#UAEPR and Sending Irrelevant Emails

January 26, 2016January 26, 20162 Comments

I have been bombarded with PR emails for the last 2 days – mostly about restaurants opening or the change of the restaurant brand in some way. My thoughts have been on the majority of these PR emails:

a) I don’t care
b) How is this relevant to my business?
c) Do they not have copywriters to review the stuff before it is sent out.
d) Address it to me and not to the “Editor”.
e) Why are they being sent to my DeCluttr Me email address.

Thankfully due to a friend who owns one of the PR firms, I found out which company provides the lists to PR firms in this city. I quickly googled and contacted them asking them to stop emailing to my DeCluttr Me addresses especially as it was not relevant content.

I got a very quick reply from the MD of the list company. His reply “I have removed Shelo9’s Cheeky Rantings from our listings of Dubai blogs in [Name of List provider]”.

I was very impressed by his very quick reply and that it was from the MD and not some minion, but eh what?? Shelo9’s Cheeky Ranting does not have any link to the DeCluttr Me email addresses (except I own it all *evil laugh*).

Just because of one # phenomenon (#needanaddress), it would seem the list provider thought it was perfectly acceptable to add my non related email address to their list without my permission and also without fully reading my latest blogs which focus on customer service (the irony!)

I know data protection is non existent in this country, but don’t these companies have a moral compass at all?? Or better still common sense?

If I can do anything today it is to provide these handy tips to these list creators and providers:

First check if you have permission to add the email address to your list (this is very important).
Check what the writer of the blog specialises in and if they will want to be added to a PR list; and
What their business is about if you are emailing to their business.

Points 2 and 3 should also apply to the PR firms as well. It is easy to not take ownership of the contacts as you have received the list, but check if these contacts will actually be interested in the product you are promoting.

If you are on Twitter, check out #UAEPR and see the amount of tweet complaints from tweeps like me who get bombarded with non relevant emails. You will also see PR companies using the #UAEPR to jump on the bandwagon with no understand that the hashtag was produced to take the mickey out of these same UAE PR firms.

By the way I am not grumbling about getting PR emails. I am happy to get emails relating to organizing and decluttering, and due to a new side part of DeCluttr Me, etiquette and personal grooming, but anything else is just spam invading my email box. Use your common sense and discern what the reader actually wants to read and what lists they want to be added onto. Don’t just annoy them with PR.

How #NeedanAddress Started To Help Those In Need

January 2, 2016January 2, 2016Leave a comment

As you may have heard there was a fire on New Year’s Eve at the Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai. I had no idea as I was off Twitter until I got a message from my close friend G. She could see it all from her balcony. During the next few minutes she was sending me updates on what she could see whilst I checked Twitter and made sure people I knew were safe.

Whilst watching the scene G asked how she could alert the hotel guests that she had a spare bed if needed. She is not on Twitter or any other social media except sparingly on Facebook (if we are honest), so I suggested that I post her offer on Twitter.

Her offer was posted and within a few seconds @danielmarcevans replied and then posted his offer of his available bed:

I suggested we create a # (we do this nearly every month with other tweeps for silly things). As normal he came up with his corker of a hashtag. The # was #NeedanAddress.

And that is how the #NeedanAddress started and blew up to epic proportions. It helped we had friends like @theregos to spread the word more for us.

The response from tweeps in Dubai and globally was astounding. Within a short while there were offers of rooms, beds, Nutella and hugs from various tweeps. Here are some of the lovely tweets!

It was great to see Dubai show that it has more to it than bling, world records and fancy cars as the global media portray constantly. There is a city of human beings with hearts, beds and kindness.

From updates during the night and on New Year’s Day, the majority of guests and residents were put up at the Atlantis hotel, but other hotels also offered rooms. There seems to have been a few guests who took up the offer of a bed from tweeps.

From a tragic incident, we were able to help a few with a hashtag. It is amazing how powerful the hashtag and social media can be and I am incredibly humbled by what happened last night.

Side note – The Address Hotel Chain have advised guests and residents of The Address Downtown Dubai to contact their hotline number +971 4 423 8870 or email:hotline@theaddress.com. Also Dubai Media Twitter account has asked the guests to contact 00971566835129 for any assistance.

The continuous downfall of customer service

February 21, 2014September 21, 2015Leave a comment

Customer service, what is that you might ask, if you live in the UAE? Don’t ask me, I am personally fed up of HSBC Middle East and Axa Gulf currently and their customer service.

My gripe with HSBC is for several reasons; most recently

a. they stopped me using my savings account as the internet banking department had not bothered to update their system with my new visa despite giving it to the bank weeks before.

b. This week they rejected a cheque as they said my signature was incorrect.

