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Sunday, September 23, 2012

No More DIY Computers For Us!

Hardwarezone forum members often advised us to DIY should we need a PC. The bros there offers helpful technical specifications and contacts of good DIY vendors.

Perhaps our sour experience with a DIY PC would have been very different if we had used the contact sources provided by Hardwarezone.

Unfortunately, we did not have a chance go to the place they recommended.  While hunting for a proper DIY shop, we got waylaid by the boss of PC G****, who convinced us to patronise his outlet instead.  He told us that he has another shop upstairs.  However, it turns out that he was only acting as a middleman for ComLab who charged us S$688, including paying extra for the GTX9400 graphic card.  With every level of Sim Lim Square having more than one repair shops, no customers would want to pay a commission just to be brought to any shop.  This was one unscrupulous guy. 

The day we met him marked the beginning of one of the most trying PC experience one ever has to be put through.  The way he operated led us on a trial of merry go-round. Instead of enjoying the pros of DIY PCs, we got the downsides in full glory!

In a nutshell:

The original DIY PC suffered many intermittant shutdowns from Day 1.
Forcing a repair immediately.
This is where the shocker comes.
Once a repair is activated, the original parts jsut paid for, is stripped and replaced with 2nd-hand inferior parts taken off other PCs.

Yet at the time of purchase, we were told that each part we paid for carries its own warranty, and that new parts would be given by the respective brand suppliers in case of repairs.

Since our expensive parts were switched, we demanded for it back - prompting yet another "repair".

Each subsequent repair only got worst, because every time a part has to be switched, it becomes more and more inferior in model or specifications. 

Apparently, this is a common modus operandi at Sim Lim Square.  At a recent IT fair @ Suntec, Harvey Norman's floor manager warned me not to DIY any PC at Sim Lim Square, relating that he "kenna kotok" (Malay for "got conned") by a shop there who switched his expensive graphic board and mother board for cheap ones during a repair.  Once they found out what his line of work was, they quickly reinstated the parts they stole (ahem!) from him.

We weren't so lucky.  

The repair work itself was also exceedingly sloppish:-
Screws loose.
USB ports which sink into the casing when something is plugged into it.
DVD players placed upside-down in the CPU slot.
Power button that refused to come on.
Hard disk collapse.
Fans that sounds as loud as an aeroplace taking off.
Microsoft Windows reinstalled with "non-genuine" prompting.Malware and viruses.
We do not understand why PC G**** could not simply effect the warranty, since we had carefully kept the original boxes (of parts like DVD, motherboard, graphic card, hard disk, etc.  Each time, we offered the warranty cards, we were told "No need". 
Each 'repair' took longer and longer, first weeks, then months.  One of their delay tactics is to say that there is no spare parts.  The DIY PC was literally parked at PC G**** shop almost throughout the whole span since May 2009, the date of purchase.

By September 2012, we came to the realization that further repairs with PC G**** isn't going to cut it.  In the end, it was not even about technical issues or $, but how many more hard knocks you want to subject yourself to.  Even if no repair fees were involved, there is a limit to how much longer we want to keep hauling the DIY up & down to Sim Lim Square, and how much more transportation costs to rack up. 

To make the customers more of an easy con, the boss and the staff all do not fit the ready profile expected of a hooligan.  The boss looks like a priest, with English so perfect you'd wonder if he's in the right occupation.  The staff looks pleasant yet when the topic turns to the PC itself, all sense of propriety and civility evaporates. Mocking and insults became the order of the day.  They simply didn't like it when you want to check if the repair is functioning before bringing the set home. When everything is straightforward, you don't get to witness the ugly side of the infamous Sim Lim Square service.  When something needs working on, then we realise that hooligan attitude still rules in Sim Lim Square.

A hair-tearing experience.


UPDATE
February 2013

We've donated the PC to someone who is more in need. 
The fan noise was so horrid we couldn't donate until we get it rectified.
We rang a technician who used to work with Harvey Norman.  
He replaced the offending noisy fan with an Intel one.  No more noise. 


Upon opening up to switch the fan, it was confirmed that the replacement parts were old parts that had been cleanred to look like new.  Likely taken off other PCs sent for repair. 

Many more victims in the works for them to con.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Tingkat Meals

For small eaters, tingkat meal can often substitute as the main meal of the day.  For bigger families, or those with bigger appetites, tingkat delivered meals makes for a good complement to home-cooked meals, especially if your home cooking resources (and that includes time to cook and outings to shop for groceries) are limited.

We tried this in 2008, and since then, the options are much much more; the playing field in food delivery (in Singapore) now becoming more competitive than before.  Guess there is money in it to be made.  Other than tingkat meal delivery, there are now also vendors specialising in restaurant and food outlet delivery.

