Tag Archives: Commerce

Nice, a refund

I was pleasantly surprised when I was offered a refund of the delivery cost of something I ordered from Amazon. And my concern finally even seemed to be related to something on my side, like someone not opening the gate for the person trying to deliver the package.

And this reminded me of what I heard about a major hotel chain as that hotel chain gave every employee an amount like USD 200.00 to deal with concerns of guests that need immediate attention. And I thought that type of trust towards guests, customers and staff was a very good idea. And apparently Amazon has something similar in place.

And yes, it had a very positive effect on me, on the conversation, as I was just given something, for free and unneeded, just because I took the time to report some issue I did not understand.

So yes, if I am ever in a position again to implement something like that in my company I will certainly do. Even though it is probably much harder here, in The Philippines, than in the western world. But I will certainly do.

Customers or employees?

Leave a reply

I had a bit of a strange conversation tonight with a friend of mine who is working for Globe, the internet service provider I complained about that they are hacking websites. And the strange thing to me is that he is defending his company and kind of implicitly states that he doesn’t care about me. And I am a bit confused, as I guess he knows that I have the technical knowledge to figure out what is going on and that indeed Globe is the party inserting scripts into websites where they are supposed to only provide the internet highway, as also my friend confirms they are supposed to do.

So we talked a bit further and I asked him why he is working with Globe, why he is with his current job, also implying a bit like ‘who would want to work for a company doing things like this’, although I’m not fully sure if he got that. And then he mentioned the culture and the benefit Globe gives to their employees.

So this whole conversation made me think, as it completely seems to go against what Napoleon Hill stands for, something like ‘the customer comes first’, service comes first. As with Globe apparently the employees come first, not the customer, as my friend even stated that my internet connection will not survive long anymore ‘as when the access point is getting full, you’ll lose your connection’ and ‘your connection should have never been installed’. But as a customer I feel completely lost with these statements, as my previous, old technology connection worked for a long time, ‘until the access point was full’ and Globe decided to end the service without even noticing our company, even an internet company. And right now we are using a ‘new technology’ connection that is working very reliable and fast. So it is working and can work. So why scare me and why let go of me where I think I am a very loyal customer.

And yes, I know it’s partly the culture, Philippine culture. And maybe I don’t understand business that well and maybe I am alone with not understanding why you would piss off a ‘life time type’ customer. But yes, I am very pissed with all this, especially as all the advertisements of Globe state that ‘the customer comes first’ or at least that is what I understand. But somehow they are not practicing this and it really scares me that they would just let go of me where they have been able to service our location for a long, long time very well, whether out of their procedures or technical limits or whatever.

So how come that these companies thrive and that I can barely make a living by trying to serve my customers the best I can. Should I also just kick out customers that are not profitable, even though they depend on me?

I don’t think so, but I am more and more amazed how the world works in 2014, not really serving customers, but more scaring them.

Or am I just alone with this? Am I really that special?

Viagra and Cialis

Leave a reply

Well, I felt a bit embarrassed. Or actually a lot. As I found that this site, an inspirational site and all supposed to be about ‘positive’ and ‘good’ things, was infected with a lot of spam content. And being a web developer and thinking I know a bit what I am doing of course that was very embarrassing. As it seemed to have been going on for quite a while and I didn’t notice it. Ah, yes, I noticed it a few weeks ago, that some posts had been changed by one of the other team members and containing some spam type content. So I just wrote him an e-mail asking him to check his computer and change his password. But only a few days ago I found how much the damage was and how long it had been going on. For month, and some things were even older, like a year ago.

So I started cleaning up, thinking it were only the recent posts being affected. But no, it seemed something like more than half or maybe even something like 80% of 90% of the posts had been affected with this, well, I would call it malware. And the posts were relatively easy to find, as most of them had the words ‘viagra‘ and/or ‘cialis‘ in them, even though I am not fully sure if I found all posts that had been affected.

And while working on removing this, from my point of view, unwanted stuff, of course I kept thinking. And one of the strongest thoughts around these kind of things is and was the thought of Abraham Hicks about ‘allowing others’. As even though I felt very offended by this, partly because it just affects this site in search and seriousness, I also realized that the people who put this, who wrote the programs and stuff to insert this, had put quite some effort, quite some time, meaning also quite some desire to make this happen. And of course I felt offended as I had to put quite some time removing stuff that someone put in MY site that I believe does not belong there, or at least I believe should not be there.

And next to this I was asking myself who is paying those people to somehow ‘advertise’ all the stuff that these insertions were all about. And yes, I also do link building like that for customers, writing articles about their products only to be able to put a link and try to ‘rank up’ the site of my customer. So yes, my customers pay me for things like that also, even though I think I am doing it in a more subtle, a more appropriate way. But while thinking I also thought the difference is not that big. As my ‘articles’ are basically also ‘spam content’ on the internet. And no, I don’t put content secretly, like the spammers did in this site. But still.

