Some Singapore Pics

Apparently I didn’t take very many pictures in Singapore although I did take, like, five of a bird trying to eat a rope so I turned it into an animated gif. Because I have refined aesthetic sensibilities like that.

Are you ready for some animated gif action? Do note the adorable turtle.

Oh, man. People were filming the LAMEST things in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This one looked like a terrible, melodramatic music video.

Can't you just feel the sadness and the intensity?

A more appealing part of the Gardens.

We still liked this bizarro building even after we found out it was a casino. Also, right when we got to Sg, the slash and burn agriculture in Indonesia started up for the season. Very hazy!

Abstract view of our hotel pool

Will an angry blog post lead to a refund?

I have spent the last few weeks in customer service purgatory. To give a quick summary, I booked a hotel room for a night in Singapore using Lonely Planet’s hotel/hostel booking service. The next day, I realized that I already had lodging, canceled the reservation through their online system, and confirmed the cancellation with the hotel.

Ten days later, I went online and saw that I had been charged for the hotel room by Expedia or Hotels.com or Travelnow or some other ridiculous middleman. So I contacted customer service and spelled out what I thought was a very cut-and-dry situation and included copies of the relevant email communication.

Apparently, I was wrong and have spent the last few weeks taking an increasingly indignant tone with them. Where I was polite but firm in email number one, I admit that I flipped out when one of their “customer service” representatives told me that I should have canceled over the phone even though all of their communication encouraged canceling online. The most recent annoyance was receiving an email seven days ago saying that they would be looking into the matter and would be in touch within 72 hours. Guess what? No follow up (again) and no refund. Bullshit. That’s why I’m posting the email exchanges below for my entertainment and for yours.

Oh, and by the way, I’m never using Lonely Planet’s Hotel & Hostel booking site again and you shouldn’t either. It’s a shame because it was a pleasant interface and seemed to work well. Until it didn’t and their partners refused to abide by normal laws of customer service and refunds. Some of those laws include: replying within 24 hours, reading the emails and replying to specific content in said emails, acknowledging the specific complaints and concerns of the customer, and taking responsibility for your company’s mishandling of financial transactions and customer service. Look, sometimes the customer isn’t always right but 1) In this case, I’m right, and 2) Sometimes you need to act as if they’re right so they don’t trash you on their blog and never use your service again. Either way, this was a major fail on the part of Expedia, TravelNow, Hotels.com, and Lonely Planet.

Opportunity to get involved

Milaap, one of the many organizations I've learned about while in Southeast Asia

I am WAY behind on all the blog posts that I’ve been intending to write but I wanted to share an opportunity I learned about while in Singapore.

The students and young professionals who attended my presentation at NUS were awesome and when I asked them to name a few local social enterprises they liked, one mentioned that he had started his own. This organization, Milaap, works with field partners to develop a customized microcredit program that delivers basic services to the poor. Once the programs are approved, they are funded through Milaap’s online platform. If you’re interested in getting involved with their work, they have two open positions that they hope to fill by December 2010 plus ongoing volunteer opportunities. Here are the details:

“1. Social Impact Study: Go to the places where Milaap gives loans, meet the borrowers, and study what has changed. Write blog posts and share stories about it. Location: Bangalore and in the field.

2. Lender Community Manager: This is basically a full time twitter/facebook/blog/email job. You take care of communication with our users/lenders/facebook fans/twitter followers. Your primary job is to increase the interaction with the community. Location: Anywhere with an internet connection.”

For more information, contact Milaap at feedback@milaap.org.

Why won’t you let me pay you?

I realize that I may sound like a stereotypical American in this post but I just need to take a moment to vent.

When we first moved into our current accommodation, we asked if there were laundry facilities on site or if there was someone on staff we could pay to do our laundry. The answer was the latter so we took our laundry down the next day. Turns out, this was supposed to have been an under-the-table arrangement since they had technically stopped offering laundry service. (Maybe that would have been a helpful thing to mention?) Fortunately for us, they agreed to start it up again and we had clean laundry at the end of the day for a fair price.

On Monday, we took our laundry down again and spent all day at the apartment waiting for it to finish. When Dan finally went downstairs to check on it, everyone had left and we had to scrounge through the few remaining clean clothes we had to find something respectable to wear to dinner. The next day, we tracked down the laundry woman and got MOST of our laundry back. The sheets, pillowcases, and towels – the very items that contributed to a larger than average bill – were conspicuously missing. After pointing this out, the items were returned later in the day.

On Friday, Dan went downstairs with another load of laundry in anticipation of our trip to Singapore. He paid, they took the laundry, and we thought it was settled. Instead, the woman who does the laundry came rushing back after him with our clothes and basically said she didn’t feel like doing it today. She would do it on Saturday but it wouldn’t be ready until Monday and she wouldn’t wash underwear. (Note to readers: They use washing machines. We were not asking anyone to hand-wash our underwear.)

