Online Customer Disservice

With Manila’s traffic perpetually in knots, the convenience brought by online transactions can hardly be overstated. For example, why waste time going to a travel agency when you can get your e-ticket through the Internet? Not only are the rates usually cheaper, you save on time and aggravation as well

Well, that’s most of the time. Unfortunately, some of our local vendors still have to figure out how to do things right. Here are a few online horror stories I’ve encountered.

The pitfalls of online flight booking

The top (dis)honors go to Cebu Pacific. Their website cannot seem to process online payments properly. I checked with my bank and they said there is nothing wrong on their end. It’s the Cebu Pacific system that keeps messing up! So much for the convenience of booking flights online. It ain’t happenin’ with Cebu Pacific!

Because of Cebu Pacific’s incompetence, I have been forced to turn to Philippine Airlines more than once. At least their website’s online booking actually works. But PAL isn’t off the hook. There are pitfalls there as well.

One “feature” of the PAL website is that when you book a round-trip flight, the system automatically advances your return date by about a week or so. You will have to manually change the return date if you are flying back sooner or later than the date “chosen” for you.

That may not sound bad at all until you realize that when you are booking a flight near the end of the current month, the system changes the moth as well as the date. More than one hapless customer has failed to notice this and forgot to change the month to the correct one if the return flight was sooner. I was one of those, and I know of at least one other person who was a victim of this “feature” as well.

When I complained at a PAL office, I was informed that they would not allow me to change my booking. How about a refund? I filled out a complaint form and received a reply through e-mail. Bit after a few messages with useless apologies and excuses, the PAL personnel stopped responding. They didn’t even have the courtesy to offer a refund or another ticket (it’s not like the company can’t afford it). PAL’s customer service sucks big time.

Useless hotlines

Customer hotlines aren’t new, but they are essential to keeping customers happy. Not all problems can be pigeon-holed and solved through pre-recorded messages. In my experience, a live person on the other end of the line is required to solve many problems.  Talking with customers also allows organizations to get valuable feedback and to get a heads-up on developing issues before they blow up into expensive public relations disasters.

Having said that, I was very dismayed to find out that Cebu Pacific’s hotline is just as  useless as their website Try calling 7020888 and chances are no live person will ever answer you. The same goes for their number in Cebu. Perhaps they are tired of answering tons of complaints from justifiably irate customers.

Who else could be hiding from their customers? Try calling PLD’T’s 171 and you’ll probably spend an eternity and a half trying to figure out how to reach a real person. The brain-dead system is long on audio advertising and short on live service representatives who will actually listen. The same goes for their DSL promo hotline where you will be an old man before you can talk to a Customer (dis)Service Representative.

Apparently I am not alone. Try googling for PLDT DSL and check out all the blog entries complaining about their unbelievably lousy service. But is anyone in the PLDT management listening? When PLDT had a monopoly 20 years ago, things were like this too. Looks like their rotten corporate attitude hasn’t really changed.

The customer is always right

At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. How can these companies (and others like them) think they can get away with such sloppy service?

Well, maybe they can’t, provided people are not willing to put up with the abuse. Irate customers can take their business — and cash — elsewhere. And they can make a big stink, which is wht I’m doing right now. I figure if enough people complain loudly, those clueless managers will have to take notice sooner or later.

Have you been shafted recently? Blog about it. Write a letter to your local newspaper. Teach those companies a lesson. They deserve whatever they get. After all, they are sticking it to you as well.

Is Your ISP Diverting Your DNS Queries?

The recent launch of Google’s Public DNS Service has elicited a number of blog posts focusing on privacy issues. I found two such posts on CircleID, by Michele Neylon entitled “Google Launch of DNS Service and OpenDNS Reply” , and Lauren Weinstein’s “Google’s New Public DNS Service – and Data Retention Issues“.

In the course of reading through these articles, I took note of the issue of DNS redirection (where ISPs can redirect requests to non-existent domains to advertising), as well as the more critical practice of DNS Diversions, which Weinstein explains this way:

Using a different DNS service is usually as “easy” as changing the IP addresses in your OS DNS settings, but note that if your ISP is actually diverting the TCP/IP ports that DNS uses to communicate, it will be impossible for you to switch DNS servers through normal mechanisms.

Fortunately, Weinstein also provides information for testing if your ISP is actually diverting your DNS queries. It can be found at “Testing Your Internet Connection for ISP DNS Diversions“.

Basically, all you need to do is run a few commands and compare output to data that Weinstein has provided. If you get the same IP addresses the official test zone, then your DNS queries are probably not being diverted. The data you should be seeing is changed periodically to prevent the test from being compromised.

