ತರಚು ಗಾಯವ ಕೆರೆದು ಹುಣ್ಣನಾಗಿಪುದು ಕಪಿ
ಕೊರತೆಯೊಂದನು ನೀನು ನೆನೆನೆನೆದು ಕೆರಳಿ
ಧರೆಯೆಲ್ಲವನು ಶಪಿಸಿ, ಮನದಿ ನರಕವ ನಿಲಿಸಿ
ನರಳುವುದು ಬದುಕೇನೋ? ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Me and my Jinx (part n, still counting)
Recently it is with the canon D40 camera. After 6 years, finally, after facing numerous jinxes, I am visiting the US.
My 6 year old Minolta Dimage 7i, is now looking like a toy and the battery life really sucks and may be I have the lens alignment got damaged. I kept it along with my laptop and carried as a cabin luggage. I must have been careless. Anyways, I have always wanted to go for a real SLR. So this trip should help me in buying a latest one. I had made up my mind to go for Canon D40.
After a lengthy exchange of mails with Ravi and Cobra, I made sure that I do not have second thoughts of my choice. It is going to be canon 40D, and not the rebel or Nikon models.
Now was the waiting for the black Friday, hoping that the camera price would fall or I might get some rebates. When I checked them in stores like circuit city and best buy, the prices were same for most of the time ($1250)
The day circuit city went for chapter 11 or 7 (not sure which one) I did run to the circuit city that evening. (Took the capital metro bus!) All I could find there was lot of Indians who had come just like me look out for any deals, but there were no deals!!
So I decided to wait for the black Friday. Only catch would be, if I don’t get any offer, I may have to either buy it in the store at $1250!! or order online at some 800+ (body + lens separately) and wait for the shipping. But I will have only four days left after the long weekend and then I will be heading back home. I decided to take that risk anyway... May be I can order a faster delivery by using a part of the saved dollars in the bargain....
Black Friday came… but there was not even an inch of budging in the canon 40D price. So that same day, I decided to order online. As I was in Houston that day and Shyam was also suggesting to order fast, we googled and ordered a canon 40D body and a lens all for 750+ (three day shipping) Finally, I had placed my order for my dream camera! (on http://www.86photovideo.com/)
That night, it suddenly flashed to me... what if I just got the camera body and the lens?? What if there are no charger, battery, memory card etc... They are individually so costly... I had to call them up and ask the product details, right away... I called but the offices were closed till the Monday... But processing was open on Sunday... Oh man... I wanted to speak with someone before the order was processed... anyways I had nothing that I could do till I went back to Austin and then call the help line sometime on Sunday or Monday.
Sunday I was back in my room. I thought of giving it another try calling them. I did get through, got one sales rep. He wasn’t very informative... He asked me to check the canon site. That wasn’t helping me. I felt that I might end up having the camera but no accessories with it. Then I might end up coughing up money on each of the items.
I started looking for other deals on the web.
There it was!! http://www.ontimedigital.com/, the price was so luring… I can get all goodies with the camera at just 750!! wow… Okay, there we go, I called 86th street camera immediately and cancelled my order... it was cancelled instantly! Cool... Now I jumped and ordered in the http://www.ontimedigital.com/ site.
I was feeling great... I wanted to check the status just right then... hmmm… I couldn’t find any 'order status' link there... hey btw, is this site trusted one?? Oops my heart skipped a beat... Immediately, I googled... and found out that I am a super duper fool! I should have checked the reputation first... that lowest price had blinded me though. All those review comments that you get on google about that site are 200% real. I went though the same experience as anyone has commented.
I just wanted to cancel my order and just wanted to forget the camera... I called them immediately… that was a Sunday. Only sales guys were there, but no support guys. They were so rude and kept me on waiting for 15 -20 minutes and then just hung up.
I was not leaving it there... I tried thrice... and the same happened…
Next thought was to call the bank and asking them to decline my order. I called visa people, they forwarded me to my bank. No one was there on Sunday. Only thing I could do, was to wait till Monday morning and first thing in the morning to call my bank and put a decline note.
