I did two things this past weekend that I am proud of. Sometime back, I canceled my dish network account and returned all their equipment. However, I received a bill from Dish Network for $105.75 which were fraudulent charges claiming I hadn't returned the equipment. After spending several hours speaking to customer service agents without luck, I had had enough. Through the help of Consumerist.com and some googling, I found the email address of the Charles Ergen, the CEO of echostar (the company that owns dish network) and wrote him an email and copied the customer service department on it. I sent the email yesterday evening at about 5pm. This is the email I wrote to him:-

"Mr. Ergen,

I have been trying to resolve a billing issue with Dish Network for a while now and wanted to write to you since I have received poor customer service.

In September 2006, I became a dish network subscriber through a local retailer in Detroit. I had initially ordered a DVR, but when the technician came to install it, he only had a regular receiver and set that up. He asked me the go to a local dish network warehouse and exchange the receiver for a DVR. I did that within 24 hours and I thought everything was fine. In the first month I received a bill for the DVR. In November 2007, I canceled my Dish connection and returned my equipment. However, Dish sent me a bill for $105.75 for equipment charges. After a few phone calls to Dish Network, I was told it was for the original receiver I returned. Dish never took that out of my account. When I told them I had exchanged that for the DVR, they told me that was a transaction between me and my retailer and that I had to call her and have her send the receiver back to Dish.

I then called my retailer and she agreed with me that I had returned the receiver and that she will send a note to Dish. She told me Dish shouldn't be charging me for the receiver as the receiver belonged to the retailer and that it was a transaction between me and the retailer. She tells me she sent a note to Dish asking them to remove the charges from my account. However that hasn't happened and I received a letter from a collection company attempting to collect the charges. Every time I speak to Dish network, they ask me to speak to the retailer and when I speak to the retailer, she wants me to speak to Dish network. Incidentally, for the 14 months that I had service, the Dish receiver never showed up in my account or my bills. The thing I don't understand is me getting played between the retailer and Dish. My understanding was that the retailers represented Dish Network, but apparently Dish doesn't consider the retailers a part of themselves even though the retailers sell their products and services and use Dish Network's name.

My Dish Network account number is ****. The service address was ****. The name and address of the Dish Network retailer is ****.

After spending several hours on the phone with the retailer and Dish network, I am just really frustrated. I would really appreciate it if you could ensure that this issue gets resolved. I can be reached at this email address or at the phone number below if you would like to discuss. I am even willing to get on a conference call with the retailer and Dish Network to get this resolved.

Thank you,"

Guess what happened? At around 10am today morning, I got this email from a guy called Matt Kliewer from the executive communications office

"Venky,

I will go ahead and remove the charge from the account. We will have our retailer service department get in contact with the retailer. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thank you

Matt Kliewer

Executive Communications

Echostar Satellite LLC"

Oh! boy, wasn't I happy to see the charges removed. I was getting ready to file a complaint at the better business bureau and at uscp.org. The charges still show up in my online account, but I am assuming they will be removed soon.

Second, I usually get my shirts dry cleaned. I really like the convenience of not having to wash or iron them. However one pet peeve of mine is the annoying wire hangers that come with the dry cleaned shirts. Most people just throw them away, but my dry cleaner gets them back and recycles them. The "green" person in me wanted to take them back to the dry cleaners and have them re-use it. However one problem with that was after a year of throwing the hangars in the corner of my bedroom they were all tangled up and looked something like this



I am proud to say I sacrificed a significant portion of Sunday afternoon to (save the planet) untangle the hangers and made them look something like this


and eventually like this.



They are all packed up in a green whole foods bag (made of recycled paper) ready to be returned to the dry cleaners where along with their friends they will live happily ever after, bearing the burden of freshly dry cleaned shirts in their slender shoulders.

So those were the two things I did this past weekend that i am proud of :) - Comments?

P.S> I know I don't have to color green text in green, but i thought that created a nice visual effect!

