other guy slowly. I asked him again, can I leave the form here while I go for lunch, later come back to collect. He asked me to wait.
  

  Later, my number was called at counter 4. I passed the form to the officer at counter 4. He called the officer at counter 7 as he didn’t know how to process it. Officer 7 instructs officer 4, but officer 7 had difficulty. Officer 4 passed everything to officer 7 and asked him to process it. Back to counter 7.
  

  After 2 minutes, he asked me to go for lunch while he process my documents and come back to collect when it is done. He just wasted my precious time!!
  

  Note: The officer who service me is a Chinese. 🙂

• Florist II

  07.13.06 |Penang, Service| Permalink | 8 Comments

  Continuing my story from yesterday, about the extremely unsatisfactory florist. As most of you commented, it will be offensive to tell my kind friend about it. On the other hand, I was very grateful what she has done. I send a thank you message to her, expressing my gratitude. Knowing her, she asked me how was the gift. Oh oh. In the end, I told her about it, in a tactful manner. She said she wants to look at it, so I took a picture and send it to her.

  What I got:	What was ordered:

  She was furious, not with me but with the florist. She called the florist and I suppose bombarded her. They were in shocked when they saw the picture too. They apologized and will resend another bouquet to me. Weird, they should send an apology bouquet to my friend too. They have to send it to my office as I already started work. The bouquet came, a very small one. Peculiarly, it was send to an admin, usually bouquet are received by the receptionist. The admin called me to pass it to me. Casually I asked, why did it land on your desk? You know what she told me? The florist shop belongs to her manager’s (Senior Manager’s position) wife. Oh oh. What a small world?

  I blog this NOT because I want to offend my friend or put her in an awkward position. I really thank her for the special gift and the thoughtfulness of her. This blog is to let you know that when you order anything from the Internet, you really have to be careful, especially from people you do not know. There is a case where this guy bought a second hand notebook and when he got it, it was already broken.

  As for florist, usually they will use affiliate florist if it is from another state. The affiliate florist will not have a clue or picture what the customer order. It is merely base on descriptions.

  p/s The chicken essences are at the bottom of the basket but a different brand. Not sure whether it tastes good, I let you know when I tasted it. 😛

  Tracy’s side of the story.

• Oh TNB

  06.09.06 |Information, ProductReview, Service| Permalink | 10 Comments

  Two month ago, TNB sent me a PINK letter saying they are going to cut my electricity if I do not pay the balance amount (“Tunggakan”). Usually my hubby settled all the bills using the Internet. We have statements to show we pay on time and the right amount. I was frustrated then because I thought my hubby delayed in paying. Anyhow, I asked him to go to the TNB branch and settled the matter. TNB told him many customers have these issue and they are working with the bank on it. How come this sounds so familiar?? :sc:

  Last month, I took over paying the bills of the Internet. This month bill came and you see for yourself. What a booboo TNB did? I should send them a PINK letter to cut away the billing. :giggles:

  
  
  

  Anyway, I need to cut down on electricity to bring it below RM43 so that I don’t taste the 12% increase. Here are some I can think off.

  1. Take the children out to walk more often, cut down their TV hours.
  2. Buy a bigger kettle to boil water for whole week.
  3. Shower before the sun goes down, no need to switch on bathroom light.
  4. Iron all the clothes bi-weekly or buy clothes that do not need ironing.
  5. During a hot day, if need air-condition, hang around shopping malls.
  6. Put more load into the washing machine.
  …..

  Anymore bright ideas?

• To Be Saman (Fined) or Not To Be?

  05.24.06 |Information, Service, Tips| Permalink | 6 Comments

  
  
  

  This is a wake up post for all Malaysians. It is nothing new to Malaysian on how bad their driving ethics or skills are. Here is the non-exhaustive list:

