Postal Service!

A cisco 1924 switch I had ordered has not reached yet, when i called last week they promised to deliver it before last friday... Its been almost 2 months and is within 50 kms. I am kind of raged towards these slow service..

I hope my other stuffs reaches here without this delay!!

Update:
A pair of N-Female radiators and Pigtailes reached safely here..
So-Far, I have seen that USPS Global Priority Mail reaches in time, and no duties too :)

Labels: cisco, customs, postal dept, slow service

New Office

Took Office space @ Panampilly nagar, Cochin. It was the previous office of an airtel franchise. Planning to move there within 1st Oct. These expenses are too high for my current situation.


Current possible infrastructure.

Systems
Desktops - Two, When I move my system from Surat.
Fileserver - An old Pentium III 750 with 384MB SDRAM, SATA RAID Adapter (4 Ports) and 4x200GB SATA Hard drives with RAID 5 (Geom Vinum). Netgear GA311 Gigabit NIC. Runs FreeNAS.
Gateway - An extinct Pentium MMX 233MHz with 64MB SDRAM and 3 Networks Cards + IDE > CF adapter. Runs m0n0wall (My First Computer, I dont feel like throwing it away!.) :)

Tables - Already there
Chairs - To be procured.

Internet - 1. Asianet 256kbps unlimited.
Internet - 2. To be added. Unsure of which one to go.. Looking at a TataIndicom Plan.
An internet loadbalancing and failover gateway. Currently interested in D-Link DI-LB604 Load Balancing Router.
Linksys PAP2T, FWD, IPKall and VOIPBuster for Cheap Internet Telephony.
5 port Gigabit switch for the core network. Looking at D-Link Gigabit Switches.
100mbps 24 port swith with gigabit uplink. Looking for a cheap Foundry Net Iron series switch.

More details of the set-up to come..

My Flickr Slideshow

Here is a slideshow of my photo album :)

Labels: computers, flickr, photos, slide show

FedEx Fiasco

Name: Sarath E.R
E-Mail: sarath.er@gmail.com
Nature of Request: Billing/Invoice Question
How would you
like us to respond: Email Me
Category: Duties and Taxes


Package Tracking #: 728418743588
Sender's Name: Bodybuilding.Com
Recipient's Name: Sarath E.R
Comments: Hi,

Recently I bought some products from an online store called bodybuilding.com. The products were shipped through you. The total invoiced amount is $164.77. I have the invoice with me. The tracking number for the product is 728418743588.


1. I had to call your customer care to know why my package is not being delivered.

2. Shocking news, I was charged with Rupees 3502.00 ($75.35) as customs duty. That is almost 45% of it. The maximum duty amount for most of these products would not exeed 33 or 35%. I do not understand how the additional amount , does not matter how much, was charged. I request a full clarification as well as the receipt for the duty paid.

3. I called to your Chennai Office, They said Cash payment is okay, and then the Cochin office guys called me and said I have to get a demand draft made for the same. Why are there differences from your customer executives itself?

Anyways, I am supposed to receive the package today and I am unsure of what to do. I cant afford to waste my time at work to go to a bank and make a DD for the same.

I have been previously using USPS Global Priority Express and I have never faced any issues like this.

Thanks!
- Sarath

PS: This same data will go to my online BLOG to show the public how inefficient your services currently are.

Interests and Projects

Community Wireless Network in my small town.
* Complete Wireless roaming within the town and optional long links..
* Centralised AAA facilities. Single Sign-on to use any service available within network.

Inventry So Far
* 3 Pringles Cans (Empty now :))
* Couple of N-Female Radiators
* Couple of Pig tailes
* 2 Old computers ready to run on CF cards and act as gateways!, Pretty Solid, eh?

Yet to receive
* Nokia GPS Module LD-3W (Bluetooth), Bought it for mapping + antennae alignments.

