Products, Technology, Services - Reviews and more

2019-06-17T11:13:00.001+05:30

My new blogs are on the new address

Technology Know How Blog by - Neeraj Sharma

Dell Optiplex 980 Amber Power Button and Not Starting - Solution Found !

2014-10-25T09:21:00.000+05:30

Two days ago my home computer which is a Dell Optiplex 980 failed to power on and blue LED in the power button was showing Amber and the usual sequence of power on self check and sequence of blinking numbers did not appear.

I trying power cycling and the status was the same. Looked behind the computer and the power supply unit's indicator was green. Then I recalled that last time when the machine had started the clock was reset to an older date and there was a possibility that the onboard CMOS battery would have drained. Typically a drained CMOS battery would not stop a machine from booting but it would be a thing worth trying.

Opened up the unit, removed the CMOS button cell CR2032 and replaced it from a new one from my stock of batteries. After that the computer powered on, the amber in power button was back to blue, machine did initial configuration and powered on. I set the date to current date rebooted it once more to check that every thing works. I breathed a sigh of relief.

E-Commerce in India - Players review based on my Personal Experiences

2014-10-21T23:54:00.000+05:30

E-Commerce has come a long way in last few years in India. From the days, few years ago when Flipkart and eBay were the prime players, entry of Amazon around a year back and a large number of small to medium size players have also been helping shape the industry and customer experiences.

I had shared my earlier E-Commerce Website Experiences since 2012 through various posts including the summary post. I have continued to shop online for my home shopping needs from clothes to electronics, also I am an active user of bill payment services and now thought of sharing my recent experiences and my feedback.

Amazon has been giving a tough competition to both Flipkart and eBay. Snapdeal, HomeShop18 have also been growing. Specialty Fashion portals like Jabong and Myntra (acquired by Flipkart earlier in year 2014), grocery sites like BigBasket.com also have been doing brisk business by offering convenience of delivery of products at doorstep.

There is also online presence by Brick and Mortar stores like ezone and Croma which some times offer good deals on products.

Overall experience have been reasonably positive dealing with most of these sites and I did not have any horrifying experience like I had earlier with Letsbuy.com when they delivered my a used LED TV.

Primarily I shop on Amazon, Flipkart and eBay. All three are currently a platform for thousands of sellers to sell their products. Flipkart sells and promotes products listed by their subsidiary WS Retail, which they list as one of the sellers.

Experience incident from Flipkart

Experience with Flipkart has been good with products purchased from their own selling subsidiary WS Retail. They also have one or two days guaranteed delivery option with certain products in large cities. In February 2014 I had ordered Moto G phone with a guaranteed delivery option and when it got delayed by a day they refunded me double the amount of Rs99 they had charged for expedited delivery (total of Rs99x3 refunded including amount I had paid). To my surprise after few days they also sent a sorry card along with a free Bluetooth headset as a goodwill gesture. I had not experienced such customer service in India at least. That is what is called causing delight to customer even when one of the commitments was not met.

Experience incident from Amazon

Experience with Amazon India has been good and they over last one year have given touch competition to Flipkart and other retailers. Items I purchased from Amazon include books, clothes, sporting goods, electronics and electrical items. Although they all have been sold by different sellers but "fullfilled by Amazon" and they have done well in terms of delivery in good condition within committed timelines.

Motorola Moto G 16GB Dual SIM XT1033 Indian Retail Version - Ownership Review - Android KitKat 4.4.2 Update

2014-02-10T00:09:00.000+05:30

Moto G got launched on 6th Feb 2014 in India and placed the order on first day on Flipkart. Got the phone in hand on 8th Feb. Amount paid for 16Gb version including taxes for this unlocked phone is Rs 13999 which is around USD 225.

Manufacturer - Motorola Mobility Technologies China Ltd. Tianjin China
Date of import (by Flipkart India) - Jan 2014
Maximum Retain Price (as per box) - Indian Rupees (Rs) 14499.

I also made a small video of this showing box contents.

Box contents picture -

Moto G Phone and Included accessories in box for India

Package contains only the phone, ear phones and USB charger. No USB cable is included in this Indian version.

Note that FCC id mentioned on package is IHDT56PF1

FCC report is available at FCC Report Link.

My initial views on using the phone for few days are positive.

Screen is sharp. There is no lag in performance with the quad core, 1GB RAM inside. Internet browsing, WiFi performance is good so far.

Phone build quality is good. far better compared to many phones in this price range. Curved body feels good in hand. the metal buttons provided for power and volume control feel good and solid.

Battery is not user replaceable.

Few pictures of the product.

Non Glossy Textured Back of Moto G

Back of Moto G phone with back cover removed. two IMEI numbers listed for Dual SIM support

Label - saying that battery is not user removable.

Right side view of Moto G with cover removed. This side has SIM2 slot

Buttons are metallic and feel solid

Moto G SIM 2 Slot. Micro SIM is needed.

Moto G - SIM 1 Slot.

Update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Moto G in India within a week of launch of product received the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update. Here are the product screenshots for the original 4.3 version. update notification and updated version.

Note that the download size is 230.7MB for the version here in India. Not sure if it is same in different geographies.

Moto G Original SW Version Android 4.3 shown in screenshot

Moto G KitKat update notification screen showing size of the download.

Moto G Screenshot showing updated Android version 4.4.2

Updates - After 2 plus weeks of usage.

I have added the white color flip case that works very well and protects the phone. Switches off and locks the screen when flip cover is closed.

Phone performance has been good so far. No significant issues on lag or slowness.

