Difficulty with booking an air ticket

I booked a ticket with JetStar. Their website is slow and buggy, so it was quite a hassle to make a booking. They offer many complicated and unnecessary choices - which are meant to give additional marketing revenue, but increased the difficulty of using the website.

After going through the hassle of selecting the itinery and the seats, I had to make payment. I painfully entered the details of my credit card (as MAS refused to allow the airline to store the credit card details) and confirmed the payment. I had next to wait to receive a verification code sent to the mobile phone. When it arrived (after some delay), I entered the verification code. There was a long wait and finally the website went blank. I clicked on another webpage and found that the payment was not processed - as the verification code had expired.

I went through the pain of making another booking. This time, it was rejected as it was a "duplicate booking". I am unable to recall the previous booking, so I deleted the original booking and make a new booking.
My third booking was  rejected as a "duplicate booking". So, I am now caught in limbo and don't know what to do. I searched for the hotline of Jetstar and could not find it.

I draw this conclusion - the website designers try to put in too many options, which made the process complicated. MAS comes in to impose requirements in the name of security, but no one looks at the whole process and think about simplifying the process for the consumer.

Creating hassle

I wrote a cheque for ABC Property for $1,000. There was a mistake in the name - as it should be ABC Properties. The bank refused to bank in the cheque. They refused to call me to verify if I had intended it to be for ABC Properties. They just returned the cheque for correction.  It had to be sent to the payee who has to mail it to me. And I have to mail it back.

Wow - this is Singapore! All this hassle for a relatively small sum. The bank is so rigid and so unthinking; the staff prefer to avoid responsibility and stick to the rules blindly. Do you wonder why life is so stressful and costly in Singapore? The reason is found all over the place!

Difficulty with Open Net

I had a lot of difficulty with Open Net. A few months ago, they sent me a letter asking to arrange for installation of Open Net in my home. I responded.

Their engineers were not able to install the line. There was some problem that involved the PUB. I do not understand what the problem was. The matter was not attended for four months.

This morning, I called the hotline of Open Net to find out the status. I made many calls over two hours. Their automated system keeps saying "all our lines are busy". Busy - the whole morning? No indication on when they are able to take my call? I wonder if they really have any staff answering the phone calls!

This type of bad service is quite common with many organisations in Singapore - government agencies and businesses. I suspect that they created so much hassle with their regulations and procedures that they staff are not able to cope with the calls for assistance.

Let me relate my experience with a telco in Cambodia. They may be less advanced in their infrastructure, but they have much better service on their call centers. When I was placed on hold, the message was ... "you are placed 5th in the queue". This keeps reducing on each announcement. I did not have to wait long to be served.

How an expatriate avoided mis-selling by his bank

Dear Mr. Tan,

Soon after I moved to Singapore I was offered an investment product from one of the world’s largest banks. It purported to guarantee me a return about four times higher than the then interest rate on deposits. I asked what the risk was and how the product worked; clearly there was risk – the bank was not going to pay me all that return for nothing. The bank representative was totally unable to explain the product or the risk and just ended up saying “well a lot of my customers bought it and they never asked me questions like you do”!! All I can say is more fool them if they bought without understanding. It was a gamble by the way on the movements between two currencies. As for the Bank..well to be mis-selling in this age of increased regulation and supposed consumer protection is indeed staggering.

Golden rules. If you don’t understand the product; don’t buy. If salespeople cannot explain a product in simple, clear language, devoid of jargon, then they don’t understand it; don’t buy. If it sounds too good to be true; don’t buy.

Anthony Hobrow
Direct Asia

Blind adherence to rules

I am worried about several negative aspects of the Singapore mindset. One is the blind adherence to rules. We follow rules blindly and are not prepared to make exceptions, even when the consequence is negligible and helps to remove stress for other people.

Recently, I have to make the final payment for the purchase of my office. I have to apply for a cashier order (i.e. the vendor's lawyer will not accept my company's cheque). I also have to visit my lawyer's office with the company stamp and with the secretary to sign the documents in front of the lawyer. Why are all these requirements necessary? The roads were congested and there were insufficient parking space in the lawyer's office - so this requirement adds to the hassle and the cost.

The lawyer's assistant checked the cashier order thoroughly and found that the amount was short by 2 cents. Sorry, the cashier order cannot be accepted. She called the lawyer for the vendor who said that the amount has to be exact. I was asked to apply for another cashier order and to make another appointment to finalise the formalities. I lost my temper.

Finally, they agreed to take my 10 cents in coin to make up the difference. This will save me the cost of another cashier order (I don't know how much I am being fleeced) and a lot of money and hassle to make another trip.

I have seen so many examples of blind adherence to rules in Singapore. I am worried for the future of our country.

Playing with fire

Banks are supposed to do an honest business by taking money from depositors and lending them to businesses at a higher interest rate and to make profits from the spread in interest rate, less the operating expenses. To make profit, they have to work hard, provide good service to their customers, work efficiently and earn an honest profit.

But, the banks found an easier way to make super profits. During an economic slowdown, when savers are risk averse and accept negligible interest rate, the banks used the money to speculate in all types of asset classes - housing, forex and government debts. It seemed so easy to make money, especially on government debt which was considered to be "safe". They can make a good margin on lending money to the government to earn a high interest rate - better than the money lent to businesses.

But,governments can become insolvent. We now have a situation where the government of several European countries are not able to repay their debts and found it difficult to refinance their short term borrowings. This is the crisis in Greece and possibly Italy. When these governments cannot repay their debts, the European banks that bought their debts get into financial difficulty, causing a potential banking crisis.

http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1111/How-PIIGS-Defaults-Could-Affect-The-Markets.aspx?partner=ntu11#ixzz1dFm08zM8DISCLAIMER:

Banks should be required to go back to their traditional business of handling payments and giving loans to small businesses. They should not be speculators in asset classes, including government debts. These asset classes should be invested by mutual funds.

Bright Sudoku - qualify to be a Sudoka master

Do you qualify to be a Sudoku master? You can practice Sudoku and move up the grades, starting from white belt up to black belt (grade 7) and finally red belt (grade 8). This app available now on the Nokia platform and will soon be available on the Apple platform (iPhone & iPad). Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHCU9YfYkCE