Wayang Times ~ Funny and Entertaining Asian News

Did Advertlets Lie to Me about Paying Me My Previous Months’ Earnings?

Wayang Times — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:39:04 +0000

Okay, so Advertlets continues to ignore my emails and they have also lied to me about paying me for my Dec 2009 and Feb 2010 earnings before 20th of this month. Eight days after 20 Jun 2010, my hard-earned money is still unpaid to me.

This was what Advertlets emailed me on Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 12:08 PM:

Hi,

Apologies for the delay. The payments for Dec & Feb will be made before
the 20th of this month, and the Mar payment will be made at the 20th of
July.

In the meantime, as you do cash out large amounts regularly, we will have
to increase your credit terms to 60-90 days from the end of the month of
cashout.

We will be rolling out new payment terms throughout the network, starting
with those that cash out regularly. We regret the delay, however, if you
wish to consider a secondary option of getting less, but more timely
payment do let us know and we can work out a new arrangement.

Please note that you have been paid a significant amount already, and your
tweets on Twitter do not help us pay out faster. Delay is unavoidable at
the moment, but rest assured that you will be paid – as you have
definitely already received payment in the past.

Regards,

[name removed]
Advertlets Support

The following was my reply, after removing sensitive information, on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 9:55 AM:

Hi [name removed],

1. Thank you for stating that you will make the payments for Dec & Feb before 20th of June 2010, and make payment for Mar at 20th of July 2010.

You should credit the money to the following bank account:
[info removed]

2. You said that you will have to increase my credit terms to 60-90 days from end of the month of cashout. But let’s look at the facts, and note that today is the middle of June 2010:

End Dec 2009 cashout – This is more than 5 months ago, which is about 165 days from the end of the month of cashout.

End Feb 2010 cashout – This is more than 3 months ago, which is about 105 days from the end of the month of cashout.

3. My previous email to Advertlets resulted in a similar response from your company, and that is “…been paid a significant amount already, and your tweets on Twitter do not help us pay out faster. Delay is unavoidable at the moment…” That was why I patiently waited 165 days since Dec 2009 cashout for your payment, but I never see that.

4. The issue is that I am never paid on time, and when I email Advertlets, I never get a response. I only get a response after I blog and tweet about your late payment.

5. You said “…We regret the delay, however, if you wish to consider a secondary option of getting less, but more timely payment do let us know and we can work out a new arrangement…” All reputable companies such as Google Adsense and Adbrite always pay me 100% of what they owe me, on time. Are you saying that Advertlets is a not a reputable company and need to charge a commission on my hard-earned money even though this is not publicly made known to all your bloggers?

To whoever from Advertlets reading this post, I was forced to blog about this because you never reply my emails unless I complain on my blog or tweet about how bad Advertlets appears to be!

Maybe I would suggest this, pay me all that you owe me immediately, and I resign from your network. This arrangement will mean that we will no longer be mad with each other and will have nothing to do with each other.

And seriously, if you cannot afford to pay the few hundred ringgit that you owe me, I wonder how reliable you are to both us bloggers and your advertisers. Perhaps your advertisers such as Hewlett Packard, Toyota, Gap, Starbucks, DiGi, Zuji, Omy etc etc should start making queries about Advertlets’ questionable behaviours.

News: Orchard Road Flooded by Heavy Rain – 16th June 2010

Wayang Times — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:28:57 +0000

Singapore has been experiencing really heavy rain over this 2 days. Apparently the rain was so heavy that it affected the premium shopping belt, where parts of Orchard Road and Scotts Road area experienced flooding this morning.

Pictures and Photos of Orchard Road and Scotts Road Flood

As seen in the photos, the flood had affected some of the shopping centres in town. There were reports that motorists were caught in a bad jam lasting for close to 2 hours in the Orchard area.

(Pictures source: EDMW, Twitter)

Full Video: Pastor Mark Ng of New Creation Church Talks Down Other Religion and is Sorry

Wayang Times — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:06:28 +0000

New Creation Church’s Pastor Mark Ng has gotten into trouble with the Singapore laws.

During one of Pastor Mark Ng’s 2008 sermon, he joked about Chinese Taoist rituals, going to the extent of comparing the act of praying to Taoist gods as “seeking protection from secret society gangsters”. The trouble is, someone with access to the voice recording of Pastor Ng’s sermons uploaded this video clip onto the highly popular YouTube video sharing website. This case is similar to Pastor Rony Tan’s case where he made fun of Buddhism and Taoism in a video recording which was widely circulated.

The Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) has been investigating the incident. The Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry informed the public that New Creation Church is sorry about the incident. The Church had also requested YouTube to remove the said video.

New Creation Church’s Pastor Mark Ng Apologised and is Sorry for his Remarks

“New Creation Church (NCC) would like to express our deepest apologies to any person who may have been offended by the remarks made by Pastor Mark Ng during a sermon delivered in August 2008. Pastor Mark has explained to us that his intention was to highlight what he viewed as some inconsistencies in the local Chinese practices, and not meant to cause disrespect to any race or religion…

…Pastor Mark offers his unreserved and unmitigated apology to the public for his insensitive comments and for failing to observe the basic tenet of Christianity, which is founded on love for one and all. He humbly appeals to those whom he has offended to forgive him of this serious indiscretion…”

Pastor Mark Ng Video

Unfortunately, a quick search by Wayang Times on YouTube shows that the full video of Pastor Mark Ng’s sermon can still be found online easily here.

Why Wayang Times has stopped blogging (in the past few weeks)? And Advertlets is annoying me.

