Devakishor Soraisam

A not so good experience with a supposedly ‘Professional’ computer repair firm – eTechies.in!!

// April 2nd, 2012 // 3 Comments » // Technology

Terrible service, lies about the status, false promises and wrong guarantees! This has been ‘my experience‘ so far with eTechies.in.

Please note, this is ‘my experience‘. It is very likely that others might have had a very good experience with them. I still think eTechies would have been a good experience for me too, if I had the 5-7days time they normally take for a service request. That said, as you’ll understand from the blog below, I made it very clear in my conversation with them that I didn’t have the time! And no one seemed to have listened! I know it’s not fair to blame the entire company because of the mistake of a few employee. This blog is written in the hope that some senior(s) people from eTechies will notice and take appropriate action(s) and hopefully improve their service.

Now, about the issues “I faced“. It may sound like a rant, that’s because I am pissed!!

My laptop crashed on 30th March(around midnight, or 31st early morn.) Suddenly heard some cracking noise near the fan and it crashed. Upon restarting the laptop, the fan didn’t work. It kept crashing every 10-15mins due to overheating. Here’s my tweet about the same: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/gnlpvf

Tweeted/FBed asking for repair centers that friends might know of. Also called Just Dial on the 31st of March, looking for laptop repair centers near Koramangala.  I got a few leads from Just Dial. Spoke to a few and asked a firm from Jayanagar to come and pick up my laptop to repair it. They promised return of the repaired laptop the same day, I understand there could have been a delay here as well. JD must have shared my query, after about half an hour later someone from eTechies calls me up, tell me how they are a ‘professionally’ run firm, very organised and trustworthy and guarantees good service, unlike the other local ones. The person told me about how a ‘certified’ technician will come and try to fix my laptop at my place. If that didn’t work, the technician will take back the laptop to the lab and return it within 5-7 working days. I didn’t have that time as I had a lot of work and told them I cannot part with my laptop for that long. I am flying out of Bangaloire on the 8th and needed to finish a lot of work before that. All the data needed for this work is on the laptop. The person(Naren, if I remember right) I was speaking to transferred the call to a technician(a lady whose name I don’t remember) and after a long discussion she reluctantly guarantees return in 2 days. I was still not willing to part my laptop for 2 days so I ask for the technician to come to my place, try to fix it and if that didn’t work I said I’ll take the call about giving the laptop to the service center then. They said a person will come before 12:30, the person can around 3. Understandable delay, as there may have been other clients.

The ‘certified technician’, Mr Md Rafiq, tries to fix the problem by cleaning the dust with a handheld air blower, taking out and cleaning the hard-disk and RAM, clearing the temporary files, by moving the files from my desktop to another drive, disabling auto update, etc. When that didn’t work, he tells me the problem is with the motherboard connector/link(?) and that the laptop has to be taken back to their lab. Yes, the ‘certified technician’ did just that! He said, the laptop will be returned within 7 working days. Again, the same conversation about how I don’t have time and can’t give it for that long. I asked him not to bother with my laptop, that I’ll pay your charges but will take the laptop to someone else the next day. He speaks to Mr Kailash(in charge of Bangalore is what he told, now I am not very sure!!) of Bangalore, Mr Kailash promises me that the laptop will be returned the same day, March 31st. It was 3:30pm already. I told him to take one more day and return my laptop by Sunday afternoon. I even told him not to bother with the software upgrading, antivirus/OS fixes, et al and to check and if possible fix the hardware problem(s) only. If that cannot be done, I want my laptop back on Sunday anyhow. He promises to do the same, I trusted him and gave the laptop.

Forget delivery, no one from eTechies even bothered to call me on Sunday. I waited, thinking Sunday might have been a holiday. No communication from eTechis till monday afternoon, I was getting restless thinking about all the work!! Lucky for me, my boss wasn’t yelling! I called up the customer care, gave my service ticket and asked for Mr Kailash, the person who promised me the delivery in one day. He said he was on leave yesterday, will check the status and call back. I kept my cool and said okay. Few mins later a person called, told me that “the laptop has been fixed and it is with the delivery guy, I’ll get it before 6pm”. I was happy all this drama was finally going to end. It didn’t.

After about an hour, I got a call from Mr Kumar of the service department of eTechies.in, Bangalore. According to him, my laptop is in ‘diagnosis’ stage and the problem is the motherboard link(Same prob that Rafiq told) and that it’ll take another 3 days to fix! I told him about the conversations I had with his colleagues earlier. He says he ‘understands’ and what he’s telling now is the truth. He himself kept asking me to trust him now, and mentions that his colleagues had made false guarantees and kept apologising for the same. Yes. I told him “I trust you, but I need my laptop back now.”. He cosults another colleague of his and says there’s nothing he can do today, at which point I ask to talk to Mr Kailash again, he gave me a mobile number to call.

