Warning: This is sort of like a rant post.

Thursday (the day I’m writing this) has not been very kind to me so far, thanks to my work (which is doing a year 2000 technology) and some inconsiderate drivers. So I was having this negative aura around me when I approached the Kelana Jaya Shell station to pump petrol.

Once I stopped the car, there was this bank employee who walked towards me with a big smile on his face. So I smiled back (pretty reluctantly). I proceeded with all those Bonuslink and credit card stuff while anticipating this guy to ask me if I would like to apply for a credit card from the bank he’s working for.

And I waited….and waited. Then I heard someone talking behind the pillar, right next to my car. And he was alone, the credit card salesman. Yes, he was using his mobile phone, right next to my car and I was pumping petrol.

I could feel the atomic bomb exploded within me. I called out to him:

“EXCUSE ME? hey you, can’t you read that simple sign that says NO MOBILE PHONE USAGE? Next time want to make a call, go further away la, there are so many empty spaces here”.

He smiled and walked off. His plan to get a new credit card customer, ruined, because of his own stupidity.

And we see this ALL THE TIME. People who want to get some deals or businesses from the potential customers, only to show the ugly side of them. For me, if you can’t even follow simple things like not using a mobile phone in a petrol station, how do you expect me to believe whatever you are going to say? I already have a negative impression of you without you even saying anything.

Sorry man, I’ll pass. No point buying from someone I dislike.

p/s….. and sometimes i really really wonder, why is it so hard for people to follow simple instructions like not using phone in the petrol station? i’ve seen so many people making phone calls while pumping petrol. If you want to risk your life, so be it. Why do you want to risk other people’s life…. and also their cars?

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”.

I will be starting on a series of “What customers want?” articles from now onwards. These articles are actually written based on my personal observations and opinions (and rants). Hopefully it’ll help people understand more about what customers really want.

Or more like, what does Alvin Lim really want? LOL

Anyway, the topic here is Security. Everyone wants security especially during economy crisis like this. People want cheap and lasting stuff so that they won’t have to spend money to buy a replacement. In other words, they want to get something which is gives good value for money, or good return of “investment”. Why? Simply because buying a replacement can be very expensive. Imagine buying a new 32 inch LCD TV to replace the 2-year-old 32-inch LCD TV. With the combined price (which is very expensive), you can easily get a 42-inch Full HD LCD TV (I think…but well, it’s just an estimation).

I wonder if there's any company giving this kind of warranty coverage?

I know that few years ago, when people are still spending a lot, some of the cheaper stuff do not come with warranty period because it’s just too expensive for the businesses to offer that. Still, people will buy because if it doesn’t work, they can just buy another one. But now, situation has changed. More and more people are starting to feel the heat from the economy downturn and they are not willing to risk their hard-earned money on something which is not “secured” or without a warranty……unless it’s dirt cheap…like 80% off the original price.

Funny thing is, most businesses do not realize this and they still think customers are willing to risk their money to get something which can break down anytime.

This happened to me today (start of rant). I went to IKEA to look for an office chair and I found a RM 350 chair which is the type that I’m looking for. But it was over my budget. So I went to the furniture shop near LDP (Kelana area) and found an office chair which is pretty similar but RM 290. After some “discussion” with the sales guy (kudos to my mum who is very ruthless when bargaining for cheaper price), I managed to get the price of RM 260. Here’s our conversation after the “discussion”:

Alvin : So if I want this chair, do you think my car can fit in the box?

Sales guy : What box? This is cash & carry. This is the unit you’ll get.

Alvin : Oh.. display unit eh? Then is there any warranty period?

Sales guy : Aiyah, won’t break down one. It’s brand new.

Alvin : How would I know? Maybe you’ve put here for many months. So, is there a warranty period?

Sales guy : Nope. We don’t give warranty period for something this small.

Alvin : Ok, then I’ll get from IKEA.

