Another MATTA Travel Fair March 11 – 13 as advertised in the national newspapers. I am told that there will be many goodies in the MATTA Travel Fair. However, there are many Malaysians who will also suffer from the “fly by night” tour agents/operators, who will cease operation few months after they have collected full payment for the tours and flight tickets. The victims of such scams are not protected at all. It would appear that MATTA does not scrutinise the financial standing of all the participants in the travel fair. It seems that MATTA is only interested in collecting exhibiting fees.
Members of the public must be cautious when they purchase tours and flight tickets during such travel fair. Deal with the reputable travel agents only.
The Ministry of Tourism should impose new regulations that MATTA must take out special insurance to compensate victims of such scams otherwise there is no point having such an association like MATTA, which is only interested in organizing travel fairs with no responsibility whatsoever. I have tabled a question on this subject matter in Parliament for debate in March 2011, in HERE. It is hoped that the Ministry will act quickly to protect members of the public from such scams.
Matta should not be allowed to act an agent to collect membership fees and exhibition fees with no responsibility to society. It is high time that the Ministry of Tourism must step in to protect the public as suggested by YB.
Please be aware that you CAN get scam even buying a Travel Package at Matta Fair. What happen is the victim get cheated when vacation packages they paid for did not materialise .
http://www.alantanblog.com/travel/beware-of-matta-fair-scam-cheap-vacation-packages.html
The main purpose of this fair is a to provide a platform for MATTA ( Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents ) members to have easier access to the public to fulfill their travel needs all under one roof at great bargain for someone have save money for their dream ( become nightmare later ?? ) travel holiday ..
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MATTA has right to collect membership fees . But wrong or right for MATTA to collect exhibition fees , depending on what MATTA has done . eg are KURNIA LEISURE SDN BHD , is MATTA member ??? If not , then why allowed this company under MATTA fair ?
And also what is the requirement to become MATTA membership ? Any yearly review has done by MATTA
againts it member to ensure they has maintain standard or
as long as able to pay membership fees , ISO is 123 ????
Some MATTA fair also just like PC fair ( to buy cheap 1st hand notebook already use by their staff a few years ? better be careful ) , It is funny we know some IT company’s staff dont even know how to refill printer cattridge ink , are promoting – it is easier to install this ( by yourself , not them who sell ) cattridge ink in PC fair .
I second your suggestion, having been one of the more fortunate victims of this. Fotunate because I managed to recover my money. The fair is the biggest annual revenue for MATTA and a large proportion of this is the grant from the Government. Given that they are using the Rakyat’s money, MATTA should carry some accontability.
YB, the second bulk of the fair revenue is from contributions from their “sponsors”.
he other sources of revenue is from exhibitors and entrance fees.
MATTA seems to be only interested in getting as much revenue from the fair and leaves the public to the mercy of these tour operators and travel agents.
I had my tour cancelled by a reputable Travel Agent after 1 week before departure despite booking 6 months ahead. Had to pay more for a shorter tour with an alternate travel agent.
I also support the call for the Ministry of Tourism to start to take immediate actions to prevent public from being cheated during the Matta fair.I do agree that it is a case of profits with no responsibility. I have relatives who have been cheated.
Matta is a useless as it does not bother about the plight of those who have been cheated by its members. Thank you YB for highlighting such matter, Please speak for us in Parliament.
Saya menyokong penuh Kementerian Pelancongan mengambil tindakan dengan segera terhadap Matta demi kepentigan rakyat. Kita tidak mahu nampak lagi orang awam jadi mangsa kepada tour agen.
Also becareful as below :
http://islamic-world.net/economics/takaful_intro.htm
because what we get the information is not what the above said ….
2011 – Bank Negara Malaysia losses on the mistakes of
printing Malaysian currency , 2010 – BNM secretly increase BLR 50 points , 2008 – No 3rd Party Insurance problem begins .
2009 – ??? This is the story
An insurance company is having promotion in shopping mall ,
introduce us some Takaful saving product which they claim
income will more high than FD . All u need is RM 100 per month . There is no brochure and other documents for customer except a file for customer viewing .
As suspecting , we continue to read more in the files ( approved by BNM ) , and found that it is insurance policy .
So is it not every body low-education know the difference between saving and insurance ( if you deposit RM 100 deposit in saving , tomorrow you can withdraw it if need it ) but if you pay RM 100 insurance premium …. so the insurance company
taking advantage ????
The agent are so angry when we refuse to take it by saying ” Today Sunday is last day , dont regret ” ha ha quite surprise tomorrow Monday we still see her .
This is more worst than MATTA because someone that take this plan , still not yet know they has ” kena tipu ” as todate .
One more thing after a few weeks , we remember that this agent group didnt even talk about protection to their customer . So the 1st insurance policy in Msia without protection ???
It is a known fact that at every Matta Fair there will be many victims. So it is timely that YB call for actions by the government. Matta is good for nothing. it is not protecting the people interest except to make money by having travel fairs two times a years.