Yet to Purchase
* A foundry L3 24 port Switch (Available for around $100 in ebay!)
* Parabolic Grid Antennae (Got a good source who can give it real cheap, around $20 a piece)
* A couple of old DTH antennae (Got some nice offers, Money!!, Damned Money!!)
* 3 WRT54GSs, Lost them to an eBay sniper (One day i will have them and these guys will be loaded with Freifunk)
* Intersil PRISM based wireless NICs for the PC based nodes. (This one is getting rare)


Voice Over IP services
* Free In-Network Calling using VOIP (SER)
* Cheap Unlimited Calling to more than 20 countries (200 Rupees PM for Primary Country and 50 Rupees PM for every additional countries) Planning to use Broadvoice and fwdOUT ;)
* A couple of X100P clones are waiting for me to have some spare money..


Partner in Crime > Sajith @ http://www.sajith.org

I need support for this project, Any one who are ready to put in their efforts are welcome.
Please donate your Old computers, Wireless routers to the project and we can make good use of them!

Labels: computers, electronics, hardware, interference, Project, voip

I hate reliance!!

I used to be very supportive of a telecom company called Reliance Communications Limited (A CDMA Telecom Provider in India) always asking my friends to prefer it than going to Tata Indicom (CDMA), or Other GSM providers.. Well, Things are going to change!!!

I received my last month's phone bill yesterday!, To my shock, I found that they have been charging me 400 Rupees (around $10) a month for something I had cancelled long back. This is happening from the last 2 months. Here is the long story..

Series of events..

The connection plan I was using from Reliance was a "Freedom@Night" plan that gives me unlimited access at night. And once I found my Cable internet connection from Asianet Data Line is quite stable, I wanted to cancel the Internet based plan and then move to a voice plan called "1India". After being on hold for around 15 minutes, I got connected to a customer care executive and later he connected me to some Supervisor. I had explained them clearly that I no longer needed to have my Data plan and requested to be moved to a voice based plan. After 2 days I received a confirmation that my connection had been transfered to the OneIndia Plan. So far... I am happy!

Received the first bill after the transfer. I was charged for both the existing plan, and the One India plan, I thought Its because I changed the plan in the middle of my billing period. No action was taken because of this assumption. I paid the bill in full.

Received the second bill.. I was shocked / felt cheated the moment I saw this additional charges still continuing..

As most of you guys know, I dont have my phone these days, so had to call from the home phone.

Call #1
The number 3033333 does not work from my home phone so I called the customer care through their cochin number.. The voice quality was horrible and full of static. Somehow after around 10 minutes of waiting I got connected to a lady.. Who asked me the details, put me on hold for some time, apologised, asked some more details, put me on hold again, and after some time she asked me to call back later as her system is not working.. What an easy way to ask a customer to Buzz off, eh?

Call #2
Same static / crackling / interference.. Was on hold for a long time before I got connected.. This time to a guy, The name was not clear, so couldnt note it. I could tell him the issue, was on hold, he came back and said something, but the static was so horrible i could not hear anything.. I asked them to call me back which never happend.

Call #3
Called them from a reliance phone, atleast i wont waste money while being on hold and the voice quality was better. Talked to an entry level customer care jockey, and he connected me to his Supervisor, Prakash or whatever he calls himself.. I explained him the issue, I told him that last time when I requested for a plan change I had specifically asked for the data plan to be removed and that I would no longer need a dedicated plan for internet connectivity. He put me on hold again, I hate being put on hold.., After a while he said that I had only changed the voice plan that is given free with the data plan I was using and the data plan is still active and that I would need to give seperate instructions for them to remove that. (Please check my previous note that I had specifically asked about the removal of my data services..)

He told me that there is nothing to be done from their end. And that I should visit their WebWorld (crap), No Idea why they would call it a webworld.. and give a request there.. So even after their extortion for something I have never used, I should waste my money and travel 50 Kilometers to visit their place to hear that nothing could be done?? Why would i be paying for a mistake or failure to do duty of some support jockey sitting there?

I am going to cancel the connection as soon as I get some free time, mostly tomorrow. The only thing I cant stand is being treated like crap.

So long.. Suckers!!

Take a note of the following before you get a connection from them,

RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!! RELIANCE SUCKS!!! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!!

Labels: billing, cell phone, dispute, reliance, telephone