This Reverse Graffiti Project is absolutely amazing. There is always one guy who comes up with an unimaginable yet very simple idea! Watch the video below, it is amazing how he cleans walls instead of painting over them to create art. Lovely.
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I've been using Bank Alfalah credit card for over 2 years now and for me the service has almost never created any problems. Contrary to what a general opinion is about credit cards, I have (Alhamdullilah) never been a victim of pretend-mishaps like cheque misplacement, surprise charging etc. To avoid such over-charging or paying what you didn't spent, there is just two things one can do. 1. Pay before the due date. 2. Pay in hard cash at the branch. Yes paying bill in cash does have extra charges of 110 Rupees (as of this date) but it is worth spending as you get to see them input your payment in the system, so you can be sure that you paid and they received. Instead of using a drop box or cheque, this is the most reliable way of paying.
Anyway, there is another very common opinion that there is no real reason for using or even having a credit card. But given that Pakistan does not have a PayPal service and all the wire transfers have fees that is somewhat more than the amount itself! So what's left for making payments abroad or on Internet? My main reason for having a credit card is to do online payments (being in the web business). When it comes to Internet the first thought is of Credit Card Frauds or
Internet scams etc. So what's the precaution for that? Well there is! Every card (as far as I know) in Pakistan is blocked for Internet payments, (and no, you can't use your Debit Visa on Internet), which means that if your card number and verification number is released, no one can misuse it on Internet. Which is good! My card is also inactive for Internet transactions and I ask them to activate it when I need
it, I do the payment and I have it inactivated again as soon as I am done.
But since the last few months I am being told in every call to helpline for activation, that there are 100 Rupee charges for Internet activation! That was quite a shock for me! because if you call any helpline and ask them to do something, should they charge when there is no actual resource being used!? Anyway, hundred rupee was not such a big amount and given the economical situation and the fact that the
card which is "free for life" didn't apply a yearly fee to it, it was acceptable enough.
Then guess what! last time I paid the bill, I paid around 5K above my actual bill, so I was assured that I can use my card for a while now without worrying to pay instantly. I also knew that a payment was due in a couple of days, so what's wrong in paying in advance!? So today the time came when I had to activate the card on Internet... I called up the helpline (042-111-225-786) and asked the gentleman to have the card activated. He asked some verification questions and then said "Sorry your card can't be activated on net"... I was baffled to hear
that, so I asked him why... He told me that it was because I had paid in advance. The interesting part was that he said "Why did you pay in advance, tell me the reason" (exactly these words) in a tone in which a grandpa would ask his grand son "Why did you break the toy, give me reason" I was offended by that, but I held myself and asked him that what does he propose as I have a payment on the Internet due right now! I told him that I knew this payment was due so I paid in
advance... He was disgusted for god knows what reason and said that it is the "Company Policy" that you can't activate on Internet when youhave a positive balance! That was ridicules in its complete nature, so I said to him... "Okay, so we should pay within the 15 day time and we should pay exactly the amount due, we can't pay any late because then bank will get "angry" and charge the late fee, but we also can NOT pay in advance as it is also frowned upon by the bank!? He said, Sir G
this is a policy... I cut him there and asked him to give me a solution for the payment that I have to do right now. He then did some keystroking on his keyboard and said "I'm allowing it now, but just for this time, take care next time and DO NOT pay in advance"
I usually do not make posts about bad customer experiences, but this one is something that had be thinking. I still don't get what is the reason for such a grandpa-type attitude and what could possibly be the reason for the bank to frown upon advance payments! If any of you people know, please share your thoughts! I'll be happy to know!
It all started with an innocent "tweet"–a post to the micro-blogging site Twitter. Connor Riley, a 22-year-old pursuing her master's degree in information management and systems at University of California, Berkeley, wrote:
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
Cisco employee Tim Levad saw the post and responded with his own tweet:
Who is the hiring manager? I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.
That exchange exploded into what is now known as the "Cisco Fatty" incident–other Twitterers picked up the posts, and soon the Internet was all atwitter about a prospective employee who squandered a job opportunity in this dire economy for saying something stupid online. Riley ended up writing a post on her personal blog apologizing for her tweet, explaining that she was being sarcastic and that she'd actually already turned down the offer.
OK, so no real job loss here, but the incident begs the question: Can social media get you fired? Ask Dan Leone, and the answer is a resounding "yes." Leone, a Philadelphia Eagles employee, was bummed when Eagles player Brian Dawkins signed with a rival team. So he posted his state of mind on Facebook:
Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!
Days later, he was canned by the Eagles.
What you post online, whether it's on your personal blog or at a social networking site, matters. (Who can forget Heather Armstrong, who got fired several years ago for writing about her job on her personal blog, Dooce.com? The episode launched the phrase "getting dooced" to mean being fired for blogging about work.) But I think social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook pose a bigger threat, because it's easy to get lulled into the feeling that we're just posting comments for our friends' consumption. I don't even think employing the most stringent privacy settings–like having your profile or thoughts available to "friends only"–is much of a safeguard. It just takes one person to create a screenshot of something you write that could haunt you for life. So next time you post something online, err on the side of caution. Assume the everyone in the world can read it–and would you really want them to?
