Inept customer service story of the day

Background: I have been waiting for close to a month for a credit card from a bank which starts with ‘C’ and ends with ‘K’ and leave it at that. I had not received it after more than three weeks when I was first informed that my application had been approved, and had called them up on January XX to inform them of that. At that point in time, I was told the card would be re-issued and sent to me.

To date, I have yet to receive the card.

This is how today’s customer service call went after my personal banker referred me to the Credit Card department.

Credit Card Department Representative: It says on our records that the credit card was sent to you two weeks ago. In this case, I would have to refer you to our Customer Service department as this is not a credit card issuing matter. Would you mind if I put you on hold while I transfer you?
Me: Fine.
Customer Service Representative (CSR): (after a brief explanation on my part) Our records say that your card has not been reissued.
Me: The lady just told me it had been reissued.
CSR: No, it has not. The reason why it has not been reissued is because a security block has been placed on your account. The block was placed on January XX.
Me: Excuse me?
CSR: There is a block on your account, hence, we were not able to reissue your card.
Me: I called up on January XX as I had yet to receive my card and requested for you to re-send it to me. The person I spoke to then informed me that he would place a security block on the card to prevent the card which I never received from being activated and would get the card re-issued. But, if I understand you correctly, even though I explicitly asked for the card to be re-sent, as a result of the block placed on it because I did not receive the card the first time around, you could not send it to me.
CSR: That is correct.
Me: That's ridiculous.
CSR: I am sorry, madam, but I will re-issue your card and you should receive it within two to three working days. Would that be okay?
Me: Do I have a choice?
CSR: I am sorry again, madam. Is that okay?
Me (resignedly): Fine.

I followed this up with a letter of complaint to their Service Quality Director. Let's see if he responds.

Just one lone senior trader was handling the unwinding of €50 billion of SocGen's trades? He must have been one stressed out employee, knowing the whole weight of his bank's continued existence as an independent was on his shoulders.

Onto something less serious... I have purchased a pair of tickets to watch Jude Law act in Kenneth Branagh's direction of Hamlet. When is this performance? July 21, 2009

I tend to plan real far in advance, but this is ridiculous! Still, given that tickets have been on sale since 10 this morning and that most of the dates have sold out, it needed to be done.

As with most people working in the City, I was following the news of Societe Generale's fradulent trader, Jerome Kerviel, with avid interest. What amazed me were a number of things:

1. FT's Alphaville was posting by-the-minute updates on the latest happenings, ranging from the revelation of the trader's name to uncovering of his photo to publication of his CV.
2. The speculation that arose the next day about SG's becoming a potential takeover target. Financial journalists, bankers and punters alike - they're all vultures.
3. The reference in respectable broadsheets such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to Jerome's Facebook page, even tracking the number of friends he had, plummeting from eleven at the time the article was first published, to three when it was updated to one.
4. The fact that that the trader had been doing this for a year, and still had not, in any way, profited from it. His annual salary and bonus came up to less than €100,000! For a trader, that's practically peanuts.

In fact, I think no. 4 startles me the most. What on earth was the motivation behind his fradulent behaviour (and I question this being put down purely as a case of fraud seeing as it also points to the broader issue of weak controls and risk management within SG itself) if it was not for profit?

There sure are a lot of really good indie music blogs out there. Several of my most recent discoveries are:

• Daytrotter - Rather than offer album MP3s for downloads, Daytrotter offers "exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands." And instead of using stock photos for each Daytrotter artist session, the originators of this site use their own illustrations. The artwork is pretty commendable. Recent sessions include Architecture in Helsinki and The Brunettes. Found while looking for Bonnie Prince Billy - New Partner, after having heard it on Radio 1 the night before.
• Let's Sexy Fighting - This site aims to introduce people to new music. It was through this site that I found Final Fantasy's fantastically mind-blowing remix of Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead.
  
• Skatterbrain - Skatterbrain is a Maryland-based blog which covers the global scene, and through which I discovered Cloudberry Records, a record label which, besides being named after one of my favourite things from Sweden, also has MP3s from its artists on its website available for free downloading. It was also through Skatterbrain that I discovered a band from Iceland called Singapore Sling. How odd... and not exactly my cup of tea, but I do wonder how and why an Icelandic band would choose to name themselves after the signature drink of my home country!
  
