Unprofessional Conduct of a MNC

[SiangMalam]

On the 25 May, after lugging the 3 kilos of iron ore sample from Poso on 4 hours of 4X4 ride to Palu Airport, I took a flight to Makassar (all three places on the island of Sulawesi). Next day I took the sample down to Jakarta Airport on onward to KLIA. 4 airports and 4 sets of custom officers to explain to....

Immediately on arrival at the Cititel Hotel in MidValley, I sent the 3 kilo sample by GDex Courier (they are serving Cititel) to a MNC laboratory service company located at Pandamaran, Port Klang, for chemical analysis of the iron ore sample. The courier company picked up the parcel and sent it to this MNC laboratory in Port Klang on 26 May. The laboratory signed for the delivery by stamping on the AWB.

Up to yesterday, this laboratory was still playing games with me. They claim the parcel should be somewhere in the building, somehow we will find it, it cannot go missing etc kind of wild stories... I told them the sample is important because the results will determine if the investor buys the iron ore mine or not...

Yesterday late late evening a SMS came in.... they couldn't find the parcel of iron ore sample. Although the AWB is stamped by the MNC laboratory company, GDex people always take the rubber stamp and stamp the AWB themselves... wow! No explanation, no apology, just a freaking SMS to tell you it is the end of the road for that 3 kilo stuff you lugged all the way from Poso to Palu to Makassar to Jakarta to KL! You are just plain stupid to send it to us anyway coz we ain't gonna be responsible for it....

I will post again this afternoon how this reputable MNC laboratory company passed the buck to GDex express and made me run around... what one of their girls said in their HQ about "we don't have a specific complaints department... so we can't take your complaint... pls call our regional office in Singapore..."

I will tell you the name of this famous reputable so-called multinational laboratory's identity later!

BTW the transaction for the iron ore mine all derailed because no lab analysis of the sample...

[eddychan]

maybe u should have bought insurance on it. then you can make a claim, stating that its actually gold dust.. imagine how much they have to compensate you for 3kg of Au

[Firefly]

I feel your pain. Had the same treatment from a one and only lab in this boleh land for a natural primary commodity.

[tupai]

SM, with a stamped 'acknowledge receipt' in your hand, they should be responsible.
And if u r ever in need of a fighter cock lawyer or 2, do PM me. I cant stand this kind of tidak apa attitude. and these sloppy untrained malaysians from MD down to Clerk-in-Receiving dept, must be made accountable. I'll damn well sue their company pants off, make their sorry unprofessional life miserable and more!

Yang Amat Benggang with incompetencies TIUxlatotupai

[SiangMalam]

The company that is disclaiming any responsibility is none other than what Firefly just said - probably the only lab for primary commodity ie SGS Services Sdn Bhd located in Port Klang. I did not post it earlier until I have checked it with my lawyer friend it is OK to mention them by name as long as I do not add salt and water or make false allegations. Telling a true story in a webforum is not defaming a company as telling a true incident in the public domain is the right of every citizen. It is onyl when we create falsehood or make false allegations, then it is FITNAH!

[SiangMalam]

Lato Tupai, the thing that made me real mad is not that a contract for iron ore sale has been derailed and postponed due to this missing sample which was supposed to prove an independent analysis of the sample, it is the way SGS senior personnel "couldn't care less attitude" and pushing the blame to GDex courier service to have used their rubber stamp either at the reception or at the guard house to stamp the AWB (airway bill) as an acknowledgement of receipt... so unscrupulous and so unprofessional... and not a word of "sorry we lost your parcel" from anyone....

Today, I managed to make contact with the SGS Managing Director in Singapore whom I forwarded the AWB to... and he has promised to respond to me ASAP... so let us see how long is ASAP or how different will the answer be?

Meanwhile, how the heck am I gonna bring the buyer from China again from Tianjin to Poso in Sulawesi, which is 4-5 hours from Palu, an airport away from Makassar, capital of Sulawesi, accessible from Jakarta by air - to personnaly scoop the iron ore sample again? These ppl want to and need to collect their own sample for their own confidence afterall it involves millions in USD per contract!

Oh, if this SGS people only know the problem they put people through, they should actually, because they have offices in Kalimantan and in Sulawesi....

[Kinabalu]

interesting... i deal with SGS and intertek too...

but i am dealing in different type of commodities. I send my sample to Lotus lab to test.

[Rhiga]

Bro

I will be equally mad after travelling thousand miles with ore samples, went through the hassle in custom's red tapes but eventually get screwed by the fee-charging lab !!

Many MNC now are the real MNC (Malaysian national company) after decades in this land… !!

May I suggest in future you ask the lab to collect the samples from you/your hotel instead of sending the samples to them.

In the downstream fuel industry, lab MUST sent staff to sites to collect and seal the samples for lab analysis to avoid dispute of product samples being adulterated..

[SiangMalam]

You can imagine Rhiga-san how SGS Malaysia handles their samples from their clients...

