cdrum

At first, we were pretty happy that Melanie’s new company in Singapore selected, what we thought, was a reputable relocation company with a “Customer-Focused Approach”.  Crown Relocations is a company both of us have heard of, and while we haven’t used them before (my long distance moves in the past were usually handled by Santa Fe), we thought it would be a relatively painful process.  The Beijing side of the relocation generally went without a hitch.  The Beijing-based staff were very helpful and courteous and seemed to genuinely want to accommodate our realistic needs.

The folks in Singapore, however, don’t seem to be interested in accommodating our, what we believe are, realistic needs.  First, I quote from their Website (2) (3) some of Crown’s customer-focused goals:

1. Maintaining a professionally attractive organizational culture is one of the core philosophies of the Crown Worldwide Group
2. Crown is committed to delivering high quality service seamlessly and remaining focused on continuous quality improvement
3. …guarantees that relocation professionals will always be informed and their employees will quickly settle-in and become productive in their new working environment

Melanie gets a call yesterday (Wed) from the Crown people in Singapore saying our shipment has already arrived in Singapore.  Wow, only 4 weeks! The guys in Beijing estimated 6 weeks.

Since Mel has been busy working since she arrived on the 7th of July and I just arrived 3 days ago on the 27th, we haven’t had a whole lot of time to find an apartment. So, time to kick apartment search into high gear!

Any way, Melanie was in Taiwan on a short business trip until last night, but the Crown folks needed her passport to provide a copy of her China visa to Singapore Customs to prevent being charged 3% import tax. When I told the guy who called yesterday Melanie would arrive late Wednesday night and wouldn’t be able to handle this until Thursday (today), he seemed a bit concerned and proceeded to ask me if I could reach her somehow to expedite the visa. I said no (knowing she was busy in Taiwan and didn’t need this to deal with).

Mel returns to Singapore and calls Crown today.  They say they need the Chinese visa copy and that the container has essentially cleared customs.  He asked for a delivery address.  Well, we don’t really have one yet. (no apartment!) And it’s not possible to have everything delivered to her aunt’s place where we’re staying now. (that’s about 18 cubic meters of junk, by the way).

I started looking for apartment options today while Melanie was juggling work and dealing with Crown. The Crown guy called her several times this morning asking where to deliver the things. Mel asked if Crown could hold onto the things for a while. The Crown guy then proceeded to tell her that past Friday (tomorrow!) they would charge a SGD45 per day charge.  This certainly puts undue pressure on us as we don’t want to be pressured into choosing an apartment just for the sake of it.

It seems to me that it would be “Customer-Focused” for Crown to offer a free week or so of storage.  What if the receiver, Melanie in this case, was on a longer term business trip and couldn’t deal with this? This is similar to the Cable company who says the technician will come by your house between 10AM and 4PM.  How the heck are you supposed to accommodate that? It’s their job to service you, not your job to wait for them and work around their schedule. Back to Crown, I think a week of storage is not too much to ask. This provides a little more flexibility to their customer, us, thus enhancing our satisfaction and likelihood of recommending them to our friends for future relocations.

Come on guys, them telling us today that our stuff is ready and we need to have it delivered by tomorrow before they start charging us storage fees… that’s just ridiculous. It’s not consumer focused and reflects poorly on them as a company. They have a very clear business objective to make as much money as possible while screwing their customers in the process. Companies can get away with that for some time, but it will come back to haunt them. Hopefully.

My favorite line thus far is “sorry for any inconvenience caused”.  No you’re not. Seeing that arguing with them was going nowhere, we decided to look into self-storage options so we can at least receive our goods.  Lucky for us there’s a self-storage company right here in Toa Payoh (where we’re staying). It’s called StorHub and we went there during Melanie’s lunch break and booked a 146 square feet storage space. It’s about less than a third what Crown would charge for a month period of storage, and we have 24-hour access to our stuff.

It seems this StorHub company wants our business as they are quite flexible in accommodating our needs.  They had a room for us essentially immediately. Even though we prepaid for 2 months in order to lock in the discount they provided, we can basically cancel any time and they will prorate our refund after the first month. And we can extend past the initial 2 months easily, no need for prior notice.

This isn’t over. Trying to negotiate having Crown deliver our stuff on Saturday instead of tomorrow as Melanie needs to work. And we’re going to forward our complaints to the highest level possible. It probably won’t do anything, but it’s best not to just bend over and take it…

I am sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet lounge at Los Angeles’ LAX airport, waiting for my flight to Singapore (via Tokyo/Narita).  No, I am not flying Business or First Class, nor do I have status on this sub-par airline.  Since I had more than 2 hours to kill at the airport (which, by the way, is pretty lousy), I decided to buy a single day pass.  $50 USD or 7,000 miles, I chose to use miles.  The lounge certainly does NOT come close to Northwest’s lounges.  For one thing, alcohol is not free.  But, at least there’s free WIFI.

