My Christmas Wishlist

1. Repaint my room - as everyone who knows me will testify that I've got a notoriously short attention span, the plain white walls of my room will have to go and be replaced by something Burgundy. - DONE



2. Get an HDTV - every technophile and gadget freaks obsession. In specific: Samsung LA22A450. -DONE


3. Mount the HDTV - as this is harder than purchasing an LCD and dragging it to your home, I put it as a separate item. - DONE

4. Nikon D90/Canon 50D - Although I've already owned two digital SLRs, I've bought and sold them so I'll be saving up for these babies this next year.

5. Wacom Graphics Tablet - who needs a mouse with these around?

6. Oakley Juliet w/ Black Iridium Lens - apparently I've been born into a generation who thinks looking like a bug is cool.

7. HP Mini-note 2133 - I know there's an updated version already but silver is my weakness.

8. Play Scrabble - Nothing like a blast from the past to exercise your neurons. - DONE


9. Go out on a date with my Mamu - DONE



I'll be appending this post a lot this christmas as I scrape the malls for new gadgets.

The Underdog: Pac-man Wins

Congratulations to Manny Pacquiao who has won yet another bout and put the Philippines in the map. I hope you don't run for president though.

Samsung Live Loud Ringtone Making Contest

Samsung Philippines, upon the introduction of their new music phones are holding a ringtone-making contest to showcase the music created by individuals who are musically inclined, as well as those who aren't. I'm planning to enter however, even though I've got an entire folder dedicated to the music that I create, am having a hard time editing them to fit into the "ideal" ringtone format and choosing what's best to have your phone blare out. Wish me luck.

iVista Anyone?

The new Averatec 22" All-in-One PC. It's basically a cheap rip-off of the iMac delivered with a Vista OS.


Hold it.. I may have spoken too soon. It may be a rip-off but the specs are not that average:

Specifications:
22" WXGA LCD Widescreen Monitor
Intel E3400 Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
3GB DDR2 667 RAM
320GB HDD
DVD Super Multi Drive
NVidia GeForce 8400 256MB Built-in Video
802.11 b/g WLAN
10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet
6 USB 2.0
Audio Jack x8 D-Sub
Wireless KB and Mouse
1.3MP Webcam

It's not my style, however if you're interested, get it here.

At a Creative Standstill

Everyday I am bombarded by outstanding designs, both web and product design and I think, when will I ever make mine? A great thinker once said that a great idea is made up of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I think I've perspired enough, still no inspiration though. I'm in a rut. Definitely. But I'm still hopeful that it will eventually happen when I least expect it.

Happy Birthday Memi!

CSAT is at 86%

Woohoo! After a month and 2 weeks, CSAT is now up from 63% to 86%. That's a 23% jump thanks to me, Annette Chua, Gerger, Mentor Darwin, and the floor!

My Memi's Blog

click here to view my memi's blog

Just another Bomb Threat Monday

For call center employees, Monday has always been manic as calls spike at the start of the week. This monday was no different but for an entirely different reason: a bomb threat. SWAT officers had their bomb sniffing dogs all over the floor as all the agents were evacuated. Most of them hung out at ministop next to Sutherland for about an hour and a half until they declared that the threat was just a hoax. Worthless.

Excuse my CSS

I've only tried scouring the net for tutorials in CSS + Flash a week ago and tried it on my own blog. I was actually going for the I-drank-too-much-last-night-then-puked-on-my-PC look when I made this so please tell me if I was successful. ☺

What Would Rochelle Do?

"Di ko na mapi-pi-gi-lan, ang ka-li-ga-ya-han na aking nadarama..." went my Visayan neighbor as her loudspeakers blared it throughout the neighborhood on high noon today as I ate spaghetti on the living room. I can't help but get on my holier-than-thou horse and holler back with a mouthy "HOY" at her, but that would be what another denigrate would do to his kin. I then had a realization.

Entertainment being what it is: just entertainment, becomes more than what it is and the more popular it gets makes it a catalyst on how our future society would attach their morals to. A good example would be a teen asking herself (probably in the year 2016, when she's 16) "What would Rochelle do?". If the droves of young hip-breaking Sex Bomb fans only took to real life what they learn from their songs (along with the entire genre of novelty songs), they would become illiterate sluts (if they weren't already illiterate to begin with) who only wanted to marry a rich foreigner in order to sustain her for life. Wait, no. We already have fields avenue. I rest my case.

