Wet and Sexy Farrari at Pit Building...

Yesterday i went to the Singapore F1 Pit Building for the Ferrari Exhibition... It was drizzling and the lean mean red machine are wet and sexy... Entrance fee was S$5 and was donated to the charity.. Here are some of the photos i took....

The New Fiorano

Ferrari F40

Ferrari 360 Modena

The New 430 Mondena

Ferrari 355

Display of the sexy beast

Ferrari 575 Maranello

Ferrari 348

Ferrari Testarosa

Wet and Sexy Red Butt


Dino Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari

I was a bit disappointed not to see the brand new Ferrari California... But after all, these red sexy beast are good enough for my appetite.. It will be great if i could hear them roar...

Supersize Me.. you will never eat junk food again..

Last night i was watching this documentry "Supersize Me"....

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock makes himself a test subject of this documentary about the commercial food industry... He look into the Billion dollar advertising and marketing budget of McDonald and Coca Cola versus the budget from the government to promote healthy food...

To test the effects of such billion dollars advertising.. He put a test on a few children.. he show them a photo of George Washington and Jesus, but non of the kids knows who they are.. Then he show them photo of Ronald McDonald.. and every kids knows..

He eat a diet of McDonald's fast food, three times a day for a month straight. After one week of eating McDonald his Cholesterol level shot up (really scary)... Spurlock is out to prove the physical and mental effects of consuming fast food. While doing this, Spurlock also provides a look at the food culture in America through it's schools, corporations, and politics as seen through the eyes of regular people and health advocates.

"Super Size Me" is a movie that sheds a new light on what has become one of our nation's biggest health problems: obesity. You will definitely avoid fast food, ready to cook food and soft drinks...

And after watching it.. I will cut down my intake of commercial industrial junk food... especially McDonald and Coca Cola..

customers who appreciate.....

Well after blogging so much about customers who don't appreciate.. I think it is fair to blog about customers who appreciate service staffs.. We got one customers who told us that she understand about the situation in Bangkok and it is definitely not anyone fault... There is another customer who in the end told me on the phone.. "thank you very, you are very helpful" and yesterday we received an email from another customers who praise on our service. this is what he wrote

"It is unfortunate that such a situation has happened in Bangkok and caused disruptions to all travellers such as myself that I have to cancel my tour. The service I received from yourself and staff of XXXX travel is commendable and I would definitely consider this XXXX travel again for my future travel plans to other destinations"

With all these we feel a bit comfort... and it encourage us to work even harder to provide a better service to customers.. There are still some caring customers out there who deserve better service......

Honda pulls out of Formula 1...

Yesterday Honda made an announcement to pull out from Formula 1 racing.. I think it is due to poor finishing last season and also because of the economy downturn... Well it is sad to see Honda quit F1.. i still remember the days when Honda together with Mc Laren was ruling the podium.. in the 90's... Its engines have also been behind dozens of victories by stars such as world champions Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

I hope someone will buy out Honda.. and turn it into another team capable to compete with Ferrari and Mc Laren... If not next season another team will be missed.. just like last season, Super Aguri pull out in the middle of the season...

Some airline resume flight to Bangkok on 5 Dec08

Some of the airline like Thai Airways, Singapore Airline and Jetstar Asia are resuming some of the flight to Bangkok... But because Bangkok International Airport still unable to handle 100% capacity.. These airlines can only operate a few flights to Bangkok.. and in order to accommodate as much passengers as possible... some of the passengers are being transfer to another fight.. Thus is cause another problem for us...

We inform customers who flight are being change to another timing.. are unhappy about the arrange.. especially those who took the morning flight on Jetstar Asia and have been transferred to the evening flight... They are complaining that they lost one day because of night flight... Some are demanding us of putting them back onto the morning flight (which has already cancelled by Jetstar Asia).. As usual customers start shouting at us again.. and some are demanding us to compensate them one more day of their stay in Bangkok... and some demanding a full refund... and of course some refuse to pay for the admin fee to cancel or change date...

This time passengers are saying they want to travel.. but they are not happy with the timing.. wanting us to compensate them one more day.. Well it is neither our fault also.. nor the airline fault too... I keep on persuading customers to understand the situation in Bangkok International Airport.. Not airline don't want to fly but it is because Bangkok Airport is unable to operate at full capacity.. The Bangkok Airport needs time to recover... According to one of the airline staffs, the security still found some grenade in the airport when the PAD support are clearing out... It is a time for give and take.. Nobody wants this to happen.. We are just a middle person bridging customers and the suppliers.. And we are trying our best to assist customers.. and of course we don't sit and do nothing with the admin fee paid by customer, we got lots of paper work and requires lots of time to process any amendment or cancellation.. We have to set aside our work to work on and escalate these cancellation and amendments..

i really hope customers would understand the situation and stop putting the blame on us.. We already had been fired by so many customers for one whole week...

