WhaT the hell is wrong these moron doing anyway… What’s the point of advertising how good Streamyx is when it is still NO GOOD!

I’ve been hanging on the phone for almost half an hour. All I get is  “Sorry! All our agents are still engage blaa blaa blaaa. and Please ensure that your splitter and modem are connected properly” 

SCREW YOU!!! If it’s not connnected properly, I won’t be calling you TMNUTz at all… Sigh

It is said that PIES is one of the safety measures implemented on the Putra LRT Rail. If you happen to be in Melati or Wangs Maju station, you might notice a stretch of red colour plates on the rail track. Beneath these plates are sensors which will activate the emergency stop when there’s anything more than 7kg landed on it.

This system will definately save someone who is dumb enough to fall onto the track and at the same time might also hurt someone who is inside the train when the train jerked.

So kids! Make sure your school bags loaded with textbooks doesn’t falls on it. =p

In my opinion, other than this preventive measures, the management should also implement safety equipment within the coach. Especially the doors. I’ve seen people got clamped between the doors while trying to get out. I personally experienced it once and it hurts.

Earlier, there was another incident when I was going back home from work. The train was on its way to Setiawangsa. All of the sudden, the emergency brakes were initiated, the wheels screeched. I saw some people were thrown forward. I was lucky that I had something to cling on.

I bet this isn’t the first or the second the LRT hit the emergency brakes. Could it be just technical error? or someone has itchy hands? Sigh..

After the rain subsided, I trouble-shooted my AVR. Suprisingly, the power sockets are still functioning except for the phone line jack.  From my past experience, I think the spike came through the phone line. Well, at least the AVR stopped the current before hitting my modem. Else I would have take the hassle claiming warranty for both my AVR and modem as I bought it at two different places. =.=”

I guess I’ll have to get to Low Yat to claim warranty for the AVR. At the meantime , I’m surveying for another AVR and some good surge protectors. The only brand I had in mind for now is Belkin. Any recommendations?

This is the first reply I got…

“On 11/6/07, touchngo_careline@rsegar.com <touchngo_careline@rsegar.com> wrote:

Dear Mr Melvin Wong,

Greetings to you.

We noted that there was maximum fare charge occurred on your card serial no. 1706412274 for your journey at KTM on 01 November 2007.

In the case of train fare deduction through Touch ‘n Go card, the occurrence of maximum charge may be due to ’system error’ or failure of user to adhere to proper card usage such as,

1. The card did not have complete transaction (‘touch in’ and ‘touch out’ for previous journey either at KTM-Komuter, LRTs or Monorail) when touch for the new journey.

2. ‘Touch in’ and ‘touch out’ at the same station after more than 1/2 hour/span>

3. ‘Touch in’ at the originating and ‘touch out’ at the exit station execeeded time limit (> 4 hours)

4. Multiple touches at reader upon entry or exit station

We are keen in assisting you and would appreciate if you could furnish us some additional information on the reason(s) for maximum charge to occur, entry and exit stations for the transaction.

We look forward to receiving your reply soon. 
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact our Touch ‘n Go Careline Centre at 03-7628 5115 (7.30am to 7.30pm : Monday to Sunday). We will be glad to assist you.

Kind Regards,
AZLINA YAKUB
Executive – Touch ‘n Go Customer Service”

Upon reading it, I feel that it isn’t a case of user-error.I then proceeded by replying her with more detailed informations in a chronological manner. And this is what I received just now..

“

Dear Mr Melvin,

Hello and a good day to you.

Please allow a time frame of 30 days for us to process your complaint (Reference no. ACB160xxx). We shall seeking approval for a refund from the service provider concerned. In the event a refund is approved, the amount shall be reimbursed via cheque.

For your information, if your previous transaction has no ’touch out’ information at LRTs, KTM-Komuter or Monorails, please bring your card at Touch ‘n Go counter to close transaction data in your card chip before your subsequent usage.

We thank you for your feedback and assure you that RSSB shall continuously find ways to improve our services.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact our Touch ‘n Go Careline Centre at 03-7628 5115 (7.30am to 7.30pm : Monday to Sunday). We will be glad to assist you.

Kind Regards,
AZLINA YAKUB
Executive – Touch ‘n Go Customer Service”

It’s gonna take a month to process the complaint. I’m definately crossing my fingers on this. Hopefully I’ll get my refund back or else it would be more feasible to use normal/manual tickets than getting money deducted for nothing..

Anyway, Azlina.. thanks for processing my complaint.

Cheers!

Anyway, I made my withdrawal through Western Union last week. As mentioned earlier in my blog, I proceeded to CIMB Branch in KL Sentral. The queue was rather long but I guess it’s worth the wait. Before you queue up, make sure you’ve filled the form located at the form section. The form has a yellow colour heading.

I knew which form to take as this is my 3rd time withdrawing money via Western Union. You might notice that in the Receiver column there isn’t enough space to fill in a typical Malaysian address which is so freaking long. So what I did was, I only put my house number and the street name in the form. As long it matched your details in your Identification Card.

In the Sender column, I filled in

First name  : Google Inc.

Address : 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

              Mountain View CA 94043

              USA

Telephone no: (650) 253–4000

Note that CA stands for California and 94043 is the Zip-code/ Poscode.  I printed out my Statement of Earnings as my reference. Make sure you fill in the exact amount that you’re receiving from Adsense. As for the “City, state/province, country money sent from” part, just fill in  CA, USA. Then fill in the 10–digit MTCN number you got from the Google Adsense payment detail page. And you’re done with the form.

