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Yeah, right!
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that you can’t exceed your clients’ expectations by requiring them to pickup their bank statements from their respective branches on a monthly basis.
You don’t have to have an MBA degree to know that it is important to PROACTIVELY communicate changes in the terms and conditions of certain accounts with your clients.
I guess I have made my point when I talked to the Allied Bank Legazpi-Makati branch manager. Though I’m pretty sure she just made some empty promises to make me stop talking and leave her office.
I really hate dealing with local banks.
Thank you!
I wonder why some people fancy breakfast in bed so much. I guess they haven’t tried reading webcomics in bed immediately after waking up in the morning. I think it is way cooler.
You guessed it right. Homeless Hipsters is the title of Questionable Content’s 275th strip. >:)
Globe Telecom has become overly aggressive in the area of online advertisement. I’ve been seeing their humungous ads in different websites for the past couple of days.
Wrong move.
What they need to do is to improve their crappy core business and not focus on these silly advertisements.
I wanted to have a cup of tea or something but I’m too lazy to go out. This bad headache – probably due to cough - is REALLY spoiling my weekend.
Good thing SkyCable has already installed the cable TV early this afternoon. The sad part is that they failed to install the broadband. They promised me that they’ll install it tomorrow, though.
A week’s worth of laundry is waiting for me. Dammit. Not to mention a pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. How I wish a kind fairy would fix these things for me while I’m asleep.
Globe Broadband really sucks. I guess it’s time for them to shut down their business.
It was raining hard when I left the condo. And as expected the floodwater along Pasong Tamo has risen significantly making it impossible for pedestrians to cross it without their (read: our) feet getting wet.
So in an effort to avoid the flood-stricken street the Makati government has failed to address for years, if not decades, I decided to ride a jeep going to Mantrade first and another one going to Ayala.
It’s not all negative though. I must admit that I prefer rainy days over sunny ones. The reason is that I perspire a lot when it’s hot. And I hate it when I’m dripping wet with my own sweat when I’m not actually exercising.
I got to the office at around eight. Pretty early I must say. I had a hearty meal at the foodpark but it wasn’t good enough to tame my appetite. I then bought something to munch on at Ministop.
—oo00-00oo—
I’m still wishing and hoping and praying to all the coding gods out there to shower me with some pretty neat and challenging assignments. But not TOO challenging though. Hahaha.
After attending the birthday party of Trek in Cavite, I caught a bus going back to Makati. As expected, the traffic was terrible. I was able to reach Ayala a little past eight.
While I was inside the bus I’d been thinking of a place where I could watch the Wimbledon Women’s Finals. Yeah, the Williams sisters again. National Sports Grill in Greenbelt came into my mind first.
So I walked briskly, thinking the championship match has already started. When I arrived at the said resto, I immediately asked one of the waiters the schedule of the match. He said he wasn’t sure but they have tuned-in to Star Sports awaiting the match.
I headed for the couch and was happily seated with the best view of the 6 x 5 ft. screen (I had to ask the crew the dimension of the screen so I can post it here. LOL).
Star Sports recapped the recent matches of the two finalists. With Venus having the more impressive run going to the finals.
And the match began.
Venus double faulted in her first game but was able to hold serve. Then, it was Serena’s turn to serve. She didn’t have a problem holding serve.
The sisters had a very impressive first set. Each holding serve until 6-6. But in the tie-break, Serena demolished her sister and pocketed the first set.
I just realized that I favored Venus. The moment Serena had her first mini-break, I was like “Oh Shit! Dammit!” Maybe because Venus is the defending champion and a place in the tennis history is at stake for her.
Then the second set started. During that time, I was trying to be positive and hoping that Venus would outplay her sister. But as the match progressed, Serena seemed to be getting better and better. Serena had three match points in the second set but Venus luckily saved all.
But on the fourth match point of Serena, Venus failed to save it. And the younger Williams took the Ladies’ crown.
I still admire Venus even though she has lost to her sister. She’s played a real good match. And another thing, she seldom shows her emotions. Even after being defeated in her favorite grand slam event, all you could get from her is a poker face (Lady Gaga, music please… Popopopopopopopoker face. LOL).
So congratulations to Serena. She did play a very nice game.