Is Matta travel fair really a good deal. Not quiet. we have to buy tours and tickets in advance and non refundable. I am sure that many of us could not travel when the date comes. At the end of the day, the public still get screwed .
The government had to step in to regulate function like travel fairs to ensure that there is no unscrupulous travel agents.
Dear Mr Wee,
I am sorry for being out of topic but I want to bring up some matters about air asia that requires some looking into:
If you look at ‘contacts’ on their website, you will see two phone numbers of their call centre for malaysia.
Try using them, the first is absolutely non-user friendly, requires so much time to get through the automated steps and listening to all the adverts and at the end we dont get to speak to a person. To top it all we pay for the entire call. Shouldn’t it be tollfree?
The second number is a premium line costing $1.95 a minute, this is daylight robbery and all the telcos are in it. Of course, we get through quickly but my question is why does it cost so much? Maybe this is an attempt by them to force customers to use this line because of frustration with the first line and then split the profits between them.
Please investigate with your usual vigour, i must say that i have a lot of respect for u and for what you are doing for malaysians.
Thank you.
Bank of Credit and Commercial Int’l , a Pakistan institution
that specialised in money laundering , arms dealing and
financing terrorists from the 1970 until its demise in 1991 .
Models and structures of Takaful are little known particularly in Pakistan .
Can the money greedy Zeti explain why she pick the Pakistan model since there are so many model ????
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Base on feedback from older people , Islamic banking products is good during Mahathir time , but the problem arises when the Zeti ( another Lee Kee Hiong type ) takeover the top post in Bank Negara .
a) Example 1 – They close Islamic current account which pay monthly interest . Why ? Suddenly there is monthly charges …..
b) Example 2 – PBB Islamic Saving Account has been rated as rubbish from people ( try to silence since saving interest is a few RM ) to bullshit from people ( how could our children saving account no interest ? The reason they giving is their balance below RM 2,500 ??? ) . But during
opening account , they has been told another story
We just start an ordinary saving account last year and it still pay interest although our balance just increase from RM 50.00 to RM 800.00 . If Zeti cannot even done 1% of
100% Bank Negara job , please resign ….
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The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is planning to increase its overseas investments to generate higher returns for its members.
Chief executive officer Tan Sri Azlan Zainol said its current investment of RM40.53bil in overseas markets only represented 9.2% of EPF’s overall RM440.52bil investment last year.
This is not rakyat dont like better income . But who manage the oversea investment ? The makan pisang one , RAM Holdings Bhd chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng ( Zeti crony ???? ) who say inflation at about 1.8% to 1.9% ?????
Among them were …. who spent more than RM19,000 on two numbers
(RM14,444 for MCA 4 and RM4,888 for MCA 7777), and Tan Lay Kang, who forked out RM42,000 for three numbers (RM15,400 for MCA 8888, and RM13,300 each for MCA 3333 and MCA 9999).
Malaysian motorists may be reluctant to pay their summonses ,
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/3/nation/8179452&sec=nation
got splurge a mind-boggling RM150mil every year for the number plate of their choice ???. Even Former Penang DAP strongman Gooi Hock Seng went around with MR 6001 to reflect his surname . Sama-sama mana understand Mat No Road Tax under 250cc and Mat Kancil problem ????
Sometimes we wonder why Mat Hyundai Sonata still can renew road tax although a lot of outstanding summons while Mat 250cc and Kancil get blacklisted although only one-to-three summons ???
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/3/business/8174248&sec=business
Manokaran said the country’s inflation rate would hit 4% and exceed the house’s 3% forecast for this year assuming prolonged US$100 oil price and current subsidy levels were maintained.
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Anyway , how inflation in Msia was calculated ? We get some idea from someone just retire from car servicing outlet past a few years . He said normally some government staff will come every quarterly to collect some tyre price eg 17570R13 . But the data they collect was not very correct
as it only involve old outlet . He said normally each big company eg Goodyear, Silverstone sell tyre to outlet in different way . Some sell 100 pcs free 10 pcs ( average cost ) , some using incentive method .
Eg retail support programmme RM 25,000 ( maximum 2 outlet , RM 6-RM 10 incentive per tyre ) . So if the company has third outlet , then the tyre prices they sell will difference .
He said even 2005 , after price of all tyres increase from 3% to 10% , is increase futher for the remaining years .
As today , is government still use this method , or replace this method by employ makan-pisang economist to calculate inflasi base on their dream ???
Beware of Medical tourism too Mr. Wee. Please read the following article:-
Dr Susan Lim and the $22M medical bill
March 3rd, 2011 | Author: Contributions
I’m sure many of you have read about the Dr. Susan Lim case which is now before the SMC. She is trying to prevent the SMC from convening an investigation into her billing [Link]. I’m not here to discuss Dr. Lim’s case or her morals but how the desire for Singapore to be a medical hub for the rich has raised the cost of healthcare for ordinary Singaporeans who are now made to shoulder the increasing financial burden of our govt’s aspiration to maximise the profits made in this sector while keeping its own expenditure on healthcare down by passing the increased costs to ordinary Singaporeans.