Some of the apps which I have added so far include-

Official Chromecast App for use with my Chromecast device
AllCast - again to cast media from my phone with Chromecast device
Open Mic+ for Google Now style voice controls and search.
Pedometer app - Noom Walk
Kindle App
WhatsApp
Viber
Skype
Twitter
eBay and Amazon shopping Apps
CamScanner for scanning documents through pictures/camera
Facebook
Lync 2010
iPP podcast player

and few games all of which work very well.

Moto G Flip Case Retail Packing

Sample Pictures taken by Moto G

Moto G sample picture - Outdoor in day light

Moto G sample picture - In basement with flash

Moto G sample picture - Evening twilight at a school event

Moto G sample picture - Evening Twilight - Panorama at a school event

Pioneer - MVH-X169UI - 2014 Car Stereo Review and Error - 19 Resolution for USB

2014-02-02T20:02:00.000+05:30

Got this Pioneer - MVH-X169UI from Pioneer's 2014 car entertainment line. It is a USB player with Mixtrax, USB direct control for ipod/iphone and certain android phones. It is a unit without any disc drive. So no CD/DVD supported.

Product Features

MIXTRAX (MIXTRAX EZ for Quick Non-Stop MIX Play)
USB Direct Control for iPod/iPhone (Optional Cable Required)
Android MTP -USB Direct Control for Certain Android Phones
Bright USB Port (Front: High Current 1A Handling Capability)
AUX Input (Front)
MP3/WMA/WAV Playback
Advanced Sound Retriever
RCA Preout x 1 (2 V)
5-Band Graphic EQ
Detachable Face Security

USB
DEVICE USB
DECODE(FORMAT)14*WMA/MP3/WAV(4)
LIST SEARCH (File/Folder/iPod)

AUX - 1(Front)
iPod INTERFACE - YES(USB)
ILLUMINATION(COLOR) RED (Single color)

DISPLAY
DEVICE - LCD(NEGA)
COLOR - BLACK BACK(NEGA)
There is no brightness or contrast adjustment

Installed it in car. I have a simple set up with only two front speakers and so installation was easy. Just had to connect wires matching with the description and color coding (only connections required were)
1. Main battery (Yellow)
2. Ground (Black)
3. Red (Ignition key power control)
4. White + White Black - Left front speaker connections
5. Grey + Greay Black - Right front speaker connections
6. Antenna coaxial connection for radio

Error 19

Initial set up is just setting up the clock if you would like to set up clock. Then connected my iPhone and it worked flawlessly first time after connecting the iPhone USB cable to the unit. Later also tried a USB memory stick. It was an 8GB HP memory with around 3GB worth of music. It started reading but after few seconds later gave ERROR 19 message.

Looked at the manual and it says Error 19 is a communication error and Perform one of the operations
- Turn the ignition switch OFF and back ON.
- Disconnect the USB portable audio player/USB
- Change to a different source.
Then, return to the USB portable audio player/USB memory.

I tried all these few times but nothing seemed to help. Then I brought the USB to my Windows machine and did a scan / error checking to fix the file system and bad sector errors. Device was formatted originally to FAT32 which is OK. USB scan for error reported that there were few file system errors which are fixed. So after that I tried the USB device again in MVH-X169UI and it started working without any problems.

Photo of installed unit running from USB after resolving the Error 19

I did search on web and saw some people suggesting different bit rates settings, not using variable bit rate songs etc and also removing the tags information from songs to make it compatible. I did not do any of these things and atleast my problem got resolved just by scanning and fixing the file system errors.

This solution may or may not work for all but I hope this information is useful for some of the users.

Updates on WD TV Live and comparison to Google Chromecast usage in India (Bangalore)

2014-01-26T15:49:00.000+05:30

I have been using WD TV Live on and off and also more recently got a Google Chromecast device also so thought of updating how WD TV Live and Chromecast experience have been for online applications, streaming from India.

For earlier usage reviews you can refer to my original post here.

WD Live TV 2011 model experience

WD has been updating firmware regularly and now there are many more applications available compared to what we had in 2011. There are changes within applications like YouTube, where now we can also control videos from mobile/tablets by pairing your device. This then becomes very similar to what we do with Chromecast for playing YouTube videos.

Good application additions to WD TV Live include Euro News (euronews), CinemaNow and also Red Bull TV.

Current list of active services on WD TV Live in Asia Pacific include -

Facebook
YouTube
AOL HD
SlingPlayer
Tweet by WD TV
Flixster
Euronews
Creepster.TV
PlayJam Games
TuneIn
RedBull TV
Shoutcast Radio
Vimeo
Picasa
Dailymotion
Live 265
Launchpad by Flingo
Accu Weather
Yupp TV
WSJ Live
Deezer
XOS College Sport
WatchMojo
Comedy Time
American Pop Classics
ADC
All Fitness TV
Asian Rush
Cook
CloudMe
Family TV
GoDigital
Great Movies
Manga
MBC America on Demand
Pop Flix Classic Movies
Pop Flix Classic TV
TG Toon Goggles
Vanguard
Snag Films
SEC Digital Network

One of the recent Firmware releases has been 1.16.13 and detailed release notes are available from WD support site .

Link to WD Support and Download page.

Current List of Applications on Chromecast from Wikipedia Chromecast Page.
Wikipedia Chromecast Page - list of Apps

Ebay India phone buying experience / review - ebay.in Seller sankyoelectronics

2012-06-19T15:55:00.000+05:30

Being adventurous in online shopping does not go well always!

