Got this from Facebook page share by someone.
Watch out, you might lost your job if complain too much.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/lynx-ng/the-singtel-sabotage/10151261703426218
The SingTel Sabotage
I lost my job, thanks to SingTel.
My friends will know that I have been making a lot of complaints on the SingTel Facebook page the past year. Over time, I have actually reduced my posts because I realised how futile it is.
Yet, on one very busy work day, I received a call from my boss. She asked if I had posted on SingTel’s Facebook page before, and I said yes. Then she went on to say that I have listed the agency as my workplace and it is shown on my profile. I was surprised, because I don’t even recall updating my profile work location. I don’t bring work into Facebook, so that caught me off guard.
Turns out she was right. SingTel complained about my posts to the higher-ups, and I am no longer allowed to work at that agency.
In one act of sabotage, SingTel has successfully cut an important source of my livelihood, and denied me work at a place I was happy in.
Something stinks about SingTel.
As it happens, and agency that I work at for quite some time now services the account. I realised only later that my work location as updated because of one ex-colleague. He added me as having ‘worked with’ him, and I okayed that because I thought it was a friendly gesture.
Turns out that that would be my only Facebook interaction with him. And yes, he worked on SingTel before.
To the agency I must apologize, because while I wanted my freedom to express my unhappiness with SingTel, it should not be associated with the agency. As a freelancer, I earn my keep from helping agencies solve creative problems, not cause them.
For me the line was very clear: I am a paying customer of SingTel, so when SingTel does not provide services as promised, I have the right to complain.
But for SingTel the line is as faulty as their reception, and it now looks like every one of their suppliers/vendors/agencies better watch out, because they will twist you into submission if you dare complain about them.
All the anti-SingTel things I've created are sourced from the internet, not agency working files.
On advertising.
Let me switch pace a bit here.
I know the importance of keeping work outside of Facebook. I do not post work in progress nor discuss about my clients. Even when I take pictures (of alcohol and cheese) in the workplace I would make sure that even sketches are kept out of view. Note that even this article is not exempt.
I have been in advertising for nearly a decade now, and I am known for doing whatever work that lands on my table – even if it is out of scope. Even if the conditions are ambiguous. Even if the client is difficult.
In the many years I have only found occasion to formally reject a grand total of two jobs. The first one was a major product launch where I vehemently refused to write fake testimonials. The second is SingTel.
Before I started out in the industry, I devoured a lot of books written by advertising greats. They would immerse themselves in the product in order to come up with better ways to write and sell. As far as fiscally and chronologically possible I would use the product that I write for.
I would eat at a particular fast food chain during the period that I was writing for them. I have grown to love a particular alcohol brand which I would previously not even try. And in this scenario, I have switched over from M1 to SingTel when my contract with M1 ended.
Initially when I went in for this particular freelance, I was supposed to only do one account (that wasn’t SingTel). But, as mentioned, I didn’t mind taking on more work, so sometimes I ended up with some SingTel work – and that was almost 2 years ago.
And as I found that SingTel wasn’t living up to what it was advertising – I had to say no to the person who hired me.
Areas with poor SingTel reception.
SingTel. For pure reception hell.
SingTel has given me more problems in 8 months than I had with M1 for 8 years.
With M1, I have little to complain about except for 2 dead zones which I frequent only occasionally. With SingTel, I don’t even get proper reception in my own room. I would even have to walk out of the room just to make or receive calls. This is true even for the very last day I still had a SingTel line.
As a rough summary, my gripes with SingTel are as follows:
- Sporadic voice reception in room.
- Zero 3G, I have to rely on Wifi.
- Generally slow or non-existent 3G all across the island.
- SingTel pretends to source for feedback from customers – but when I supplied specific time/date/location/reception strength they asked for, all I got were cut-and-paste responses;
- Or sometimes a customer service officer would call me and tell me to be patient because they have been working on it for the past many moons without improvement.
- And I have to leave my own house to listen to their excuses due to the same bad reception.
- Even the excuse they give is flimsy: If they have too many people in the network for their infrastructure to handle then they should stop getting new victims until they can support their current paying customers.
- There was also several incidents where there were errors in billing, which would go to their fat pockets if I wasn’t careful. (I wonder how many more have needlessly paid without checking).
- It took me 2 weeks from my application of SingNet fibre to realise they forgot their appointment, and I had to call in to schedule one. I finally got it 1 whole month after subscribing.
