liberté

Citibank Service Sux

Mark Tan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:49:51 +0000

Being a long while, since I updated my blog… Changing the blog theme and updating the content soon…

In the midst of the transformation, I just have to post another customer service update from Citibank.

Frankly, I am quite pleased with the services provided by the bank last year, everything is quite prompt, little/ no hiccups at all. However, this year is quite drama. To start of, I have called 2 times to request for an annual fee waiver for one of my credit card. After waiting for 3 weeks of no call backs, I decided to terminate the card. I called the CSO, telling her that I would like to terminate the card; her immediate response was, no problem I can help you to waive the annual fee and no charges. I was like what the hell! Called you to waive off, no response, now you telling me I can do a free waiver. I told her I am not interested due to the poor service rendered, and to proceed with my termination request. Which she said will take 3 working days to process!

Oh well! That’s on 20 September 2011. And today, when I access my banking account… To my surprised, I see late charge fee, interest charges for late fee… I am thinking what the hell! Didn’t I terminate the card??? Oh well, what to do when the service is so crappy. I have to go through the hassle of calling again… And the standard SOP kicks in again, “Oh is it due to the annual fee and charges, I can do a free waiver for you… blah blah blah…” I told her I wanted to terminate the card, and this is the second time I am calling… And she responded it will take 3 working days to process!

I am thinking where and which part of the conversation is miscommunicated?

Today, I did my waiver for UOB card, it is such a breeze! Immediate Approval! Wake up your ideas, Citibank!

My palm reading results

Mark Tan — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:35:37 +0000

Just took an online palm reading test.

The result as follow:

You are a thorough and careful thinker. You like to experiment with new ideas. You tend to be careful and neat. You are great at forming your own ideas. You are confident and able to take charge. You have a strong emotional drive and are a great communicator. Next year you should try your luck and try out new things.

Not quite sure it is true though…

Samsung Galaxy Tab and Android Froyo

Mark Tan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:00:02 +0000

After using my Samsung Galaxy Tab for about a month, one problem I faced each time I reboot the system is

Sorry!
The application XXX (process xxx.xxx.xx) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
[Force close]

The one big difference between iPad and Droid tablet is the compatibility issue. In iPad, all the iPhone applications can be used in iPad, except it will be displayed in a low res for iPad. In addition, there are differentiation between iPad applications and iPhone applications. On the other hand, in Android Marketplace, there are no differentiation of Android tablets or Android Phone applications. Thus, in the end, I have alot of apps that are working fine in my milestone, but no working well in my Galaxy Tab.

I am hoping that Android Gingerbread is able to resolve the current issue. Hopefully, Samsung will release Android 2.3 for Galaxy Tab. Other than the compatibility issue with the existing apps, Galaxy Tab is a great palm size organiser/entertainer/blogger.

Singtel Delite App sucks!

Mark Tan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:21:05 +0000

I just started to try to download magazine from Singtel De!ite app, since Singtel is giving a 3 months free trial.

To simple put it, it sucks. With the limited magazine collection, slow and not very responsive interface, i am unable to appreciate the enjoyment of reading emag on my tab. On the other hand, I experienced irritation for wasting my data plan to download the emag which cannot be opened at all.

Luckily, I experienced it now for free, coz i will definitely not going to pay for an app that waste my time and create irritation. Oh well, probably that’s the reason why it has 3 months free trial, we are treated as guinea pigs.

Singtel vs Starhub mobile data plan

Mark Tan — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 03:45:42 +0000

I realised the tide has changed. Although, i am a loyal customer of starhub, i personally feel that the service rendered by Starhub over the years has dropped drastically.

Starhub is one of the first to launch social network help desk, but fail to meet its expectation. At the beginning, the reply on twitter or facebook is quite immediate. With time, it took longer and longer to response. Whether it is due to increase of customers, or lack of staff to manage the sites, this is still not a worthy reason.

In mobile data service matters, Starhub does not have a dedicated webpage or smartphone apps to present to their customers the data usage. Moreover, Starhub CSO are inexperience in responding to these matters. However, these are services, so i still can live with it.

The irritation about Starhub is i kept loosing my 3G bandwidth, it kept switching to GPRS, at times, I only have call/sms function. Truthly sucky. Many times, i even have the basic sms problem, “message not sent”.