Reality Calls as my 3-week “quick trip” in the U.S.’s West has sadly come to an end.  I think I could have spent even more time here, and I would have liked to make my way out East to see my Sister, among others.  Next time! The great thing about going to Singapore now is that I get to see Melanie again!  UNfortunately, she’s off to Taiwan for a business trip for 2 days, so I won’t get to see her until Wednesday.  Oh well.  What’s another 2 days?

When I arrive in Singapore, I will have plenty to do.  Life will essentially start anew.  I need to get “legal” by getting my long-term visit pass.  With that, I can open a bank account, get a mobile phone plan (iPhone 3G S here I come), get a driver’s license, find an apartment, etc.  Oh, and get a job!!

Some friends of mine who live in Singapore tell me the job market is o.k., not horrible as with elsewhere (such as the USA).  So, hopefully that is true and it won’t take me too long to get a job.  Am I dreaming?

It seems I have drawn a blank and cannot think of what else to write about.  I suppose I’ll wrap up this post here.  I am going to try to write a bit more often once I arrive in Singapore.  New country, new writing habits! Will see how that goes!

Amazing it went relatively smoothly.

First, we go to the Beijing 2nd Hand Automobile market located South West 4th ring road.  After being told by a few people there that motorbikes couldn’t be handled here, we found the Beijing Vehicle Management Center.

Second, I had to take the motorbike around the back to the “inspection” hall where they would inspect it.  It turns out they just verified I owned it, my paperwork was in order, and that was it.  Cars had to take their plates off.  Not our my motorbike, just left it on.  I then proceeded to park in the underground parking.

Third, we had to check if I had any outstanding fines on the bike.  Nope!  Normally, one would pay 35 RMB at this step.  Not us.  Maybe because we’re not selling a car, but a motorbike?

Forth, we had to make tons of photocopies.  Basically everything official had to be photocopied, at 1RMB per sheet.  A major scam.  Passports, resident slips, the car registration book, etc. Everything.

Fifth, we filled out one of their stock contracts.  This was the official sales contract between me, the seller, and Ionut, the Buyer.  I suppose I could take this to court if Ionut didn’t pay (he did).

Sixth, we get a number and wait… only 2 minutes, and go to a window, give everything to the lady to process everything.  At this point, I was expecting them to have an accessor look at my bike and declare an official value for the vehicle (so they could assess a 2.5% processing fee).  I read this process step in a few online sites.  But they didn’t.  What they did do is look at the original sales receipt (fa piao) which had the accessed value from 5 years ago (I am surprised I still had this!!), and the amount paid for the sale (240 RMB or thereabouts).  Then the computer did some magic and determined we had to pay 100 RMB for the transfer.  Not too bad. It was here that we got the official change of ownership document.  It is technically no longer my bike.

Seventh, So we go to another window, pay the 100 RMB, and get all our papers and documents back.  We then go upstairs where they handle the reprinting of the registration booklets, issuance of new plates, etc.  They don’t do motorbikes!  So, we had to go to the Beijing Traffic Bureau HQ at South-East 4th Ring Road (where we would go for getting our Driver’s Licenses, plates, etc.) and get it taken care of then.

Eighth, we go to the Traffic Bureau HQ.  We go to the foreigner office (lucky no line!) and are told we need more photo copies and we had to get the motorbike photographed.

Ninth, we go outside, drive the motorbike to the place to get it photographed (on the grounds of the Bureau).  They wanted to charge 20 RMB to take the plates off, and another 20 RMB to have it photographed, but we opted to take the plates off ourselves.  No choice about the fee for taking the photographs though.  At this step, they also did an imprint of the VIN, or frame number.  A photograph and this VIN number imprint were pasted on a slip and we went back to the foreigner office of the Bureau.

Tenth, they told us we needed to get a chop on this paper to make it “official”, so we had to go to the main hall of the building, have it looked at, and chopped.  5 minutes only.

Eleventh, back at the foreigner office of the Traffic Bureau, I handed over my old plates (tears) and registration booklet.  We paid another fee (85 RMB or something), and 5 minutes later, the officer came back with new Yellow 京A plates.  Yellow!!!  Unfortunately, black plates, which I had, are no longer issued for foreigners.  We aren’t special anymore.  Oh well.

And there you have it. A simple, easy to follow 4+ hour procedure on how to transfer ownership of a motorcycle in Beijing!  Now, that was easy!

Picture time.  My pictures are on Flickr, but I have a selected few here:

Here is the official procedure on ownership transfer.  Handwritten, of course.

My bike before the transfer.

Ionut and I shaking hands (a bit early on in the process).

The Vehicle Management hall.  This is where it all happens (well, half of it).

The Beijing Traffic Bureau HQ.

My old plate.

Ionut’s new plate.

It’s no longer my bike, so I’m in the sidecar… riding as a passenger.