Praise to Ipoh Immigration Office, Crap to Putrajaya Bullshit

This post is on special request by my wife, because she got so emotional about this so requested me to do special entry. Yes Ma'am!

With my baby boy approaching 16 months now, finally we can start to plan for some trips for ourselves, and also expose him to other part of the world. We wanted to apply passport for him so at least we can bring him to the nearest 'overseas' Singapore. It took us 3 attempts, before we finally manage to get him a Passport! That's crazy considering immigration department in Malaysia has improved tremendously over my last visit, but think we are back to square one.

As both of us are working, so our times are quite limited, and we target to complete the application by Saturday morning. After checking know the opening time, we choose to go to the Kelana Jaya branch, because there is normally where I done my passport. My friends has warned me about crowd and advice me to go Putrajaya instead, but I thought not necessary. As we reached there, we saw a full crowd of people in the entire immigration office, some even have to stand outside. I quickly lined up to get the queue number, and before the queue even start moving, the officer announced "Sistem Tergendala, Harap Maaf", meaning system is down. Everyone don't know what's happening and continue to queue, my wife asked and officer said it's impossible to get the passport within the same day, so we decided to go off as we know our baby wouldnt be able to wait patiently together with us.

As when we decided to leave, my civic then gives us the trouble, engine not able to start, this refer back to my old post. Now you know my frustration. Wasted entire day for this when we got so many things on schedule.

2nd attempt, after Kelana Jaya experience, we finally decided to give Putrajaya branch a try. Long drive and upon reaching there, the building is beautiful from outside, but looks like ghost town. Went inside and it's so run down, really sad seeing our tax money wasted in such manner. Worst, there is only 4 counters and again there is a whole bunch of crowd filling entire tiny room. This time we decided to wait for it, as we couldn't afford to wait another week. We told the officer we got a baby with us, asking for queue number and he give us the number 86, and now serving 02. I went like WTF??? Asked the officer again, roughly how long need to wait, he said 1 hour. I doubted it, but without choice, I brought my family for breakfast and came back, to our horror after 30minutes, the number serving is 04!!! I told my wife, they move 1 number within 15minutes, we need 1,260minutes, that's 21hours! My wife said, let's wait a while more. I observe the counters see what they are doing, and saw they are calling a different set of numbers and all of them are family with young baby. I quickly ask one of the father why his number is different from mine, he told me you must tell the officer that you have a young baby, they will give you priority. I said I told them! I quickly pull my wife to the counter and the officer earlier is no where to sight. The lady told us yes, there is different number for family with baby. And we got 08 instead while it's not serving 04. A big relief, but angry. Just another few minutes after we got our new number, the officer again announce, "Sistem Tergendala, Harap Maaf". WTF!?

We check with the officer again, and he said it's whole Malaysia system problem, no matter where we go, it's the same. Crap, we got to drive all the way back to KL and wasted yet another half day for this crap. What pissed me off is the unprofessional of the officer, all wearing stylish casual wear and chit chatting and laughing behind the counter while hundred of applicants waited impatiently. It's attitude problem, I don't see them working hard trying to resolve the problem and serve the people.

We planned for Ipoh trip, so I told my wife, let's give it another try in Ipoh, she is sceptical about Ipoh immigration office. As we reach Ipoh branch, there is long queue. We quickly lined up and got a special number for baby. To our surprise, there are nearly 20 counters!! And they call our number right after we step in! Within 15 minutes, we got everything settled, and passport is ready within an hour. My wife is so happy and that's when she told me must blog about this! Praising the effectiveness of the Ipoh branch, friendliness of the staff and their professionalism! I felt proud of them as well, considering myself as Ipoh boy. We catch our wonderful and happy breakfast, and the passport is ready for us in 45 minutes instead. The service is 180 degree different from the Putrajaya!

What system is down for entire Malaysia? Crap!
Putrajaya being the capital of the government services, 4 counters and idiot officer? Crap!

Point to note, in Ipoh branch, they are churning our numbers very fast even for normal queue, as we walk away by 10am, the numbers already breached 100+ queue. Talk about effectiveness of Malaysia government, business as usual without any improvements. No wonder everyone is crying for a change in the government, as long as they continue to waste our tax money (My family contributed a lot of tax money, that's why I'm so mad!) they won't be long to stay in the office.

Honda Insurance Package, Like!

Last Saturday my Honda Civic got into flat battery problem, and me and my family is stucked in the town with baby in tow. For those with a young baby in the family, you know my frustration. Reliability and predictability is the main reason why we choose to buy a Honda, but then this happen to me. Without any warning / sign in the morning start, it just refuse to crank at parking lot. My Honda Civic is only 1 year 7 months old and clocking around 29,000km only.



When we bought the car, we took up the Honda Insurance Package as well, which is basically insured by Tokio Marine. Knowing that it should be under warranty, I call up the HIP's emergency number and after some calls, rescue sent from Honda 3S, Tenaga Setia Resources (because they are the nearest service center to my location) arrived after nearly 30 minutes. They jump-started my car, and pointed me over to their service center for battery warranty claim. Reached there and priority is given for insurance claim case, and my car is done within another 30 minutes, while my baby played at the children section in the center.

Although it was a bit hassle, but I overall praise the efficiency and response of the rescue team, particularly immediate attention on my case when I'm in the service center. For those new buyer of Honda car, go along with the Honda Insurance Package, it's integrated insurance with Honda Service Center that prioritise on the customer needs. I'm still a happy customer =)