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Category: Service
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Singapore – Business Trip
I was away on business trip in Singapore for a project. It was a rush trip but I enjoyed it. It is really an experience to be in Singapore a week before Christmas. There is the “Commercialise Christmas” feelings in the streets of Singapore. A true eye opener for me. Of course, not forgetting the power of buying at Christmas time. It is just so crazy that people buy loads and loads of gift. I guess it is a way to get the economy going.
I wouldn’t say that things are cheap there after currency conversion, although there were lots of sales going on. I didn’t get anything for myself. I got toys for my children that they enjoyed. I wanted to source for a cheap Avent ISIS pump for some mothers who are breastfeeding but I could not get a cheap one. I bet, during Christmas time, they hiked up the price. There was one departmental store, Robinson at Raffles Place giving away 15% discount store wide. The price of the Avent pump with 2 small bottles was SGD87, with 15% discount is SGD74. Upon returning to office, my colleague told me that there is a free SGD20 vouchers for tourist on Christmas season. If he has given me that information while I was there, I can get the pump for SGD54. Sigh. :wall:
The Orchard Streets were just crowded with people. One thing that I dislike is there are lots of people smoking. Practically the streets were cover with smoke. I saw a couple of teenagers smoking too. At least, the government don’t allow them to smoke in air conditional stores. If I want to breath fresh air, need to pop into an air conditional store.
By the way, most of the hotels were fully booked. I was about to stay in 2 different hotels for a 4 days trip. Fortunately upon check in, the front desk could extend my stay. I stayed in Grand Hyatt. The room size is pretty normal. What I like the most is the Plasma TV and I wish I could take it home.
Surprisingly while I was there, I received a phone call from my credit card company, UOB Bank. Wow, they hunt me down. The officer called to check that I was really in Singapore making all those payment transactions. They did the same when I was in US. They provide outstanding service, even waive my annual fees on the spot, even though it was charged to my statement. If you want good service, go with them.
By the way, my hubby did an excellent job of babysitting my 2 children. He said “No Sweat!” Maybe because we trained the children well, both of them sleep by 9pm. My son was a bit “manja” when I got back. My gal was thrilled to see me, gave me so many hugs. I miss them too.
Happy To Be BACK!
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AirAsia Promo
Air Asia giving 2 millions free flight tickets and now it has 1.5 million left. I managed to book free air tickets to Kuala Lumpur for my family. Go visit www.airasia.com and congest it. Most free flights are available on Tue/Wed/Thurs. If you are fortunate, return flights are on weekends. All you have to pay is taxes and fuel.Booking Period: 7 – 28 December 2005
Travel Period: 7 February – 10 October 2006It is advertised all over the papers but everyone thought that it will be difficult to get seats, until your friends get it. Don’t wait, go search for it!!
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Unclaimed Money
I got a cheque from the government, can you believe it? 😯 I cannot. 😕 Two years ago, I receive a letter from the bank saying my bank account was deactivated because it was untouched for more than 5 years. 🙁 The money in that account will be transfer to an Unclaimed Funds, a Government body. 😡 The reason the money is untouched is because bank service used to be very poor and I don’t have an ATM card for that account. It was open for my payroll transaction for my first company. I never knew I had so much money in that account as my bank book was not updated. Double Whammy!!! :wall:
By the way, I didn’t receive any notice or warning about the deactivation of my account. :doh: Maybe my parents did and threw the letters away. They send it to my parent’s place in KL and I have been relocated to Penang. I only receive the last notification that said my account has been deactivated. Funny, my parents kept that for me. 😕
I asked my aunty to check for me in KL branch, she told me that I have to be in KL to process it and the likelihood of getting the money back is zero. Anyway, I called up my bank in KL to begin the process of claiming the money back. The officer told me to process it in KL. I told him that I was pregnant and cannot travel back to KL. The officer asked me to get the relevant documents and form. I did that and send to the officer by register post. Always remember to make a duplicate copy of what you have submitted. Later you know why. I email them to do follow up. After a while, I sort of forgotten about it until after 1 year passed. 🙄
One day, my email chat discussion group of moms was talking about unclaimed money as it was reported in the newspaper. Suddenly I remembered the unclaimed money which I thought I never going to see it ever again. 🙁 I email the bank customer service to check on the status, giving them all the references. The customer service directed me to another officer. I relay my problem to him and gave him the officer’s name who is working on my case. He told me the officer has resigned. :shoot: The bank doesn’t have any of my posted documents. I have to resend him the documents again. Fortunately I have the duplicate copies which the officer said it is fine. First the officer asked me to fax to them, later he send me a letter stating, he want the original copy. I did what I was told.
