There’s this thing about roadshow insurance "financial advisors" that I was never quite comfortable with and somehow, this account that I read kinda covers most of my questions that I always had with roadshow agents - that they may be fly-by-night with no commitment to serving their clients. In fact, the poor soul in the letter signed up during a roadshow, lost contact with the agent, and had encounters with unhelpful staff even at the Customer Service line.

This somehow reminded me of a windows game - Pinball! The customer service line is the left paddle, while the stand-in replacement agent is the right paddle. The original agent that, ahem, convinced him to sign up for the policy would then be the plunger/launcher while the poor soul is of course, the ball.

Since we are on the topic of pinball, you may want to reminisce the good old days with a game of pinball here. I think there shouldn’t be any viruses. I’m not sure. You may play at your own risk.

Sorry, I digressed.

What’s really worrying is how the family of the poor insured soul is going to get their claims should anything really happen to him. I think Prudential, being one of the top insurance institutions in Singapore, should have a much proper Customer Management System. To think that there’s no proper manner of handing and taking over customer data really irks me.

Insurance customer complains of being given runaround after signing up

IN NOVEMBER last year, I was approached by one of Prudential’s insurance agents during a roadshow in Bishan Junction 8.

I signed up for a policy which promised a mobile phone as a gift and was told that the voucher to claim the phone would be sent to me within 30 days.

When I was signing the documents, I noticed that the agent had written my address incorrectly and I pointed this out to him.

He said he would change that for me separately and gave me another form to fill up to authorise him to change the address for me later on.

A month later, when I did not receive the mobile phone voucher, I called the Prudential Customer Service line to check.

The representative on the phone read out my address, which I found to be the wrong one which I had pointed out to the agent originally.

I was sent another form to fill up and be sent back to them for the address change, which I duly did. Two weeks later, there was still no news from Prudential.

I called the Customer Service line again but was told that I would have to call the agent directly.

When I tried calling the agent, he would either not answer or would tell me he would call me back but never did.

After a couple weeks of trying, I called Prudential Customer Service again and they told me that the agent who signed me up had left Prudential and another agent would contact me to follow up with my case.

In addition, I found out that their system still reflected the wrong address. I waited for more than a week but no one called.

Then I resorted to writing in Prudential’s feedback column on their website, hoping that someone would look into this.

A week later, the Feedback representative called to say that they have acknowledged my complaint and would get someone to assist me. No one did.

I tried calling the person back but, each time, the call would be directed to a voice mail. Still no one contacted me even after I left messages.

Then, I tried to call the Director of Life Operation, who signed my ‘Welcome Letter’. But, as expected, his secretary said he was in a meeting and said she would refer the case to one of the other managers.

Someone did call and said that the voucher had already been sent out right after the Chinese New Year holidays and that I should be receiving it within the same week.

She also told me that my policy had already been assigned to another agent and that he would be calling me soon. Nothing came. No one called.

I made another call to the director. I was told he was busy and could not take my call. I left another message.

Later that day, my ‘agent’ called and asked me which policy I had signed up and how he could assist me. When I pointed out as my ‘agent’, he should have had all the information on hand instead of asking me all the same questions again, he said he was only told to call me to check and did not know what was going on.

He said he would check again and get back to me. Experience tells me I should not hold my breath.

When the episode first began, I was only trying to get my mobile phone as promised. Now I wonder what will happen to my family if something happens to me and they need the funds from the insurance payout.

Choo Eng Keong

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 26th February 2008

A forum reader posted a message to the ST Online Forums regarding the sale of complimentary bottled water to GV patrons. The premise of the complaint was that the bottled waters were labeled as "Complimentary" and should not have been sold. This is akin to selling products that are marked with "Not for resale", "Not for sale", or "Bundled as free gift". It’s like… collecting stacks and stacks of myPaper and Today Paper and selling it to everyone else for 50 cents.

Of course, no one will buy my papers in this case.

How can cinema sell bottled water it got for free?

Last weekend I went to a GV cinema and bought a bottle of mineral water at the snack counter. Later I realised that the label on it read ‘Complimentary from CapitaLand’. The next day I went to another GV cinema and saw bottles with the same labels among the drinks for sale.

