OneService has been touted as a convenient one-stop service to report municipal issues.

But there seems to be a focus on quickly closing a reported case to achieve a high rate of "closure", while the underlying problem is not actually solved.

I first used OneService to lodge a complaint with the Housing Board on Nov 23, about how my upstairs neighbour's air-conditioning unit was leaking due to corrosion. I had spoken to her on multiple occasions, but she continued to ignore the problem.

Hence, I had no choice but to refer the issue to HDB together with photos of the visible corrosion.

HDB sent me an e-mail on Nov 27 to say that it was looking into the case.

On Dec 1, it sent a letter to my neighbour, with a copy sent to me, telling her to repair the air-conditioning unit by Dec 15 and to stop using it until the problem was rectified.

On Dec 10, metallic pieces of her air-conditioning unit started dropping onto my air-conditioning unit.

I took more photos and lodged a second report on Dec 12, as I was afraid that the unit might drop onto pedestrians walking below.

On Dec 15, the second case was marked as "closed" on OneService, with the remarks that my neighbour had been advised to repair the unit quickly.

An HDB officer also called me to assure me that it would send somebody down to look into the issue.

There has been no follow-up since then, while the air-conditioning unit has continued to leak and shed debris, and the corrosion has visibly worsened due to daily use of the unit.

Perhaps OneService can look into ensuring that cases are closed only when the problems raised are actually resolved.

Koh Kim Lian