Once upon a time, 6 months ago. A pig f*cked a girl.

and the rest as they said, is history.

Mary and I were having a getaway in Kuching last week. We were enroute Lundu town, about 100km away from Kuching for its picturesque Sematan beach. The town sat close to the border of Kalimantan, Indonesia. But our journey were cut short, or rather, unsuccessful where we had to make a U-turn back to Kuching City due to bad weather, and as darkness closed in, we dare not venture into the unfamiliar territory.

There are no lights nor residence for as long as the eyes could see and the terrain is rough. Wrong timing for a trip like this…but we could still afford to stop for a HDR photography session.

Soon you will be able to have a username
Starting on Saturday, June 13th, at 12:01pm in your time zone (GMT +8), you’ll be able to choose a username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile.
Check out the Facebook Blog for more information.

There’s less than a few hours left to claim your own http://www.facebook.com/username URL. If your name is publicly general, e.g. John Smith, then please sit tight and make sure you’re the first one who submit your claim as they’re doing it on a First Come First Serve basis. So if your name is John Smith, like a few thousands more out there, you better make sure you’re the first, or you’ve gotta settle for http://www.facebook.com/johnsmith2 or 3 or 4, or maybe other nicknames.

Claim your Facebook username url at http://www.facebook.com/username. Good luck in claiming your own name!

This is a reply corresponding to the Advertlets Scam post.

Advertlets had deposited the full RM100.99 amount into my bank account. Josh Lim had personally called me regarding this issue. It was a friendly talk. Jess Ong from the Support department had also e-mailed me to confirm that they had “finally” deposited the amount, and demanding that the title be changed to something that sounds nicer. Sorry but I’m keeping my blog post integrity, no major changes to titles, but I’ll write you guys a new post with words from the bottom of my heart.

Below are the e-mails corresponding to this issue.

Mail No.1 from Advertlets Support

As soon as I’ve published the Advertlets Scam blog post, Jess Ong from Advertlets Support department responded with an e-mail within 24 hours. Talk about efficiency.

Hi Alex,

We note that your payment has not been received. Unfortunately, some areas are prone to missing mail more than others, especially East Malaysia. If you recall, there was also a similiar case sometime back in your exact area as well, Miri.

To rectify this, we now allow payment through direct bank in. Could you let us know your bank account details, and we can do a direct transfer to your account. We will need your account name, number and bank name. We will be able to process it within two weeks of receiving your details.

Regards,

Jess Ong
Advertlets Support

I’m sorry, but Jess Ong, I don’t follow Advertlets as closely as you would’ve liked, so I don’t recall any of the mails missing in the jungles of Sarawak. By the way, I’m in Sibu, not Miri. Where did you get my location from?

It is ridiculous that one is blaming the postal service when they themselves are not doing the job properly. The payment status in my earnings page clearly stated “Unpaid”. In contrary to their claim that the mail was loss/missed in delivery. If you’ve sent the pay cheque, won’t the status be “Sent” or “Paid”?

If you’re sending a cheque, I bet you’ll be sending them via Registered Mail, which is traceable and trackable. You can always check with the postal service and feedback with viable evidence to show that you’ve really done your job. But I understand, I’m just a miscellaneous blogger with 15,000 uniques and 800,000 page impressions per month with traffic mostly coming from the U.S who’re trying to squeeze something out of your bank account, there’s no requirement whatsoever to entertain me.

Last but not least, please don’t use the lame excuse of mail loss because we’re living in “East Malaysia” regions, we don’t live on trees anymore. Even mails to remote longhouses were being successfully delivered. I live at the heart of the town, please give a better excuse next time.

So you told me that you’re finally allowing payment through direct bank in, then why didn’t you tell me earlier, in all my 5 enquiries sent to you? Before the damage is being done? Before I need to rant about this? Don’t tell me you didn’t get the e-mails because it was sent from Sarawak.

My reply to Mail No.1

Jess,

Thank you for your prompt reply. Did you also missed the 3 enquiries I’ve submitted from the helpdesk regarding the cash out payments, and 2 more via my mail to info@advertlets.com, did you also miss that? If you did miss them, I would urge you to check your helpdesk/e-mail system for any errors or bugs.

I’m sending you the account details instantly, and the cashout request had been issued in January, 2009. I don’t think you’ll need two weeks to process the payment? I’m expecting it to be deposited within a week.

Following is the account details:
Account No.:1612xxxxxxxx
Account Holder Name: Ling Zi Neng
Bank: MAYBANK

Actually I have planned to place advertlets ads on several of my other sites, and forums as well. But your non-existent payout scheme and the ignorant support just killed my intention off.

About the missing mails, are you saying the mail were loss? That’s just an excuse, frankly Like I said, I hope you didn’t miss the mails I’ve sent to info@advertlets.com

Please check your info@advertlets.com from alexallied@gmail.com regarding my application to become one of the TITAN members. It was sent about a week or two ago, but, no one entertained me.