On the other hand, Singtel gives what Starhub is lacking. Although, I dare not say it is perfect, but integrated package like data usage, bill reminder etc. is available on website and smartphone apps. In addition, putting both mobile data plan side by side, Singtel performs so much better on my 7″ than Starhub on my 4″.

It is really quite disappointing. With the incoming IN2015 initiative, the play field will be flat. With 3 telcos pricing the same, I just moved to the one with best comprehensive service. It is a customers’ world after all.

Facebook Koobface worm threat

Mark Tan — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:18:03 +0000

Enjoying the content on facebook, clicking on friend’s link or video. How sure are you that by so doing does not compromise your system to virus. Think again.

Since May 2008, facebook is fighting a bleak battle with the koobface worm which spreads within social networking sites, it has become such a threat to facebook, that a security team is formed to curb the spread of the worm and its variants.

How it works?

Koobface sends an invitation to watch a video.
Koobface will send a message about updating the computer’s flash software
Upon clicking on the update, Koobface will be installed in your computer, giving hackers full control of your system.

How it spreads?

Through the victim’s social network contacts.

How to remove it?

Symantec Koobface Removal
Manual Removal Step-by-Step by brighthub.com

Samsung Galaxy Tab: Pros and Cons

Mark Tan — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:37:19 +0000

One great thing about Galaxy Tab is of course the Adobe Flash support which Apple denies.

In my opinion:

Pros

Flash Support
Just Right Size for my hand
Unlimited Apps download
Ease of synchronisation (Do not need iTunes)
Fast and responsive like iPad (Running on 1GHz processor)
Long Battery Life (Look at the size of the battery: OSM)
Phone features, great for conferencing
Camera function

Cons

Power switch and volume button too close to each other, I kept hitting the power switch instead of volume adjustment
Slow charging experience. Tab only charge well using Samsung adapter to main power socket, it sucks when I plug it into a laptop USB port. (Note: If you charging on USB, you need to switch off the device to kick start the charging process)
Slow response on multi-tasking. Tab is not meant to be full multi-task capable. The device get less responsive especially when there are alot of applications running in the background.

All in all, it is a gadget that suits my needs.

P.S. I am an iPad user too…

Samsung Galaxy Tab Faulty

Mark Tan — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 03:03:33 +0000

I think I always get the ONE in the hundreds, thousands…

Happily tab-cited until I realised that the display has alot of red/green shiny lines flickering on my screen… Not sure am I the only one that has this problem. If you are facing this problem, go back to the same Singtel Hello Shop to do 1-to-1 replacement.

I went to do mine today! I am quite surprised by the service standard that Singtel CSO portray… Great service… I thought I will have to demand for an exchange, surprisingly they saw the problem and immediately processed the exchange.

Anyway for those who wish to get their hands on Tab, make sure you check the display screen carefully for bright pixels or lines. At the beginning, the lines/pixels are hard to see, after a while, it spreads…

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Mark Tan — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 05:35:32 +0000

I am officially TABified today!

Collected my Samsung Galaxy Tab at Singtel-Samsung Official Launch Event today 13 Nov 10, 1900 – 2100hrs. As usually, the Singtel Foyer at Comcentre is super crowded. Luckily after the event, I managed to grab my Tab in 15 mins.

After using iPad for quite a while, I decided I will opt for Galaxy Tab instead. I felt Tab is the right size, as compared to iPad, which is much bigger and harder to manage using a single hand.

Setting up my Tab now… So tab-cified…

Bad Experience with Comfort Cab

Mark Tan — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:07:52 +0000

This morning, as I boarded the cab I flagged down to work. I was kind of shock. I thought I am not in Singapore. Firstly, the cab is full of cigarette smoke and the interior looks so run down, as though it hasn’t been clean in months. What made it worst was I became the pest buster. Some 6 legged pest which looks like cockroach crawling around and I have to killed it, because it crawled up my jeans!

This really made me wonder how does Comfort such an incumbent company selects their cab drivers, in additional, are there training provided? Or has Comfort become complacent and compromise on its service standard as there are no other cab companies big enough to compete? I seriously hoped not the latter.

Next time I will think twice before I flagging down a Comfort cab, it is seriously not that comfortable after all.