The credit card processing department in the person of one Sangeeta called to ask if I am employed. Then she announced that I had not included the latest Income Tax return - as you can imagine I was not best pleased as I had handed over my NRIC (Singapore identity card) and 2009 and 2010 tax returns to young Jonathan at the Claymore branch last Friday, November 19th and he had made the copies, not I.
She then pronounced the copy to be 'unclear' without going into ay details as to why it was not clear to her.
I suggested she take it up with Jonathan, to which she intimated that she could not get in touch with him. I read it as she was not allowed to in case they were colluding to defraud the bank (compliance, I suppose).
The best she could offer (it was pouring cats and dogs that afternoon) was to mail me a Business Reply Envelope into which I could submit a copy of the tax return. I railed about the delay as that would increase the processing time (normally two weeks) but it cut no ice.
I also told her how much trouble I had trying to get Jonathan on the phone on Saturday and what I thought of a bank that would not give out branch telephone numbers to anyone.
It didn't help that I could imagine the Cheshire Cat grin on her face as she delivered the bad news and refused to help in any way!
I was in a thoroughly bad mood, so when someone else from the bank called a little later and announced she is with the bank's quality service something or other, I gave her short shrift and said, "ha, that's funny. What service?"
Anyway Rose persevered and even left me with her phone number. I hope she will not be reprimanded for divulging that secret information!
So we talked about the situation and she asked if I was stopping my application as I had mentioned it in my letter to their GM. I said I'd check but I didn't think I mentioned such a thing and was only just wrangling with Sangeeta about the paperwork.
She said she'd follow up and we left it at that.
In the meantime I had emailed Jonathan, the only way I could get hold of him and he called me. He'd spoken to Sangeeta (all this despite her categorically telling me that she could not communicate with him) and that he'd found out that the top of the tax return had been left out when the page was copied.
He kindly volunteered to walk over to our security post if I could bring the document down. Lin was very sweet and volunteered himself (despite the rain); I think he wanted to prevent bloodshed!
So the paperwork was completed and sent off once again.
But that is not the last of it; Rose called on Friday when I was at the golf course and said my card would be delivered that evening. I did say I would not be home but that my husband would be home. We left it that the courier would either deliver it to our flat or leave it in the mailbox.
I am not sure exactly what happened but there was no envelope from HSBC; not at home nor in our mailbox.
Watch this space for the next chapter, unless you are as tired of this as I am!
By the way, I started of with a chip-in birdie and then a par on the NEW course at SICC, enough for one of my playing companions to ask if I had been secretly practising at home since no one has seen me on the golf course in Singapore!
Suffice to say, the old, well-remembered bad habits returned and I barely broke 100 for the eighteen holes (what, you thought for the nine?).
CAT FINDS IT'S TONGUE
There's a resident cat at our magnificent Botanic Gardens; it's white with ginger markings.
When it's admirers went walking on Thursday morning they spotted a cage with a crudely written sign saying (if there was a cat in the cage) not to let the cat out of the cage and to call a certain number.
This incensed the cat lovers so much that they went to the Nparks office to take it up with them. And then they drafted emails to NParks to register their objection to the cat being trapped and removed.
This is how my friend summed it up:
NParks responded the very next day and said:Dear Sirs
I am writing with great dismay to find a nasty looking trap set for the above mentioned cat who has been a resident and a favorite mascot of regular visitors to Botanic Gardens.
I wish to enquire why there is a need to remove this cat which is harmless and adds to the character of the Gardens. We understand that there has been a complaint that feeding this cat will attract other strays and that plastic bags of food left by well-meaning people is unsightly. Regarding the former, this cat has been here for many years and we have yet to see any other strays coming in to that particular area - the services entrance of the Orchid Pavilion - because of the food. Besides the cat appears to have been neutered. As for litter from leftover food, that can be taken care of in your routine maintenance, as with all other human litter.
Surely this Garden does not merely exist for a few animal-phobic human beings whom I am sure are a minority.
I urge you to call off your pest control people and get them to remove the trap. I also hope you won't resort to poisoning either.
Thank you for your kind feedback.
The management has been informed of the situation and we have since remove the trap.
Once again, thank you and we hope to see you soon. We wish you a good week ahead.
So now the Botanic Gardens mascot has gained a reprieve and did not have to use up one of it's nine lives!
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