Thank you again for your prompt reply. I hope I’m not too harsh about this issue.

Regards,
Alex Ling.

I was away to Kuching for the Gawaii holidays, Josh Lim called. I appreciate his gesture for calling and confirming that they had bank-ed in my earnings. Towards the end of the conversation, which I think is the prime reason for the call as I’ve already expected, he’s requesting me to update the readers, change the Advertlets Scam title, as they leave a bad impression on visitors.

I did not promise.

Mail No.2 – Further Plea to Amend Post

Hi Alex,

The amount has been transferred to your account, this is the receipt:

Amount: RM100.99 Status: Successful
Reference number: 1316550820
Transaction date: 03 Jun 2009
Transaction time: 04:20:00
From Account 51412333xxxx SP PCA
To 3rd Party Account Number: 1612xxxxxxxx
Account Holder Name: LING ZI NENG
Effective date: Today
Description of transaction: alexallied

As the situation is now resolved, we appreciate if you can update your readers on the situation, and amend your blog post to reflect that we have paid. Appreciate if you can also change the title of the blog post as it definitely does not reflect the situation accurately.

In future, please do let us know also if your query is not responded to within 48 hours. We also have a phone contact at 03-78049282 and a special e-mail: urgent@advertlets.com if you wish for a more immediate response.

Regarding your TITAN application, we can only offer increased earnings under that program for blogs at the moment. We will notify you if we accept forums in future.

Regards,

Jess Ong
Advertlets Support

As the situation is now resolved, I’ll have a dedicated post regarding the situation, and keep the old one as a kind reminder to Advertlets and company.

Now they’re telling me that they have an urgent e-mail address for a more immediate response!

Firstly, I’m not asking for a more immediate response, I’m merely asking for a RESPONSE for God’s sake! After 6 months of waiting, there’s no response whatsoever for all the 5 enquiries I’ve made to info@advertlets.com. What’s the use of an URGENT mail, when you can’t even respond to a normal enquiry after 6 months?

So if you have any questions at all, just send all your mails to their URGENT e-mail address at urgent@advertlets.com. Their normal mailbox at info@advertlets.com will not be responded for more than 6 months, especially when it comes to payment.

Final Words

Josh,

I really hope that your company will improve with so many complaints and feedback, I think it’s more than enough rants you’ve read on the Internet that, they will at least worth your consideration into making the Advertlets network a more credible company to work with.

I hope publishers will not have to write such rants to grab your attention and attending to their payout requests. All the best to Advertlets, and cheers to those who have been paid!

Now I can pay my bills with the extra RM100.99!

Read also: The Best Laksa in Kuching: Choon Hui Cafe

After that long, 8 hours journey from Sibu, the first thing that comes to our mind once we’ve reached Kuching City is FOOD! We’ve yet to take any solid meals since we left early in the morning at 6 a.m. I’m nursing a sorethroat and any hot, deep fried finger food at the rest stop is prohibited by Mary.

It’s freaking hot and humid here in Kuching, a scorching 38 degree celcius sunshine is burning our skin off. Sitting under the lowly covered zinc roof food court isn’t such a good idea, but the food must be good enough to be able to lure us here! Many thanks to Mary’s brother-in-law, Francis, for bringing us around Kuching to hunt for their best foods.

Kuching Open Air Food Court. Not the orange concrete building.

Another stretch of the food court, which only opens at night.

Inside the food court. The ceiling is made of the old asbestos board and the roof structures made of wood, which is abundant in the timberland of Borneo.

The famous Sin Kwang Heng Kuching open air market Sio Bee (Siu Mai – 烧卖). So famous it’s even being “exported” to Miri! But you gotta try the fresh ones here.

Laksa. Although I’m nursing a sorethroat, but die die I’ve to order laksa, because I’m in Kuching! They said Kuching laksa’s the best in the whole of Sarawak. But, I have other ideas, I would say Miri has the best laksa – and it’s at Jalan Krokop 10 just beside the Krokop Wet Market.

We also went to the place where they serve the best Laksa in Kuching at 3rd Mile, Golden Arch. Also, disappointingly, not as good as Miri’s.

Kolo Mee. This is the best kolo mee I’ve had for years. They “saturate” the noodle with their “Char Siew” (BBQ) oil, which brings about the addictive aromatic fragrance to their kolo mee. Although it’s a bit too oily and certainly not good for the health conscious bunch.

Kuching Rojak. I know this is not the best rojak in Kuching. Nevermind that, cause Bintangor has the best Rojak in Sarawak.

Nothing beats this cool and refreshing 五味汤 (5-flavor syrup) on a hot sunny day. It’s a mixture of 5 (sometimes 6) different Chinese herbs in a sweet syrup with a scoop of blended ice on top. Perfectly cooled me down after a bowl of hot laksa.

Bb had her favorite ABC.

This concludes my first day in Kuching City. Stay tuned for more stories from the Cat City!