First of all let me say that there are people in QNB that I adore. I think that they are amazing people, but I only wish that the whole organization acted the way that they do. There’s no way I’m keeping this bottled in. Qatar National Bank is a STUPID bank. Now I’ve ALREADY got an account with them, but every time I wanted to check if transfers were made, I had to drive to a branch, wait in a que, then ask for a print out. Why? Because they don’t give you internet banking by default, you have to apply for it, and at the time of joining them they didn’t TELL me that I had to apply for it.

So I finally decided that I was going to get online banking. I stepped into a bank and asked for the service. The man behind the counter told me that I could just register online at home. “Are you sure?”, I asked. “Yes of course”, he replied. So I went home and tried to register. [Please enter your atm number]. I don’t have an ATM card for my companies account… So I finally decide to go back to the bank again and explain the lovely situation I was in. The fun begins.

“Don’t worry sir, we’ll apply for an ATM card now”, the new guy I’m talking to says. I was annoyed that I had to come in again, but at least it was done. “CR and employement card please.”, he asks for. Now I start to get annoyed, why the hell would I be walking around with my company’s employment card and CR certificate. I explained to him that not ALL companies get the employment card anyway. He says that it’s a requirement. I explain to him that some companies don’t apply for an employment card because they don’t have HUGE organizations. (On a side note, I DO have one, but my point was that not everyone has one). I sat down for 20 minutes explaining the law and the process that companies go through to become legal. He’s paying attention and taking notes. Once done, he tells me that he never knew the process and thanks me for letting him know. Now this kind of shocks me. He’s a business customer agent that doesn’t understand how companies run?

No problem, I leave and decide to come back with every single document I have. When I do, I meet a woman who asks me for certificates and documents (some that the last guy didn’t even tell me to bring). While going through papers, she pauses and says, “I can’t accept this copy of the CR, I need the original”. There is NO WAY that I’m going to just be handing over the original CR. Without it, my companies couldn’t do any business in the country! I couldn’t believe that QNB asked for it! She had a stamped and authenticated copy in front of her and it wasn’t good enough.

So I started to rant. I couldn’t understand WHY they needed all of these documents again when they saw this ALL when they first set up the company. I tried to speak logically. HOW could I have opened up by bank account without them seeing all of this in the first place? She then tells me that they have the documents, but it’s in the file. “So go get the file!”, I say. “It’s in head office, I don’t have access”, she replied. “But you KNOW it exists otherwise I wouldn’t have an account right?”, I ask. She looks at me with NO emotion. (Oh I should mention this is all in City Center branch).

I get so frustrated but finally I cave. Fine! You’ll get the original, but I’ll send someone else to come in to show it to you. “No, I need you to give it to me as I need to witness you signing the request form”. I asked if she could just witness me NOW and then have someone else drop of the CR and she says no. Now I’m furious. I don’t have time to sit at the bank all day! People have JOBS. So I ask to speak to the manager. The person in charge is this Qatari woman with a soft smile. I explain the situation and she’s as shocked as I am. The Qatari woman was sitting RIGHT NEXT to the the customer agent I was speaking to (with a divider between them). The woman then tells me to tell her that she said it was fine. “You’re sitting right next to her, can you tell her yourself please?”, I asked.

She gets up and then asks the woman to just witness me and that it’s fine to have someone else bring the CR. Finally, I’m going to get this stupid ATM card so that I can apply to have online access. What’s funny is that I can’t apply for the online access easily (which allows me to transfer 37,000 QR a day max, but I have authority to walk into a branch and transfer unlimited funds myself…. What LOGIC is that?!

Now, you think that this would be the end of my blog. Sit back and relax.

A week later I get a call telling me that they would NOT be issuing me with the ATM card because they need ALL the signatures. All the signatures…. I’m the only signatory for my company. They explain that need my father and my uncle’s signatures.

Now my company is a subsidiary of the parent company that my father and uncle runs but it’s independent. The official government document SAYS that I’m the only signatory for this company.

I tried to explain this all on the phone, but they ‘couldn’t do anything for me’. I had to go into the sheraton branch (where I originally set up my account in), and then talk to the branch manager to see if he could help me. Here’s the kicker. The Sheraton branch doesn’t exist anymore! They shut it down for a month now! QNB sent me to a branch that doesn’t exist! WHAT SYSTEM IS THIS?!

So I had enough. I tried to do things the RIGHT way. I hung up the phone, called the AGM of QNB and he sorted it out in 2 minutes. Why do I have to use Wasta for something like this.

Ok so you’ve read my story, I’ll leave it to YOU to decide whether you want an account with QNB for your company. Normal customers should be worried too, but I’ll explain why in another blog one day.