Wayang Times — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:34:16 +0000

Dear Wayang Times readers,

Thank you to everyone who has shared your concerns and dropped me messages.

Sorry that I have taken abit of a long hiatus from blogging. The reason for such a long break is because my health has taken a turn for the worse, which require me to rest alot more.

It does not help that there are companies such as Advertlets who are not paying me promptly (5 months late!) for the advertising earnings I have earned, which affected my abilities to pay my bills.

Fortunately, I am feeling better now and will resume blogging soon. But my blogging will not be as regular as in the past since my doctor ordered me to rest more.

In the meantime, I will be focusing on trying to recover the late payments from Advertlets.

Cheers,
WT

When Advertlets Owe Money, Will They Ever Pay Money on Time?

Wayang Times — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:45:32 +0000

Remember my previous post made in November 2009 about whether Advertlets is a scam, and the subsequent quick actions by them.

Well, they are back causing the same problems for Wayang Times again.

The problem with Advertlets is that they are very slow in payment. I wonder if this is because the company is having cash flow problems? I also wonder if it is due to cash flow problems, will it affect their major advertisers?

This was my email sent to them this evening:

“Hi, to whom it may concern at Advertlets,

It is now June 2010.

Unfortunately, advertlets still owe me a total of about [dollar amount removed] for my cash out for the months of Dec 2009, Feb 2010, and Mar 2010.

My website is http://www.wayangtimes.com/

When do Advertlets intend to pay?”

Email from Wall Street to Main Street – We will Eat Your Dinner

Wayang Times — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:00:15 +0000

This is one rather distasteful email, purportedly written by some Wall Street guys, which is currently circulating on the Internet. Basically it suggested that if the Obama Administration‘s plans to “take down” Wall Street materialise, there will be downstream effect that will affect everyone else in the US economy.

“We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.

Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.

Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We’re used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don’t take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don’t demand a union. We don’t retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.

For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We’re going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I’ll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.

So now that we’re going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we’re going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren’t going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We’re going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.

The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it’s really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.

We aren’t dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply… will he? and will they?”

Lee Kuan Yew Cried on TV After Malaysia’s Abdul Rahman Rejected Singapore

Wayang Times — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:00:23 +0000

I was really surprised when I came across this video on YouTube as it showed the historical moment when Singapore’s founding father, then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew crying on national television. The reason? Because Singapore was just rejected from Malaysia by their first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Singapore declared independence from Britain unilaterally in August 1963, before joining the Federation of Malaysia in September along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as the result of the 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore. Unfortunately Singapore was forced to leave the Malaysian federation two years after heated ideological conflict between Singapore’s PAP government and the federal government in Kuala Lumpur. Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965, which became our National Day. Yusof bin Ishak was sworn in as President, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of the Republic of Singapore.

Video of LKY Harry Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) Crying on National Television After Singapore was Forced to Leave Malaysia

Quite a touching moment, and embarrassingly, this is the first time that me, a Singaporean, watched the historical moment.

Victoria Secret in Singapore Resorts World Sentosa is Disappointing

Wayang Times — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:00:19 +0000

The debut of Victoria’s Secret in Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) is quite disappointing. I was there over the weekend and had little difficulty finding the VS shop front, which is located Galleria section near to Crockfords Tower. The handy navigation map directory provided for free in the resort certainly helped.

But alas, imagine my disappointment when I finally spotted this tiny shop space, the first Victoria’s Secret in Asia. It only took me a few quick minutes to cover the displays in the shop. The main problem with this shop is that its limited real estate means that the Singapore’s shop carries only limited items. This include their VS thongs/panties, nighties, some cosmetic products and casual wear.

The most glaring omission is that Victoria’s Secret Singapore do not currently carry any bras. Another complain is that the prices are quite steep. I am better off using their main US Victoria’s Secret website (www.victoriassecret.com), which contains a huge range of products, and make my purchases online. After the US$ to S$ conversion, plus the potential shipping fees, it still work out to be cheaper if I ship in my Victoria’s Secret products from US.

How to Get to Victoria’s Secret at Sentosa Resorts World, Singapore?

Tracy Tan of Mediacorp is Pastor Rony Tan’s Daughter

Wayang Times — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:00:02 +0000

I was surprised when a reader wrote to me and told me this, that the pretty Mediacorp actress Tracy Tan is Pastor Rony Tan’s daughter!

For the clueless, Pastor Rony Tan is famous for his disparaging remarks towards Buddhism and Taoism, which was recorded on video and widely circulated, before Pastor Rony Tan retracted the comments and apologised.

Tracy Tan’s Actress in Which Mediacorp TV Dramas

His daughter, Ms Tracy Tan, is currently acting in the Channel 8 Mediacorp drama New Beginnings (红白喜事) as Jeanette Aw’s flirty sister.

Tracy Tan’s also acted in roles in other local Singaporean drama such as A War Diray, Growing Up, Heartlanders, Yang Sisters, My Sassy Neighbour, Calefare, Sense of Home, and Red Thread.

She is currently represented by Fly Entertainment and is also involved in commercials and TV hosting programmes.

Pictures of Tracy Tan

Video of Tracy Tan Singing at Lighthouse Evangelism Church

Tracy Tan also used to sing during Lighthouse Evangelism Church activities.

A quick search on YouTube yielded this result.

Tracy Tan Facebook / Twitter – na

Where to Buy the Cheapest Beer in Singapore?

Wayang Times — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:00:31 +0000

If you are in Singapore and crave for a cheap beer, you can consider heading down to the Sheng Siong supermarket at Tekka, in the shopping mall named The Verge. Price of one can of beer is only S$1.20! Really cheap by Singapore’s standards.