Called the mobile number, Mr Kailash’s colleague picked up, I gave my service ticket and he says the same about needing 3/4 more days. The only difference being, the problem now is with the laptop fan and that it needs to be replace and they need my approval!! Not very sure if the ‘motherboard link’ and ‘changing the fan’ are the same problem, I am guessing different. Now I don’t know who to trust anymore, ask him to please return my laptop today without repairing. He says okay, but he won’t be able to give the refund. Some slightly heated conversation on this, they said they’ll call back. They are yet to.

I am not sure what to say/do, hence this blog! Now, I understand/assume they have spent some time on my laptop, opened it up to check the problem, probably did some work and that they need to be paid for the same. But, how about – they made false promises, lied multiple times, wasted two and a half days and the laptop is still in the same damn condition I gave them!(slightly clearner, maybe).

Like I mentioned above, I am only hoping people from eTechies notices this blog post and offers an explanation, some actions maybe!

CM9 Nightly(March 9 release) on my Galaxy S2. Loving it, except for the scary experience this morning.

// March 10th, 2012 // No Comments » // Personal

I had rooted my phone a long time back, experimented with a few custom ROMs then, but choose to revert to the stock ROM as there weren’t many good options available. CM7 for SGS2 wasn’t out then and I didn’t wan’t an unstable ROM then. Few days back, a friend told me about how his android’s battery life increased drastically after flashing with CM7.1. The battery life for my phone sucked(a prob with almost all android phones) and the hope that it might increase after flashing a diff ROM got me excited. That, and the fact that I wanted to try ICS convinced me.

Googled/Youtubed a bit and installed the MIUI ROM by adyscorpius of XDA Forums first, after which I tweeted about the sad battery life and how slow it was. Then, another friend who knows a lot more about android/sgs2 than me and who also blogs about android suggested on twitter that I install CM9.

Now, CM9 isn’t stable and is a nightly release. I also know that a ‘nightly’ is a work in progress, not a stable release that is meant for the general public but intended for a few brave souls..  The CM9 nightly release even comes with this warning!!

** These CyanogenMod builds are highly experimental and unsupported.
**
** Please refrain from submitting bug reports for any issues
** you may encounter while running one of these builds.
**
** Submitting bug reports on nightly builds is the leading
** cause of male impotence.

The brave soul that I am, I went ahead with it. Like Rajesh said, it was a drastic improvement and I loved it. Played with the new interface, settings with it and was slowly falling in love. I don’t want to go on about the things I love, many people already love the CyanmogenMod ROMs, for good reason. That said, the main thing I was curious about – battery life, I wasn’t sure if there was any change there so I decided not to charge the phone at night as I normally do and see how much battery was left in the morning.

This morning was a shocker! Woke up to a phone call from my girl at about 9, phone was working fine then. Went to sleep vey late y’day(or today morn!) so went back to sleep. Woke up at about 10:30, with one eye half open I reached for the phone… and the damn thing wouldn’t wake up whatever button(power, menu, both volume) I pressed! Thought the battery was over and plugged in the charger but the charging animation didn’t appear… for a long time! Removed the battery, put it back in and plugged in the charger again… this time the animation showed, it also showed I had 50%+ battery left! But, the damned phone still wouldn’t start! Wondering if the battery was showing an error, I put it on charge for a little longer, removed both the battery and sim, put them back and tried starting it… it reluctantly did!

I checked the battery stats after that and this is what I saw:

Not sure how good an indicator this is as the phone was on standby most of the time, but this looks pretty good to me… when compared to my earlier stock ROM.

Now, if this indeed this shows the true battery levels… then, why wasn’t the phone starting/waking up? Yes, I know it is a nightly release I’m on and this kind of thing shouldn’t shock me, but I am still curious to know why/how this scary thing happened. So, if anyone of you installed CM9 on your SGS2 and faced similar prob and know how/why it happened, do share.

For now, I shall continue to use the CM9 and try to figure out what was the prob was…

Signature campaign to stop blockade and counter-blockade and bring peace in Manipur.

// May 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Manipur

Kindly show your support for the common people suffering in Manipur.

We are against the economic blockade by ANSAM, the counter-blockade by various organisations in the valley.

Please

- Share this letter with as many people as you can. Facebook, Tweet, email, et al.

- Copy this letter and post it on your blog.. add your name.

Dear Everyone,

The people of Manipur of all the districts in the hills and the valley are suffering due to the road blockade for more than a month.

