let it snow, let is snow, let is snow

 
 
 
 

Yet another day

27 December 2008, 11:30am: Israel start the Operation Cast Lead bombing Gaza

3 January 2009, ground invasion began, with mechanised infantry, armour, and artillery units, supported by helicopter gunships

8 January 2009, UN Security Council approves resolution 1860 calling for an immediate ceasefire and raising concerns regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip

18 January 2009, Israel announces a unilateral ceasefire with Hamas, this came into effect 2 a.m. local time

during the 23 days operation:

1320 Palestinian killed of which 417 children and 108 women. In total 700 civilians were killed.

5340 injured among which more than 500 are in critical situation.

13 Israelis killed

20,000 homes have been damaged

2,000 homes destroyed

50,800 Gazans were left homeless.

400,000 Gazans were left without running water

Estimated cost of rebuilding Gaza will exceed $1bn

20 January 2009, the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait ended in a general statement due to differences about Gaza preventing a stronger closing statement.

20 January 2009, Barak Hussain Obama is sworn as the 44^th President of the United States of America. He is the first African American President to lead the US, more than 2 million people have attended the inauguration in Washington DC, estimates that more than 1 billion people have watched the proceedings on screen.

Not since Kennedy, and some say not never, has an American President has had such attention with such high hopes, from around the world resting on his shoulders. In his inauguration speech, President Obama said:

“we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord”

“we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”

“we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”

Dare we grieve the dead?

Dare we hope for the living?

Inside scarred minds

Razan shared this as well and I thought it's worth another read

read more | digg story

2008

Another year is coming to an end and like every year, we look forward to the year ahead and rethink that year that passed. Going with the latter , 2008 has been a phenomenal year to say the least. Events that we didn’t imagine took place during 2008, things that lifted us up and others that came crashing down on all of us. What is happening now in Gaza is just the last drop in a cup full of sadness we had to drink over the last 12 months.

For me 2008 has been a strange year, I went through unbelievable highs and very dark lows. The year held personal loss that had reaching domino effects on other things in my life and had a fundamental life changing gain that set the stage for a lifetime of change, sharing, partnership and love. Thus is life, gives you in one hand and takes from you in the other.

A year on from my last relevant post and the world had changed shape yet again, I’m not sure if I’m wiser of better on the eve on this new year, the one sure thing is that I’m older, age is the one unstoppable truth of a dying year, everything else is debatable.

A year has passed, a line has been drown and a new tally will start in a few hours…happy counting 2009

thoughts

As the rain drops click on the window my heart races to match their speed, driven only by the thought that this is the last winter that I'll be away from you and by the next time the trees shed their leaves, we will be watching the change of the seasons together.
I won't have to put your perfume on the pillow because finally you will be here & my head will forever rest on your shoulder & my breath will forever be scented with your love

Election fever 2008

you don't have to look too far to see that the US presidential elections have become the most followed political event world wide, but you might not realised that attention to the results of today's votes cast by 130 million Americans has far surpassed that given to any local election where you can actually vote and chose your own MP, PM or President. At a time when the leading months to election day were dominated by bad news in the financial sector and the real economy world wide, whoever is going to end up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next year will have a hell of task at hand and the crazy side to it, he will be having a direct impact on you and me wherever we may be.

It was quite amazing today at work when the conversation, dominated by poll figures and opinions, drifted to “remember where you were when....” the list included the 2000 election, 9/11, the 2004 re-election, princess Diana's death and the 2^nd Gulf war. The list was much longer of course, included sports and disaster (natural and man made) but listening to the discussion I started wondering, does every generation feel that they've seen far more and far worse than the generations before or are we build with such short memory that we forget/ignore what happened in the past?

I remember when the results of the 2004 elections were finally announced, people here (in London of course) were hoping against hope that the results would be different, I was at work following the BBC's interactive map showing every state and changing the colours according to results. There were some high points but then the long wait ended with a muted shock that we had to live with another 4 years of Bush administration going astray with war, human rights and the economy.

Now, 4 years down the line, no one here is daring to hope, not that a democratic president will be better than a republican one by default but the need for change is so overwhelming and so essential to all of us this time that we don't want to risk on someone from the same side of the political spectrum as the disaster we've had to live with for 8 years.

Do you know what's funny? I was in Syria at the time of the 2000 elections, no one liked Al Gore, vague memories of Bush Sr being the president behind the start of the peace process in the Middle East resulted in people cheering Bush Jr.'s win!! retrospective evaluation of events would indicate that this was a very bad cheer.

Now, we're so eager to see the “right” president in the White House we're trying not to jinx the results by predicting a clean win for Barack Obama; news agencies keep on reminding us of the undecided votes, of deceiving polls and of the true extent of the appetite for change in the US as many people might say they will vote for a black president but would decide at the last second that while they would like a change, Obama is too much of a change for their taste.