Finally the enveloped arrived yesterday and I got the cheque. 😉 It is an award for me, for my patience and going through so many red tapes to get my money back which was originally mine. 😎 Now should I frame the cheque or should I cash it? :clap:
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Penang Immigration Office – Excellent Service
I am very impress with the Penang Immigration Office at Esplanade Penang. Yesterday I went there to renew my passport. I went there at 8:30am and I got everything done by 9:00am. They were pretty fast in servicing customers and the officers are pretty friendly. In comparison with 5 years ago, the officers were very fierce looking and they were wearing a “Service with a smile”. On top of that, I can collect my passport the day after. Great Job on the customer service improvement!
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What A Meal?!!
My family had dinner at the famous place where they serve delicious cheese cakes with initial SR. My son loves the cheese cake there. As usual I ordered meatball spaghetti for his dinner and a piece of cheese cake. While I wanted something light and tried the Singapore Curry Laksa.
After about 10-15 minutes, my bowl of Laksa came. My jaw dropped. For the very first time, I cannot believe what I saw. I thought I ordered Curry soup. I used a spoon and chopstick to scoop to see what is inside. There were 3 medium size prawns and laksa noodles. No taufu (beancurd), taugeh (bean sprout) or any kind of vegetables. When I look at the picture in the menu, it has egg, squid, taufu, peppermint leaves, fish cake, prawns and noodles. At that instant, I regret what I ordered. If you were me, what will you do?
A. Just keep quiet and eat what you ordered.
B. Get furious and call for the waitress.
C. Ask someone else to eat it.
D. None of the above, please comment.What I did was? Nicely I called the waitress, and told her that whatever I ordered, doesn’t look exactly like the picture. No egg, no vegetables, no squid…etc. She carried my bowl of curry back to the kitchen. I saw a few people discussing by the kitchen, the chef was there, another waiter holding a menu. It seems to me that the chef himself doesn’t know what was supposed to be in the Curry Laksa. After a while, she carried it out and told me that the one in the picture was Seafood Curry Laksa and not Singapore Laksa. I asked her again nicely, “You mean to say that Singapore Laksa only has noodle and prawn with no vegetables. By the way the price of both is the same?” Later she told me that the Singapore Laksa is supposed to have taufu and fish cake, but the taufu went rotten and the fish cake ran out. I did not say further but ask her whether I can cancel the order and take that away. Finally got what I wanted.
What will you do if you order a meal that doesn’t look and taste like what you ordered?
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2006 Ikea Catalog
I like going to Ikea when I am done in KL. There is lots of small and nice deco for my lovely home. Once I went there during long holidays and to my surprised I met 4 friends from Penang. I didn’t even bum into any friends in KL. Maybe Ikea is for outstation folks, I donno.
Anyway for those people outside of Klang Valley who wants a copy of the Ikea catalog, email to their customer service department (customer.hotline@ikeastore.com.my) and request them to send you a copy.
For those who doesn’t want to chop down trees, please visit the website http://www.ikea.com.my/catalogue06/ to get a pdf copy or you can browse online but it kills your bandwidth.
I am a collector of the Ikea magazine. I have the catalog from 1999 – 2005.
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EPF – Housing Loan Reduction Withdrawal
Ever wonder how to reduce your housing loan using EPF. First of all you have to submit a whole lot of documents. I finally succeed in doing so. Let me share my experience so that you will not fall in the same trap.
For those of you, who have Internet access, go to this website to get the document checklist (http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=139&pg=148&ac=1186). By the way there is 2 category of checklist, make sure you are in the correct category. I won’t want to see you traveling to EPF office back and forth with frustration. The 2 category are House Purchasing and To Reduce Housing Loan. For Housing Loan Reduction, you can do it every 3 years until the loan is all paid for.
Here are the documents required housing loan reductions:
1. Complete KWSP 9C (AHL) form, you need to get this from KWSP.
2. 2 copies of your IC/myKad. Both side on the same page, don’t do any stunt.
3. Surat Pengesahan Baki Pinjaman from the bank.
4. Sales & Purchase Agreement.
5. Loan Approval Letter from bank.
6. Suratan Hakmilik (11A/B) from bank/law firm
Borang Gadiaan (16A) with Annexure from bank/law firmOr
Loan Agreement cum Assignment (if the Garan/Hakmilik is not issued yet)
7. Undertaking Letter from previous bank if you did a refinance.
All the above documents must be certified by the bank or law firm. When you submit all the required documents, it takes 21 working days for EPF to send you the cheque. For the first withdrawal, the cheque will be in your name. You can use the money for renovation. Second withdrawal will be issued to the bank.
I have to compliment EPF for explaining to me what documents are needed. Best of all is that EPF office is just nearby and no queue.
Some rooms for improvement for EPF:
- Educate the banks what are the required documents.
- Reduce the amount of documents required for consecutive withdrawals. Imagine how many sets of documents EPF will accumulate every 3 years.
- EPF forms made available at the website.
- Online status of the withdrawal.
The frustration I had was not with EPF but with the law firm. Geram only!! During refinancing, a law firm that was assigned to me by the bank. Proper documents should have been sent to me after the papers were signed. I have to chase them everyday to send me all the documents.
