Dance like no one's watching

My latest email salvo to Singtel…

Date: Apr 24, 2006 11:39 PM
Subject: Conversion from Consumer to Corporate Plan
To: bernardho@singtel.com
Cc: pohsoon@singtel.com

Dear Bernard,

Just in case you do not remember my case, I have attached one of my earlier email correspondence with Singtel below. I am glad to say that Ms. Halimah and I finally managed to resolve the misrepresentation issue and I was given Data3 Lite subscription free for 12 months.

Back in Feb this year and prior to the above brouhaha, your colleague Mr. Tan Poh Soon from Corporate Business Group mentioned in an email to me that I could either recontract at any Hello! shop, or recontract based on this promotion list he gave to me. He also stated that once I had decided on the phone I wanted, Singtel would complete the forms on my company’s behalf.

Hence, after sorting out all the outstanding issues with Ms. Halimah, I decided it was time for me to convert to corporate plan. I emailed Mr. Tan today and he promptly sent the conversion form to me. As I was not clear on how to fill in certain fields of the form, I gave a call to Mr. Tan this afternoon. (Oh by the way, I have included Mr. Tan in this email because he says he does not know you so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to introduce the two of you.)

Anyway, Mr. Tan informed me that in order for Singtel to proceed with the conversion, I must fill up the form, or get a letter of authorisation from my company stating that they allow me to transfer my current plan to corporate rates, and the bring the letter down to Singtel. Mr. Tan then added that “if I wanted to do it the easy way, I must fill up the form myself”. Although I clearly recalled Mr. Tan mentioning earlier that Singtel could fill up the form for me, I did not want to make things difficult for him and hence I agreed to fill up the form myself.

I told Mr. Tan that I had some misrepresentation issues with Singtel, but we managed to sort it out, with Singtel offering me the Data3 Lite plan free for 12 months. Mr. Tan then said that any free VAS offered by the consumer side would not be carried over to the corporate side because the “cost was absorbed by consumer side and corporate side will not absorb the cost”.

I then tried to explain that the only reason why I recontracted at the Wywy shop first was because even the guy at the Wywy shop agreed that it was easier to recontract first, then convert to corporate plan.

Mr. Tan then told me that the guy at the shop said that because “Wywy shop is Singtel’s preferred partner. But they work for the consumer side and wouldn’t get anything from the corporate side. That’s why Wywy shop asked you to recontract with them before converting to corporate plan.”

I reiterated that the 12 months free Data3 Lite I got was not some freebie offered by Singtel, but it was a form of service recovery / compensation from Singtel. I also asked Mr. Tan if he could check with your goodself on this issue. That was when Mr. Tan told me that, “There are thousands of people in Singtel” and hence he does not know you, and thus he was not able to check with you.

Mr. Tan then asked me how much I was paying for my current plan. I said I was not sure but it was the highest value of the incoming calls free plan. Mr. Tan then enlightened me that my plan was called the iTwo Plus. He also asked me how much I was currently paying for my plan. I said I didn’t know and asked if he could help me check. Mr. Tan said that he did not have the info and he only knows that for corporate rates, the iTwo Plus would be $70.40.

Although I found it extremely strange that Mr. Tan could not check his own company’s website for the info, I did not question him on this but checked the Singtel website myself. I then informed him that my plan cost $81.38.

In any case, as a customer, I really am not concerned about the internal politics within Singtel. To me, Singtel is a service provider on the whole and since Singtel has already agreed to offer me the Data3 Lite free for 12 months, why should I be penalised because of “cost absorption” politics between departments?

I hope you can assist on the above matter, or at least help me understand why different arms of Singtel seem to be at wars with each other, and the customer is always at the losing end.
Thank you.

Regards,

The journey to the battlefield was a long and torturous one. The bunnies faced harsh weather, rough terrain & flash floods. But the brave bunnies soldiered on. They encouraged & constantly reminded one other that they must always hold up their morale.

Using the 88 secret kungfu steps taught to them, the bunnies conquered all obstacles in their way. They climbed over mountains, leapt across lakes, and used flying fox techniques to get to the battleground.

When they finally reached the battlefield, the bunnies gathered all their strength to attack. What a fierce battle they fought! The bunnies had no fear for their enemies. Big and small, they attacked them all. They only had 1 thought in mind – “kill, kill, kill!”

Using various war stratagems, the bunnies trapped their enemies & it wasn’t before long that the bunnies won their first battle. But even with this victory in hand, the bunnies knew they could not afford to let up their pursuit.

United, the bunnies continued to chase their now fallen enemies because they knew that although the first battle was won, the war was far from over…

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To see the original post with music, click here.