And another thing I was thinking about was how people who don’t know so much about these things, bloggers just using WordPress as a ‘blogging tool’ and trusting everything is ok, would deal with something like this. As they probably wouldn’t even be able to cut the inserted code out. Or may not even notice it. And apparently Google also didn’t even notice it, as I didn’t get any messages in the Google Webmaster Tools about this site being infected with spam content. So apparently Google ignores this type of content, as it is also not really visible in posts.

But the last thing I was thinking about was about Viagra and Cialis itself. About the apparent attraction those products have. And about the enormous ‘anonymous’ demand for these drugs that must be behind this. And of course that brought me also to my own sexual problems, problems that seem related to indeed the biggest human need I know, the need for sex. But no, I never needed Viagra and Cialis for sexual fulfillment or to increase ‘something’ that many people obviously need or want. But yes, sex is still my biggest driver, and with that my biggest problem, as it is a highly unfulfilled need affecting my life a lot as it is not in the way and the level I want it.

So well, a lot of thoughts, and at least inspiration for this article. But no, I don’t really get how we came here as humanity, inserting this kind of stuff in other peoples website and most probably even being paid for it. While the service I am trying to give, the services I am giving, apparently are not so much in demand.

But that’s another story.

The secret?

Leave a reply

I’m still wondering if and how websites or web pages like this work. I mean, someone put a lot of effort in it and somehow I ended up in that page and seeing from the url (I saw) it was some kind of advertisement I think I saw in the page where I found the inspirational quote for today. But that’s not the point as I saw quite some of these things, indeed, mostly related to breakups in relationships, but also others.

And I don’t like these kind of pages as they are so obviously ‘commercial’. Like the presentation in the page I found today is obviously set up to keep your attention to the end. And several things are being used to do that, like the warning the page may be taken away any moment, which I believe of course is not true as someone or some company has put quite some effort in making the page, especially the presentation. And of course that has to come back through the sales of the items being sold in the page.

Another thing on those pages is about pricing, as the prices are virtually always very, very high. And there is always some kind of discount displayed, often mentioned as ‘temporary’, sometimes even actually with a time limit.

And yes, you get a lot, as this page of today has a lot of useful information in the presentation. While writing this post it’s still running and yes, it still gives me more information, even though I might have stopped it if I wouldn’t be writing this post.

And it’s all true and I kind of agree with it, although for me personally one thing doesn’t add up, so I can really recommend it as in the end it’s of course just about self confidence and being happy by yourself without needing someone else.

And no, I did not put any affiliate code or something in the links on this page as I still still stick to the business model of give and receive, so yes, if you like this post or the link I would be happy to receive something from you, but I want to leave it completely up to you.

And yes, I’m still kind of wondering if there pages work and if the people buying the, in my opinion quite expensive, stuff in the page, are really happy with it, meaning buying it was worth the price.

Looking forward to your experiences or opinion on this.

Mamma Mia!

Leave a reply

Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! Strange, everything starts with a thought. Or not, as in this case it was a CD that we played in the car of a friend that we used last week to go for a day trip to Iligan. So my thought came from something I heard, from something someone else had. So the CD was a soundtrack of the movie Mamma Mia!, or as far as I remember not the real soundtrack, but at least the songs from the movie. And this made me also play the songs from this movie on my computer as I downloaded it quite some time ago. And next to this I also decided to download the movie as I really like it and like to see it in high quality. So yesterday or so the download was finished, so tonight I decided to watch the movie. And right from the start it caused a lot of memories and emotions boil up. The first thing I noticed was that the music was of high quality, the ‘5.1 thing’ or something. So I decided to move the back speakers on the couch as I wanted to enjoy the full experience of the music, of the technical quality of the music. And the quality of the movie on the screen and the quality of the music made me realize that over the last decades somehow technology has progressed a lot. And that it is kind of a miracle that I can watch a movie on a TV with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels in high quality sound with six speakers, six music channels. And I downloaded this movie for free over the internet, it is stored on the hard disk of a server somewhere in our office and it is streamed over the network in our house to the TV. And also the music I played earlier this week and that I am playing right now is stored on the hard disk of a computer and I think I also downloaded for free.

Memories

And this music means a lot to me, as my ex-partner was an ABBA fan and seeing this movie brings back a lot of memories from the trips we made together, especially to Berlin, when we played CD’s on the way in the car. And I remember those days as a very good time, as the time I enjoyed life the most, which was probably true when we first met, the first few years, the years that seem to bring back all those good memories. And the movie kind has the same subject, where Donna kind of goes back to ‘the good time’, which of course was also not really a good time, in perspective. And I did like ABBA before as before I met Nico I also owned LP’s from them. And so many emotions came up watching this movie and even right now, as I’m still crying. One thing that came up, next to the holiday memories, was that Nico once said that most of the songs of ABBA are about lost love, about love that is over. And I never realized that before he said that, and after being confronted with that I was never able to listen to the music I did before. And the song mostly related to that is Our Last Summer, which at that time was just one of my favorite songs, somehow even ‘our’ ABBA song, the ABBA song I related to our relationship. And it is still one of my favorite songs, especially the version from the ABBA Teens and now also the version from Mamma Mia!. And somehow it is still related to my previous relationship in a positive way, as we were supposed to grow old together. But we didn’t, still weird.