The Bastards that We Are

A song by Razorlight goes:

I light a cigarette
'Cause I can't get no sleep
Theres nothing on the TV nothing on the radio
That means that much to me

All my life
Watching America
All my life
There's panic in America
There's trouble in America



It is completely clear that the Philippines is the 54th state, next to Mexico and Colombia but should we be this much US-centric that we're more concerned about the Obama-McCain election than ours, that we're glued to CNN for updates on the latest bailout plan passed by congress than our own ailing economy, that we're exploiting our hospitality by rendering our services for the States (case in point: nurses and the call center industry). There's a thought. Ponder on that before you go on watching the latest episode of Americal Idol.

I Come in Peace

pardon d concaten8d text, m currently blogging from my mobile phone (as if blogging on a regular keyboard wasnt nerve-racking enough) well here are life updates:

I got promoted (more like laterally transferred) to a QA-ass. All the agents hate me now (as if they loved me when i was an SmE anyway) thanks to me our C-SAT s reaching extraordinary lows. My boss seems to think we can hit 80% before the end of this month. And were currently at 72% up from 63% last month.

Enough of the call center, real-life wise its all the same except that i bought myself and my girl new phones (and got myself a big dent in my pocket at that) hers a Razr K1 and mine a Nokia e71 so that we both have shiny new things to look at.

Last night Nastassja called. With her are jem, sarah, abby annd kei (collectively known as "Carlo's Angels", which was coined at our alma mater: UP Baguio). God i've missed you guys so much. Hope we could get together sometime.

Carlo does QA

more of an RA (Reporting Analyst) than a QA (Quality Assurance Specialist), I do more excel work than actually listening to recordings.

i'm moving.

moved to http://konstrukted.blogspot.com/

Carnapped

A decade and a year ago, she arrived in her shiny white coat and beamy eyes. She used to be my mom's however since taking her for a spin when I was in high school, I've been driving her since then (without a license). I will never forget when I crashed her at the gate of my cousin's house, therefore welcoming us into the neighborhood; killing a puppy in the process. She accompanied me through college, ridding me the long commute from Pampanga to Taft (where I used to study). She's been our constant companion on those Saturday nights where we went out of town. She was my workhorse, taking me to work and back home. More importantly above others, she was where I fell for the woman I now love more than life.



This morning she was gone. Now nothing would ever be the same again.

My mom summoned one of the Colonels of Angeles to investigate what went wrong. He said that since there was a 5 hour window when it was taken away, they could not file a flash report and that blotter was our only chance of ever finding her again. Everyone in the family felt the anguish of losing her.




Now all that's left is memories.



Thank you USC-813. You will always be in my heart.

My dog: Shappy

We've scoured Angeles City for pet shops however, she'd already captured our hearts.

The Beast Awakens

for a loooong time I have been salivating for a mac.

now that COULD be a reality with these great offers from eBay:

1. Apple Powerbook G4

2. Macbook Pro 17" Core Duo 2.16

Time Deposit: Part Three

I love looking for gadgets online. LOOOVVVEE it to death.

Online shopping is the IN thing nowadays. I'm a bonafide eBayer (member id: onegearshop) and I do buy and sell stuff online. It is the quickest, most consumer friendly buy and sell shop online (better yet, in the P.I.). Until recently.

One of my buyers requested that I post my item: a Nikon D40x (which was originally on eBay.ph) in Auction.ph, another online selling shop. Seeing that their site was ok, I agreed. He asked me to split the item into 3 pieces because in Auction.ph, every Php 10,000 worth transaction entitled you to a discount coupon worth Php 1,000. The transaction was completed March 19th, with confirmed receipts of the deposits from him and two of his friends.

After waiting for the first (of three) transactions, I emailed auction since they never notified me.

Here is the horror that followed.

after I emailed auction why there was a delay, one of their customer service agents, Lysette replied:

Dear onegearshop,

Thanks for the information.

After the confirmation of delivery from the buyer, the completed transaction will be forwarded to the Safe and Trust Department for further checking. This process will verify the validity of the said transaction. Management implemented this process in order for us to ensure that a healthy and safe business environment exists in Auction.ph. In addition, this will help us determine bogus sellers who are involved in creating fake transactions to take advantage the system.Please provide us a copy of the delivery receipt for these transactions. You may send the scanned copy of delivery receipt to helpdesk@auction.ph. Documents are required from the seller to confirm that the transactions are valid. If proof of delivery cannot be presented, the seller should provide an explanation about how the transactions were completed. Please be reminded that this in line with our efforts to make sure that safety and security of transaction is observed in Auction.ph. Should you have any clarification on this matter, feel free to write to us anytime. Sincerely,

Lysette
Customer Service Representative
www.auction.ph
Best buying and selling on the web!