For Unix/Linux users, use the following command to test for diverted TCP packets:

   dig @dns-test.nnsquad.org control.hq. axfr

To test for diverted UDP packets, use this command:

   dig @dns-test.nnsquad.org control.hq.

The test zone data is at: http://www.nnsquad.org/dns-test-zone-output.txt. Compare the IP addresses in your output with what you find here.

Weinstein’s test has been online since March 2008. I only just discovered it. Hey, you learn something new everyday!

When I’m 64…

Vintage electronic memory

Having relatively cheap, 64-bit, multi-core processors readily available for desktops is great. The boost in performance is more than welcome. The only monkey wrench in this scenario is that some software still has to get properly ported to run as 64-bit applications.

I recently had a nearly week-long nightmare trying to get Firefox to play Flash content. I moved to a newer, Intel-based 64-bit system running CEntOS 5.4, from my four-year old, single-core AMD64-based system. Things generally went well, even though I had to manually reconstruct a few mail directories. The real big snag was when Firefox just would not play any Flash content.

I got to working on the problem as soon as I could. I followed the instructions to download the Adobe Flash plugin. Then I made sure to download and install the nspluginwrapper plugin and Viewer (nspluginwrapper and nspluginwrapper-i386), which you can download from here. I ran nspluginwrapper and imported the Adobe plugin, which was copied into the correct directories.

Then I ran Firefox. No cigar. it just wouldn’t work.

Going Digital

I’ve had an interest in photography ever since the early 1980s. Back then when film was the medium, I had a Petri viewfinder camera and a Rolleicord twin lens reflex. Sadly, when the cost of film and processing became prohibitive in the early 1990s, I had to turn to other, less costly hobbies.

From a seaside resort in Tabuelan, Cebu

Fortunately, low-cost digital cameras have made photography affordable again. In 2007, I bought my first digital camera, a Sony Cybershot S650. I have also made use of various phone cameras. But I have never owned a single lens reflex (SLR) camera, let alone a digital one. So when I came to buying a digital SLR, I wanted to make sure I got a camera that I could enjoy and actually use.

The good news was that, when it came to capabilities, the big names were generally even in each given skill level. Neither Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, Pentax, and so on had any huge advantage. That realization pretty much helped me avoid long hours of going over technical comparisons and reviews (although I did read some). What was important now were certain subjective preferences.

With film, I used to experiment with long exposures (10 seconds to a few minutes). The time allowed me to play with flash, ambient light, and various colored lights to get interesting effects. So I naturally wanted to be able to do the same with my new camera. That meant that the camera should be capable of fully manual operation. After all, what’s the point of getting an SLR if you intend to stick to presets and automatic exposure? Part of the creativity — and certainly much of the fun — lies in controlling the important parameters that can affect your photos. Manual exposure lets you play with light and motion, and that’s something I really like to do.

The Misinformed Billionaires Club

The London Sunday Times, in the story Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation, reported:

SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.

Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.

Bill Gates, it seems, was the man pushing for the population control agenda. The Times report noted:

The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.

Looking under the veneer of good boy philanthropy, however, observers have noticed a sinister — if perhaps unwitting — agenda, as well as a strong undercurrent of plain old misinformation.

Mixed Emotions: Nokia 7210 Supernova

I’ve been using my Nokia 7210 Supernova for over three months now. Here’s a quick review of how the phone has fared thus far.

I bought it mainly because I wanted a simple and cheap camera-phone that I could use on my solo road trip from Manila back to Cebu (the trip was called “Ride 4 Life“). I was attracted by its 2-megapixel camera and low cost (at around P6000) and its large phone directory (around 1000 contacts, at least). The main screen was large and bright and the case was slim and light. Clinching the sale was its expandable storage via a micro-SD slot. I left the store with an additional 2GB micro-SD card.

I left Manila after a day or two and eagerly put the camera to work. During the first day of my trip (which ended in Gumaca, Quezon), I took photos of several old churches and got acquainted with the capabilities and limitations of the camera. I found that it took decent and fairly sharp pictures in good light, but under poor lighting conditions the shots were “noisy” and often blurred (I guess it was compensating with a “longer” exposure). The digital zoom was practically worthless too since it resulted in blurred, unfocused pictures. This built-in digital camera is strictly for daytime outdoor use, or for brightly-lit indoor venues. Forget about using it at night. It does not have a flash unit. It does video too, but I haven’t made much use of that feature yet.

You can check out some photos taken with this camera at my Multiply site.

Taxing Free Online Content

Absurd as it may sound, that is effectively what the draft of an NTC Memorandum Circular may end up doing if it is implemented: taxing online content from the Philippines!

