Tuesday 31 March 2015

Cessation of Sky Fitness operations

Purchased a 60min massage at Sky Fitness from http://www.deal.com.sg only to realise that Sky Fitness at Harbourfront closed it's doors for business and operations from 20 March 2015. The landlord, Mapletree, has decided to repossess the facility from this date due to rental owed.

Upon ringing up the Sky Fitness contact number from the deal voucher, nobody picked up the phone. I was horrified and frustrated at why deal.com would partner and sell deals for a merchant that has gone out of business. I am still waiting for deal.com to refund me the money and it baffles me as to why deal.com still continues to run the deal for Sky Fitness even as at today! This is very irresponsible as I believe customers would not be able to redeem their vouchers.

Sunday 29 March 2015

Phuket trip itinerary

Air tickets : S$159 per pax return tickets via JetStar
Departs from Singapore on 27 Mar Fri morning 8.25am, lands in Phuket 9.20am (local time)
Departs from Phuket on 29 Mar Sun afternoon 12.40pm, lands in Singapore 3.35pm (local time)

Accommodation : The Senses Resort Patong Beach
Booked via Agoda, Deluxe sea view with breakfast, twin sharing. After Ciitibank discount, total price was S$295. Per pax S$147.50

Review : (1) Location - Not exactly right smack in the heart of bustling Patong but Jungceylon was well within walking distance. The road leading to Jungceylon was well lined with shops, for the 2 of us female travellers, we felt that the walk was safe and there was certainly no fear of dangers lurking in dark alleys. The resort is no where near the beach and our room only had a distant view of the beach.

(2) Room - Clean, bright and spacious. For the price paid, it was certainly good value. Do note that the resort does not provide toothbrush and toothpaste.The period when we visited was really hot and since the resort only provides one key card per room, whenever we left the room and plucked the key card out, the air-conditioning will stop. So each time we returned to the room, it was warm and stuffy.

(3) Breakfast spread was very limited. Fortunately we only stayed there for 3 days as 2 days of breakfast eating the same spread was getting really boring.

Airport transfer : PhuketConnectTransfers.com
THB1,500 for 2-way transfer from airport to resort and resort to airport via sedan
THB1,000 for 2-way transfer from resort to weekend night market and back to resort

Massage : Sovrana Spa, located right opposite Jungceylon
THB1,000 for 2 hr session comprising of body scrub, aromatheraphy massage, foot massage and complimentary herbal tea.

Seafood dinner with sea view : Laimai Courtyard Restaurant
THB2,050 for
4 fresh oysters
Baked mussels
Pizza
2 jumbo prawns (fresh, price by weight)
2 non-alcoholic beverages

Here is briefly how our Phuket trip went -

Day 1. Arrive at resort, drop-off luggage and went for massage.
Grocery shopping at Big C
Lunch before heading back to resort for a rest.
Dinner and explored Jungceylon/Patong area

Day 2. Breakfast followed by a short rest before lazing by the pool.
Private taxi picked us up at 4pm to head to weekend market.
Shopping and dinner at weekend market
Private taxi fetched us at 9pm to head back to resort

Day 3. Breakfast and packing before airport transfer picked us up at 10am.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Review of bikini line IPL at BioSkin, Tampines

Groupon deal - For $88, you get 12 Bikini IPL Hair Removal Sessions (worth $3852).

Q : Did 12 sessions produce a permanent result?
A : No. After 12 sessions I still have very normal hair growth on the targeted area.

 Q : How was the overall experience at BioSkin?
A : Mediocre.

Inconsistencies with difference therapists - each time I visit, there is bound to be a different therapist attending to me. Though a therapist have mentioned before that each and every personnel is well-trained in the various services BioSkin offers. I did not experience that at all because for the 12 treatment sessions, every therapist administered (1) varying number of shots and (2) not hitting the same exact bikini line targeted area I signed up for. I did feel short-changed for that. Even when it came down to instructions for undressing, there was one treatment session where the therapist requested I removed my top (I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt) too just so that hair will not get onto my clothes. I was simply bewildered.