I would like to know if selling a product to a consumer that had been received for free from another company is the right thing to do.

Nelson On Hun Ping

The response to the message posted is at best, laughable. After reading the reply a few times, I still can’t fathom what the management of GV was trying to get across.

Golden Village explains bottled water sales

WE REFER to the letter, ‘How can cinema sell bottled water it got for free’ by Mr Nelson On (Online forum, Feb 20).

Golden Village was having a promotion with CapitaLand which entitled CapitaLand Credit Card members to have two bottles of mineral water free with every pair of tickets purchased.

To help create awareness for this promotion, these bottles with the Complimentary labels were sold to our GV patrons as well with the approval from CapitaLand.

Although the bottles were labelled as ‘Complimentary’, the product costs of the bottles sold to non-members were absorbed by Golden Village. Only the product costs of bottles that were given to CapitaLand members were absorbed by CapitaLand.

In view of the feedback received from this promotion, Golden Village stopped the sale of this Complimentary CapitaLand Mineral Water on Feb 15.

We would like to thank Mr On for his feedback.

Annabelle Yap (Ms)

Guest Relations & Circuit Event Manager

Golden Village

So, to help me understand better, I broke the reply into lines:

• WE REFER to the letter, ‘How can cinema sell bottled water it got for free’ by Mr Nelson On (Online forum, Feb 20).
• Self-explanatory
• Golden Village was having a promotion with CapitaLand which entitled CapitaLand Credit Card members to have two bottles of mineral water free with every pair of tickets purchased.
• So, GV had a promotion and that CapitaLand Credit Card members who produced the card for purchase will be given the 2 bottles of mineral water
• To help create awareness for this promotion, these bottles with the Complimentary labels were sold to our GV patrons as well with the approval from CapitaLand.
• To create awareness for the promotion? I don’t get it. If the objective is to get members to sign up for the CapitaLand Credit Card, then you should not be charging people for it. You do not get your members-to-be to pay for your promotion!
• If the objective is for your patrons to be aware that they can use their CapitaLand Credit Card to get the bottled water free, then all the more you should have just sold your regular bottled water and not the complimentary ones
• Although the bottles were labelled as ‘Complimentary’, the product costs of the bottles sold to non-members were absorbed by Golden Village. Only the product costs of bottles that were given to CapitaLand members were absorbed by CapitaLand.
• I smell smoke here. Lots of smoke. Let’s just say that we ignore the "Complimentary" sign for now, how is the prodict costs of the bottles sold to non-members absorbed by Golden Village when they are already sold to the patrons?
• In view of the feedback received from this promotion, Golden Village stopped the sale of this Complimentary CapitaLand Mineral Water on Feb 15.
• I hope you made enough to er… "absorb" your product costs
• We would like to thank Mr On for his feedback.
• But I think we’d all like a better explanation. If you scr*wed up, then an apology would be nice

Nonsensical corporate replies nowadays… tsk tsk. Someone should conduct a proper Customer Relationship Management 101 course for them.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 26th February 2008

The Traffic Police is considering the ban on new bikers from ferrying pillion riders. This is due to the high numbers of accidents that had occurred recently. The idea was to allow the bikers to get more experience from riding - usually a 1 year period, before allowing them to ferry pillion riders. At the same time, it is not know if new drivers will be banned from ferrying passengers, given the high rate of accidents in recent months, which involved the death of 2 polytechnic students in a car crash, 3 passengers in a separate accident along Dunearn Road and 4 lives in the most accident involving an almost new Mazda MX-8.

Do we see a pattern here?

THE Traffic Police have said they will gauge the feasibility of banning new bikers from carrying pillion riders until they chalk up more riding experience.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, they did not, however, say when they would decide on this.

Driving schools already teach riders how to ride with passengers, but some bikers have suggested going further, such as banning new riders from taking on pillion riders until they have held their licences for a year.

Mr Tony Yeo, general secretary of the Singapore Motor Cycle Trade Association, said he was ‘all for the idea’.

But he pointed out that this would raise issues, such as whether new car drivers ought to be banned from ferrying passengers too, or whether new bikers should be allowed to install utility boxes on their two-wheelers.

TEH JOO LIN

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 26th February 2008