  1. Some actually thinks indicators are an accessory. Often you find cars turning without indicating. Some indicate but never bother to turn it off after turning.
  2. Drive through emergency lane when there are traffic jams.
  3. Beat queuing by squeezing in between especially in toll areas.
  4. Very creative in creating more lanes on the road.
  5. Speeding behind ambulance as they want to beat the traffic.
  6. Speeding on the highway, if cannot overtake on the left side, overtake on the right side.
  7. Stop on the yellow box. I bet not many know what the yellow box is for.
  8. Stop to pick up passenger or wait on the side of the road with yellow line and cause the long queue of traffic behind. The drive doesn’t even care.
  9. Speed down residential area. Now I am seeing more and more speed bums, 3 speed bums in a 200 meters road.
  10. Double park, triple park and doesn’t pay attention to the poor fellow who park correctly when he horns.
  11. Using emergency indicators while driving, especially when it rains very heavily. Sometimes you cannot tell whether the car is moving or broke down. :sc:
  12. This is a classic one. :wall: If cannot find parking in a shopping mall, send a passenger down to look for one. When found, call the driver to come and block other drivers who got there first, from parking.
  13. Motorbikes who love to beat the red traffic lights, thinking there are racers.
  14. There are certain kind of drivers who couldn’t decide where they are going, driving in the middle of 2 lanes.
  15. ….etc…

  Now when you are stop by the police because you got caught doing something illegal, like one of the above. What is the first thing you think off? Malaysians are very creative in finding many ways to escape from paying the fine. Think again. If you escape the hefty fine, please don’t complain about the above list, and tolerate every single one of them. If you cannot tolerate all the above, do drive with ethics and be considerate to others. :good:

• Recycle

  05.22.06 |Information, ProductReview, Service| Permalink | 7 Comments

  
  
  

  A very interesting thing I found when I was in KL was that there is a recycle place in Mid Valley. As I was waiting for the sales ladies (30 mins late for work :mad:) to arrive to rent 2 car trolleys, I saw a recycle booth. It is at P1, the car park exit closest to Jaya Jusco. You can bring in newspapers, plastic bottles, aluminium cans (RM2 per kilo), glass bottles, magazines and boxes. Hey its time to do some spring-cleaning at your house. They don’t pay you much but it is a good cause for the environment.

  You must be wondering, how am I going to transport all the rubbish there. It is easy, dump everything to the car and go early at 10:00am (opening hours), park near the entrance of Jaya Jusco, at P1. Take some trolleys (20 sen each), filled them up and push it to the booth. After that, you can use that money for parking fees. As I was waiting there for 30 mins, while my kids were trying out the trolley cars, I counted over 10 people came to recycle. :good:

  Anyone know of such a thing in Penang? One time I had all the aluminium cans (children milk powder cans), magazines, plastic bottles but I couldn’t find the darn recycle bin. They removed the recycle bin in Green Lane and some other places that was previously there. :sc: I wish the government should set this booths in hypermarts like Giant, Tesco, Carrefour, etc…. Now I can only recycle my newspaper and magazine. There is a lorry that comes around my place during the weekend.

• ANNUAL EPF Account 2 Withdrawal for Housing Loan II

  04.12.06 |Information, ProductReview, Service, Tips| Permalink | 2 Comments

  Yes, it is true. Newspaper published it yesterday.

  http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/4/11/nation/13929587&sec=nation

  http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=81&pg=132&ac=6905

  So happy withdrawing and quickly get yourself out of debt. The catch is your account II must have a minimal account of 500 to qualify.

  If you want to learn more about the paperwork, read this and this.

• Insurance Claim

  03.05.06 |Information, Management, ProductReview, Service| Permalink | 11 Comments

  
  
  

  How come when someone sells insurance to you, they can absolutely be like an angel? Bowing to all your wishes and never saying “No”. The opposite of this is when you try to claim, the customer service officer can really give you a hard time. Don’t ever buy insurance from XIX Company (*name changed, but you get the idea*) because the claim department officers are very unprofessional and the claims policy is ridiculous.

  One day my hubby was telling me that my PIL is whining because he cannot claim his hospital bill from the insurance company. You know, elderly people treasure every sen very valuably. He was trying to claim from his company insurance policy because he had the accident when he was working. Apparently he has submitted all his hospital bills to the insurance agent. After a few months, the insurance rejected his claim because of a missing deposit receipt. You know, you have to make a deposit before you can admit to the private hospital, in case you cannot pay.

  It is absolutely ridiculous right, in a logical manner that the claim was rejected even though the true copy of the hospital bill is in tact but the deposit receipt is missing. The agent asked PIL to go back to the hospital to issue another but the hospital will never issue another receipt, the best they can do is to certify a copy. The insurance company refuse to accept certify copy. PIL was so upset because he went to the hospital a couple of times. Everyday he complained to us.

  I decided to help him out, made a call to the claims department. No one have a definite answer to the claims. The officer asked me to write a letter to appeal. The manager said there is no guarantee the appeal will go through, it depends on the committee.

