Chris Meistre

We had time to kill while waiting for my bakkie to get washed, so we walked around the Moffet on Main Shopping centre on Friday.  As we had about 2-3 hours to kill we literally had to go into each shop because the centre is actually so small and there are very few shops.

One of the shops we went into is House & Home.  While browsing around I went to have a look at all the TV sets they’ve got on display.  The first ones we saw are the Samsung LCD and Plasma ranges.  They were playing some sort of Samsung promotional DVD on them and the quality on the sets looked amazing.  Just down the aisle they had the LG series of TV sets.  Same types, LCD and Plasma.

I noticed that the quality of the LG TV sets were quite bad compared to the Samsung TVs.  There were way more LG TVs there, and after having had a look at all of them I just couldn’t understand why the quality of the video playing on them is so bad.  Then I clicked.  They were busy playing what looked like a home made video, probably off a VHS cassette.  It was a House & Home promotional video they were playing.  The quality of the video was extremely bad though and didn’t do the LG TV sets justice at all.  While on the Samsung TVs, the quality looked awesome because of the better quality movie playing on there.

So, on first glance it looked like the Samsung TVs were way better than the LG TVs, but it ended up being some idiot that decided to put a crappy looking promotional video on the LG TVs.  How stupid is that?  You’d think they would play the best quality video they can on all of them so that you can judge which TV is really suited for your needs.

If I were the LG rep that went into House & Home and saw this, I’d be very upset.

I wonder if Coega has qualified people working on their computers in the offices.  And by qualified people I mean a secretary or assistant that at least knows how to use an email program.  I received a puzzling email from Nelitha Tayi (Nelitha.Tayi@coega.co.za) asking me to provide a quotation on their ICT needs.  The puzzling part was the attachment.

Once opened I had a list of 41 IT companies in Port Elizabeth, obviously from the Coega database.  This contained information like the normal contact information.  The worst part is 2 very confidential information parts they give out.  The Average Turnover of each company as well as the Biggest Contracts awarded to those companies.

I replied to the email asking to speak to a supervisor about the incident because they need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.  What would happen if they “by mistake” forwarded other confidential information to your competitors?

I received a call back from Nelitha, and this is what pissed me off this most.  It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to speak to a supervisor, it was that she said, “No one else received the document because she had Recalled the email.”  For those that don’t know, check out http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA010917601033.aspx.  It just means you can try and get your email back before it reaches the recipient, but mostly it only works for the internal office email.

Explaining to her that if I received the document, what makes her so sure the other 40 recipients didn’t receive it, she carried on to explain that it must definitely be so because she hit the recall button and out of the 41 people I am “definitely” the only person to have received it.

Let this be a lesson for those that trust their secretaries with confidential information.  Who knows, the next time she can send out employee salary slips to the wrong people.  Everyone can make mistakes, I can understand, but some mistakes can be avoided.

It was reaffirmed again this week to me that some people shouldn’t even be allowed to look at dogs, let alone have them. It saddens me whenever I see animals being mistreated or neglected. They didn’t ask to come become part of your world, you decided that for them.

How often don’t I see or hear of someone that got a puppy, and after a few months they just lost interested in it because it became “too much work” or the puppy cuteness is now gone. Or they “just can’t handle it”.

Or people that just cannot keep the dogs in their yards, and inevitably the dog gets lost and needs to start fending for itself. And then you get the people that use dogs as punching bags, kicking and hitting them to get rid of their frustrations.

Now what brought this anger into my life again this week started with an email I received.  It had an attachment of one of the most beautiful English Bull Terrier puppies that I’ve ever seen.  The email made mention that he’s about 2 years old, very lovable and looking for a home.  Perhaps I misread the reason why, but he was going to be put down and I couldn’t understand why.  So after discussing it with Bernadette, we decided we have space, love and the patience to take care of another doggy.  When I contacted the lady that rescued him for being put down, she said someone else has already expressed interest, but we’re welcome to come around to also have a look.  So Wednesday evening we met up at their house.  The photo didn’t do Raggy (his name) justice.  He’s a lot bigger in person, and has the most lovable face.  The other people were there as well, and I was happy to see that he’ll go to a loving home.  I then asked about the reason for him almost being put down, and was shocked to hear the stupid reason.  The owners decided to move, and therefore the dog had to be put down.  Angry wasn’t the right word for what I felt.  I’m just glad there are people out there like this lady that still care about dogs.

The second incident happened while we spoke to someone who has recently adopted a dog because the previous owners abused it.  I’ve seen the dog once or twice, and she really is beautiful, it’s just a pity that she is so scared of males due to her abuse.  The dog has a skin condition that was carried over from her parents, and is not curable.  First thing that got me angry was the fact that the dog hasn’t be spayed yet, and they laugh as they tell of how another dog has gotten into their yard and tried to deck her.  When we ask why they don’t get her fixed, they respond by saying that they want to breed with her.  I couldn’t believe it.  Here was a dog with serious mental issues and health issues that can be carried over to her babies, but they want to put her through more trauma by trying to breed with her.  Forgetting for a moment about the fact that the world already has TOO MANY DOGS and that it will cost them money they might not have to make sure the puppies are looked after and get good homes, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY THINKING?

It’s pity there aren’t laws against this thing and it’s an even bigger pity that 85% of the world’s population feel like dogs are just things.  If I could wish for 1 thing, I would wish that every time before someone gets a puppy or a dog, they just ask themselves if they’ll still be so in love with it 6 months later, or if they do something that will affect it, really think about how it will affect the dog.

And to those people out there that really care for and look after their dogs or whatever other dogs they might find, may only good things come your way!

Sometimes I wonder what goes on in their minds when Telkom spend millions implementing something that doesn’t get used.

2 examples that I’ve experienced again today just baffles my mind.

Entering your phone number on the keypad and then being asked for it again
Part of the long process of actually getting through to a human being to talk about a problem you are experiencing with your telephone line is entering your ten digit phone number. Then it is read back to you and you need to confirm that it is indeed correct. After that 5-10 minute process you are put on hold for another 30-90 minutes (depending if they’re on lunch or not) only to get through to a human that asks you, “Please, what is your number?”. What did I waste my time for entering it in the first place?

Referring me to their competitor’s site to do a line speed test
They wanted me to test the line speed, and instead of directing me to a telkom.co.za address, they send me to http://speedtest.neotel.co.za/, which is the website of their competitor, Neotel. Huh?

I had to go to the bank today, and while standing there I came to a realization. We have these preconceived ideas about how terrible banks are, that by the time we go into a bank, we have so much negative thoughts about how long we’re going to be there, how terrible service we’re going to get, and how banks are there just to steal our money, that inevitably something goes wrong to piss us off. Or we just make the whole experience terrible for ourselves.

As I stood there waiting in the teller line, I witnessed at least 3 people be very rude to the tellers from the first words that came out their mouths. So before the tellers had any chance to do anything wrong, besides being a bank employee, these people were already having a go at them. And it wasn’t that they waited long in the queue either, I think a maximum of 2 minutes if it was even that long.

I don’t judge those people though, I just took note, because as I saw it happening, I thought to myself that I am like that sometimes as well. I work myself up so much having to go to a bank, that by the time I get there I just want to kill someone. It doesn’t matter if they’ve done anything wrong.

Now imagine being an employee that has to put up with kak like that each day? No wonder we get bad service every now and then, I’ll get pretty fed up with people just ranting on me for no reason.

So here’s a salute to all the bank employees, or at least those ones that know what they’re doing