Services vouchers from discount sites - do they work?

Although am not an obsessed discount voucher sites fan, I do scan these sites for something to buy (or rather some inspiration on what to buy) at least every weekend. Yes, buying stuff do give me joy! Though some look like really good deals, sometimes you can get better prices from Lelong & ebay. Further more, Lelong & ebay merchants send the items out almost immediately after receiving the payments.

Anyhow, you don't get services type of discounts such as restaurants, beauty, home cleaning etc from Lelong or ebay. So very much you still have to fall back to these discount sites. So far I have purchased several restaurant discount vouchers, 1 facial voucher & 1 cleaning services voucher. Never had any problems with the restaurant vouchers as long as I do early bookings. Some food are good, some not...and all these have to do with the restaurants, not the vouchers.

For the facial voucher I got, it was from Facial First (under Bizzy Body) which I redeemed yesterday after having problems finding an available slot for almost a month!

Got a bit pissed when the facial consultant implied that I did not read the treatment details properly which supposedly tailored for acne-ridden people, which I am not. I told them that their description of "prevent blemishes" didn't really imply it has to be acne-ridden, did it?

So after giving her a piece of my mind, we did a cut-down of the treatment so that I did not have to waste the voucher. Oh and as expected, she tried to sell me treatment packages for my high sebum and low moisture skin, which I politely declined.

And the biggest nightmare of all, was the home cleaning service voucher that I purchased from Groupon. The merchant here is One Bright Cleaning Services. Tell you folks, when you see this merchant's name, you should just walk away! This is such an irresponsible merchant.

I bought the voucher early this year and hoped to use their services for pre-Chinese New Year cleaning. They started with a online appointment booking form. They replied me that all the sessions during the period of time were full. Fine, so I made another booking for after the peak period. No reply from them and I had to email them a few times to get a response that they had changed their booking method. Apparently they could not cope with too many vouchers redemption.

So the new arrangement was that they would call you to arrange an appointment. That was in Feb 2013. Up to today which is the expiration of the voucher, no news at all. All my emails were probably routed to trash in their mailbox. Calling was not an option cos they would never pick up.

So I gave up yesterday and contacted Groupon and sent them my email thread with this irresponsible merchant. Groupon was kind enough to refund me and I opted for Groupon credits.

Seriously, how dumb can this merchant be?? If you put up your discounts into all these sites, you should expect that you'll get many purchases right? Isn't that the whole reason why you partner with them in the first place? If you can't cope with the responses, then don't put up discounts!

Anyhow this experience really made me think twice before purchasing any of such services vouchers, except for those restaurant ones.

So do services vouchers work?... I would say Yes... if they are from good & reputable merchants. Even so, please prepare to be patient in getting a convenient slot for yourself. Try to redeem your voucher much earlier and not wait around until almost nearing the expiration date.

There will always be the bad merchants like One Bright Cleaning Services which does not hold the end of their bargain, but in these cases, lets just hope the Discount Voucher sites are more responsible to give us back the refund. At least I know Groupon is.

My new novel from Dan Brown

Yeah...finally got Dan Brown's new novel "Inferno".

I remember how much I liked "The Da Vinci Code" the last time. I practically had to stop myself from reading and go to sleep, only to end up having weird dreams. Then the next 2 novels "Angels & Demons" and "The Lost Symbol" were equally spectacular as well. They were too good that the movies did not do them any justice.

Anyhow, those were ancient history. I bought "Inferno" a few days ago, and I have yet to start reading it. Perhaps I have lost interest in reading, or perhaps the temptation of internet and astro are overshadowing the urge to read.

Frankly I have no idea what "Inferno" is all about, and hopefully that'll add in the suspense when I actually start.

Why so action?

I seriously do not understand what's the problem with some people in my office. We work in the same office and share the same pantry... and there are still bound to be those who seem to just want to ignore you.

They would avoid eye contact at any cost, as if any of those would send them to the fire of hell. Even if there is such contact, they would act as if you are transparent... and any friendly smile from you would just invite a look away. Gosh.... why la so action? Further more, they are not really of a higher position to warrant such a display of snobbishness.

