Posting my return parcel tomorrow--absolutely the last day. Hopefully I'll get a full refund for everything. I've decided not to keep my ASOS PU duffle hooded bomber even though it's quite nice, simply because I loathe PU ):
I think I'll indulge in some Target soon, ahead of my ASOS refund... Oh man, the jacket I wanted is out of stock ): never mind. Money saved!
I'm feeling really dubious of PayPal. Their website isn't the friendliest--I signed up but couldn't read the User Agreement or any other policy or legal agreement for that matter, including Privacy and Fees. Wanting to buy something from Etsy and deciding it was about time to get one for easier payment of debts owed to friends, I registered anyway but short of verifying my profile and linking to my bank accounts/credit cards, I e-mailed to enquire about the policies and the inaccessibility issues I was experiencing. Why so wary? Occupational hazard, I suppose. Hahaha. As promised, I received a response to my web query within the promised 24 hours:
From: "webform@paypal.com.sg"
To: L---- Y-- Y---
Sent: Thursday, 10 March 2011 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: Sending/ReceivingMoney (ID: C702-L003-T11085-S111-W000000) (KMM19554589V23334L0KM) :ppk1
"Hello Arhandi Munandar,
Thank you for contacting PayPal. My name is Jeffrey. I am glad to help
you on your PayPal account.
From your email I understand that you are concerning about the fee
policy of PayPal. Please let me explain the question to you.
...
Here’s how to see a list of all our fees:
Go to www.paypal.com and log in to your account.
Click ‘Fees’ at the bottom of the page.
Or
Enter the URL to your explorer:
https://www.paypal.com/sg/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside
Here’s how to view fees applied to any of your transactions:
Go to www.paypal.com and log in to your account.
Click ‘History’ near the top of the page.
Find the transaction you want to look at and click ‘Details.’
...
Other than the response time, everything else about this is just ridiculous--from the opening of the letter, to the grammar in the first two paragraphs, to the content of the reply.
Who in the world is Arhandi Munandar!? For the keen-eyed, you might have realised that it was correctly addressed to me in the e-mail header. I don't know how such a mistake could have been made. I was astonished and wondered if I should keep reading because, you know, reading an e-mail not address to you is improper and sometimes illegal (not in this case, since there was no term at the bottom of the e-mail, unless it was specified on their website, which I then plead no notice of because I can't access it).
Upon continuing, I was stupefied to find out that this Arhandi person was "concerning about the fee policy", just like myself. Then, I was even more incredulous to hear that Jeffrey was going to "explain the question" to the reader O: why, thank you, Jeffrey. How kind and thoughtful of you. Even we, Arhandi and I, the very ones who had enquired, did not understand the question we submitted. However, I am afraid I did not see any explanation of my question.
Anyway, it looked like this Arhandi person wanted to find out the same things I did, so I read on. Unfortunately, short of pointing out the obvious and what was already accessible on their website, he then proceeded to tell me that I should refer to the policy section online. I didn't quite know what make of that. Perhaps this Arhandi had not had the same problem as I, having been unable to locate the policies on their website, as opposed to being unable to access them. Assuming then, that it was actually a reply to my enquiry instead, that was effectively the world's most unhelpful response.
In the same vein of griping about how FAIL Singapore's customer service is: the North Face called me up again this week to bug me to get the jacket settled because, get this, they wanted to close accounts in two weeks. So I dutifully trudged down to a store that they had recommended to see if there was a suitable replacement jacket for the measly price of SGD 349--some figure conjured out of thin air, without bothering to explain to me how they had arrived at such an amount.
I zoomed in on the North Face products only to find out to my dismay that the cheapest triclimate started at SGD 376 and it was super light. The middling ones were SGD 426 upwards and the skiing ones with the snow dust guards were SGD 526 upwards. Because I did not have the jacket with me to compare, I had to ask the staff to kindly check the description of the model for me, even though they did not carry the stock. They later informed me that it was a skiing triclimate with a powderskirt and the works.
Obviously, I would have to get an equivalent model otherwise it would not be a fair exchange--but oh, what could I get for the SGD 349 value? N O T H I N G. Not a single triclimate. I called up North Face and spoke to the poor staffer who was in charge of my case (it's been a good 3 months now), who said he'd have to talk to his manager. After much back and forth phone calls (and lots of waiting for callbacks and milling around), I eventually discerned several facts:
- North Face Singapore did not, in fact, import the model of the jacket which I needed repaired
- Their valuation involved retrieving the American price from the system and then doing a dollar conversion on their undisclosed rate
- The manager
was a bitc..... I meandid not wish to talk to us
Totally unreasonable.
Firstly, I would obviously have to get a similar model otherwise it would not be a fair exchange. What is the point of choosing a model only to have ot exchanged for something else with different features and specifications?
Secondly, the calculation done by them--simply pulling the American price out of the system then converting it on their own terms--is obviously unfair. This is for several reasons: (i) American prices are obviously a lot cheaper because North Face is a home-grown brand; (ii) Prices inevitable vary regionally due to shipping etc.; and (iii) Singapore jacks up prices by heck a lot.
Thirdly, they aren't dealing with me in good faith. They should lay all the cards on the table and disclose (without needing me to inquire) the fact that they did not bring in that model; and how they had arrived at the valuation. If I were neither sharp nor savvy, then I would have gotten cheated, without a doubt.
Fourthly, the manager should simply take over if everything has to go through her. Customer service is definitely part of her job scope. Why does she have to make the poor staffer bear the brunt of everything? And why can't she simply accept that it is only fair for us to get an equivalent model? Lastly, I don't understand why they can't just ship it back to HQ for repair since it's obviously defective and under warranty--they have, after all, determined that it's still covered. Surely, would've been cheaper and faster (even with 4 weeks turnaround and 4 weeks shipping). Then again, I don't know how the company is structured. MYSTERY.
Anyway, the best part is I'm still waiting for them to call me back by Friday. And if they do, if they call me back as promised, it'll be one week till they close accounts. WOOHOO.
Ok, enough ranting, I suppose. (Actually, scrolling up and down I'm amazed at the sheer length of this entry. Oops.)
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