While Dr. Lim’s case was brought up, the newspapers went around to interview doctors on what they think of it. Some say she should bill no more than $5000 a day. Others say it is okay for her to bill the $450k a day if the patient is willing to pay this amount for her services. There is no consensus on what amount she should bill a patient. Some suggested it should be based on patient’s ability and willingness to pay. If this is true, Singaporeans with a median household income of $4-5K have to compete with the richest in the region. Healthcare is starting to get treated like housing -the good size bungalows for the rich and rental flats for the poor, you get what you pay for and the more you pay the higher the availability and quality. Pure capitalism.
Sometime back, I needed an minor operation on my back. I went to the GP who suggested that I pay a few thousand for day surgery at a private hospital called Eastshore. He told me the doctor there was very experienced, highly available and I can get my surgery the next day after an initial inspection. I asked him if there is any risk if it is done by a doctor with no experience. He told me the risk was minimal (nearly zero but doctors cannot say zero). I decided to have it done at the public hospital. The waiting time was months but I was not in need of any immediate treatment so I was opted to wait. To cut a long story short during my surgery I was put on LA (local anaesthesia) – they killed the pain on my back but I was fully awake during the surgery. While they operated on my I could hear all the interesting small talk between a specialist and two surgeons who were “cutting” me. The surgeons sounded like rookies taking instructions from the specialist. I was quite okay with that given my condition was not complex and the surgery was a simple one. Half way through, the head of department came around to check on the surgery team. When he left, one of the surgeons said he was very nervous when his “boss” came to look at what he was doing. I told him, “hey doctor, you forget I’m still awake, now your patient also very nervous”.
The surgery did go well and I have recovered fully. I was lucky to have a small problem and the public hospital took good care of it. However, my experience that highlights what is going in our public hospitals. Many highly experienced senior doctors, surgeons and specialists have been drawn out of our public hospitals into the private sector where they can earn much more money doing less work. That leaves those who remain in the public hospitals to handle a bigger loads – we enter a vicious cycle because those remain have to be retained with higher pay. The govt has shown no desire to fix this as they simply pass on the increased cost to Singaporeans (means testing, higher insurance premiums etc). They continue to advertise Singapore as a medical hub for the rich in the region[Linkj] and the expansion of capacity in private hospital will further strain our limited resources.
There is only one other developed country that allowed free markets to dominate healthcare – USA. We are going along the same trajectory and will reach a stage when it becomes very difficult to fix just like in the US. You cannot ask surgeons that make $15M a year to throttle down to $5M. We have already seen insurance premiums moving up – old schemes such as basic medishield becoming inadequate and more and more people with inadequate coverage. The medical care financial strain is moved up from low income now to middle income families. We continue to be told that “healthcare is affordable” and we are on the right track. This is not true. There are many other ways to run a healthcare system and many of my readers who are Singaporeans or ex-Singaporeans now living in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and UK attest the workability of other systems that give the sick the better care and lower financial burdens. The PAP likes to scare us by saying that such system can only lead to higher tax – ideologically the PAP likes to keep income taxes low but that comes at a price of burdening those in need. In the 2011 budget the PAP govt cut taxes for the middle income, in essence, giving money to all those in this bracket including those who don’t need the money. But why do this? The govt hurt the sick people in the same income category by implementing means testing….why take from those who need it most to give to everyone? This philosophy can only exacerbate the effects of the already large income gap among the populace and thin out what ever remains of any safety net for those who need it most.
Very soon, travel agents will also need a “special” license to operate.
Malaysia Boleh !! Apa pun boleh.
MATTA seems to be only interested in getting as much revenue from the fair and leaves the public to the mercy of these tour operators and travel agents.
I had my tour cancelled by a reputable Travel Agent after 1 week before departure despite booking 6 months ahead. Had to pay more for a shorter tour with an alternate travel agent.
i signed a package with winz vacation before. their office is at petaling jaya.website is http://www.winstravel.com.my/aboutus.asp#sthash.S49fniRH.dpbs
i signed the paclkage at matta fair. they promised us lots good thing. but this holiday really going worst…food serve us is spoilt, and we stay at an old apartment with smelly environment. they promised to give us 4 star hotel before.everything is too late. you guys just alert~….
I bought a package to HK for my family. I already requested to fly using Cathay Pacific but what I get is MAS Tickets. The travel agency never call me for any confirmation for flights and hotel. We took Muslim Package but actually no different at all. We got our hotel (at kwun tong area) which is far away from HK Central. We need to travel by our own to town. Not a really satisfied package I get this time. Pay RM 10k plus but what I get is nonsense. The arrangement also so bad. Travel to HK early in the morning and fly back to KL late night. I would never go to MATTA fair and use the travel agency anymore. Better arrange by myself.