Tonight, the cover of all the evening papers shared one topic, the election in the US were covered in such depth, it pushed the faltering economy and other headline stories to the 2^nd pages. You had an election night TV guide advising you of the channels covering the unfolding results (BBC1 and ITV, SKY News and CNN if you're interested) throughout the night till the close of the last polling station at 6am London time. It even included a suggest list of food and snacks suitable for the occasion! Apparently pubs will be full of people who will follow the events of the night with the same excitement as any major sport event, this has been compared to the Cup Final in football.

Now I wonder what we will wake up to tomorrow morning, no matter how the wind blows it will be a slightly different world tomorrow even if it was different for just a few month into the new presidency. Tomorrow we will wake up and either become filled with unreasonable illogical joy resulting from an unsupported hope or be filled with a sensation of doom and gloom that we're heading for even darker times from the ones we live in today.

So will 130m Americans vote in a way that will pull us from the edge or push us further towards it? Well the addicts will stay awake to follow the results hour by hour, the rest of us will wake up tomorrow to hopefully a clear result so we will remember that we where in bed when we opened our eyes to a news update on our mobile or PDA broadcasting the results of the 2008 elections.

Happy elections every one,

All Tescos big and small

I’ve been away from this blog for some time now, so many things have happened, some good some not so good but as with everything else, life goes on.

Although there are so many things that I have in mind for possible blogs, I owe it so a number of people to return to my blog with this one. In summery this is a very big and long nag towards the largest supermarket chain in the UK made famous by it's motto “every little help”!!!

So to make a very long story a bit shorter, I will go on with telling my tale and try to keep my comments short.

Once upon a time, on a wet windy Saturday afternoon in the not so fair city of Coventry I walked into a Tesco Extra to get a last minute present for my brother's birthday which I completely forgot. Tesco's big sign and glass exterior were calling out to the masses searching for something and anything. At time when all were starting to feel the pinch of the credit crunch, Tesco's promise of lower prices was a big factor, alongside the convenience of a multi-branched entity and good customer service.

All that made me take the spare of the moment decision to buy a replacement cordless phone from that store. I was there, it was staring at me from the shelf and all I needed was to pick it up, swipe it on the self-service machines followed by my bank card, £99.99 poorer and I had a nice, sleek Philips cordless phone that promises superb quality for my long phone calls to my other half.

Sunday afternoon, I returned home after my weekend away cradling my new phone, I sat down and started to unpack the box, one handset, another handset, one stand, another stand and that was it! No cables, no phone connections no nothing. I knew that the technology has progressed so much but not the point of not needing cables to connect a phone to the wall! Bummer I have to find another Tesco to return my missing set and get a new one, I'm sure that they will be more than willing and more than apologetic for the error that happened and will send me on my way in 10 minutes.

Monday afternoon, guessing that this is a bigger task to handle for the small Tesco Metro near my work, I took a cab to the larger Tesco (large but not an Extra) near my house. Having the driver waiting for me outside I quickly went into the store, did a super speed shopping and then headed to the customer service desk where the following conversation took place:

Me (Customer): hello there, good evening. I was wondering if you can help me with returning an item.

Customer Service Staff member: sure madame, happy to be of service, do you have your receipt?

Me: yes, here it is, and here is the item.

Customer Service Staff member: Can I ask why you want to return it.

Me: Well I got from one of your stores and when I got home I found out that there were bits missing!!

Customer Service Staff member: oh that's not very good, let me check if we hold this item in stock and if we do I may be able to exchange it for you

Me: well If you don't I would prefer just to return it if that's OK

Customer Service Staff member: yes sure, no problem

Few minutes of checking around and scanning barcodes and checking her monitor, the staff member gave me a very grave look....

Customer Service Staff member: Sorry madame, we don't seem to sell this item in this store and I wont be able to be of assistance to you here

Me: ???? what does that mean

Customer Service Staff member: well, if we don't sell an item we can't accept a return of that item if it's not complete.

Me: ???????? what does that mean, I'm returning it because it's incomplete!

Customer Service Staff member: Well madame, we can take it here, you have to go to another Tesco Extra that stocks the phone. There is one in ***** or in ******

note (both places named were a healthy 20-30miles away from where I live)

Me: I can't understand, I bought this from a Tesco store, sure I should be able to return it to any Tesco store?!!

Customer Service Staff member: madame, if we don't have it you can't return it here!!

Me: but surely this is in violation of your return policy!

Customer Service Staff member: Sorry madame I can't do anything else

.....

.....

15 minutes later and 2 other staff members I decided to go for the top and asked to see the store manager...

Me: blah blah blah blah, same story for the 500^th time!

