I too want to relate my experience with EPF after reading Haslinda’s experience.

Remember? I had a daughter who aspired to go into a Public University for the course of her choice and failed to get it. Well, she is overseas now, not far away but in Singapore in a private college using very private monies, no scholarships or any handouts using the savings of my wife and me. I have not sold my house yet. Well, after using up our life’s savings it is very natural to get back some of it or at least a part of it. Hey, we have to live!

Remember my misfortune with a Government Department, the NRD, they still have not come back to me, I guess those ignoramuses are really illiterate that’s why they have yet to respond, and I am still “Confucius” and another Gomen Department. I had another brush with another Government Department, the ones who take care of our hard earned money for our old age (hari tua anda), the good old EPF KWSP.

Therefore I went and explored (conducted a recon) how to take out some of my EPF money. That was done in December 2006. They did warn me that the forms for the year 2007 would be different, if one were translate it; it meant more forms to fill, plus some of you need to flash your marriage certificate too!!! To show that your daughter is a legitimate byproduct of fusion with your wife!!! So in the year 2007 I got all the forms and got my daughter to send all the necessary documents from Singapore to prove that she was in a private institution. On my part I filled up all the forms, got verification for all the forms that they were certified true copies. A certain level of officers had to verify them. I met that criterion. I did my first dry run on the 16th January 2007. Well, my forms were not complete; I knew that, with the exception that my bank book was not updated. The lady at the counter told me that I was good enough to submit my application, for the withdrawal of my money from Account 2 of the EPF.

I submitted all my forms on the 23rd January 2007, everything was just nice and dandy, until the lady took out a memo asking me for “Surat Pengesahan Pendaftaran daripada IPTA” (letter confirming registration at a Public Institute of Higher Education), what the crap shit!@$#@! I explained nicely that my daughter was in Singapore and in a private Institution. I guess the lady’s explanation at the counter did not get through my thick skull, so she directed me to a male at another counter thinking I could be intimidated. I explained the same thing to that nut. He kept on insisting that I provide them with one.

My strongest point was the offer letter from the private institution in Singapore, a receipt of payment for the thousands of Sing dollars, an online Maybank transaction printout for the amount which I transferred from Malaysia. One cannot forge a printout like that. My daughter’s certs translated into English by a certified court interpreter with stamps from the court. I demanded to see a manager, they sent one.

A lady by the name of Suriati came to see me. She went through my documents and told me that they were in order. I asked her about the “Surat Pengesahan Pendaftaran daripada IPTA”, to which she replied it was meant for students in Public universities in Malaysia, those idiots! She gave an acknowledgement card with my application reference. I asked her to write her name down; she did along with an extension number, Ext 1218. I asked when I would get my money to which she replied that I would get it in 3 weeks time.

I left the building exhilarated thinking I would soon be getting my money back after paying 1 Ringgit for the parking. Oh, yes, the parking is an automated parking system.

21 days passed, no money, not even the color of the money. I called the number 04-2261000 Ext 2618; I called that number almost twenty times, I do not give up easily, I called the operator who gave me another extension, Ext 1222.This time a Mohd Zuri answered the phone. I asked him the status of my application, to which he replied that it was under process. He told me that I was mistaken and the application normally takes 3 to 4 weeks. Okay, fine, it is past 4 weeks=28 day plus 2 days. Thirty days to be exact and still “NO Money” today.

I started calling them at 04-2261000 alternating between Ext 2618 and Ext 1222. No one bothered to pick up the phones, it continued for a long time. I decided to drive down to the EPF Office, after waiting in a queue of 30 plus people, my number was called. This time I was told it would take a month plus, no specifics, just a month plus. I asked the guy at the counter why they gave me all the wrong information in the first place. He was lost for words and of course he was glad to see my back.

