failed....

One of the things that we always tell our clients is SUSTAINABILITY, i.e. it's easy to setup something, but you must ensure that a certain amount of efforts need to be put in place in order to sustain it as well. In the area where it involves sales, it's called "After Sales Service".

I was once disappointed with the after sales services from Machines (see my post on Griffin iPhone Case for Sale). Today, I was disappointed again, and here's the whole story.

Day 1: WeiWei and I decided to trade in the old iBook to Machines when we saw the ad on their website. We called them up and was informed that we could bring the iBook to the store, their technician will inspect and send the iBook to HQ for quotation. So we did. We brought the iBook to the store at 1-Utama. When we were there, the fellow who answered our call told us the technician was not there 'cos it was a weekend. Thanks.... Would definitely appreciate if you have told us earlier.

Day 2: One fine weekday, WeiWei and I decided to head to Machines at 1-Utama to try again. OK, the technician was there this time, but guess what, the technician told us that they don't do trade in there, we have to goto the HQ (at Midvalley). So we talked to the guy who first spoke to us, and he said "Oh is it? Guess I made a mistake. You havta goto HQ then". Wow.... thanks again....

Day 3: This time, WeiWei and I thought that we're gonna do it right, we brought the iBook to Machines at Midvalley. First of all, the 2 sales girls at the front ain't that friendly. When we told them we wanna trade in our iBook, they just pointed their fingers to the counter and said "Go there." I'm like, WTF. Then, we were at the counter...

• Fong: We need to trade in our iBook
• Guy at the counter (Guy): You need to register your iBook at our website first
• Fong: We did it 2 weeks ago, but we receive no reply from you
• Guy: Oh, if like that I can't help you, 'cos this is under another department
• Fong: (wow, that was a helpful piece of info). So what do you suggest us to do now?
• Guy: You can call our company and ask about it.
• Fong: OK, now, I bought the Apple Care Protection Plan, but we were not able to register it online
• Guy: How did you do it?
• Fong: (I thought I said it) Register online
• Guy: That's weird. What did you do? What happened?
• Fong: I entered the serial number and nothing happened
  
• Guy: (Repeatedly asked for a few times) Did you enter the serial number? What happened?
• Fong: (Explained a few more times)
• Guy: Are you sure your Internet connection was working?
• Fong: (WTF, you think I'm an idiot?) Of course..... Can we register it here?
• Guy: Our Internet connection is very slow here...
• Fong: (So that's why..... now i know who's the idiot...) So?
• Guy: This you need to call Apple. We can't help you (again).
• Fong: (That was helpful........) So? I suppose you can give me the number right?
• Guy: Oh ya... here's the number...

Backup your data for FREE! OK, I mean backup your data with a free software. Well, that's how they make up the headlines all the times right?

For the past 1 month, 3 friends told me that their hard disks crashed on them. I'm like guys... What's the 3 words you learn about data? Backup, backup and backup! So, here I am, sharing some tips on backing up the data in your computer.

Wooo hooo!!! Been wanting to get a portable speaker for my klutziPod for a long time. Finally....!! Just got my hands on the JBL OnStage Micro Portable Music Dock for iPod yesterday. It's a gift oohh... hehehe...

Unboxing of the Dock

Size

The dock is pretty small. As you can see, its width is smaller than a RM50 note, so pretty good to be carried around.

Features

The dock comes with a infrared remote control. Basically it provides you all the options to control the iPod. Most of the controls are OK, except the up-down scroll buttons, pretty slow. Unlike using the wheel control, it takes ages to reach 1 end of the list to the other. The dock charges your iPod as well (of course...)

(The pic looks a bit like the mask of Dark Vader) At the back there's a power button and 4 ports. The Audio In port allows you to connect other music device to the dock using a 3.5mm jack. The USB port allows you to connect it to the computer and sync with your iPod. Quite disappointed 'cause the USB cable is not provided. The Audio Out port allows you to connect the dock to another JBL speaker. People says that you can't connect it to an amp or something, but I haven't tried that out. Lastly is of course the power port.

Others

The package includes a soft carrying cas, which could fit the dock, iPod, remote control and the power adapter. Like this. Quite handy for you to bring the whole thing around.

It also comes with 8 dock adapters, which allows it to basically fit all the iPods in the market, except iPod Shuffle. For that, you need to use the 3.5mm jack to connect it to the Audio In port.

Quality

To be honest, I'm quite satisfied with the sound quality. I've tried it out before in Machines, MidValley, but I wasn't quite satisfied that time. It didn't sound that good, maybe it's because of the noise in the mall, and that's a display unit. Now that I get my hands on this, it actually sounds quite good. Given the size of the speakers, you can't expect too much bass from it obviously, and you can't expect to use it in your living room. Using it my room is pretty good. Worth considering.

Price

Well, I've tried to look around in KL but I couldn't find any store selling it. The only store with it was the Machines in MidValley, but even that, they only have 1 display unit left. According to the guy, it's RM400++. In U.S, they are selling it at USD 99.

Overall, if this wasn't a gift, I will definitely not spend money on it. RM400++ for a speaker? Nah.... but now that I have it, it's actually quite satisfying. It's totally up to you

I was having this issue of displaying Chinese characters in Joomla. It's funny because Joomla 1.5 is supposed to support UTF-8. After a few investigations, it seems like the issue is with the database creation, not Joomla.