Facebook Year in Review

i saw this article somewhere on the net about Facebook's new year-end gimmick:

http://time.com/3647800/facebook-apologizes-year-review-post-pain/

and i can't help but react on this man's rant. well, first, i am sincerely sorry to learn about his loss. i know it's something any of us would never want to go through. but to rant and complain about one of FB's marketing gimmicks, well, i personally think one just shouldn't be facebooking at all if things such as these offend him/her or causes grief. 

i mean, come on, there've been a lot of times that FB has invaded on people's privacy (the fb messenger, for one)... and yet, these people continue to be on FB. i mean, sure, we do get offended each time any of the things we post are taken or get used for whatever purpose without our consent. but then don't we also know that anything we post on the internet would somehow, somewhere eventually end up posted or used where we don't want it?

anybody that has a problem with that should just stop facebooking, or subscribing to any social media network and posting stuff on the internet.

and yes, FB's Year in Review is fun for some people. why be a killjoy about it? if u don't like it, you have the option to just simply hide it from your timeline (i haven't checked if you can just delete it, i do know you can hide it, though). i have it on my timeline but i'm not into it because like the man who complained, my year hasn't been great and to post something that implies otherwise just felt wrong to me, so my FB Year in Review is on my timeline but can only be seen by me). and i also know for a fact that while you can not edit its content (the photos included on it) on fb mobile app, you can do so on a regular pc, laptop, or notebook. if you don't like what's in it, you can hide its visibility on your timeline until you have the time or get the chance to log in to your pc, edit it, put whatever photos you want in it, then share the post with your friends or with whomever you wish. 

it's good that Facebook has been gracious enough to apologize to the grieved man. 

but if it didn't, i still wouldn't be bitching about it.

just sayin'

Nightmare with SFR Red

i know i haven't blogged for a looooong time, but i just need to vent my frustration at SFR. they have this cheap subscription plan called SFR Red, and to be quite fair, their network coverage is good. it is. but the customer service is unbelievably and unforgivably bad.

i lost my mobile phone three weeks ago. and since this is a 100% online-only service, the only way you can have your line suspended is, you guess it, online. but their website is always down when you get to the "report theft and suspend your line" section. and since i had no phone, and i lost it during the weekend, i had to wait two days before i can finally borrow a phone from a friend using the same network provider to call their customer service hotline (which isn't really a hotline because you can call them only from 8AM to 10pm monday to saturday).

so, finally, i was able to call customer service, tell them about my concern, asked my line to be suspended (my sim card had no pin, so the thief could use my line to call anywhere he/she wants, for as long as he/she wants), and ordered a new sim (which isn't free and cost me 10€ on my next bill). i gave them precisely my phone model, so they would send me the correct size of the sim card. the customer service bragged that they would send me a card that is pre-cut for all mobile phone models.

i waited two weeks. two weeks. after that two weeks, i called them again to ask where my sim card has gone and why it was taking too long. i was told the sim card was sent the next day after my first call. so i waited another couple of days. still, no new sim on my mailbox. on my third call, i was asked to just go to any SFR boutique and buy my sim card from there. i was supposed to pay 10€ upfront for the card, and another 10€ again on my bill (which the customer service agent said will be reimbursed on my next, next bill).

i had no choice but to agree, since it's been nearing three weeks that i don't have my telephone line. and i was assured over the phone that i could do that, get a new sim from a boutique, as long as i pay for it. but when i went to an SFR boutique i was told there that they couldn't give me a new sim card because, at the boutiques, they don't have sim cards that are compatible with the subscription that i have (the online subscription), and that i could only get it online. i tried three more boutiques just to be sure. they all told the same thing. and they're not even helpful. they told me, "well, you took the plan that's 100% serviceable online". As if being a customer of SFR RED doesn't make you an SFR customer. As if SFR Red isn't even from SFR.

so again, i called up the customer service, using a friend's phone. and finally, we just agreed for them to send me another sim card. and then i found out they have my address wrong. so that was probably why i never received the first one that they were supposed to have sent. and once again, the customer service agent on the phone bragged that the new sim card is pre-cut to cater to all phone models.

it took me four days before i finally received the new sim. and when i did, i tried to activate it immediately. it's been exactly three weeks that i had no phone line. and again, the only wat to do it is online. imagine my dismay when, as i tried to activate it online, the activation page was asking for a 14-digit number at the back of the card. my card had 13. so again, i had to reach their customer service online. and asked how i can activate the new sim. imagine my new frustration when i was told that i was sent the wrong sim card. that the one they sent me is a post-paid card used for internet subscription. not for a telephone line.

during all my calls, i have precisely told them under which plan i am subscribed to. and yet i was sent the wrong kind of sim card. i mean, wtf??????

so once again, i was promised to receive a new sim card in a few days. at first i was really, really angry. three weeks. three weeks for that. the agent said i will be reimbursed the full month payment on my bill. but it wasn't that that was making me so angry. it was the full three weeks of inconvenience of not being reachable by phone. and then of calling them numerous times, only to be sent the wrong kind of sim card for my subscription. how can they have sent me the wrong kind of sim card for my plan??? they're supposed to have on their records the kind of subscription that i have! and i found out, that they didn't even suspend my line in the first place the first time i called their customer service).

i know that i get what i paid for. i subscribed to a cheap plan, and so ofcourse i get the cheap customer service that they have. but still, it is unacceptable. having no physical customer service is cheap enough. but to have this kind of inconvenience on top of that?

i've been a customer of FreeMobile, which, really, have a great customer service, despite the fact that they're also an online-service only subscription. their online service is very efficient, and very fast. and you very rarely have any issues with Free Mobile that needs their customer service. but their network coverage is really bad, you lost network signal in some parts of a building, and poor coverage in some areas of the city. and despite having 4G, their internet signal is really very poor. i could say the same for the internet signal of Sosh (the cheap online subscription of orange), which i also subscribed to last year).

i have also subscribed to b-and-you (the online subscription of Bouygues Telecom, which, for me, by far is the best, in terms of network and internet coverage. i never lose signal anywhere, and once i've had to order a new sim card when my phone was stolen (yes, i do tend to have my phones stolen frequently in paris). i got my new sim card in just two days after my call. i just transferred to SFR Red because the phone that was handed down to me then was locked to SFR, and at the time, there was no way for me to unlock it).

so now i'm thinking of terminating my subscription the moment i receive my new sim card, and go back to b-and-you. atleast i never had any problem with b-and-you, nor with free, when it comes to their online customer service.

UPDATE:

after another week of waiting for the arrival of my sim card, it still didn't arrive. i went online again 7 days after my last contact with the customer service. guess what? they sent the sim card again to the wrong address that they had before. wow, really, SFR??? it's starting to seem as if they really have no intention of providing good customer service, even online.