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One might never know who’s really behind the terrorist attacks around the
world - terrorists groups or simply some power play at the political level.
I firmly believe there’s more to it than what meets the eye. There are
conspiracy theories; then there is evidence that supports a democracy’s
president to have funded terrorists attack. We will never know what is the
actual reason for these bombs and attacks - but we can’t neglect the
unfortunate deaths of innocent people that are a result of these attacks -
which are *very real!* Thus, I think - not the presidents, not the
governor-general’s and not even the elite people in the world’s most secret
intelligence agencies/armies are the real heroes. It’s those guys at the
grass-root level who deserve to be awarded. This one’s to them!

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Over a period of time, an idea rots. This one mutated into a personal blog! Bombay Quotient was supposed to have a central theme with content from multiple bloggers (mostly based out of Bombay…err…Mumbai). Well, I think I never paid too much attention to the execution part. But hell, I don’t want to keep this idea to myself and let people know why I booked this name….a long time back! Here’s what Bombay Quotient was supposed to be:

First post on the BQ Blog

(Yes, I was so pepped up, I even made a logo for it!)

BQ is a medium dedicated to Bombay. This is an outlet to speak out about the city - no strings attached. Bombay truly has that never-say-die spirit! But unfortunately, Main Stream Media hypes it for all the wrong reasons. For instance, the very fact that the city started moving on after the 7/11 Blasts in no way defines the spirit of Bombay.

Let’s get real; when the whole world is fighting terrorism, the city’s getting used to it? Some media houses have put it exactly that way by sensationalizing the issue and labeling it as the ‘Spirit’ of Bombay.

We aren’t a media house; we aren’t a sensation. We are a sensible medium for young minds.
We don’t have reporters on the payroll (we don’t need any) nor are we endorsed by brands. Let’s make the best of this freedom and speak what we want to and why

We want to represent the educated, young mass of the urban population. Let the youth speak about what they think about the city and get heard by like-minded people.

The Anti-Reservation stir got youth from this very sensible mass together. Students and Professionals came together for a common purpose. Critics may say that it was futile and some may even feel that it was a sheer waste of time. In fact, ultimately it really didn ’t work out, did it? Wrong! It did. This stir pinched every one of us surely. Such a phenomenon was never heard of in the past ever. An educated class on the streets fighting for their rights! It’s true that there was an ‘Educated Awakening’. As a matter of fact, efforts are still on.

It was the internet that made this movement as strong as it became. No doubt, it was covered by the MSM effectively, but it was the e-mails and the forums on the net that spread the word like fire. .

But all this can be possible with your participation @ bombay?quotient

So blog on…

What’s wrong with Bombay?

First of all, the name itself! What’s wrong with Bombay anyway? Why the hell do we need ‘Mumbai’?

We are quite fed up of the manipulated rickshaw fare meter as well as the promising ‘work in progress’ by the BMC. The roads have more potholes than the total number of pimples on Om Puri’s face. There are anti-reservation protests by the educated youth and the best corners at the nearest coffee shops are reserved ;)Bollywood is getting undue importance on local tabloids when there are even more happening stories in our neighbourhood. While the whole world is fighting against terrorism, Bombay’s getting used to it! Family Disputes are becoming public tamashaa’s! Boomtown Rap or Uptown Rape? Clean Mumbai? Dream Mumbai !!! Is there an educated class with an illiterate mentality? This site is dedicated to the ‘Educated, Sensible, Passionate, future of Mumbai’ Bombay Quotient is for the educated Bombayite youth with a literate mentality! Let the citizens speak for what they think about the city! Everyone’s a celebrity here. Recognition for commendable achievements is what is important here unlike Rakhi Sawant! Oh Hell! It’s high time, Bombay gets it’s very own website.

Get involved > bombay quotient (at) gee-mail.com

bombayquotient.com

Ordinary People…Celebrity Roles

Damn, I love this tag-line. Although, it doesn’t suit what Bombay Quotient is right now!

