Eshin Direct

Forget Password? Starhub will…

Oh, couldn’t resist this one…

First time I have come across a site that will actually offer to help you forget your password.

Singapore Safety Driving Centre

One thing you get used to in Singapore is the subservience to process. In some ways it is very reassuring since you can’t go wrong if you know the process and if you are a cog in the machine. But human beings usually are fallible so they want might not know the process or a situation occurs that is outside of the process. It is then that we expect or would appreciate other human beings to be able to step in and add the human element to a situation that the process cannot accommodate.

Yet another encounter with the typically Singaporean way of doing things. This time the culprit was the muppets over at the Singapore Safety Driving Centre in Ang Mo Kio Street 62. Arriving there, it was clear they had a ticket queue system but alas no ticket dispenser. Politely asking the muppets where I could get a ticket, I was told that they had closed and I had missed the closing time by 5 minutes (it was about 15.50 when they close at 15.45). I explained that could I join the queue as I had driven half-way across Singapore just to enrol for my Basic Theory Test and there were still a few people left to be served. No, they were shut and come back tomorrow.

Right. I don’t think so. Five minutes late and you can’t exercise your own discretion to open it up for one more potential customer? It’s not like letting me enrol would have opened the flood gates to hell and every other demon would be registering to do their Basic Theory Test. You can register online. No, muppet, I can’t as I don’t own a credit card and why would I have driven across town to do something I could do online? Well, come back tomorrow was the reply.

Yes, I was late by 5 minutes but really, a little leeway would have been nice especially since I actually wanted to give them money. I myself run events which have an opening and closing time so I am well-aware of the necessity to close at a particular time as per our timings. However, we are employed as human beings to exercise that at our discretion. Particularly in the name of customer service.

Thankfully Singapore is not that small so there is some room for consumer choice. Come back tomorrow? Sorry, tomorrow you have lost a customer. Besides, it’s not like they are doing any good or providing some exemplary level of service anyway if you look at the quality of the average Singaporean driver. I think I will refuse to give the muppets at the Singapore Safety Driving Centre the satisfaction and choose another driving centre in Singapore.

For those of you who have stumbled upon this post in order to learn to drive in Singapore or convert your foreign license to a Singaporean driving license, I would recommend the following centres (and not Singapore Safety Driving Centre. I am happy to send some business their way to the detriment of the SSDC.

Bukit Batok Driving Centre Ltd
815 Bukit Batok West Avenue 5
Singapore 659085
Tel : 65611233 Fax : 65611266
http://www.bbdc.sg

Comfort Driving Centre Pte Ltd
205 Ubi Avenue 4 Singapore 408805
Tel : 68418900 Fax : 68418913
http://www.comfortdrivingcentre.com.sg

**UPDATE**

Apparently not the only one who thinks that the Singapore Safety Driving Centre is staffed by unprofessionals – Rude admin officer at Singapore Safety Driving Centre. Hmm, I wonder if I would have gotten a ticket if I had been a happy gweilo.

Some companies don’t get it…

Upstart mobile operator, M1 Singapore, has a TVC campaign out there designed to take away market share from the dominant big boys, SingTel and StarHub. It revolves around a team of three executives (a Chinese, a Malay, and an Indian) aiming to please their boss (fat white guy replete with young hot secretary who he’s probably banging…). They put forward the most brainless ideas in response to real consumer trends and more importantly, the white guy accepts them because he’s equally as stupid. The end take-out is that some companies don’t get it, but M1 does so. Incidentally, there is plenty of use of red (for SingTel) and the StarHub lime-puke green to represent the two companies as the “stupid” corporations.

So, take for example their latest TVC which has our mentally challenged executives presenting the idea of sharing (as in to share talk plans). Instead, you see a shot of them trying to convince the aforementioned white guy as to the viability of their latest product – a mug with three handles and the idea is that people love to share. Of course with three handles, who will be able to use it? Instead of seeing the obvious, the boss asks “what happens if there are five people?” To which the executives tell him, “that’s why we have one with five” (cue five-handled mug). The shot then transfers to the boss approving this and the M1 “Some companies don’t get it,…” and it promotes the M1 sun-share plan.

What I found amusing was the plan it was promoting can only support up to four users at once as per TVC. A quick trawl to the M1 site showed no info on the “sunshare” plan but did reveal the M1 Multi-Line Saver plan which supports 5 lines. So what if I wanted to share with even more people?

Also amusing was the promotional graphics for the Multi-Line Saver depicting a guy in between two hot girls ready to go clubbing, joined by electrically-charged M1 orange plus signs. Really, do you think this guy wants to share his line with his two girlfriends?

We like to share

Gmail filters nasty emails to Google

I think I’ve upset my Gmail account by writing a curt, unimpressed email to the Google Adwords service. One of the drawbacks to using the Google AdWords system is that it offers no support beyond email support. So a call to their offices in Singapore revealed that you won’t actually put through to anybody at Google unless you know a person who works at Google. What an interesting concept – shut yourself completely from the rest of the world as a business. Of course, Google probably knows exactly what you want anyway as most of the world’s information is passed through them. But still, actually having to know a specific person before being put through? Unbelievable.

Anyhows, the support response seemed canned so I sent a politely-worded email back questioning their practices when faced with a) someone who is paying them and b) handling new business (my company’s account can potentially be quite lucrative). Not two seconds after I hit send, my gmail account has been sluggish. Does gmail know when you speak ill of the big G and take steps accordingly? Is it one big conspiracy for companies once thought of revolutionary and making a difference to turn into the big monoliths they were opposing (See Firefox 3 is Super Buggy)?

Annoyingly, Google and gmail still rock… I tried logging in simultaneously on IE to see if it was a browser issue (nope, that took an age and day to load up), and on my FF version, it showed a nice notice informing that someone else was using this account at a certain IP address. Nice to know if someone is hacking your account.

I hope these companies that I was considered visionary and espoused such a wonderful approach to their business and its relationship to the users stay the course.

Disney Dinners

Disneyland Hong Kong reached full capacity today, forcing people to queue outside the park for up to five hours. At one point, some visitors tried to storm Mickey’s compound and Disney, the world’s favourite corporate conglomerate, was forced to call in the police with canine units.

Koreans sparking it off in Hong Kong at the recent WTO protests in Hong Kong.

The company’s policy is not to allow outside food into the park (you didn’t think they made money on just ticket sales to the dated 20-year old rides?). The airport-like security checks at the gates are designed to catch illicit culinary contraband. When I went last year, I ordered some freshly made popcorn in Main Street and then was promptly told that I couldn’t take it on the ride at Tomorrow Land.

Okay, so it was a little obvious, but what was I supposed to do with a full box of popcorn I had just bought? In the land of Disney, I don’t expect to think, dammit. The incident just highlights my gripe with Daddy Disney and the fact that Disneyland HK is actually really, really small. If it was DisneyWorld, I would have finished my popcorn by the time I got to the ride.