Avoid "wardrobe malfunction" buying at FashionAndYou.com

"Things that I don't learn once and continue to falter".

Well, yes, it is the same story. First, it was the most fraudelent BagItToday also known as India Today Book Club(ITBC), then it was

MakeMyTrip. Now, inspite of my "gyaans", her highness's binge of online shopping with FashionAndYou.com continued and today it ended with much of bitterness.

Okay, lets me make it more simpler:-

Ever wondered why we post our best photos on Facebook & Orkut? If you know why, then you might very well understand why we should not be buying things online especially from sites like FashionAndYou.com

When girls spend a fortune of time to get ready for shopping and take a millennium to choose "a dress", I do not get the logic of why they would buy something online based on a set of photographs. If you trust me the way I trust my photographer friends- Rahul and Alvin can make even a rusty bicycle look great or a simple fisherman look like he has the best profession in the world.

So, the story is that her highness had ordered a set of garments worth INR 1300/ and when it arrived, she thought it was not even worth mopping the floor with. The advertised photograph portrayed it to be something else.

Then, we called the customer care who ofcourse refused to accept it. So, I am blogging here just to let you all know that we have to be wise, especially when shopping online.

FashionAndYou like any other online store strives for maximum profit and though you might get good order sometimes, there is an equal chance that you may not like the next stuff that you order. Also, I dont believe the prices are competitive. They always have an additional burden of shipping charges.

My simple advice , "Avoid FashionAndYou.com. Avoid going blind with the bling"

For Sale: iPod Touch 4th Generation India Bangalore

I am posting this advert on behalf of my dearest friend Rahul Pradhan, an avid blogger and a brilliant photographer.

My iPod Touch (4^th Generation) is for sale. Please find details below:

- Model: iPod Touch 4^th Generation

- Condition: Excellent

- Some of the features:

o Latest iOS 5 operating system

o 3.5 inch touchscreen with crystal clear Retina™ display

o Color: Black (Front), Chrome (Back)

o Massive 32 GB of storage

o Wi-Fi

o Fully accessible with iTunes for songs and podcasts

o Fully accessible with Apple Store with over 5,00,000 apps

o Front and back camera with HD video recording

o iCloud service available

o FaceTime (over Wi-Fi) video conversation with iPod Touch4/iPhone/iPad

o Excellent music and video/movie playback quality

o Plus many more!

- Ownership details:

o Single and First owner

o Got as a gift, NEW, in October, 2010

- Standard accessories:

o Original iPod earphones (have normal wear)

o Original iPod data cable

o Original iPod case with user manual

- Freebies:

o Griffin silicone flexi-wrap case (worth about INR 1,250/-)

o Dell stereo earphones (Black) (worth about INR 500/-)

- Sale details:

o Selling price: INR 14,000/- 12,000 (Non negotiable)

o Selling location: Bangalore (Shipping to India OK but shipping charges extra)

o Selling reason: Too many devices so selling off phone and iPod to buy a good phone instead.

o Current Flipkart Rate for same item, NEW : INR 19,900/-

Contact details below:

- Rahul.Pradhn@Gmail.com

- 98808-33553

Crazy Indian judiciary and a clown Congress Government

Instead of focusing on the core issues like deteriorating Indian currency, the economy, terrorism or even sports, the Government and the judiciary is now busy looking to prosecute “21 sites for offences of promoting enmity between classes & causing prejudice to national integration” and that includes biggies like Google.
What the heck?

Sibalism has now defined the new depth of political nadir.

I always believed that the Congress government would lose the next elections because of anti-incumbency factor but it appears there is more than just Anna and the factor.
In one of the comments written below one of the article that published this trending story, a pro-government individual has pointed out:-

The case relates to some of the objectionable/hate-promoting content dumped into these social media sites by our own folks (maybe the person living/working next to you) and the sites not acting to remove them despite complaints (flagging as you call it). If Google engineers are smart enough to design and develop Ad Sense (that peeks into your email for keywords and displays relevant ads), they are surely smart enough to create filters that auto-flag hate posts/groups.

