To blog ? or Not to ?

The new feature, priority inbox is now launched in India, but not for all. They select some random ids and provide it as beta version.

I got it in some of my ids. I just tried and set up in one account. It’s really nice, once you set any mail as important, you will get that at the top. The inbox is been categorized with

1. Important and unread (you can change it to only important or unread)
2. Starred
3. Everything else

Priority mail set up option is there on the tab.  Whenever you get an important mail you can select that as important and next time when you receive a mail from that person, it will be in your priority inbox.

I believe it is a best option to give a priority to your very important mails. I really wish to experience it in my main account, which is not been selected for this feature. I hope that I would get the option soon.

Two days back I noticed a status message of one of my FaceBook friend that she is going to join with a prominent MNC in India. The very next day her status was suggesting that she is not going to join since she was offered 20K only.

There were many comments, some said for an MBA it is less, some said it is ok, but I commented that getting experience is important.

Then the next status was saying that she would prefer some companies looking for qualified people other than experienced, and she is so sure that one day ball will come to her court. I told her the difference between experienced opportunities and fresher opportunities.

A fresh graduate cannot compete with a qualified and experienced person. Doing MBA is not the final thing. There are many MBAs working for less than that of she was offered. Once you get some experience you could be choosy.

She was too adamant to accept what I said; she called it ‘Bullshit’. I have removed her from my friend list and before that I told her to wait for Mr. Bill Gates coming to her home with an appointment letter.

I have checked with many of my friends, some still studying. Most of them, in fact all of them looking for experience. I have many examples with me. Many of my friends joined with small companies and gained some experience and got in to better positions. Now they are working in prominent MNCs in US, Europe etc.

So, I believe getting experience is most important. Once you have some experience you could look for better opportunities. Whatever qualification you have, it is entirely different when it comes to execution.  You lean many theories when you do your MBA, but you will have to really experience it, the methodology to execute it. Theory is not enough.

Some years back companies were not asking qualification certificates even. Once I asked one HR manager, why he is not asking original certificate, he said ‘you could bring any certificate, even a PhD. But when you work I can understand whether you have that quality or not. So I do not give any importance to certificate but ability to do something.’

I think, that was a very good answer, some seasoned HR people can easily identify a right choice.

The girl in this story is looking for salary only. 20K was not enough to start with. I do not know about her expectation, any way I am sure she is wasting her time.

How late have I loved you..?

Oh ! Splendor Divine!

Oh ! Beauty so ancient

Oh ! Beauty so near

How late have I loved you ?

Oh ! Splendor Divine

What bluntness was mina

Oh ! Beauty How late have I turned me to you ?

How late have I loved you ?

Oh ! Splendor Divine!

My heart is full of mercy for you…

And my heart is felt for your beauty………

How late have I loved you ?

Oh ! Splendor Divine!

My New blog is here, its all about Making money.

Have a look: http://moneyhoneymoney.wordpress.com/

I have bought a Samsung MPower Muzik SCH-F219 Phone from the nearest Reliance outlet for Rs. 3200 recently.

I liked the style of the phone so purchase and also it is OMH. But my SIM is not OMH, I need to upgrade it.

After purchasing this phone, I have noticed some stupid things in it.

1) Whenever you try to delete any images or any other item it is not asking for a confirmation. If you select delete it get deleted.

2) You cannot set your image as a wallpaper directly from your Memory Card, you need to copy that to phone memory.

3) There is no Background play mode while you play from your Memory Card, but FM radio have this feature.

4) You will not get calls while playing music from your memory card when  using your headphone, other wise you get calls. I have tried from different numbers for 10 times, I got connected only twice. So the success rate is 20%. Other cases you get an engaged tone, or out of coverage area and some times it gives a single ring and get disconnected .

5) The sound of ringtone is very less when you select any song from your Memory Card.

6) You can enter only 2 phone numbers in it. There is a fax option but you will not be able to add.

7) You cannot make any image to full view wall paper.

Over all wastage of money. I did not expect such stupidity from Samsung. So my advice, please do not buy this phone

My review in Mouthshut: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Samsung_SCH-F219_Muzik-196829-1.html

This is a letter I sent to Higher Authorities of State Bank of Travancore on 6^th August 2010 for which I did not get a proper reply.

Hi

I had a very bad experience with your branch yesterday. I have visited Angamaly branch to collect my ATM PIN, since I had lost that some days back and I applied for a duplicate.

