Nelson Mandela

Yesterday Madiba celebrated his 91st birthday. Looking back, it easy to see how he has inspired South Africa to raise ourselves above the the mediocre and to do better. He was there for the our World Cup Victory in 1995 and again in 2007

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Bad Service

I believe the true test of an organisation is how they solve problems. Mistakes can happen, even when you are not at fault. So when a client complains, it means that he has not given up on you and moved on, at least not yet.

Also you must remember that the Internet allows you to get information out to a large audience in a very short space of time. Which means, quite simply that you have to treat any complaints as urgent and give them your full attention.

When a client comes to you with a problem, no matter how small, you have to acknowlegde reciept immdiatlt recievd. You also have to tell the client when they can expect an answer and even if you cannot give an answer you go back to them when promised and give them feedback.

So when I have to call Virgin Mobile 4 times and repeat my self 4 times over a very simple problem, I tend to get annoyed. When I post an article to my blog about their "Piss Poor Service" and then take the trouble to email it to their Customer Care section and three days later do not get an answer, I get even more annoyed.

So now, I have become the "annoying client" that all salesmen try their best to ignore, and managers pretend don't exist.

Remeber, I said the Internet allows you to get information out to a large audience quickly. So guess what, I did just that...

Richard Branson, Virgin Mobile and Piss Poor Service.

I have always admired Richard Branson. He lives life with a certain panache that makes me think of the adventure movies I watched as a kid in the 60's. He is the reason that the Virgin Brand has become so well known worldwide.

Soon after Virgin Mobile arrived in South Africa, we got “number portability,” which was great news for anyone wanting to change networks. And this made Virgin Mobile very tempting option for me. My contract with Vodacom was due to expire and I was seriously thinking about changing.

As it happened, I remained with Vodacom, but switched to prepaid.

I had a heated exchange of words with Vodacom and decided to switch. Being unemployed, I decided to stick to prepaid and bought a Virgin Sim card. Because Virgin's prepaid was considerably more expensive than Vodacom, so I switched back. I walked into a Vodacom Agent paid the fee to port my number to Vodacom and within a few hours, I was a Vodacom client again.

When I started my own business, I took out a contract with Virgin Mobile. I asked for my Vodacom prepaid account to ported to my new contract. “No problem.” says the salesman. I filled out the form and told that it would take 7 days. (remember, Vodacom took a few hours). Ok, I still had Vodacom airtime to use up.

A week later, I got an SMS advising it had been done and shortly after that my Vodacom Sim card stopped working. I swopped sim cards and am in business again. When the new month started, I forgot to check my balance, so I did not take note that my account had not been topped up. But the following month arrived and I saw that I had not received new airtime.

So off I went to Virgin Mobile in Cana l Walk to report the problem. I got a reference number.

The follwing afternoon, I phoned the call centre and was told it the fault had not been logged correctly, so I told my story again. The agent promised that she would get back to me the next day. Of course, she did not. So a few days later I phoned again, explained why I was phoneing, was put on hold and got cut off.

Then I phoned again and logged it again. (are you seeing a patttern?) The next day I phoned and yes, you guessed it, nothing had been done. But this time I was kept on the line whilst the call centre agent asked her team leader for guidance. Then the bombshell was dropped.. My number could not be ported because it had originally been Virgin prepaid. I could use the number that came with the contract. Except for a tiny little problem, my friends, my customers and suppliers all had the number that I had been using, all my company stationery had the number.

So, Virgin have been taking my money every month, but not providing the service I have paid for. I accept that mistakes can happen.

Having worked in a call centre that handled after hours emergencies, I can find no excuse for the sort of delays I had so far in getting answers. Every thing that we did for a client was recorded and available to the client when they walked the next morning an switched on their computer. An if it was ultra urgent, we phoned them.

So here I am faced with getting a new number, not a train smash. I can let people know the new number, I print my own stationery, so I am not having to layout money for reprinting.

So where does the Piss Poor Sevice come in.? When the request was made to port my my existing number, why did Virgin not pickup and let me know? Why did it take 4 calls to get an answer?

Why can Vodacom (and MTN) give you answer immediately or on the next working day, but Virgin take longer (much longer)?

Virgin Mobile is a niche operator. They will never be as big as Vodacom, here in South Africa. But because they are competing with the “big boys” headon, they cannot afford to make mistakes.