This is when I really started getting annoyed. Okay, the customer service had kind of sucked up until this point but at least, eventually, we were getting clean, dry clothes. But when a service is offered and you pay for that service, there’s a reasonable expectation that the service will be performed. On top of that, if it’s really so inconvenient, just charge me more. I’ll pay it. Really. I’m happy to put a price on dependability and convenience. Plus, I’m still thinking in dollars. Take advantage of that! Just take my money and give me clean clothes by the end of the day. You have the facilities, the time, a willing customer, and you claim to offer a service – why wouldn’t you want to be a little enterprising here? It truly boggles my mind.

~

On a semi-related note, we had an experience in South Africa that set off the same this-is-not-how-you-run-a-business indignation with me. We were returning overdue books to the library for Dan’s aunt and she owed a fair amount of money. It turns out we were short one book. Since we had the money for the late fee with us, we offered to pay for the other books while we were there. The response: an unequivocal “no”. They wouldn’t take the money until all of the books were returned since they didn’t have a process for collecting partial late fees. I have to admit that I was incredulous. I probably said something along the lines of “Why don’t you figure out a process to take this money??!! I am trying to give you money that you are owed!”

Let’s just say that this is not how I would handle my business transactions. I would definitely take people’s money PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY OWED IT TO ME.

Singapore!

Come to my presentation!

It feels like all I’ve been doing is working but fortunately next week work and travel are coming together at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (CESP) where I’ll be giving a talk about social enterprise models, social medial, email marketing, and funding opportunities with Changemakers. If you’re in Singapore next week and would like to attend, go to the CESP calendar and click on October 19 for details.

While in town, we’ll also be attending a microfinance event hosted by CESP and a presentation by an Ashoka Fellow from Indonesia. And let’s not forget exploring the city and hopefully taking any friends of friends we can scrounge up out for drinks.

Busy Busy Busy

Things have been incredibly busy since returning to KL. In addition to my speech, there’s been a flurry of work-related excitement and opportunities. Also, we continue to map out various trips. Next up: Melaka for a week starting on Friday, Singapore in mid-October, and hopefully Thailand at the end of October. And now for some pics from Penang!

Pretty typical Georgetown buildings. Fact from guidebook: Penang has one of the largest concentrations of colonial architecture in Asia.

Pigs. Dead pigs.

More dead pigs.

The red lanterns were illuminated the first night we walked by this temple. It was raining and absolutely beautiful.

Will try not to subject you to too many alleyways but there are lots of pretty ones in this part of the world.

Can you tell I'm figuring out how to take pictures at night while not getting mugged at the same time? Luckily, someone's got my back.

I was so captivated by what was going on in these buildings. Printing presses, light manufacturing, benevolent societies - I wanted to invite myself in for a tour.

I love how some places can look so menacing at night yet so benign during the day.

Inside the temple. This reminded me of the walls of pictures at the House of Terror museum in Budapest but I'm sure these people are much nicer than the perpetrators featured there.

We ate at this delicious Punjabi place twice.

Right before a rainstorm in Georgetown.

Hopefully next time we'll have a little more free time. We basically worked all day (and often at night) but it was still nice to go on long strolls and eat good food.

Catching Up

audio ergo sum: music for being (photo by Lucas Werthein but lifted from Ari's facebook page)

I’m lagging behind in general these days. Some dumb virus has been slowing me down and there’s not much I can do about it. But I wanted to give you a quick update on some of the things I’ve managed to do in spite of my pathetic state.

For the Changemakers blog, I interviewed Emily Spivack – a friend of a friend who also happened to enter the Revelation to Action competition – about her organization Shop Well with You and what advice she has for other young entrepreneurs. Also on Friday, Dan and I drove down to New York for my friend Ari’s master’s thesis/music festival. You heard me right. Definitely puts my degree in “Individualized Study/Stuff” to shame.

And on an unrelated note, jauntsetter posted an awesome-sounding culinary experience that I’ll have to check out next time I’m in New York:

“Double Crown’s Nonya Dinners are a tasting menu-type progression of 10 dishes borne from the family-style banquet dining of Singapore and Malaysia ($35 Sundays; $55 other nights; and 2 featured wines for $25/bottle). Chef Brad Farmerie (Public, The Monday Room) and Chef de Cuisine Chris Rendell trekked to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaka, and Joho last year on a Bourdain-like culinary expedition to gather inspiration for their new Nonya menu offerings.” (via WINED & DINED)

That will definitely get me in the mood for this fall!