So, you want Google to censor every flagged comment, first verifying that it promotes hate or enmity(Ho Ho! That’s a freaking programmers nightmare) and censor every post that someone proves promotes hate. That sounds like the death-knell to the freedom of media, speech and expression.
Do I need to say more?
The internet is mammoth and I don’t believe terrorists and hate groups are influenced more by the internet than their company of friends or upbringing or their social conditions. And what about the cases against these companies? That will go on for ages like as in the case of “Indian citizen” Kasab. Yeah, he can apply for permanent residency now.
The Government probably would not have got a huge backslash from me if they started with NROP( read backwards[rb]) censorship first if they said it promotes XES(rb) and could argue it was “the cause” for the blowing population. But, media censorship on social networking or forums or the internet? That’s absurd.
I wanted the Government to go the China way but not this way. But, what can I do but vent out my anger and blog here.
Saada Haq, Aithe Rakh and Govt FTW(rb)!!

India Today Book Club becomes BagItToday but still fraudulent?

So, it just came across my mind to check how India Today Book Club was doing and was it still doing what it did best?

My article was a thunderous hit on the web and featured on top of Google searches. And WOW! ITBC doesn’t exist now. Its been rechristened “BagItToday.com”. I’d be happy to find out if my blog was one of the reasons of why they had to remove the brand name. Serves them right!

But, they don’t seem to have learnt a lesson yet. Have they?

What are your views? Let me know of your experiences.

Thus cometh 2012 at Royal Orchid Resort, Yelahanka!

The prospects of having a great new year celebration didn’t look high as I was having fever on Friday- yet again! But, as always, I take illness as a challenge following notes from the old and the wise. So, I asked a bucket full of hot water to have my legs soaked in and repeated this at least twice. So by afternoon on the 31st, I was busy making calls to the Pradhan’s and the Das’s to plan something and include the Tewari’s because I felt I could make it.

My friend’s circle(including my family) are notorious for making great plans in the 11th hour. So, we headed off to the Royal Orchid Resort Yelahanka to celebrate the transgression of 2011 into 2012.

The first thing on my mind and I could hear Ritu mumbling behind me was SEE-ROK[ Transposed version of the word ‘Roksee’=liquor]. We had opted for VIP passes with unlimited IMFL(Indian Made Foreign Liquor) and unlimited food. So, we headed straightaway to the food and beverages section. The first impression wasn’t great at all and stayed like that till the end.

I am not sure if Royal Orchid was directly involved in the new year’s bash but unlike my previous experiences with the chain, it was pathetic and sad.

I am a bit sleepy now so, let me summarize the Royal Orchid event in five lines:

a) The event was disorganized.  Queue was too long in food stalls and there were less counters.

b) Liquor wasn’t unlimited. The bar closed way too early.

c) There was shortage of food.  The kitchen closed early.

d) Police lathi-charged on a few. Why and what the heck?

e) The entire show(including DJ Suketu’s performance) was not worth the money

- My advice to everyone is to avoid Royal Orchid events like this…Believe me, its not worth the money!

The only great thing was our dancing and enjoying quality time with my family and friends.

 

Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year 2012!

Honda Activa 2006 for sale in Bangalore

• Make: Honda Activa
• Model: 2006
• Metallic Grey Color
• Excellent Condition- a few negligible bruises

• Single owner

• Insurance is unclaimed till date

• Bangalore Registration

• Proper documents available, Insurance valid till next year, Loan clearance letter is with the owner but RC book has not been updated.

• Meter Reading is at 39000 kilometers.
• Price Rs.31,000/-

Immediate Sale

For pictures & more information, please contact "m a i l f o r s a c h i n AT g m a i l d o t c o m" or reply to this post with your e-mail address/ phone number for further communication.

Bangalore Metro Rail Service

Finally, the much awaited Namma Bengalooru Metro service starts this Thursday October 20 2011.