- They did not give proper configuration for 3rd party bought iPads when you apply for their multiSIM.
- AMPed is highly unstable and crashes often. Music doesn’t load at all due to the horrendous 3G.
- There is also discrepancy between what the salesperson at the IT Show says, and what the person at the HelloShops say.
A quick Google search shows how popular SingTel really is.
SingTel, I have an F-word for you.
That F-word is FEEDBACK. If you can't handle open feedback, don't put up a Facebook page.
I have basically endured most of the issues above, providing strongly-worded feedback on their Facebook page. And as far as I can recall, I did not resort to expletives until they did this:
SingTel used an automated voice advertisement.
Yes. They were too cheap to hire telemarketers. And inane in their brain enough to believe that any breathing human being would sign up after hearing an automated voice message trying to sell a product (which happens to be the awful AMPed). I received a call from a strange number that delivered just that. A pre-recorded spam from a telco I pay on time every month.
Few things get me as riled up as telemarketers who think it is okay to randomly waste other people’s time for their own profit. Now I get an automated one from a telco whom I am PAYING ON A MONTHLY BASIS.
And because I could not give direct feedback to an automated voice call, I hung up and posted angrily on their Facebook page.
And guess what. They had the cheek to send an automated SMS to push the same crappy product 1 minute after I hung up on them. To say I was furious would be barely scratching it.
If anyone must fault me for poor choice of words during that rage, I was just trying to drive it in their thick skull, since being civil didn’t seem to work out for them.
I am not alone in my complaints. Just go to the SingTel page (click ‘Posts by Others’) on any given day and there will be people complaining. Link here: https://www.facebook.com/singtel?filter=2
The feedback is only for show.
Why should I pay you, $ingTel?
I don’t work for you, SingTel. You’re supposed to work for me. My income does not come from you – I am hired for other accounts in that agency. Your income comes from paying customers, and I am one of them.
And yet, now I find that every SingTel user has to ask these questions:
- Is SingTel scouring through each and every Facebook user to see if they are affiliated with whoever is working for them?
- Are they sifting through your internet use right now?
- Why are they spending time backstabbing their customers instead of solving the many reception and operation issues that they have?
Every SingTel consumer needs to know that consumer protection is nearly non-existent in Singapore. When you don’t pay 100% of your bill they can cut your line and make you pay hefty penalties. Yet when they give you poor reception you still have to pay 100% of your phone bill.
Even when IDA, the governing authority, stepped in to address the poor reception issues, SingTel was given a fine so tiny that it could be earned back within a single hour. Not a single cent of that is going back to the customers. Since then I have decided not to post any more as it is pointless – until the job loss incident made me write this note.
A public closure.
This whole incident was a huge setback to me for several reasons. Other than substantial income loss, I missed out on the chance to keep working with my friends in that agency whom I have built rapport with. There were projects in there that I was actually looking forward to doing. In my last project there I even managed to sell through two sets of ideas which the client loved – but I will have no opportunity to follow through.
I fell into depression during this period.
Frankly, I’m not sure what good this note would do, but since Facebook is the medium which SingTel has cowardly stabbed me in the back with, I will use the same medium to reply – but in public.
Setting this to public means it would be seen by my current clients, and also affect future freelance possibilities. But I think I need that closure to close this chapter. If it means life diverts me to a different industry, I will go along.
So to my current clients: If you happen to read this: I hope that by now I have garnered enough work brownie points to survive what potential negative backlash that may come.
-
To the agency: I am deeply apologetic to have unintentionally linked the agency to my comments. I really am commenting only as a SingTel customer.
To my friends: Those who supported me with words of encouragement, hugs, and righteous anger – I thank you all. It means a lot to me. For those of you who are my friends but still work in that agency, please do not like or share this post as it may be misconstrued as going against SingTel. It’s not worth it while you are there. I know I will become the scapegoat for many things and it will be more difficult, and I am sorry for that.
To the public: Be careful what you write on Facebook. If you must comment on SingTel’s horrid service, do it anonymously to protect yourself. Help me share this to warn your friends about how SingTel conducts its business against its customers. Thank you.
Here's to good luck, and better reception.
And to Singtel: By sabotaging me, a customer, what do you think you will gain from it? That I will stop my posts – or are you trying to incite me to post even more? Before you stab a paying customer in the back, think about what you are doing.
You have successfully lost a mobile customer added a new cuss word to my lexicon.
