I thought I had to write this one because it is another topic which bugs me!
We finally caved in and found out that we are having another girl.
Of course we are happy that our baby is healthy, and gender really is not an issue. It would have been nice to have had a girl and a boy but that is not within our powers to choose.
It has been astounding the reactions people give to this news. Most people seem to be happy for us, but there are some that say..." oh. Now you can have a boy next time!" or " good, 2 girls and a boy!"
I'm like?!! WTH?? Like we have a choice in the gender of our offspring? Unless we choose to undergo Pre implantation genetic diagnosis, it's largely a matter of survival of the fittest! What if I turn out to have 3 girls ( if we do decide to have anymore )? Is the last child a disappointment?
When people give those types of comments then all I can do is grit my teeth, flash a bright smile and say " oh, it doesn't matter, as long as the baby is healthy..." what else do they expect us to say ?
ARGH.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Glitterati Marketing and Consultancy tragedy
I wish we'd never come across this name, never had any contact with the group, for then we wouldn't be in such a fix at the moment!
It is such a bane and thorn in my life at the moment.
We signed up with the Glitterati marketing group initially, believing in their promises of great service and cost savings to be had. And paid up $12000. What fools we were. So easily taken.
Anyway, call it ESP or bad vibes, I chickened out pretty much soon after. Fortunately we were within the 5 day cooling off period and they gave us the termination letter after we made a surprise visit to their office. More promises. We should not have believed them. They told us we'd get the money back in 6 to 8 weeks.
After 6 weeks I started to get nervous and began calling them. Half the time the phone went unanswered. The other half someone ( different each time ) would pick up and promise to call back but never did. Same thing with emails.
8 weeks went by and it was time to find out for sure what was happening. The Chinese New Year holidays were already over. It took another 2 days before someone even picked the phone up, then we made a trip down to see them. That was dramatic. A short punk called Brian met us ( he didn't even know the security pin to get into the room!) and called himself "team leader". Then he disappeared for a good 15 to20 minutes claiming to find out what was happening to our refund. Finally he reappeared ( thank goodness) and gave us this piece of paper saying to call the bank to find out what happened to the money!! I was furious. He could not even explain himself adequately and I could see it was a waste of time even talking to him.
I noticed that the staff seemed to come from another area on the same floor so I made my way there to see if there was anybody more senior to speak to.
The back room was a shocking mess. A few desks, 4 staff sitting there with a Chinese dude calling himself Henry Lee saying he was the " General Manager" . He claimed he'd been "away" during the period that our contract was made and terminated, hence the mess. Then he showed me a slip of paper stating that he'd actually been in Changi Prison! My heart sank. OMG. He's a gangster.
Anyhow, he had a pretty glib tongue, managed to calm us down, and told us that the bank was freezing their credit card facilities due to large numbers of refunds that were occurring. We called the bank and that part was true, but the bank said that the money that was charged in December would have already been given to the company if the refund did not go through. Hence the onus was on the company to refund us directly!! So where does that leave us!!!
Promises later, we are still stuck in this conundrum and he has gone on to prove that he is a liar and an unreliable person. I guess we are now faced with having to go through the legal system to get our money back, or the possibility of "donating" $12k to their activities, whatever they may be.
Well... whatever the outcome, I really hope no one else would have this misfortune of meeting these people.... and it's a grim reminder to the 2 of us never to attend any more marketing talks! Expensive and painful lesson learned..
It is such a bane and thorn in my life at the moment.
We signed up with the Glitterati marketing group initially, believing in their promises of great service and cost savings to be had. And paid up $12000. What fools we were. So easily taken.
Anyway, call it ESP or bad vibes, I chickened out pretty much soon after. Fortunately we were within the 5 day cooling off period and they gave us the termination letter after we made a surprise visit to their office. More promises. We should not have believed them. They told us we'd get the money back in 6 to 8 weeks.
After 6 weeks I started to get nervous and began calling them. Half the time the phone went unanswered. The other half someone ( different each time ) would pick up and promise to call back but never did. Same thing with emails.
