Frantic Calls!

Have you ever received a phone call from a certain bank or company regarding about your late payments and so forth credit cards and etc. . ? Well, I did! The story started when mum called me up.

And as usual I’ll call her back because she was using prepaid and mine was ‘registered’ (postpaid). Prepaid credits seem to finish off quickly. The postpaid ones seem a bit convenient for me. So, I called her back! Her voice wasn’t the usual friendly and cozy one. She didn’t even say the warm ‘Hi’ that I usually received whenever she picks up the call. I could hear the trembling and stuttering at the end of each words. But she acted as if she was cool. Which is a good technique to hide the stress. I was in a confused state and started asking what the matter was. She told me that an Indian guy(didn’t had the chance to get the name) called up at home. Her voice gave another stutter. I was like- theeeeeen?????

She continued slowly, and told me the guy REALLY wanted to talk to me regarding about the book I have bought during my practical days in St. Michael, which was ‘The Book Of Knowledge’. It costs me around Rm 3192. I remembered about the price but what really pop the balloon out of me was, ‘I had paid and had settled all the payments in December’ and was still being hunted about the payments.

I was really pissed off at that juncture. I wouldn’t want to pay another RM 1330. If it was really my fault of course I would but I shouldn’t be blamed just because of someone’s mistake in their company(not to be mentioned).

Without giving a chance for my neurons to reach my brain, I recalled of a friendly lady in the company. I quickly called her up-(Caroline) who was the one responsible selling the book to me. I asked for her advice on what I should do and if possible get everything nailed down. I endeavored myself to remain calm. Unfortunately my voice couldn’t hide the emotion. I was facing a windy and stormy havoc. I felt I was trapped in a maze and couldn’t find my way out. She advised me to better check whether I have all the receipts with me to show as the evidence of my payment. I went like-receipt?! I am at the dead end of the road! For sure I am! Kill me somebody!

Oh!Gosh! I have no idea where those receipts are now. Shoot! I just lost a few valuable and pricy lil papers which was written by roman letters on it and signed by the money collector’s name. Ugh! What an ugly day for me! This is just not happening to me….Arrrrrrrrrgh!

The guy from KL shortly called me right after I ended up the conversation with Caroline. I was giving the second thought of picking the call but if I didn’t; this problem would never end and there would be no solution to it. I pressed the receiver green button and conducted myself in a very good manner and politely giving a very nice ‘Hi, this is Felly.’ He was friendly and inviting and replied, ‘Hi! Felly! This is Benard( I didn’t get to hear the name clearly Benarn, Benard or Bernen) I was calling him Mr Benard trying to give a silent /d/ sound there so it wouldn’t be very obvious if I did mistakenly called his name. I wasn’t hoping for the cordial 50 seconds intro. I directly told him the problem I was facing and we REALLY took a long chat about the matter. I didn’t know that we have been talking for the past 15 minutes. To make it short, our conversation leads into a conclusion whereby he will try his best to do whatever he could and trace down the culprit behind the scene.

Before ending our 15 minutes conversation, I managed to ask. “Are you going to charge me over the phone call you made?” He replied in surprised, “Oh! No, no, no dear! I won’t do that, but if you really want me to top up your credit, I sure could do that for you.” I smiled on the other line. And continued sheepishly “ Oh! I thought you would, cuz most banks and certain customer services would charge for the calls they made.” He gave a laugh at my innocent joke which wasn’t a joke for me.

Moral of the story: Make sure to keep receipts after 3 years in time. Be wise to choose receipts you think is important for you. If not, you’ll be having a compact wallet full with receipts instead of money

SO, you guys out there! Beware and be careful. Things might not go what we expected. Always be prepared for the uncertainties.