I got a very interesting problem with our Rowenta Iron that we bought couple years ago. First it stopped working, but since the screws had the special form heads I could not open it to fix. Just recently I decided to buy a set of special screw drivers and was able to return to this problem. Below are 3 photos with what I found inside this iron.
Rowenta Iron, rusty spring, photo 1
Rowenta Iron, rusty spring, photo 2
Rowenta Iron, rusty spring, photo 3
It appeared that the iron with a full support of steam and a huge plastic tank for water doesn't accept any water or steam and simply dies in a few months after we begin using it! I could not believe my eyes. But it was very real and I decided to contact Rowenta and ask them a couple of questions. Here is my email message.
The iron spring, responsible for the wire, was made of very cheap steel. It completely disappeared in a couple of years after we started using it. So this relatively expensive model, we paid over $70 to our local store, is totally junk. I published the photos of what we got after it stopped working and I disassembled this iron. Here are the links:
...
Would you like me to mail this trash to you for further analysis? Is it so-called German quality? Or you simply didn’t expect this iron to be exposed to water or steam? What should I do to this unit? I know that I simply lost my money for nothing. A simple $10 iron that we bought a long time ago still works with no issues at all. If I were you I’d politely send a replacement for this unit and re-think about spring quality for all your models.
I received a confirmation email with this ID:
The reference number for your question is '101024-000073'.
and a short message:
We will respond to your inquiry as quickly as possible. Generally, responses are sent within 1 to 2 business days.
And here is the response that I got in a few days:
Dear ...,
We are sorry to hear that you have experienced these problems with your unit. We have not had any mass problems or recalls with any of our units. Since you are beyond the one year warranty it may not be cost effective to send the unit into a service center for repair. We can offer you a rebate certificate towards the purchase of a new model if you are interested. Please respond to this email if you are interested in receiving the certificate and we will mail it to you.
Best regards,
Rowenta Consumer Service
Reference number 101024-000073
So they officially wrote that they never had any problems with these units or any kind of recalls. So the only one defective spring appeared somehow in only my iron. I don't believe because I saw tons of complaints on the Internet when these irons stopped working with no visible reason. But ok, let's take a closer look at the discount, or so called rebate, that could be granted for this trash to buy a new one. After a few days of waiting I got a piece of paper in a regular mail with:
$20 rebate for a $150+ iron
$15 ... $60.00-$149.99
$10 ... $30.00-$59.99
$5 ... $20.00-$29.99
It seems to be a joke and simply refused to use this so called rebate. It's disrespectful to make the customer pay an additional amount for such a trash giving him such a small rebate.
Here is my last message that I emailed to them to make my position clear:
You wrote that you never had any problem with this particular item. Have you ever tried to search for these problem on Google? Below is the link where people complain about rusty water, rust, etc. It's easy to pretend that this device has no issues. I got your so-called rebate paper, but I will never buy any unit since I'm sure that this device is not the only one having such a serious problem. And it doesn't matter if you accept that or not, it's a real fact. There are also many complaints about the irons suddenly stopped working with no visible reason. The reason is simple - the spring turned into rusty dust.
Google Search for "Rowenta DE480 Rust"
Tha funny fact is - we also got a very cheap $10 iron about 10 years ago and it still works just fine. Comparing to this $80+ junk... I have no more comments to the quality of this more expensive iron.
Computer related ideas, thoughts, questions, news...
Saturday, November 20, 2010
1&1 MS Business Package - no updates, service packs... Weird work, guys!
It could be a great company with excellent service if... Let's start from the very beginning.
MS Business Package offering by this company was working with .NET 2.0 until September 2010. It was more or less stable, although it was strange for me that some of the features supported with the latest .NET 2.0 updates weren't available on this server. Let’s make the long story short. I decided to switch to .NET 3.5 since it’s more progressive, has more features, etc. I called the support and asked if I could do that painlessly. They answered, that it’s impossible. I will need to buy a new MS Professional Package, then move everything to the new server, and finally drop the old package. When I asked why they explained that it’s a shared server and they can’t just switch me to 3.5 and keep the rest of the users with 2.0. I tried to argue saying that IIS is flexible enough to keep different applications with different .NET versions. The answer was incredible. Jeremy from 1&1 support team told me that they don’t install any updates or service packs once the service was installed and configured. So all the 1&1 MS Servers are widely open because nobody bothers to install any patches, updates, neither service packs! Even more, since they don’t provide any easy way to migrate to a new server, you will need to recreate all your email accounts on the new server, which means the loss of the email database and terrible step by step routine to configure account existing on the old server. Finally, if you’re using MS SQL Server, then you will need to backup your database, restore it on the new server, then make the required tweaks, etc. Since the MS Business package supports up to 250 GBytes of web space it’s easy to imagine how slowly this migration should be for a regular user having to upload everything from his home machine to the server. These guys simply don’t care of their customers providing this incredible nightmare instead of a good reliable service. Weird work, guys!
