The Story of Two Thumbdrives. Or One, really.
So much for prolific posting, huh? I meant to post this back in February, when Chinese New Year was still relevant. Still, better late than never, right?
Anyway! Here are two non-angpau, pretty awesome things I acquired over the Chinese festive celebration:
Yep, Chinese-New-Year-y thumbdrives! :D Aren't they gorgeous?
The actual thumbdrive hardware is sealed into the rubber designs, so both aren't skins that can be transferred to other thumbdrives. Really loving the 3D effects and details worked into both designs, especially the Sunway Pyramid one.
True to their name, both are about the size of my thumb, with the opera singer(female) being slightly bigger than the God of Wealth, or Chai Shen Yeh(male). The Chai Shen Yeh also has the extra bonus of having a 'back' side - basically the back of his head and the thumbdrive brand (Imation) printed on it. As for storage capacity, the Chai Shen Yeh packs a nice 4GB, whereas the opera singer has about 2GB.
There goes my portable storage woes for awhile!
What I really wanted to write about is how I acquired both these thumbdrives. More specifically, I want to record down exactly how I got the Sunway Pyramid Opera Singer one, since the Chai Shen Yeh's acquisition process was a no-brainer - a gift from my brother due to, ironically, the Pyramid thumbdrive. Seriously, I don't think my mom or I have ever gone through a more tedious, complicated process to redeem a free gift.
(That, or my short-term memory has already forgotten on my behalf, whoops.)
So, my mom and I were in Pyramid when we noticed the then-ongoing CNY promotion - with every RM500 spent within Pyramid (in two receipts, if I remember correctly), a shopper would be eligible to redeem a LE Opera Singer thumbdrive specially made for the festive season.
One glance at the promotional banner, complete with picture and I went, 'WANT. WANT NOW.' (Honestly, look at that pendrive up there. Look at it. Could you blame me?)
My mom, ever-obliging (or one to never pass up an opportunity, depending on how you look at it), promptly responded with 'Let's go look at that Bonia bag I've been wanting for awhile!'
About twenty minutes later, my mom, my brother and I were in possession of i) a Bonia bag and ii) an eligible receipt for redemption. 'Cheers!' you say, 'The thumbdrive is yours!'
But no. Life had to be mean and grumpy because no one gave it any angpaus. Jerk.
Anyway, when I reached the redemption booth (my mom went to pay the parking ticket), I was told that there were 'no more (thumbdrives) left'. Seeing that no daily redemption limit had been mentioned on the promotional banners anywhere, I was pretty surprised, and not in a good way either. (Okay, I was basically 'D8'-ing at them.) I wasn't the only disappointed one though - a couple before me and a few other people after also grumbled and made dissatisfied faces as they walked away.
Later in the car, I poured out my woes to my mom, who, like me demanded JUSTICE agreed that, having fulfilled the requirement needed to redeem the thumbdrive, we rightly deserved one. She called up Pyramid's customer service, and was promised to either be compensated or given a proper explanation as to why we couldn't redeem the gift.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the start of a long, loooong ping-pong-match-of-a-redemption attempt between Pyramid's management staff and my mom and I. Think Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan in a badminton match, but with Lee Chong Wei having more stamina.
In a nutshell, said Pyramid officer never got back to us, so my mom gave them another call the next day. The new officer also promised an explanation/compensation, but like his co-worker, did not get back to us. In hindsight though, it's probably not their fault - judging from what they had to do a few weeks after the redemption fiasco, they were probably barraged with calls from people like me/my mom/thumbdrive collectors/freebie grabbers/chinese opera enthusiasts/every one and their mothers.
A week or two (and some not-too-subtle prodding) later, my mom called again, only to be told that the customer service staff were all already off-duty. A trip to the actual physical Customer Service counter a day or two later resulted in the revelation that only staff from Pyramid's main office could deal with these kinds of issues.
In short, Attempt? Meet Dead End #1, #2 and all the way through #10.