I placed an order for a cell phone from ebay India seller sankyoelectronics who is from Chennai.

http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150835286131

As per seller listing it is
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro SK17i Mobile + Warranty
Condition "New: A brand-new, unused and undamaged item."
http://myworld.ebay.in/sankyoelectronics

Shipper/Seller Address -
Gopalakrishnan M
Sankyo Electronics
14 Periyar Street , Kulasekarapuram
Virugambakkam Chennai - 600092
Seller phone number 044-43518526

On packing there was also a from Sticker
K J Enterprises
#27 Kasim Street Royapettah
Chennai - 600014

Surprisingly as against claimed by seller that it is a brand new unused item it was a used one without proper packing.

The product received was not in new condition. See pictures

1. Box was not sealed.
2. Company packing was missing in the box
3. All items were packed in old plastic covers with cello tape attached.
4. Phone had a lot of finger prints and marks on the body. I cleaned there was no screen damage.
5. Charger also has marks and repacked. definitely old used charger.
6. The ear phone was also old piece not the one company gives with this model.
7. Clock was already set on the phone. some one had used it earlier.

Shipment

Seal on top only

No seal on bottom. clearly opened and closed from bottom of the box

Repackaged in old cover. not fresh piece

Lots of fingerprints and marks on screen

These were the contents packed in individual old plastic covers.
No other internal packing or documentation etc. One paper only

Charger is also used with marks on it

This is an older model Sony Ericsson HPM-60/J not the latest earphone that comes with this model.

Clock was already set when turned on. Cleaned the screen, there was no damage to the screen.

Product was not in brand new condition as described by seller. It is otherwise working.

I have raised an ebay case for resolution with the seller.

Original Seller Listing

Although seller has 98% positive feedback, recently few people have complained against old / missing items. I went by the positive feedback and took a chance of ordering. It ended up a bad experience. Please be careful dealing with this and similar sellers on ebay.

Seller cheated - despite his promise that he will ship new accessories like charger and earphone he did not ship. He requested that he has a review with Ebay and his business gets hurt by negative feedback and so his feedback should be changed from negative to positive. I trusted him and changed feedback. After that he stopped responding to my emails and phone calls. Never trust such seller and give them any business.

Don't trust sellers and change feedback until they fix your problem. After you change feedback like I did for Sankyo Electronics, even Ebay does not care.

Update Nov 2012- Based on comments to my post I see that many buyers faced issues with products and quality of service from this seller. Now while browing ebay I just noted that this seller SankyoElectronics is no longer registered on ebay and his ID is deactivated.

Ebay page showing that seller is no longer registered.

Blackberry Curve Series Phone - BB Curve 8520 after a year plus of ownership. Poor Product and Service from Blackberry India.

2012-05-03T22:36:00.000+05:30

My first mobile phone was a Philips phone in 1998 which were followed through the years by many phones from Nokia, Sony Ericson, LG, Samsung and then around 1.5 year back a Blackberry. Blackberry usage experience has been good but the handset itself is a bad experience in terms of reliability and usable life. Never seen a phone or its parts falling apart the way this Blackberry handset did.

Blackberry was out of compulsion to access corporate emails and I settled for the modest BB Curve 8520 which was purchased through the service provider Airtel. The phone felt robust in hand had a good keyboard, dedicated music buttons, rubberized grip around the phone, couple of buttons which can be customized and had decent features and easy to use.

After around 8 months of use the rubber parts on the body started feeling rough and grainy and I thought this is regular wear and tear. After few months I started seeing few cracks on it and eventually over next few months there were more of these. After a year or so the rubber material buttons started cracking and one fine day when I tried to press a button on side to turn on the data connection there was no button. The button (which is actually just part of the molded rubber part of the body) had just cracked and fallen some where. Over next week one by one all the buttons even the ones rarely used and rubber around the buttons had just vanished.

To my surprise in my office when I looked at BB curve phones used by others many of them had faced same problem and any one having a phone for more than a year typically had buttons on their phone missing. Many even had the buttons on top (three music/mute buttons) missing. Problem with missing button, you can not control volume and many other features of the phone and also water and dust can easily go inside and phone looks ugly.

See 2 buttons of right side gone and upper volume button in process of cracking and next one shows button gone.Left side one button also gone missing.

And now the Blackberry Service in India.

When I called service center in Bangalore I was told body etc are not covered specially when it is one year old and out of warranty. I posted a message to BB India through twitter and then said they can look into it. I also posted few pictures for them to look at and informed the fact that it is not only me and many other users who have problem and it is a design issue with the kind of material and button design being used in the Curve series of phones. BB India informed that their service partner Redington will get in touch and fix problem for me.

Redington after few followups informed me they will cosmetic upgrade (change the body) on my phone in coming days but after few days informed that phone is not sold through their channel and they can not do any thing about it and will tell BB India the same. On reminding BB again they mentioned contact the service provider. They communicate through Twitter direct message and never have really looked into the issue seriously. Curve has been one of the best sellers for Blackberry but so many users have this problem due to bad design and poor choice of material. They continue to sell Curve series of phones with this design and even the newly launched model Curve 9220 uses similar rubberized button design.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot 14.1MP Digital Camera, 5x Lens

2012-02-13T00:00:00.000+05:30

Got Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot camera recently for not so tech savvy family members who are not comfortable with bigger cameras with many settings including my Sony HX100V.

Key features that attracted me to this one were specifications like AA batteries, 720P video at 30 frames per second and optical image stabilization at sub Rs4000 (USD80) price point.