MS Business Package offering by this company was working with .NET 2.0 until September 2010. It was more or less stable, although it was strange for me that some of the features supported with the latest .NET 2.0 updates weren't available on this server. Let’s make the long story short. I decided to switch to .NET 3.5 since it’s more progressive, has more features, etc. I called the support and asked if I could do that painlessly. They answered, that it’s impossible. I will need to buy a new MS Professional Package, then move everything to the new server, and finally drop the old package. When I asked why they explained that it’s a shared server and they can’t just switch me to 3.5 and keep the rest of the users with 2.0. I tried to argue saying that IIS is flexible enough to keep different applications with different .NET versions. The answer was incredible. Jeremy from 1&1 support team told me that they don’t install any updates or service packs once the service was installed and configured. So all the 1&1 MS Servers are widely open because nobody bothers to install any patches, updates, neither service packs! Even more, since they don’t provide any easy way to migrate to a new server, you will need to recreate all your email accounts on the new server, which means the loss of the email database and terrible step by step routine to configure account existing on the old server. Finally, if you’re using MS SQL Server, then you will need to backup your database, restore it on the new server, then make the required tweaks, etc. Since the MS Business package supports up to 250 GBytes of web space it’s easy to imagine how slowly this migration should be for a regular user having to upload everything from his home machine to the server. These guys simply don’t care of their customers providing this incredible nightmare instead of a good reliable service. Weird work, guys!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Job offer or Learning Jakarta
We have already reviewed couple email offers from so called local businesses and from Nigeria. Below is one more example. This time our "friend" writes from Asia. Here is the message that we got.
First, never click any links provided you by unknown people! In 99.9% there will be a computer virus that will silently install a software so that your computer will be widely opened to the strangers. The results can be very sad - your stolen personal info, SSN, bank accounts, names, addresses, etc. This info can be used to steal your money from your accounts, to open new loans that you will never find until you realize that you need to pay for something that you've never bought, etc. And you will be unable to prevent that if your personal info is widely spread over the Internet. Sometimes people are very naive and provide their own info for free to whoever wants to get it. There are many TV and Radio programs, Internet web sites, newspapers, magazines, showing and telling how to prevent that, but... People never learn. In this particular case the author of this email message simply wants you to enter your personal info! How simple that is! Will you do that?
Let's skip this incredible salary of 300-500 per month and tons of promises and dig deeper using the trick that we have already described here. Below is what we got from this email message.
Return-Path: <"kekechi06@yahoo.com">kekechi06@yahoo.com>
Delivery-Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:24:54 -0400 Received: from web57001.mail.re3.yahoo.com (web57001.mail.re3.yahoo.com [66.196.97.105]) by mx.perfora.net (node=mxus1) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0M56CE-1PJU8u0kwQ-00yZa1 for <"support@pcyoutrust.com">support@pcyoutrust.com; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:24:54 -0400
Received: (qmail 23789 invoked by uid 60001); 10 Jul 2010 13:24:53 -0000
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1278768293;
bh=y1i6YO1rfD3LTTGKvV6JDPEt7Q+/oMiLyiLu5N38iPo=; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type;b=... DomainKey-Signature:a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=hJH21... Message-ID: <<"mailto:585823.23227.qm@web57001.mail.re3.yahoo.com">585823.23227.qm@web57001.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
X-YMail-OSG: o5WJFa0VM1lnyOfh57jKYJCRyQNZetJe5Wr2Vdbfrd0wRKG
nwIFDCsg80z9lKP.jXkAJrRsm8382D7S.INEckmKOjXthMvYoNSJdVGPrvTa
PWbZalJn2DsR5HmxFFdGIfdWvGKH0t5stOoJZZD6j9lLFAo796ro8fyhdLwX
aa8Rnrlixc7ehbDHhDtsJ4KQEyu8delM9S9g0vbh_vDTg8alMaOqgGv997AN
oc.9YPOZDSqiCVXx522OV.yKobak-
Received: from [125.166.239.228] by web57001.mail.re3.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:24:53 PDT X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/300.3 YahooMailWebService/0.8.104.276605
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:24:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: kyanna williams <kekechi06@yahoo.com>
Subject: re: phoenix
To: support@pcyoutrust.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1653735271-1278768293=:23227"
Envelope-To: support@pcyoutrust.com
We skip all the details and get the IP address this message was sent from. As we have already written before there are many free Internet services to find the sender. Let's use this one and get some info from it. Here we go.