The draft Memorandum Circular, dated December 22, 2008, is entitled “GUIDELINES ON THE PROVISION OF CONTENTS, INFORMATION, APPLICATIONS, AND ELECTRONIC GAMES“. In section B Registration, number 1, the document states:

Contents, Information, Applications and/or Electronic Games Providers, Contents Developers, Information Sources, Applications Developers, and Electronic Games Developers are required to have commercial presence in the country and shall secure Certificate of Registration (COR) from the Commission.

The NTC document defines “Providers” as:

… persons or entities offering and providing contents (or information, applications, or electronic games — additions are mine) to the public for compensation through the networks, systems and/or facilities of authorized networks, systems and/or facilities providers.

Take note, it says these are those who provide something for compensation. At first blush, this would seem to exclude most bloggers, those who post on forums and social networking sites, and others who don’t really get paid for putting content online.

On the other hand, the NTC document also makes these other definitions:

When Tech Giants Tinker with Marriage

I was sorely disappointed when I learned that Google and Apple — arguably two of the most innovative and powerful technology companies in the U.S. — decided that they should try to influence voters going to the polls on November 4.

No, I am not talking about the Presidential elections (although that too was on November 4). I am talking about the sizable contributions of these companies to the campaign against a proposed amendment to the California Constitution to protect marriage, also known as Proposition 8.

Google’s official stand is here: Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign. Apple, for its part, was widely reported to have made a large donation to the campaign against Proposition. Here’s the Technology Chronicles story on that: Apple donates $100,000 to fight Prop. 8.

Proposition 8 is an amendment to the State Constitution of California to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. It is a reaction to an activist California Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage in that state. This occurred despite a previous California law (known as Proposition 22) that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and which was overwhelmingly passed by California
voters. Since Proposition 22 was declared unconstitutional by a 4-3 decision of the high court last May 15, supporters of traditional marriage in California have now offered the Proposition 8 amendment to the California State Constitution, which will effectively overturn the activist court decision.

Early returns from California shows the Yes vote leading by a wide lead. Thank God for that!

Be Careful What You Wish For

After OOXML-Gate, a distasteful and anomalous affair wherein a proprietary and flawed format was somehow declared a “standard”, observers predicted a backlash against the standards bodies involved. It would seem that, at the very least, the credibility of the culprits would be tarnished. At worst, they could become irrelevant.

Well, Microsoft got what it wanted in the OOXML vote, but the radioactive fallout from that fiasco is still fouling the air, so to speak. As reported in Norwegian standards body implodes over OOXML controversy by Ars Technica just last week, things have been unravelling in Norway:

Standards Norway, the organization that manages technical standards for the Scandinavian country, took a serious blow last week when key members resigned in protest over procedural irregularities in the approval process for Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The 23-person technical committee has lost 13 of its members.

The standardization process for Microsoft’s office format has been plagued with controversy. Critics have challenged the validity of its ISO approval and allege that procedural irregularities and outright misconduct marred the voting process in national standards bodies around the world. Norway has faced particularly close scrutiny because the country reversed its vote against approval despite strong opposition to the format by a majority of the members who participated in the technical committee.

In Sweden, where there was also controversy over the way the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) participated in the OOXML approval process, things have taken an interesting twist: the body has now throw its support behind ODF, which is often seen as a competing format to OOXML. That’s poetic justice, after what happened in the OOXML vote. An SIS official commented on the sorry affair, as reported in SE: ODF made national standard in Sweden:

SIS CEO Lars Flink explains that in August 2007, SIS decided to abstain from voting on OOXML at ISO, after finding out some of the members in its OOXML committee had voted more than once. “Also, at the day of the vote, the SIS committee had also gotten between 25 and 27 new members, most of which were in favour of OOXML. At the time, our rules allowed such late-comers at the time. We have changed those rules.”

I wonder… will there be any such justice in the Philippines?

Switzerland Empowers Consumers

The Internet and open source software are great enablers. These two innovations allow a large number of people to do things that previously required a huge investment or could not do at all in a practical manner. They empower people.

Whereas 30 years ago publishing was an expensive proposition, now you can get your message to the world through blogging, online forums, and desktop publishing software. Today, you can run an entire office network using free software only. You can communicate freely, obtain information from diverse sources, and make informed decisions without having to leave your desk.

There are still, of course, areas where ordinary people can get shafted, sometimes without their knowing it. Too often, consumers are left at the mercy of big business. Various service and utility providers, for example, get away with rotten service, erratic connections and downtime, unexplained or hidden charges, spam, and all sorts of shenanigans. Most of the time consumers can do little about it.

Well, Switzerland is a way to fight back.