The next face off would be that of Federer and Roddick. As most of the tennis fanatics out there, I’m rooting for Fedex. Go Roger!!! I’m positive that you’ll break another record.
Kasi ang init.
Tapos nagbrownout.
E pag nagbrownout, nawawalan din ng tubig.
Takteng layp. Bow.
Di kasi ako makatulog. Pinatay ko na ang ilaw kanina pa at sobrang dilim na sa kwarto ko. Pero kapag tumingin ako sa may bintana nakikita ko ang liwanag na dulot ng bilog na buwan.
May maliit na bentilador na umaandar na nagbibigay ng katamtamang lakas ng hangin. Tama lang sa gabing hindi gaanong kainitan.
Naisipan kong makinig sa radyo. Naghanap ng show na may buhay na DJ para hindi puro love songs lang na nakakalungkot ang maririnig ko. Sa kabutihang palad ay may nakita naman ako. Isang show na tipong “Dear Mr. DJ, meron po kasi akong problema sa BF/GF ko…” Pakiramdam ko ay ang jologs ng topics pero ok lang kaysa nakatunganga lang ako sa kisame. Ngunit kapag hindi ko na masikmura ang mga sinasabi ng caller/DJ/texter, nililipat ko talaga sa ibang istasyon. Habang nililipat ko ay natatawa ako sa sarili ko.
Naabutan na ako ng pagawit ng Lupang Hinirang. Alas dose na talaga. Oo at gising na gising pa ako. Naisip ko tuloy ang ginawang pagawit ni Martin Nievera sa laban ni Pacquiao at Hatton. Ang totoo n’yan ay pumapanig ako sa NHI. Dahil ‘yon ang nakasaad sa batas. Walang point ang batas kung di rin lang ipapatupad. At kung mismong mga mambabatas na ang hindi sangayon sa nasabing batas e ano pa ang hinihintay nila? Amyendahan na nila habang maaga. Pero sasabihin ng iba na mas maraming mas importanteng problema ang kelangang solusyunan. At matatapos ang araw na walang nasolusyunan – maliit o malaki mang problema. Ganyan naman sa bayan natin. Paulit ulit lang. Paikot ikot lang. Pero mahal ko pa rin ang bansang Pilipinas. Hindi ‘yon magbabago.
Medyo humahaba na ang aking pinagsasabi. Mas mabuting patayin na ulit ang laptop at humiga na. Baka sakaling makatulog na din. Hanggang sa muli.
I set my alarm clock to 4:30AM to watch the BNP Paribas Open Semis. But unfortunately, it was not shown in any of the sports channels. Another bad news is… Federer was once again defeated by Murray. I like the two guys but I’d love to see Federer in the Finals against Nadal. Well, that’s not going to happen. It’s Murray who will be facing Nadal. I bet Murray will come out as the champion. Hahaha.
Damn, I just hate Nadal. LOL
Last week, I had this wonderful experience purchasing an item online. I decided to blog about it today instead of writing about the Day 2 of the Langkawi Getaway. I was pretty impressed by how the customer service representative of My Ayala handled my transaction. Please refer to this link to know more about it.
This is a very objective comment. Really. If only I could get hold of an HSBC tele-banker, he/she will surely hear a lot of bad words from me. But all I can hear are tons of advertisements. For goodness’ sake, I’m calling from Kuala Lumpur and what I need is a tele-banker and not some stupid promos. Shit. It’s IDD and that means high cost.
Citibank is far better. And even Metrobank can accept calls promptly. But for the case of HSBC, it’s been always like this. Unreliable. It’s funny how they keep on playing the 24 hours, 7 days a week thing while their customers are waiting in vain to connect to a tele-banker. Stupid.
And you know what I did just to connect to one of their representatives? I chose the option “Report a lost card.” To my surprise, I still had to wait for at least two minutes. And their reason was that they were attending to lots of calls. I just said to the tele-banker that’s not true. When I tried to call in the morning I had to wait for several minutes but still not able to get hold of any of them. Same thing in the afternoon. And they will give me that reason when it’s almost midnight. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Arrrgh.
