A Scenario at Bank Muscat

Its another annoying day. I went to my bank to get my captured card that has been lying somewhere in the bank for the fast two weeks and still the response of the customer service there is negative. They are still not having my card. The funny thing was, the guy from the bank doesn’t know why the card is taking a lot of time to return back to them. He was saying it will should have only taken ten days to get the card back. He checked and told me “This are all the cards that we have”, showing me a bunch of card from his drawer, “and I don’t know where is your card”. Wow, that sounds like a very good service, how does a bank will not know where there products are?

Well another day was wasted, I need to go back to work for I just took a break especially to go to my bank. I need to get some money luckily I have another account which is also from that bank. I went straight to their ATM machine lying outside their branch. A group of laborer were there figuring out how to use the machine. I wait their patiently until my turn came, which took quite a while for this laborer does not know how to operate the machine and they need to help each other. Ok my turn came, one guy from behind suddenly came and tried to go first before me, I went straight to the machine ignoring the guy. While processing my transaction, I took a glance on the guy which I found that his face seems to be disturbed. Who cares? I got my money and when I tried to walk away from the machine the guy came and ask me something that I didn’t understand, I assume that he was saying “it’s ok I use the machine now?” so I say “ok I’m done”, I’m about to leave and again he showed hand to me pointing to the machine, then I came to understand the he need some assistance. Yes, he don’t know how to use the machine! Even tough I’m a little bit annoyed and having a bad day , I stood there and teach him how to use the machine. Then he said “I tried it many time but I cannot do it”. He was trying to withdraw a big amount which the machine cannot dispense at one time. So told him to do the withdrawal of several transactions cause the machine has a limit on dispensing the money. While doing waiting for the machine to finish processing I look again at him and wonder how come he is having this big amount of money for he looks so ordinary and he doesn’t even know how to take his money from the ATM. I was surprised when he talk to me again, it seems that he understand why I’m looking at him. He told me “my mother died and this money came from my country to send her back”. I felt something strange and began to feel sorry for the guy. Now I understand why his face is so sad. I so glad to be there to help him and all my anger for the day went away.

Great Customer Service from Nawras

Another great service from Nawras, Oman's number one 3G internet provider. I forgot to switch of my internet connection before leaving to office. 3G internet is charging as per the bandwidth usage. I left the computer streaming on some internet radio that for sure will consume a lot of bandwidth. I immediately call the customer service and ask for help. Friendly customer service has disconnected my connection and I am so happy and fully satisfied with the service Nawras is providing to me. If you have the same case for Omanmobile or omantel, or let say you are having any problem with your internet connection, try to call them and ask for help, you will be very lucky if you will be able to speak to someone who will really understand your problem and not to pass you around with all the other agent who also do not know what is happening around.

Nawras Rewards

Nawras is offering rewards for all subscribers across the Sultanate of Oman, simply send a message from your mobile to 90500 and get the discount information that you will get from Nawras rewards partner and present such SMS to them to claim the discount.

SMS service is cool but for me the best way of getting rewards is by presenting your card and not a message from your mobile. I beleive it is more appropriate. But the good thing about the rewards is that common stores have partnered Nawras for the reward services such as Fono(a good choice to buy mobile phones) , Papa Johns (a good choice to buy pizza), Barista (a good choice to chill out with a cup of coffee), Spicy Village (one good restaurant here in Oman). The point there is that you can claim your rewards from this common stores where you ussually do your things. Unlike the other reward programs where all the partners will be those who's brand will cost you a fortune where you will event bother to enter the store.

Emirates Refinery Company (ERCO) Manufacturing unit near Khalid Port in Sharjah, UAE

A fire broke out at 2:20AM, Saturday September 20, 2008 at the ERCO (Emirates Refinery Company) manufacturing unit located near Khalid Port in Sharjah. Black smoke can be seen from the factory premises as seen on the picture above.


It is believe that the fire started from a garbage bin. Inside the factory where tins of oil ghee and margarines that causes the fire to spread rapidly and cause big explosions. Luckily there were no reports of any casualties fir the factory wahs evacuated immediately as soon as the fire was detected. THere are around 150 employee that is working for the company and the estimated lost is around 8 Billion Dhirhams
Fire fighter for sharjah has completely close Khalid port due to the incident

A Construction site was on fire in Sharjah UAE, September 17, 2008

A Construction site was on fire in Sharjah UAE, September 17, 2008

Factory catches fire near Khalid Port in Sharjah UAE early morning of September 20, 2008

Factory catches fire near Khalid Port in Sharjah UAE early morning of September 20, 2008

Yahoo Messenger Voice is still blocked in Oman?

Omantel is doing some upgrade on their system and until now voice chatting is not possible anywhere in Oman. Blocking such service is not a good move and does not help their market. People are subscribing for fast connection to enjoy fast services. High percentage of people who use a DSL connection at home are for voice chatting purposes. Downloading is just a second mostly used service of a DSL connection. If voice chatting is not availble why will you go for a fast connection. If you need to browse the net you can you a normal dial up connection cheaper but effective.