Uncategorized bombay blog, bombay quotient, mumbai controversies, troubles with bombay, website on bombay

My Dell laptop has become a liability for me. I currently use a Dell Inspiron 1420 but I thoroughly regret the fact that I bought one. I’m writing this post especially to warn other laptop purchasers about the troubles that they might face with a Dell laptop.

Incompetent engineers that only know how to replace a part but hardly know to fix your problem. Well, I understand that most engineers don’t come directly from Dell but I’ve serious doubts about the company that they partner with. As per what I know through their management personnel, every engineer gets simply 2 refresher training courses per year between intervals of 6 months. Moreover, when you continue reading this post, you will also realize that these engineers lack of soft-skills and professional business etiquette.

• Frequent spare-part replacements - Please don’t get carried away by the word that Dell is good at support because this also implies that many Dell laptop users face problems and complaints.
• Getting insulted and getting hung up by rude personnel at the Dell Customer service center - This actually happened to me! These are the words of a customer service executive: “I do not understand what your problem is. You are really confusing me.” and he hung up on me! (For those who may have doubts about how much I understand computers and who think that I may not be savvy enough to explain my problem - in my defence: I’ve reassembled my desktop computer a number of times and have been using computers for over 10 years now. Thus, I was precise in my explanation to the Dell call-center guy about my problem
• NO SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT FOR SUPPORT - Coordinating with two companies for one problem - You may have to coordinate with Dell for the spare-part delivery and communicate with the support company separately for the engineer to arrive at your site. In India, these engineers call up twice before and after they arrive around your site and ask for detailed directions to it. No, I don’t live in an underground basement of a building in the dark alley of the Unknown! I’m sure that these guys from the support company (Unisys is Dell’s partner in providing support services in Mumbai) would instinctively call me even if I lived at the Taj Mahal and ask: “Sir, could you please direct me to your home, am standing right in front of a white monument-like structure!”Too many cellphone incentives maybe?Often, if the spare-parts are not available, you will have to request (in addition to the money that you paid for the warranty!) Dell to expedite the process and additionally inform the vendor company to send the engineer when the spare-part arrives
• Waste time on giving unnecessary feedback:
  
  Yeah, they love taking feedback from you and making you feel as if you’re being heard! Well, don’t fall for this - You already lost a lot of your time in all the problems you faced, you don’t want to waste further time, just so that it makes you feel good. With over three levels of management (I’ve spoken to one officer at each level!) just in the customer support hierarchy, I wonder if the management even comes to know about the problems of the customer
• Last but not the least, every problem arises mainly as a consequence of a low quality product. Dell laptops get really impressive support but the problem is that it’s REQUIRED!

Below is a mail conversation between me and a Dell customer support agent (at the third level in that hierarchy!):
This post is a comment I tagged on a blog-post about how Dell Support is really Impressive!

I think Dell Support is not efficient because resolving a laptop problem by replacing a spare-part is no big deal and does not really resolve the issue all the time. for major problems with laptops. With high regards, as Rajiv, even I purchased a Dell 1420 laptop and have had major problems with almost all the parts of the laptop - my LCD, motherboard, heatsink and keyboard have all been replaced three times. This has created a lot of problems for me. I’ve spent over 40 hours of my valuable time attending to their slow and inefficient engineers (their vendor company provides the engineering support - in Mumbai it is Unisys). The engineer was highly incompetent and did not know about a couple of spare-parts which is pathetic! Upon repeated complaints that fellow was also fired by Unisys and Unisys was warned by Dell about having appointed such personnel. Regardless of this, my issue was still not solved and the senior engineer took over 10 hours to get it fixed. You won’t believe this: Over Rs.1,00,000 worth of parts were replaced for my laptop which I purchased for Rs.65,000 (and that was 8 months back) and Dell wouldn’t replace my laptop but harass me with their incompetent support executives wasting time at my home and not getting the problem fixed, day-after-day.

Sending an engineer on site is one thing and getting the problem fixed is an entirely different thing!

