Thanks to the flip flop by the Victorian Government some years ago on tolls for Eastlink, I was forced to get a Breeze account which operates East Link in Melbourne. It is definitely cheaper than City Link, but once I signed up I have been posted a package full of information which I already knew from the sign up process. Which begs the question, why the hell does East Link waste so much money giving me (and thousands of other Victorians) the same information in hard copy form which is already available on their very informative website.
Upon sign up, I was emailed a confirmation and then my credit card as promptly deducted the base charge of $40 in tolls. One of the best things about East Link is, you do not need to wait for your tag before using the roads and if you have a tag account you will not pay the image processing fee. I thought this was quite good.
But on day 4 of customer hood, I got a package with the tag, and on day 5 I got another package with my account information along with colourful booklets about East Link. These were titled:
* EastLink Guide with toll prices (gigantic map of highways in Melbourne) – like Google maps didn’t have this info!
* Breeze Account Guide (18 pages)
* Customer service ageement (17 pages)
My question is why? All of this information (that too in colour), and more is available from EastLink and Breeze websites. Yeah sure today’s business is all about customer service and keeping the customer informed but this is just an utter waste of money. Make it paperless, save tress, and pass on the savings to customers!
On a random visit to Kmart, I noticed lights, camera, action at their Cranbourne store. Not sure exactly what was happening, but there were twice as many customer service staff with yellow pads roaming around the store. The TV crew interview a few staff members, and some customers as well. Not sure what it was about, perhaps a Kmart commercial or some public relation affairs.
I don’t usually shop at Kmart, but they do have some good deals occasionally. For cheap stuff I usually go to Big W. Target seems to be the most expensive out of the middle class mart stores.
I wonder if similar sights were witnessed at other Victorian Kmart stores? Leave your comments.
My first home….
Over the past few weeks I have managed to secure a property in Melbourne. To buy a home was always the plan this year, however I never imagined it to be as difficult as it was. Having never been exposed to the property market, I found it a steep learning curve, however there are some tips I can instill to you if you are thinking about making the biggest purchase of your life.
The open inspection
You really need to plan your open inspections and contact the real estate agent prior to the inspection to ask some basic questions. Due to the government grants, there are plenty of people out there looking to buy their first home so competition is tough. However don’t let that get to your head, as it did for me at times.
Pay little attention to the property description, except for the plain facts. The descriptions posted on estate agent’s websites are fanciful, however they have factual information which you is your evidence for what to expect in the property. False advertising is a problem, so pay close attention to the facts but discard the fanciful statements.
For example: during our inspection of a property we noted that it was advertised as having a dishwasher, but it did not have one. We pointed it out to the estate agent, who made it look like it was a simple error. Watch out!
Money Manager is a good website which has inspection tips for home buyers, including a guide about what to look for in each property (for example: proximity to schools, public transport, shopping centres etc). Ensure you inspect the property during different times of the day: morning, afternoon and night time. For example: we inspected a house on a Saturday. The house’s proximity to the freeway was a selling point, however we noted one morning that the entrance to the freeway has heavy traffic on a weekday morning, completely blocking the driveway to the house, making entrance and exit to the property extremely difficult.
The Section 32
Every property must have a section 32 available. The latest trend is to have the property available for inspection while the Section 32 is still pending. This is really annoying, because often you may waste your time inspecting a property and then find something in the Section 32 which is totally not what you were expecting. A classic example is when I inspected a property in Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The property was brilliant, absolutely stunning and about 1 week later I received the Section 32 by email. After close inspection, I noted that the property was built on a subdivision of a larger land and that there was a SHARED water meter. The water bills will be split in half no matter what each household spent. The buyer had to spend money (pending approval from the other home owner) to install a new water meter and connect it to its own water supply. To me that spelt out possible major problems, so I promptly withdrew my interest for that property.
You must ask the estate agent some basic questions
The estate agent is representing the vendor, make no doubt about it. They will say whatever they want, whenever they want, and choose to deal with whichever buyer they want. Note also the price range the property is advertised for. The trend these days is to quote a price range, or “use the + sign” (foe example: 400K+). Add 10% to the property price, because this is the realistic value. I found it really frustrating to inspect properties advertised at a price which I could afford, but then find out it was underquoted to attract the audience.
The estate agent will take down your names and number, and then present it to the vendor to explain the “massive interest we have received in the property”.
The basic questions you must ask are: 1) Have you got any offers on board, and is it in writing, 2) What are the overheads: council rates, water rates, owner’s corporation rates (if the agent does not know this, then pay close attention to what they say), 3) Can you show me the offers (they cannot do so officially, but some agents break the rules) 4) What is the settlement terms, and deposit terms (make sure you set the terms).
Never ever make an offer straight away for the property, and sound very interested in the property. This can be achieved via the phone. You will find that other home buyers will make statements like: “I want to make an offer”, “I am really interested”. Now you don’t know if they are genuine buyers or just the next door neighbour who is playing a helping hand. Pay close attention to other home buyers who are apparently inspecting as sometimes you might catch them walk along the street into their homes, therefore playing a helping hand to the vendors to make up the numbers.
I think I have said enough for today, in my next post I will talk about my personal experience with estate agents by providing examples.
Last night I drove to my local Maccas to get some frozen coke. It was a Thursday evening. The price on my way to McDonalds was $1.05 per litre at the local 7 eleven, and Mobil stations. I bought my frozen coke, and on my return (about 8 minutes later), the price had jumped to $1.15 at both of the petrol stations.
Interestingly, I am reading this article on CNN’s Money.com website which states that the price of crude oil has fallen to an all time low this year: $44.80USD a barrel. Compare this to $147 in mid July when petrol prices were nudging $1.70 a litre.