Panasonic DMC-LS5 Product Page

Images courtesy Panasonic product website

Due to a smaller CCD sensor (1/2.33-inch) with 14.5 Total Megapixels cramped in the image quality is not that great and with cheaper electronics response in terms of focusing is also slow. It is a very basic camera and for the price paid it is fine.

One issue I am having is that it is only working with Alkaline batteries and not with any of my NiMH rechargeable batteries. I have tried all 5-6 sets I have from various brands including Duracell and Energizer after charging fully as well. Measured voltage also and all if fine with batteries. I have report this issue to Panasonic support through an email and waiting for their response. I have not seen any one other reporting the issue yet online so may be a problem with specific unit.

Update -
Based on voltage measurements on batteries, it does not operate if battery voltage is less than 1.5V. NiMH which has a standard voltage of 1.2V each cell should also work as per product specifications. Even some other Alkaline batteries including another set of Panasonic batteries with voltage of 1.47 volt are not able to power the camera. It appears to be a manufacturing/component defect in the power circuit of the camera.

Update - I had given camera to Panasonic service center and they claimed to have changed the power circuit and returned the camera to me after couple of days. Now it is working fine. Another thing I noticed is that camera power circuit is quite sensitive to internal resistance of the batteries. My older NiMH batteries which work in Canon cameras and other electronics do not work in this Panasonic camera. I have bought some new Sanyo Eneloop and Sony NiMH batteries which are working fine in this camera.

Summary Review -

Good things
- AA batteries (standard pencil cells)
- SD Card (cheap cards available these days)
- 720P video recording
- Easy to use modes and options
- Outdoor picture reasonable quality
- Image stabilization works reasonably well (not perfect but one can see the difference)

Flaws
- Very sensitive to type of AA batteries. Takes only best quality batteries (fresh NiMH) and Duracell / Sony high drain batteries). With some of the Panasonic, Eveready, Energizer Alkalines did not even turn on or with fresh batteries says batteries low. Batteries which work fine in a Canon are simply rejected by this camera. This may be my unit’s problem but Panasonic service is not able to fix it even after they claimed that they have changed the power circuit.
- Slow focus
- Slow recharge of flash (shot to shot)
- Significant lag from button press to shot.
- Big annoyance – Can not replay HD recorded video in camera. It can only play back VGA or lower resolution.
- Indoor and low light pictures are very noisy.
- Lens motor is little bit noisy (focusing lens motor can be heard when putting camera near your face)

WD Live TV 2011 model experience

2012-02-07T11:00:00.000+05:30

Have been using WD Live TV 2011 for couple of months now. Here is a brief review.

Box and product views showing various ports and also included remote are as below (courtesy WD product website)

List of various ports

Ethernet, USB 2.0, HDMI, Composite A/V, Wi-Fi, Optical audio out

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Key points/ feedback -

a) Plays almost all formats of videos and pictures including mkv files.

b) Full HD output works well through HDMI (note - HDMI cable is not included in the box)

c)Internet services works well with inbuilt WiFi or wired Ethernet (will depend on quality and speed of your connection of course).

d) There is no full browser for generic internet browsing.

e) You can connect any USB keyboard for entering data/selection etc.

f) You can use as network storage device by hooking up an external storage through USB ports.

g) Some of the Applications/Services like facebook, youtube, picasa, Flickr and many Internet radio services work well but some are blocked in India as they are country specific e.g. Netflix does not work with Indian IP addresses.

h) Power adaptor included is 110-220V so can be used in any country.

i) There is also an iOS (Apple iPhone/Ipod) app that can be used as a remote control through your WiFi network. I have it installed on my iPod touch and it works really well including search etc. for which you can make entries through onscreen keyboard.

Overall a good, well built product.

Here are pictures of Internet services applications which are there in firmware 1.06.04

E-Commerce - Indian Online Shopping Websites - Review and Experiences

2012-01-13T22:06:00.000+05:30

Avoiding visiting crouded malls and shops and envouraged by good deals available online I have continued shopping online for technology and other items. I have already shared my experience with Letsbuy.com and now I thought of sharing my personal experiences with some of the other websites also.

Good experiences so far which I had based on my on shopping -
www.Ebay.in - for various items from different sellers. Ebay guarantee on delivery of product and resolution mechanism if sellers do not keep up their promise is quite good. Ofcourse you need to check reputation and earlier feedback of seller and check description of product carefully.

www.Flipkart.com - Placed 4-5 orders and all deliverd in time specially books ordering experience is very good. Also placed orders for memory devices. Prices are not best for memories but if some thing is needed urgently specially in Bangalore, I prefer to order from Flipkart. They delivered me a 16GB Sandisk card next day morning when an order was placed late in afternoon.

www.Myntra.com - Placed a shoes order and was delivered very fast in good condition with in 2 days.

www.zoomin.com/Cameras - Placed one Sony Camera order and delivered well packed in good factory sealed condition.

www.Homeshop18.com - Placed few orders including electronics items like hard disks, memories and other house hold items all received in good condition. Once there was a need to return item and return pickup was also quite efficient. They take orders and vendors fullfil for them. Returns also need to go to respective sellers but HS18 provides good service and assurance of delivery.

www.Futurebazaar.com - All most all of 5-6 orders were delivered well. Phone and email support is quite efficient. Some times they sell old stock of tools etc at very low price to clear inventories. Their I had noted few items with some rust but price I paid was farely low.

www.Koovs.com - Have placed 4-5 orders. All delivered. Their standard delivery time is 7 days. They have delivered all orders. Shipping can be faster.