I’m so unsatisfied with my Dell laptop that I would not recommend anyone to buy it. Support might me good but what’s the point if it’s required every now and then? To me it seems that the only reason why Dell is popular is because they give a lot of support after the purchase but unfortunately a laptop purchaser disregards (like I did) the question why this support required? From my experience, I would surely say that it’s because their laptop build quality is low by use of very low quality spareparts.

Mail conversation between an unsatisfied Dell customer (me) and a management executive of Unisys (Dell’s support company in Mumbai):

Dear Mr. X,

This is with regards to a technical engineer (VVV- Tech ID: 499310) who has visited my site to repair my laptop (the issue is yet not resolved).

Below are the actions of your engineer which are unexpected and a customer can simply not tolerate it:

• He switched off my laptop directly with the power button instead of going through the Start menu in Windows. And when I pointed this out to him, he said ‘Once in a while it’s okay’. This is simply ridiculous and I can not tolerate someone mishandling my laptop in such a careless manner!
• He’s often on the phone while at the site and attending frivolous personal calls and wasting my time.
• The engineer made 2 mistakes during both the visits at my site:
  • He marked the motherboard spare-part box as ‘Used’ even when he had not used it to replace my old motherboard and thus confused the other engineer (XYZ - Tech ID: 483864) who visited the site later.
  • He did not understand what to do with another spare-part which was dispatched to my site. It was some sort of cream that was to be applied on the heat-sink which he was not aware of. The engineer who followed him (XYZ - Tech ID: 441402) pointed out that it might very well be possible that because VVV did not apply the cream (it’s actually a silicon grease which comes in the form of a sticker that you stick on top of the microprocessor with it’s base on the heat sink), the motherboard may have conked off. This is gross negligence and utter incompetence on part of VVV.
• The most annoying aspect of my experience with your engineer has been the fact that he invited one of his friends over to the site and lied that he was a senior from your company. My house is not a hang-out place for Unisys engineers and their friends. The purpose is to resolve the issue and vacate the site as soon as possible because it’s not the Unisys office or a playground!

I request you to look into this matter and see what can be done. I think that a communication from your end personally would convince me that the feedback was important to your management.

Further, I’m also appaled because the complexity of my laptop problem is so high that Dell had recommended your company to send a senior engineer, even then your company sent VVV who is not senior (which is very evident). It was only after Dell recommended them again that they sent the senior engineer (XYZ- Tech ID: 441402). A lot of time already has been wasted. Please resolve the problem at the earliest so that we can both utilize our times in a more productive activity!

This experience has compelled me to believe that your company has employed an unprofessional and incompetent engineers and that you may even continue to do so.

I consider this e-mail to be an important feedback for the management to improve upon its affairs of human resources.

REPLY:

Hi,

Firstly apologize for the unethical behavior of this engineer. In order to ensure professionalism and customer service the engineer has been terminated with immediate effect and is no more with our business. Thank you for the valuable time in providing this open feedback.

Thanks & Regards

Mail conversation between an unsatisfied Dell customer (me) and a technical executive at Dell India:

Hello,

It’s a pleasure to be a first-time Dell user and experience the excellent post-sales technical support. My service tag is: GCP4R1S and I got your reference from Mr. A. Dell has been my first laptop purchase for my medium enterprise and has been recommended by a lot of my friends. Although, having suffered so much with three components (consistently) is really appaling. The problem is all the more grave because it costs me a lot of time when the executive comes down during business hours.

It is important for me to know why these problems persist because A’s answers were really not very convincing. At the same time, I also asked A why are these problems occuring for such a frequent purchase. This is sure to affect my decision to purchase additional laptops for my business. Please revert to me via phone (if possible) to discuss this in detail because it’s of my prime concern, especially when I’m considering the purchase of additional laptops from your company.

Another mail to him since he did not revert to this one for over 10 days!:

Dear Mr. AB,

It is not usual for me to not get a reply to e-mails regarding concerns of any product or service that I’ve purchased from a well-established company as yours.

A simple reply over e-mail is considered ‘polite’ when I deal with companies following ‘decent’ communication norms.