Assumed Store Manager: Well madam I just spoke to my manager (your manager! I thought I was speaking to the store manager already!) and I can help you with this (yes at last something), this is the number for the electrical help line (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) if you call them they will be able to send you out the missing parts.

Me: WHAT

Not Store Manager: well madam if we take if from you and we don't stock it then the cost of the phone will be deducted from the store revenue

Me: you mean to tell me that Tesco's profit will be damaged by a returned item that you will be able to return to the manufacturer!

Not Store Manager: Sorry madam. Nothing can be done other than that.

At that time, I realized that I was just wasting my time and I was not about to argue profitability, proper customer service and consumer rights with someone clearly unable to see the big picture.

45 minutes later and £23 less for the taxi who felt sorry for me and didn't charge me the full fare I was home trying to stay calm.

----------------------

Ring ring, Electrical Helpline (10p/m) and after some delay I managed to get through to an operator.

Me: Blah blah blah, the whole story again

Electrical helpline operator: but madam, that is not true, they should be able to take the phone of you and give you a full refund.

Me: well they said otherwise and now I'm £122 short and still no phone and I'm paying 10p/m just to tell you the story all over again.

Electrical helpline operator: Well madam, I used to work in a store and I know that they can. What you need to do is to call customer services tomorrow and they should be able to sort things out and offer you a suitable compensation.

Me: Well let see, you know that this will make an interesting topic for my next blog

Electrical helpline operator: oh madam, of course you're entitled to do so but can I ask you to reconsider your decision to do so, there maybe some not-so-good staff within Tesco but we are all very hard working and strive to serve our customers. Please here is my direct number and name and please tell me what happens with you.

My faith in the largest supermarket chain in the UK was regained a bit and I looked forward for the following day events.

----------------------

Customer service helpline (free phone): hello madam how can I help?

Me: blah blah blah (tell the whole story yet again added to it what happened at the other store and what the Electrical helpline told me)

Customer service helpline: well madam, no you wont be able to return it to that store (f****, $%&*, beep, beep, beep)

Then she proceeded to provide me a list of possible other stores were I can return the God forsaken phone all of which were miles away from where I live or work.

At that time I completely lost it, blasting over the phone demanding a solution, the customer service lady excused herself and advised me that she will check with her manager (beep, beep, beep) and call me back.

15 minutes later:

Customer service helpline: Madam I managed to sort something out

Me: about bloody time

Customer service helpline: well if you can return to the store near your house (the one I went to the day before) then they will take the phone from you and refund you fully.

Me: and what about the cost of the taxi last night and what I will have to pay today because of your incompetence?

Customer service helpline: Sorry madam, I can't help you with that, the local store can choose to offer you suitable compensation if they chose to. Tesco don't have a compensation policy (??????!!!!!!!)

To keep a very long story not that long, I went that evening and returned the phone, the lady at the story of course refused to offer any kind of compensation and was as cold as an ice cube. I was down another £10 for the cab but by then I would have gladly thrown that phone through a Tesco store window.

I returned home grateful that I managed to get my £99.99 back although it cost me £33 to do so. On my way back I went into the electrical appliances store near me (God bless Comet) and enjoyed some decent customer service with a specialist helping me to chose a phone and explaining their return policy in full.

Why have I filled 3 pages of ranting regarding this matter? Well it's simple, at a time when all are concerned about their finances. When the pennies matter as much as the pounds and consumers are more wary of how they spend their hard earned cash, at times like this, a large supermarket chain that would refuse to return defaulted items, not to have a clear return policy and appalling customer service standard and lake of consistency across the board is shameful, disgusting and even worrying. We may have been more forgiving before and hence allowing for Tesco to grow so big with not that good of a service to offer but are we paying for that now when we can't ignore such things?

PS: I was almost finished writing this blog when I came across something relevant:

Two friends shared their experiences with Tesco, one made an online grocery order for a dinner party he was holding 2 days later. After booking an evening delivery slot between 9 and 11pm and paying for it, 11pm came and went and there was no sign on the delivery. Phoning the help desk, he was advised that the driver was running late (they couldn't be bothered to call) 11:30 and 12 came and went and the delivery didn't show up and by that time the not-so-helpful help desk was closed. Phoning the store the following day, they coldly ignored his complaint and simply advised him that they will arrange for another delivery. When he tried to cancel the order he was advised that he can’t! So now he has to keep his fingers crossed that his delivery will arrive in time for him to feed his guests.

The 2^nd issue related to Tesco's confirmation that if there are more than 3 people at the till they will open up 3 tills! My friend was standing in a queue of 6 with only 2 tills open, when he asked why wont they open another till he was given the all knowing look and told him “that's just a TV AD”!

Well “Every little help” is Tesco's Motto. Wonder what kind of help they're talking about?

PS 2: a friend of mine have pointed me to this site: www.tescosucks.co.uk

have a nice read