• Indie MP3 - This blog is the partner site of Lost Music Records and has writers based in England, Sweden, Iceland & Germany.
• Rare Indie Classics - Rare Indie Classics offers readers a chance to listen to classic indie songs which were usually heard by the author on the John Peel radio show. Among some of his more recent listings include the original version of James - Sit Down (i.e. not the live one we have all heard) and a couple of live performances from Tiger.
  

After having watched the (uncensored) version of Lust, Caution (Se4 Jie4), it only underscored my belief that Tony Leung Chiu Wai is one of the greatest actors of our time. He has the most expressive eyes ever, and doesn't ever need to resort to the usual devices which most Hollywood actors tend to use to just be in the moment. I found his performances in this movie, and in Infernal Affairs (Wu2 Jian4 Dao4) breathtaking; in fact, the original ending for Infernal Affairs just about broke my heart. It doesn't matter whether he plays a hero or a villain. He's just awesome.

As for Lust, Caution, Lee Ang made Japanese-occupied Shanghai look amazing. I'm not sure about the historical accuracy; I was incredibly surprised to see Caucasians and mainly English-speaking cafes present in the city given that I thought the main reason Japan invaded Asia was because they wanted to assert their Asian supremacy, and, therefore, would most likely have wanted to stamp out all Western influence, but I could be wrong.

It was difficult to believe that this was Tang Wei's debut performance. She did a brilliant job as the tortured spy who falls in love with the man she's betraying. And the various qi pao she wears during the movie are gorgeous.

That's really all I have to say about the film. Because of the graphic sex scenes - unusual for a Chinese movie - the media have already dissected this movie to death, so I don't think I can offer any commentary or insight you wouldn't have read elsewhere anyway.

I will, however, state that I'm not entirely sure how the physical affair first starts out because, to my mind, the first encounter the two lovers partake of looked a lot like a violent rape to me. And even though I'm a female and I know how much love can make you a little crazy, I still can't quite see how that would have drawn her to him in the first place. Once we get past that, I can comprehend why she stays with him - because she enjoys the violence and brutality of their lovemaking, so unlike her first sexual experiences, and that it gives her joy which she most likely hasn't enjoyed in her life ever given her family background and the era in which she grew up in - but still, that first moment is where I get a little confused.

Today was an unexpectedly mild day, so I decided to enjoy the respite from the cold and explore East London before going off for a work out. And instead of exercising my body, I ended up exercising my wallet.

First stop was One Deko, a shop filled with amazing furniture and household things which I would have loved to have purchased if I owned a property. Fortunately for me, I don't, so I didn't buy anything. Then I popped into Sniff, an independent shoe shop which happened to be playing songs by The Pipettes which resulted in my staying longer than intended. I ended up walking out with a beautiful pair of maroon/pink two-toned shoes (see left), which is great, because I generally don't wear colours to work, having left most of my whimsical wardrobe behind, and I felt I was starting to look rather dull.

Next up was Blondie, the more expensive sister shop of Absolute Vintage. I ended up spending quite a bit in there, but I was happy, as I finally found a vintage dress I had been looking for. It was quite a little longer than what I usually wear (as I'm not that tall and I feel long dresses make me look shorter) but the helpful sales staff figured out how to shorten the dress without my having to get it altered so I can play around with the length as and when I feel like. She also helped me find a pair of white high heels (Charles Jourdan, no less... I haven't heard that brand name since I was a kid!) and a belt to go with the dress, and while it looked absolutely perfect on me on its own, the two just give it that extra "oomph!"

I contemplated heading to Absolute Vintage right after that, but decided to give my wallet a rest and walked into the Old Truman Brewery to see what was going on. I didn't add to my armada in Illustrated People (quirky T-shirts) as I have more than enough quirky T-shirts than I really need (although, here, I must confess to coveting the 'Suck It Trebek' t-shirt on Threadpit, but, alas, I am not in a country where the majority will get the reference). My stalwart resistance continued at Junky (renowned for recycling old clothing into avant-garde designs); while I loved what they had done with the end results, I simply could not afford them, with most articles of clothing starting at GBP140. I really adored the dungaree dress they made out of an old tweed jacket and an old leather jacket, but, alas, could not justify spending over S$500 on one single piece of clothing, no matter how beautiful it was. I may have relocated and am earning more now, but still, old habits die hard. My resolve, however, wavered once confronted with the 50%-off winter sale at Public Beware (Japanese designer ladies' clothing). I tried on five pieces of clothing; I walked out with an asymmetrical zip-up top.