Take a closer look at the comment:
Comment: ** IMPORTANT NOTE: APNIC is the Regional Internet Registry
Comment: for the Asia Pacific region. APNIC does not operate networks
Comment: using this IP address range and is not able to investigate
Comment: spam or abuse reports relating to these addresses. For more
Comment: help, refer to http://www.apnic.net/apnic-info/whois_search2/abuse-and-spamming
It's very important to know that even this IP address is not registered at the web site that we tried, there are still ways to find it. Here is the quote from this link:
As we can see each region has its own web site:
- AfriNIC (Africa),
- ARIN (North America),
- APNIC (Asia Pacific),
- LACNIC (Southern and Central America and the Caribbean), and
- RIPE NCC (Europe and the Middle East).
APNIC has different laws and regulations. Here is another quote.
This region is really huge and it's divided into several parts.
Each part has its own center and if you really want you can contact these databases.
NIR | Nation | Whois Database |
|---|---|---|
APJII | Indonesia | Refer to  APNIC Whois Database |
CNNIC | China | Refer to APNIC Whois Database |
JPNIC | Japan | http://whois.nic.ad.jp/cgi-bin/whois_gw |
KRNIC/NIDA* | Korea | http://whois.nic.or.kr/english/ |
TWNIC | Taiwan | http://www.twnic.net/index2.php |
VNNIC | Vietnam | Refer to APNIC Whois Database |
Let's return back to our original message. Here is the link to find the IP address this message came from. The report is relatively long since there are 5 records found for our IP address. Here is the report.
As you can see, all these addresses are located in Indonesia and have nothing to the local business. There are so many questions that we can ask about this business and this particular offer. And the first question could easily be - are they unable to find somebody local to work with? The second question, that we could probably ask, can be - how these people work with "Google, Facebook, Myspace, Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo" living in Indonesia? The most obvious answer is - they never worked with these companies, they are just using their names to trick the people receiving their messages. Usually if the people see the names of the well-known companies they at least don't delete the message right away and read a little more. So these names are used to pay your attention. It's not important what's inside these messages. All that was done just to get your personal info. As a possible way, they can tell you that they sent you a check in a mail, but you didn't receive it. So why don't you provide them your personal info and bank account to make a direct transfer? As a result, you will probably lose everything including your identity. Do you really want that? Absolutely not! These people want to get your personal information using any trick. So don't be widely open and never provide anything whatever they want!
Good luck!
A job offer from a local business?
Have you ever received a strange offer from some local business? Say, what should be your reaction if you receive the email message like this? The first possible thought could be "What kind of guy that is if he has a personal attorney taking care of his house?" Right?
From the first view, this guy looks very rich, although his email message has several typos and grammar mistakes. If he is on a business trip, and his personal attorney takes care of his house, then his email message should be at least a little more realistic and at most a very skilled secretary should send it to you. The question is "why it was sent to you, not to anybody else". Is this person able to hire an IT person as a permanent staff, a member of his team, to at least keep his personal secrets that he keeps on his computer away from strangers? But let's skip this and other questions like this for now. Let's keep playing with this person to better understand what exactly he wants, but keeping in mind that this person is somebody else. Don't try to find this guy in your local address book, it doesn't exist. Well, actually he exists, but not in your country for sure. We know the trick with IP addresses that we described earlier. It's easy to check the source of this email message. It came from the same city - Ebene, Mauritius. But let's play with this guy sending him some info that he would consume with no doubt. After sending him the first short answer, we received the following reply (below).
He changed the email account right in the middle of his bussiness trip. Does that sound real? He keeps pressing you to get more personal info about you including your location. Isn't that suspicious? And he is currently in Switzerland, isn't he? Well, we could assume for a second that this European country is located not far from Ebene, Mauritius, but it can't be that close, as this guy wants us to think, because it's located in the ocean to the East of Africa. Ok, let's continue our game without informing this person and ask him to send his personal attorney contact info to get more fun and see his reaction.
The results are very impressive. He wants you, the person he never knew, and nobody else, to get the money from him to pay his own attorney! Do you still believe in all that?
Wow, he is unable to find his own attorney. Is his attorney a spy, nobody from nowhere? And this "attorney" takes care of the house! Would you trust the guy you are never able to find? Do you believe in all these stories? Does that sound real? The attorney is always mobile. Why he is running? He doesn't want the Law to catch him or what? Let's pretend that we swallowed all that and send a reply to see what's next.
Well, finally this guy lost his patience, there is no usual hello or anything like that. He is not so polite anymore. Instead, it looks like he already began to realize that somebody is playing games with him, and this is not what he really expected. All we asked in our message was if he knows one guy in our area with the name like his.