In Tingkat delivery, the food is delivered to the doorstep in tall metal containers of various tiers (tiffin carriers, called tingkats in Malay, meaning "level / floor / rank").  There is an option to have it delivered in microwave-safe plastic containers, at an extra charge.

During the various trials offered by the caterers (trials are for 5-day to 10-day food delivery), most of the caterers deliver the food in microwave-safe plastic containers instead of in tingkat (tiffins).

User review of Tingkat delivery food (3 Dishes+1 Soup / or 4 Dishes /for 2 persons):

2008: Jessie Catering

Friendly, good service.

However, once a week, we get what we called "dud" meals, where the food is not up to expectations.

2008: Select Catering

Food is not as nice as when they catered for it in town.

We also get "dud" meals once too often.

The chicken was one tough goner.

2012: Kim's Kitchen

Portion was small because their trial run for 5 days is the cheapest @ S$40 for 2 persons.

Hopefully, portion improves in size during actual runs.

Taste is full of flavour, so for those who like food this way, it is good.

2012: Neo Gardens

Portion during trial was the largest, but they charged S$116.60 for 10 days.

Taste is pleasant, some may find it plain but for daily meals, some like it light in flavour.

This is the one we picked for the actual run (S$288.90 for 20 days).

However, disappointed to find the portion seems to have shrunk in the actual run.

Food still taste pleasant.

In the trial run, our tingkat was delivered to the wrong address.

It ended up being delivered by a neighbour after 8 p.m., hours after it was hung on the door at 3.30 p.m.  The food was cold, not as fresh.

The manager promised an add-on dish as compensation.

But didn't get that extra dish?!

Now in the actual run, our tingkat was again delivered to the wrong address. This despite alerting during order. We did received a tingkat this time, but the label address shows it belongs to someone else.  Unfortunately, we didn't know that and had already opened all the tiers.

Not very good, this wrong delivery, as other folks may likewise have opened it up to "view".

The other surprise was that while they allow customers to choose "no seafood / no spice / etc.", we cannot request for "no pork" as it is a "meat dish", according to the CS.  A disappointment as there are folks who do not consume pork due to religious or health reasons, and wish for it to be replaced with another non-pork dish, vegetables or otherwise.

A bit of flexibility would have been appreciated.

2012:  Hilltop KB

This was highly recommended by someone in one of the Singapore forum boards.

So we enrolled for the trial, S$110 for 10 days of 4 dishes (no soup this time as all the soup dish in the trial runs are laden with MSG).

Oh, yucks, we knew we were done for during the 1st day itself.

That first dish tasted like something a volunteer cook at a temple used to whip up - and I think that tasted better.  There was just something in the oil used - one smell and we were done for.

They wouldn't allow a refund, but did accord us a smaller mercy of reducing the 10-day agony to 5-days.  In one of the tiers in the first day, was a fish dish which was the kind of "dory" fish which we hate (the melted kind, that is a poor cousin of the real dory fish).  For the real stuff, head for Fish & Co.  We were shocked to find this agony extended during the next 5-days, when we received the same "melted" fish not once but twice more.  Most caterers make it a point not to repeat the dish in the same week.  When we called in to prevent the same fish popping up during the last and the fifth day, we were told it was our mistake not to request for a "no-fish" tingkat.  But how?  We love fish!  Just didn't expected fish to ever turn out this way.  We were also convinced that the fish was prepared different way, and that our eyes, our tongues, our hearts was deceiving us into thinking it was prepared the same way.  Oh mercy, we must be more pathetic creatures than the fish.

2012: Four Seasons (name seems to have changed to Gourmet City)

Food is okay.

Chicken was old chicken, tough.

We prefer Neo Gardens / Kim's Kitchen more.

2012: Mom's Cooking

Their price is double that of other tingkat caterers.

We keep hearing their food tastes better.  However, we skip the trial run as it appears from the menu that they have a lot of pork dishes.

If you love pork, it may be worth a try.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Enjoy Life!

 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Popeyes The Chicky

Was busy rushing work when boy-boy asks for delivery from Popeyes.

Quickly yahoo-ed "Popeye" and clicked "popeye.com" in error.  Out pops good ole Popeye-the-Sailer-man.  Hey hello there, haven't seen him in quite a while.  "Spinach is healthier," reminded Popeye.


"Aiyo.  Use google is better." boy-boy said.

I clicked the next link "popeyes.com", and out pops the chicken site.


"What's with the Coupon tab?" I asked.

"Aiyo, that's the USA site!   You gotta click .com.sg!" boy-boy said.

Aiyo-yo.  Next link, please.

At last!
See the cute Singapore flag emblem on the right side of the website.


We actually ordered Fish & Calamari, rather than Chicken.

Delivery of $4.50 waived up to 31st October 2012.