Computer problems – a neverending story

A couple of days ago I blogged about the problems with my Apple Powerbook, and the very bad service I got. The problem has in the meantime been solved, but certainly not to my satisfaction. The Apple store in Hong Kong where I bought my Powerbook seems to have replaced the orginal harddisk when I bought the laptop (that is what caused the warranty problems when it broke down). Even though I called the store many times I never received an answer from them. They kept saying that they had to check with Apple and would call me back. The last call I made was last week Monday, when they told me they would call me back within one day. That is 10 days ago now and I still have no reaction. I already had a problem with them once before when they ‘forgot’ to install the airport card (wireless card) in my computer before shipping it to me. I will never buy an Apple laptop in Hong Kong at the Designer Group Company in Causeway Bay anymore. They claim to have received the worldwide best Apple store award in 1999 and 2000 – but they are not performing up to that standard anymore.

The Apple service center in Shanghai is not much better. They forgot to call me when they figured out what the problem with my computer was and I am still in conflict with them on how to compensate me for the problems they caused me (their current offer: a free keyboard cover and an bag). After two weeks without my computer I decided to switch back to Windows and bought a BenQ laptop. Nice computer, but of course not an Apple. The quality is just not the same, the laptop looks and feels cheaper and the specifications are much lower than my powerbook (only max. 512 MB internal memory to 1.25 GB for my Apple – even though my Apple is over a year old already). But it is quite nice to finally be able to use Windows only software like Gtalk, Google Earth and a regular version of Skype.

Anyway, the BenQ worked well for a few days… Until the mousepad started having problems and one USB port did not work correctly. I went back to the store, where they tested it but could not find anything wrong (in German this is called the Vorfuehreffekt – not sure if there is an English expression for it). So today I went to the service center. They wanted to keep my computer for 4 days for a detailed check, but I told them to first run a quick check. Luckily I did that, because it turned out there are some serious hardware problems. But they solved it nicely: tomorrow I will get a brand new computer (and my harddisk will be replaced so I do not need to reinstall all software). Apple should learn from them!

Counterfeit mobile phones

The Shanghai Daily reported today about a crack-down on counterfeit mobile phones in China, closing illegal phone markets in some of the major cities and regulated the second-hand phone market (how can you do that?). I normally skip this kind of reports, because it typically is a bunch of rhetoric statements that are not implemented anyway. But what struck my eye was the sentence that 25% of all mobile phones sold in China are counterfeit!

I wonder what counterfeit means in this context: do they copy the model and manufacture it at a different location, or is it actually the same phone but just not sold through official channels? Maybe this explains why my former Siemens phone did not work when temperatures dropped below zero (I used this phone while living in Beijing, so had a serious problem during the winter) or why my current SonyEricsson’s software is messed up (showing wrong names at missed calls for example).

Shanghai marathon start number

This afternoon I went to pick up the start number for the Shanghai marathon. Even though I wom’t be able to run it due to my injury, I wanted to pick it up anyway. I got a nice running shirt (not a normal t-shirt, but a special Mizuno shirt that keeps dry during running), a marathon chip, a book with info about the Shanghai Marathon and some sponsored things like chewing gum. In total there will be over 10,000 participants for the marathon, half-marathon and fun-marathon (4.5 km). Because I was quite late with signing up I expected a high start number, but it turns out I got start number 132.

When I looked at my name in the book I noticed they put me in there as being from Germany. A closer look revealed that there are only very few Dutch participants, but a lot of Germans with Dutch names. What happened? Everybody who wrote down Dutch as nationality was automatically put as German (Deutsch).

Picking up the number did not go too smooth: I waited for almost 1.5 hours, it went incredibly slow. Many people had questions and most people still had to pay a deposit for the chip. Furthermore many names could not be found due to misspellings (my name was written as Vanderchijs instead of Van der Chijs for example). I hope for the participants that the organization this Saturday will be better.

I wish I could particpate, but my ankle still hurts when walking so it is not smart to do it. At least I don’t need the crutches anymore. The doctor told me not to run for a month (if I injure my ankle again things will be much worse), but it is very tempting to give it a try anyway.

Freezing Harbin without water

Residents of Harbin, a 3.5 millon city in China’s northeast that is relatively famous for its yearly ice sculpture festival, will not be able to bath during the next 4 days. The reason is that the water has been cut off since last night and won’t be turned on until Saturday night, because of a leak in a petro-chemical plant that caused pollution in the Songhua river. The plant, located 230 km upstream in Jilin, had an explosion 10 days ago that killed 5 people. Strange enough no warnings have been issued over the past week for the cities along the river between Harbin and Jilin. Rumours are spreading in Harbin that people have been killed already by drinking the water.

Luckily for the residents the water was not suddenly cut off, so people could prepare for it by storing water. Also the city has several water wells that are not affected. Bottled water prices have tripled already, and some people are stocking up on large amounts of water. The heating system that also uses river water won’t be cut off. Considering the already freezing temperatures so far up north (daytime temperatures are around zero degrees Celcius at the moment) that is probably a good idea. But many people are staying in tents at the moment instead of indoors. Because of rumours that a major earthquake is imminent people are afraid to stay inside their homes. So far government reports that nothing will happen have not convinced people to return home.

Voicemail

Not only China Post is doing a bad job (see post below), but also China Mobile is not performing the way it should. Recently I suddenly had three voicemails. A bit strange, considering that my phone was on the whole time, and I normally have maximum one voicemail per day. So I listened to them and realized they were at least several days old! One was actually quite urgent, and the caller must have not been happy with me not getting back to him about it. Later that day I was talking to a business relation in Europe, who did not get back to me on some questions. He told me he left me a voicemail about them about a week ago. I never received that voicemail!