Ok, all that was done to better understand the guys's intention, and we stopped at this stage. What he wanted? He wanted to get the personal info, like the guy in another email that we described here. Maybe it was the same guy? Who knows... Maybe it's better to leave that to the local police of Ebene.
Conclusion.
If you receive email messages like these just keep in mind that the free cheese is only in a mouse trap.
Good luck!
From the first view, this guy looks very rich, although his email message has several typos and grammar mistakes. If he is on a business trip, and his personal attorney takes care of his house, then his email message should be at least a little more realistic and at most a very skilled secretary should send it to you. The question is "why it was sent to you, not to anybody else". Is this person able to hire an IT person as a permanent staff, a member of his team, to at least keep his personal secrets that he keeps on his computer away from strangers? But let's skip this and other questions like this for now. Let's keep playing with this person to better understand what exactly he wants, but keeping in mind that this person is somebody else. Don't try to find this guy in your local address book, it doesn't exist. Well, actually he exists, but not in your country for sure. We know the trick with IP addresses that we described earlier. It's easy to check the source of this email message. It came from the same city - Ebene, Mauritius. But let's play with this guy sending him some info that he would consume with no doubt. After sending him the first short answer, we received the following reply (below).
He changed the email account right in the middle of his bussiness trip. Does that sound real? He keeps pressing you to get more personal info about you including your location. Isn't that suspicious? And he is currently in Switzerland, isn't he? Well, we could assume for a second that this European country is located not far from Ebene, Mauritius, but it can't be that close, as this guy wants us to think, because it's located in the ocean to the East of Africa. Ok, let's continue our game without informing this person and ask him to send his personal attorney contact info to get more fun and see his reaction.
The results are very impressive. He wants you, the person he never knew, and nobody else, to get the money from him to pay his own attorney! Do you still believe in all that?
Wow, he is unable to find his own attorney. Is his attorney a spy, nobody from nowhere? And this "attorney" takes care of the house! Would you trust the guy you are never able to find? Do you believe in all these stories? Does that sound real? The attorney is always mobile. Why he is running? He doesn't want the Law to catch him or what? Let's pretend that we swallowed all that and send a reply to see what's next.
Well, finally this guy lost his patience, there is no usual hello or anything like that. He is not so polite anymore. Instead, it looks like he already began to realize that somebody is playing games with him, and this is not what he really expected. All we asked in our message was if he knows one guy in our area with the name like his.
Ok, all that was done to better understand the guys's intention, and we stopped at this stage. What he wanted? He wanted to get the personal info, like the guy in another email that we described here. Maybe it was the same guy? Who knows... Maybe it's better to leave that to the local police of Ebene.
Conclusion.
If you receive email messages like these just keep in mind that the free cheese is only in a mouse trap.
Good luck!
Money from Nigeria? Beneficiary.., Let's dig deeper...
Have you ever received email messages like this in your life? Will you answer this message providing complete info about yourself?
We don't think so. Most of the people just ignore these messages considering them as dangerous and they are absolutely right. Let's look inside this message. It's very easy to get a little more info if you know how. If you are still using Outlook Express with your Windows XP you can simply take a look at the Source Code of this email message. If you are using Outlook you can simply open the Message Options. Almost any email program can let you look inside your email message, and this is what we need to do now. We intentionally didn't change anything inside this text below. From the very first view this info looks strange, but let's go step by step and see what we can get from this info.
What do we see here? To make a long story short, take a closer look at the
Received From: string. Here is the IP address that we can check:
41.211.227.154. There are many free services on the
Internet like this one here:
www.whoisip.com. You can actually Google for the IP address above and Google
will provide you many searching engines telling you many details about the
address that you requested. We can use it and make a quick database search at:
https://ws.arin.net/whois/index.html. Below is what we got.
It is easy to notice that this email message has nothing to Nigeria as it was claimed. Instead, it's absolutely clear where this message came from. We used the Red color above to show that. The country is called Mauritius, the name of the city is Ebene, and even the mail addresses of the Internet Service Provider is available. The best you can do for this person is to send a complaint to his Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Police will be happy to take care of this guy if the ISP forwards the report to them. At least the ISP will simply disable this customer cutting his Internet connection off. The email address to send our complaint is usually on the file when we check the IP address using the method like this one above:
OrgAbuseEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
We don't think so. Most of the people just ignore these messages considering them as dangerous and they are absolutely right. Let's look inside this message. It's very easy to get a little more info if you know how. If you are still using Outlook Express with your Windows XP you can simply take a look at the Source Code of this email message. If you are using Outlook you can simply open the Message Options. Almost any email program can let you look inside your email message, and this is what we need to do now. We intentionally didn't change anything inside this text below. From the very first view this info looks strange, but let's go step by step and see what we can get from this info.
