The first was Resort World Sentosa (RWS).
My Thai friend who is now in Singapore for a tour decided to go SEA Aquarium at the last minute and asked if there's any promotion and if she needs to print receipt for online purchase (no way she can print in a hotel). As I know that there's always some kind of promotion going on for the entrance passes to RWS, I googled to check on her behalf.
There is indeed an online promotion at a discounted price of $25 per adult (minimum 2 tickets) from the onsite price of $38. The website stated that buyer needs to print out confirmation email for online purchase. Since mobile technology is so common nowadays, I thought it should be fine for her to flash the confirmation email on her handphone without having to print it out.
To be on the safe side, I called up RWS hotline to confirm and to check if there's any promotions for kids as well or other promotions not listed on its website.
I was put on hold for almost 30 minutes before I decided to hang up. Then I thought maybe the call queue for the Mandarin speaking option would be shorter. So I called and opted to speak to a Mandarin staff.
The staff who answered said it's fine to just flash the email. She also told me that the $25 promotion is for adult. There is no promotion for children ticket, which is priced at $28.
After hanging up, I messaged her about the information and promotion. Then I thought isn't it odd that a kid's ticket is more expensive than an adult ticket? And since there's no promotion for children, I might as well buy an adult ticket at $25 ($3 cheaper than children ticket), which should allows a kid to enter.
So I made a second call and was told this was possible. To make sure, I asked if there's any package for 2 adults and 1 kid. The staff replied there's none. She went on to ask how old is the kid. When I told her the kid is 1.5 year old, she informed me that kids below 4 years enter free.
I quickly relayed this information to my friend.
While my friend was trying to make a purchase on her mobile phone, she encountered an error message. Her first reaction was the promotion is only for Singaporeans. So she asked if I could help purchase on her behalf.
Of course, I can do that. But as I'm not going with her, I'm afraid that she will be asked to show my identification card when she is collecting her tickets which she does not has.
I called the hotline a third time and the staff told me the promotion is available to all citizens.
Asked my friend to try again and she encountered the same problem.
I was almost on the verge of going down to meet her and get the booking done before deciding to make a last call to the hotline.
After reconfirming that the promotion is available to all citizens, I told the staff about my friend's problem. She informed me that this promotion needs to register a local IP address.
Told the staff my friend is in Singapore now and using the mobile phone. She replied that it cannot be purchased using a mobile phone.
Finally after numerous calls, then I managed to get the whole picture.
Looking back at the series of calls, I realized that all the subsequent calls are unnecessary if my first call was handled well.
How many assumptions were made by the staff when they answered my call? That because I'm calling from a local number, I cannot be calling to find out on behalf of my overseas friend? Why no staff asks me more questions about my call? How many tickets do I plan to buy? When do I plan to visit? Why no one took the initiative to provide me with more information like you cannot use mobile phone to buy the ticket?
The other hotline was Singtel.
Having tasted success in getting to speak to an agent quickly after choosing the Mandarin option, I used the same tactic here.
Before I could mentally translate my request from English to Mandarin, my call was answered.
To my surprise, it was an Indian lady who answered my call in English.
Didn't I choose Mandarin option? Was the call routed wrongly?
I asked about charges for replacement of my SIM card to a smaller SIM card and was put on hold. The lady came back with no answer. She said there will be charges but she didn't have the charges as it depends on some factors which she didn't explain. I was told to go down to the shop to find out the charges.
Before the call ends, she followed the usual script and told me about sending a SMS for me to rate her service.
What for?
By the way, I wonder why one cannot buy tickets using their mobile phone.