Life in these US

When I was in my 9th grade, my aunt and uncle visited us in Chennai from Bombay. They had just returned back to India after spending 6 months in the US with their children. That night, lured by the cheap Sanford mechanical pencils, papermate pens (no offense to anyone, I get those now when I go back home. For some reason they seem to have an appeal back home) and Snicker bars, I decided I was going to go to the U.S for my M.S. In fact after seeing my aunt's family picture in front of the Niagara falls, I couldn't wait any longer.

While I was in college, this longing was further emphasized, especially listening to the stories from our seniors in the U.S. The stories were almost always about long road trips, visiting exotic places and being able to buy fancy gadgets and gizmos. Money ofcourse was a big part behind my motivation to come to the U.S. I wanted to drive nice cars and wear designer clothes etc., However a bigger aspect was also freedom. Being able to be with friends and do a lot of fun things with them and not to have to worry about Money....that sounded like paradise.

Anyway, fast forward 5 years and here I am in the heart of Chicago. I have missed all my best friends weddings (SVCE and UK). I speak to my friends once in a while and in some cases have no idea what's happening in their lives. I have no idea or sense of festivals I used to enjoy and look forward to. During festivals I care about (Diwali, Pongal etc.,) I have to work. When I have holidays (Christmas, Independence day etc.,) I don't really care about or relate to those festivals (if you want to call them that). I speak to my folks back home at the most once a week. So anyway, you get the picture...

Its not that I don't enjoy the things I came here to buy and relish. It is a pleasure to hear my 3.0 liter engine in my BMW, roar to life every morning. Its great to live in the city of Chicago, which is a melting pot of so many different cultures. Above all, seeing a paycheck every other Friday sure puts a smile on my face. I have to admit this country has been good to me. I was able to spend a considerable amount of time in Europe and see the old country, travel and work on challenging projects in the U.S., all as a part of my work.

However, on moments like this, I question if it was/is worth it. I wanted the nice things to share with my friends and family. After all its whom you are with that makes all the difference, not where you are or what you have. My college was in the middle of no where and the nearest half decent theater was a good hour away. Yet those were the 4 best years of my life. I guess where I am getting at is what is the cost incurred for these economic gains and other things that at times seem so superficial? I wonder if in an attempt to find the AC first class compartment, I am missing the entire train.

Or all this could be just a part of growing up. As you start working your responsibilities increase and there just isn't enough time to spend with friends anymore. The little free time that you have, you want to spend it in solitude rather than speak on the phone. Either case, this SUCKS!

Chicago GSB...here I come!

Yes! I managed to get admitted into the University of Chicago's Graduate school of Business. The last 4 months have been a slog, with GMAT preps, essays etc. It feels good to have an admit.

I hope this will jump start my business blog (I highly doubt it). For those who are new or have no idea about the world of Business schools, you probably don't care. However, here are a few fun facts about the University of Chicago (The admit gives me bragging rights).

1. In 2007, It was ranked number 1 business school in the U.S. by Businessweek and number 1 in the world by the Economist, even ahead of IIM-A for career guidance.
2. The University of Chicago has the most number of Nobel Laureates than any other school in the world
3. Milton Friedman taught in the University of Chicago and considered it his home. (Do I need to say more?)

Oh! I forgot to mention, Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) is a professor at the University of Chicago. Ok, I rest my case!

I am looking forward to a valuable learning experience.

Only in France!!

In how many countries can a President get away with divorcing his wife one month after taking office, publicly dating and chasing around a young model (with a long, well documented modeling career often with little or no clothes)?

NY times reports that the couple got married recently. I also found this article amusing (Warning! I wouldn't open it at work!!).

I wonder if this happened with the U.S. President or the Indian Prime Minister, what kind of reaction it would generate!

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Winter begins!

And so the snowfall starts in Chicago. The next 4 months will be pure torture!

Picture taken from my 19th floor apartment in Chicago. The bottom of the picture shows the snow accumulation on my window sill.

Ridiculous!

I read this article today and was pretty shocked to say the least! I have been fairly indifferent to the presidential race so far, but find it atrocious to hear a fore runner speak this way of a leading candidate, not to mention former first lady (He referred to Ms Clinton with the B* word). I wonder how many votes McCain is going to lose because of that. May be not much considering he didn't have a lot of supporters to begin with.

