Monday 31 August 2009
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Thursday 26 March 2009
Tuesday 26 June 2007
Mobily good... Zajil bad.
Having been here in KSA for three months now, I've had reason to tool around with trying a couple of ISPs... and let me tell you that service levels vary wildly.
I can unequivocally say that award for the worst customer service I have ever experienced from an internet service provider goes to Zajil.net. Connectivity was intermittent, they charge extortionate rates, and their technical support was non-existent. In fact myself, along with a number of colleagues, have had tech support operators just hang up on us mid-sentence.
When I first tried to get set up with them at home, they sent out an "engineer", who was qualified to insert the CD in my laptop and let autorun do its thing. When the install didn't work, he set about making a complete mess of my laptop (I have Windows Vista Ultimate installed - something he'd never seen, but insisted he could make it work). When he'd finished messing about, it took me an hour to repair the damage. If this kid was a qualified "engineer", then I'm Lawrence of Arabia. So when considering an ISP in Saudi Arabia, remember these words: Zajil.net are f@#*&ing useless.
At the complete opposite end of the scale are Mobily. They are the new kids on the block in the mobile communications market here in Kingdom. After I ditched those cretins at Zajil.net I went into my local Mobily office. It was a big spacious building all decked out in trendy furniture, with a cafe and some of the most friendly and helpful staff. I bought a pay-as-you-go 3.5G internet card for my laptop and they even installed the software for me then and there. High speed mobile internet - I am very impressed so far. There are a few patchy areas of service around Riyadh, but generally I'm very happy.
Today I had to call the Mobily customer service number. I haven't been able to ftp my personal website where I post pics of my adventures for my family and friends to view. The guy on the other end was very polite when I explained my problem and said that he was very sorry but Mobily don't offer that protocol yet, but it is planned. He then took my mobile number and said that he would check with his superiors as to when that service is likely to be introduced and then call me back personally with the information. Now that's more like it... well done Mobily!
I can unequivocally say that award for the worst customer service I have ever experienced from an internet service provider goes to Zajil.net. Connectivity was intermittent, they charge extortionate rates, and their technical support was non-existent. In fact myself, along with a number of colleagues, have had tech support operators just hang up on us mid-sentence.
When I first tried to get set up with them at home, they sent out an "engineer", who was qualified to insert the CD in my laptop and let autorun do its thing. When the install didn't work, he set about making a complete mess of my laptop (I have Windows Vista Ultimate installed - something he'd never seen, but insisted he could make it work). When he'd finished messing about, it took me an hour to repair the damage. If this kid was a qualified "engineer", then I'm Lawrence of Arabia. So when considering an ISP in Saudi Arabia, remember these words: Zajil.net are f@#*&ing useless.
At the complete opposite end of the scale are Mobily. They are the new kids on the block in the mobile communications market here in Kingdom. After I ditched those cretins at Zajil.net I went into my local Mobily office. It was a big spacious building all decked out in trendy furniture, with a cafe and some of the most friendly and helpful staff. I bought a pay-as-you-go 3.5G internet card for my laptop and they even installed the software for me then and there. High speed mobile internet - I am very impressed so far. There are a few patchy areas of service around Riyadh, but generally I'm very happy.
Today I had to call the Mobily customer service number. I haven't been able to ftp my personal website where I post pics of my adventures for my family and friends to view. The guy on the other end was very polite when I explained my problem and said that he was very sorry but Mobily don't offer that protocol yet, but it is planned. He then took my mobile number and said that he would check with his superiors as to when that service is likely to be introduced and then call me back personally with the information. Now that's more like it... well done Mobily!
Friday 1 June 2007
Sand, sand and more sand.
The social network is slowly starting to expand which is presenting more opportunities to do stuff other than sit in my air conditioned flat.
This morning a small group of us went out to the desert for a spot of quad biking. It was all arranged by Christian, a young Danish guy who works in IT. We met at his Queen's birthday event at the Danish Embassy. Also along for the trip was Edmund, and English chap who works at BAE doing similar work to me. A couple of French guys from Eid Compound came as well as a few other Danish guys who had their own bikes.
We set off at about 7.30am to beat the heat (it's regularly topping 45̊ degrees C during the day now) and headed about 1/2 hour out of town. We pulled up at the camp where we hired the bikes. A couple of arabs live on the site with all mod cons... a bed, a generator, satellite TV and a tent.
The price was negotiated and we were let loose on the bikes with no basic training or helmets. One of the French guys got on, fired it up and promtly hit another parked big, giving himself a nice bruise and mild concussion. So that's one down before we get started.
The guys with their own bikes took off on thier own and the four of us on the rentals set off up the first dune we saw.
At first the sand was dotted with small shrubs...
For the rest of the pics from the day click here.
This morning a small group of us went out to the desert for a spot of quad biking. It was all arranged by Christian, a young Danish guy who works in IT. We met at his Queen's birthday event at the Danish Embassy. Also along for the trip was Edmund, and English chap who works at BAE doing similar work to me. A couple of French guys from Eid Compound came as well as a few other Danish guys who had their own bikes.
We set off at about 7.30am to beat the heat (it's regularly topping 45̊ degrees C during the day now) and headed about 1/2 hour out of town. We pulled up at the camp where we hired the bikes. A couple of arabs live on the site with all mod cons... a bed, a generator, satellite TV and a tent.
The price was negotiated and we were let loose on the bikes with no basic training or helmets. One of the French guys got on, fired it up and promtly hit another parked big, giving himself a nice bruise and mild concussion. So that's one down before we get started.
The guys with their own bikes took off on thier own and the four of us on the rentals set off up the first dune we saw.
At first the sand was dotted with small shrubs...
Which as it turns out, is perfect for grazing camels.
For the rest of the pics from the day click here.
Wednesday 25 April 2007
To catch a thief...
I know it's not right to find amusement in cultural differences, but when I saw this in the paper yesterday, I did chuckle.
If you need to read past the headline and picture, you should go away and never come back here again.
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