Next morning, on Monday, I called the bank, but they said, they can’t decline the order, but they said they will help me to dispute the order. They asked me to try yet another time to cancel the order... Many of our Indian gods were now flashing in my mind :)
"I am really jinxed with those things I really want"
I had to wait for two hours till the customer care center would open. That is only at 10EST.
So thought of emailing them right away. Wrote them that I will not be able to receive the shipping as I am leaving in two more days, hence please cancel'.
I called after 10EST and told the same. Luckily, for the first time, the order was immediately cancelled... fortunately the camera was not in stock :)
Meanwhile, I got the confirmation for trip extension... Now I would be having two more weeks :) this is going to help me wait for the free shipping :) Aha, so start the search again... how could just give up... I can still try.
I had searched earlier and made up mind on a package in http://www.broadwayphotos.com/. The camera package was worth 840$. So no more thinking around... I just browsed to that item, added to the cart and ordered. Cool
Now wait for the order confirmation...
The next morning I opened up gmail and saw that there is a mail from them saying order cant be processed because I have used an international credit card… Oh come on, only the billing address is Indian, but the card is issued from US... huh, the sales rep doesn’t budge.. Just said can’t proceed further and hung up on me.
For the first time, in US, I had been experiencing all these bad phone calls! May be they have been improving with these skills in the last six years. They have to compete with Indians in rudeness... Isn’t it?
Do I give up now?? Nope. Let me change my billing address in the bank and then order again Huh, brilliant idea right?? Well if this doesn’t work, I could ask someone to purchase the camera for me and I can pay them in cash.
So logged on to the bank, changed the address, chatted live with the bankers to confirm the same... and with in the next hour, I had placed the camera order again...
Got an order confirmation mail and the sales rep wanted to talk to me on phone… so I called up with suspicion... what are they now upto?
Luckily this was just a sales call... He wanted to sell additional battery for only $120... I said, heck no... Just send me my baby... cool no problem, you order is now being processed... enjoy... he said and closed the call...
wowowow... I have finally, finally, placed my order and now things should start rolling... hurray... just cant wait any more...
Kept checking the 'order status' every now and then, though I knew nothing would happen in one day. Well... kept glancing over gmail... oh boy it is so hard to work when you have some excitement...
yet another day passed... and then as usual I jumped to check my gmail…yes, there is a mail from the website :)
hmm lets see where is my baby…
what?? Noooooo... the order is on HOLD as there is no stock, and they have ordered for the stuff from the manufacturer...
till they receive the package, my order wont be processed... oh my my... and I have only 14 more days to wait... I will wait till Monday, if it is not shipped, then I will cancel the order.
Ain’t I really jinxed with this canon 40D???
So long baby... you will meet me sooner or later… my doors are open and i am waiting
sob sob.
8th December: I wrote a mail to them asking about the status and how long it would take. At least I could buy something which is available readily.
9th December: I got a response from the website saying that the order would take another 4-5 weeks to get processed.
Oops, there goes away my canon 40D …
I asked them to cancel the order.
Now I am back to my Minolta Dimage 7i. Bought a 4GB CF card for her (at just $10) I am going to pamper my Minolta from now on …
My 6 year old Minolta Dimage 7i, is now looking like a toy and the battery life really sucks and may be I have the lens alignment got damaged. I kept it along with my laptop and carried as a cabin luggage. I must have been careless. Anyways, I have always wanted to go for a real SLR. So this trip should help me in buying a latest one. I had made up my mind to go for Canon D40.
After a lengthy exchange of mails with Ravi and Cobra, I made sure that I do not have second thoughts of my choice. It is going to be canon 40D, and not the rebel or Nikon models.
Now was the waiting for the black Friday, hoping that the camera price would fall or I might get some rebates. When I checked them in stores like circuit city and best buy, the prices were same for most of the time ($1250)
The day circuit city went for chapter 11 or 7 (not sure which one) I did run to the circuit city that evening. (Took the capital metro bus!) All I could find there was lot of Indians who had come just like me look out for any deals, but there were no deals!!
So I decided to wait for the black Friday. Only catch would be, if I don’t get any offer, I may have to either buy it in the store at $1250!! or order online at some 800+ (body + lens separately) and wait for the shipping. But I will have only four days left after the long weekend and then I will be heading back home. I decided to take that risk anyway... May be I can order a faster delivery by using a part of the saved dollars in the bargain....