Consumer who don't appreciate......

After a week of handling customers who wants to cancel their Bangkok trip or change their departure date... I do encounter some good and bad customers... 1st let me blog about the bad customers in Singapore...

Due to the Bangkok airport closure, customers who brought travel insurance was not covered because it is due to political unrest... after the next few days, the travel insurance sales inform me that they are making an exception for this case. They will just consider the matter as the airport closure.. And allow customer to claim if they are unable to depart due to Bangkok airport closure... I manage to highlight it to the travel insurance sales representative that many customer who wants to cancel are departing in mid Dec 08 and end Dec 08.. And the travel insurance sales allows passenger who departure till end of Dec08 to make their claim.

So i spread the news to my colleagues.. One of my colleagues call up this customers to tell her of the good news.. then gave her the Insurance claim dept no to call.. but this customer later call back and told my colleague that the insurance claim company direct her back to us... i was curious.. and i highlight this to the travel insurance sales.. and i make sure the insurance sales personnel call this customer personally.. Than that i realised from the travel insurance sales who told me that their claim dept did not refer this customer back to us.. they only told her to get a letter of prove from us.. So i start working on the letter for this customer.. then send an attached claim form and email them the required documents and steps on how to do the claim... then my colleague inform her to come down and collect...

In the evening, they came, 3 educated ladies (i was wondering why 3 educated ladies who speak good English don't understand what the insurance claim dept instruction?). i saw them giving my colleague a hard time.. and my colleague ask for my assist to talk to them... When i came over.. the first thing one of the lady told me right in my face "You don't even know your product well, how could you assist us?" i was stunned.. and i replay politely "Miss, this is the first time we met and i have not spoken anything to you yet, what make you so sure that i don't know the travel insurance product well?" and i gave them a smile... Then she said "you should not not 'non refundable' in the letter, like that how can we claim. You should put refundable.".. then i reply "Miss, i have been witting this letter for so many years and base on my experience, if i write refundable then the insurance will not allow you to claim, so i must state non refundable".. Then they still keep on arguing with me on that point.. i mean common sense will tell you that insurance only let you claim for irrecoverable cost that arise... Their tone was not pleasant.. But i try to keep my cool....

Then i also explain to them that i had also email the attached copy of the claim letter and the documents to submit for claim... They keep wanting me to assure that they can claim full amount.. and i told them, that is the insurance claim dept to decide, not me.. i cannot reply on behalf of the travel insurance claim dept... But i told them most of our customers manage to get their claim promptly without hassle... As they were leaving, one of the lady pass a comment that hurt me deep... She said sarcastically "Ok, we will use this letter to claim, if we were unable to get full amount claim, then we will go to CASE and file against you." My heart really sink when she said that... then i was feeling very upset... and don't have a chance to tell her off...

I'm here assist them to make a claim from the travel insurance and instead of saying thank you or appreciate... they in turn said such hurting words... As if i was suppose to help them without obligation... Actually they should talk to me nicely because i was trying to help them... I was upset the rest of the day... But i do encounter some understanding customers who said "Thanks for your help"....

Bangkok unrest = more cancel booking

The Bangkok political unrest at the International Airport have been 1 week liao... And the situation is getting tense.. many customers still being stuck at Bangkok.. Jetstar & Singaproe Airline are operating flight out of Pattaya.. and we are transferring our customers to Pattaya Airport for those taking Jetstar and Singapore Airline....

Over here in our office.. we have been getting call from customers who wants to either cancel their trip or postpone their trip... I and my colleague have been very busy with.. (That is why i have not blog for a few days..).. Many of the customers are due to travel in mid or late December.. and as usual customer will scream at us.. or finger pointing at us for such things that happen.. The most popular quote by customer is "Not that we don't want to travel, the airport is close and the situation is so chaotic in Bangkok." or "This not we want to cancel, but the situation in Bangkok do not allow us to travel there."

Well before they throw their frustration at us.. they did not realise that it is neither our fault also.. nor the airline fault too... Hotels are losing business and travel agent are charge cancellation fee and amendment fee.. and many customers are saying why agent still charge... Hotel are charging cancellation fee and we agent also got lots of paper work to do, if customers want to change departure date or cancel their trip..... It is not just a press of a button and every changes will be in order.. there are lots of communication to all parties in writings and overseas phone calls.. And all my colleagues have to put aside their work to assist customers who want to make changes or cancel their Bangkok trip... Means they will have less time to closed sales..

These are the things customers do not understand.. Airlines are more concern in trying to bring customers back from Bangkok safely.. These are their top priority.. they do not want to waste too much time to entertain those who wants to change or cancel their trip.. Airlines are issuing statement day by day, because they themselves also don't what will happen the next day... Will the Bangkok airport open soon? Nobody knows.... But customers keeps on bugging us for an answer.. ... ...

I will blog about understanding customers and unappreciative customers that i have encountered during this period..