I recently used a concierge service from Belgium-based Borderlinx to purchase some products from a US merchant that I could not buy with non-US credit card otherwise. The customer is provided with US and UK suite addresses and will only pay shipping fee after the packages arrive at their suite addresses. The company then ships the package to the customer's local address in his home country. I have been a loyal user of VPOST for this kind of service in the past and decided to give Borderlinx a try on recommendation from a friend who was a satisfied user.
It turned out to be a nightmare. The edge that Borderlinx has over VPOST is that the concierge service is free, and shipping is reportedly cheaper than what VPOST offers. But boy, what I thought would be a breeze turned out to be a torturous experience!
Here are why:
1. Concierge only allows you to place 4 items per order. Then you have to divide your items into separate orders. Some US merchants provide free shipping for orders over a certain amount, and you have to re-calculate which items in your order add up to that amount to take advantage of this option.
2. After I painstakingly input all the item description, price, size, URL link one by one, the website returned that the transaction had been rejected. No reason was given. I called my credit card company to check if there was anything wrong with the card, they said my card was perfectly fine. Did the data input more than 15 times before the website lets it go through. Hell #1.
3. After 3 orders had been submitted (12 items in total), I waited.
4. Two weeks passed, the package for my last order arrived at my US suite address. At this point, I was wondering why the last order arrived but not the first two. What makes it even more frustrating was, only 3 items arrived instead of 4 as what I ordered. Hell #2.
5. Borderlinx provides live customer service chat to their customers around the clock, not unlike many other corporations. I chatted with the first customer service rep, explained the situation, and was told to wait. Fine.
6. Every other day I chatted with different customer service reps, and had to explain the situation every single time. Sometimes they understood my predicament, majority of the times they didn't even understand what I wanted and transferred me to the original rep who handled my 'ticket' (log). The answer given was they would contact the concierge department and promised someone would reply within 1-2 days. No one even came close to replying, let alone giving me the answer. Hell #3. This is the source of my biggest frustration.
7. My latest dealing with the customer service department came to their agreeing to refund the items that did not arrive. After more than ONE month and I had to be the one to follow up. I sent email too, there wasn't any reply. And the refund has not come through. Hell #4.
My biggest complaint is with the concierge department, as customer is unable to directly place order with merchant, customer has to place his trust in the concierge; how and when the concierge actually places orders with the merchant is not within customer's control. This is a big risk to consider before customer places any orders. It is not that all the customer service reps are incompetent, but the working of the company as a whole; not responding to customer's repeated cry for help is just plain unacceptable, especially the concierge department.
It is unlikely I will place orders with Borderlinx again. I learned my lesson.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Sports and endorphin
You take a deep breath and dunk your head in the water, you emerge after two seconds, take another breath and repeat the cycle. You do this for half a lap, one lap, and finally, 15 laps. You keep counting. All this while, how many thoughts have gone through your head? In my case, many.
There are many ideas, or some could argue, almost all ideas, which were born outside of a formal setting where the idea is seemingly more appropriate to be generated. Offices, no. That is perhaps not the most conducive of places to breed ideas. Unless, if your office is Google's complex. Bathroom, yes, kitchen, yes, outdoor playing golf, definitely. You see, in our modern daily life, we are conditioned to do multiple things at the same time. We watch TV while we eat, and at the same time, read magazines. We typed our emails and remembered something that our boss wanted us to do. The kind of life that an average office worker lead is loaded with many tasks, which required a multi-tasker to do, as is often pointed out to be a strong point during job interviews. We don't have the time to sit and think when faced with multitude of tasks around us. That decreases our ability to focus or to just sit. When the body is still, the mind is active. When you do an activity that requires your body to have a constant motion, or be still, that is when the mind wanders. The mind not only wanders, the mind imagines, the mind travels to places, the mind is communicating with another being, the mind visualizes, the mind shapes and shakes things.
Whenever I am exercising, especially sports that require repetitive actions such as pounding the legs on the street or treadmill, with noticeably fewer visual stimuli, or swimming, repeatedly swinging our arms and legs; I always never failed to have thoughts and ideas passing through my mind. It's a lot like laying on the bed before sleeping. The mind is active, the mind doesn't want to calm down. I had to take control, and started to read about meditation. I even tried meditating, but I have yet to arrive at the place where I know for real what meditation is. Give up too soon?