Musical

Wow, and so many things in my head now. I just want to keep on writing, tell my story, tell everything that is in my head right now. Like that I really admire how someone was able to use those ABBA songs to make a musical out of it, where those songs fit so perfectly that you would almost believe they were written for it. But of course it must be the other way around and what amazes me most is that many songs are being used in a way different from their original meaning, their original context. And I always thought the musical was written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson but today I saw in the trailer that it was written by Catherine Johnson,

Growing (old?)

ABBA And it’s so weird to hear all those songs now, that were part of my growing up, my years as a teenager and a student, and later in the years of my first relationship. And weird that that is now so long ago and that things like ABBA mostly are only there for a relatively short number of years, where it was a big thing. And looking back a big thing for me as a teenager, as a student, where now I guess most younger people wouldn’t really know what ABBA is or was. And realizing now that the generation before me had other artists, other music they grew up with. Or not only music, but also other things. And that scares me sometimes, that I just prefer to use Windows XP on a standard computer with a 4:3 screen and don’t like to use a tablet or a mobile phone as a computer or to access things on the internet. And that goes even further, as I don’t like the recent structures for websites as these structures are more focused on mobile use with a relatively small touch screen and less for a computer with a mouse with a normal screen. So yes, somehow I’m starting to feel old, that there are things I’m just used to and comfortable with, where the younger generation seems to prefer other things. And no, not old in the sense of outdated or something or not willing to adapt to newer technology or something. Just old in the sense of being used to certain things and preferring not to change as the stuff I grew up with just suits me well and the newer stuff just does not suit me so well. But somehow weird, realizing to be of middle age and that there is a generation after me, that there are generations after me. And at the same time realizing that there were generations before me.

Amazing

And I know I am often complaining about things not working, especially recently my internet. But being an engineer and knowing a bit about statistics it is amazing where we have arrived as humanity, e.g. being able to produce a TV with 1920×1080 pixels where all those more than 2 million(!) pixels, screen areas are just working, for years, without ever one of them failing. And that’s only part of the story, because that same TV has quite some chips and cables and whatever is needed to produce an image on the screen and to produce sound we can hear, in the case of the movie I was watching tonight even six channel music. And a lot of software, developed by many, many people over many, many years.

And the strange thing of our time is that especially the digital stuff is practically for free, as it can easily be copied, not only from computer to computer, but also over the internet. And copying is already as old as I am, as when I was a teenager I copied music from the radio or borrowed LP’s or CD’s to cassette tapes. And computer programs from floppy disk to floppy disk. Or later from CD to CD. And right now from DVD to DVD.

And another strange thing is that many products are also very cheap, like you can’t imagine how anyone can earn from it (anymore). Which I guess is also true, as we produce very many things with machines and in places were labor is cheap.

Distribution

And related to that I was, and the last year(s) often am, thinking how all these things can be produced while at the same moment paying the people who make or do all those things a decent salary. And this is a subject I wrote about more and will write about more. As being a software developer I am also confronted with cheap labor as software can be developed anywhere in the world now, even though the same thing has been going on for decades or maybe even hundreds of years: growing international competition. And having grown up in an industrialized, Western country I was on the good side of all this. But now living in a so called developing country I also see the other side of ‘Western efficiency’. And looking at the world as a whole, at the world economy, I start to believe more and more that we need some kind of different model to distribute the wealth, to distribute everything that is available in the world, either being products, digital stuff or services. Although the last appears to be the easiest, although with my experience with large companies delivering service type products the efficiency model doesn’t seem to work so well.

And looking at my download of the movie Mamma Mia! or other movies, do I feel guilty? No, not really, especially as I guess it may be very hard to buy that movie locally in the same quality, although that is something worth checking. And in the end I guess I even prefer movies in digital format as they don’t take up space but just reside somewhere on a (very small) hard disk.

But yes, somehow this creates, must create a problem for the movie industry. And my main worry is that if the movie industry can’t earn enough, there won’t be new movies of high quality anymore. But somehow famous actors seem to be still very rich and also movie studios seem to do well.

But somehow I believe we need some other model, as the giving side as the receiving side both seem to suffer. No, maybe not on the highest level with the most famous, large companies. But on the middle and lower levels.

Let’s find a way!

So let’s find a way, as we are close to a time humanity has always striven for: having goods and services without having to work for it. And technically we can, so why not organize it in a way everybody can benefit from it?