More than a little surprised and ashamed at what had happened to my resolve to work out, I made a tactical decision to go home and drop off my loot before going off to the gym. But seeing as I was so near Absolute Vintage, it would have been a shame and rather inefficient for me to not go in there seeing as I was already in the area, so I went in for a quick look. After all, the Evening Standard did call it one of the top 100 stores one absolutely had to visit before one dies. And the clothing there was incredibly cheap, ranging from GBP 15 to GBP 30. And there were racks of racks of dresses, all sorted by colour. There was also an abundance of shoes.

What differentiates Absolute Vintage from Blondie is that the former is more affordable. However, the lower prices also mean lower quality. And as Blondie is smaller, both in terms of shop size and quantity of clothing, the staff there can and often do help you come up with a whole outfit, all the time with big smiles on their faces. So if you have the money, I would advise you to go to Blondie for a more pleasant shopping experience. Absolute Vintage isn't bad at all, just that while I love vintage shopping, I do get tired of pushing through racks and racks of clothing after a while. That being said, I am planning a return trip to Beyond Retro's Cheshire St store some time soon... and that's at least twice the size of Absolute Vintage!

I finally made it back to my flat at a quarter past five and valiantly made the trip to the gym... only to discover I was starving and definitely wasn't in any shape for a work-out. Oh well, there's always tomorrow! Besides, shopping counts as exercise, doesn't it? All that bag-carrying and walking must burn a fair amount of calories, after all.

There is a certain irony in my having been cut off twice while speaking to BT regarding the activation of the phone-line in my flat. I was calling from a BT phone too.

In other less world-shattering news, I have signed up for CFA Level III and eagerly await the delivery of the bundle of CFA Institute readings and Schweser study notes. I suspect they will be gathering much dust over the next few weeks.

Since my arrival in London, I've turned into even more of a shopaholic. You'd think it'd be difficult in a place as expensive as London, but what I failed to count on was the fact that I'd be arriving a couple of weeks just before the sales, meaning that I would get my London salary at least twice just before the heavily discounted winter sales commenced.

I'm not planning on listing out what I've bought, although suffice it to say that my booty ranges from undergarments all the way to overcoats. Life for this hedonistic capitalist has been good.

As if the brick-and-mortar stores aren't enough, there's also the ever-present treasure trove of eBay. And now, via DailyCandy, there's StyleShake, a site which allows you to decide your very own dress (selecting colours, cuts and style) and - if you so wish - purchase it from as low as GBP99. That may not sound cheap at all to those back home, but, trust me, in a place where nice dresses which don't look as if they're incredibly cheap and which everyone else and their mother isn't wearing will probably cost in excess of GBP150.

The dress-making process itself will take around 10 days. I haven't purchased anything from there yet as I'm attempting to restrict my expenditure on items I can wear to the workplace, but that's seriously tempting me to break my self-imposed restraints.

Things not to have lying on your desk at work:


















Whoops.

Fortuna POP! presents Club 8 + The Would-Be-Goods + The School at the Luminare turned out to be a more pleasant experience than I anticipated. Not that I thought it would be bad, but it's pretty much the third time in my life I've gone to a concert/gig on my own (the first two being Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Buble, just to illustrate how wide-ranging my musical tastes are) and definitely the first time I've been to such an intimate venue by myself.

The Luminaire, apparently one of the best music venues in London according to Time Out, was very cozy; I didn't feel threatened in the least being an obviously lone female there. It's also not so incredibly warm that I had to hang my coat up in the cloakroom (not because I was stingy, but because I didn't figure out till after the gig that the musical merchandise area was also the cloakroom). No food was served although if you arrive early enough, I imagine you can eat at The Kilburn, the restaurant below the venue, which looks pretty interesting based on the web site alone. The bar served a number of beers - as do all bars in London - but I chose to nurse a single Corona (GBP3.20) the whole night as the merchandise store was cash-only. Apologies for that, guys, but I didn't want to lose my spot on the floor just because I had to use the facilities.

I'll admit going for the gig by myself wasn't as easy as I made it sound, but the venue was quite welcoming, even if I didn't talk to anyone else. And being there, listening to the kind of music that friend back home (as well as some TV shows, such as The O.C.) had introduced me too... well, it was a little bittersweet. I was glad to be there, but it hurt to not have that friend there with me.