Return-Path: profsanusilmd0@gmail.com
Delivery-Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:49:52 -0400
Received-SPF: neutral (mxus0: 69.167.140.24 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of gmail.com) client-ip=69.167.140.24; envelope-from=profsanusilmd0@gmail.com; helo=cloud.smokyhosts.net;
Received: from cloud.smokyhosts.net ([69.167.140.24]) by mx.perfora.net (node=mxus0) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0M8f2B-1PJKZ12kwV-00vbSh for support@PCYouTrust.com; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:49:52 -0400
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:52776 helo=ismyw.com)
by cloud.smokyhosts.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from profsanusilmd0@gmail.com)
id 1OWqWe-0005Ai-E5; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400
Received: from 41.211.227.154 ([41.211.227.154]) (SquirrelMail authenticated user savation@kidportal.ismywebsite.com) by ismyw.com with HTTP;
Thu, 8 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400essage-ID: lt;b31fb02a040046762bcca16f1794e243.squirrel@ismyw.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF MALLAM SANUSI LAMIDO AMINU
/// PAYMENT RELEASED
From: "MR.LAMIDO SANUSI" <profsanusilmd0@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <profsanusilmd0@gmail.com>
User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.20
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - cloud.smokyhosts.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - pcyoutrust.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - gmail.com
X-Source:
X-Source-Args:
X-Source-Dir:
Envelope-To: support@PCYouTrust.com
Delivery-Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:49:52 -0400
Received-SPF: neutral (mxus0: 69.167.140.24 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of gmail.com) client-ip=69.167.140.24; envelope-from=profsanusilmd0@gmail.com; helo=cloud.smokyhosts.net;
Received: from cloud.smokyhosts.net ([69.167.140.24]) by mx.perfora.net (node=mxus0) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0M8f2B-1PJKZ12kwV-00vbSh for support@PCYouTrust.com; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:49:52 -0400
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:52776 helo=ismyw.com)
by cloud.smokyhosts.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from profsanusilmd0@gmail.com)
id 1OWqWe-0005Ai-E5; Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400
Received: from 41.211.227.154 ([41.211.227.154]) (SquirrelMail authenticated user savation@kidportal.ismywebsite.com) by ismyw.com with HTTP;
Thu, 8 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400essage-ID: lt;b31fb02a040046762bcca16f1794e243.squirrel@ismyw.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 08:48:24 -0400
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF MALLAM SANUSI LAMIDO AMINU
/// PAYMENT RELEASED
From: "MR.LAMIDO SANUSI" <profsanusilmd0@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <profsanusilmd0@gmail.com>
User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.20
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - cloud.smokyhosts.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - pcyoutrust.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - gmail.com
X-Source:
X-Source-Args:
X-Source-Dir:
Envelope-To: support@PCYouTrust.com
What do we see here? To make a long story short, take a closer look at the
Received From: string. Here is the IP address that we can check:
41.211.227.154. There are many free services on the
Internet like this one here:
www.whoisip.com. You can actually Google for the IP address above and Google
will provide you many searching engines telling you many details about the
address that you requested. We can use it and make a quick database search at:
https://ws.arin.net/whois/index.html. Below is what we got.