At the final stage, one document was still missing. When the bank issue the “Surat Pengesahan Baki Pinjaman”, advisable not to wait too long as the letter has a date to it. If the date expired, EPF may ask you to re-submit it again. A tip from EPF office is to ask the bank to give print a few dates for the baki pinjaman in case of delay in getting the documentation. By the way, my bank needs 2 weeks to get this letter done.
I had to call the law firm to send me the last piece of documents since there is urgency. The law firm officer gave heaps of excuses, files it the store room, officer in charge on MC, cannot find the documents. I had it with them and arrange for the bank to deal with them. I never get a straight answer whenever I deal with the law firm. At least give me a date when it can be done rather than excuses. It is so frustrating. In the end, I managed to get the copy of the documents and made my submission. Now I am waiting for the cheque to be posted to me.
By the way, you can ask the bank for all the EPF required documents and pay administrative fees. My bank charge RM50 and it takes more than 1 month. It may save you a whole lot of trouble.
Anyway, I am no expert but like to share my experience so that you can get information here.
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IRB Service
Despite a lot of complains with regard to the implementation of the new 2005 tax system, I would like to compliment the IRB staffs for putting an effort in making it easy for us. I am sure it is not their fault that the higher management wants to change the system without studying the pro and cons.
What the IRB staffs did that was good?
- All the forms can be downloaded from the website http://www.hasilnet.org.my .
- Counters were open in shopping malls for questioning. Although there were some minor details that differ from one staff to another.
- On site tax seminar is also available if the company wants to invite them.
- Very friendly staff, for those I have approached so far.
- I can call in to ask for 2003 balance, so that I can clear tax or have a refund back.
- I have 2 tax reference numbers, as one is mine and the other spins out from my hubby. After, I was married, I notified tax office and transfer my tax file to Penang (from KL). I used the tax reference from my hubby’s file. My hubby ends with a “0” and mine ends with a “1”. However I forgot to update HR dept about it. It went on for 5 years and I just realized it this year. To my surprise, IRB actually diverted my PCB deductions to my new file number. Pretty need.
What need improvements?
- New methods of filling in the form need to be documented in the Buku Panduan or Guidebook.
- Numbers should be right justified.
- Cut out the blank or not applicable entry, e.g. No Polis, Tarikh Cerai…etc.
- No liquid paper.
- Black ink is required.
- Refund form is not in the website. Refund should be made easy for taxpayer.
- Hey if you need us to submit the tax form and tax on a targeted date. Refund should also be set as a targeted date too.
- Tax debit and credit statements need to be available to taxpayer. Online enquiry would be nice.
My friend saw a few people actually registered the mailing of the form to tax office. Jokingly I said, next 2 weeks, you may see people using POS LAJU to send the tax form.
By the way, another tip, it is best to bank in (cash or cheque) the money to the designated bank. Why? The staff told me if you send a cheque and the mail arrives late or the IRB staff bank in the cheque late, the taxpayer is responsible. The date will be taken when the cheque clears.
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ShortChanged
Ever felt shortchanged in your life. I went to a shop to get some goods, the goods are price to the sen. When you pay, obviously you have to pay the exact amount. However when the cashier return the change, there were some sen missing. I asked the cashier, where is my 2 sens. She replied, sorry, I ran out of sens. When don’t you give me 5 sens instead? She said she cannot do that. What kind of shop, robbing customers in broad daylight? I bet this happen to you. Now, I will carry a whole lot of sens with me. One time I even gave more than 20 one sen coins. Pay back time.
Another frustration of “Malaysian Service” incident I had, my family and I were dining in Pizza Hut. We ordered our meals and one of the meal came with a “free spin” to get some special side dish free. I spin and got a free soup. At the end of the meal, we went to the counter to pay. As the cashier was reading out our order, she read out the soup. I told her that the soup is free. She gave a nod and went on processing the bill. The bill show 1 soup – RM1.50, then the cashier just disappeared. Before she disappeared, she asked us to sign the bill. I ask another cashier about the bill and she told me “Sorry I am not responsible”. What is wrong with the service?
We waited for the responsible cashier to come back to explain the situation. She probably went to ask her manager with regard to the problem, but she did not tell us nor ask us to wait. She just vanished. She kept us waiting without a clue. When she returned, she opened the cashier and returned us the RM1.50. Now if you are not careful, you will be happy to accept the cash. However I spotted that she also charge service and government tax on the RM1.50. I probably will ignore it but due to her poor attitude, I made a big fuss out of it. In the end she returned additional 25 sens. If she had listen and take the free soup out of the bill, she will not have to do more work. The lame excuse she gave me was, she cannot change what was already keyed into the Point of Sales system. Yeah right! My thinking was she was hoping that the customer will not spot her mistake so that she can get away with it.
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