Does sports make your life better? I would say yes, do more sports, be active. It engages not only your body, but your mind. In cases where you require other people to play certain sports, it benefits you in the form of social contacts. These things are beneficial to our health. Endorphins are released, we get companionship and support. It enhances your stamina and ability to focus and some studies even reported, to think. You know how they say people experience runner's high where they feel a sense of euphoria engulfing their bodies, feeling the air and the body is one and the same? That will probably be my goal. If I have the mental power to torture my body for that long, that is.
There are many ideas, or some could argue, almost all ideas, which were born outside of a formal setting where the idea is seemingly more appropriate to be generated. Offices, no. That is perhaps not the most conducive of places to breed ideas. Unless, if your office is Google's complex. Bathroom, yes, kitchen, yes, outdoor playing golf, definitely. You see, in our modern daily life, we are conditioned to do multiple things at the same time. We watch TV while we eat, and at the same time, read magazines. We typed our emails and remembered something that our boss wanted us to do. The kind of life that an average office worker lead is loaded with many tasks, which required a multi-tasker to do, as is often pointed out to be a strong point during job interviews. We don't have the time to sit and think when faced with multitude of tasks around us. That decreases our ability to focus or to just sit. When the body is still, the mind is active. When you do an activity that requires your body to have a constant motion, or be still, that is when the mind wanders. The mind not only wanders, the mind imagines, the mind travels to places, the mind is communicating with another being, the mind visualizes, the mind shapes and shakes things.
Whenever I am exercising, especially sports that require repetitive actions such as pounding the legs on the street or treadmill, with noticeably fewer visual stimuli, or swimming, repeatedly swinging our arms and legs; I always never failed to have thoughts and ideas passing through my mind. It's a lot like laying on the bed before sleeping. The mind is active, the mind doesn't want to calm down. I had to take control, and started to read about meditation. I even tried meditating, but I have yet to arrive at the place where I know for real what meditation is. Give up too soon?
Does sports make your life better? I would say yes, do more sports, be active. It engages not only your body, but your mind. In cases where you require other people to play certain sports, it benefits you in the form of social contacts. These things are beneficial to our health. Endorphins are released, we get companionship and support. It enhances your stamina and ability to focus and some studies even reported, to think. You know how they say people experience runner's high where they feel a sense of euphoria engulfing their bodies, feeling the air and the body is one and the same? That will probably be my goal. If I have the mental power to torture my body for that long, that is.
On movies
I recently watched a movie on a whim due to a recommendation from two friends a long time ago. In the middle of watching the movie, I was doing a lot of other stuff. My mind just would not sit and go through the entire length in one sitting. When I finished, I was baffled. It wasn't good at all, in fact, it was so, so bad. Why did my friends even recommend the movie (it's When In Rome, by the way)?
That got me thinking. Several years ago (I say several years because I cannot quantify the time when I started to think differently), I probably would've thought the movie is okay. You know how the movie review websites always have ratings that reviewers and audiences give and how sometimes both of them doesn't match at all? I thought that it would be a case like that but I find myself siding with the reviewers most of the time. Have my taste in movies change or have my ability to observe and judge a movie change? The latter is probably an indication that the rate of enjoyment I take from watching movies is less now as I don't lose myself simply just having a good time being entertained.
Of course the second reason could be because I did not watch the movie in a cinema, very rarely would my focus waver if everything around me is dark. When watching movies in the confines of your room or house there are things that distract you, or things that cross your mind that you are afraid that you will forget if you don't do it right then and there.
Regardless, as they say, movies appreciation is a personal thing, but hey, without a consensus, things won't get done anyway right? Rotten tomatoes exists to inform, educate, and maybe occasionally berate most movies it carries.
That got me thinking. Several years ago (I say several years because I cannot quantify the time when I started to think differently), I probably would've thought the movie is okay. You know how the movie review websites always have ratings that reviewers and audiences give and how sometimes both of them doesn't match at all? I thought that it would be a case like that but I find myself siding with the reviewers most of the time. Have my taste in movies change or have my ability to observe and judge a movie change? The latter is probably an indication that the rate of enjoyment I take from watching movies is less now as I don't lose myself simply just having a good time being entertained.
Of course the second reason could be because I did not watch the movie in a cinema, very rarely would my focus waver if everything around me is dark. When watching movies in the confines of your room or house there are things that distract you, or things that cross your mind that you are afraid that you will forget if you don't do it right then and there.
Regardless, as they say, movies appreciation is a personal thing, but hey, without a consensus, things won't get done anyway right? Rotten tomatoes exists to inform, educate, and maybe occasionally berate most movies it carries.
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