Tuesday, September 25, 2012

SAF Portal




I had to apply for make-up pay for the reservist training attended by my 
employee. My login, with SingPass, to the SAF portal was rejected for 
some unknown reason. I received a message to call the SAF call center

The automated messages programmed at the call center was quite inconsiderate.
I was asked first to identify my category - whether I was in SAF or Home Team. I 
did not fit into it. But there was no other option.

I tried SAF and was led to another automated message listing a number of
enquiry types. Again, I fitted into none of the pre-arranged choices. I tried the closest
choice and had to wait for someone to pick up the call. No one picked up the call. I gave up.

I sent my enquiry by e-mail and received a reply to call the same call center 
number.

My employee agreed to submit a manually filled form and asked me to sign and 
stamp it. Subsequently, I still received an e-mail to verify some transaction in the
SAF portal. My login to the portal failed again. 

I received the same message to call the call center. I tried and once again, 
got lost among the automated messages.

This transaction must have wasted two hours of my time. I wonder how many 
employers faced the same type of difficulty. Surely, it is time for SAF to wake up
and change their process? Surely a form that is signed by the employee and 
employer is sufficient and does not need to be re-verified? 

Can our economy afford to waste so much time on these mindless processes?

Tan Kin Lian

2 comments:

Chee Ming said...

Mr. Tan, I would say, don't care whether it's HOME team or SAF, just get your call connected to an operator and he/she will guide you from there.

Tan Kin Lian said...

I wasted 5 minutes listening to a lot of irrelevant messages and pressing all types of button. Finally, I was able to press a button to talk to a person. But nobody answered for quite a while, so I gave up. What a tiresome portal.

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