This is getting to the point that their unreliability might jeopardize business deals. I now consider switching off voicemail on my mobile, and getting a Skype phone number with voicemail (problem: no Chinese numbers available yet). Not the best solution, but better than not receiving voicemails! Who knows what other calls I might have missed?

China on a train & plane buying spree

China signed contracts for the purchase of 60 high speed trains from Siemens, and 70 Boeing ariplanes over the past days. The first 3 trains from Siemens will be imported, the remaining 57 will be built in China. This gives China plenty of opportunity to learn how to produce these trains themselves. The vice minister of railways does not even try to hide that by saying (quote from the Shanghai Daily):” It’s a small part of the construction of China’s high-speed railway. China will design and build its own 300-kilometers-an hour trains later.” China is still investing heavily in its overcrowded railway system.Over the next 15 years a total of 28,000 km of railway will be built. The total investment will be about 200 billion EUR, and this is more than China can currenlty afford.

The Boeing planes are all 737’s and they will all be imported. China has bought 534 Boeing airplanes over the past 20 years, the other major supplier is Airbus. For the next 20 years Chinese airlines plan to purchase an additional 2600 airplanes (but not all Boeing). As a comparison, currently China has about 800 airplanes, this will quadruple to about 3200 airplanes by 2025. It seems China is preparing itself for continuous high growth.

Marathon plan over…

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to get my bandage changed. The doctor still remembered me, not that many foreigners go to local hospitals I presume. My ankle was feeling much better, but I was surprised to see that it was still swollen and blue below the bandage. I asked the doctor once again about running, and now he told me I should not run for the next month. Until then I should be very careful not to hurt the ankle again.

That means my marathon plans for next week are definitively off. I will probably still pick up my start number, but I am not sure if I will even be able to watch the runners if I cannot participate. Feeling a bit depressed because of not being able to run. The daily 1-2 hours on the treadmill had become a bit of an addiction, and suddenly stopping all activity is more difficult than I imagined.

China Post

This morning when I turned on my mobile I had two missed calls from a Shanghai local number. So I called the number back, and it turned out that it was a local post office. I asked why they called me, and gave them my address to make it easier for them to find it out. They checked and then said that they did not call me. I told them I had a call from them twice on my phone, so someone must have been trying to reach me. The person who had answered the phone bluntly told me I had called the wrong number and hang up on me.

Not very happy with this ‘service’, but curious to know why they called, I called back again. Same person on the phone. Once again he did not want to talk and hang up. One more try, and once again the same guy. This time he was kind enough to transfer me to a more patient colleague. I explained the story and he also said they did not call us. He said that his office was at Nanjing Dong Lu which is not Nandan Dong Lu where my house is, so I must be wrong.

Then I realized that maybe the translation of Nanjing and Nandan may have gone wrong: in China if you receive mail from abroad someone translates the address into Chinese characters, and that may have gone wrong. So I asked them to check. Reluctantly they did, but came back with the answer that there was no mail for me. They asked for my Chinese name, because they cannot handle foreign names, but I told them that I never use my Chinese name for mail. Not being able to help they hang up again.

A few minutes later I realized that the Nanjing Dong Lu post office area might also include my office address. So I called back once again. After some pushing they finally decided to look one more time, and Eureka: there was a mail for me at my office address. I can pick it up within 5 working days. Glad I insisted on calling them and looking for my mail, otherwise my mail would have not arrived. Maybe it’s an idea for them to be able to do a search on phone numbers as well? Great service China Post 🙁

Sprained ankle (2)

The pain did not get any less, and my foot started to get bigger and bigger, so I finally decided not to be stubborn and go to a nearby hospital (the YueYang Hospital, part of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine). As I have written before on this blog, Chinese hospitals are always an interesting experience, and this time it was similar.

Upon arrival in the hospital you have to queue for a ticket to see a doctor. I had to walk (or actually more ‘hop’) to the traumatology department, at least that was what the English sign said. I don’t think my ankle gave me a trauma, but it may have been a mistranslation, or a non-English speaking worker just missplaced the signs. Whatever, inside there were several patients being treated. Wounds were being cleaned all around me, not a prety sight. I only had to wait a few minutes before a doctor came. I took off my sock and was surprised to see that my foot had swollen even more and partly turned blue. The doctor thought there might be a fracture (broken bone), so he sent me to the X-Ray department. So Catherine, my colleague who went with me, arranged a wheelchair and pushed me there (and she lost control of the wheelchair twice – once I ended up in some potted plants – but that is a different story).

Upon arrival it turns out we had to pay a fee first, and had to go back to the main building. This took a few more minutes, but then I was allowed in. The room was a concrete bunker with an old X-Ray machine in the middle. It all looked a bit scary, especially the electricity lines that were laying uncovered on the floor! Pictures were taken quickly and 10 minutes later we were with the doctor again (quite efficient). He looked at them and told me nothing was broken, so I was quite relieved. Then he wanted to tape my foot, but we first had to pay for the material and the Chinese medicine that he put on my foot. So Catherine had to stand in line again. Total costs for consultation, x-ray and medicine was about EUR 16. Not too bad, in a foreign clinic in Shanghai that I went to once you have to pay USD 80 just to see a doctor.

Because I could hardly move I needed crutches, but the doctor told us they did not provide those in the hospital. The only way to get those is to go to a store and buy them, so that was my next mission. I was lucky, because the first store I went had them, and even a size which (just) fit me. Price: only EUR 14 for a new pair!