As of date, my laptop problem still remains unresolved and over twenty hours of my time has been wasted by your on-site engineers, while over Rs. 40,000 worth of spare-parts have been changed.

You should know better how to deal with such an issue! Resolving it will save a lot of our time so that we can thus utilize it for better purposes rather than ranting and reverting over e-mail.

A phone-call from you would be highly appreciated but I have not raised my expectations that much.

Regards,
Dhaval Doshi

PS: I also see that those who am marking copies too do not seem to understand the gravity of my situation.

Almost two hours and I got a call for him. I think even that is a really long amount of time . I cooperated with him but forewarned that I’m not willing to send my laptop all the way to Bangalore (from Mumbai) just so that he could look into the problem, since it was already over 50 hours that they had spent time on trying to resolve the issue.

Problem still persisted, thus another mail to them:

Dear Mr. Abraham,

Thanks for having reverted to my call yesterday about the laptop problem and concerns about your vendor Unisys.

I’m glad that your vendor has taken substantial efforts in redressing the problem in that engineer’s behaviour and his incompetence. It shows a lot about their professionalism and standards. Obviously, this indirectly reflects upon the strict work-ethic that you follow at Dell.

But I’m still in utter disappointment because my laptop issue is yet not resolved. As I write this, the engineer from Unisys is at my site and he has already replaced all the parts, including the microprocessor, the heatsink, the motherboard, audio panel. The problem still persists and my computer fails to boot successfully! All this has happened after over 30 hours of time spent by engineers at my site and after having replaced parts worth over the actual cost of the laptop!

Regardless of all these difficulties I’ve gone through in coordination with you and everyone at your company, I’m willing extend my cooperation to help you resolve this ASAP. As per our talk yesterday, I’m still patient for today, but I’m not happy that the Dell Customer Call Center has asked the Unisys engineer to again coordinate with another top executive at Unisys. I still don’t think that Dell understands the issue and its gravity, so I will bold my concerns below:

I’ve already taken a lot of efforts in cooperating but Dell (not Unisys - the vendor) does not have a single point of contact for my issue. The guys at Unisys need to coordinate with ten different people to get this problem resolved and I do not like the idea of the engineer waiting at my house on the phone on queue. How come you do not have a separate queue for engineers who are on site? My laptop problem stands quite complicated and I would like to know what is Dell’s alternate plan of action - regardless of what Unisys has in store for me. I think Dell is answerable and needs to take an effort to resolve the issue and not simply rely on the vendor. The spare-parts are being shipped from your end and the engineers are doing their job and am being as patient about it as possible to give my time. Dell should know better about how to handle this.

I’m writing to you with the hope to get a response from any superior above you, in case you can not help me at your position. Please make sure that this is taken as a serious concern and not just another customer ranting away. Specifically, also keep in mind that as a consumer (and citizen of this country) I want to exercise every right possible to get redressal on this. Further, I’ve already recommended my friends against purchasing Dell laptops - I’m sure your tech team will be saved off many efforts.

I’m marking a copy of this mail to Unisys and some Sales representatives I know at your company (who have often not responded earlier to my mails) so that everyone is aware about the situation.

This was followed by another half-an-hour phone call ranting and complaining about their incompetency and delay in resolving the issue

So what really happened here?

There was a simple LCD change required. Additionally, my keyboard was required to be replaced. In around three visits by the engineer, these two parts were changed twice. Suddenly, audio panel gave problems, so another visit got the panel changed and yet another visit to change the motherboard! What followed was a roller-coaster ride that was due to some mistake by the engineer which carried away some heatsink part along with the old motherboard. Thus, the motherboard was replaced and the microprocessor too. Moreover, upon close inspection I found that the LCD was defective which they simply denied to replace and I had to argue with them about it too! How can you hand over a brand new LCD with spots to a customer and deny to replace it!?!

