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. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve had it. I’m going to sue Al Dar and ecovert and I’m going to sort out a petition

1) 1 and a half years later and they STILL haven’t paid me my penalty (for being 1 year late with handover). They keep lieing and saying ‘Oh the Sheikh is away, he’ll sign the cheques next week’. I wonder if the ‘Sheikh’ knows that Al Dar is making him look like a dishonest person. (I’m sure he’d be very upset that this is happening.)

2) 1 and a half years later and they STILL have the building falling apart, fixing cracks, dull marble, leaks, broken elevator.

3) They gave the services and maintanence contract to a company called ecovert. I didn’t vote for them. MY contract states that the tenants association would be responsible for voting for the company that takes over from Dar 1 year after hand over. I didn’t vote for ecovert. In FACT I’ve spoken to around 19 tenants who all said they didn’t either.

I don’t want ecovert. Their security guards SUCK, useless and RUDE. They don’t fix ANYTHING. Only good for digging holes in the underground parking and wasting water EVERYDAY since they have a burst pipe or something for the past 3 months. (Where’s the government inspections?)

All ecovert has done for us is paint the swimming pool area in vomit colour peach and put up a few cheap carrefour chairs.

4) The alarms go off DAILY. You’re telling me that it takes over a year to fix the damn problem? Their excuse to me was ‘There are indians living in the building that cook with fire’. Ok let’s say that’s true, you’re telling me that they’re cooking with fire at 3am in the morning? You’re telling me you can’t stop them or kick them out for health and safety risks?

5) The gym is pathetic and unhygenic. The equipment looks 10 years old, there’s no sheet that mentions when and who has cleaned the area. It’s also tiny! in fact! Ecovert has gone and taken TWO large offices right opposite of the gym that’s FOUR TIMES bigger than the gym.

6) My apartment still has issues which they keep on delaying or simply don’t take care of. (My main door looks like it’s covered in oil, marble is cracked, wall is cracking, hallway marble is dull, toilet pipes don’t flush well in one bathroom, oh and get this, my apartment has three television satellite ports, they installed a two way splitter so one room doesn’t have access to satellite!!

7) NOW FOR THE BIG ONE. Ecovert is so busy trying to make MORE money rather than fix the damn problem with the service fee that they got (By the way 1% of value of property. So avg of 1m propert X .1 X 750 = 7.5 million riyals a year). They have gym instructors (CLEAN THE GYM!), they have swimming instructors (GIVE US SOME DAMN POOL SIDE EQUIPMENT), they even tried to impose a rule that people can’t invite guests and have a ‘party’ without their permission (yeah right), and they even gave space to QTEL to open up a booth and put up roll-ups!!

BUT that’s not what I’m getting to! Now they’re covering up the Zig Zag with a giant advert! Yes! The one thing that was nice about the Zig Zag was the VIEW. Now they’re blocking it? They didn’t ask me if they could do it. I don’t want my window covered with a semi transparent vinyl coating. As soon as they do, I’ve going to open the window and rip it off.

I’m going to fight to get my penalty fee. I’m going to get rid of ecovert. They’ve messed with the wrong Qatari. Who’s with me?

Note: this is a note someone posted on the floors. At least there is someone else in the building with opinions and a brain.

(Sorry for the rant guys but I’m furious)

I’m very disappointed people… I work almost from the morning ’til night almost every day. It’s been very tiring -_-; However the day started with an awesome text message from my cousin. “Tekken 6 is out now! They released it early in Qatar before the rest of the world.”.

No way, I thought, Qatar… first…? I’m not complaining! So I rushed off to the store after work and bought it for 240 QR. Got home and was ready to play as my favourite Character Lei Wulong. My heart was torn out… they ruined the game… this is the SIXTH installment and they ruined it….

Now I’m a Street Fighter and Tekken Fan. When Tekken 5 came out they had already changed Lei’s moves a bit but I adapted easily, but with Tekken 6 they’ve near changed him into a completely different character. Circle, X then hold up used to do three triple acrobatic kicks in a row, now it’s Front, Circle, X, then keep tapping circle for example.