I was asked to approach a person who seems to be the Manager, next to him there was a board ‘Accounts Manager’ but no name. (This is another problem, every bank keep even their junior staffs identity. But, here as a Manager his name is not mentioned. I suggest you to have name tags for everyone in your bank)

I waited some minutes, since he was dealing with other customer. I have given my Debit/ATM card along with my Pass book. He was asking about the letter along with the Debit card. I told him I have not brought it. (I did not understand the relevance of such question, the letter is sent to me, and it is up to me whether to produce somewhere or not. And whatever import information required is with him like, card number is there in the card, and account number and my identity, pass book is enough for that. )

I told him, I have applied for a duplicate card. He asked for the old card, I said, I lost the card that’s why applied for a new one. His answer was rude, “cannot say that is the only reason, if you do not use a card for one month, the card will be deactivated and will have to apply for a new one.” Now I would like to know this statement is right or wrong. I did not want to have an argument since he was rude and adamant, like he is talking to a beggar, he might have annoyed when I said I did not bring the letter along with card.

I have account with HDFC and ICICI banks, even if I do not use my card for months I never have to replace it. Only when the card is damaged I have to replace it. They charge only Rs 100 for ATM/Debit card replacement. But you people charge Rs 220 for the same. If this is the case, how many times a person will have to replace a card? I am not sure, the information is correct or not. Since he is a Manager with your branch, I have to believe it. Please clarify.

Secondly, the person made me and other 3 customers wait for more than 30 minutes for not a relevant reason. I visited the branch  20 days back to apply for a duplicate ATM/Debit card, since I lost that while travelling to Bangalore.

There was an NRI, with him, he wanted to have some fixed deposit, and 5 minutes after I reached that was over. Again, he wanted to withdraw some fund. It was just Rs. 5000, the manager himself, filled the form and sent to cash counter with an assistant and got money and given to him. He have taken his contact details, and was talking to him, while we were waiting for him. At least he should have attended us and ask to wait, I would have been happy.

Yes, bank has to give importance to NRI, because they deposit more money, at the same time you cannot neglect the common man. Bank is for everyone, if you go to other banks, you get same consideration. There is no discrimination.

Please educate your staff to deal with customers, a Manager may be a good position in the bank, but I do not need to bother. I am a blogger, I have earlier written an article appreciating your customer service. Please do not force me to write something reverse.

So, please clarify about the ATM/Debit card usage? Whether the card will be deactivated, if I do not use it for a month.

I have my company site (ideaspark.in) registered 2 years back and this year March; I have transferred the domain to Godaddy.com since many people suggested they are good.

I have made payment using Axis Bank credit Card. I have transferred 2 domains to godaddy.com and made the payment. I have cleared the payment when I got my Credit Card statement.

The site was running, I used to get inquires, suddenly on 25^th June 2010, my site gone down. I checked with my hosting company about the issue. They said the issue is with the domain and check with the domain registrar.

I checked the domain details in ‘whois’ record. That was in my name but instead of my actual name server it was

Name Server:NS1.SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM
Name Server:NS2.SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM

I have contacted Godaddy.com, through their support

The answer from support department was;

“We understand you have concerns about your domain.  Please contact Abuse@godaddy.com for further information about this situation as our department is unable to assist you at this time.”

I have sent a letter to Abuse department stating the entire details and their reply was;

“The purchase in question has been reversed through your financial institution and the services have been canceled. If you would like to reactivate these services, we will need to recharge the original purchase amount.”

I have asked them who initiated a charge back; they said it was the issuing bank. When asked for further details they said

“The order in question was placed on March 20, 2010. At this time it appears that the purchase has been charged back and the services have been canceled. If you would like to reactivate these services, they will need to be repurchased in addition to a $50 (USD) chargeback fee per receipt, which is added to the original purchase price.”

Subsequently, I have contacted the bank- Axis Bank, their reply;

We need to inform that, both the transactions done at GODADDY.COM, 480-5058855 on March 20, 2010 for Rs. 704.96 had been successfully done and claimed by the merchant ( GODADDY.COM, 480-5058855 ) on your credit card account.

I have contacted godaddy.com again with bank’s reply. The support team has escalated the issue to higher authorities and I got a mail from special team saying the same, what they used to say.

Ultimately, I decided to contact the higher officials with Godaddy.com. I collected email id of the President of Godaddy.com and sent a mail. I got a call from President’s office and he told the entire story which the support team was narrating earlier.

Then, I thought it may not be the issue with Godaddy.com thus decided to ask the bank’s higher authorities. I sent mail to the CEO, Directors and the concern department. But no reply, the nodal officer too did not respond.