Black Friday came… but there was not even an inch of budging in the canon 40D price. So that same day, I decided to order online. As I was in Houston that day and Shyam was also suggesting to order fast, we googled and ordered a canon 40D body and a lens all for 750+ (three day shipping) Finally, I had placed my order for my dream camera! (on http://www.86photovideo.com/)
That night, it suddenly flashed to me... what if I just got the camera body and the lens?? What if there are no charger, battery, memory card etc... They are individually so costly... I had to call them up and ask the product details, right away... I called but the offices were closed till the Monday... But processing was open on Sunday... Oh man... I wanted to speak with someone before the order was processed... anyways I had nothing that I could do till I went back to Austin and then call the help line sometime on Sunday or Monday.
Sunday I was back in my room. I thought of giving it another try calling them. I did get through, got one sales rep. He wasn’t very informative... He asked me to check the canon site. That wasn’t helping me. I felt that I might end up having the camera but no accessories with it. Then I might end up coughing up money on each of the items.
I started looking for other deals on the web.
There it was!! http://www.ontimedigital.com/, the price was so luring… I can get all goodies with the camera at just 750!! wow… Okay, there we go, I called 86th street camera immediately and cancelled my order... it was cancelled instantly! Cool... Now I jumped and ordered in the http://www.ontimedigital.com/ site.
I was feeling great... I wanted to check the status just right then... hmmm… I couldn’t find any 'order status' link there... hey btw, is this site trusted one?? Oops my heart skipped a beat... Immediately, I googled... and found out that I am a super duper fool! I should have checked the reputation first... that lowest price had blinded me though. All those review comments that you get on google about that site are 200% real. I went though the same experience as anyone has commented.
I just wanted to cancel my order and just wanted to forget the camera... I called them immediately… that was a Sunday. Only sales guys were there, but no support guys. They were so rude and kept me on waiting for 15 -20 minutes and then just hung up.
I was not leaving it there... I tried thrice... and the same happened…
Next thought was to call the bank and asking them to decline my order. I called visa people, they forwarded me to my bank. No one was there on Sunday. Only thing I could do, was to wait till Monday morning and first thing in the morning to call my bank and put a decline note.
Next morning, on Monday, I called the bank, but they said, they can’t decline the order, but they said they will help me to dispute the order. They asked me to try yet another time to cancel the order... Many of our Indian gods were now flashing in my mind :)
"I am really jinxed with those things I really want"
I had to wait for two hours till the customer care center would open. That is only at 10EST.
So thought of emailing them right away. Wrote them that I will not be able to receive the shipping as I am leaving in two more days, hence please cancel'.
I called after 10EST and told the same. Luckily, for the first time, the order was immediately cancelled... fortunately the camera was not in stock :)
Meanwhile, I got the confirmation for trip extension... Now I would be having two more weeks :) this is going to help me wait for the free shipping :) Aha, so start the search again... how could just give up... I can still try.
I had searched earlier and made up mind on a package in http://www.broadwayphotos.com/. The camera package was worth 840$. So no more thinking around... I just browsed to that item, added to the cart and ordered. Cool
Now wait for the order confirmation...
The next morning I opened up gmail and saw that there is a mail from them saying order cant be processed because I have used an international credit card… Oh come on, only the billing address is Indian, but the card is issued from US... huh, the sales rep doesn’t budge.. Just said can’t proceed further and hung up on me.
For the first time, in US, I had been experiencing all these bad phone calls! May be they have been improving with these skills in the last six years. They have to compete with Indians in rudeness... Isn’t it?
Do I give up now?? Nope. Let me change my billing address in the bank and then order again Huh, brilliant idea right?? Well if this doesn’t work, I could ask someone to purchase the camera for me and I can pay them in cash.
So logged on to the bank, changed the address, chatted live with the bankers to confirm the same... and with in the next hour, I had placed the camera order again...
Got an order confirmation mail and the sales rep wanted to talk to me on phone… so I called up with suspicion... what are they now upto?
Luckily this was just a sales call... He wanted to sell additional battery for only $120... I said, heck no... Just send me my baby... cool no problem, you order is now being processed... enjoy... he said and closed the call...
wowowow... I have finally, finally, placed my order and now things should start rolling... hurray... just cant wait any more...
