Goo speedometer problems

We had some problems with our Goo speedometer - it stopped working!
We were not able to know our speed, so even if we were speeding the needle stayed down. Of course with the needle down, we could not check our mileage either. Not being able to check all these "indicators" meant that we would be off schedule with our Goo servicing. I am very pleased to let you know that the Goo is the oldest agent maintained vehicle still going back to Renault for servicing. They handle everything for me.
So I drove back to the workshop and they changed the speedometer part and we were back on track to check out our mileage and consumption.
Thanks very much to Renault's wonderful vehicle workshop for doing a great job of keeping our Goo in working condition.

Sheares Ng

This guy is to be written off because he is too cowardly to respond to me. However, he is very diplomatic and has no guts to offend his ex-boss so he will do what he can to get onto Boss' good side despite what he has done to me.
My email is up and running.
I certainly won't be recommending him to anyone for any web hosting services of any sort.
There is only one thing to be said - the Heavens have eyes to see.
All will be revealed in time to come!

Being Pissed!

This blog is for me to rant and rave in cyberspace about things that piss me - so here I go ...

For some time I've had my web hosting and email hosting with a company named D'fine Solutions Pte Ltd, run by a guy named Sheares Ng Wee Leng. Sheares used to work for a friend and I was told that he's OK to support for business so I merrily moved it over without nary a thought.

I did have some problems with the service sometimes - could not receive emails and sometimes got flooded by spam, but it wasn't anything that was unmanageable or unacceptable. Yeah, I received porn too, but a murmer to Sheares about the awful porn was resolved. Honestly, I am not hot about receiving emails about improving my performance in bed, how to satisfy my woman and be a hunk or invites to chat on porn lines or how to buy prescription drugs online. Not exactly my cup of tea!

Then last year in 2008, Sheares spent a lot of time in Taiwan and the service standards went to the longkang - literally down the drain. HH spoke with Sheares about it and the excuse was always the Microsoft Outlook problem. We were having problems receiving emails - not problems sending them, so what Microsoft Outlook problem? Then it would be a case of nothing in and nothing out. Not garbage in and garbage out (GIGO) that I learnt in computer programing classes years ago!

But we have other email address with other hosts and those were not a problem so ... the problem had to be with the service.

In June 2009, HH and I took a decision that we should take our web and email hosting out to another service provider because the cost was cheaper. In these difficult times, we have to watch our pennies. We would get about the same service for about half (!) the price - YES NEARLY HALF PRICE. Not much to consider right? The price is right, the service is OK so we should switch.

HH gave Sheares notice of our intention to switch verbally. OK, that could have been a mistake but we all sit in the same office space and work together on some projects, so what's so difficult. Then about 3 weeks ago, absolute silence from Sheares. He didn't come to the office, no response to emails, sms or skype messages - ABSOLUTE SILENCE!!!

We asked for the password for the domain transfer and again SILENCE! Absolutely frustrating. We even asked Sheares to renew the domain, but he never responded. It's not as if we aren't going to pay him. He never raised an invoice for anything until suddenly in June 2009, he threw out 2 invoices. One for last year's service and another for this year's or the renewal. I paid the invoice for last year (2008) that was raised in 2009. When he asked about the renewal, I said that HH had spoken to him about it and that we were moving it out.

Wah - such rudeness and a sulky face. Then Sheares went MISSING IN ACTION. No response to any form of decent communication. This morning I tried to call Sheares - he kept switching me off till I was so pissed that I posted a nasty message on his Facebook wall. After I sent him a Skype mesage, he said that he does not do domain renewals. What sort of half baked service does he provide - you can check out his website http://www.dfine-solutions.com/ and it does show that he does do renewals!!

He got slammed again on his bad service and I threatened him with legal action for damages for lost emails. Then finally at around 4 pm today, he sent an email to HH, presumably from his Technical Support that domain renewals can be done from his website.

Some time back, Sheares told HH that if our clients do not take up his web services after we have done the software development and web design for them, he will not be supporting them. So in the first year, we can place the service with Sheares - but when he messes up then the client gets really angry and moves their service out? Sheares will not handle the work and their websites will all crash!! This is bad service!!

Hey, if this is how he treats customers - how could he ask me to bundle my corporate secretarial services with his hosting services?? I would end up fielding questions from my irate clients when they cannot receive their emails or their websites are down.

Sigh, I am tired of this nonsense. I will now take my business to unknown entities where I can shout at them for service lapses. This is how I can yell at Singtel for crappy telephone service standards and tell them that their CEO does not deserve her S$7million salary. :p

Please do not go to a company called D'Fine Solutions for your web or email hosting - you will be stone walled by the person who cannot grow a business because he will remain a one man show.

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More recycling efforts

I still have this recycle bug in me! Last week, on 4th July (Happy Independance Day USA!), we started pumping BIODIESEL into our Goo. I had been reading articles about biodiesel but often wondered where to find the stuff in Singapore. Finally we struck "green" gold, so to speak. There was an article on biodiesel and where to find the stuff.

We were 1/4 tank down on in our fuel and did the slow transfer over - like we do for dog food for our doggies. We topped up with 21 litres of biodiesel and merrily went on our way feeling really smug with ourselves.

That night, V and I went to the supermarket to get our groceries. On the way back, I kept on insisting that I smelt food in the Goo. I was asking - what food did you buy? Do we have food in the back? NO COOKED FOOD IN THE BACK OF THE GOO!!!

Whilst I was reading up on biodiesel, the source of the stuff etc, I did read that biodiesel was made from recycled cooking oil. Ah - that was the source of my cooked food smell at the back of the Goo - fried chicken, french fries, yew char kuay, vadai and whatever else that is fried food!! Maybe we are getting biodiesel from cooking oil from Kentucky Fried Chicken and MacDonalds and all the shops that deep fry stuff so I am getting strange aromas all around me.

So far, we have not experienced any loss of performance or any strange sounds of any sort in our Goo. We cannot tell you any the mileage or consumption so far because we had a problem with the speedometer in the Goo. Sigh! So much for my green efforts so far, but we are going to keep going at it!

Looks like we are set to continue with biodiesel since it seems to be cheaper than the regular stuff and it is a green option.

For more information of biodiesel and how to convert, go to http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/ and you can see that we are trying to go GREEN!

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