I was so incensed that I complained until they reversed the charges for a returned cheque. Ranting on Twitter resulted in all their customers complaining of the same issue; every time they wrote a cheque. A company I happened to chat to also said all customers issuing them with an HSBC cheque get rejected. Every time. We can’t all be incredibly stupid and incompetent to sign our cheques incorrectly every time. But HSBC thinks we are and will charge us for this supposed stupidity by us all.

I only had my issues sorted out as I ranted on Twitter. Their social media team straight away called me, listened to my rants and got it sorted out within a few hours. Calling HSBC customer service results in you talking to a robot in India who reads from a script and tells you that you are wrong and will have to go to a branch to sort out the issue.The other issue calling on the phone is that the line is alway crackly, which results in the customer service person hanging up on you and telling you to redial the number. That means you have to redial and go through their millions of options before you get through to a crackly voice again. And if you forget your personal banking number..well let’s not start on that nightmare.

With my internet banking issue, I went to the branch they told me to call internet banking. Internet banking did nothing. And don’t even bother contacting them online as they will never reply. Ever.

You might say why not change banks. I would love to but I can’t for now due to various reasons. The main reason is that my car loan is with them. If I change banks, I will have to provide them with cheques, which they will then reject. It’s not worth the hassle. Also why should I change? I have been a customer of theirs since I moved here. Should they not be providing their customers with great service being “the local bank” and also the second biggest in the world. Ok, I don’t have millions in the account, but I still put money in their bank for them to gain interest on. I never seemed to get this much crap with the bank in the UK.

I could complain to Central Bank about HSBC, but I fear that as the issue has been sorted they will not be interested.

The issue with AXA was due to two problems:

1. I was advised to obtain one medical insurance, which turned out to be completely useless. It was immediately cancelled by the lovely woman at the Wafi branch, when she realised the issue. I cancelled the incorrect policy in October.

2. A medical claim I made was rejected for a refund as they claimed it was a pre-condition which I had not disclosed. My doctor wrote to them to say it wasn’t a precondition. Still rejected.

c. They kept delivering other peoples cards to my address.

The cancelled policy should have been refunded within 6 weeks. After ranting again on Twitter, their social media manager seeing the complaint, called me (somehow finding my number despite me not providing it on twitter and also I am still wondering how they linked me to my twitter account….), apologised and got a refund issued within 2 days. It took a Twitter rant to get the refund.

The claim issue has been talked about on the phone and by email. The customer service rep did a great job at stalling with responses for 5 months and when responding would copy and paste why my claim was rejected. I had promises of managers calling me to discuss the matter, but I had nothing. Notwithstanding the medical claim not being a previous condition; I had also been with AXA for 3 years with my previous company. They had made it very clear they had all my medical details so why do you have to disclose them when you renew if they know your history already. Additional administrative burden on the customer and excuse to not pay any claims.

I received an apology only from the social media manager. Nothing from the medical insurance department, until I sent them a sarcastic email asking if they received training on manners.

I have three policies with AXA but all three will be moved to other insurance companies when they expire. It may be easier and also cheaper in some cases to get cover via AXA here, but their behaviour has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I had an issue with my property insurance a few months ago and it took 5 calls to get that sorted.

They only reason my issues were resolved (or nearly resolved) was because of social media. Conventional methods of trying to sort out the issues resulted in being completely ignored or messed about.

It gets tiring having to lose your temper all the time with companies here. I am at a loss of why so many of them treat us customers so badly. I have had no positive news from using the Ahlan Dubai initiative by the government. One manager in Zara once threw the Ahlan Dubai notice board at me, laughed and told me to call them. This was when Zara wouldn’t refund me for a dress I was returning within the time frame. He knew he would get away with stealing my money. And he did win.

Customers are laughed at, ignored and treated like idiots. If we could have a meeting with the Ahlan Dubai people or faith that this system works, I believe we could finally start having good service from service providers and shops. But for now we will continue to have our blood pressure rise.

Note: The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) has an “Ahlan Dubai” helpline for complaints and suggestions, tel 600-545555 in the UAE. Or email consumerrights@dubaided.gov.ae, or visit one of their offices. Tell me if it works for you.

If you want to complain about a bank in the UAE you can complete the online form and they call you within 24 hours of submission. The issue is resolved within a week by the bank; if not when Central Bank check up on your issue with you after a week you can tell them the bank are still not sorting out your issue.