The first stage will cover the following routes:-

Mahatma Gandhi Road Station towards Byappanahalli(vice-versa) through Sir M. Visheshwarya, Vidhan Soudha, Cubbon Park, MG Road, Halasaru, Indiranagar and Swami Vivekananda Road(Old Madras Road).

The trains will stop for 30 seconds each at each station and will run at a frequency of 30 minutes.

To quote BMRCL MD N Sivasailam:

"The Bangalore Metro, in terms of technology, is comparable to any metro rail system in the world - in Europe , USA or China - and is even ahead of some of them"

According to a report in the TOI, "Trains will be Wi-Fi enabled, so passengers can use laptops, tablets as well as mobile internet."

As an "immigrant" but permanent resident of this lovely city, I am pretty excited to go on my maiden metro trip and am hoping it will be this weekend.

Here is my route map on how I will reach the station:

Well, just in case you did not get it, the idea was to boast how close I stay to the metro station :)

Simply bored!

It is crazy to be "Simply Bored"!

I know that the tendency to be bored isn't great and it wasn't so just a couple of weeks back; Everything was going like I had planned- new job, working from home, closer to home, higher salary, peaceful nights...Then came a thought- I will hit the gym & I did so religiously until I fell ill(YET YET AGAIN!) on October 3rd 2011. With the illness, I finally scaled new heights in my antibiotics dosage- a third-generation antibiotics was prescribed by the doctor. What the heck is wrong with my immune system? I wish I could unravel the mystery of my recurring illness especially with my throat. Come next week and I will be going for a head-to-toe checkup. But that's not the point. It has simply disturbed my momentum in life. And nowadays, I feel this constant urge to be restless & bored without doing anything.

 
And in my boredom, I tend to shift my focus to something else. I "unwillingly" read articles on www.timesofindia.com and pity readers like myself who have to go through so much of torture reading their articles. You should read the level of "crap" that they write- both content-wise and grammar-wise. www.thehindu.com seems to be better. Then, I go to www.thesun.co.uk for my daily dose of celebrity & "masala" news. Sometimes, the contents are NSFW and I have to hurry through the stories.

Facebook doesn't entice me anymore though I love watching status updates of others, just out of my curiousity to know how others are faring.

What else? TV is full of Anna Hazare "mania", Advanis and the Gandhis. In short, additions to make your boredom more miserable.

Last but not the least, whatever is being earned is graciously being spent literally washing off the burning desire to possess a cruiser-bike soon.

So, at the end of the day, there is boredom again and the cycle continues....

Yes, it is crazy to be "SIMPLY BORED!!""

How to activate voicemail on Bharti Airtel Postpaid mobile in Bangalore?

If you know the answer, please do leave me a comment about how to set it up. But, believe me when I say- Airtel have no clue about it themselves.

 

Originally, not an Airtel customer and frustrated with Idea’s hold-on-call that lasted for a good 10-15 minutes everytime I called them, I thought of doing my first MNP(Mobile Number Portability) to Airtel.

 

I had a good history with Airtel and was very impressed by their QoS- a term that doesn’t exist in their dictionary now.

 

My request was as simple as activating voicemail. Who wants to get a call from office at 4 am when he/she has reached home at 2 am? Yes, unfortunately, that was my poor story way back in March. But again, what if something got messed up terribly? I needed a workaround and thus subscribed to Rs. 20/- a month SMP(Smart Mail Plus). Thus began my frustration.

 

Trust me when I say that I have followed the correct escalation matrix :-

a) Call to Airtel Customer Care (121) at 50p for 3 minutes. Roughly about 2 hour

b) Talk with floor supervisors. Roughly about ½ hr@50p per 3 minutes.

c) E-Mail to customer care: 121@in.airtel.com. Roughly about 6 times.

d) Escalation e-mail to South Nodal team. Once

e) Visiting the nearest Airtel Store. They know just one thing- Dial 121 from the store.

Finally

f) Threatening to disconnect call and go for an alternative service provider. 3 times.

