Sales, Social and Tech

McDonalds in Singapore recently announced that they will be charging for additional packets of curry, BBQ and sweet & sauce at $0.30 each if customers requested beyond their free allocation.  I recently found at the KungFu Paradise of the Paradise Group charges $0.50 + 10% service charge + 7% GST for your first request of sambal chilli. This isn't KungFu Paradise Sambal Chilli, but is it worth paying $0.50 + 10% service charge + 7% GST? I can understand if KungFu Paradise was looking to charge for additional request, but for the first request? Compared to my neighbourhood zichar which sells zi char dishes at 2x lesser than KungFu Paradise would offer Sambal Chilli free flow if requested. My neighbourhood zi char store offer free serving of Sambal Chilli without a blink of an eye or service charge Can KungFu Paradise why they are charging for the first serving of Sambal Chilli?

After feedback from social media and comments on their Facebook Page, Samsung Singapore has changed its criteria for its e-warranty cashback lucky draw to include the early super adopters of the Samsung SIII. Wrote Samsung Mobile Singapore Facebook  Page ,  Calling all new and to-be GALAXY S III owners with purchases since the launch till Dec 31, 2012! Register your GALAXY S III e-warranty (www.samsung.com/sg/cyberservice) & stand to win a 100% cashback on your purchase! Hurry, share this piece of exciting news with your friends. Comments about the change in contest criteria have been positive to Samsung Singapore. Wrote a fan,  " Indeed a great news for all Samsung S3 user purchase before July. But it still depend on our luck to win the 100% cash back. As long as I win anot I believe Samsung really lend a ear to listen what consumer wanted. Example like these event they change the date for those purchase earlier July. Thumb ups for you." Again, k...

The blogs and social networks today were all about how a member of the Singapore Law Society demanded the attention of the Judge at the hearing of "the Hougang By-Election case". The spokesperson from the Singapore Law Society made a statement to the media only to show why mixing the two professions of Law and Public Relations can be the start of a very bad joke. Wrote Today , The spokesperson said: "The Law Society informed the judge of the contents of the letter as it felt that it was in the public interest to do so, and as officers of the court. To be clear, there was no application whatsoever by the Law Society to in any way prevent Mr Ravi from appearing in court." The spokesperson said that the Law Society is "not in a position to comment on the contents of the letter, as this is a matter of a member's confidential medical records".  Wait a minute, if it is in "public interest" for the Law Society to inform the judge of the con...

The Samsung Mobile Singapore Facebook announced on Sunday that Samsung S3 users who register their warranty online will get a chance to win 100% cashback. The only problem is that is only eligible for those who bought it from 01 July 2012. This means that the super early adopters who bought it on 29 May 2012 to 30 June 2012 do not qualify for this.  I raised this as a comment once I saw the post, but still did not receive any replies from Samsung Mobile Singapore. Yes, I was one of those super early adopters who bought it in early June. Really Samung Mobile Singapore, do you want to punish your super early adopters? The last comment, since this post was published, says it all, "really disappointing not able to join as i got mine before 1st July 2012... kind of penalizing those who got theirs early :-(".

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) , the publisher for The Straits Times, issued Daniel Ong, a former radio personality in Singapore, a bill of $749 for republishing an article about his venture into the F&B businesses. Wrote  Daniel Ong , "We get an email stating that we need to pay SPH $535.00 per story about Jaime(my superstar wifey) and our Successful business Twelve cupcakes. Oh And there's also a $214 fee for investigating us...huh?!?!?!?! So all in all we owe them about $3k...??? FOR sharing it on social media and our own website. ..So, we grant them the stories...n after the story gets published... of course we SHARE IT with our following! In total about 30,000 people we reach out to...on FB and twitter(maybe lotsa duplicates).. " Supporters of Daniel Ong have claimed SPH for being greedy to ask for an interviewee for payment to republish the entire article. It is also rather disappointing that some communication professionals are putting down SPH's...

Singapore NParks came under fire for its purchase of 26 Brompton foldable bikes and they required Singapore's Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Hwa to defend the purchase as it "satisfy the criteria of ' value for money ' when public funds are involved". The official distributor for the Brompton foldable bikes has, however, made claims on its Facebook Page that the bikes were tendered by an unauthorised reseller and may not come with the warranty that buyers get when buying via official means. Wrote the Diginexx Facebook Page , A M6L retails at S$2250 per bike at Diginexx which will cover the 5-year frame warranty and 2-year warranty on parts. In comparison, buying a total of 26 M6L Bromptons at $2200 per bike is unfortunately not a fair deal for NParks especially when the bikes come from a non-authorised reseller, which do not and cannot offer the official five-year frame warranty and two-year parts warranty. NParks may have saved on $50 per...

PayPal announced the launch of the FanClub Exclusives website to its PayPal users in Singapore on Monday. Wrote Aneace Haddad ,  Customers can discover discounts and offers from local merchants that are available by joining the merchant's fan club and paying with PayPal at the point of sale. Merchants tend to give bigger discounts to their fans because they want to get more "likes" and free word of mouth advertising on Facebook. Merchant funded offers are the single biggest driver of payment preference. By powering the merchant's own fan club, PayPal can more easily get higher value discounts for PayPal users.

Yahoo Singapore ran an article of the Ramly Burger by highlighting that it is ban in Singapore. Yet, the writer from Makansutra failed to address the most important issue of why the Ramly meat patty is banned in Singapore. A search online easily did highlight that the famous Malaysian meat patty is banned by the AVA but didn't go into details. Wrote  Arlina Arshad for The Straits Times in January 2004 , "But the importing of beef and beef products from Malaysia is not permitted, said theAgri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). Selling and supplying them without a permit is also an offence, and offenders can befined as much as $50,000 or jailed two years, or both, said the AVA." In May of the same year, another article highlighted that a  man was even charged in court for "smuggling" the Ramly burger in 2004. "The AVA said that meat products processed in Malaysian food factories which it had notapproved were banned here.Suzali was yesterday jai...