No hard-selling - this came across as a pleasant surprise because after the nasty experience at Jean Yip the last time round, I had a deep-seeded belief that these big enterprises will want to cross-sell customers different services available at their saloon. However at BioSkin, you can feel rest assured that you will walk in for your treatment and not have to listen to any hard-selling by their therapist. 

Ease of booking appointments - as I stay near the beauty salon, I usually picked weekend appointments as early as 9am in the morning so that I could continue the rest of my day with no disruptions. I usually book the next month's appointment on that month's appointment day. A couple of times I did have to reschedule and it was really a pain because the salon is almost always fully booked.

IPL experience - it is painful but tolerable, according to my underarm therapist at another salon, this could be due to BioSkin employing an older generation IPL machine which produces a distinct "piak" sound each time a pulse is administered. Furthermore, at body parts where there is so much nerve endings, sensations are naturally heightened.

Friday 6 March 2015

Deal gone sour?

I purchased a 3 session massage from Deal.com.sg to redeem at Narcissus Javanese Massage & Hairdressing.

I was able to redeem the first session smoothly, albeit the masseuse miunderstanding my instructions - I had requested for the 1hr session to be shortened to 45mins but she misunderstood as I wanted the session shortened to just 30mins. Narcissus is not exactly your posh spa place and the treatment "rooms" are actually partitioned by curtains. I didn't felt secure when removing my clothes before the massage. There were also no proper cupboards or locker for you to store your belongings.

Nonetheless the masseuse is good at kneading my sore shoulder and back with her firm strokes.

Made an appointment for the 2nd session on 13Feb but to my horror the merchant contacted me on 12Feb stating that they are not able to honour my voucher because Deal have not paid up for 2months already.

Rang up Deal and after plenty of time spent waiting on the line, a curt and unsympathetic customer service officer picked up my call. When I questioned her what happened, she shot back a reply saying that I am the 1st customer to voice out such a complaint. Out of concern that they are going bankrupt or winding up soon, I asked the officer if their company is facing any financial issues, to which she says she has to check with the relevant departments and cannot offer me a direct answer (oh wow, what a cover up?). Before I could even get her name, she hurriedly ended the call.

Meantime I had also dropped an email to Deal demanding to know what exactly happened -

Hi Deal.com.sg,
I purchased the attached deal and made an appointment on 13Feb unfortunately the merchant tells me that deal.com.sg did not pay up in the past 2 months hence they not allow me to redeem my massages. Please advise and refund at your earliest convenience.

Following the call the officer dropped me an email -

Hi Good afternoon to you.

We are in the process of checking your enquiry with the relevant department as well as the merchant. Kindly do provide us some time for us to provide you with the solution. Once we have received the solution, we will be contacting you at the soonest. We hope to have your kind understanding on this issue. If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us at (65) 6299 3011.

Thank You.

Sincerely, Nurul
Customer Relations Executive
Ensogo Group
sg.crm@ensogo.com

I also left a comment on the Deal's Facebook page demanding to know why, originally a representative had replied me but subsequently Deal deleted my comment entirely! Sneaky eh.

Thankfully Deal.com.sg did not take long to settle my dispute, on 16Feb they reverted

Dear Ms Lisa

Good day to you. Thank you for your email.

We will proceed with a refund for you for the remaining 2 sessions. The amount of $41.33 will be refunded back to you in approximately 14 - 21 working days, back to the same credit/debit card that was used to purchase the voucher. Thank you very much and have a nice day ahead. If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us at (65) 6299 3011.

Thank You.

Sincerely, Nurul
Customer Relations Executive
Ensogo Group
sg.crm@ensogo.com

As at today 6Mar, I am still waiting for my credit card statement, fingers crossed!