By the way, the reason why I called is to have the annual fee of my supplementary card reversed. But unfortunately, the cost of my calls is close to the amount of the annual fee. Crazy.
I was impressed. Really impressed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_y7xKttqzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1SNUHbn8ng&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjvdJqk68Uw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQrtozS-gIw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDCyL5rar_I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSxkOcxgnsM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Bg75bfTak&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9A7jC67WkM&feature=related
For the past month I’ve been checking the exam results section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer to see if my sister passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET). She took the exam last September 28. That is more than a moth ago. And yes, I’m starting to get pissed off. Why should it take that long? How come the result of my brother’s ECE Board Exam last October was released way earlier than the LET. Isn’t it illogical? Are they checking it manually? How pathetic!
On a lighter note, I’ve been thinking of ways on how to make profit out of these Board Exam results. This is how:
I will put up a website with a very simple interface. It will have a banner which says
Get the Board Exam Results by Text Message Alert Sent Directly to Your Cell Phone.
And some details
Why check the newspaper or the internet each day to see if the board exam result is already out? Now you can have it sent directly to your cell phone via text message alerts!
Cell phone service providers include: Smart, Globe, Sun Cellular, TalknText, and Touch Mobile.
Users can enroll their mobile phones together with the board exam code and the name of the examinee they want to check. Once registered, users will receive confirmation. They will need to reply back to validate that they are the same person who transacted online.
Users can also register via cellphone. It would be something like
Type “BRDEXMRSLT Boar Exam Code <space> Examinee” and send to 666.
I’m just not sure if there’s already a service like this in the Philippines.
The French Open Men’s Single Finals turned out to be a disappointing match. It’s not because Federer Express was losing and that I’m his fan. It’s actually because I hate Nadal and I didn’t want him to win. It’s also because of Nadal’s very annoying habit of picking at his underwear once every 2 seconds. Verrrry Irritating.
Why replace Mindanao with M’danao when you are able to save only 2 bytes (just a single character since you added an apostrophe)? It just adds confusion to the readers because it is more logical to think that it is a replacement for Maguindanao.
If you are a consumer who looks for a fast, convenient and efficient way to do your day-to-day banking transactions, online banking might be the one for you.
Online Banking (also known as Internet Banking) allows customers to conduct financial transactions on a secure website operated by their retail or virtual bank, credit union or building society. Online banking solutions have many features and capabilities in common, but traditionally also have some that are application specific. The common features fall broadly into several categories: [1] Transactional (e.g., performing a financial transaction such as an account to account transfer, paying a bill, wire transfer… and applications… apply for a loan, new account, etc.), [2] Non-transactional (e.g., online statements, check links, cobrowsing, chat), [3] Financial Institution Administration and [4] ASP/Hosting Administration. (Online banking. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
In the Philippines, a remarkable bank which offers this channel is the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI). The range of services you can take advantage of is innumerable. From viewing real-time balances to transferring funds between your own deposit accounts and the accounts of your family members, friends and even the accounts of Mutual Fund Companies, Cooperative and many others. From paying your bills to reloading your cellphone. From applying for a credit card to applying for an auto or housing loan. Name it, they have it.
In Malaysia, I can say that Maybank is one the leading banks when it comes to Online Banking. Just like the BPI, Maybank has also a wide range of online services. For the Filipino Overseas Workers (OFWs), the most important one is the international Telegraphic Transfer or simply TT. Because the fee is just the same as that of the over-the-counter telegraphic transfer transaction, it is no doubt the most convenient way to remit money to the Philippines.
Truly, banking has been revolutionized by the advent of the Internet. It would not be surprising to see this area progress more. Let’s keep an eye on the next generation of online services that the banking sector will unfold in the next couple of years and enjoy the benefits it has to offer.
Since I left for Kuala Lumpur, it has been my routine to call at least three credit card companies in Manila at the end of the month to check for any outstanding balances (except the ones which send e-statements). Of the numerous credit card companies I have been transacting with, I must say that HSBC is the worst when it comes to attending to international calls.
Unlike Citibank and other local credit card companies which automatically connect me to a customer service representative (CSR), HSBC would put me in a tough maze first before I can get connected to their CSR. Yes, only HSBC does that to me.