Website registration images

I know the text in image form which you have to enter while registering into sites is a security feature which is meant to protect the user and the site from unwanted spam and tons of random automatic subscriptions. But I have been noting that recently the text in these images is so crypted, I can barely read it. I was trying to register to a site today and after the 4th time of entering the wrong text I'd had enough. To make matters worse, I had to re-enter my email address and password every time I entered the wrong text. Attached below is a sample image. May be somebody can look at it and guess what the text is, because honest to god, I had a hard time figuring it out.

Finally at the 5th attempt I managed to get in!

The post about my other post!

If ever there gets published a book on Blog etiquette, then writing a post on a blog, publicizing a post that you wrote on your other blog would not be in that list. Yet I am going to do exactly that. The dilemma I face is, I just listened to a podcast which I felt compelled to blog about. Since the subject is about Business and Management (B&M), I wrote about it in my B&M blog (duh!). However, since this was a post I was excited about and felt that there was true value in the post, I wanted as many people as possible to read it and since more people read this blog than the other blog, I felt compelled to write about the other post here. One wouldn't have to do this if there are a 1000 people reading your every post. But considering the fact that I can count the number of people reading my more "popular" blog with one hand, a little extra publicity, I figured will not kill me.

Basically all I am saying is, go read this post.

AG's Memoirs

This past weekend, I picked up a copy of the Alan Greenspan's memoir, "The Age of Turbulence" after I had read a lot of good things about it. I expected this to be a dry tale of an economist's experiences as the Fed Chairman, who led the country through a series of booms and recessions and ofcourse 9/11. Surprisingly though the book has so far been great fun to read and although I am through only 100 of the 500 pages, I am already looking forward to completing the book.

The book is split in to two major parts, one has to deal with AG's life and experiences and the second part is his take on the way things are proceeding in the global economy and what he predicts will happen.

Even The Economist had good things to say about the book...

“The Age of Turbulence” is a dull title, tending to confirm one's fears, and that risible subtitle, “Adventures in a New World”, is fooling nobody. Yet, despite everything, the book turns out to be first-rate. It engages on different levels: it is intelligent in a way that few popular books on economics manage or even try to be; and, wonder of wonders, it is a good read. No doubt, Mr Greenspan had help with the writing: he acknowledges Peter Petre, a talented co-writer, as a collaborator. For this one can only be grateful. Who would have guessed that 500 pages in Mr Greenspan's company could slip by so easily?"

Being a long time The Economist reader, I can assure you they don't say such good things about books, especially economics books very often. Check it out. Btw, the book is on sale, 30% off at Borders.

A little Apple for everyone!!

Check out the new goodies from Apple...their new range of Ipods. I love Steve Jobs and his keynote addresses. They are awesome and seriously cool. Period.

I already have an Ipod, but am seriously tempted to buy the new Ipod touch.

signing off from my MacBook...(you get an idea about how much I like Apple products!

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1st Anniversary

Exactly 1 year ago, this day, I drove my BMW out of Erhard BMW Farmington Hills dealer. As cliched as it sounds, its amazing how fast time passes. Anyway the good thing is my beamer feels just as good to drive today as it did the first time I test drove it. The car and its fabulous engineering still amaze me and I look forward to driving this vehicle for many more years to come. The saying goes, "Once a BMW driver, always a BMW driver" and unless something really bad happens (I hope not), that's saying is going to be true in my case.

The bad thing is, I got my first ticket yesterday :( Attached below are a couple of pictures...again taken from my cellphone, so excuse the poor quality.

It pisses me off everytime I read something like this. When will this freaking genocide in the name of war against terror end? What a ridiculous waste of human lives, resources and money!!

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Good Stuff

I thought I was too old to be drooling at bikini clad women in magazines. I just thought I had grown over it, yet every now and then a magazine comes up with a set of pictures which manage to capture both my attention and my imagination.

