| Christmas Greetings 2006 from New York! | |
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
Customer Service
I never intend to use this blog to bash people. I have always intended this blog for the advancement of people for personal and work growth.
However, today, I was a victim of bad (worst in my life) customer service. The culprit, Pauline of HSBC's Check Fraud Department. She was rude and very demeaning. She acted as if she's at the zenith of the banking institution. Her first words for me: "You are a security threat to the bank, we are closing you account for depositing a fraudulent check."
I was stunned, why in the world would you deposit a fraudulent check into your personal account? Even stupid criminals would go the long mile of cashing a fraudulent check in a different state under a different name.
The call came in at 10:25AM. She was rude and adamant about giving any details or explanation. She kept on reiterating that my account would be closed since I am a security threat. I went on posing questions to draw out the bottom line issues to the problem. Before the call ended, I had to stop her and tell her that she crossed the boundary of just being rude and her customer service is all out of place. I even mentioned that the someone in the branch could vouch for my character since they know how I handle my business with the bank.
Apparently she called the bank after that first call. At 10:41AM, she calls me and tells me that she would be giving me a week to talk with whomever to ratify the situation. She hangs up, with no remorse for her earlier attitude with me.
At 10:52AM, she calls back to tell me that everything has been resolved that she called up the issuer of the check to verify its validity that everything will be reinstated in five minutes. Again, with no apologies.
My question is: could you have called the issuer before you called me at 10:25AM and ruined my entire day?
So Pauline from HSBC's Check Fraud Department who could be reached at (716) 841-1184, brush up on your customer service skills. You may be a supervisor for a big department, but that doesn't give you the right to talk rude to your customers.
By the way, the branch that I deal with, HSBC's Chelsea Branch is the total opposite of Pauline. The people at the branch are very courteous. I even see managers get out of their cubicles to help out with deposits when lines starts to get long. Kudos to the branch. A big thumbs down to corporate.
However, today, I was a victim of bad (worst in my life) customer service. The culprit, Pauline of HSBC's Check Fraud Department. She was rude and very demeaning. She acted as if she's at the zenith of the banking institution. Her first words for me: "You are a security threat to the bank, we are closing you account for depositing a fraudulent check."
I was stunned, why in the world would you deposit a fraudulent check into your personal account? Even stupid criminals would go the long mile of cashing a fraudulent check in a different state under a different name.
The call came in at 10:25AM. She was rude and adamant about giving any details or explanation. She kept on reiterating that my account would be closed since I am a security threat. I went on posing questions to draw out the bottom line issues to the problem. Before the call ended, I had to stop her and tell her that she crossed the boundary of just being rude and her customer service is all out of place. I even mentioned that the someone in the branch could vouch for my character since they know how I handle my business with the bank.
Apparently she called the bank after that first call. At 10:41AM, she calls me and tells me that she would be giving me a week to talk with whomever to ratify the situation. She hangs up, with no remorse for her earlier attitude with me.
At 10:52AM, she calls back to tell me that everything has been resolved that she called up the issuer of the check to verify its validity that everything will be reinstated in five minutes. Again, with no apologies.
My question is: could you have called the issuer before you called me at 10:25AM and ruined my entire day?
So Pauline from HSBC's Check Fraud Department who could be reached at (716) 841-1184, brush up on your customer service skills. You may be a supervisor for a big department, but that doesn't give you the right to talk rude to your customers.
By the way, the branch that I deal with, HSBC's Chelsea Branch is the total opposite of Pauline. The people at the branch are very courteous. I even see managers get out of their cubicles to help out with deposits when lines starts to get long. Kudos to the branch. A big thumbs down to corporate.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
24++ hours
As far as I can remember, last Thursday was the first time I was awake for more than 24 hours straight.
Remember my Insomia entry. Well, Wednesday after coming back from Albany at around 7:45PM I was not able to sleep up until Thursday at 9:30PM. I tried sleeping at 10:30 that Wednesday but with my mind going crazy I just realized that it's almost 6AM and at 6:30AM I was meeting up a friend to show around NY. Which I happily obliged. It's seldom you see friends so I took on the challenge. I was not really tired that day, only at around 2:30PM that I really felt it though. I tried sleeping at my mom's office, but things were going crazy there as well, that the moment I start to doze off, stuff happens. I even cancelled going to Baruch for an evening seminar.
Anyhow, I am happy to report that I was able to sleep for more than 7 hours and was alert and ready for work. It was a very cold day today, but now I'm looking forward to a great weekend.