OrgName: African Network Information Center
OrgID: AFRINIC
Address: Level 11ABC
Address: Raffles Tower
Address: Lot 19, Cybercity
City: Ebene
StateProv:
PostalCode:
Country: MU
NetRange: 41.0.0.0 - 41.255.255.255
CIDR: 41.0.0.0/8
NetName: NET41
NetHandle: NET-41-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Allocated to AfriNIC
NameServer: NS1.AFRINIC.NET
NameServer: NS-SEC.RIPE.NET
NameServer: NS2.LACNIC.NET
NameServer: TINNIE.ARIN.NET
NameServer: SEC1.APNIC.NET
NameServer: SEC3.APNIC.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2005-04-12
Updated: 2009-05-27
OrgID: AFRINIC
Address: Level 11ABC
Address: Raffles Tower
Address: Lot 19, Cybercity
City: Ebene
StateProv:
PostalCode:
Country: MU
NetRange: 41.0.0.0 - 41.255.255.255
CIDR: 41.0.0.0/8
NetName: NET41
NetHandle: NET-41-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Allocated to AfriNIC
NameServer: NS1.AFRINIC.NET
NameServer: NS-SEC.RIPE.NET
NameServer: NS2.LACNIC.NET
NameServer: TINNIE.ARIN.NET
NameServer: SEC1.APNIC.NET
NameServer: SEC3.APNIC.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2005-04-12
Updated: 2009-05-27
OrgAbuseHandle: GENER11-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Generic POC
OrgAbusePhone: +230 4666616
OrgAbuseEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
OrgTechHandle: GENER11-ARIN
OrgTechName: Generic POC
OrgTechPhone: +230 4666616
OrgTechEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
OrgAbuseName: Generic POC
OrgAbusePhone: +230 4666616
OrgAbuseEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
OrgTechHandle: GENER11-ARIN
OrgTechName: Generic POC
OrgTechPhone: +230 4666616
OrgTechEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
It is easy to notice that this email message has nothing to Nigeria as it was claimed. Instead, it's absolutely clear where this message came from. We used the Red color above to show that. The country is called Mauritius, the name of the city is Ebene, and even the mail addresses of the Internet Service Provider is available. The best you can do for this person is to send a complaint to his Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Police will be happy to take care of this guy if the ISP forwards the report to them. At least the ISP will simply disable this customer cutting his Internet connection off. The email address to send our complaint is usually on the file when we check the IP address using the method like this one above:
OrgAbuseEmail: abusepoc@afrinic.net
So if you send a short email notice to the ISP including the reason why you are writing, the copy of the original email message, and the copy of the technical info from the email message header, you can make the world a little cleaner. Please never answer these messages if you are not absolutely sure in what you
are doing. There are several examples when people after answering these or similar messages lost everything, like one American man several years ago. He was promised several millions of dollars (usually around $10,000,000 written in digits and words to make the email message more real). All he needed to do was a very simple thing - to send the info about himself, then to transfer some amount
of money to help the attorney to get the money from the bank, then to buy a ticket to meet with this attorney.., then... To make this long story short - he had to sell his own house to send these smart guys several hundreds of thousands of dollars and, when he finally realized that he was tricked and contacted the Police, it was too late. Don't be like him!
are doing. There are several examples when people after answering these or similar messages lost everything, like one American man several years ago. He was promised several millions of dollars (usually around $10,000,000 written in digits and words to make the email message more real). All he needed to do was a very simple thing - to send the info about himself, then to transfer some amount
of money to help the attorney to get the money from the bank, then to buy a ticket to meet with this attorney.., then... To make this long story short - he had to sell his own house to send these smart guys several hundreds of thousands of dollars and, when he finally realized that he was tricked and contacted the Police, it was too late. Don't be like him!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Estimate for computer repair – which one is better and why?
What estimate should be given to a customer, the worst or the best, the optimistic or pessimistic? This is a very good question having many different answers. The worst estimate can be the first and, at the same time, the last one for this particular customer. He will simply leave you switching to a cheaper (as he thinks) service. So for marketing it seems to be a very bad idea to give a realistic estimate in the very beginning. But let's think together how bad or good both ways are.
In many cases our company starts considering every new task with the worst case scenario. If a proper work was never done to a computer we can’t expect any mystery. A $10 work is not counted, sorry. :) But if we see in the process that this particular computer is new, in a good condition, and it doesn’t require the steps like cleaning, resealing, putting a new paste, lubricating, etc., that only means, that the work will be cheaper for you since we don’t need to do that. But once we start working on a computer we prefer to fix all dangerous points in it to guarantee that nothing will happen in the nearest future for these particular reasons. It doesn't mean that this computer is very bad or in a bad condition, it just means that a required work should be done to extend this computer life to keep it for a customer and finally save money, nothing else. So here is the worst estimate is coming from. Yes, we can skip all these very important steps and say that it will be much cheaper for the customer. We can reinstall the operating system over the customer data files deleting everything that should be preserved, forgetting to install antivirus software, etc. many companies do that telling the customers that it was impossible to save their files. Finally the customer after he paid the money will have to fix his computers again and again just to get it working. If we didn't care of the customers we could do that but we can't, because we are responsible for the work we did. As a result, our customers initially get the worst pessimistic estimate with a comment that the price usually goes down and never up.
Is it really unusual in the business world? Yes, it is. Usually the final amount can be significantly decreased and this is normal for us. But the customers usually can't easily understand why they had to pay much less that they agreed in the very beginning. We realize how bad that is for us and for the ads. But we don’t want to trap a potential customer with some unreal amount like $10-$30 for a whole day work, and then release the price, getting it much higher after the papers are signed and the work is started. We know that many companies usually give a very low estimate only to attract the customers. We know about one very funny guy (as he writes about himself, expert with a 30 year experience) in Phoenix promising to fix your computer for just $10, but additionally charging for all parts, etc. Does he pay you from his own pocket for a pleasure to fix your computer? The work, doing by an expert, who spent his entire life, polishing his skills to do that better than others, should not be cheap by default, or there is something wrong in this world.