I went back and e-mailed them here enquiry@epf.gov.my on the 21st Feb 2007 @ 8 am. This is what I wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I submitted my application with all the relevant documents and forms to recover the fees paid to an Educational Institution in Singapore. I submitted my application on the 23rd January 2007. That was to send my daughter for further education. See subject matter for reference. I submitted my application in Penang. Today is exactly 30 days since my submission. I was informed by your staff, Puan Suriati that I would receive my money in 3 weeks. I later called a person on the expiration of the 3 weeks, in Penang, an Encik Mohd Zuri, who told me that it would take 4 weeks. If it is 4 weeks, it is way past all the time given by your staff. I would like a clarification on the status of my application and I want to know when I will receive my money. Here are my other particulars :

1. Nama: XXXXXXXX
No. KWSP: XXXXXXXXXXX
No. Kad Pengenalan: XXXXXXXXXX
No. Telefon : XXXXXXXXX
Nama Syarikat dan No. Majikan (sekiranya perlu) - XXXXXXXXX
I would appreciate it, if you could kindly respond to this inquiry. Thank you.
Regards
Major (Rtd) D.Swami
Meanwhile while I was at the EPF Office they were passing around flyers about their new “Scam-Semak Maklumat Melalui SMS Interaktif”. This is a money making avenue, I guess for the well connected, for the SMS service provider and the guys who printed the flyers at the expense of the contributors that is YOU and ME! Printed by of course, Jabatan Perhubungan Awam, KWSP.

I went back and called the EPF Office at the crappy so called, Call Management Centre (CMC) in Bangi, Selangor, the number is 03-87326000. Do not waste your time or money; it is another load of crap. When you call it this is what you get to hear, “Terima kasih kerana menghubungi pusat panggilan KWSP, panggilan anda akan disambungkan sebentar lagi” followed by an English version “Thank you for calling the EPF call centre, please hold we will attend to you shortly”. This is repeated 3 times in each language, interspersed with “hari tua song” and then it falls into an excuse mode, that there a lot of customers they are attending to and updating the systems and all the crappy excuses which one has not the patience to listen to. It happened every time I called. That was about 25 times.

I kept calling them until the 28th Feb 2007 but to no avail. On the 1st of March 2007, I went to the EPF in Ipoh. I was not given a number to queue, instead directed to see a Mr. Rosli or Mr. Zaidi. Well, I spoke to the Mr. Rosli who told me that it would take another two weeks!!! He gave me the excuse that the EPF was upgrading their systems. Plus that all my documents were being scanned to create a folder, meaning a soft copy on my application, I have got to give credit to this guy for his imagination. All of EPF’s slogans on being efficient and fast are just their imaginations too. When I told him about e-mailing them, he advised me not to as they would be too busy to respond to e-mails!!!!

I started calling the CMC again on the 5th March 2007 but bless my soul, no one answered or it is forever engaged. I have been calling them everyday since. I decided to try and call the Ipoh Branch that was on the 7th March 2007. It had been a good 44 days that had lapsed since I submitted my application. It was amazing that someone actually answered. I spoke to the operator about my predicament, the operator was most pleasant, and who directed me to a Cik Zaiton. I explained my problem to the lady, who gave me an encouraging reply that she would e-mail KL to find out the status of my application. She told me to call her back on the 14th March 2007. I asked why it would take that long after all it was an e-mail. To which she replied that she would be on leave on the Monday and Tuesday and to give time to the people in KL to reply.
I went to work on the 12th March 2007, it was amazing, and they were working on a Sunday! That is, on the 11th March 2007, an e-mail was sent out to me at 4:12 PM. With the normal excuses, they were not as innovative as the guy in Ipoh with excuses. Here is their reply from after Enquiry@Jab Pentadbiran [Enquiry@epf.gov.my] after 19 frigging days, can you imagine it if I sent my query by the normal post:

Your e-mail refers.

We are extremely sorry that your application has not been approved as of to date. We have forwarded your case to our processing unit to hasten approval.

We also wish to inform you that our processing of applications has been delayed. Since the replacement of our IT system beginning this year there had been technical glitches which delayed the overall process and this resulted in back log of cases. We are now approving complete applications as fast as we can. The delayed response to your e-mail was due to the high volume of queries received.

The inconvenience caused is regretted.