I arrived at The Luminaire around 8.15 pm, grabbing a Cornish pasty from a nearby Costcutters to eat for dinner (thereby undoing all the good of my vegetarian Wednesday), hoping I had arrived in time to catch The School, which had been described as somewhat reminiscent of The Pipettes. The band - well, rather, a one-woman project of Liz of The Loves with some additional members, I guess - came on at around 8.30 pm. Their music was quite nice on the ear, rather, well, twee sounding (at the risk of sounding pretentious, which I'm not, really). Among the songs they played were Valentine (their new single, scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day, oddly enough) and Kiss in the Snow (their Christmas and New Year single, which is really nice and sweet and Christmas-sy but not overly so).


Next up was The Would-Be-Goods, which I gathered was a Luminaire regular. The lead singer, Jessica, had just regained her voice the day before, so the effects were still apparent. The bass drum was also a little on the strong side, so even though I was quite near the front, her vocals were sometimes overpowered completely. I didn't like them as much as I liked The School, but, overall, a pretty decent band.


After that was the main act everyone had been waiting for - Club 8. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know a thing about Club 8 except that a certain friend of mine really loves them, and he told me that I ought to go see them when I mentioned they were playing in London while going through a gig guide of what's on in this city. The first thought I had was - it's a really large group as there were six people on stage. I hadn't realised that they're primarily a duo and had probably added some people just for performing purposes. In any case, yes, I thought it was a large group and also wondered why, if they were from Sweden, only one third of them had blond hair. I notice things like that.

But, I digress.

The duo seemed a little shy and reticent at first, but after a few songs, they started interacting with the crowd a bit more. I got the impression main singer Karolina was a little overwhelmed by the crowd and their warm response to the band coming on. Rather sweet, really. There was also a nice moment when Johan, the other member of the duo, got some laughs when he said, in his quaint Swedish way, "I would like to thank The School for borrowing me this guitar. I am quite getting into it. Might keep it."

Club 8's choice of songs was quite varied that night. They played a number from their previous albums including Everlasting Love and Love in December (a song which Karolina indicated was a song she both loves and hates as she recognises a bit of herself in the lyrics) and at least three from their most recent album, The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming (which gets released in the UK tomorrow, I believe): Whatever You Want, Jesus, Walk With Me, and Heaven. The encore consisted of Johan singing Saturday Night Engine (telling the people in the crowd who were obviously way more familiar with the band's work that he wasn't going to sing The Smiths).

Overall, I found their sound very nice and dreamy; some songs were a little melancholic and wistful while others were kind of cheerful in a slightly jangly kind of way. The one song which really captured me was Jesus, Walk With Me, a song which I felt had it all: a great tune, incredible vocals and fantastic lyrics. The melody starts off simple and delicate and Karolina's vocals are really wistful and yearning. I loved the lyrics as well with the chorus going, "Fool me into believing/I don't care if you're deceiving me/I wouldn't want it any other way/'Cos then I'd only stay the same" before kicking into the second verse, still wistful and questioning with "If God made me/Would Jesus save me?" I can't quite put into words why I loved the tune but suffice it to say that the band's performance left me breathless, and I ended up buying the album simply based on the strength of that song.

Whatever You Want and Heaven, in contrast to Jesus, Walk With Me, are all together happier tunes. Definitely tunes for summer, as opposed to the cold, grey winter we're having now. They kind of reminded me of Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folk, nicely happy and jangly.

All in all, it was a great night. I'd travelled for close to an hour from my workplace to get to the venue, and had another hour to go before I got home, but it was worth it. The price was great - under GBP9 inclusive of the booking fee, and I ended up going home with seven CDs: Elefant - Happy New Year 2008 (four songs including The School - Kiss in the Snow and My Little Airport - Por and Macho Got Married (a Cantonese (!) indie ditty)), Club 8 - The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming and a grab bag of five albums from Where It's At Is Where you Are for a fiver.

If you have the chance to go catch Club 8 or The School (apparently, Club 8 will be performing in Singapore on January 23rd), you really ought to go catch them. I can't see how anyone would fail to fall in love with their sound, especially if you love indie, twee or dream pop.

Related Links:
Club 8 - MySpace
Pitchfork: Club 8 - Jesus, Walk With Me
Pitchfork reviews Club 8 - The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming
The School - MySpace
The Would-Be-Goods' Official Web-Page

I was completely vegetarian yesterday – not on purpose, mind you – and by the time (late) dinner came round, I was feeling the craving for some good, old-fashioned meat. I attribute this to my being Chinese. I can’t imagine the idea of not eating meat (especially my beloved char siew and siew yoke) for a week, much less for a lifetime (although there was a period of two months when I first arrived in London when I didn’t eat any meat whatsoever and ended up losing two to three kg before I decided meat was indeed safe to eat).