8 weeks went by and it was time to find out for sure what was happening. The Chinese New Year holidays were already over. It took another 2 days before someone even picked the phone up, then we made a trip down to see them. That was dramatic. A short punk called Brian met us ( he didn't even know the security pin to get into the room!) and called himself "team leader". Then he disappeared for a good 15 to20 minutes claiming to find out what was happening to our refund. Finally he reappeared ( thank goodness) and gave us this piece of paper saying to call the bank to find out what happened to the money!! I was furious. He could not even explain himself adequately and I could see it was a waste of time even talking to him.
I noticed that the staff seemed to come from another area on the same floor so I made my way there to see if there was anybody more senior to speak to.
The back room was a shocking mess. A few desks, 4 staff sitting there with a Chinese dude calling himself Henry Lee saying he was the " General Manager" . He claimed he'd been "away" during the period that our contract was made and terminated, hence the mess. Then he showed me a slip of paper stating that he'd actually been in Changi Prison! My heart sank. OMG. He's a gangster.
Anyhow, he had a pretty glib tongue, managed to calm us down, and told us that the bank was freezing their credit card facilities due to large numbers of refunds that were occurring. We called the bank and that part was true, but the bank said that the money that was charged in December would have already been given to the company if the refund did not go through. Hence the onus was on the company to refund us directly!! So where does that leave us!!!
Promises later, we are still stuck in this conundrum and he has gone on to prove that he is a liar and an unreliable person. I guess we are now faced with having to go through the legal system to get our money back, or the possibility of "donating" $12k to their activities, whatever they may be.
Well... whatever the outcome, I really hope no one else would have this misfortune of meeting these people.... and it's a grim reminder to the 2 of us never to attend any more marketing talks! Expensive and painful lesson learned..
Chinese New Year 2010
How time flies!
CNY 2010 is almost over, and what an event it was.
We usually spend CNY in Kuala Lumpur with my parents and the relatives, but this year we were headed to Kota Bahru in Kelantan to visit Chris' grandparents.
First of all, there is NO direct flight from Singapore to KB. GROAN. So it was to be 2 short flights per day both ways. Entertaining a toddler throughout 2 flights is really quite a task. Especially on the take off and landing. It was the final time I was going to share a seat with her, but it was so funny she claimed Chris' seat the minute we got on board. Then promptly threw a mini tantrum when Chris tried to claim it back.
We stayed at the Grand Riverview hotel during the 3 nights that we were there. We were fortunate to get an upgrade to a bigger room, but that was where the "luxury"ended. Towel service was almost non existent... if you didn't dump your towel in the tub they literally did not change your towel. Apart from 2 bath towels that the 3 of us had to share, there weren't any other towels you'd normally expect in a full fledged hotel ( ie hand towels etc ).
The pool was a murky brown from high usage during that period. (but we still went for a dip.. just no dunking ). The walls were amazingly thin, we could hear everything from our neighbours and above us. Of course it didn't help that the hotel seemed to be at full occupancy at that time and the families staying there were quite chaotic and noisy. Kids were screaming and bathing way past midnight.
Breakfast was provided but it seriously was a joke. The families there were like locusts, sweeping the trays of food empty the minute they appeared from the kitchen. Not that the food was really any good. At least there was also fruit buffet. The local coffee was their saving grace!
Hotel aside, the main reason for going to KB was to see the family, and most of the time spent there was in the main home. We had the celebratory reunion dinners at restaurants over 3 nights, all of which were 10 course meals! Food was average but the company was good. This time round I was better prepared, and prepacked all of Madison's meals for the days we were to be there. A good thing too... not much suitable for her to eat since we didn't have any home cooked meals.
We were glad to come back home at the end but the flight back was pretty bad. Madison was crying on the last flight back to Singapore; I think her ears were hurting her as she was recovering from a cold. Pa and Ma came to pick us up from the airport, which was a great relief, as then we had some respite from looking after her continously for the past 4 days. I think she was glad to be home too and had her first freshly cooked dinner in days!
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