Twitter Bandwagon

February 24, 2011February 3, 20132 Comments

Are you on Twitter? Nooooo! Oh my god… you are so last century. Get with the programme! Everyone who is anyone is on Twitter – from Obama to Britney, Ashton to Queen Rania. Then there are us normal folk – the non-celebs. But there are some twitterati that are now celebs either nationally, regionally or even globally just because of their tweets. It’s all great. Twitter is now a force to be reckoned with. I get my news from Twitter – when a cargo plane crashed in Dubai, it was a tweep (you seeing all the tweet language going on here), who tweeted they had seen the plane down. It was tweeps that tweeted from their flats in Silicon Oasis that saw it plummeting out of the sky. It was tweeps that took photos of the aftermath. The normal news broadcaster took an hour to confirm the crash. By then it was old news to the twitterati.

In 140 characters you can say how you feel, say how others feel or just write nonsense. It is self-indulgent, it can be factual, it can be faux and it is how we live our lives now. If I want to know something such as a word in Arabic, I tweet a request for a translation. If I want to know directions to somewhere, I tweet for help. If i’m late for a tweet-up, I tweet my lateness. Life now revolves around twitter.

Is it a bad thing? It can be. There have been articles written about how twitter has created a short concentration span for people. In my line of work, I need bouts of shortness to take me away from the hum drum of what i’m doing. In my breaks I can quickly scan the last 100 tweets and see the news and gossip in my twitter world.

But in a lot of ways twitter has given me a new lease of life in this city. I have made many friends through twitter who I might have known previously but now know intimately due to their tweets. I have made new connections in England, USA and of course Dubai. When I was in Mexico I was tweeted advice to stay away from the police in Tijuana airport and wished bon voyage from the terminal in Geneva.

I have also made several enemies. As in life, my tweets are not often self-censored. I swear, I sexualize (is that a word??) and I rant. People have been offended, people have been threatened (mostly by my vocabulary) and some have just been plain nasty and stupid which has resulted in them being unfollowed or even worse blocked. There are some tweeps who sound ok on twitter but you meet them in real life and they are god-awful humans.

The problem with twitter is what I like to call the Twitter mafia or bandwagon that now exists. There has been many a time; I will unfollow someone due to their tweets being completely and utterly boring, childish or just plain nasty. I will get told off by other tweeps for not following them. Yes, I’m sure they are lovely in your eyes, but in my opinion they suck. But there are some people who find it hard to accept my choice in following and unfollowing tweeps. Twitter is supposed to be your choice. It’s your account; it’s your timeline, so why should I follow someone just because you think that underneath their pathetic exterior that they are amazing people internally. I don’t see it.

The other Twitter Mafia occurrences are during political moments. If you don’t follow the same tune as everyone else, like for example in Egypt, you were slaughtered or ridiculed for your beliefs. I’m not a political person and if I am it’s mostly confined to discussions with close friends or my head. However, during this time of unrest I have tweeted a few times about things going on at the time or retweeted tweets of interest to me. I remember I questioned, that if Mubarak left now what would happen to the country. Wouldn’t it be better if he stayed and there was a proper transition of power? That idea was shot down as ridiculous. How dare I voice my concern for the country and not follow everyone to get rid of the man!?! Now with Libya exploding through our eyes, I am trying to keep schutum. It’s a terrible and worrying situation but I’m retweeting from the BBC when it’s an interesting point, otherwise I’m ignoring the tweets and reading about London Fashion Week (so glam this season).

Twitter is a useful tool for commercial enterprises and it is still astonishing how many companies don’t use it in the correct way. There are entrepreneurs that have communicated like human beings with their (potential) customers and ended up having strong support for their ventures. Their success has resulted in new ventures trying to do the same thing but failing. Copying is the sincerest form of flattery; but when you don’t do it properly it just makes me not want to buy from you.

Then there are certain groups of tweeps that will just go on and on about one company for ages. It’s obvious you are getting paid to promote them or that you trying to get free stuff from them. It irritates me that people can be so shallow but I guess twitter mirrors human nature – in 140 characters.

The new thing now is to have a twitter account and a blog. You are no one if you don’t have a blog. Now you may say you can talk shelo, you have both. Correct, but have you seen how many tweets I have written?? Many tweeps complained that I was taking up their timeline with my rants/tweets and that it would be best if I consolidate it into a blog. So I created my blog. Of course I love it that people read my tweets and also my blog, but both forms of communication have been started by me for my own narcissism. I love writing and used to be one of those girls with the fountain pen and book, writing all the time. Then I lost my mojo – Twitter and blogging brought it back. Now instead of writing in books for myself to read and cringe at later, I write and allow others inside. If you read my tweets and blog, you read. If not, I have my musings in an electronic form to retain and pass onto future generations. Now that can’t be a bad thing…can it?

Sadness

June 3, 20102 Comments

The last week and a bit has been a bag of emotional turmoil.