In any case, as I couldn’t find anything appealing to eat in my staff cafeteria (which had, among other things, a bastardised version of sayur lodeh), I decided to opt on the safe side and eat vegetarian pasta and salad for lunch. I’d become rather hungry by the time I left the office at 8 pm, but valiantly decided I would go back to my place and check out some of the restaurants around there, which is renowned for having nice, affordable eating places.

However, I hadn’t counted on my not feeling like Indian or Chinese and so, after wandering around for close to half an hour, I decided on eating at Rootmaster, a relatively new ‘bustaurant’ (double-decker bus converted into a restaurant) near me, not knowing that it was a restaurant devoted to serving organic, vegetarian food. Rootmaster even served organic beer, wine, juices and cola!

The concept was rather cute. As it’s winter now, we decided to eat on the upper deck as opposed to the tables located outside. While cosier, it meant that whenever anyone walked up the stairs, or across the upper deck, the floor would sway, not enough to inconvenience us, but definitely enough such that we felt it.

The menu was seasonal, with plenty of winter vegetables on offer. I wasn’t particularly swayed by any of the items on offer (not because of the choices, but because I really did crave some meat) and decided on a mixed filo lentil purse served with garlic polenta and seasonal vegetables drizzled with chilled gravy (£10). My dining companion decided on the dish I had originally intended to get: the tofu tower consisting of pan-roasted tofu served with crispy wontons and coconut curried vegetables (£9 + £1.50 for rice). As far as I could tell, this turned out to be the most popular dish of the night as every table around us ended up ordering one of these. We also had a plate of olives (£2.50) to start off with, while my companion had a bowl of carrot and coriander soup which came served with freshly baked bread (£4).

The olives were fantastic. I am not too fond of olives as I usually find them a bit salty but these were not salty in the least. They were nicely succulent. I don’t know where they were from – somewhere in Italy, according to our waitress, though she didn’t quite know which part – but if I ever find out, I’m definitely going to get some if I’m anywhere near that part.

The soup was nicely piquant; it reminded me of a slightly spicy pumpkin soup. I have not had carrot and coriander soup before, but I definitely didn’t expect it to taste like this. The bread was incredibly delicious. It was slightly sweet, had a nice soft crust and was, quite possibly, the best bread I have ever eaten.

The filo lentil purse was done quite well. I liked that the broccoli and cauliflowers (the seasonal vegetables) were served just crunchy enough so that the goodness of the vegetables was preserved, and yet not so hard that it was difficult to eat. It may seem like a simple thing to do, but I’ve eaten a fair amount of mushy broccoli so I do note these things. The garlic polenta was not overwhelmingly garlicky which was good, and the chilled gravy was awesome. I don’t know what was in it, and in the faint candlelight, it looked almost purplish so I suspect it may have been pulverised aubergine, but no matter, it was delicious.

My companion’s tofu tower tasted like a slightly spicy korma. I love kormas, so, quite naturally, thought this tasted rather nice as well.

By the end of the meal, I found myself surprisingly full. I didn’t expect vegetarian food to be this filling, although the downside was that I found myself incredibly hungry the following morning even after eating breakfast. I guess my stomach’s just not used to eating healthily!

The service at Rootmaster was excellent; the waitress came by to inform us of items not on the menu shortly after we sat ourselves down, and also came by to check on us after our food had been served. In line with the whole hippy-ish feel of the restaurant, tipping is optional (it’s stated that “tipping is sexy” on the menu and your bill).

As you can tell, I had a pleasant dining experience in an unusual dining venue. Would I come back here again? In spite of my carnivorous leanings, hell yeah! Our overall bill for two came up to £35 inclusive of two drinks and tips. For food and service of this quality in central London, that’s amazingly affordable.

Rootmaster
Address: Elys Yard, Old Truman Brewery, Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QL
Tel: +44-79-1238-9314
URL: http://www.root-master.co.uk/

Related
Bloomberg review

It looks like the first few months of 2008 will be quite a music-laden quarter for me. I'll be going to see Club 8 at the Luminaire this Thursday and plan to see Stars at Koko at the end of this month, followed by Underworld at the end of February, and DJ Shadow + Cut Chemist in mid-March. Somewhere in there, I also have James Holden and the Border Community at The End in mid-February, and of course, some other gigs I have listed to keep in mind if I have the time.

I just wish I had some music-loving friends (with similar music tastes, of course) here as well... or rather, just the one...

Happy New Year!

May all of your dreams and wishes come true!