Actaully, I reaslise they have taught me a very valuable business lesson. You see I am also competing with the “big boys” in the field of Web Site Design and Management, and I aim to be the best.. The diffearnce is that I do have a large worldwide organisation behind me, so if I piss a client off, I am screwed!

Oh yes, what about that Branson fella? Well I am sure he would not be happy to hear that after having worked so hard to make Virgin a household name, that Virgin Mobile South African just don't deliver!

I want that Bumper Sticker!

A Tale of Two Presidents.

Barack Obama was recently elected as the 44th President of the USA. He is considered by may the answer to the world's ills. But to be honest, he will have his hands full sorting out the mess that the United States of America finds itself in.

Jackob Zuma has just be elected as the 4th President of South Africa and has just a big a mess to sort out.

Barack Obama's Presidency will benifit South Africa because he is prepared to listen, rather make demands like the previous administration. However, truth be told, South Africa is responsible for South Africa.

Jacob Zuma has managed to overcome being fired, being accused of fraund and has managed to have charges against him dropped. That is now in the past.

It is the present and the future, we as south Africans need to concern ourselves with. We are faced with poverty, crime, unemployment, housing sortages and corruption. We also the headache of Robert Mugabeto the noth of us.

How will he sort these problems out, only time will tell. In the mean tim, we need to give him our support. Of course, if he breaks his promise, well we need to make sure he does not get into power again.

I am very confident that this is a very differant Jacok Zuma that we are seeing. One, who is gratefull for a second chance and who will work for the benifit of the people.

And what of the other guy, the one in the White House, weel check out his report card!

Ubuntu rocks!

I use Ubuntu 8.10 as may main operating system and I love it! I still use Windows XP for certain jobs, but prefer Ubuntu. The chage over was quick and painless.

Windows XP cost just over a R1000.00 rand, Ubuntu cost nothing (except for the coffee I drank whilst waiting). I went to the Freedom Toster at Canal Walk, stuck in my 8 gig memory stick and downlloaded it. Total cost: a bus ride to the mall, a cup of coffee. Surly the better bargain!

Politics sucks!

The elections are coming up soon. I will not be voting for COPE, they have a great manifesto but any party that can accept a person who stole from a charity that he was supposed to administer, is doomed.

The ANC supports the socialist principles that I believe in and Jacob Zuma is making a real effort to improve things, but no they will not be getting my vote.

I will vote DA because nationally, we need a strong opposition. I believe they are strong enough to take the Western Cape. When I turned 18 and voted in my first election, the DA was called the Progressive Party. The person who came canvassing my vote was also a first time voter, like myself. I remember the reason he gave me why I should vote Prog - "because South Africa needs a strong opposition to keep the Goverment on it's toes!"

I voted Prog/DA ever since then. I voted PFP when P.W. Botha appointed Davie de Villiers as Minister of Finance before he was elected to Parliament. There was a general election due at that time and de Villiers was made the Nationalist candidate for the Gardens, which should have been a safe seat. PW's sheer arrogance managed to piss people off and the Gardens became PFP.

The DA under Mayor Helen Zille have restored Cape Town to proud City it once was. The previous Mayor had turned Cape Town was running Cape Town into the ground.

Premier Rasool was doing the same to the Western Cape. Lyn Brown took over a disaster and things are starting to improve. It is unfortunate that the ANC did not see fit to make her the number one candidate for Premier, I might have reconsidered my vote for the Provincial Government.

I admire her because she never got into a sling match with Mayor Zille and they appear to have worked together for the great good of the Western Cape.

But yes, Politics sucks!

Another week in Paradise bites the dust!

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We have had our worst heatwave so far this year, more fires than the emergency services could cope with and they have had to call the army to assist. Last night we had a magnificent electrical storm, followed by a heavy downpour. The rain should have helped with the fires.

Parliament opened this week, and we had the usual fashion parade, some elegant, some plain, and some just plain stupid.



Hey, c'est la vie!

Oh, how I like my Cappuccino!

Yes, I do! Photo taken at Vida e Cafe in the Gardens.

Miss the nostalgia ads.

The Big Yellow Bus

It seams every year over the holiday season, SA Roadlink is in the headlines. This time it is very serious with KZN timpounding their vehicles.

The above photo was taken in June in the Culumborg Goods yard where SA Roadlink wash their buses. The black Materia in the foreground belongs to Rikkis.

Another Beautiful Summers Day

Taken this morning in Moullie Point. The wind may blow for days on end, but when it does not blow, summer in Cape Town is pure Paradise!