I don't think they even have a proper receiving section since everybody can receive samples and everyone can rubber-stamp receipts of samples! I am not accusing them of anything but this is what is claimed by SGS Malaysia personnel! He said GDex and other courier companies can sometime stamp the airway bill themselves! Wow!

Now we know why in the recent case involving the chemistry department, DNA samples get shoved into a cupboard by the IO for two days! But that was the National Chemistry Department and the Police, this is a fee-collecting multinational laboratory charging an arm and a leg for a simple analysis! And the most expensive one too in the world!

It is shocking they did not even know samples were received and now comfortably push the blame to GDex Courier Services! That is the unprofessional part!

[SiangMalam]

I now have the following promises and their status:

Cititel : They showed me the CCTV recording of GDex personnel collecting the parcel from their hotel concirge desk, so that cleared them. They also got a copy of the airway bill chopped and signed by not only the courier collecting man but also chopped and signed by SGS! Cititel is efficient and very professional...

Gdex general manager Mdm Naiamah called and so did services manager for tracking Ms Kalai also called. They are investigating their courier operations and they are shocked to hear of the allegations by SGS personnel and samples are not sent but can be rubber-stamped at guard house or at the reception... They will get back to me.

SGS in Malaysia said they will check with GDex and they did that in an SMS! The way they said it, they are discussing with GDex and will update me but no sound at all till today! I think they will just forget about the whole thing and just go for the bak kut teh in Port Klang lah...

The SGS managing Director in Singapore replied my email and said he will personally look into this, thats all he said... let us wait and see!

BUT what is the point of such investigation - to me my buyer postponed the contract signing! They were supposed to be here for the contract today from Tianjin, China, but postponed the trip since the independent report of the samples they personally collected in Sulawesi is not available. Now it will forever be unavailable! The contract was supposed to be for 50,000 mt iron ore per month for 24 months... and price is now good at USD110 per mt ton FOB! So SGS had screwed up a multi-million dollar contract and they just sent you an SMS and blame it on the freaking courier...

No way SGS not when you screw up such stupidly!

[ivanhow]

Oh my.. that 3kg sample means a few million worth of contract... I wud have got into a taxi, get to the GM and hand it personally to him and have him held responsible for the stuff and the analysis and report in good time. Failing which I think he will have to face the bigger stick from his boss. No kidding... That 3kg sample is worth more than all the few hundreds of man hours of travelling time and airfare which is not much compared to the potential contract value.

First, that GM of the lab operations in Klang ought to be fired. Why... if couriers cud just get a stamp just at the guard house, and the parcel not delivered to someone responsible, that means the operations is screwed... therefore the GM by default takes the blame for such screwed up operations. Period. (S)He will have to go, if things dun get right irrespective of who did not get the job done right! So if the GM cannot point the finger at where the parcel is (within its compounds) then he is screwed simply because the rubber stamp got used irresponsibly.

If there is no GM in the Klang ops, then the next higher will have to bear the responsibility simply because he has to be responsible for not having a GM to take care of the ops in Klang. The minimum is that they must have a person who is overall in charge for the ops in Klang.

[SiangMalam]

After having suffered this disastrous experience, I started talking to a few people who send palm oil samples, coal, iron ore, etc and I begin to hear horror stories of SGS Lab in Port Klang... why didn't I talk to these people before this Ivan? You are right too... perhaps I should have brought it myself personally to Port Klang but when I showed the address to the limo driver at my hotel Persiaran Raja Lumu, Pandamaran, all the cab drivers too, turned me down...

Since I just arrived back from an entire week in the mines in Sulawesi and was so tired, I just got the hotel to courier it to SGS. Then I just took a good shower and slept on till 8pm or so... I am sure you know travelling with Chinese customers from China means endless nightsof yamseng and karaokes...

[ivanhow]

Agree, it's hindsight now, those stories wud rather not be told, and will never be known without u experiencing it. For valueless items that can be reproduced like copies of documents etc... getting couriers to deliver them is no problem. It's the last leg so to speak that just needed to be worked on... something that wud take more than a copier to reproduce... no way to let someone handle it. But, yea it's already done. Now it's all or none. I'll be fired by my boss for not getting this done right! So, it's hell all the way to fight it out or lose my job. That's how I look at it. No boss? My customer is my boss.

[SiangMalam]

I can go back to Poso in Sulawesi to take the samples, but how do I personally have the buyer from Tianjin again to select the sample himself and seal them in a box with his own signature etc? Really, I wish I could just walk into the SGS office in Switzerland and give the Chairman two tight slaps...

[ivanhow]

I wud put up my case for the top guy in Klang, and hold him responsible for the mess they had created, and give them a way out by telling them the cost for you to reproduce the sample provided it can be done and client agrees, and have him undertake and agree with what wud be done cost-wise, have him foot the air tickets, accomodation etc etc if client agrees to come back to go over to reproduce the sample. On condition client agrees, then he is lucky to get away with their mess. Else, go talk it over wif the his/her boss and do it wif him/her. Get it in writing as a commitment before taking action.