  Me: Why is the deposit receipt so important when you have the actual hospital bill?
  Mgr: It is our company policy. *policy to give the customer a hard time* Furthermore, it will prevent the customer to claim from other insurance company.
  Me: I am a having a hard time just to claim with the original actual hospital bill from your company. Do you think other insurance company will let me claim using a deposit receipt???!!!
  Mgr: *speechless for a few seconds* Please submit an appeal letter.

  What a disappointment? I wanted to complain them to Bank Negara. Anyway, I thought of giving the company a chance, draft out an appeal letter for my PIL to sign and send. After a month later, PIL whine again because no news from them. I decided call.

  Me: I have sent the letter of appeal a month ago.
  Officer: We didn’t receive anything, the computer showed no record. *Excuses*
  Me: Can I fax the letter to you?

  She gave me the fax number and I faxed it in. After a few more weeks, I called in to check the status else they will probably sit on it. With claims, you have to call in every now and follow through, give them a hard time too.

  Officer: The cheque has been issued and has been send to the Penang branch on Feb 12.
  Me: My PIL has not heard from the Penang branch.
  Officer: You just have to wait for them to call you.
  Me: Can I call them?
  Officer: If you want, I cannot stop you.
  Me: *How RUDE!!!* :wall:

  My PIL received the cheque after calling the Penang branch agent. The cheque was RM160 less than the original amount. In the letter, they put “out of goodwill that they have approved the claim” Good will my foot!! :shoot:

  Anyway, the whining stops.

  *Note, by the way, if any of you have trouble claiming with your insurance company after dealing with them and still negative, you can bring your case to Bank Negara.
  Website: http://www.bankinginfo.com.my/index.php?ch=19&pg=31*

• SMS Contest

  03.01.06 |Information, Service| Permalink | 12 Comments

  
  
  

  I won 1 big one, 3N SuperStar Virgo ex-Singapore Penang-Phuket Cruise for 2. The prize doesn’t cover seaport tax and flights to & from Singapore. Anyway, it is better than nothing. Any one knows a good budgeted hotel in Singapore?

  I have won a couple of SMS Contest before. With SMS Contest, you really have to be careful because a lot of it, is out to get your money. I usually participate if I know I have 70% chance of winning. You also have to see who is sponsoring it, so that you will not be cheated.

  So how did I do it? One night I was watching Quickie on 8TV during Chinese New Year One of the advertisements flashed on the screen, a CNY contest to win a cruise. I have a lot of balance on my phone so would like to exchange it for a vacation. I am not a phone person, at one time I had RM600 on my phone. The main purpose of my handphone is for emergency calls or locating my hubby in shopping mall.

  With SMS Contest, you need to set a target on how much you willing to invest. For me, at most I wanted to invest was RM200. Actually I used less than that. Anyway, this contest is fairly expensive, RM1 per SMS. With that, you know that not many youths will like to participate in it, which tells me higher chances of winning.

  I login into 8TV website to read more about the contest and did some research.

  The contest goes like this.

  1. You need to register your name, IC before you start. (RM1)
  2. You need to send XXX to start the game. (RM1)
  3. You need to answer 5 objective questions to score points (RM5)

  It doesn’t matter how long you take to answer the questions but you need to get them right to get the points. I check up the Internet for answers. They only have a few set of questions and it will be repeated throughout. By the end of the contest, to win you have to score the highest, they called it rank 1. You can also pay RM 1 to check your ranking. See, it is all out to get your money.

  At first, I played till I got 200 point and that got me to top ranking. After a few hours, someone went up to the top again. I felt that there is another person who wants to win this prize. Anyway, I score another 100 points and was top again. Next day, I was second. I scored another 100 points to get back to the top but it was not for long. Ok, I need to strategize and cannot keep this going, else you will drive the other person’s adrenaline up to compete with you. You don’t want to do that in a contest.

  The contest end on 12th Feb. On 12th Feb, I check my ranking again, it was still 2. It tells me that I have only 1 competitor. It is not hard to win, right. At 11:15pm, I pump up my score till 500, and check my ranking, it was rank 1, to check how far behind the other person was. I added another 200 points at 11:55pm. It is fairly impossible with 5 mins to score so another 200 points right. At 12:00am, I check my rank, it was number 1. Yeah I won.

  Warning, not all SMS contest work like this, so try at your own risk!!!