Sulekha deals
deals.sulekha.com/- One order. Good experience. They take orders and vendors fullfil for them.

www.Greendust.com - Couple of memory orders. Slow in delivery but all items delivered.

www.Letsbuy.com. Bad experiences - You can see my detailed review of my TV order. You have to remind them to ship order or have to make noise on mouthshut.com to make them hear. Very difficult to get them on phone on their help line. Many false promises and delayed shipments.

www.Snapdeal.com Bad experience (March 2012) - Ordered a Samsung 16GB Micro SD Card (Class 10) and invoice, packing all communication was correctly showing the product but they delivered a lower speed grade card, a Class 6 instead of Class 10. Many other users also who had ordered the product received the same wrong product. Customer service responsiveness is also not so good. Haven't heard back to email I sent on this issue. Now either have to accept the product they have sent or get into hastle of sending product back and wait for another one or refund.

Clifton
www.clifton.in - Overall negative experience. Two orders placed. Both were shipped and delivered after followup with the company later that commited time of delivery. They took 7+ days in both cases for a local Bangalore delivery. Second order product was a different color product
than what was ordered. Non standard deIt appears that E-commerce venture for them is an experimental one.

Difference between various online shopping site companies is primarily due to their attitude towards customer service and also to a large extend on how efficiently and accurately they can process order and have it efficiently shipped (IT and logistics part of business). Some sites have accurate inventory information and order status information available to customers and support staff e.g. Future Bazaar, Flipkart and Myntra appear to have things like this worked out and implemented well. Letsbuy appears to be doing a lot of things manually and most of their staff appears to be not so well trained or may be only trained on how to keep customer confused and occupied with false promises till their system some how takes care of the order processing if at all.

Others and Many times problems are with the shipment/courier companies. So it is good to check which services these online shopping sites use. Best service - Bluedart, Fedex. Even professional courier is good. Worst experiences - Aramex.

In Feb 2012 - There are press reports that Flipkart is acquiring Letsbuy and Myntra. Such consolidation and acquisition by better performing companies will help overall e-commerce industry. Hope is that customer service and reach of these companies will improve.

Later it came out that Flipkart just acquired Letsbuy and Myntra continues to be an independent company.

BSNL broadband blocking competitor websites access??

2011-11-27T18:52:00.000+05:30

I have been facing this problem for many months now. From my home BSNL broadband connection in Bangalore, I can not access Airtel and Vodafone India websites. Workaround that I need to use is dial into my office VPN and then access these sites for any information of bill payments etc. This is really annoying, unethical and probably illegal (restrictive trade practice) behavior by BSNL.

Not sure who to contact regarding this. As typically only complaints they take is regarding internet access working or not.

Letsbuy.com Review - Delivered an old Samsung LED TV - New unit delivered now.

2011-11-01T16:02:00.000+05:30

After being in touch with Letsbuy.com team, they have helped resolve my issue of old TV delivery. They have promised that Letsbuy.com is strengthening their processes to ensure such incidents don't repeat. Today morning (1st Nov 2011) a fresh new TV with manufacturing date of Oct 2011 with 0 hours of usage history was delivered. Will update my original post on delivery of old used Samsung LED UA32D5900 TV with new pictures. My other item in order Samsung BlueRay player BD-D5100 was also delivered but has a problem right out of the box. Its drive is making loud sounds when turned on. This is a new piece with Samsung's manufacturing defect but I have reported it to Letsbuy for a replacement.

I am hoping for many other customers who continue to report issues with Letsbuy (Mouthshut letsbuy review page), their issues also get resolved.

----------------

Update 8 Nov. 2011.

I noted another customer of Letsbuy.com, Vikas complaining about they sending a used Plasma TV. You can see his review on Mouthshut.

http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Letsbuy-com-review-rpopplotnn

- Neeraj

Review of Letsbuy.com - Delivered an old used Samsung LED TV

2011-10-30T03:30:00.000+05:30

My new blog is at
-----https://technology-know-how.blogspot.com/
---- For my amazon reviewer profile - click here.

My experience with letsbuy.com for a TV purchase has been very bad.
(Later edited - 1 Nov 2011 - Issue resolved after raising issue with Letsbuy - Below are details of overall experience)

Placed order of Samsung Series 5 LED TV UA32D5900EA (UA32D5900VR) from letsbuy.com on 24th Oct 2011 with Samsung Company offer of a Blueray player free plus a surprise Diwali gift on offer by Letsbuy.com. On each followup I was told that both items are in stock and will be shipped soon. They shipped TV on 28th shipped only TV and said I have to wait for Blueray player. I was fine with the wait as atleast TV was getting shipped.

Surprise and frustration – once the TV was delivered on 29th Oct. It was an old used TV most likely a dealer demo / display unit with old manufacturing date – all user manuals, cards, remote accessories were used and open from original covers and packed again with tape. Even TV cover and internal packing material, box shows that box was stored for many months and TV used. On screen one can see that some one has cleaned the screen and packed it again with a number of old used tapes inside the box. In service menu it shows TV used for around 600 hours. This is totally different from Letsbuy.com's promise they have on website "Letsbuy only sells 100% genuine and brand new products". This delivery was definitely was not the case that supports this claim.

Panel Display Time (time for which TV has been used is ~600 hours). Considering July manufacturing and assuming usage started in August till 27th Oct, some one has used this set for an average of 7 hours every day. Most likely a dealer/distributor showroom display piece.

See images below which I have also shared with letsbuy - their customer service and their CEO Mr. Hitesh Dhingra. As per my call with him looks like Samsung dealer or distributor has cheated them and so caused this. They have promised a replacement in 1-2 days. I will update on final outcome.