Just queue up and wait for you turn. During my queue, I saw a lady transacting her Western Union withdrawal as well. The amount she was withdrawal was quite shocking. As I looked at the screen of the money counter, it stated 300. OMG!! 300 RM50 notes per form. She was holding 3 piece of form by the way. =.=”

Anyway, you’ll be required to produce your Identification Card for verification. At this moment, I had to be patient as the process will take a few minutes for the verification process before they can hand you the money. After the verification is done, the lady at the counter asked me what purpose were those money for. I told her it’s my online revenue income from Google Adsense. She knew about Google but she had no idea bout Adsense. She thought that I work for Google. Ha ha… I then told her it’s more like a advertisement commission. She just nod her head and said “I see” then she continued processing my withdrawal.

A Debit Note will be issued to you. There’s no transaction fees or charges. The rate I got for my conversion was USD1 = MYR 3.31 . Still considered okay. I hope the rate will stay at that level or higher. Else, my earning will much more lesser if the rate dropped.

All I can say is, withdrawal through Western Union is faster than waiting for a foreign cheque to clear. Foreign cheque takes 1 week or more to clear but Western Union is hassle free and so fast that you can immideatly cash out the next day

What the fxxk is that penalty for anyway? I bet I’m not the only one out there who encounter such problem. I still think TnG system is crappy ! What do you think? Have your say…..

The payment is available for pick-up the day after the payment date which is stated in the payment detail. I find it weird because the Payment Date is posted as 25th Oct 2007. Usually when a money transfer is sent by Western Union, you should be able to receive the money on the same day itself. I’ve only received the payment details 2 hours ago and it’s already 1st Nov. If you did not pickup your funds within 35 days from the Payment Date,  the amount will be credited back to your AdSense account.

I was worried that Western Union will charge a certain fee to get my funds. After checking out Ades’s Blog, I felt relieved as his blog mentioned that there will not be any charges imposed on the funds. I guess I’ll be going to KL Sentral later at noon to try to pick-up my funds.

I’ll post the updates after I get my hands on the cash =P

Let me introduce you to a new event that is held in Malaysia at the moment. It’s called the Month of Thievery ! Every time when festive season sets in, thievery ops are on high. Burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, mugging, trespassing, shoplifting, intrusion, fraud. You name it! Those are the act of thievery.

This month’s trend is bag snatching. It happens everywhere, day or night, regardless of whether it’s deserted or crowdy area. It still happens even if all precaution were taken to prevent such incident from happening. Snatchers are everywhere, waiting for the right moment to strike when they sees the opportunity.

This month, a friend of mine became a victim of snatch thief. Her bag containing her mobile phone, purse, some other value items were snatched off by a Malay guy in just a flash. Guess what? Yesterday, while I was taking dinner at Wangsa Maju food centre, a girl’s bag got snatched in front of so many people. The girl’s friend gave a chase but the guy got off on a motorcycle as his accomplice were waiting for him by the roadside. Now you see how desperate people are? Well, let me tell you something. If you plan head of the police station and tell the police that the person who snatched is a Malay, they will ask if you’re 100% sure that the snatcher is a Malay?. I guess they just couldn’t accept the fact that the highest number of cases involves a Malay snatcher.

My girlfriend’s bag was almost snatched off while she was walking to college (happened in Setapak Indah) 2 years ago. Around the same time, my aunty got snatch-n-slash in Seremban. I’m NOT trying to DISCRIMINATE but those snatchers are Malay too. I know it’s kinda sensitive to bring in the word “Malay” when such issue happens. I’m SORRY!  But it’s an undeniable fact. BUT please hear me out. When I said “Malay”, it doesn’t represent all the Malays as I’m only refering to certain people.

Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate who these thieves are. In fact, some of there thieves are government servant who stoled and robbed people in the broad daylight. Remember the case of a snatcher caught by a group of people in Ipoh, 2 weeks ago ? The snatcher turns out to be a policeman. And this case, which I’m not very sure how long ago, but it was a policeman who burgled someone’s house. Sigh! What a shame ! MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Other reading materials…

Snatch Theft : Where in lies the fault?

Newsvendor robbed in broad daylight by government servant

I was really curious bout what the PHUNK is goin on ? I’ve been noticing the ads appearing on my site recently. I got so curious so I went googling it for more info.

As results, it leads me to http://www.project-phunk.blogspot.com/ . So, what the PHUNK is it about ? PHUNK is a pretty huge charity project done by students from Taylors College, PJ. They’re Diploma in Communication students and currently in Sem 4. ”PHUNK” stands for “Providing Hospis Understanding N Kare“. 

The objective of the project is to raise funds for Hospis Malaysia, a non-governmental organization which provides palliative care services. For info about Hospis Malaysia ,click here.

Several charity events by these students has taken place and they’re currently preparing for their main event, One night with PHUNK. This event will be held on 25th Sept 2007 from 7.30-10.00pm @ Laundry Bar, The Curve Damansara, Kuala Lumpur . Local artists such as BadBoyBen, Tempered Mental, Joshua & Slunk, & Bobo (from Cosmic Space Munkys) will be invited to the event and it probably gonna be crowdy there.

Admission is FREE by the way. Raffle tickets, souvenirs, and other stuffs with be sold on that night. Raffle tickets will be sold at RM10 per ticket and it entitles you for a lucky draw. All profits will donated to Hospis Malaysia. So, if you’re attending the event, open your heart and be generous with your givings.

Note: This is NOT a paid post. I’m just keen to join the charitable cause. =P