Oh well...I am done trying to be friendly to all these people. Perhaps it's time I show my "action" side to them as well.

First Service

After driving my new Kia Forte for 3 weeks, it has reached the 1000km mark & time to "de-virginised" i.e to go for its first service.

So I chose a work day thinking that I would probably be the only one there. To my surprise when I reached, there were already around 5 cars there for servicing. Couldn't imagine if it's on a weekend.

The girl at the reception gave me the impression that she didn't like her job much or it could be the time of the month. Too bad for her black face, or she could be considered as pretty.

She asked a few basic questions on my car's service history & car issues, and entered all these into her computer. Then told me that the cost will be around RM170+ for the lubricants (discounted price) and to wait for around 2 hours. Hmm....people have been telling me that 1st service would just take a breeze.

So here I am, at the service center, waiting & waiting.

Info that I got from forum is that Fuel Consumption (FC) for new cars are usually high & after a few services, it will get better.

My car's has been at the average of 10.8l/100km which is around 20cents/km on 90% city driving, as in getting caught in the jams. Hopefully FC will get better after this.

Handsome Fella

After the Sierra Glow treatment, my Forte looks so "handsome" according to a female colleague. Too bad she was not saying that about me. :(

Anyhow, here is that handsome fella.

The coating layer also causes water beading... pretty cool to look at.

My love is glowing (Sierra Glow'ing that is!)

I so love love love my new car, the Kia Forte 2.0SX. Such a big upgrade from my old car.

As with any new love, you will be obsessed (slightly or to the extreme, depending on people) and will be more than willing to "invest" on it.

I have to say that I am not extremely obsessed as compared to other Forte owners who are doing so many mods to their cars. I on another hand am more of "where can I get a nice case for my smart key", "what is a nice decoration to put on the dashboard" or "how to change the skin of the head unit" kind of owner. So I do not think I have been spending a lot of money on enhancing my new love.. until today.

Today, I sent my Forte for coating.

So what is coating and why does our car need it? Well...I am not a car person and from what I gathered, coating is to apply a layer of semi-permanent substance onto the car's paint to preserve it. Besides preserving its beauty, it also makes the car easier to wash & maintain... and that is the main reason that attracted me.

After surveying from forums and asking friends who coated their cars, I settled for Sierra Glow mainly for its reasonable price as well as good reviews. If you are a Forte owner and a member of MyForte Club, you get a discount too!

So after making the appointment, off I went to get my love coated today. I reached the shop in USJ around 9.35am (they open at 10am) due to my kiasu'ness. Well, Mr Choong (the director) did tell me that it's first come first serve. An Optima was already there when I arrived. So got more kiasu people than me, ok?

 

Waited a little while and Mr Choong arrived. Nice & friendly guy who checked my car and told me that I have to be careful with cement dust. Yeah...a lot of construction happening at my residential area as well as nearby my office. If not cleaned often, these cement dust will harden with moisture & will be difficult to get off.

After chatting with him for a while, his staff arrived, I passed them my key and they started to wash my car.

 

Mr Choong proceeded to explain the benefits of coating vs waxing & polishing, and his product. Well these are something which I have already read from his website, but it's good that he ensures his customers know what they are getting.

After that, he got me to sign a form and then I left the vicinity as I didn't want to wait 5-6 hours (as stated in the website) there. Around 4 hours later, I received his SMS informing me that my car is done. Not bad!... 4 hours instead of 5-6 hours. My car must have been easy to coat as it is new and without scratches yet. 

When I got back to Sierra Glow, there my love was... glowing like a diamond in the sky (sorry, I couldn't resist using Rihanna's hit).

 

Love love love it!

Sierra Glow's coating comes with a 5 years warranty and in cases where the coating diminishes, they will do touch ups for you. I shall wait and see on how long the coating will lasts, but I can't deny how I love love love the glow on my Forte now.

Sierra Glow (M) Sdn Bhd

No: 26 Jalan Industri USJ 1/3,
Taman Perindustrian USJ 1,
47600 Subang Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia.

Contact person: Mr Choong: +6016 - 217 0312
Email: sierraglow@gmail.com