Nawras Rent a modem for use of 3G internet across the Sultante of Oman

Nawras Rent a modem, another great offering from nawras. If you are visiting Oman and need to have a temporary access for internet and you want it to be on a high speed. Nawras rent a modem if perfect for you. You can now rent a E220 modem Nawras modem from the airport, provided that you are having a valid credit card with you. Visa card holder will enjoy up to 14 days and mastercard holder will enjoy 7 days of broadband connection using the rented modem from Nawras.

For more information about the service please visit

http://nawras.om/rent_a_modem.shtml

Nawras Introduces the 7.2 Mb speed for Broadband 3G Internet

Along with the commitment to give a good service to the customer. Nawras has launch a new Package for surfing the Internet. They are now offering internet surfing for an amazing speed of 7.2 Mb for 99 Omani Riyal. Package includes 30 GB of free bandwidth and 3 Omani Riyal per usage outside the free. If you can reach the speed of 7.2 Mb as mentioned on the ads.this package is the best for very heavy internet users.

Nawras has a new Pricing Plan for Unlimitted 3G Internet

Nawras has change their unlimited 3G internet from 5 Omani Riyal to 3 Omani Riyal. This is a good move from nawras for the 5 Omani Riyal pricing is too much and will not attract much of the market. This analysis must have been brought by their previous promotion of getting unlimitted internet for 3 Omani Riyal sometines in June and July. After the promotion the usage might have drop down. Now we can enjoy unlimitted broadband for a very cheap price anywhere anytime across the Sultanate of Oman.

Bank Muscat Cash Deposit Machine in Al Khoud Branch

Bank Muscat Easy Cash Deposit Machine is a very good service provided by the bank. It makes life so easy for customers and avoid long queue on normal busy day. The Easy Cash deposit machine is working 24/7, should be! but Bank Muscat Cash Deposit Machine in Al Khoud Branch is not. I wonder why everytime I will go there, the machine is offline, hanging or by any means out of service. Everytime i will try to deposit on that specific machine I need to come back for the second round hoping the machine is already working. I am just lucky that I live near the machine and I can come bact at anytime. But how about those who does not?

Facing problem with Bank Muscat

I've been an good customer of Bank Muscat and made all my financial transaction from them. Recently I've received a call from Bank Muscat customer service asking for some of my details. The funny thing there was he wants to know if I have use my card in other country because they are facing problem and need to verify things. From that day onwards I am afraid to use my card and I became paranoid about my money on the bank. I am now thinking of shifting to another bank Oman Arab Bank maybe. I feel that bank muscat is not a very secure bank. I am still observing what will happen but as a precaution I withdraw most of my money from there, until I feel the bank is ok.

A big Ad for Omantel Services, Service is unavailable

Omantel, Oman Telecommunication Company of Oman, has launch their new packages for Home and Business packages, cheaper price for more services. It is amazing and a big help for people who need the services mentioned in the new packages, this is if those services mentioned in the ads are available.

We had a 2Mb Business plan with 5 mailbox included. Installation went fine and everything was fine. Until the time comes that we need to setup the rest of the 5 mailbox mentioned in the packages. We called 1313 and ask how we can setup the rest of the mailboxes for 1 mailbox was setup by default with the service. Surprised with the response from the customer service they doesn’t know about this feature please go to the nearest Omantel counter. With full disappointment from the customer service desk 1313, we went to Omantel counter and ask for the additional mailbox, from there, we hear another shocking answer, this service is NOT AVAILABLE now but if you want this to be activated please go to the Al Khuwair head office and request it from there. We asked the guy from there why it is advertised, and he replied “I don’t know”. Another great disappointment we try to contact Omantel Head office in Al Khuwair, luckily we was able to talk to the technical guy and got the information “we cannot activated this service as of the moment please try to contact us later on” Unbelievable advertisement from Omantel.

Omantel 1313 Helpdesk?

Omantel, Oman Telecommunication Company is facing a lot problem and a lot of complaints lately due to the upgrade process of their systems and servers. To solve the problem they are offering a helpdesk that will help people to solve the problems. Just dial 1313 and you will be connected to friendly Omantel helpdesk agents. Being friendly is much appreciated and I thank Omantel for providing that. But in line with the work, these agents should be having correct and precise information to answer to each complaint they will receive. Have you tried to contact 1313? What can you say? I’ve deal with them for several times regarding several issues and I would say that they mislead me for several times as well.

Here is one of my bad experiences with them. My company is having a 2Mb connection for 95 Omani Riyal monthly charges. Suddenly the bill came to us for a 4Mb Omani Riyal Package for 195 Omani Riyal. Surprised with the bill I called the service desk 1313 connects to billing help desk and asked what happened. Can you guess what the person on the other line told me? “We don’t know, this is your bill if any problem goes to customer service”. Go to customer service? Aren’t they are the customer service? Where shall I go then? Unbelievable!