Organisations take care of "their own people" only...

We all know how "Apple" brings the best products to the market and how they have changed the MP3 players market and the smartphone market. You can now watch live sports on you phone. I watched the Manchester United VS Inter Milan match on my phone in HQ.

I had an iPod shuffle and it stopped working few weeks back. I had been using it for around 2 years now.

So when I went to the Apple store in Cambridge and asked if they can repair it or I need to buy a new one? They looked into the problem and said "Why don't you buy a new one? New one will cost you £60 with 2 year warranty and repairing the old one will cost you £45 with 1 year warranty."

I thought it was not a bad deal and I bought a new one.

So these guys at the Apple store insisted that I should give them the old one and they can recycle it for me. Save the planet. Brilliant idea! They also said that they won't give me a paper receipt but would email me the receipt. Apple wants to save the planet & paper is made from trees. They want to save the planet,etc etc. Very very impressive.

But when you cross the apple store in the night, you find all the 15", 20", 30", computers switched on.

Photo 1 - All the iPods and iPhones are running a screen saver.

Well isn't that using power? Isn't that adding to the carbon foot print?

What I feel is that all the corporates act in the same way. Make rules, policies, guidelines which suit yourself & forget the customer. Promote what you want to and ask your customer to get involved in it, make him sign up for some promotion activity & then take a totally different stand when the customer is not there. Absolutely hypocrisy! No one actually cares about the planet.

Another incident with my colleague.

He's got an American Express card and gathered tons of points on it. He thought of converting it into British Airways miles and book tickets on BA for his family. Conversion of points done, booking of flight tickets done, booking of holiday done & everyone is happy.

But BA lost 4 tickets which someone else would have booked. It looked like BA made a loss of £2000 on this deal with American Express. My colleague gets a call the next day and BA said "We cannot honour your points, please talk to Amex".

Now he has a holiday booked but without any flights. All he wanted to do is have a nice relaxed holiday, and all he gets is pain in the wrong place. He has been calling Amex & BA everyday trying to sort the issue.

My question is "do the big organizations really care about "their people" (read customers) or are they bothered only about "their own people" (read share holders)?

We all know the answer don't we?

Valentine's Day Gift

Well aaj kal Internet ka zamaana hai so I thought why not dedicate a Valentine's Day post as gift for my wife ;)

1. Random Item relocation

When I wanted to shift some stuff from my wardrobe to the suitcase it was done as she wanted. It looks very organised but if I want to find something I need to ask her. "where is my blue check shirt and the tie?" she " it is in the grey suitcase and in the left side, below your sweater" now is she hiding things from me or she is organising them so that I can find it easily?

2. She’s Late for Everything

Well not everything but she is sometimes late. If being on time is what I like then being relaxed, then taking it easy is what she likes. She isn't late for movies but late for my hockey matches, parties, grocery shopping, clothes shopping, & other normal stuff.

These days she asks me 24 hours before, "What time are we leaving home? Tell me the exact time, I dont want you to put pressure on myself in the last moment" & the new strategy is "you get ready 2 hrs before schedule and that adds pressure, so get ready on time & not early !!" can't argue to this!

3. The Amount of Stuff She Has In Her Bag

Face wash, hand wash, cream for face, cream for lips, cream for hands, etc.... Then hair brush, make up touch up kit (no it's not a make up kit), perfume, Keys (millions of them), office entrance card..

Me "hey can you please keep my wallet in your bag?"

She "sorry I have space only to keep my hair straightener, cant keep your wallet!"

4. She’s Always Attached to Her iPhone

I have no comments please see the video.

Having 30 games on an iPhone may be addictive but she might have very strong wrists very soon.

5. Perfect Memory (Selective)

• I still remember what you did in the summer of 2004.
• You were not nice to me when we were living in that house.
• Think of how you treated me in 2006.
• Remember how you treated me in front of my friends?

6. All Things Technical Are Unimportant

INSTANCE1

• She "so this is your new hockey bat?"
• Me "it's not a bat but a hockey stick"
• She "OK Mr. Perfect whatever, hockey stick, how much did it cost?"
• Me "£150"
• She "WHAT??? to hit the ball with a stick on the ground you spent £150?"
• Me "it's a grays 6000 stick, one of the best in the world, got a nice bow, helps me in putting in aerial balls"
• She "don't give me technical terms! I can't believe it cost that much"
• Me "GULP!!!"

INSTANCE 2

• She "the brakes on my bike don't work"
• Me "they r disc brakes and they need to be replaced with normal brakes"
• She "no need to get too technical, please make my brakes work"
• Me "need to find what is the size of your wheels, then remove your old brakes, find if there is some space to attach the new brakes and then I can say that your bike's brakes are fixed"
• she "I can never rely on you to do my stuff. you wont even make my bike's brakes work"
• me "forget the brakes, buy a new bike !"
• she "disc brakes one or a normal brakes one?"
• me "GULP !!! GULP !!!"

Well all said and done. she makes my heart beat (and sometimes even skip a beat), she is the best cook, she cracks the best jokes, she is a good athlete, she is good swimmer & she is my wife.