So the price of crude oil per barrel has fallen more than $100USD over 5 months, yet the per litre price has only fallen 0.55-0.65. What’s with all the greed? How can the price of petrol just be jacked up over a course of a quick visit to Maccas (once again, it took 8 minutes). This is just crazy!
Sure enough they just want to milk motorists pre-weekend. When will this blatant rip off end?
ADDIT(6/12/08-3.43pm)
Latest news: Oil drops below $41USD: Read this Money.com article. The price of petrol at my local Mobile station is about $1.12 per litre.
I am experimenting with different looks of the site, with help from templates that I find on the internet. I hope you like this new look, but note that advertising models such as Google and AdToll have not been implemented yet. I thought I will give them a miss for now, and re-introduce them a bit later. For now, I am focusing on content. I still have a few more reviews to write, when I have time to do so. It’s been really busy at work recently, but others are stepping in for me in this role. Notably, I welcome SJacob who has posted his review of the restaurant Kalevu (see below).
I do welcome more people to write, so jump on board when you can and contribute.
I have been an eBay fan for a long time now, and have bought and sold many products using the service. Their recent announcement about only accepting PayPal payments leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because I am one of those users affected by the change.
I offer Paypal as an option for payment, but also regularly accept direct bank deposits. To be honest, never have I had a problem with a failed transaction – but there have been delays because it often takes a while before the payment appears on the statement. I clearly specify to the buyer to leave the item number or eBay username when direct depositing funds.
The annoying thing about all this is, because eBay has such a strangle hold on the online auction marketplace, it will not significantly affect their usership. Sure, some people will stray away to alternative sites (and there are plenty out there).
There is a positive to all this though: PayPal payments are instant therefore further reducing turnaround times for delivery. This can translate increased sales, through increased sale numbers. Profits for eBay Powersellers can increase, but only through increasing their item sales per month. I suspect they will force buyers to supplement a % of PayPal costs. For what it’s worth, they are increasing Paypal fraud protection limit to $20K.
eBay quotes “To make our marketplace an even safer place to buy and sell, eBay.com.au is introducing some changes”. However, PayPal is not free you see. You get slugged for accepting payments through PayPal, and it can be a significant amount for large sales (recently I paid $1.96, and almost $4 for sales). One way to avoid the backslash is to reduce PayPal fees, but I suspect these rates will increase even further to promote a monopoly.
Yeah yeah, I know you knew it was a joke. Quite late too. I posted it later in the day to be more discrete, but obviously that plan went down the drain. I was reading on the web, and it seems every year major companies (including Google) come out with pranks.
Pretty innovative! I found this great site which details what sort of April Fool’s are running wild on the web. It’s called April Fools on the Web. Meanwhile, Mr Feedback is here to stay although I am easily convinced with large amounts of money!
In the short time that Mr Feedback has been online, I have received some interest from two corporations on the idea about reviewing businesses. I guess they liked the idea of community centered feedback mechanisms which are dynamic by way of blogging, rather than the usual survey format utilized. Anyway, this post is to let you know that Google was one of the companies interested in this blog, and has bought me out.
I will still be posting on Mr Feedback, and will have complete control of the blog. It’s just that now I will have to forward some “reports” to my “managers”. Anyway, I would rather Google buying me out than another company (whose name I cannot release for legal reasons). For legal and privacy reasons, I cannot disclose the sum, but let me just say I am happy with the amount (shares/money!). I was never expecting anyone to buy me out, not so soon after starting it anyway! Now I have to think of something else to do in my spare time.
I hope this is okay with the readers, and just to let you know – Google has promised not to interfere with the posts or my opinion about businesses.
P.S.: There was a hint that this was coming, because of the Google ads that I recently put on the site.
Mr Feedback is looking for reviewers in each of these cities in Australia:
* Sydney
* Brisbane
* Perth
* Adelaide
* Hobart
* Canberra
* Darwin
Reviewers can write unpaid or paid reviews. Charges are set by the reviewers. Accepted posts will be published on this blog, and acknowledgments will be provided. For more information, check out the about page.
If you live elsewhere, thats ok too – just drop me a line and tell me about your writing skills.
Thank god for internet check in. I just made it to my flight. When I come back (March 16), I am currently looking for reviewers in other Aussie cities, so check back for the update. Till then, chill out a bit. Mr Feedback will be too.
Addit…
Singapore Airlines offered me $500AUD cash plus $300AUD spending money at Changi Airport if I was to forgo my seat, as they had overbooked the plane. Unfortunately due to personal commitments, I was not able to take up the offer but good on them. Interestingly, the guy offered me this after issuing all my boarding passes – a bit late I would have thought!
Thanks to the flip flop by the Victorian Government some years ago on tolls for Eastlink, I was forced to get a Breeze account which operates East Link in Melbourne. It is definitely cheaper than City Link, but once I signed up I have been posted a package full of information which I already knew from the sign up process. Which begs the question, why the hell does East Link waste so much money giving me (and thousands of other Victorians) the same information in hard copy form which is already available on their very informative website. 
sure today’s business is all about customer service and keeping the customer informed but this is just an utter waste of money. Make it paperless, save tress, and pass on the savings to customers!
Last night I drove to my local Maccas to get some frozen coke. It was a Thursday evening. The price on my way to McDonalds was $1.05 per litre at the local 7 eleven, and Mobil stations. I bought my frozen coke, and on my return (about 8 minutes later), the price had jumped to $1.15 at both of the petrol stations.
The annoying thing about all this is, because eBay has such a strangle hold on the online auction marketplace, it will not significantly affect their usership. Sure, some people will stray away to 
In the short time that 
Thank god for internet check in. I just made it to my flight. 