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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Credit card drop box facility - rbs bank.

All Banks offering credit card services, have a payment drop box facility.
All credit card payments are either accepted thru cheque which is to be dropped in the payment drop box or cash.
Making payment thru cash has an additional cash handling charges.

If a consumer drops a payment cheque in the drop box, he is not given any proof of deposit of payment.

If a payment is lost in the process the entire blame is put on the consumer and he is made to run from pillar to post and is asked to check the status at the branch the payment was initially dropped, and if the cheque is shown received by the branch but not presented then he is asked to contact the head office.

During all this process the entire blame is put on the card user for not making the payment on time, and no complaint is launced either by the head office or the call center, putting the entire blame to the consumer for missing the payment.

This I am telling thru a personal experience. Where my payment of Rs.435 to RBS card ending 9591 has been missed.
The shara-e-faisal branch of the bank claims to have received the cheque and have forwarded the cheque to the head office, advising me to check with the head office about the delay.

On contacting the head office I was told that the cheque was never received from the shara-e-faisal branch.

While the new month's bill has been generated and I am charged Rs. 1000 as late payment fee charge.
I am stranded by the bank as the bank will not accept my claim of having made the payment and is insisting on me that the delay has been on my part only.

I request the authorities concerned to streamline the process and the customer be issued a receipt if making the credit card payment thru cheque or some other system by which the payments are acknowledged by the bank.

Nigerian Film Industry - third largest in the world.

It was hard to believe but true. Nigerian Film Industry is the thrid largest film industry in the world.
While watching National Geographic the other day it was revealed on me that Lagos has only one cinema but still Nigeria is the third largest film industry of the world.

The filmmakers do not make the films specifically for the box office, but directly release the film on CDs and DVDs so people can watch it in their homes even.

The cameras and equipments they have are out dated and they do not try to copy from Hollywood or any other films but have their own stories based on their own social and culturals factors. Making a Nigerian movie costs an average of US$ 25000

While we find our filmmakers complaining about decreasing number of cinemas and the indian movies being released on box office and on DVDs hurting the cause of the local cinema.

May be its time to think out of the box and release the movie on box office and on CD at the same time.
With so many TV channels available, it wont be a big ask to market their movie thru the tv channels and tempt the viewer on buying the locally realease movie on dvd.

It is also to be understood that watching movie in cinema is not easy. A family of 5 will have to spend an average of Rs. 1000 to just watch the movie, while the entertainment that goes with the movie is a separate entity.

While the competition with Indian movies cannot be ignored, but trying to go out of the box may pay off.

city government road side cabins - karachi

The city government in good faith, introduced road side cabins to accommodate street vendors, to have a better looking, proper space for their business. This was as good as legalizing their road side business by giving them a proper place to conduct business.

These roadside cabins are already built on footpaths, which hinder the movement of pedestrians who wish to use the footpath and hence have to walk on the road.

The cabin owners have started abusing the space allocated to them, by encroaching at least 5 feet further out of their cabins, putting their shop stuff like display counters or chairs and tables, further blocking the road and leaving just little space for cars and people to pass by.

The city government should ensure that the cabin owners only use the specified cabin space and do not further encroach out of their allocated space, as this is causing longer term menace to pedestrians, cars and passers by.