Al Dar frustrates the hell out of me and some of the other apartment owners. Not only is Zig Zag still not in the state that it was promised (underground parking has leaks and is filthy, ‘recreation’ area looks unfinished, the damn fire alarm still rings randomly, and elevator L1 is broken (door opens and shuts twice before allowing you to press the floor you want to go to), but now they think that they can do whatever they want in the building.

1) We’re supposed to vote for a new maintanence company and the owners/tenants still haven’t had a transfer yet (who wants to bet they want to try and keep the ownership? They’re making a fortune after all since they’re pocketing the money rather than actually spending it on the building).

2) They don’t do regular sweeps and companies keep putting their marking materials around

3) The security guards are just for show. They just sit there, allow cars to block the entrance and exits, and love just stare at you rather than greet you.

4) They cost cut at any chance they get! (all you have to freaking do is turn down the a/c by ONE degree Dar. ONE degree!

5) They think they actually have the right to tell owners how to live in the tower!

Let’s talk about my last point. I love rules that make sure that everyone’s happy but some of the things they do are ridiculous. I went to the pool today to be surprised at the fact that the filter isn’t on, the pool lights aren’t on (couldn’t find the switch), and was disgusted by the ugly flamingo peach walls they had painted as usual. On the door were a few notices by a company offering swimming lessons. At first I was annoyed that Dar allowed a company to advertise their services by sticking an A4 paper on the glass but then noticed another note by the same company. It was a list of rules for swimming in the pool. I agreed with many but a few just aggravated the hell out of me.

One rule said that guests had to get permission from the management before being allowed to use the pool. Wait what? I am expected to ask the management their permission if I have friends over? Screw that!

Another said that people with long hair (that’s relative but I’ll let it slide), have to wait bathing caps…

Another rule said that people were not allowed to swim solo…. So I guess if you’re living alone you’re pretty much screwed since you have to call the management and if they say no then the President has spoken.

Give us some damn seats to sit on by the pool! Give us some damn shade! Give us a tiny bit of quality!

Aha! So it’s Dar posing as another company? Did they set up another company just to make some MORE money by teaching swimming? PLUS they think that they own the pool? *sighs*

Anyway, I’m just biding me time. They’re not going to take over the building for another year. I’ll fight it with every bone in my body.

They already messed up a beautiful building and I can guarantee that I’ll never buy a property from Al Dar again. I advise you all not to either.

You know, sometimes I just don’t understand why there isn’t much thought or heart that goes into projects, especially multi-million dollar projects. Let’s look at the Zig Zag tower. I own 4 apartments in this project. Why did I invest? For a few reasons. I loved the design. It’s a unique building (the world’s tallest leaning residential structure), the views were beautiful, and the location was perfect (close to westbay and the pearl, but out of the way of traffic). Sadly it seems as though that’s the only reason to like it.

We’re now in 2010 and I’m still waiting on it to be finished. I’m going to list a few things that piss me off.

1) The garbage chute room is disgusting. I had to complain directly to Dar because some workers kept using it as a toilet and pissing on the floor! Why the hell would they piss on the floor?! It was cleaned but its filthy again and to be honest, even if it was clean, it still looks ugly. (Cement floor, peeling walls, dents in the metal chute).

2) The underground parking looks like a war zone! There are leaks all over the place, it’s dirty, there’s garbage on the floors, cracks all over, holes in the floor, the parking spaces are cramped, and three out of the four entrances are STILL closed….

3) They made us PAY for a parking spot. Does that make sense? The government should have FORCED them to give us one. The parking spots were 50,000 QR, it’s not like someone would own a place (or even rent) and not have a car in Qatar.

4) I’m still waiting for them to finish fixing issues with one of the apartments.

5) The building gym is smaller than my living room. The equipment is old and useless. It’s not a gym, more like a locker room!

6) I’m tired of smelling the neighbours food through the vents.

7) The quality of fixtures and tiles is poor. The marble floor is made of the cheapest marble money can buy.

The hallways look like a 20 year old hospital’s hallway.

9) The damn fire alarms go off 2 times a day for no reason! (Dar says “There’s an apartment with 12 indians living in it and they cook with fire”) What?! It’s against the law to have so many people in there and I DOUBT they’re cooking 24 hours a day!

10) Two to three elevators are always down for maintanence. TWO of them had a sign saying “Down for maintanence due to water leakage on electricity” FOR TWO MONTHS NOW! (It’s also scary that there’s water leaking into the electricity of the elevator.

11) The elevators were advertised as ‘high speed elevators’. They ‘were’ fast… now it looks like they’ve turned down the speed because it’s sooooo slow….

I ended up renovating my apartments so that they’d be at the level I had expected them to be.

