Note: this is rant post, about my dad’s experience as a former employee of a local bank.

My dad is a retiree. He used to work for more than 10 years in a local bank. And he even extended his retirement age and worked as contract for the bank for another 2 years. I can still remember that in the past, whenever my dad drove passed the bank, he would look to check if there’s anything suspicious about the bank – any suspicious people, did the alarm go off, are the lights on, etc.

I can only say one thing – my dad was a very loyal employee. Several banks approached him but he refused to go.

But sadly, the bank did not appreciate him after he retired. The bank gave him nothing when he decided to discontinue the contract renewal. Contract staff to them, are not full-time staff and are not eligible for the extra pension funds. I think the pension fund is quite a lot. So in the end, my dad only received the money from the EPF.

Then recently, the bank’s credit card which my dad is holding has reached its expiry date. My dad called up and asked them to send a new card.

The bank refused and said this “Sorry to say that you are no longer our employee. Thus, we will not renew your credit card”.

My dad told me this and I was quite surprised. I thought the banks are competing with each other for credit card customers? Furthermore, my dad has 100% clean record. He never owed the bank anything.

But of course, my dad was very disappointed because after all the hard work, the bank did something like this to him. It was a free for life card, but other banks are giving him the same type of credit card – with higher credit limit. So in the end, he decided to write an email to the bank.

“I understand that the bank renewed my card once after my retirement. The bank’s decision to cancel my card now without any warning, came as a surprise to me. However, I do respect the bank’s decision. Just in case you want to know more about me, you can contact your branch managers XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX.”

2 days later, the bank called and offered to renew the card. =_=

My dad refused. The damage has been done and there’s no turning back.

And the bank called again. They even sent some emails and asked him to reconsider.

Moral of the story? I think for a large corporation like this, this kind of mistake should never be done. First, it makes people think that you never appreciate your current and former employees. Second, you jumped to conclusion without any warning, and without any solid proof. Third, you just chased out one of your most loyal customers.

In the end, my dad did more than rejecting the new card. He went on and closed all his accounts (and ours) with the bank. 35 years of relationship burned, because of a silly mistake.

p/s…. my dad worked for the first bank in his 20s, then the bank got bought over by another bank…and few years later, by this “local bank”.

This post is not about motivational topic, it’s about a dream I’ve had few days ago.

I had this dream of 2 Singapore celebrities, who were trying to ask me out. (ok ok, I know this will never ever happen in real life). Let’s call them A and B. However, I’m more interested in A because B is just too “manja” for me.

So B tried to ask me out for a number of times but I rejected. She then turned to my parents and tried to make them like her.

A on the other hand, made a move as well. She asked me to go her house and have dinner with her family. I agreed.

When I reached her house, I was asked the wait at the living room with her. She then asked “Alvin, do you notice any difference in my living room?”

I looked around – from the window, to the TV set, to the aquarium, and then the altar. And I stopped. On the altar, there were statues of several deities but there was something else. A and her family were praying something else with joss sticks.

It was a …..a can of luncheon meat. =_=

And yeah, I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm clock rang and said “What the heck was that?!”

Guess I must be feeling too excited for my new job next week.

p/s…. my blog was attacked by WordPress’ famous white screen of death due to a plugin upgrade. I’ve fixed it for now…and hopefully it won’t come back to haunt me.

Have you ever received a weird phone call from someone you don’t know, asking you if you’re interested to sign up for so and so plan? Or have you ever received an email from some unknown online stores asking you to buy from them?

If yes, then what was your response back then?

I believe your response should be quite similar to mine – hang up the phone (or demand them to tell you how they got your number), or ignore them completely (ignoring them means blacklisting their email or number once and for all).

The thing here is that most people do not like to be contacted by someone they don’t know, particularly when that someone is trying to market something to us. This someone should know that by contacting us without our permission, he has actually made us feel uncomfortable or even angry. And I’m pretty he knows that when a potential customer is angry, the deal is as good as gone.

That’s why businesses should actually learn about permission marketing. Seek permission before contacting people because if you don’t, you will just get ignored FOREVER.

p/s……. businesses who are good in marketing their products know that it’s best not to market something to someone who didn’t ask for it. No permission = no marketing. So they prefer to market it to people who are actually interested in their products and these individuals will actually help to market via word-of-mouth. That’s why you don’t see Apple or Microsoft approaching people without permission. Because they know that if their products are good and the people who are interested KNOW that their products are good, the words will spread.

I have friends telling me that Australia is a good place to stay….some Singapore…some US…some London (ok, London IS NOT a good place to stay due to its gloominess). This kind of “grass is always greener on the other side” is no longer new to most of us. But I can tell you that, most people (not all) who think that grass is always greener on the other side, will most often end up disappointed.

Just few days ago, as I was reading John Bogle’s Enough, I came across this simple story which sounds a bit like this:

Long time ago, there was this rich farmer who wanted to be richer. He has heard stories about diamond mines in a land far far away and due to his greed for more money, he went on a journey searching for these diamonds. He tried and tried…and tried… but after years of searching, he could not find a single diamond. He was getting very old and very tired. And he decided to end it once and for all – he jumped into the deep ocean and committed suicide.

Not long after that, another person took over his house and farm. One day, as this new owner was walking along the river behind his house, he saw this shiny object in the river – this shiny object was a huge diamond. And that area then became a very famous mine for diamonds.

After reading this short story, I feel it further strengthens 2 of my beliefs – opportunities are abundant irregardless of where you are and best things in life could be something you have been experiencing all this while.

All you need to do is to pay more attention to your surroundings, to your life, to your job, to the people around you. What most people don’t do is that they focus more on something they don’t have….other countries, other jobs, what other people have, etc. That is why to them, grass is always greener on the other side.

So for a change, try focus more on your own life, yourselves, your family, and what is available to you now – and then try to make the best out of them.

Hope it helps.

Hi folks,

I’ve finally launched my webcomic. It’s called Cubic Nation – a webcomic on office life.

It’s currently in beta version and the design is quite messy. Not much customization as well…and well..not much identity. =_=

I’ll try my best to do as much as possible within these 7 days. I schedule to upgrade the webcomic into a “full version” (from beta) before the month of June.

Stay tune.

p/s……. the first comic is a bit…deep, as claimed by some of my friends. And some also said it’s not very funny. Sorry if that’s the case. I find it quite funny though. LOL. *syok sendiri*