Now go SingTel yourself.
Watch out, you might lost your job if complain too much.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/lynx-ng/the-singtel-sabotage/10151261703426218
The SingTel Sabotage
I lost my job, thanks to SingTel.
My friends will know that I have been making a lot of complaints on the SingTel Facebook page the past year. Over time, I have actually reduced my posts because I realised how futile it is.
Yet, on one very busy work day, I received a call from my boss. She asked if I had posted on SingTel’s Facebook page before, and I said yes. Then she went on to say that I have listed the agency as my workplace and it is shown on my profile. I was surprised, because I don’t even recall updating my profile work location. I don’t bring work into Facebook, so that caught me off guard.
Turns out she was right. SingTel complained about my posts to the higher-ups, and I am no longer allowed to work at that agency.
In one act of sabotage, SingTel has successfully cut an important source of my livelihood, and denied me work at a place I was happy in.
Something stinks about SingTel.
As it happens, and agency that I work at for quite some time now services the account. I realised only later that my work location as updated because of one ex-colleague. He added me as having ‘worked with’ him, and I okayed that because I thought it was a friendly gesture.
Turns out that that would be my only Facebook interaction with him. And yes, he worked on SingTel before.
To the agency I must apologize, because while I wanted my freedom to express my unhappiness with SingTel, it should not be associated with the agency. As a freelancer, I earn my keep from helping agencies solve creative problems, not cause them.
For me the line was very clear: I am a paying customer of SingTel, so when SingTel does not provide services as promised, I have the right to complain.
But for SingTel the line is as faulty as their reception, and it now looks like every one of their suppliers/vendors/agencies better watch out, because they will twist you into submission if you dare complain about them.
All the anti-SingTel things I've created are sourced from the internet, not agency working files.
On advertising.
Let me switch pace a bit here.
I know the importance of keeping work outside of Facebook. I do not post work in progress nor discuss about my clients. Even when I take pictures (of alcohol and cheese) in the workplace I would make sure that even sketches are kept out of view. Note that even this article is not exempt.
I have been in advertising for nearly a decade now, and I am known for doing whatever work that lands on my table – even if it is out of scope. Even if the conditions are ambiguous. Even if the client is difficult.
In the many years I have only found occasion to formally reject a grand total of two jobs. The first one was a major product launch where I vehemently refused to write fake testimonials. The second is SingTel.
Before I started out in the industry, I devoured a lot of books written by advertising greats. They would immerse themselves in the product in order to come up with better ways to write and sell. As far as fiscally and chronologically possible I would use the product that I write for.
I would eat at a particular fast food chain during the period that I was writing for them. I have grown to love a particular alcohol brand which I would previously not even try. And in this scenario, I have switched over from M1 to SingTel when my contract with M1 ended.
Initially when I went in for this particular freelance, I was supposed to only do one account (that wasn’t SingTel). But, as mentioned, I didn’t mind taking on more work, so sometimes I ended up with some SingTel work – and that was almost 2 years ago.
And as I found that SingTel wasn’t living up to what it was advertising – I had to say no to the person who hired me.
Areas with poor SingTel reception.
SingTel. For pure reception hell.
SingTel has given me more problems in 8 months than I had with M1 for 8 years.
With M1, I have little to complain about except for 2 dead zones which I frequent only occasionally. With SingTel, I don’t even get proper reception in my own room. I would even have to walk out of the room just to make or receive calls. This is true even for the very last day I still had a SingTel line.
As a rough summary, my gripes with SingTel are as follows:
- Sporadic voice reception in room.
- Zero 3G, I have to rely on Wifi.
- Generally slow or non-existent 3G all across the island.
- SingTel pretends to source for feedback from customers – but when I supplied specific time/date/location/reception strength they asked for, all I got were cut-and-paste responses;
- Or sometimes a customer service officer would call me and tell me to be patient because they have been working on it for the past many moons without improvement.
- And I have to leave my own house to listen to their excuses due to the same bad reception.
- Even the excuse they give is flimsy: If they have too many people in the network for their infrastructure to handle then they should stop getting new victims until they can support their current paying customers.
- There was also several incidents where there were errors in billing, which would go to their fat pockets if I wasn’t careful. (I wonder how many more have needlessly paid without checking).
- It took me 2 weeks from my application of SingNet fibre to realise they forgot their appointment, and I had to call in to schedule one. I finally got it 1 whole month after subscribing.