I again contacted Godaddy.com to provide me with the transaction details so that, I will have an evidence that Bank have initiated a charge back. But there is no reply from them.

No my question; where does the money go?  I have settled the Credit Card bill for both the payment, if bank have not done any reversal, who did?  I am totally confused, not only for the amount, but for the services taking using the Credit Card.

Who is playing here? Godaddy.com is playing with my domain? If not why don’t they give me the transaction details? Axis bank? If not why don’t they investigate from their end and reply me?

I have no conclusion, but I can only say, be cautious with both the companies. Sometimes corporate giants too play some silly game for some petty dollars.

Update on 3^rd August

I got a reply from Axis Bank

We need to inform that, the chargeback had been raised on the transaction as a suspected case on June 18, 2010 since the said transactions were debited to your credit card account on same date, for same amount and also at the same merchant ( GODADDY.COM ).

However, charge back has been represented by merchant bank on July 15, 2010 and the now funds for the same lies with merchant (GODADDY.COM ) or merchant bank only.

We request you to kindly get in touch with the merchant ( GODADDY.COM ) for further clarification in this regard.

So, now the money is with Godaddy.com itself, I have sent a mail, but not responding. They need US$ 50 more.

Now my question,

1)  Why did Bank initiate a chargeback when I have already made the payment? They supposed to check with me, but they did not do. It is a mistake from the Bank’s end. They should understand the consequences of such act. Now, my domain is down, to get that I need to pay US$ 50 extra.

2)  If the chargeback was reversed on the same day, why did Godaddy suspend my service? They have my money for the domain, why they are asking for additional payment? They are asking US$ 65 now, which means including the actual purchase price. I have asked them to restore my service.

Now my advice to people in India at least, please do not opt this company. Please go with some local company. At least you can go there and speak to them. If you opt Godaddy.com and if you feel any problem, they have 24/7 phone support, but average waiting time is 9 minutes. Imagine a person calling from India to US and keeping the phone for 9 minutes, how much will have to pay? So please take decision wisely.

Many people say time is money, but I do not think people observe it. I decided to write some of my experience in which I had to waste much of my precious time.

The first experience is with a local doctor. I had taken an appointment with him and I reached there 15 minutes before. Someone else was with him and I had to wait more than 5 hours to meet him. When I met him I said this is the maximum time I waited for a person.  That was very important that is why I waited, other wise I would have gone. He apologized, but my time will never come back.

The second experience is also with a Doctor but he is from Derhadun. I do not know whether he is a practicing doctor or a PhD.

I had put some advertisement in www.quikr.com for getting business, after giving the advertisement I have got some response and one was from this so called ‘Doctor’.  He said, he wish to develop a website for Event Management especially for Medical and Science Events. I have sent him a proposal. After 3 days he sent me a mail mentioning the proposal is fine with him and ready to start with. He was even ready to travel to Kochi to discuss about the project.

Then we started discussing about the project, like project aspects, how to implement, requirements etc. (We normally do this once we have advance but I did not take any advance thought that he is a professional and understand things). The discussion went on and after 2 months he came with other project for one of his lady friend, and project was Boarding Search Website. So in the proposal I have given much discount too.

So, we had 2 projects to discuss, in between he have taken my bank details and said will make advance payment.  I called him after a week, and then he said there is problem with his partner/lady friend in finalizing the project and planning for something else.

Again, later a week he asked me about setting up an IT company. He asked me to have a feasibility study to setup and IT company in Bangalore. I have done, I have tried to find some office space too in Bangalore. In the next call he turned back and said Bangalore is costly moving to Delhi. I said there is no problem.

In between he offered me a position as a ‘chief mentor’ of the new venture.  I accepted, since so much time and money too is wasted with the project planning, other office related inquires etc I thought something is better than nothing.

In the very next call he again turned back, and he said planning an office in Derhadun. I said I do not have any problem since it is his hometown. I have given about a month time for the setup. But even after a month there was no progress.

I asked him, whether he could give an approximate date in starting the operation.  But he was not sure. If a person trying to start business he will have something in his mind like starting date, investment, operations plan etc. But this so called ‘doctor’ had nothing in his mind.

So, I decided not to continue with such a person, I am not sure whether he is a doctor or illiterate. So ultimately I had to waste about 6 months on this project. I have used much of my recourses in this and these all in water.

I decided to check his credibility, I have checked with some of my friends based in Delhi and Derhadun about this fellow. Especially in Derhadun whether such a practicing doctor is there or not, but nobody knows such a doctor. I have checked in Google too. No information about him. Now I believe he pretend to be a doctor or he is a research scholar, but I doubt.