We don’t think so. We are sure that he simply skips all required steps to make your computer better, faster, safer, more reliable, etc. It's physically impossible to do everything for a computer in just a few minutes and get good results. First of all, the computer speed is not enough to save the user data to prevent any file loss, to install the whole operating system, then antivirus software, all service packs and updates, utilities, etc. Second, many tweaks and tunings require a very detailed work with the computer to make it usable for a customer, and skipping just a few steps can lead to a great disaster in the future. In some cases it's possible to configure just one computer and then clone the whole hard drive in 20-30 minutes to get a full digital office of absolutely similar 10-20 machines, but these cases are unique and the tricks like this can be used only in some rare cases. So why do people use a cheap $10 trick, just to attract more customers? For sure, what else? This $10 trap is just a reason to start talking with you, to stop you, to let you open the door, come in and close this door right behind you back to keep you inside. It’s just some kind of show to make you believe that this particular company is the cheapest and the greatest in the area. In many cases like this the price starts growing up as soon as the door is closed until the customer is ready to completely reject it, but it’s often too late since the work is already started. Is it a good practice? Only for people believing that all their computer problems can be resolved for just $10. Compare all that to a plumber charging $70 per hour or to AC guys charging from $325 to $600-$700 to replace your $45 Fan Motor in 20 minutes. Maybe you will understand something.
Our company always gives a maximum expectation from the very beginning but always decrease the price accordingly after everything is done. If we were unable to predict something before we started working with you it is our problem. We will never skip the items that we promised to fix, just because it took a little longer than we expected. But is it a right way to go? Or we're just losing our potential customers scaring them with the real prices for the service so that they are leaving us switching to the guys promising everything for just $10? We have many customers recommending us to their friends or colleagues and we are sure that our way is the best way to go. But maybe we are wrong and we’d better provide the incorrect info to our customers only to keep them. Which way is better? Let's discuss that. Any good ideas will be greatly apreciated.
In many cases our company starts considering every new task with the worst case scenario. If a proper work was never done to a computer we can’t expect any mystery. A $10 work is not counted, sorry. :) But if we see in the process that this particular computer is new, in a good condition, and it doesn’t require the steps like cleaning, resealing, putting a new paste, lubricating, etc., that only means, that the work will be cheaper for you since we don’t need to do that. But once we start working on a computer we prefer to fix all dangerous points in it to guarantee that nothing will happen in the nearest future for these particular reasons. It doesn't mean that this computer is very bad or in a bad condition, it just means that a required work should be done to extend this computer life to keep it for a customer and finally save money, nothing else. So here is the worst estimate is coming from. Yes, we can skip all these very important steps and say that it will be much cheaper for the customer. We can reinstall the operating system over the customer data files deleting everything that should be preserved, forgetting to install antivirus software, etc. many companies do that telling the customers that it was impossible to save their files. Finally the customer after he paid the money will have to fix his computers again and again just to get it working. If we didn't care of the customers we could do that but we can't, because we are responsible for the work we did. As a result, our customers initially get the worst pessimistic estimate with a comment that the price usually goes down and never up.
Is it really unusual in the business world? Yes, it is. Usually the final amount can be significantly decreased and this is normal for us. But the customers usually can't easily understand why they had to pay much less that they agreed in the very beginning. We realize how bad that is for us and for the ads. But we don’t want to trap a potential customer with some unreal amount like $10-$30 for a whole day work, and then release the price, getting it much higher after the papers are signed and the work is started. We know that many companies usually give a very low estimate only to attract the customers. We know about one very funny guy (as he writes about himself, expert with a 30 year experience) in Phoenix promising to fix your computer for just $10, but additionally charging for all parts, etc. Does he pay you from his own pocket for a pleasure to fix your computer? The work, doing by an expert, who spent his entire life, polishing his skills to do that better than others, should not be cheap by default, or there is something wrong in this world.
