Yours Toothfully by Dr Chan Joon Yee

Some years ago, a representative from a business directory approached me to place an ad in their publication. The cost of the ad he proposed was in thousands. I asked if they had an installment scheme. He quickly replied that I could pay for the fees in 6 installments. I agreed, signed the papers and not long after the directory was published, I received an invoice for the full amount outstanding. I happily paid a part of it and waited for the statement of account. But what arrived was not a statement of account. It was in fact, a reminder. As I was busy, I didn’t call up to ask. I just sent them another installment. The next “statement” I received was a warning. They told me payment was overdue and asked me to settle the outstanding amount immediately or else …

I called them up and you may have guessed it already. The company did not have any interest-free installment scheme for their advertisers. The sales rep who sold me the ad lied to me, there was no agreement on the installment scheme in writing and the sneaky little fellow was no longer with the company. I’ve managed to pay up and put eveything behind me, but I do feel sorry for the nasty things I say to presumably innocent, persistent reps from that company who call me up to sell their listings after that.

But such things are happening everywhere. Big companies are hiring lots of temp staff to sell their products. Many of these companies don’t really care how their sales staff do it. They just want to see sales, period. The more unpopular a product (and it may be unpopular for a good reason), the more the staff will be pressured to sell it. Desperate people may resort to telling lies and giving fake promises to make the sale. After all, they won’t be around for very long. When the customer discovers that he has been missold a product, it’s not too difficult for the company to shrug its shoulders and point to the fine print and disclaimers which the average consumer would never understand even if he had bothered to go through it.

Imagine a doctor buys a certain medicine and finds that it is not moving. He prescribes that medicine even to patients who don’t need it so that the medicine won’t expire on him. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? But any doctor who does such things is sure to get into trouble very quickly. At the least the authorities won’t need to wait for the cue from Hongkong.

In contrast, some people in the financial sector are doing the equivalent – “prescribing” unpopular products to unsuitable clients just for the sake of making sales targets. Why aren’t financial advisers regulated as tightly or punished as swiftly as doctors are? Is it because the loss of one’s life savings is not life threatening?

The normally quiet Speaker’s Corner has finally come alive with angry investors. Their petition has been handed over to the MAS. Investors in the same sinking boat (同病相怜) got to know one another with help from Mr Tan Kin Lian. It was hoped that as a group, these fellow sufferers would be better able to employ some lawyers and squeeze the financial institutions for some answers (and money). Meanwhile, SM Goh has told everyone to be “realistic” and “put their losses in perspective”. I guess that’s a pretty strong hint to the outcome of the petition.

Meanwhile, in the healthcare industry, doctors are no longer allowed to call themselves “aesthetic physicians” or “aesthetic surgeons”. They are also not allowed to perform “unproven” procedures. Compare that with financial institutions blatantly calling structured products “minibonds” when they are not real bonds. Aunties and uncles who are FD clients with low risk appetites are advised to “convert” their low-yielding FDs to minibonds and high notes. Still no evidence of mis-selling? Why? Again, is it because the loss of one’s life savings is not life threatening? People who are scared of dentists and suspicious of them when they indicate crowns and implants obviously don’t know that there are far more dangerous (and well-protected) people/institutions out there.