Consumer complaint power and the Internet, or "Don't get mad, get even... and then some"

So it's probably obvious by now that I'm a little more than slightly pissed off at DishTV for delivering me a service some 3 weeks later than promised and then cutting me off from it less than 1 hour after finally getting it. Oh, yes, and for constantly promising to fix it without actually doing so. That too.

I can complain all I want to the care personnel, but those people are just earning a pittance listening to people yelling at them so I'm not too hard on them - I can't help but laugh when they again promise me what their workflow system tells them to promise - I'd bet knowing full well that the problem will still be there tomorrow.

Blogs like this are actually suprisingly effective for getting back at companies who treat their customers like crap. Consider this post of mine from 2008. Google Analytics tells me that 908 separate people have viewed the rant 1059 times since I posted it. If I managed to convince even 50% of those people to buy something else the companies I complained about lost over 25k€ / $35k in sales, some 150 times more than I lost buying their crappy products. And counting. People find the post through google searches and it still gets a steady 30-50 pageviews per month - I've cut my losses a long time ago, but they aren't done with theirs.

Cricket looks fantastic on DishTV TruHD - NOT...

So I have this problem with our bricked DishTV set-top-box. DishTV customer care has a standard promise of 24-hour service restoration, but it's based on, well, apparently nothing more than a hope and prayer. The care center personnel do a pretty good imitation of being surprised that no technician has showed up with a laptop to revive the bricked device, but I have a hard time believing I am the only one with this experience.

The funny part is, today is the quarter final match of the cricket world cup with India playing Australia. I had actually thought that I might watch this as the DishTV installation came with the cricket WC package included. I've never watched a game and thought this would be a good opportunity to start and maybe understand the rules even. For me the fact that I'll miss this is not really a biggie, but imagine if I was Indian and could not watch the big game in my spanking new HD super duper package? I'd be suicidal.

Well they told me, again, that with 100% certainty a technician will come within 24 hours. I'm not holding my breath...

Why not to become a DishTV subscriber in India

Many Indian companies feel that no punishment is severe enough for people who dare become their customers. Satellite firm DishTV seems to be one of these. After 3 weeks of patiently trying get the darn thing installed it finally came today in the form of and old guy and his rusty scooter. The joy of joys getting HD service again was short lived - after about an hour of use DishTV proceeded to brick our new HD set-top-box with an OTA firmware push.

They tell me that a technician will come in 24 hours but that's what they said about the installation too (which took 3+ weeks and required an interpreter because the technician was illiterate and spoke no English).

I think it's a very good thing that the Indian government restricts foreign companies from coming here to do business because most of the successful local firms wouldn't survive a day in open competition.

Supermoon, in auto focus

Supermoon, in auto focus a photo by Dopeyrizer on Flickr.

Picture of full moon at close orbit to Earth, or super moon, as it's also called. Given that Bangalore is almost 1km above sea level and pretty close to the equator, I wonder if this is the closest I ever will get to our only natural satellite.

I had my auto-focus optics calibrated in the local Canon service center here in Bangalore and based on the pic above, at least the 70-300mm is now right on the money. All my previous moon pics have been taken with manual focus, which is fiddly to the extreme due to the focus ring being both really fast and not damped at all in this otherwise nice lens.

Spongebob Squarepants

Spongebob Squarepants
Originally uploaded by Dopeyrizer

There's nothing I can write here to make this post more funny.

The concert we almost missed

OK, here's a story on how the simplest thing in India can get really complicated.

I bought 3 VIP tickets to a Bryan Adams gig in Bangalore many months ago from Kyazoonga, which is like a local Ticketmaster equivalent. Our driver runs a lot of errands for us so I chose venue pickup as the delivery method. On Tuesday of the week of the concert my wife went to pick-up the tickets. "No tickets, come on Thursday" was the reply. OK, on Thursday our driver went and the reply was: "No tickets, come on Saturday". The concert was on Sunday, so this was cutting it a bit tight. On Saturday morning we sent our driver again, and got the reply ... wait for it ... "No VIP tickets, come after 5 PM".

At this point we were a bit worried. I had looked into the matter and the going rate for VIP tickets was 8,000 Rs. while our tickets had cost 3,500 Rs. a piece. The tickets sold for 3,500 Rs. were now called Gold class tickets, but when I called the ticket office they said those had been sold out. Ouch.

On the morning of the concert I went to the venue either to collect the tickets or to get a letter to prove we had not been given tickets. After a very short wait I walked out with 3 VIP tickets. Cool! Well, not quite - we had made 4 trips to the venue at this point and it's an hour's drive - one way. MENTAL NOTE: next time take couriered or print-at-home ones...

All's well that ends well, however - the concert was very good. Adams has built a good playlist over the years and has found an enthusiastic and loyal fan base in India.

License to shop

We finally managed to find a way to buy sporting goods with reasonable prices in Bangalore. The place to go to is Decathlon on Sarjapur Road, but they have this extremely odd membership scheme that until now has completely flummoxed me. They require your employer (the legal company) to register and only thereafter can employees register themselves to be allowed do some sports equipment shopping. In India it seems to be quite normal to require your customers to make piked double backflips with 1.5 twists to agree to sell something to them but until now this was the most extreme case. Well, apart from Airtel, obviously.

Well, my employer wasn't interested and that meant that e.g. new sports shoes for our son were really difficult to find. It's again Overseas Women's Club to the rescue as their members now can register in Decathlon. Yippee! Just need to remember to empty an ATM machine on the way there as paying with plastic is limited to cards with the OWC member's name on. Really, go figure as is usual, but finally our son has tennis shoes that fit again.

OWC has been really helpful in many ways already until now. Coming to Bangalore as an expat single man would be so much harder due to this fantastic resource not being available.

My first cover shot

My first cover shot
Originally uploaded by Dopeyrizer

"A good photograph is knowing where to stand" - Ansel Adams

A picture I took made it to the cover of a magazine published by a Bangalore expat charity organization. Can't help feeling a bit proud after only a few months with a proper camera.

Southern Splendor on the Golden Chariot

Pictures from our trip on the Golden Chariot train to see sights in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Yes, we all got sick at the end and yes, because of overenthusiastic A/C use the temperature in the in train restaurant was near freezing point of nitrogen but there were some better moments too as the pictures hopefully convey:

Merry Xmas from India!

Wimpy Xmas tree meets funky disco lights
Originally uploaded by Dopeyrizer

Words don't do our tree justice. Play that funky music white boy!