If you follow me on twitter you will know my aunt passed away last week. She was related to me from my mum and dad’s side (nothing dodgy like – our family ain’t like that), and she was a major part of both families in England. Her loss, though we knew it would come anytime soon, was still upsetting. This was especially due to the fact that as I was unable to join my family back in Birmingham to attend the funeral and be with them.

With my family it’s a mixed bag of emotions. We are fiery, bitchy, stubborn, moody gits and some have a tendency to be evil fuckers. But for all these curses (verbal and magical), slaps, and plain crapness, they are my blood and due to the sameness in us, they are brilliant to hang out with or “comedy” as we used to say. I do miss them especially the cousins in Brum, which makes it even sadder that I missed being with them at this time.

Last week, I also decided finally that one man was too much of a playa for me and a liability. Picture the scenario:

1. Two parties, same venue, two weekends, same lovely host.

2. First party – I miss due to being in London. He invites town ho no. 2.

3. Second party – I turn up, he suddenly turns up after me. Kind of a surprise.

4. Pictures show up of both parties. She’s in the first lot (nothing too snuggly in those photos I must say but she was fucking there), I’m in the second lot (with him next to me in most of them or arms around me).

Nothing overly wrong with this you might say. But do you remember when he said he didn’t know how to fit me in and kept on “forgetting” to take me on dates he had asked me out on?? Well I got pissed off in my womanly way that:

a. He was able to take her out on a date.

b. He was unable to fit me in (except when we were dancing seductively on the dance floor – we were good!).

c. He went to the same party (in a way) with two women and flaunted it for others to see.

And on top of that it means that’s she’s the other woman and that’s just horrible. It was enough I had to see her trying it on with him, in front of me when I was “seeing him” but this?? Ok yes i’m slightly irrational, but hey this irrationality made me realise that I didn’t want to be with a man like him. Let her have him. Two sluts equal …crap things.

So due to the irrational but brilliant reason to get rid of the playa, I also realised that I cared a hell of a lot for other man (no 3 – if you have been reading my blogs before – keep up people). So you might ask what is the sad part..? Well just as we had semi-sorted ourselves together, he has had to pack his bags and leave me for a month for work. I have a feeling he won’t shag around, but due to his location I’m worried for him and it’s just a crap time to leave. So I’ve been emotional for the last few days but 27 more days to go till I see him again and then we can start the proper dating thing again, or see if we even want to be together.

Then there is work. I actually like my job. It’s interesting. I’m dealing with legal matters that I have never covered before and on a global scale which is fun, interesting and never boring, but what I am disliking is the men in my office. The start of the week had me in tears nearly due to a man in the office being abusive to me once again on email. It’s been going on for six months and yet he only gets a slap on his hand for his shitty behaviour. It’s depressing, frustrating and plain piss annoying. I have to just hold my breath for now and pray that karma will come and give a big kick in the arse to no man’s land. But it’s not just him. I work with a certain country of men and whilst I do have some wonderful friends from this country and I’m originally from there, these men do my head in on a daily basis. They are chauvinistic, arrogant, sexist, uneducated bastards and they smell of BO a lot of the time as well. They need to get a can of deodorant spray liberally, wash their clothes, buy some manners and learn how to live in the 21st century. But you know that won’t happen in the near future with the majority of these men. This realisation made me sad.

The other frustrating issue I also dealt with was on twitter. After the abusive emails from knob in the office, I ranted as I tend to do on twitter. Twitter is full of friends that I have made and share my life with on a daily basis, who are predominately living in the same town as me. They know when I’m happy, sad, awake, alive, tired or hungry. They know more than my best friends (which can be scary) or they have become my best friends (mega!). So I ranted, and then slimy pervy man of twitter decided to put his 2 cents in and start being nasty to me. The breaking point was when he said I should go get therapy instead of twittering. This is not the first time he has said it to a woman on twitter. The irony is that he requires therapy more than most of us, due to his nature, but he’s in denial. However, all women in his books (and i’m sure other men) are nuts and need a shrink. Isn’t it a sad thought when a man thinks in this chauvinistic and sexist manner in this day and age. Yes, he’s an old man but should that be an excuse??

I know that life has its ups and downs and we all suffer, but somtimes when it all comes at the same time it can be truly horrifying to deal with. I’m lucky that I have good friends and family who have looked after me this week especially when I was very sad, giving me real and virtual hugs and love throughout. So through the sadness comes thankfulness and hope – and that makes me happy.

Shelo9's Cheeky Rantings

Founder of DeCluttr Me | Love Organising & Decluttering, Dislike Bad Customer Service | Solicitor, Speaker, Advisor & Blogger | Companion of 2 Cats

Tag: twitter

#UAEPR and Sending Irrelevant Emails

The continuous downfall of customer service

Twitter Bandwagon

Sadness