So, friends in the IT business, please be aware about this, if a doctor come from Derhadun and say that he want to develop an Event Management site or a Boarding Search Website  please be cautious with him, and please contact me if you require his complete details.

I lost 3 mobile phones during the last 2 months, 3 of them were stolen. To get these phones back I need to approach police and wait for their action.

Every mobile company registers the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number when a SIM is inserted into a Mobile Phone. This registry is not accessible to common man. So we have to approach police with the number. I do not know what the process they follow to find a stolen phone.

What I think now is, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) should have a registry for IMEI and whenever we buy a phone it should be updated with TRAI’s registry by Mobile Service Provider.

In such scenario, if our phone is stolen, they just through your SIM and put another. There is mobile tracker available now in most of the phones. But if you loss both the phones what will happen. Same thing happen to me. I had mobile tracker activated and it was with other phone. I lost both, so no way I could find that phone.

If I take a connection from any Mobile Services Provider, my number is registered with this IMEI, and this will be updated with TRAI registry which is available to common man.

If my phone is stolen and if it is used by any other person I can identify the number and approach police to get that. This would be easier for police department too to identify any stolen phone.

I hope TRAI will take initiative to come with such a registry.

After direct mails, calls and sms these scammers now started to target Matrimonial sites since the data is valid in it. Many get a valid telephone number and start calling.

I have registered with simplymarry.com a month back and I got an expression of interest from a girl the details are as follows;

I have accepted the interest and asked to send a photograph to the mail id provided. The reply was;

My Dearest One. ,
Now i will like to explain more to you in details my position and why i initiated this contact with you but before i proceed i will want to plead you to please put love first in this relationship i wished to build with you .Due to my critical condition right now i will not hesitate to make known to you all about me so please do not deter as i am going to expose allot about my self and background here to you without us knowing each other very well in the time past but i belief that every solid relationship/partnership starts just on a day so ours as i am wishing can not be different . I hope you will forgive me if i have gone far beyond your imagination/ expectation from a new friend. I am residing in Senegal as an asylum seeker and it is from the office of the reverend who is incharge of the church were i am now that has the computer through which i am emailing you , I told the Reverend about my situation and he permitted me to access my email in his office computer when ever he has chance with it, the church Address : Church of God Mission , Dakar Senegal. TheReverend Telephone number is (+221-765-695-168). , Please when you call ask of Miss. Christiana Weah, and he will send for me to answer your call . The Reverend name is Dona Brains . More about me: 1) I am a single daughter of my parents, 23 years of age I grew up in (LIBERIA IN AFRICA), my country, I was studying law at the University before the political crisis in my country which led to bloody civil war began and unfortunately it claimed the life of my beloved ones and living me in this frustrating / painful condition . Please listen to this and try to keep it to your self only . When my father was alive , he deposited some money in a bank and he used my name as he next of kin , the amount is US$ 3.8m ( Three million eight hundred thousand United States dollars ) . I have the statement account of the fund and the death certificate of my father here with me . Now due to my condition, i cannot make this claims by myself, i need a partner preferably a foreigner who will stand on my behalf to the bank, that is why i decided to make this contact with you, for you to stand on my behalf to the bank and ask them the possibility of transferring this fund into your position in your country . As I have said i have with me all the Information concerning the fund. I am helpless without you, i am having no account ,any raw money at hand and no body abroad as a friend or relation to help me out for it is my wish to further life abroad . After the transfer of the money into your account : You will help me withdraw some money from the account where the money was transferred, You will help me withdraw some part of the money and send to me to enable me obtain all my traveling documents to join you and have a good life with you and continue my education which is my most important concern now and for the capital investment which you have to help me for that. I will be ready to offer you 25% of the whole fund a compensation and will equally map out another 5% to pay you back for any expenses you may make, if at all there will be . I am tabling this offer for in case you may not be able to accept my second wish ,which is for you to be my man and if the nature permit my husband, But if marriage is out of it, I will not mind but as long as we got along together with real love I will definitely be satisfied. My promise to you is that i will be of my best to you both in deed and in kind I am waiting for your urgent response so that we can proceed. Send to me Your Full names , address , occupation and telephone number: Upon receiving all this information from you i will then draft a mail to the bank to present you as my partner after which i will equally give you their contact details , so that when you contact them they will honor your application .
I am forever yours ,
Miss,Christiana Weah.
With love & kisses

Simplymarry.com has removed that profile, please aware about such things. And these matrimony sites should examine whether the profile is genuine or not.