I will write separately on their customer service aspects.

Intent of Mr. Hitesh Dhingra, co-founder and CEO and Amanpreet Bajaj, co-founder and COO of Letsbuy.com and others in Letsbuy Management may be good and I hope they are successful but they need to work on customer service, supply chain and their infrastructure if they really want letsbuy to be a relevant player in ecommerce in India.

- Neeraj

Following are snapshots of product delivered by Letsbuy.com

Update 1st Nov 2011 - New UA32D5900 TV Delivered

Volkswagen India - No Delivery of Vehicle - Poor Responsiveness and Quality of Service - Worst Dealerships

2011-05-23T13:42:00.000+05:30

We made a booking for VW Polo from Volkswagen Jalandhar - Lally Motors India (P) Ltd. In Punjab.

Booking was made with above dealer on 19th Dec 2010 and was informed 3-4 months wait time. Total booking amount given to Dealer in December 2010 was Rs49000. At time of booking dealer had promised that vehicle will be delivered in March 2011 but the vehicle has not yet been delivered as on 23rd May 2011. One day we were informed on phone that vehicle is available in April 15th, when we went to get delivery at dealership we were informed that same vehicle has been given to some other customer and we need to wait for couple of more days. After waiting for more, week after week there is no update on the vehicle. We also have given full remaining payment through Bank draft of Rs 503552 on 3rd May based on more promises made by dealer that vehicle will be there in couple of days.

Till date there is no vehicle and dealer has taken full payment. Now they are saying to wait till month end. The dealership has acted in highly unprofessional way and it is our worst experience in dealing with any of the car dealers. We have dealt with many other auto companies and dealers but Volkswagen experience has surely not started on a positive note. I personally wrote to Volkswagen through their website on 18th May and I got an automated reply that dealer will contact us. Dealer did not care to contact. When we visited the dealer he was again non-commited on any dates.

Dealer keeps blaiming the company that they do not make enough cars and take orders. At end of the day, they have taken full payment, we are loosing on interest that we are pying to the bank and there is no vehicle. What an attitude this company is having towards customers. They are a world wide brand and possibly also made a mistake in choosing a dealer.

When I called the toll free number they informed that they are just a call center and will forward complaint to the VW department. Please beware when you deal with Volkswagen India and specially their dealership in Punjab/Jalandhar (Volkswagen Jalandhar - Lally Motors India (P) Ltd). Also do not make any advance payments on their commitment that vehicle will be available very soon.

Following is text of email that came from VW support (actually from their call center people as they said same case number they have forwarded to VW department)

From: customer.care@volkswagen.co.in [mailto:customer.care@volkswagen.co.in]
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 10:19 AM
To: Neeraj Sharma
Subject: System generated Acknowledgement email

Date: 05/19/2011

Concern No: VWGxxxx

Vehicle: Polo

Name of Customer: Mr. Vijay Kumar Sharma

Dealer Name: Lally Motors India Pvt. Ltd. Dealer Location: Jalandhar

Dear Mr. Vijay Kumar Sharma

Greetings from Volkswagen Passenger Cars India!

We acknowledge the receipt of your concern to us and have noted the contents of the same.

We wish to inform you that we have forwarded your concerns to our dealer M/s Lally Motors India Pvt. Ltd. at Jalandhar. We assure you that your concerns will be attended on a priority basis and as per Volkswagen standards.

If you need any further assistance, kindly feel free to call Lally Motors India Pvt. Ltd. or Volkswagen India Assistance 24x7, Anytime. Anywhere. Call toll free 1800 102 0909 / 1800 209 0909. You can also write to us at customercaresales@volkswagen.co.in .

We thank you for choosing Volkswagen and assure you our best services always.

With best regards,

Customer Care

Sales

Volkswagen Passenger Cars India

--------

Eventually after followups and reminders vehicle was delivered later than promised. Dealers as usual don't like being complained about them to parent companies. Companies and dealerships have to be sensitive about overall customer experience and up their service levels. typically every one is sweet and nice till a sale order is closed. After that many companies, dealers and customer service cells of these entities have a don't care attitude.

- Neeraj

Nokia X2 - 5MP phone at ~ Rs5000 in India

2010-05-03T11:29:00.000+05:30

Good spec and aggressive pricing for Nokia's upcoming model X2. Looks like Nokia is getting aggressive in competing with many local phone brands.

Here are the detailed specs.

Nokia X2

Key Features

Music:

Stereo output speakers

FM RDS stereo radio with built-in antenna

Dedicated music keys

Music Player with extended playlist supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+, WMA formats

Nokia 3.5 mm AV connector (audio only)

Manage music with Ovi Player PC client & Windows Media Player 11

Nokia Music Store (select markets)

Comes with Music (select markets)

Bluetooth v2.1 with stereo audio profiles (A2DP and AVRCP)

Imaging

5 megapixel Full Focus camera with flash,background processing, 4x smooth zoom

Camera flash can be used as a torch flashlight

View photos thumbnails in grid, albums or timeline view

Image Upload via Bluetooth and sharing services: Flickr, Ovi Share

Additional Features

Aluminium battery cover

Access to Facebook via Home screen

Download latest games and apps from Ovi Store

Nokia Messaging 2.0 Email & IM

Opera Mini browser

Conversational viewfor SMS & MMS

Preloaded Java games: Bounce Tales, City Bloxx, Snake III, Block'd, Diamond Rush, Rally 3D, Brain Champion, Sudoku

Technical Profile:

System:Quad-band GSM850/900/1800/1900

User interface:Series 40

Dimensions:111mm x 47mm x 13.3 mm(L x W x T)