 

Its utterly unbelievable folks but they’d rather lose a customer than take a sincere effort to resolve the issue. They have stopped replying to my e-mails or calling me now to take the issue to resolution.

 

In a nutshell, it’s been a frustrating experience. I am going for a MNP again tomorrow, not for a VMS (now that I have changed my job & it’s not required) but only as a way of peaceful protest against a now sub-standard bunch of so called technical & customer service executives of Bharti Airtel.

Sunil Mittal is a rich guy. He would not mind losing a customer who paid Rs. 1422.33 as a “parting gift” to the company. That is just Rs. 17067.96 a year…

But, remember Airtel- HFZ hai !

 

 

UPDATE

 

For you reference, Smart Mail Plus procedure is as follows:

Now MNP Port in customers can use smart mail service on 52555. Customer to dial USSD Short Code *321*671# for activation.

Activate:
Call 52668 (toll free) to activate or deactivate

Charges:
Monthly rental of Rs 15/- for existing customers. Rs.20/- for new activationRetrieving 75ps, Call 52667 (for settings) @ Rs 3/min

Features:
- Call gets diverted to Voicemail(VM) under the following conditions
When the customer is out of reach
When Mobile is Switched Off
If unreachable
- Smart mail working condition when in roaming
In not reachable mode
Switched Off mode

- Get Missed Call Information(MCI) thru sms under the above conditions:
- All VM notifications or Missed call Information notifications will include mobile number and time.
- Retrieval of all VM on IVR 52666 or retrieval of a particular number VM on IVR 52666** (specified in sms).
- Retrieval of messages while in Roaming or even from a local Landline

Retrieval:
- Call 52666(75ps) for retrieval of all VMs or 52666** as specified in the sms for a particular voicemail
- For Landline retrieval call 9945501491, enter mobile number and password* to access VMs
- Customer can retrieve while roaming by calling ten digit number 9945501491(roaming rates) after password* verification.

For Settings:
- Call 52667(Rs3/min)
- Set your Password
- Record your personalized message or select a pre-recorded message
- Set messages as default message, Person specific message or Alternate message(define time period)

Super service from HP Customer Care, Bangalore

Possibly, one of the only reasons to keep me awake this moment! I have just been out of an hour long call with BMC Support. These two days have been 'freaking' hell! Not that I am complaining about the work or the hours but get thoroughly frustrated to 'over-commitment' of the biggies!

Anyways....

It has been a long time since I last blogged. A blogger since 2004 and an early-bird, of late I have been busy shuffling between tiring work hours and the need to commit to my personal duties.

Having said that, I would not been blogging at this hour hadn't it been for the timely support of HP's Service Center in Indiranagar, Bangalore.

My HP laptop is again up and running...

A month back, I was informed that the laptop would not boot. A little later, there was a yellow line on the screen(Read: Permanent Damage) and a little later

Since it was purchased in the U.S through www.deals2buy.com and at that moment did not care about international warranty, So, I wasn't expecting much from the Service Center- Maha Electronics at 13th Main Indira nagar.

On enquiry, I was bridged to the customer care and they said that the laptop wasn't supported in India.

With this, I was left with the only option that I usually follow to get the best out of any support- I spoke to the manager Mr. Rajeev who first empathized, sympathized and then said he would "work on that on a best effort basis" to get it working and asked me to leave the laptop there.

Days passed and we were getting impatient but the most pleasing part was that the Service Center guys kept informing that the "Hold your breath" FREE replacement was on its way.

Finally, it arrived yesterday much to our immense delight. And today, I received a call from HG Padmaraju(the engineer) that the "Hold your breath again!" FREE LCD replacement had arrived and we could get that replaced whenever we wanted to.

That's like a stress buster, ain't it?

On a closing note, I don't know why I keep writing about "Customer Rights" and "Customer Experiences". My cousin Anand teases me with the line "Jaago Grahak Jaago"

Yes, indeed! I was "awakened" by this excellent customer support. Kudos to HP and the Maha guys..