A series of unfortunate events is happening at the moment, yet again.
No lah, not the film, Netflix series or book
Just last week, we had a series of unfortunate trolley incidents back to back, both involving our beloved NTUC FairPrice.
If you haven’t read about it (why haven’t you!), you can read it here and here.
Fast forward to this week, let’s start with a riddle to get you going on this latest series.
What starts with O, has a yellow body and Owes a lot of money?
That’s right folks, its o(we)fo.
Lest you didn’t get the pun, well, its ofo in this mercifully short, sans-pun version.
The Wheels have come off
If you don’t already know, news broke today morning on Straits Time’s “Singapore ofo users seeking refund hit bump” that Singapore ofo bike users are facing difficulties in getting refunds from the Mainland-born bike-sharing company.
Complete with “Premium” tag and a Levi’s Ad, which, by the way, is being written by my colleague now as you read this.
Now, I’m not sure if “bump” was used with pun intended ala road bump/hump; but if this ST writer is worth his salt, it’s intended.
In any case, pun intended or not, ST reported that “more than 170 comments have been left by irate Singapore users saying that refund requests have gone unanswered” on their
Facebook page which incidentally ” has not been updated in almost two months.”
What? Two months you say?
If you don’t exist on Social Media, that just means you or your company doesn’t exist.
And true enough, when ST visited ofo’s registered address along Shenton Way, “staff of other companies there said they had not seen anyone from ofo for several weeks.”
Just so you know, it was a co-working space. Heck, even Trashy Feed has its own office #justsaying
O(we)fo Owe Money DON’T Pay Money
The disappearances don’t just end with ofo’s staff.
Two men interviewed by ST, Mr Clearance Yeap (I swear this was the name printed in ST in case you are wondering) and Mr Yong Teck, both shared that ofo still currently owes them money.
While Mr Lim is still owed $39 for a deposit last year, Mr Yeap claims that “his card was charged about $18 over two months without his knowledge” and was only able to stop “incurring further charges by deleting his card details from the ofo app”.
Mr Yeap also added that he has been “unable to contact ofo for a refund of the amount lost.”
From the Mainland to Singapore
If you have been following global news however, this should not have come as a surprise.
Just last week, ofo CEO Dai Wei shared that the company was facing “immense cash flow pressures and has been “dissolving the company and applying for bankruptcy.”
How strange, considering what a Google search on “ofo CEO Dai Wei” yielded:
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly (I lied, this didn’t show in results, but still ugly right? Looks a little like my boss.)
In short, it well appears that questions about ofo’s business sustainability has been surfacing in the last one to two years amidst conflicting reports of phenomenal growth and outstanding numbers.
And on most occasions, save the recent ones, he has reiterated that the company was sustainable and even went so far as to proclaim global bike domination in his exclusive interview article with CNA just last year:
Domination #1
Domination #2
Like a bicycle chain of events
Macro-scopically speaking though, if you did’t have a whiff of what was coming, you are either a disinterested millennial, or you haven’t yet paid your internet bills.
For what was heralded as the next stage of low-carbon footprint, cheap and efficient transport alternative, the fall has been nothing short of glorious.
Locally, the murmurs of bike-sharing regulations gained traction in 2017 and culminated in its actual implementation in October 2018.
Along the way, another fellow bike-sharing firm oBike fell by the wayside, when it liquidated, had 58, 000 of its bike removed from public spaces and transferred $10 million collected from users here to its Hong Kong operations, leaving local refund-seeking users in its dust.
(Don’t RIP, oBike)
Curiously, both Mr Clearance Yeap (not me I swear) and Mr Lim were Obike users too.
Mr Clearance’s Yap not-so-heng-moments-with-b(owe)th bikes companies
Mr Lim is slightly more heng
So folks, what starts with O, has a yellow body and Owes a lot of money?
That’s right, its o(we)fo and o(we)Bikes.
O(uch)
Come to think of it, do you see any bikes at the bus stop near your workplace or home recently? Hmmm…
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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