Their operations department should have been aware of this issue of inefficiency. Can somebody give me an HSBC customer satisfaction survey so that I can give them a failing mark?
Being a blogger is not just about creating and posting entries. Part of it is dealing with spam comments. During the first few months, the number is still negligible. But as time passes by, it grows significantly to the point that deleting these irritating comments will eat up your time.
The good news is that there are organizations, like Askimet, that help bloggers do the things they like to do – blog, blog and blog – and spend less or totally no time in dealing with spam.
To take advantage of this plug-in, Mr. Blue Rendition installed it a few weeks ago. And since then, it has already caught some 14 spam comments.
Kinda cool. If you’re a wordpress user and you want to try it, gimme a click!
Last Wednesday, I, together with two other Filipino colleagues, went to the Immigration Office of Malaysia at Putra Jaya to apply for Expatriate Identification Card. Actually, we can get there via train but we opted to take a cab. Less hassle, less irritating odor, less walk…
The trip to the Immigration Office was in itself an experience. I was amazed by how the cab driver speaks English. He is very fluent. His vocabulary is very extensive. Not only that, he also knows a lot of things about the Philippines especially the political issues it is currently facing. He knows Gloria. “The tough lady,” he said. “The tough and greedy lady,” I countered. He believed that every leader should be greedy but in a positive way. Greedy to help the people. Greedy to better the country. But I told him that is not the case of Gloria.
Then the discussion shifted to business. When I told him about the current status of the Malaysian stock market and the Malaysian Ringgit, it made him speak more. Their currency was in a decade high a week ago but went down to a seven-month low after the election. We then discussed the results of the last election here in Malaysia. He said that it only means that the people want change. Imagine, 5 states were won by the opposition. This is another first in the history.
After the lengthy discussions, the spotlight shifted to the wonderful sceneries along the way. We even stopped by the Putra Jaya Bridge to take pictures. (Of course the taxi meter continues to tick while the driver was waiting for us).
And we finally reached the Immigration Office. It was a nice building. All except the wash rooms are clean. The following picture is not the Immigration Office. Hehe. But it is another government building.
The actual processing of our expatriate cards was very fast. Maybe less than 20 minutes. Very convenient.
We headed back to the office immediately after getting our cards. Another three hours of waiting before the clock ticks at 6P.M. Haha. Laziness syndrome.
That’s all for now folks.
more pics here.
I was checking some articles in INQUIRER.net when I came across an article entitled “Countdown to 15 things I miss about the Philippines.” I found the title so interesting that it made me so eager to read it. The eagerness suddenly disappeared after reading the first two items the author has written. I then checked the name of the author and to my surprise, she was my profesor in two graduate courses I took in UP.
I don’t know if she really intended to write a “funny” article or something because some items are really not funny at all. I just hope she will not be hit by angry Filipinos like what happened to Malu Fernandez.
In a recent article published in INQUIRER.net, it has been been estimated that there are 11 million Filipinos working abroad. That is roughly about 12% of the nation’s population of around 92 million. This figure increases by more than a million each year according to a related article published in Wikipedia. The remmitances of this huge number of Filipinos working abroad translate to 13.5% of the Philippines’ GDP. This is the reason why this group of people is now being referred to as “Bagong Bayani.”
The remittances of these Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have also made the Philippine Peso the best-performing currency in Asia. From last year’s 56 pesos, a dollar now buys less than 42 pesos. It is expected that the Philippines Peso will reach the 38-level by 2008. This prediction was actually made by no less than the chief investment officer of the company I work for.
The above figures may seem very positive but if we’ll look at it closely we will realize that the very people who have made these good things possible are at the losing end. Consider a domestic helper who earns US$450 monthly. Assuming she remits 80% of her total monthly income, that would give her family in the Philippines around Php20,000 at last year’s rate. Using the current exchange rate, it would only give them roughly Php15,000. I just can’t imagine the effect of the appreciation of the peso to these disadvantaged people when it hits the 38-level next year.
If this trend will continue in the coming years, I believe the number of Filipinos leaving the country will start to decrease. I don’t know when but it will surely come. I just hope that when that time comes, the Philippine government is ready and equipped to create new jobs for our Kababayans.
This post was originally published in my old blog.
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