Enquiry
KM/

Who the hell cares for their two bit excuses!!! Remember EPF’s management were glamorizing themselves by saying it would only take shorter days to get the money and also that the dividends will be in by February, well February has come and gone. Nothing has happened!!! STOP making promises you cannot keep. While I am being stressed out by them, they successfully using YOUR and MY money bought over a part of the money losing bank RHB. On top of that they are going to buy over some crappy MAS building, which I think no one wants. Here I am sweating for my own legitimate money. If they have so many glitches why the f! #$ are there no glitches in acquisition of a stake in RHB bank and in the buying of the crappy MAS building, MAS has squandered millions of taxpayers money; it still wants to be bailed out by our pension funds.

I replied with a short and terse query on Mon 3/12/2007 8:38 AM:
The attachments you sent to me did not get through. Therefore send it to my alternative mail. Pls give me a date when I can get my money.
Regards

I doubt I would get a reply.

The 14th March 2007, arrived, with my heart pounding, I called Cik Zaiton at the Ipoh EPF office as instructed by her to call her back on the progress of my application on the 7th March 2007. I placed the call to 05-2420000 at sharp 0900 hrs, it did ring, and no one was picking it up. I tried calling until 1630 hrs the whole day, the same thing happened. It is now 51 days since I submitted my application.

I went to the Ipoh Office the following day, as my e-account stated that it was being processed in Perak. There were two kind ladies. They promised to look into my problem. One was Cik Zaiton and the Cik Dina. I left the office at approximately 0945 hrs. At around 1030 hrs I got a call from a Cik Faizah from EPF Hq stating that my application was incomplete. That I did not submit the offer letter from the Institute of Higher Learning!! I know I did as that is the most important document, without that document you cannot even submit the application. Those monkeys in EPF misplaced the documents. I had to photocopy the offer letter again had it verified at the Ipoh EPF Office. Cik Zaiton, who was kind to have it faxed with an e-mail to the people concerned. Just so that you readers know, the offer letter is the most important document, WITHOUT it the clowns at the EPF will NOT accept your application.

Today, the 19th March 2007 is the 56th day since my application. I have yet to receive anything.

On the 20th March 2007, I telephoned Cik Lina at the EPF Office in Ipoh, she assured me that she and Cik Zaiton were doing everything possible to solve my problem. In fact she said that she would call me by the end of the day. My hand phone had a problem, therefore I called using my line phone, I managed to contact Cik Zaiton, she told me to wait awhile , she checked and told me that my application had been approved, after 57 frigging days!! Further she told me that my money would be banked into my account by the 27th March 2007, hopefully, even she was not confident. Therefore it would have taken an amazing 2 MONTHS and TWO days to get your money!! This after so much visits and phone calls!!! I would like to give my sincere thanks to Cik Lina and Cik Zaiton of the Ipoh EPF Branch. They at all times were sincere in wanting to help me. They were customer friendly. I cannot say the same for those in Penang and Kuala Lumpur who steeped in a bed of bureaucracy, incompetence and inefficiency. I guess monkeys run some of the EPF offices.

Just that you know the sequence:
1. 23rd Jan 2007 submission of application.
2. 03rd Feb 2007 rejection of application for unknown reasons.
3. 5th Feb 2007 application under process.
In the website it shows the date of application and approval as the 5th Feb 2007, how much more misleading can it be?

They cannot even process a simple application for an education refund and they want to run a bank. God help us all contributors as they have bought a stake, a BIG stake in RHB bank. Another bureaucratic nightmare brought to you by me, on the so called efficient government machinery.

One more thing I noticed about the EPF web page, try logging into EPF via the login at the sidebar, I will take my hats off to you if you are successful on your first try.

If you are skeptical try these numbers in Penang 04-2261000 Ext 1218 or Ext 1222 or better still, try the EPF Call Management Centre in Bangi, Selangor 03-87326000. Good luck to you all! Please feel free to publish or forward this e-mail to as many as possible, so that innocent contributors be aware of the goings on in the EPF.