1) I don’t like the new menu
2) Most characters speeds have been changed (Lee is slower, Lei is slower, Bruce is faster, Gun Jack is TOO fast etc…)
3) Lei’s moves have changed! The essential buttons are no more… meaning I have to learn new combos
4) Theres a stupid new ‘Rage’ bar, that makes you stronger when you’re life is low meaning that a beginner can end up getting smashed, get rage, and then kill you…
5) Lei doesn’t kick people up high anymore for a combo unless you change your ground stance, which takes too long.
6) There are too many juggles
7) Seems like the only playable character is a Fat guy named Bob that moves faster than a ninja….
8) A stupid new character who’s head is a bomb, has jetpack wings, can shoot off her arms, and also eject a chainsaw…
9) The distance between characters is unmeasurable… you get hit even though the opponent doesn’t touch you ‘physically’….

I know I know, I usually talk about some important stuff… but this got to me… I hardly play games anymore but this was supposed to bring back memories

I’m on the phone right now.  Oh it’s alright I’m on hold again. I’ve been calling Qtel so that I can get them to sort out my Mobile Broadband.

Here’s a riddle, when is mobile broadband, not mobile broadband? Think about that one for a while. I waited on the phone for 15 minutes (my times are not exaggerated) until someone answered the phone. When I did get an answer, I explained that I was paying 400 QR for the unlimited package and had only downloaded around 6gb (in almost a month) and my internet speed was down to 800bytes (yes! 800 super fast bytes!). I was supposed to be getting 3g speeds 3.2mps. I wasn’t.

I couldn’t even stay connected to messenger without it disconnecting every few moments. I couldn’t even upload an image to change something on the website because it was taking so long.

So the guy tells me that he checked the system and everything is fine. What IS this ‘system’? QTel always talks about the ‘system’ like it’s some super omnipotent being…. “I don’t care what the system says, I’m telling you that it’s taking me 10 minutes to load up google.”. Alright sir, can you please check www.speedtest.qa ? (Qtel obviously thought ‘hey let’s set up a speedtest.net server and brand it). I did, it was telling me that my internet speed was 1mbit. NO FREAKING WAY. So I explain that it doesn’t make sense to test a server in Qatar, how many websites are in Qatar? Unless I’m going to be surfing Qtel.com.qa every day, it’s useless! I also found it strange that when I’m on the phone with the guy it gives me good speeds.

The guy explains that he can’t help me and that he’ll connect me to a technician. While on hold (for 10 minutes), I decide to re-run the speedtest. Guess what? 560ms ping and .08mpbs. Oh that’s more honest now. The phone is finally answered. It took me almost 10 minutes of repeating to explain to him that he’s reading me the manual for windows and that I was on a mac. Yep if you thought these guys were thinking, you’re wrong, they just flip to Chapter 9 “How to answer a question without knowing what’s going on.” and read it.

So the guy then tells me that I should try flipping to 2G. I don’t know how 2G is going to be faster than 3G but maybe he wants to test if it’s a 3G thing. Nope. Doesn’t work. So on minute 59 he tells me that today’s friday and that the network is being hammered. Wait what…? I ask him if every Friday was going to be like this and his response? “Was it like this last Friday”. I actually almost laughed a bit because his sarky response (I like sarcasm). “Alright, well I dont want to call back tomorrow and he says “it’s Saturday” and I call on Monday and he says “It’s September”.” So I ask the guy to put a note on the system so I don’t have to go over all of this again and again.

Problem? Solved? Nope. Just wasted an hour. Not like I have a life or anything right?

How long did my phone call last? 1 hour and 34 seconds.

I will soon be sharing a story about QNB and my experience with the company. It will just highlight my experience on my final days at working for the bank. Bare in mind though that I worked for a subsidiary called QNB Capital, which was independant and what I’ll share has no connection to.

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. Read the rest of this entry »