We were about ready to throw in the towel at this point. Heck, my brother even bought the Chai Shen Yeh thumbdrive to replace it (while insisting it was as good as the Opera Singer one. Men and their aesthetics.)
Then, when I was at Sunway Pyramid after work, I called my mother to ask if I should go straight to the main office and flip a table ask about the thumbdrive issue again. She dropped some startling news: a Pyramid staffer had actually called back, and informed her that the thumbdrive would be sent to our address.
...Or, belated score, rather.
The furor around the thumbdrive redemption must have been pretty immense though - several changes were made to the CNY promotion following that phone call, including the addition of a daily limit and the shortening of the promotional period (from 5th(6th?) Feb to 24th Jan - quite a bit of time to hack off a promotion!) They even had to modify all the banners to reflect those changes - a job I don't envy them for.
Still, I had my pretty thumbdrive, right?
Wrong. We started a new badminton match with the post office. Who knows when the postman dropped by, but when he deigned to show up, he apparently missed my mom being in. Considering she stays at home most of the time with her 'Villes, that's a pretty impressive feat.
(My mom's favorite theory is that he didn't notice the big-ass bell hanging on the gate, and went with the broken doorbell. Mine is that pandas like bamboo, chocolate chips should always be in cookies, and the postal service just fails.)
Cue another week or two of valiant waiting for the Mr. Postman before we caved and called Pyramid AGAIN. After line static, lots of 'what? I can't hear you, WHAAAT?' and whatnots, we finally agreed to go pick up the thumbrive from Pyramid's main office.
Thankfully, nothing happened on the way to Pyramid to delay THAT.
And thus is the Story of How I Acquired the Chinese Opera Singer Thumbdrive. Good story to tell the young 'uns, someday.
*nods wisely*
Gosh, that was long, wasn't it?
Either way, I now have two pretty pendrives to tide me through the year, huzzah! They're more Chinese than I'll ever be too - good memory, never gain weight, silent and demure, good-looking etc. Cheesh.
Now to do something about my Western Digital hard-drive, hmmm...
Anyway! Here are two non-angpau, pretty awesome things I acquired over the Chinese festive celebration:
Yep, Chinese-New-Year-y thumbdrives! :D Aren't they gorgeous?
The actual thumbdrive hardware is sealed into the rubber designs, so both aren't skins that can be transferred to other thumbdrives. Really loving the 3D effects and details worked into both designs, especially the Sunway Pyramid one.
True to their name, both are about the size of my thumb, with the opera singer(female) being slightly bigger than the God of Wealth, or Chai Shen Yeh(male). The Chai Shen Yeh also has the extra bonus of having a 'back' side - basically the back of his head and the thumbdrive brand (Imation) printed on it. As for storage capacity, the Chai Shen Yeh packs a nice 4GB, whereas the opera singer has about 2GB.
There goes my portable storage woes for awhile!
What I really wanted to write about is how I acquired both these thumbdrives. More specifically, I want to record down exactly how I got the Sunway Pyramid Opera Singer one, since the Chai Shen Yeh's acquisition process was a no-brainer - a gift from my brother due to, ironically, the Pyramid thumbdrive. Seriously, I don't think my mom or I have ever gone through a more tedious, complicated process to redeem a free gift.
(That, or my short-term memory has already forgotten on my behalf, whoops.)
So, my mom and I were in Pyramid when we noticed the then-ongoing CNY promotion - with every RM500 spent within Pyramid (in two receipts, if I remember correctly), a shopper would be eligible to redeem a LE Opera Singer thumbdrive specially made for the festive season.
One glance at the promotional banner, complete with picture and I went, 'WANT. WANT NOW.' (Honestly, look at that pendrive up there. Look at it. Could you blame me?)
My mom, ever-obliging (or one to never pass up an opportunity, depending on how you look at it), promptly responded with 'Let's go look at that Bonia bag I've been wanting for awhile!'