Here is a list of Dell laptop components that were replaced in about 15 days of service that Dell provided. Impressive? I don’t think so! :

• LCD (3 times)
• Keyboard (3 times)
• Motherboard (3 times)
• Heatsink (2 times)
• Silicon grease that’s provided separately (2 times)
• Microprocessor (once)
• Dell Media Center Remote Control (It was lost with the motherboard replacements so I had to ask them to send me another one!)
• Audio Panel (four times)

You gotta believe me! :

Anyway, I’m stuck with this for awhile and this blog post isn’t going to help me find buyers interested in a second-hand Dell laptop (with almost brand new parts! ;)); I think am gonna head to craigslist.org now…:D

Disclaimer:

Although, this experience was with Dell India, please keep in mind that ultimately the laptop is made up of the same parts (a lot of them from China) be it Dell USA or Dell India!

Update:

• Other Dell users with some really bad experiences. :
  • This guy wrote to Mr. Dell about his laptop after hiring some professional legal advice about his problem!
  • Another one

Uncategorized dell laptop complaints, dell laptop review, dell recommendations, dell support, inspiron 1420, laptop comparison

It’s easy to subscribe to hundreds of different newsletters and updates of companies and websites and have them in the mailbox daily, weekly or whenever! Although, it takes too many efforts to avoid hitting the delete button (or the ‘Archive’ button in case of Gmail). But this newsletter is really worth it! You will surely not regret having subscribed to it. Almost all the articles are worth a read.

INSEAD Knowledge website gives you articles on current business trends, best practices, social entrepreneurship and everything in business that is changing the world around you. Most of them are written by people who are well-recognized business owners or researchers in the field of business. You will often find students/professors of INSEAD writing these articles! Also they have a section on Videos here.

Click here to visit their website and subscribe

PS: It is not necessarily for people in business and management.

Uncategorized business and management articles, INSEAD, newsletter

As a lot of my friends might already know that I use Fring too often. Yes, you could say that am addicted to it. But it’s really cool and let’s me stay connected with everyone - anytime over cellphone. I just updated my Fring version on my cellphone and now even my Y! messenger contacts can IM me (whenever am online on Fring)

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about - Fring is a free Instant Messenger that I use on my cellphone to connect to the Live (MSN) Messenger, Google Talk, Y! Messenger, Skype and Twitter. AOL or ICQ users can also use Fring but since I don’t have any friends on those I don’t use it for any of those services. And am sure that my account must have been deactivated since ages!

Most of all, this post would be incomplete if I didn’t write why there’s such a hoopla for Fring, even when there are other IM apps available on the web. It’s because it allows you to call any of your IM contacts for FREE - directly from your phone. Sounds amazing isn’t it? But all you Indian users (or atleast for those who use Vodafone GPRS in India) should know that your ‘Vodafone Connect’ network’s bandwidth is too low to support this without any major time-lags! So expect it to work as a walkie-talkie for sure

Anywho - this post is also to let my blog visitors know that you can now instantly  message me if you see that am online on the widget I installed on the sidebar of this blog. (Please  comment on the blog though)

You need a GPRS connectivity on your cellular phone to use this application. Different telecom providers have different GPRS plans that may or may not allow you to use Fring and other high-bandwidth consuming applications. If you have the GPRS plan which allows you to surf the web on your laptop, you should  probably be able to use Fring.

Uncategorized fring, google talk, GPRS applications, instant messenger on mobile, live messenger, twitter, vodafone connect network, yahoo messenger

Some time back I put a question on Linkedin Answers. For those of you who don’t know about Linkedin - it’s an excellent business networking tool, that helps you to connect with like-minded individuals in your industry/occupation. The Linkedin Answers community is where you can post a question in a relevant category such as marketing, business development,software/design etc. and expect useful answers from people who are experts in that field. Similarly you can answer questions by members on your area(s) of expertise and thus connect with individuals.