Remember my Insomia entry. Well, Wednesday after coming back from Albany at around 7:45PM I was not able to sleep up until Thursday at 9:30PM. I tried sleeping at 10:30 that Wednesday but with my mind going crazy I just realized that it's almost 6AM and at 6:30AM I was meeting up a friend to show around NY. Which I happily obliged. It's seldom you see friends so I took on the challenge. I was not really tired that day, only at around 2:30PM that I really felt it though. I tried sleeping at my mom's office, but things were going crazy there as well, that the moment I start to doze off, stuff happens. I even cancelled going to Baruch for an evening seminar.
Anyhow, I am happy to report that I was able to sleep for more than 7 hours and was alert and ready for work. It was a very cold day today, but now I'm looking forward to a great weekend.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Insomia
I'm no medical expert but at 4:29AM and my mind being alert as "daylight", it could be insomia. As I googled the symptoms and cures of insomia I found out that stress is a major contributing factor to sleeplessness. It could be good stress, e.g., getting a huge raise or bad stress, e.g. not having a job. Both examples are crossed out from my checklist. So what the heck is bothering me?
As I start this second paragraph, I get a yawn. I guess this could provide a clue to my insomia.
Earlier, at around 10:30PM, I started to get sleepy. As I lay down in bed, I simply start to think about things. Nothing bad, but useless junk: re-arranging the layout of the living room., changing my voucher logging methods, creating a database for a "personal" project, buying a small tv for my room, planning for the future, visualizing future conferences, talking to future clients. See, I told you they were junk... random stuff.
Then I decided to count sheeps. I started counting, imaginging sheeps jumping over the fence. Cliche right? Anyways, as I count, I started to paint and get into the details of the sheeps, the color and make of the fence, the grass, the mountain in the background. I thensuddenly changed my counting perspective and turned the entire thing into a comic strip, a two-dimensional drawing. That didn't work and I was just on my 18th sheep.
I went earlier to upstate New York in Albany and the hypnothizing series of lamposts as my train passed by made me sleepy so I decided to count lamp post. Again, my wild imagination brought me to counting lamposts of different designs and from different time periods. I ended up counting up to 8.
I decided to now use an eye mask. That made me still for awhile. But not asleep. As I toss and turn, I accidentally touched the end of the bed that meets the bench beside my bed. An idea came to my mind to move my bed farther from the heater which made me stand up. Which brought me to making up my bed, turning on the light then turning on the pc and logging onto blogger.
Let me try to get at least an hour of sleep before I wake up. At least today's my day off, I can relax.
Sorry for the rant people, I just want to release some tension and do something.
As I start this second paragraph, I get a yawn. I guess this could provide a clue to my insomia.
Earlier, at around 10:30PM, I started to get sleepy. As I lay down in bed, I simply start to think about things. Nothing bad, but useless junk: re-arranging the layout of the living room., changing my voucher logging methods, creating a database for a "personal" project, buying a small tv for my room, planning for the future, visualizing future conferences, talking to future clients. See, I told you they were junk... random stuff.
Then I decided to count sheeps. I started counting, imaginging sheeps jumping over the fence. Cliche right? Anyways, as I count, I started to paint and get into the details of the sheeps, the color and make of the fence, the grass, the mountain in the background. I thensuddenly changed my counting perspective and turned the entire thing into a comic strip, a two-dimensional drawing. That didn't work and I was just on my 18th sheep.
I went earlier to upstate New York in Albany and the hypnothizing series of lamposts as my train passed by made me sleepy so I decided to count lamp post. Again, my wild imagination brought me to counting lamposts of different designs and from different time periods. I ended up counting up to 8.
I decided to now use an eye mask. That made me still for awhile. But not asleep. As I toss and turn, I accidentally touched the end of the bed that meets the bench beside my bed. An idea came to my mind to move my bed farther from the heater which made me stand up. Which brought me to making up my bed, turning on the light then turning on the pc and logging onto blogger.
Let me try to get at least an hour of sleep before I wake up. At least today's my day off, I can relax.
Sorry for the rant people, I just want to release some tension and do something.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Inspiration
Inspiration takes form in all shapes and sizes. I get inspired by how the light bends as it casts shadows over withering leaves. I don't know what it inspires me to do, but it creates that tingling feeling inside.Maybe this post was inpired by that. This post might inspire someone. Whoever you are, may you be inspired to do great things.
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