Off to Tanjong Jara Resort this Sat

(Photo courtesy of YTL Hotels)

Heading to one of our client's hotels, Tanjong Jara resort in Malaysia for a media familiarisation trip on 5 September.

The Firefly experience of its increased accessibility to smaller cities is going to be a first and refreshing one.

Really looking forward to it. :)

http://www.tanjongjararesort.com

Customer service, Not.

LOUSY customer service hotlines are driving me up the wall. We need better customer service in Singapore, seriously. UOB is the latest to fall short of this.

UOB claims to have a "24 hour" assistance line but for the last five calls I made after working hours, they have not been able to help me at all. And so they asked me what was a convenient time to call and I said 845am, only to be questioned by the customer service officer on the specific timings of my meetings, why i had no other breaks in between and why they could not call me at other times. I honestly felt like I was interrogated and came to a stark realisation that I did NOT have to answer the questions. I thought THEY asked me for a time of MY convenience to call me back? Well, it's either before 9am or after 6pm and it turned out it had to be UOB's time of convenience.

I detest it MOST when call operators use "I understand" to brush me off. A solution will be given if he / she understands. They do NOT understand when it's not their bank statements that went wrong and not the ones who are clueless about ther bank statements and do not know what to do.

My most terrifying experience was when i had to connect an OCBC call opertor with her colleague at one of the branches and witnessed them argue over a term of my school loan on MY handphone. It ws the last resort because neither believed their other colleague told me a different thing altogether. We're talking an exeutive starup two years ago who had no idea what i was getting myself into with my school fees loan. Not when it was the start of repayment and any piece of inaccurate information meant having to accrue interests and having no evidence against the banks.

And there was Starhub, where the call operator insisted she understood what it felt like to have no landline connection because of Starhub's technical problem. I questioned what she would have done if she had an elderly or young child at home and nobody could call in. Speechless. Obviously, there is no understanding there.

I have ZERO trust in customer service officers, especially in banks now. Not when they are staff who do not have adequate knowledge of my products to service me.

Someone, pls start a service campaign. We need to educate.

I've come to accept the way of life in Singapore and not to hold any romantic notions about it. That buying a home has to come first before a couple discusses the wedding. It's not quite the way of life in many countries and I used to think this somehow shortchanges the quality of life.

My perspective has changed now as I see the advantage of having a couple think very seriously about their future and make a commitment, though sooner than expected. If things don't pull through, at least all they have to do is to retract the house application and not head for a divorce.

heaven

I believe in Heaven, do you?

Sometimes I look up into the sky and still feel the love from our family in Heaven. Like Popo & Ah Dou. That they will always be watching over us and keeping us safe and blessed.

So i was telling LZ Jie and Hui Zhi the other day that I will be closest to Ah Dou than I ever will be when I travel back from NYC to Singapore. my touch down time is 0005Hrs on Xmas Day, the day Ah Dou passed away, so I will be meeting her in the skies. It's quite magical even though I said it half jokingly.

I meant it and I know the thought will cross my mind when I'm on the plane.

I think about them, every so often. And wondering if they are happy with how our families are dealing with issues and if enough love is going around. That is why I know the extra effort to keep us all together is never in vain.

It's kind of surreal we have our tickets all booked. It was supposed to be the initial stage of research so I would be all geared up to secure the best promotional prices when the airlines start to go on sale. Apparently not, the prices are actually rising now, by USD. Yes, my jetblue flight rose by USD10 overnight so it really got us anxious and convinced that anything related to NYC was going FAST.

At least I have something very exciting to look forward to now. When you are sucked into the doldrums of work, your life is pretty much revolved around the next big event. Now I totally understand why there is a need for working class to be willing to invest in at least one leisure trip every year.

It's been more than ten years since I lasted visited USA and this is my first time in the East Coast. I have been looking forward to NYC and I think I will like the city but it's never for sure. I actually didn't enjoy Hong Kong as most of my friends and I didn't expect to enjoy KL as much as I did. Yet again, it's also a combination of the stage of our lives and the city's development. Somewhat like a timing conincidence.