Seriously, I rather fork out the extra RM 100 to get something brand new and also to buy the “security”. I don’t think I want to spend another few hundred buying yet another chair if the RM 260 breaks. It’s just too risky and certainly not a good investment.

That’s why if you’re trying to sell something to your customers, you must remember that most customers want security or some kind of assurance that the item will not break. If it does, at least, they want to know that they can replace the item with zero fee. Either that, or give them an extremely cheap price which will allow them to buy another new item if the existing one breaks.

As for me, I will still prefer to pay that extra money to get that “security” or warranty. No security, no deal. No assurance, no deal.

P/S….not sure if it is Assurance, or Insurance, or.. ? Ah well, I know “if” statement more than English now.

Meetings and discussions are very common activities in the office and they are meant to discuss some important things and come out with best possible solutions for the problems faced. But throughout my 5 years of working experience, I couldn’t help but noticed that a lot of these meetings and discussions are actually useless and meaningless.

Why is that so? Here are some of the factors which I can think of for now.

• Agendas and things to be discussed in the meeting or discussion are not set. People do not know what to talk about and most probably end up talking nonsense.
• Most people are just there in the meeting room for the sake of being there, without actually wanting to solve the problem. Their bodies will be there, not their souls.
• The person chairing the meeting and discussion is not experienced enough or he himself tends to talk something unrelated to the objectives. Or worse, the person does not know what he wants from the meeting and just want to get it over as quickly as possible.

In my opinion, if you don’t have the willingness to achieve the objectives of the meeting (which, most of the time, is to solve problems), then don’t conduct a meeting or discussion in the first place because any meeting which fails to achieve the objectives is regarded as meaningless and a waste of time.

I think this kind of meeting is pretty popular

And if you conduct a meeting for the sake of coming out with ANY solution….then please…..don’t start the meeting at all. No solution is better than a very bad solution which might make things worse.

I started this topic after my sister told me that a customer service officer of a company called her up and changed her (the officer’s) statement from “Our company products’ warranty period is only 3 days”  to “After confirming with our senior managers, we have to inform you that our company does not provide warranty coverage to the toys AT ALL“. See the difference?

Call this irresponsible, or whatever. To me, it’s lousy management and leadership. If you can only come out with such lousy solution (it’s actually a worse answer than the first one), then at least, don’t tell me “After confirming with our senior managers”. You are giving me the impression that your whole company, including the senior managers, consists of a bunch of idiots.

My sister and her husband went to Curve the other day to look for a birthday gift for a baby girl. After walking around for few hours, they decided to buy a RM 90 toy imported from Italy called Ch**c*. They wrapped it up, and gave the birthday gift to the baby’s parents (who are based in Melaka) 2 days later.

On the 3rd day, the parents called my sister to tell her that the toy is faulty. My sister got it back on the 4th day and went to the shop to ask for a warranty. The sales girl told her that the warranty period is only 3 days which means my sister was not eligible for it.

Ok, my sister is much prettier than this.

When my sister told me about this, I was quite surprised. I thought the global economy is really bad? The company is really making a big mistake here by doing this. It’s either the employees (management team included) don’t care, or they are really really bad in handling the customers.

In my opinion, there are few things they (the company) can actually do to improve this situation.

• Tell the customers that the warranty period is over and show the proof (it must be stated somewhere – in the receipt, the box, etc).
• Offer to repair the toy but informs the customers that there’s no promise the toy can be repaired. Do it Free-of-charge and promise to give the customers the reply within so and so number of days.
• Extend the warranty period to 1 week since 3 days is ridiculously short.

These 3 are very very common things a business can do to make the customers happier…or at least, lower down the “pissed off” meter to a manageable level. The funny thing is, most businesses don’t do these 3 things. The only thing that most businesses like to do is to piss the customers off.

No wonder so many businesses are closing down nowadays. Serve them right.

UPDATE: The customer service officer in the HQ office managed to “fix” the toy up after we told them that we are VERY disappointed with their service and might even inform our friends about it. No warranty still but at least, they’ve fixed it up.