We don’t think so. We are sure that he simply skips all required steps to make your computer better, faster, safer, more reliable, etc. It's physically impossible to do everything for a computer in just a few minutes and get good results. First of all, the computer speed is not enough to save the user data to prevent any file loss, to install the whole operating system, then antivirus software, all service packs and updates, utilities, etc. Second, many tweaks and tunings require a very detailed work with the computer to make it usable for a customer, and skipping just a few steps can lead to a great disaster in the future. In some cases it's possible to configure just one computer and then clone the whole hard drive in 20-30 minutes to get a full digital office of absolutely similar 10-20 machines, but these cases are unique and the tricks like this can be used only in some rare cases. So why do people use a cheap $10 trick, just to attract more customers? For sure, what else? This $10 trap is just a reason to start talking with you, to stop you, to let you open the door, come in and close this door right behind you back to keep you inside. It’s just some kind of show to make you believe that this particular company is the cheapest and the greatest in the area. In many cases like this the price starts growing up as soon as the door is closed until the customer is ready to completely reject it, but it’s often too late since the work is already started. Is it a good practice? Only for people believing that all their computer problems can be resolved for just $10. Compare all that to a plumber charging $70 per hour or to AC guys charging from $325 to $600-$700 to replace your $45 Fan Motor in 20 minutes. Maybe you will understand something.
Our company always gives a maximum expectation from the very beginning but always decrease the price accordingly after everything is done. If we were unable to predict something before we started working with you it is our problem. We will never skip the items that we promised to fix, just because it took a little longer than we expected. But is it a right way to go? Or we're just losing our potential customers scaring them with the real prices for the service so that they are leaving us switching to the guys promising everything for just $10? We have many customers recommending us to their friends or colleagues and we are sure that our way is the best way to go. But maybe we are wrong and we’d better provide the incorrect info to our customers only to keep them. Which way is better? Let's discuss that. Any good ideas will be greatly apreciated.
Computer Expert will fix your PC for just $10-$35? Are you kidding me?
Many people get attracted with the ads promising an “expert” computer repair for just $10-$35. Do you believe that it's possible? We honestly don't think so and here is why. Even a simple service or repair call usually includes a number of different items like making the user’s data safe, quick scan for viruses, data integrity check, cleaning, probably partial disassembling, replacing broken parts, refreshing a cooler paste to save CPU, motherboard and video card (means your money!), lubricating coolers, BIOS check and update if requried to get new features and eliminate old bugs, operating system check and update, installation of service packs and critical fixes, hard drive health check, air flow and overheating control (extremely important for AZ), system and data backup to be able to restore the system "whatever happens", adding and configuring safety and protecting features, tuning, customization, etc. This list is not endless, but really very long. Then imagine all that for just $10. Sounds like nonsense. But if you start searching for the real ads on the Internet, say, on your local Craiglist, you will find many postings with the prices like that. Only professionals know how real all that is. Nobody is even going to do anything from this critical list. Let’s think if your computer really needs this kind of care. You drive to auto service every few thousand miles and this is normal, you don't even complain. Every car has its own service list and we used to follow it. The fact, that you have no idea what all that means for your computer doesn’t mean that your PC will be in a good shape after a cheap, quick, few minute “fix” by an "expert" for just $10. If you want to vote for that, then this is your choice. We can’t stop you of doing that. But don’t cry later trying to change your stolen SSN, restoring personal data or contacting bank about your lost money. You were informed, and the choice was yours as usual.
AC vs. Computer Repairs – who is really cheating you?
Why do people pay for their AC repair from $325 to up to $600-$700 for a 20-30 minute work (usually under 10 screws and 3 wires with simple connectors) if a brand new AC fan motor can be found for just $40-$70? Same people want their PCs to be fixed for almost for free while this work requires much more time, efforts, tools and finally qualification. Paradox? We can say so. Many people think that as smaller device is, as cheaper this device and its maintenance are. People usually don’t open or even touch AC units relying on the professionals, but they work with computers mostly every day and after a few months they start thinking that they know everything about them. Well, realistically most of usual (not IT) people know nothing about operating systems, programs, networks, security, protection, viruses, processors, memory, cards, computer maintenance, tuning, etc., being under impression, that all that can be done and fixed after just a few minutes of Googling. Comparing to a computer, an AC is a huge noticable device. If it fails many people living in Arizona know about that right away, and they agree by default to significantly overpay to get AC fixed. Instead, computer is a black box, something small, mostly located under or on a table, and many people never realize how complicated it is and how dangerous it can be. Say, if your personal info is shared to the hackers, to the whole Internet, or simply lost, then you are in a serious trouble. You will spend weeks, months or even years to fix that, to return back to your normal life. If the AC unit stops, you will spend a few minutes to call someone and couple hours to let an AC guy arrive and fix it. And you will forget about that fact pretty soon with no consequences. But just imagine, that all your documents, photos, video files, plus SSN, address, your mother maiden name, bank account info, etc. are accessible to somebody else. You hope that all this sensitive info is secure but it’s simply gone or published. Is it really funny now? And what price you will agree to pay to return back to your normal life and resolve all the issues suddenly appeared on your horizon? So think twice before inviting a cheap $10 expert with a 30 year experience to fix your computer in just a few minutes.
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