Wednesday, March 14, 2007 / 2:45 PM
I was reading
Steve's polarized-problem-solving's article and were amazed by his clear stream of thoughts, and to think that he characterized problem solving skills into polarities. haha
While reading through his article, I see that perhaps subconsciously we do solve problems in certain manner, and at that point of time, we chose what we reckoned to be the best course of action.
About 6 months ago, I received a bill from Singtel, costing me $5.25(inclusive of 5% GST) as a penalty for a late payment of $20. How ridiculous is that, I thought. I paid the penalty anyway, there is no point fighting for a penalty of mere $5.25.
And then, in December, Singtel Bill came again, this time they did a bill adjustment, consolidating 3 months subscription into 1 bill, stating that it is a bill adjustment on the part of Singtel at the
back of the bill. I find it very rude of Singtel to actually just did one-time bill adjustment, without any notification in advance. Then I tried calling Singtel, hoping that they would give me an explanation of the bill. I called, and hold onto the phone for 30mins and no one came to the line. This went on for 3 days, and mom actually hold onto the line, using loudspeaker, for 1.5hrs and still no one came to the line! I was pretty annoyed by the way Singtel do things, there is no advance notification and there is no one to attend the queries. And finally, I thought, there is nothing holding me back with Singtel since they do not even bother to attend to their customers and moreover Starhub is giving away better price plan. I worked the mathematics out, and realised that even after paying the penalty fee, a change of service providers would still means savings.
So I wrote to Singtel, stating my unhappiness and I do not wish to continue using their service any further. I requested for a bill, in case of termination. And to my surprise, the Director of Corporate Communication of Singtel called me.
He invited me to have tea and hopefully to resolve any unhappiness that I were having. I was taken aback by his invite, and went on nevertheless. We had tea at Coffee Club in Takashimaya with the Customer Service Manager as well. I could see how taken aback he was, when he saw how young I am! Nevertheless, he still listens. haha
I approached the problem in a very systematic way. I explained to him one by one issue of concerns. Bringing it across in a very straightforward manner (it could just be my character that I just blunt everything out), I told him that a penalty of $5.25 on a $20 late payment in ONE month, isn't that akin to a 25% penalty (p.m)? What is this? Is Singtel behaving like a modern loanshark in a sneaky manner? (Yes, I said that. I read my thoughts out LOUD.) There is no forewarning that there is a delay in payment. People tend to forget things, fails to meet deadline sometimes, you cannot just penalised customers when they overlook their bill (of $20?!). I reckoned that all customer-service oriented businesses should put themselves in the shoes of the customers and make them feel at home with the services provided.
2nd, the bill-adjustment. Yet again, there is nothing in advance to notify the customers that they should be expecting a bill adjustment. Isn't this rude? And yes, the director did agree with me that they have overlooked this issue. As regard to the $5 penalty, they agreed that they should at least inform the customers that they have overlooked the bill, give them some time grace to settle the late payment and also fixed a lower cap for the penalty to be imposed.
3rd, I told him about the horrendous customer services hot line which is never reachable to anyone.
4th, of course I told him about the competitive advantages that Starhub has over Singtel.
The discussion lasted for about 1 hr plus, and he says will get back to me soon, hopefully be able to give me a better package than I was having. I waited patiently for his news and the Customer Service Manager called me. She told me that I would be getting a 100bucks voucher from Singtel and a waive of the penalty fee. When I heard of this, I mulled over it for awhile, and told her calmly that I can jolly well afford the $5 penalty fee and a 100bucks Singtel voucher is redundant to me, is just a piece of monopoly money.
She repeated this line for about 4 times: 'I understand how you feel, but there is really nothing I can do.' I started to get.. very very furious when she keeps on repeating this line. (Yah, my temper! *ROAR*) I told her, in a very composed manner (though I can really feel that I am exploding), if there is really nothing you can do then do not call me, how can you keep on saying that you understand how I feel and yet not able to do anything? I said Good Day and put down the phone.
Then at night, the Director called. He asked me, what do I want? I paused, and asked, why did you ask this when you are the one who say that you wanted to give me a better package and to maintain good customer relationship? I thought that he would come up with something that would provide a win-win situation. He pressed on and asked, so what do you want?
I paused, for awhile, and said I wanted you to waive the termination fee of the Singnet Broadband, in return I would keep my mobile phone line.
Okay, so he called me a few days later, saying that it is done and between him and me the 'gentlemen agreement' that I would keep my Singtel mobile line for the next 18 months. It was great, I thought. I got my Starhub max online with digital voice now, the monthly saving I obtained is $16 per month. I am very happy with what I am having now.
So my mind was actually thinking when I was reading Steve's article, perhaps we all do have our own ways to resolving the situation. I took on the approach that I deserved something even better that what I am having now, and went on to fight for what I think I better deserved. Had I gave up when the line couldn't get through, if I only thought of complaining, instead of terminating the line, I might not be getting what I am having now. Hence, it would do you much good if you know earlier what you want, or at least, what you do not want. It simplifies the whole thing.
Steve was talking of more of feelings (love vs fear) based of solving problems. To me, I thought it would be good if you are able to logicalised your stream of thoughts, your goal and work your way slowly (with much persistence, of course) towards it. However, steve's love-based solution did inspire me a bit:
“I am at peace. I am here to love, to give, and to contribute. I forgive everyone and everything, including myself. I accept this problem as an opportunity to increase my service. If this is a problem for me, it is a problem for others as well. I will do whatever it takes to help others solve this problem, and by helping them my own problem will be transformed from an obstacle into a beautiful gift of service.” Wee u wee. He is good.
Last note: the director did email me to consider about the Mio plan before it was out. I did some calculation and decided it is better to stay with Starhub. Starhub max online is good, because it comes with digital voice, and if you do talk a lot at home, it is more worthwhile to take on Starhub. If not, Singnet is a better choice.
Labels: Problem Solving