Volume:61 cc

Weight:81 g with battery

Standby time:Up to 25.8 days

Talk time:Up to 13.5 hours

Music play time:Up to 26.8 hours (GSM idle/mid vol)

Display color:2.2” QVGA (240x320 pixel)262K colors Active TFT

Memory:User memory up to 48MBμSD card (support up to 16GB)

Connectivity:Micro-USB interface with USB 2.0 High Speed; Complimentary USB charging, USB OTG (audio, storage)Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR

Data Services:

GPRS rel-4, class B, with GPRS multislot class32 (and EGPRS MSC32)

Inbox Colors Available:

Black/Red, Silver/Blue

Standard Sales Package Includes

Nokia X2-00 handset

Nokia Battery BL-4C

Nokia Compact Charger AC-3 (AC-8C + CA-101D for PRC)

Nokia stereo Headset WH-205

Planned Market Introduction

•Q2 2010 (June 2010 in India)

Tata Nano owner seeks compensation

2010-04-11T19:48:00.000+05:30

Tata Nano owner is seeking Rs 15lacs (1.5million) from Tata Motors as compensation for his new Tata Nano that caught fire on the day of purchase.
Details at DNA link
http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1370119
Response from Tata has not been very supportive or encouraging to their customers. We do not have a strong regulator like transport safety administrators in USA or Europe and Auto companies take quality and safety very lightly. Instead of just focusing on emission norms of vehicles it is high time that an empowered regulatory agency is formed which provides guidance on and monitors road and vehicle safety issues.

- Neeraj

Europa Locks Bangalore Bad After Sale/Installation Quality of Service

2010-03-25T14:53:00.000+05:30

In my apartment after using cupboard locks from Europa Locks ( I decided to also go for a second main door lock from the same company. So around 10 daya back I got Europa main door lock from a Timber Store on Sarjapur Road Bangalore ( 3 dead bolt dimple keys model MRP Rs. 1135) and I was informed that company person will come and install the same which is a free service for main door locks. The shop keeper booked an installation request with company representative and (some request number was also assigned) I was updated that someone will come in 2 days. After more than a week of follow up almost every day and hearing that someone will come today/tomorrow afternoon/evening finally today I went to the shop where I got the lock and gave them the box telling that I will rather go for Godrej lock who were more responsive in terms of service in past. Finally shop keeper sent his own carpenter to get the lock installed instead of waiting for the company person any more. The same is now installed but quality/installation is not to my satisfaction as the keys feel too hard to turn both open and lock. I was told that they will get this fixed now from the company person again and I should wait.

Overall a very bad experience. Overall products quality feels good (atleast in packaging) and all the good things the company writes about the company and products on Europa Locks website and product packaging but in field and operations, quality of service this company has a long way to go to meet customer satisfaction. I would suggest stay with better known companies like Godrej or even Link Locks.

- Neeraj 25 March 2010

Update - After communicating with the company - the problem is now resolved and lock is now functioning to my satisfaction as updated in the comment.

- Neeraj 29 March 2010

Bangalore Europa Locks Service Numbers as provided by one of the blog viewers - 9448385429, 9342574721. These numbers are specifically for Bangalore.

Many Bangalore High Rise Buildings and Malls are not Safe

2010-02-23T22:39:00.000+05:30

Many Bangalore malls and high rise buildings are not Fire safe. Worst accidents that what happened today in Carlton Towers in Bangalore can happen in many places in the city. Many Malls and offices do not have proper fire exits or in many cases like in Carlton fire exits are locked. Many places are over crowded in evenings and weekends and filled beyond capacity. A small incident or panic can turn into a big accident. Take e.g. big bazaar near Forum or Total Mall on Sarjapur Road in weekends, we do not see properly marked exits, most of the times stairs are used as storage or for sale item displays limiting movement of people. There are no limit on how many people are allowed in. We rarely see fire extinguishers at key accessible locations. I hope audit is conducted on buildings in Bangalore by authorities and corrective actions taken.

Bangalore Fire

- Neeraj

My LG KP199 Charging Connection

2010-01-10T23:32:00.000+05:30

One of my phones which I use for office calls is LG KP199 which I had taken due to very long battery life was for quite some time showing problem charging with the USB cable and is now also showing problem charing with AC power adaptor. It only makes charging contact if I hold the cable in specific position. The charger connector is the phone is loose probably due to bad soldering in the assembly of the connector. Over period of time now I can even see the connector move slightly inside the phone connector cutout/groove. I should have got it fixed in warranty period which I suspect is now expired. Will be opening the phone and fixing soldering if possible.

Last year I had fixed similar broken connector problem on an HTC Windows Mobile phone for a colleague of mine and hopefully will be able to fix my phone too.

My other phone the dual sided Samsung F300 Ultra Music is doing good but lacks speaker phone feature for calls (but has a good speaker for music).

Rest Later.

Bad product quality of a laptop and worst customer service by HCL Infosystems

2010-01-07T00:18:00.000+05:30

My relative in Punjab bought (or rather made a mistake of buying) an HCL laptop from authorized dealer in Kapurthala in Punjab for around Rs30000. (~ $650)

* Machine Serial No : 8084AX056382
* Product Code : AX0P2825
* Warranty Card No. : 10485949
* Date of Installation: 18/11/2008

After some time of purchase the machine started giving problems with the display which was reported to HCL and given to service center for warranty repair.. Even after keeping machine for weeks for repair a permanent fix was not done by HCL service and the same problem reoccurred 3rd time in October/November and machine was again given to HCL as it was still in warranty.

