30 May, 2008

I found a dead bug inside nadec yoghurt

Yesterday I bought a 6 pack of nadec yoghurt. Today i wanted to eat one. I discovered this thing inside the yoghurt. Embeded and cannot be seen from top. I am terribly disgusted. Have a look.
I am never buying nadec again.

26 May, 2008

Waste 11 minutes of your life here

If you ever played Super Mario World on the SNES or a Mario fan in general, you may want to look at this cool, weird, disturbing and amazing video. If you are not a fan, do not hit play. If you do watch the whole thing, please comment because I'm speechless.

14 May, 2008

Zain fails to honour third appointment. Has no idea who does what. (Experience log)

Zain failed to show up for the THIRD appointment they gave me to install the Zain@Home service (Ironically, keeping it AWAY from my home!). In the last experience log post, a lady by the name of Mona told me that it will be installed on Wednesday anoday?d despite my efforts for them to do it earlier, assured me that nothing can be done and Wednesday is the day. Not true.
Today at around 2PM, after hearing nothing from them I called 107, a young man answered by the name of Yousef.
I told Yousef that I expected an installation today, and after being on hold for some time came back and said this bomb:
"Are you sure you have an installation today? There is nothing on my system"
"What? A "Mona" Called and said they will come on Wedensday"
"When did she call you?"
"Monday"
"No, No one called you on Monday"

What the hell? What do you mean no one called me on Monday? The Zain rep actually DENIED that anyone actually called me. No amounts of assuring him that a call was made and a subsequent late appointment assured did anything to change his mind.

I simply said this:
"OK, I will accept ANY CONFIRMED APPOINTMENT. Even if it was weeks in the future. But since April 24th, Zain was not able to give me a confirmed appointment with a date and time. Who can give me such an appointment and how do I get it?"
He had no response besides that he will log my call and "see" what he can do.
I demanded (again) that I get a proper answer, and after 15 minutes on the phone said he will get back to me.
"When?"
"In an hour tops"
"I'm sorry Yousef, no disrespect to you, but many said that but never called back"
"But I will call!"
"What proves this to me? On good faith I trusted others who said the same thing but no one called back"
"No sir, I will definitely call back. Just give me half an hour or an hour tops and I'll call you back"
"OK Yousef, I will trust you this time I hope you won't let me down"
"I won't"

But he did.
No one called.

It is rather unfortunate that Zain falls down to such a level of chaos. A company which exemplified model customer services has no idea who does what or when and fails to even return calls they promise. Let alone proper installation dates, at least a person can call when they say they will, it is independent of any system or procedure. But Probably customer services isn't so high up on the priority level anymore.
In the wake of their transformation from MTC Vodafone to Zain, I have noticed a clear decline in the quality of Zain's services and customer service. It is very sad that it reaches the level of inability.
Someone who is close to Zain told me that in thier Vodafone days, call centre agents undergo a 3 month training programme before they are allowed to answer customers. This has been shortened in Zain'o a mere 3 days. As a training consultant, I can safely say this is no where enough.

I am sorry to say that since April 24th I have no idea when, or if, me service connects. I will march back into a Zain shop tomorrow and demand my money back and the agreement ripped.

Keeping promises: FFF
Fast service: FFF
Friendly Service: D
Connection Quality: N/A
Connection Stability: N/A

12 May, 2008

Zain FAILS to keep promises for the second time (Experience log)


If you have been following my blog, you would know that I have applied to Zain@Home Service. As per last update, I applied on the 24th of April, was promised installation within 10 days but then said they cannot keep it and will do it in 14 days. That means that they’d do this TODAY.

I just got a call from Zain, a lady by the name of Muna so innocently said to me:

“Is this Mr. Manaf? Yes, how are you? I’d like to book your time for the installation of Zain@Home NEXT WEDENSDAY

I go: “Say what? Wednesday?”

“Yes sir”

“Like hell no! I was promised within 10 days, then promised within 14 days, now you gonna break another promise AGAIN?”

Feigning ignorance she asked: “Why? When were you expecting it to be installed?”
“TODAY!”

“Oh no. We can’t do that”

“Why the hell not?”

“Well, it didn’t get into our system until the 9th of May. We just knew about it”

“I fail to see how this is my problem. Actually, seems like it’s YOUR problem”

The lady tried her best to make me see the light, and that they are innocent people and absolutely excusable and my waiting period is understandable. I demanded that they honour their promise.

After a lot of give and take which felt like bargaining for my rights; she said she will talk to THEM (THEM is a very powerful Bahraini word that seems to point to powers that be).

I asked when will they get back to me, she said soon. Nu-uh lady, I don’t get an answer like that.

I asked her five times WHEN? She tried to dodge the answer as much as possible until in the end she said, hopefully within an hour.

31 minutes have already passed. You think they’ll make it?

So far:

Keeping promises: 2xF
Fast service: 2xF
Friendly Service: D
Connection Quality: N/A
Connection Stability: N/A

08 May, 2008

Applied to Zain@Home (experience log)


On April 24th, i got myself into a Zain experience shop and signed up for thier Zain@Home At the time, the young man behind the counter said that the installation guys will come within 10 days.
Nothing happened. No peep. Absolute quitness.
Not only did I not get a call, I also never got a reply to an email I sent enquiring.
I waltzed back in yesterday to the same experience shop and the guy behind the counter assured me again that I will get it in two days (that is a window of today: Thursday, and tomorrow).
i'm not holding my breath.
Check back here to follow my experience with Zain. You can also check out Mahmood's Den to follow his experience.

07 May, 2008

I became a man

On the 30th of last April, I turned 30. What? What did you think I meant?
30 years, eh? Damn, I'm getting old. When you start saying "back in our days..." then you are old. Funny thing is, you can't NOT use that phrase. You know what it means yet you'd still use it.
Remember when year 2000 sounded like something that was very far away?
It is now!
The way I see it, a human goes through these stages:
Age 0-5: Baby
6-12: Child
13-19: Teenager
20-29: Young Man
30-49: Just man
50-59: Mature man
60-69: Pensioner
70-79: Old geezer
80-89: Death defying wise/cooky man (cross as appropriate)
90+: miracle of modern medicine.

And so, the descriptive: "young" gets crossed out from my life's job title. What do I feel? Nothing really. Well, some dread as I realise that this means less videogames time.