To which I replied:

Hi,

My name is Carlo Soriano, Auction.ph seller id: onegearshop.

I have sold three items on the 19th of March and the 2 buyers deposited online and 1 paid thru bills payment. The bills payment transaction is supposed to be released today however the two online payments are still on hold up to now (3/27) and i've been waiting for a week.

Actually I had these item for sale on eBay since I'm originally an eBayer. (feel free to visit my store @ http://myworld.ebay.ph/onegearshop) However my buyer inquired if I could post them in Auction.ph since he said that he had discount coupons. Since Auction.ph seemed like a credible online auction site, I decided to post them there. The buyer later on paid for the items:

Namely:
1. Online Payment thru BPI (ON HOLD, worth P 20,000)
a. Nikon D40X Extras! – Item Number 11013532
b. 18-55 Lens for D40X – Item Number 11013533

2. Bills Payment thru RCBC (RECEIVED, worth P 10,000)
a. Nikon D40X Body – Item Number 11013534

The buyer then marked the items as payment sent, so I delivered the items to the buyer in person. Later (on March 19th) the buyer confirmed that the item had been sent and since then I had been waiting for the payments to be confirmed, other than the transaction which was paid through Bills Payment in RCBC (Item Number: 11013534)

I've already emailed you yesterday (3/26) and waited the whole day for a reply, to no avail.
Seriously, is this the way you treat people who've been hassled by your so-called "verification process for safety and security of transactions aka Escrow System" whose payments are being delayed (for more than 1 whole week after the item was shipped, then confirmed as received) without even an explanation prior to holding the payments, least, an e-mail? All I saw on the "my account" page was a big "ON HOLD".

I don't care who I need to talk to, I'll even go to your office in Clark (since I only live here in Pampanga) to complain about this lousy customer service you are providing. Does this mean that if I hadn't written a letter to your helpdesk I wouldn't have ever gotten my money?

I've tried to be nice and all however, I need this money NOW and I cannot afford more delays as I've said it's already been a week and cannot wait much longer. Trust me, if this is not resolved ASAP. I'll badmouth you to every online seller I know and possibly make this public.

Please consider this my written explanation and reply ASAP with an actual resolution and not a script. Attached herewith are the pictures for the sale of these items (seller in blue shirt)

a. Nikon D40X Extras! – Item Number 11013532
b. 18-55 Lens for D40X – Item Number 11013533
--

Carlo Soriano
OneGear Shop
eBay Philippines
mobile: +639159693896
mail: onegearshop@gmail.com

this email is in response to this message (dated March 26, 2008) from one of Auction.ph's customer service agents, Lysette.


to which, she then replied:

Thanks for writing.

As part of our efforts to maintain security and fairness of transaction done within Auction.ph, verification for all completed transactions was implemented. As part of the verification process, we follow certain conditions to determine if a transaction is valid or not.

If a transaction is found to be questionable in duration, amount, etc., transactions are put on hold and documents are required to verify the validity of the transaction.

If there was no proof of delivery, an explanation from the seller is required. Other documents to back up the explanation may also be requested.The transaction you had was with 2 different persons. These transactions were done almost at the same time. You mentioned that you met with these people to hand the item personally.

However, you also mentioned in the latter part of your email that you ‘shipped’ the item.

Furthermore, you said that you only registered with Auction.ph to sell these items to your buyers. Record shows otherwise. Based on what we have in our database, you registered two more accounts with Auction.ph on 2006 and 2007.

Therefore, we would like to clarify if you met your buyers at the same time? And did you sell your items separately? In addition, for such high ticket items, we would assume that you have issued official receipts which include the serial numbers of the items you sold. If you have that document, you may also send it to us.

Also, the pictures you've shown could mean a number of things but does not necessarily prove that your transaction is valid.

We would want to resolve this matter (really?) as much as you do and release the money due to you. Your cooperation would be appreciated.

Until today, I haven't seen a cent of my money.
Fuck Auction.ph.

Time Deposit: Part Two

Our government's branches should have one unified subtitle:

"We'll make you wait, and then rob you."

Car registration occurs every year. Like summer, but is totally the opposite. Anticipating summer is like waiting for a toy: and then you get it and have to get back to school or work again.