Kept checking the 'order status' every now and then, though I knew nothing would happen in one day. Well... kept glancing over gmail... oh boy it is so hard to work when you have some excitement...
yet another day passed... and then as usual I jumped to check my gmail…yes, there is a mail from the website :)
hmm lets see where is my baby…
what?? Noooooo... the order is on HOLD as there is no stock, and they have ordered for the stuff from the manufacturer...
till they receive the package, my order wont be processed... oh my my... and I have only 14 more days to wait... I will wait till Monday, if it is not shipped, then I will cancel the order.
Ain’t I really jinxed with this canon 40D???
So long baby... you will meet me sooner or later… my doors are open and i am waiting
sob sob.
8th December: I wrote a mail to them asking about the status and how long it would take. At least I could buy something which is available readily.
9th December: I got a response from the website saying that the order would take another 4-5 weeks to get processed.
Oops, there goes away my canon 40D …
I asked them to cancel the order.
Now I am back to my Minolta Dimage 7i. Bought a 4GB CF card for her (at just $10) I am going to pamper my Minolta from now on …
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
disappointments
Alas, all good things come to an end. My vacations ended up yesterday. I had to head to office in the morning.
Though I was all ready to start, I didnt hurry up going to the office. There was no enthusiasm whatsoever. Took the 10.30 bus and then took another three conencting buses covering the northern part of ring road, finally ending up at office at 11.45. Not bad, it only took 1 hour 15 minutes this time.
The first thing i was HOPING was that I will not see the office premise.. I had dreamt that when I return from vacations, i didnt want to see the office building standing still ... I wanted it to have vanished and I wanted to see a plain ground, where few local kids are playing cricket...
uh hmm.. No, that didnt happen. the building is tall and gawking at me :( Ah, reality pricks.. Anyways now I have to walk in. the same old security guards, asking me the same old badge.. I flash the badge and walkin... take the elevator, get out of it at the fourth floor... any changes?? not at all.. the lift is having the same old music... everything is the same, sober old office.. let me see if there are changes in office cube.. at least i dont want to see the same old faces of those team members...
To add to the injury of my continued lack of luck, all those team mates are still there and working hard (or acting).. Oh my... no change at all...
Few smiling faces, coming towards and shaking hands yelling 'happy new year'... Ah, what happy new year? when everything continues to be the same? it is going to be yet another boring year...
Talk about lunch in the cafetaria, the whole thing sucks. no change in the food nor caterers.
my first official day of 08 at work is full of disappointments. I just wonder how the year ahead will be... hoping not to see many more disappointments.. :)
A long way to go in 2008. I am already waiting for this year's christmas time.
Though I was all ready to start, I didnt hurry up going to the office. There was no enthusiasm whatsoever. Took the 10.30 bus and then took another three conencting buses covering the northern part of ring road, finally ending up at office at 11.45. Not bad, it only took 1 hour 15 minutes this time.
The first thing i was HOPING was that I will not see the office premise.. I had dreamt that when I return from vacations, i didnt want to see the office building standing still ... I wanted it to have vanished and I wanted to see a plain ground, where few local kids are playing cricket...
uh hmm.. No, that didnt happen. the building is tall and gawking at me :( Ah, reality pricks.. Anyways now I have to walk in. the same old security guards, asking me the same old badge.. I flash the badge and walkin... take the elevator, get out of it at the fourth floor... any changes?? not at all.. the lift is having the same old music... everything is the same, sober old office.. let me see if there are changes in office cube.. at least i dont want to see the same old faces of those team members...
To add to the injury of my continued lack of luck, all those team mates are still there and working hard (or acting).. Oh my... no change at all...
Few smiling faces, coming towards and shaking hands yelling 'happy new year'... Ah, what happy new year? when everything continues to be the same? it is going to be yet another boring year...
Talk about lunch in the cafetaria, the whole thing sucks. no change in the food nor caterers.
my first official day of 08 at work is full of disappointments. I just wonder how the year ahead will be... hoping not to see many more disappointments.. :)
A long way to go in 2008. I am already waiting for this year's christmas time.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)