Jessica Biel's pictures in the July 2007 GQ is one of those rare few pictures. I find them sensual and artistic and definitely worth checking out.

Btw, I got a 18 speed mountain bike couple of weeks back. It kinda reminds me of my school days when I used to bike 6 Km one way to school everyday. Also it works out great helping me avoid the Chicago traffic and parking hassles. Attached is a picture below. It was taken with my cellphone, so bear the poor quality.

Virginia Tech Shootings

I am totally appalled and stunned by the Virginia Tech shootings. I have been thinking about what the motive of the guy who opened fire was. What beats me is how could somebody just go and shoot 32 innocent students? I mean seriously...I have been very very pissed before...and some people have irritated me so much that I have wanted to shoot them down, but again I fail to see what the logic is behind shooting 3 dozen could be.



Having graduated from college recently, I am just totally shocked. In the 3 years I was in UK, not once, even in the wildest of dreams did I imagine something like this could happen. My heart felt condolence to the victims and students of Vtech. Also I am scared this is going to become the "Universities 9/11"  and that universities are going to incorporate  a whole bunch of new security measures which in the name of protecting the students, makes life hell for people. Kind of like what 9/11 did to frequent flyers.

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New Blog!

In the last 8 months, I have been more and more interested in Business and Management. Ofcourse reading a whole bunch of different blogs and business and economics related magazines has helped in giving me a better understanding of the concepts which has furthered my interest on these topics. Along those lines, I just recently started writing a new blog called Amateur thoughts on Business and Management. (http://thescienceofmanagement.blogspot.com) So head on over there and share your thoughts and comments with me on my writings and viewpoints.

I still plan on continuing to write this blog. This is going to be more for my rants and other things not related to Business or Management. On the other blog, I will be discussing interesting articles I read, my thoughts and views on current happenings. (currently I am thinking about writing a post about the Blackstone IPO)

In essence what I am saying is that, Amateur thoughts on Business and Management is going to be the official website of the brand "me".

Food for Thought

I read this in a bookstore couple of days back. Fast Company has published a book containing the best articles it has published in the last 10 years. This article was featured in that book and it caught my attention.



I found the article interesting. If nothing it it will give you some thing to think about this weekend.

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Photos..

Sometime thinking about Photography, I feel digital cameras and cheap SD cards are the worst things that could have happened to my photography skills. I often find myself to be a clicker...anytime I am at any place which is half decent and I have a camera in my hand, I go click! click! click! I think well...what do I have to lose? I have a 1 gig card, which can hold like a million photos (actually close to 400) and I always travel with my laptop, so at the end of the day I can transfer my pictures and start all over again. So essentially at the end of the trip, I have over 500 pictures (almost always) and yet I am not satisfied with most of them.

Recently though, I have been concentrating quite a bit on taking good pictures in the night with manual settings in my camera. They take longer to take, you need more patience and they look beautiful if they come out well. I figured this is a good way to slow myself down. Also typically I need to rest my camera somewhere (I don't travel with a tripod as I find it too painful to carry) to take pictures without blurring them, so again on the whole I tend to spend more time analyzing the shot, trying different angles etc., I was in London this past weekend and here are a couple of pictures I took that I was rather proud of. I recommend you see it full size to be able to fully appreciate the colors and the light.

Parliament from the east bank of Thames

The London eye from the west bank of Thames, right outside Westminster underground station.

Digital Camera Tips

Thinking about buying a new digital camera? The flickr camera finder is a great way to find good digital cameras. It has a listing of the most popular cameras used to take pictures uploaded in flickr along with other data such as number of photos uploaded, camera details, photos uploaded yesterday etc., If you have a particular camera in mind you can look up data for that particular camera along with its price range. The best part is at the bottom you get images that were taken using a particular camera that appeared in Explore. What a great way to see the kind of pictures that the camera you are planning to buy is capable of capturing. It is so much better than seeing the standard flower image that appears in most camera manufacturer's websites.

I was surprised to see that my Canon SD450 is the 7th most popular Canon camera and the most popular point and shoot digital camera (6th is Canon SD400 which is a point and shoot as well, but basically just the previous version of the SD450). Flickr rocks...there is no arguing that!!