About twenty minutes later, my mom, my brother and I were in possession of i) a Bonia bag and ii) an eligible receipt for redemption. 'Cheers!' you say, 'The thumbdrive is yours!'
But no. Life had to be mean and grumpy because no one gave it any angpaus. Jerk.
Anyway, when I reached the redemption booth (my mom went to pay the parking ticket), I was told that there were 'no more (thumbdrives) left'. Seeing that no daily redemption limit had been mentioned on the promotional banners anywhere, I was pretty surprised, and not in a good way either. (Okay, I was basically 'D8'-ing at them.) I wasn't the only disappointed one though - a couple before me and a few other people after also grumbled and made dissatisfied faces as they walked away.
Later in the car, I poured out my woes to my mom, who, like me demanded JUSTICE agreed that, having fulfilled the requirement needed to redeem the thumbdrive, we rightly deserved one. She called up Pyramid's customer service, and was promised to either be compensated or given a proper explanation as to why we couldn't redeem the gift.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the start of a long, loooong ping-pong-match-of-a-redemption attempt between Pyramid's management staff and my mom and I. Think Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan in a badminton match, but with Lee Chong Wei having more stamina.
In a nutshell, said Pyramid officer never got back to us, so my mom gave them another call the next day. The new officer also promised an explanation/compensation, but like his co-worker, did not get back to us. In hindsight though, it's probably not their fault - judging from what they had to do a few weeks after the redemption fiasco, they were probably barraged with calls from people like me/my mom/thumbdrive collectors/freebie grabbers/chinese opera enthusiasts/every one and their mothers.
A week or two (and some not-too-subtle prodding) later, my mom called again, only to be told that the customer service staff were all already off-duty. A trip to the actual physical Customer Service counter a day or two later resulted in the revelation that only staff from Pyramid's main office could deal with these kinds of issues.
In short, Attempt? Meet Dead End #1, #2 and all the way through #10.
We were about ready to throw in the towel at this point. Heck, my brother even bought the Chai Shen Yeh thumbdrive to replace it (while insisting it was as good as the Opera Singer one. Men and their aesthetics.)
Then, when I was at Sunway Pyramid after work, I called my mother to ask if I should go straight to the main office and flip a table ask about the thumbdrive issue again. She dropped some startling news: a Pyramid staffer had actually called back, and informed her that the thumbdrive would be sent to our address.
...Or, belated score, rather.
The furor around the thumbdrive redemption must have been pretty immense though - several changes were made to the CNY promotion following that phone call, including the addition of a daily limit and the shortening of the promotional period (from 5th(6th?) Feb to 24th Jan - quite a bit of time to hack off a promotion!) They even had to modify all the banners to reflect those changes - a job I don't envy them for.
Still, I had my pretty thumbdrive, right?
Wrong. We started a new badminton match with the post office. Who knows when the postman dropped by, but when he deigned to show up, he apparently missed my mom being in. Considering she stays at home most of the time with her 'Villes, that's a pretty impressive feat.
(My mom's favorite theory is that he didn't notice the big-ass bell hanging on the gate, and went with the broken doorbell. Mine is that pandas like bamboo, chocolate chips should always be in cookies, and the postal service just fails.)
Cue another week or two of valiant waiting for the Mr. Postman before we caved and called Pyramid AGAIN. After line static, lots of 'what? I can't hear you, WHAAAT?' and whatnots, we finally agreed to go pick up the thumbrive from Pyramid's main office.
Thankfully, nothing happened on the way to Pyramid to delay THAT.
And thus is the Story of How I Acquired the Chinese Opera Singer Thumbdrive. Good story to tell the young 'uns, someday.
*nods wisely*
Gosh, that was long, wasn't it?
Either way, I now have two pretty pendrives to tide me through the year, huzzah! They're more Chinese than I'll ever be too - good memory, never gain weight, silent and demure, good-looking etc. Cheesh.
Now to do something about my Western Digital hard-drive, hmmm...