Calls to HCL's Support desk were essentially of no use and waste of time and effort. Machine was last given to HCL service center on 9th November 2009 and have not been returned by the company till date (today 7th January 2010). What kind of service is this? Essentially during last 12 months machine has been with HCL service for close to 4 months. So HCL has taken money for the laptop and in a way still owns the machine, Isn't that cheating?

Emails and calls to HCL helpline have not resulted in any thing. This example shows how some of these Indian companies treat customers.

I have suggested to file a consumer and civil court case against HCL Infosystems for compensation. I would suggest buying a laptop or a computer from Dell, Acer, HP, Compaq or Toshiba and avoid local brands specially HCL.

- Neeraj

Suspected fake ISI marking on LPG Gas Pipe and No manufacturing/expiry date

2009-12-07T10:01:00.000+05:30

There is a wide scale misuse of ISI marking. Be in food, drinking water or electrical/home appliances, there are substandard products on which manufacturers place Agmark/ISI mark without getting certification. Some place ISI mark and license number which as per BIS website queries are invalid. Recently got an LPG gas pipe from a well known shop in Bangalore which has an ISI mark on the packaging and cover text says that the product expires and should be replaced after 3 years of manufacture as per date printed on the tube. Surprisingly there is no manufacturing date on the packaging or on the gas tube. The records as per BIS website show that the manufacturer is not one of the certified companies and so does not have ISI marking license under that standard number. License number search shows it is invalid. The company making the product also has placed incomplete address - only company name and city.

Such critical items like gas pipes having poor quality can cause accidents like the one which happened in Bangalore recently. The large retail chains as well as small shops are filled with substandard products from China as well as Indian manufacturers. Consumers need to be alert while shopping for critical every day use products some of which can risk lives and health.

- Neeraj

Misuse of ISI Marks

2009-12-06T23:49:00.000+05:30

I recently came across some products while shopping which had ISI marks on the packaging or product but based on the quality etc. I suspected if they were really certified ISI marked products. So I explored website if India's national standard body - Bureau of Indian Standards website and found that it is possible to know through the website, which products have been certified under specific standard and also we can know the status of licences obtained by companies.

One of the items details I validated found that the license number they put on the product packaging is an invalid one.

Here are some useful links

http://www.bis.org.in/

http://nicdc.nic.in/CMMS/InternetRep/InternetRelatedRep.aspx

Also found some recent news items on misuse of ISI markings.

Misuse of ISI markings - Packaged Drinking Water in Bangalore

http://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/11/stories/2009111154380400.htm

BIS ropes in pvt agency to check misuse of ISI mark

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/bis-ropes-in-pvt-agency-to-check-misuse-of-isi-mark/356499/0

There is also a link for filing complaints related to BIS certified product(ISI Mark)/Services of BIS

http://www.bis.org.in/cad/complain.htm

- Neeraj

Indian telco's never ending price war in voice services. Would like to see tarrifs drop for data services as well.

2009-11-01T20:16:00.000+05:30

September - October 2009 again saw telecom operators in India fighting it out with each other on the pricing of call charges. The recent moves by Reliance, Airtel, Aircel etc. on pricing were bit late response to new entrant (in GSM) Tata Docomo's August launch of 1 second billing for local and STD calls. The pricing was placed at 1 paisa per second (Rs 0.01 per second). Till that time all operators only offered 1 minute billing. The Indian market is a predominantly prepaid market and prices in India are already among the lowest in the world. The call charges for local and STD are now around Rs 0.50 to Rs 0.60 per minute (USD 0.011 to USD 0.012) typically without any contact or monthly charges. The telecom minister recently announced that he foresees rate to drop to less than half of that for STDs and one to one fifth of the current charges (Rs 0.25 for STD and Rs 0.10 for local). We may come closer to that once the mobile number portability becomes a reality in coming months, when subscribers will be able to retain their phone number while switching the operators.

The cost of SMS, value added services, Wireless data plans have not dropped any where close to in terms of trend we see in voice services. They have stayed almost the same for quite some time and in some cases may have increased. With widespread availability and usage of smart phones and netbooks it will be good if wireless data access charges like for unlimited internet browsing, email access are also made more attractive to subscribers.

Recent annoucements by Intel, BSNL and HCL are encouraging prospects of wireless broadband access. There are also rumours that Google may also be interested in Wireless internet infrastructure in India. So let us see how things pan up.

Update 4 Nov 2009. RCOM and Loop also join operators who offer 1 sec billing.

Apple Store - Imagine in Forum Mall Bangalore

2009-10-30T19:03:00.000+05:30

This is about the Apple store - "Imagine" in Forum Mall Bangalore. I visited this place couple of weeks ago to look for some iPod Touch accessories. The store is not directly managed by Apple and prices are not consistent with Apple's standard prices. They also offer services like SW upgrades etc. (like many people who do not have itunes account in India or credit card for payment online). I also checked about version 3.1.2 upgrade on my iPod. One of the guys said they do not do it. Then another one said they can do it but will charge Rs500+tax. When I told that Apple has reduced price for SW updrade some time back to $4.99 (Rs 250 appx) and it is no longer $9.99 (Rs 500 appx.) , they said "we know but we will charge as per older price if you would like to get it updated". I did not agree to the inflated price and came home and upgraded through my iTune account.

As far as the service goes, I was not impressed with their attitude in general. Huge difference between the Apple stores in USA and these kind of stores in India. The stores like Croma or Reliance Digital are far better choice for shopping Apple products in Bangalore.