There is shortage of the basic need to survival – food and other commodities. There is acute shortage of fuel, which impacts in children not being able to go to schools. Let us not deprive people the right to food, and the right to education. Hospitals have run out of oxygen, there is shortage of medicines. One old woman passenger died due to lack of medical attention when buses got stranded in the hills for days. The stock of essential commodities is diminishing day by day in the hills too. The lack of fuel has affected media/ communication/ mobile phone towers since generators cannot even function. Public transport vehicle fares have also gone up.

Therefore, we are appealing the Central Government and State Government to solve the crisis. The Civil bodies are also requested to bring the matter to an amicable solution.

We also request the organisations who are calling the road blockade to use other means of protest, as it’s only the common people of all communities who are suffering.

We also request the different communities to maintain peace and harmony. Leaving aside our political and territorial issues, let’s maintain peace, let’s spread love and brotherhood. Let’s not block the roads in Manipur, let’s not stop the vehicles going to Manipur. Let’s stop the counter blockades. Let’s not indulge in spreading false rumours and hatred. Let’s think about the innocent lots who are suffering in the hills and the valley alike.

We the undersigned.
Ringo Pebam (Bangalore)
Romeo Ningombam (Bangalore)
Duran Thiyam (Mumbai)
Nelson Elangbam (Mumbai)
Rowland Soibam (Delhi)
Shanta Laishram (Zurich)
Devakishor Soraisam (Bangalore)
Tekki Laishram (UK)
Dwipen Khwairakpam (Mumbai)
Supriya Shijagurumayum (Dubai)
Sumitra Thoidingjam (Delhi)
Ronid Chingangbam (Delhi)
Raju Athokpam (Delhi)
Danny Maisnam (Delhi)
Basanta (Chandigarh)
Ahanthem Chitra (Imphal)
Babina Wahengbam (Delhi)
Vimol Kshetrimayum (Pune)
Sam Khumanthem (Hyderabad)
Thounaojam Umeshkanta (Delhi)
Bhumenjoy Konsam (Pune)
Sukumar Elangbam (Bangalore)
Sanahal Yumlembam (Bangalore)
Ashini Kumar Ningombam (Delhi)
Takhellambam Chandrasekhar (Bangalore)
Monica Singireddy (Australia)
Monish KAram (Singapore)
Kshetrimayum Onil (Imphal)
Surchand (Bangalore)
Tez Thokchom (Bangalore)
James RK (Imphal)
Susmit Bose (Delhi)
Amrit Koijam (Bangalore)
Gouri Thounaojam (New Delhi)
Birjit Ningomba(Washington)
Manjoo Bachaspatimayum Lalwani (Sydney)
Pritam Gurumayum(Delhi)
Thokchom Bibinaz (Delhi)
Thokchom Monica (Delhi)
Vik Sorensangbam (Montreal)
Joysana Chingnakham (Kolkata)
Dave Thoudam (Mumbai)
Deepak Khundrakpam (Dubai)
Boicha Thokchom (Bangalore)
Laitonjam Momo Singh (Delhi)
Sagar Sharma
Bishwojit Konsam (UK)
Rishikanta Pukhrambam (Bangalore)
Satyajit Usham (Imphal)
Roshan Ngangom (Texas)
ChitaranjanThoudam (Mumbai)
Roshan Samom (Imphal)

Who would have thought..

// March 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Personal, Thoughts

.. that this could ever happen in India?

When I was in college few yrs back(sigh! I’m old), me and a few friends made a small documentary video about the discrimination against sexual minorities in Bangalore.. as a small class assignment. We went and approached Sangama for help. Through Sangama, we got to meet a lot of people from the Transgender, Hijra, Gays, Lesbians, and other sexual minority communities.

We, the <sarcasm>supposedly normal</sarcasm> people can never understand the kind of struggle they go through each day, the discrimination they face, their sufferings… and all those for no fault of their own.

Recently though, good things seems to be happening for these communities..

Article 377 was read down, A transgender standing for elections… better late then never – a wise man once said .. or was it a woman.. or.. ummm someone from the third gender, quite possible, no?

My first Ubuntu convert..

// February 24th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Personal, Technology

A friend was having some problem with his network driver(XP machine) and was unable to connect to the internet. Instead of trying to help him fix the prob, I took advantage of the situation and forced convinced him to install Ubuntu on his laptop today. He is happy that he can finally download porn again, and I’m happy to have another Ubuntu user under the same roof

But I ‘think’ my happiness will be short lived and the friend will ditch Ubuntu and go back to a pirated Windows copy. Don’t get me wrong, Ubuntu is a brilliant OS. I use it, and will continue to use it. It is just that, for a non tech-savvy person, I feel, the shift from Windows to Ubuntu(or any other OS) can be a bit difficult. At least in the beginning. A lot of learning to be done, bit frustrating at times…. especially when it comes to fixing a problem.

Well, I can only hope that he sticks with Ubuntu long enough to fall in love with it… like I did