(Attached below is a snapshot of my camera details from flickr)

New Year Resolutions

• Despite being in a world of increased ease in communication, I feel I am distancing myself more and more from my friends. Especially in the last few months I often find myself not feeling like talking to anybody and being contended just sitting home with a book or a DVD. Clearly I know this has to change. My friends define who I am and I wouldn't have an identity without them. Starting 2007, I am going to make a increased effort to keep in touch with my friends. Close friends more often through email and phone and maybe even more personal visits (when possible), the next level through emails and the rest through Orkut scraps.
• I am going to pursue Happiness. I want to fully realize the joy of giving. I want to share more than I am willing to. I want to help develop, motivate the people I work with and share the knowledge I have with them (in a non bragging way!) This doesn't mean letting everybody else go before me, it means I want to grow, but want to make sure the people I work with grow with me. I might not be qualified to do this, but I am going to do the little bit I can. If there is something I can do to help somebody, I know I should, I will. Of course most of this is just plain good Karma, something I believe in more than in religion.
  
• In the spirit of continuous improvement (of ourselves), I think we have to be more critical of ourselves and forgiving of others. Sadly most of us (I am probably first on that list) are currently more critical of others and forgiving of ourselves. The funny thing is I realized this while driving in India on this trip. People swear and curse others for aggressive, rash driving yet they drive the same way and think its alright. I guess its human tendency..if something happens to us we think its misfortune, if the same thing happens to somebody else we think they deserve it.
• Environment - I don't think the world is coming to an end, but however that shouldn't be a reason for inaction on our part to try and preserve our environment for the coming generations. Last year I switched all the bulbs in my house to energy saving lights and started re-cycling PET and Glass bottles. I know its nothing radical, but still is a small thing I can do. I hope to continue along those lines this year.
• Read more....finish a book every 2 weeks. Knowledge is power and there is no better way to gain knowledge than to read books.
  

Some of this might sound silly, some way too cheesy, but everyone of these are things that I have put a lot of thought into and believe in throughly.

As 2007 starts, I welcome the new year with passion, exuberance, smile and more importantly an open mind and hope that whatever happens, good or bad, I learn valuable lessons from them and improvise.

Have a stupendous and sensational new year!!

Gill Adarsh Days...

Today I felt like I was taken back in Time as I visited my old apartment and school. I happened to be in the neighbourhood of the apartments where I lived from 1989 through 1995, from my 3rd through 8th grade. And since my apartment was at a stone's throw from the school I studied in, I also visited my school (Gill Adarsh M.H.S.S., Roypettah, Chennai)

Its amazing how fast time passes. Looking at the balcony of my old apartment from the street, it felt like only yesterday I was running around in the balcony as a little kid, trying to fly the kites I made or throwing stones at my neighbors whom I used to hate. The school was even more memorable. I was delighted to see that the tree under which I used to play cricket after school till my mother picked me up was still there. I even managed to sneak into the school (much to the annoyance of the security person who strictly warned me against going in) and see my 6th, 7th and 8th standard classrooms. Since the school was closed, I was able to go into the classrooms and think about those days when I studied there. I was reminded of the time I was asked to kneel down because my classteacher caught me singing and dancing in the class. And also the time the whole class burst out laughing at me because I entered the class after using the restroom with my fly wide open.

Those days will never come back again, yet those memories will last a lifetime. Partly because I secretly wish (well...not a secret anymore!!) I could be a kid again. Those days were delightfully simple. There was no pressure to perform, no board exams..nothing. Life was all about going to school, coming back and playing and yeah..may be doing some homework. I was soo blisfully ingnorantly happy. Not that I am not Happy now, but back then I was Happy in a way that I didn't know what sorrow was...and there is something tremendrously light about that feeling. I know I can never be like that again. My only other regret is since I wasn't planning on the trip, I didn't have a camera handy to snap a few pictures. :-(

btw, Gill Adarsh is the best school ever...I loved every bit of it!!