Now there’s a few things to talk about besides what I mentioned.

1) Shouldn’t the government get involved to make sure this project is perfect? Why you may ask? Well if this is the first major residential project, if it’s a peice of crap, then won’t investors lose confidence in the quality of other projects?

2) Doesn’t the owner of the project care? If MY name was on it, I’d like people to know they can trust me; I’d like people to know that MY projects were all about quality.

3) Does the company that owns the project REALLY need to cut corners? I feel like the tower is already 10 years old!

I can go on and on… I’ll save my breath for later…

I’ll end this with saying that Zig means ‘to poo’ in Arabic. Zag means ‘Poo’ed’ in arabic. I’ll leave you to think of another word for Zig Zag.

Sorry but I just had to mention this. This is an example of an article written the “WRONG WAY”. This one comes from The Peninsula.

Source

Villa Gutted

Inmates of a villa in Al Hilal area had a providential escape as the part of a building gutted in fire due to a suspected short circuit, yesterday. It was a narrow escape for more than 20 resident living in the two storied villa.

Residents have noticed smoke emanating from a room in the second floor of the building at 7.00am and alerted the Police and fire fighters.

“Fire broke in side a room and smoke started spreading all over the villa around 7 in the morning. Every one was panicked and we quickly got out of the building,” said a resident.

“Fire fighters rushed to the spot which brought the fire under control within an hour and investigations have commenced,” he added. Extensive damages are caused in a room in the villa which has 10 rooms.

1) Title leads reader to believe that the villa was ransacked
2) Inmates? The article should elaborate or else the wrong word was chosen. I do understand how some people feel they’re prisoners in their own home though
3) Fire’s cannot ‘gut’. Gut means ripped apart. The correct title should be Villa Fire-Gutted (IMO)
4) Grammar of first sentence is appalling
5) 2 story villa not storied. (I was corrected. Thank you adey.)
6) 20 residents not resident
7) Residents noticed
“On the second floor” not” in the second floor”
9) The final quote from a resident is too formal which means that either the resident is an official (which I doubt) or the quote was made up (tut tut).
10) Tense changes throughout the whole article.
11) The final sentence should have been included in the first paragraph.
12) Police capitalised but fire fighters not.

So my dear friends, that’s an example of a poor article. I don’t understand how that one got past the editor…

Note: I am not simply ranting, I personally know the editor. She’s fantastic and is working amazingly hard to improve the newspaper. I believe that it’s essential for people to highlight flaws and mistakes so that they can be improved just as some users on this blog are doing! It’s the only way we can learn. I’m also not a journalist myself, just a normal reader.

Time to use some strong words here… I… LOATHE… Lexus Qatar.

So I went to them to fix my front bumper and hand in some documents. They told me they’d order the bumper, spray it all up and then call me so they could do it on the spot. Wow! That’s pretty good!

So I called up the next day to see what was going on (it was a Monday). The man tells me “give it three days, you kow what, in three days it’s Thursday, just give us the weekend too and we’ll call you on Sunday”. Wtf? Fine, I’ll give you until Sunday. Sunday comes.. nothing… I call… I get the typical ‘tomorrow, the bumper hasn’t been sprayed yet’. Wtf? Next day comes and I get a call 15 minutes before they close telling me to bring the car in.

They’re in the INDUSTRIAL area. They must know there is no way that I can get to them in 15 minutes, not even if I was their NEIGHBOUR with all the traffic. So I drop it off the next day in the morning. I’m told it’ll be done the next day because they’re busy. No problem. Next day comes and it’s not ready. Second day. Nope. Third day and it is.

I go to pick it up. The guy stays after hours for me because of the traffic. I felt greatfull for that. When I get the car back. It’s not clean. I shrug it off since that’s the typical service you get from them. I open up my boot to see that my bags have been ruffled and the zippers are open. I see that my glove compartment has been messed about and some of my photos taken. My side box has been shuffled through and they’ve actually thrown my papers about.

I had nothing to steal.. no wait.. they did take 2 riyals and three packets of gum. I seriously have no clue as to why they would be stupid enough to shuffle through EVERYTHIGN and not put things back into place. It’s clear that they were actively searching it for stuff.

I tell the man handling it. He seems concerned but keeps repeating “That’s why we tell customers to take their stuff out the car.”. I reply with “That’s why you don’t hire theives and try to catch the rotten employees”.

He apologizes. I get into my car and drive off. Oh wait, I can’t! There’s 0 petrol in the car! Luckily there’s a petrol station near by. I floor it as my car starts to stutter. I throw it into neutral and glide into the petrol bay. Success.

Seems that Lexus also had a joy ride in my car.

Lexus Qatar? I hate you.