- They did not give proper configuration for 3rd party bought iPads when you apply for their multiSIM.
- AMPed is highly unstable and crashes often. Music doesn’t load at all due to the horrendous 3G.
- There is also discrepancy between what the salesperson at the IT Show says, and what the person at the HelloShops say.
A quick Google search shows how popular SingTel really is.
SingTel, I have an F-word for you.
That F-word is FEEDBACK. If you can't handle open feedback, don't put up a Facebook page.
I have basically endured most of the issues above, providing strongly-worded feedback on their Facebook page. And as far as I can recall, I did not resort to expletives until they did this:
SingTel used an automated voice advertisement.
Yes. They were too cheap to hire telemarketers. And inane in their brain enough to believe that any breathing human being would sign up after hearing an automated voice message trying to sell a product (which happens to be the awful AMPed). I received a call from a strange number that delivered just that. A pre-recorded spam from a telco I pay on time every month.
Few things get me as riled up as telemarketers who think it is okay to randomly waste other people’s time for their own profit. Now I get an automated one from a telco whom I am PAYING ON A MONTHLY BASIS.
And because I could not give direct feedback to an automated voice call, I hung up and posted angrily on their Facebook page.
And guess what. They had the cheek to send an automated SMS to push the same crappy product 1 minute after I hung up on them. To say I was furious would be barely scratching it.
If anyone must fault me for poor choice of words during that rage, I was just trying to drive it in their thick skull, since being civil didn’t seem to work out for them.
I am not alone in my complaints. Just go to the SingTel page (click ‘Posts by Others’) on any given day and there will be people complaining. Link here: https://www.facebook.com/singtel?filter=2
The feedback is only for show.
Why should I pay you, $ingTel?
I don’t work for you, SingTel. You’re supposed to work for me. My income does not come from you – I am hired for other accounts in that agency. Your income comes from paying customers, and I am one of them.
And yet, now I find that every SingTel user has to ask these questions:
- Is SingTel scouring through each and every Facebook user to see if they are affiliated with whoever is working for them?
- Are they sifting through your internet use right now?
- Why are they spending time backstabbing their customers instead of solving the many reception and operation issues that they have?
Every SingTel consumer needs to know that consumer protection is nearly non-existent in Singapore. When you don’t pay 100% of your bill they can cut your line and make you pay hefty penalties. Yet when they give you poor reception you still have to pay 100% of your phone bill.
Even when IDA, the governing authority, stepped in to address the poor reception issues, SingTel was given a fine so tiny that it could be earned back within a single hour. Not a single cent of that is going back to the customers. Since then I have decided not to post any more as it is pointless – until the job loss incident made me write this note.
A public closure.
This whole incident was a huge setback to me for several reasons. Other than substantial income loss, I missed out on the chance to keep working with my friends in that agency whom I have built rapport with. There were projects in there that I was actually looking forward to doing. In my last project there I even managed to sell through two sets of ideas which the client loved – but I will have no opportunity to follow through.
I fell into depression during this period.
Frankly, I’m not sure what good this note would do, but since Facebook is the medium which SingTel has cowardly stabbed me in the back with, I will use the same medium to reply – but in public.
Setting this to public means it would be seen by my current clients, and also affect future freelance possibilities. But I think I need that closure to close this chapter. If it means life diverts me to a different industry, I will go along.
So to my current clients: If you happen to read this: I hope that by now I have garnered enough work brownie points to survive what potential negative backlash that may come.
-
To the agency: I am deeply apologetic to have unintentionally linked the agency to my comments. I really am commenting only as a SingTel customer.
To my friends: Those who supported me with words of encouragement, hugs, and righteous anger – I thank you all. It means a lot to me. For those of you who are my friends but still work in that agency, please do not like or share this post as it may be misconstrued as going against SingTel. It’s not worth it while you are there. I know I will become the scapegoat for many things and it will be more difficult, and I am sorry for that.
To the public: Be careful what you write on Facebook. If you must comment on SingTel’s horrid service, do it anonymously to protect yourself. Help me share this to warn your friends about how SingTel conducts its business against its customers. Thank you.
Here's to good luck, and better reception.
And to Singtel: By sabotaging me, a customer, what do you think you will gain from it? That I will stop my posts – or are you trying to incite me to post even more? Before you stab a paying customer in the back, think about what you are doing.
You have successfully lost a mobile customer added a new cuss word to my lexicon.
Now go SingTel yourself.
