ON DEC 2 at around 7.45 pm, I went to Suntec City Mall Galleria Level 1 to redeem a Sasha's bear as I had spent the minimum of $500 with my OCBC credit card during the promotional period.

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'Bear' in mind that the OCBC's staff auntie is a condemned person. 'Bear' in mind she is worthless even to live. 'Bear' in mind that OCBC is about to shut down due to weak financials.

Dear friends ,

Take my advise .
Dont borrow from the bank , be it $1 .

When you lose your job , you will lose your mortgaged house .
I learned this lesson 20 years ago

I think the writer has not told the entire story. The writer should at least explained why the Charge Slip had the word DUPLICATE on it. This would help readers understand the situation better.

To add on top of the nasty incident I had on 2/12/2008: Instead of resolving the issue on the spot, they refer me to call OCBC 18003633333. When I asked Shermane, who is the frontline customer service officer attending to me, if it was a 24 hours hotline; she just blankly told me she had no idea. In addition, it took me 3 attempts to get through the line and when I finally managed to reach a customer service officer by the name of Jane, 30 minutes had lapsed. The waiting time is very long considering OCBC claims to be an established bank in Singapore.

Details of the phone conversation on 2/12/2008: I explained the situation to Jane for about 20 minutes. Same thing, not much help can she offer to me and she mentioned that another customer service officer will attend to me on 03.12.2008 as she will be off on that day. Moreover, she mentioned that my redemption is subjected to approval by management if I cannot get back my customer’s copy charge slip. I asked for a direct line to higher management but was told that there is no such line available to attend to me. Being a reputable bank how is it possible I cannot relate my case directly to higher management? On a scale of 1-5, 5 being excellent for OCBC phone-banking services in its SMS survey, I simply give it a 0.

As such, I went down to Soo Kee Jewellery (the merchant) at Orchard to verify if the charge slip I am holding is the merchant’s copy. At Soo Kee Jewellery, the charge slip that Soo Kee Jewellery is holding had the word “merchant’s copy” and hence the charge slip I am holding is indeed the customer’s copy.

By the time I had clarified that I am indeed holding the customer’s copy, it’s already past 9pm. The redemption booth had closed and I cannot make any further enquiry.

Hi whtangoo8, normally for a credit card transaction, there will be 2 copies, 1 stating merchant's copy printed on the charge slip (kept with merchant) and the other one either the word "customer's copy" or "duplicate" printed on the charge slip (kept with customer). It just happen on my transaction, my customer's copy had the word "duplicate" printed on it instead of "customer's copy". I believe if you check some of your customer's copy charge slips, they will have the word "duplicate" printed on it.

In anycase, if not for this promotion, normally for a customer, it does not matter if I get a charge slip with the word "customer's copy" or "duplicate" printed on it right? I would not have to insist the merchant to "die die" to print again a charge slip with "customer's copy" printed on it right?

In anycase, here are some points I want to highlight:

1. As an OCBC customer service officer, how could they do not know that a charge slip with the word “duplicate” can be a customer’s copy too?
2. What is the blocking point for the redemption? I still need to show my IC and credit card to prove my identity. So inflexible rules.
3. If this promotion is about “OCBC Credit Cards is making Christmas that much more special for you and your love ones with an array of exclusive gift to redeem”, do it graciously. In the end, I need to make extra calls to OCBC, extra trips to verify with my merchant and wasting my precious time. This is indeed a very bad experience for me with OCBC. Time and money are wasted for the trips and phone calls.
4. Why is there double standard? If you allow someone with a “duplicate” charge slip from NTUC to redeem and not from other merchants, is this fair? Furthermore, if you promised to call the customer to explain on the double standard on 03.12.2008 attended by another customer service officer by the name of Kramesh, please do so. Till today, there is no clarification on this. The trust in OCBC is no longer there.
5. Similarly, a complaint is lodged through OCBC’s website but till today, there is no reply. So what is the point of having customer’s feedback option constructed in the website?
6. For such a simple redemption, this could be resolved by the ground senior customer service supervisor, rather then go through few levels of red tapes / management.
7. Please improve your customer services.

I would be worried if "higher management" needs to attend to something so small like a redemption issue. I'd rather they spend more time doing 'management things' rather than micro-manage. The request to speak to 'higher management' is so typical of unreasonably demanding customers.

So if there's a water leak that my town council repeatedly can't solve, do I ask for a direct line to MM Lee? Gimme a break.

Having said this, I agree with the writer (although not with the emotional response, which to be fair, may be triggered off by the less-than-desirable customer dis-service) that OCBC really needs to buck up on customer service (assuming that everything that the writer wrote is true).

You went through all this trouble for a sasha bear?