After our Team Building in Poracay (a resort in the lahar devastated town of Porac, click here to view the website), a colleague and I headed to the Emissions Testing Center. The first of the grueling line of steps towards car registration. After waiting 15 minutes for my car to get tested, after a long queue of cars, I said to myself: "paitience is a virtue". While testing I asked the attendant what the next step was:

He replied:
"Boss, pagkatapos neto, pipicturan nalang sasakyan mo, tapos bayad ka na lang"
"Boss, after this, they just need to take a picture of your car then you'll just have to pay the bill"

I said OK then parked my car.

After 45 minutes of waiting, smoking, and drinking C2 (my favorite drink btw) I wondered what the long delay was so I eagerly stood up and asked the cashier what the long wait was for. To my surprise (and probably angst), there were more than 5 cars before me. It was only then I had noticed that the cars and their owners who were already there before mine are still there, waiting like I was. So I decided I could not do anything else so I stood there and just waited.

Since there was more than enough time, I observed the emissions testing facilities, the "photo-booth" as they dubbed it (which is composed of a cheap webcam and a stand), and the insurance office (which later on became our chill-out place, since it's air-conditioned, unlike most of the center).

After an hour, they told me to come back tomorrow.

Dipshits.

Time Deposit: Part One

This entire month was a long wait.

I'm starting to grow less fond of banks. I know that they're institutions and being that as it may, all institutions make people wait (eg, LTO, Schools, need I say more?). And so much so in this case than others.

At about 11:00am I was about to deposit my payments in RCBC and saw that there were less than 20 people in the room. Then I thought to myself, this shouldn't be that long of a wait, seeing that there were two tellers staffed that time. So I grabbed my queue number and a brochure, sat, then intently waited, carefully surveying the teller's desk for people's queue numbers to be called in.

I was number 20.

My seat was at the back, next to one of the manager's desks, being the last one who entered before lunch. In my boredom, I glanced at her monitor and saw that she was filling in the liquidation for expenses used by other people in the bank. There were multitudes upon multitudes of data when suddenly the quirkiest thing caught my eye, the text said:

"Taxi Fair".

Taxi Fair? I would have thought that bank employees would have known better English than most, their being on the forefront of Pinoy customer service (or at least one of the very few places you could get some customer service)

Thirty minutes after, number 11 was called. My eyes grew wide in anticipation. I was finger-counting the minutes per customer and if my calculations were correct, within the next 20 minutes they would be serving me.

About 10 minutes later, (insert horror music here) a delivery guy from Chowking (a popular Filipino fast-food chain) came in and distributed the meals.

Now, one of the tellers were on lunch break and the time I calculated per customer suddenly doubled; I was now 40 minutes away from banking heaven. Everything was copacetic until the guys from the armored van started bringing in the cash. Perhaps they were understaffed, or this was just the Philippines but the teller rocketed off to the back of the bank to escort the guards and the manager inside the safe.

An hour later, I deposited Php 6,000.00 in less than one minute.

I love this system and the good fraction of my time it has made me waste.

Life Updates

Been working my ass off this holy week (greedy bastard + double pay = maximum overtime). My girlfriend starts her first day of work today so I won't be able to see her 24/7 like I used to (this is NOT a good thing), everyone at the office (mostly supervisors) is thinking of resigning their post since the account is crap in the BPO where I work.

I'm also peeved that I just sold a Columbia unit Nikon D40X to Nino's (my colleague) college best friend Sherwin Malit when I just lost my own camera to an architect in Batangas whom I featured on the main page of my site for customer satisfaction because the transaction was, in fact, perfect. I could only imagine his excitement when he opened the box (he didn't know much about DSLRs, mind you). I wish I could feel that again. Probably by the end of April I'll get myself the camera I've always salivated for: the Nikon D80. I sell them in my shop, yet I don't own one. Haha. the irony! fuck it. I'll get you someday soon, baby...



check out other items @ http://1gearshop.blogspot.com

eBayer

These past few weeks have been a blur of purchases and sales. I've sold my Canon 400D to an engineer from Pangasinan, sold my Wacom Pen Partner to a supplier of Filigrenasia (who proposed a business deal to my gf, who is a designer btw) and purchased a new Nikon D40X with lens hood and a uv filter for a fraction of the retail price. I couldn't be happier :D

I've also put up a new website for my online shop: Onegear Shop

http://1gearshop.blogspot.com