Email, email, I ‘write’ you

All along I did not want to cash-deposit using ATM machine as I did not trust its reliability. I usually did it over the bank counter. But, on one fine afternoon of 1st February of 2001, at around 3.45 pm, I decided to give it a try with the sum of RM 625 which I was supposed to bank in for my school. This money was the special fees collected by the school from the afternoon session and had to be banked in to the Maybank branch at Jalan Danby, Bukit Mertajam on the same day itself.

Half way through the transaction, after I had slotted in 3 pieces of 50 dollar notes, the machine was suddenly off line; dark clouds surged through the screen with the visibility of all facts and figures came to a naught. This could be due to electricity temporary cut off for a while or for other reasons which I could not comprehend. Immediately, I checked with a cashier over the counter. It was shown to me that the money I slotted into the machine to be off record, that was to say, no record of the RM 150 being deposited into my school account.

I lodged a report with a bank officer, Madam Faridah Osman, who promised me verbally to pursue the matter with the authority concerned in Penang. According to her, the machine would only be opened for collection and verification of cash transacted once a week by the officers from Penang Island. That was to say I had to keep my fingers crossed for at least another week to know whether the money would come back to my pocket or not.

On returning to school I reported the matter to my headmistress at Convent School, Miss Patima, who upon hearing it, just kept quiet with expressionless look, without suggesting any remedy to compensate me in case I could not refund the money that I lost through my dispensing of the official duty. I was quite disheartened with her non-committal silence.


That evening I decided to document my complaint via an email to Madam Siti Khadijah Talip, the Customer Service Officer of the Maybank Credit & Customer Services Section, to inform her about the happening that I underwent that afternoon. I printed out two copies of the email I sent out; one copy I kept while the other one I gave to Madam Faridah Osman the following day to make her aware that I had informed an officer at Maybank headquarters. It seemed to be a good idea to let a third party know about this matter; just like a referee is so vital during a boxing match for the execution of fair judgements. Her initial reaction, after going through the print out of my email, was to deny that she had promised me to pursue the matter. I refuted that it was exactly what she meant when I reported the matter to her. If the officer to whom I lodged the complaint would not take up the case, I could not imagine who else under the sun would do it for me under similar circumstance. To my argument, she kept mum.

In the meantime, Madam Siti Khadijah bt Talip replied my email, assuring me that she would look into the matter and would try to resolve it in the soonest possible time.

True enough, within a few days, the school received a phone call to collect a cheque of RM 150 from the bank which was later refunded to me. I did not have to wait for a week as mentioned by Madam Faridah Osman. The email could have done the magic. It might have compelled Madam Faridah Osman to take up my case seriously and swiftly as she was aware that she might be monitored by a CCTV from Kuala Lumpur.

Another good example which I like to cite about the efficiency of email writing was the Income Tax Refund. In the year 2005, the tax payers in general were informed through the media by the Income Tax Department that one month after the date due for the submitting of the self assessment of Income Tax Returns, they would be able to get the refund for the tax that they had overpaid for that particular assessment year. Having waited for one full year, there was still no indication at all that I would be refunded. As I did not wish to wait for another millennium to get the money back, I wrote an email on April 25, 2006, to the Income Tax Department. In the email reply by the Income Tax Department on June 15, 2006, I was informed to see Madam Zabaidah bt Mohamed Said at the branch office of the Income Tax Department at Bukit Mertajam. After going through my files, Madam Zabaidah noted that I would get the refund within a week or two. On July 11, 2006, I finally got a cheque for the refund, not for one year, but for two consecutive years, that is, the Assessment Years of 2003 and 2004. If I had not written the email, I would not know how long it would take for the money to find its way back to my bank account.

There was another instance that email did help me to recover my money from an insurance company which double charged me the annual premium on the health care plan for one particular year. I was charged twice on my credit card for two successive months. I emailed the bank issuing the credit card and the carbon copy forwarded to the insurance company. The matter was rectified.

Email writing has worked wonders for me. It will do the same for others. It is more efficient to email than to send postal mails. One can send the instant message to any person at any corner of the world within a split second. The same message can also be emailed to many others with just a click on the mouse.


As I am not good at conversing with people, email writing will do the talking for me instead. It helped me to solve many of my problems. In particular, it had assisted me to recover the money that was due to me. I would say email writing was my ‘money saver’.

That was the marvels of email writing which I always like to employ time and again to make things worked in my favour.


Emails, emails, I like you.

Emails, emails, I ‘write’ you. I like to write out the goodness of email writing to share with more people hoping that many will join me in the use of email writing as a tool to settle daily problems, be it complex or trivial.

Email will not fail you if you don’t fail to use email.