Anyway, getting back to the topic : so I posted a question on the Linkedin Answers community (Have you tried SMS (Text) Marketing? Has it worked for your Business?) and here are the two contrasting answers I got:

>I do not approve of SMS marketing. If I am roaming, I have to pay to receive what is mostly spam. How would you like it if you had to pay to read this answer? (Germany)

>Frankly its a personal call about using SMS Marketing. Frankly, I think the novelty of SMS Marketing has worn off and target audiences usually consider it a nuisance rather than an information source, similar to snail mail marketing. (India)

It’s interesting to see how SMS marketing can have different implications on the consumer mindset because of different cost-models at different countries. On one hand, you have a customer who dislikes the nuisance caused by numerous junk SMSs received (most likely someone who lives in India and enjoys FREE incoming SMSs); while on the other hand, there is a customer (in American and European countries…I’m guessing) who despises having to pay the cellular company because of a business-owner’s marketing campaign.

Interestingly the CAN-SPAM act (US Legislation against unsolicited e-mail) does not include SMS marketing between cell-phones. So if I’ve a cellphone in the US and I start messaging a database of cellphone users about my business - the receipents can’t sue me! As per an article I read, there Although, telecoms are trying hard to fight this by blocking commercial messages (using SMS Spam filters) , there is not much that they can do as the amount of these messages are projected to increase. The US Do-not-call Registry will be put to test when these numbers increase.

Meanwhile in India (also the Asia-Pacific region), on an average, a user gets about 8 to 10 commercial messages a week which does not cost a penny to the customer. However, they might want to be a part of the Do-not-call registry for no-nuisance reasons. I doubt if there is any law against commercial messaging in India or the Asian region. No one paid too much heed because it never cost them any money - but now it’s proving to be a real waste of time with an ever-increasing bunch of small businesses using cheap SMS plans and FREE SMS gateway facilities to promote their products.

I wonder if in the near future all our SMS inboxes will have a ‘Junk Mail’ folder.

Here is another interesting article with some more food for thought on SMS marketing. Some inputs of this post were taken from that.

Update:  Another article I came across in relation to this topic.

Uncategorized business networking, junk mail, linkedin, sms marketing, spam, unsolicited marketing

Well, before I started writing this post, I queried ‘Delta Airlines Sucks’ on Google and was pleasantly surprised to realize that my friend wasn’t the only one who had a bad experience.

Her locked bag didn’t have any lock when it rolled out on the conveyor and she lost expensive jewelery and a wrist-watch!

Upon calling Delta, their lame excuse was that their company policy does not provide for compensation for lost belongings!

Update:

Another close friend of mine experienced an even worse incident with Delta Airlines as he landed for his connecting flight in US. Well, apparently, the ground staff of Delta Airlines is not only incompetent but also rude. At the airport where the passenger was boarding, the handbag was required to measured and even upon realizing that it was within the limits specified, the check-in staff blabbered on - “Overweight, overweight” and ultimately required the passenger to shell out $25. The reason, “High fuel prices!”

Uncategorized bad airline experience, delta airlines

I came across this article on how GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) should be globalized for businesses across the world. So if a multinational corporation schedules a conference between it’s Hong Kong and US office, they would stick by Zulu time (another term of GMT, often used by commercial pilots). Check out the thought here.

Uncategorized globalization, scheduling business meetings, time

One fine day as a “loyal” customer (a part of the First Citizen’s Club - a customer “loyalty” program…indeed) of Shopper’s Stop (A Mumbai-based chain of malls started by the Raheja’s), I filled in the form for a special priveleges card - i-mint. The only reason I signed up (I think) was the fancy card with the red background . The benefits are not that great - they boast about how you can use it almost anywhere and collect points and redeem them for free gifts (and they decide which gifts!).

I wonder how collecting points helps someone; I would want a card that gives me discounts on the product that I just purchased or points that I can redeem for purchasing the same item for which I swiped the card. Why should I use the card if it gives me points which I can redeem only for the things that are on their list - more often those that I will hardly ever use!
I would have never signed up if I knew that they were going send me 2 more of those just because I’m an ICICI Debit Card and ICICI Credit Card user!

I just don’t want to mint anymore.

Uncategorized consumerism, customer rewards program, i-mint, marketing gimmick, rewards for points