Notes from the Cape

My camera has had a small black spot appearing on the photos for a while, and it has taken me a while to take it in for repairs. I was expecting the agents to keep it for a few days or to send it to Canon for repairs.

So on Monday I finally took it in to Orms in Cape Town, and the person who assisted me was fantastic! He took the camera, had a quick look, cleaned the image sensor, and I had my camera back in about 5 minutes.

And on top of that, all at no cost!

Orms, 3 orchids to you and your staff for the great service. You have become my supplier of choice, and I hope many others!

You can find them here.

On Thursday I drove to George to visit a Toastmasters Club.

Yes I know – driving over 800km for a two hour meeting is a bit crazy, but it was important to me.

When I got to Riversdale, which is about 300km from Cape Town, I needed to stop and stretch my legs. Now, this stretch of the N2 is used a lot by holiday-makers, because it is the road to the Plett, Knysna and Wilderness resorts.

The petrol station where I stopped had a special patch of grass for the dogs to "stretch their legs", and a big bowl of water for them to drink from. In the "keep of the grass" attitude many places have, I am sure that many holiday makers and in particular their dogs are very grateful for this patch of grass.

I thought that it was a very small touch, but very considerate of them to do so. So Total Garage in Riversdale, thank you for your consideration, and althought I did not have any of our dogs with me this time, next time I may, and I will be sure to stop in.

Over the last couple of months, I built both a new desk for my study, as well as a new cd rack.

I usually goto Mica or Chipbase to buy the wood, and to get them to cut the wood. Well, a brand new De La Rey hardware shop recently opened near my house, so I thought that I would give them a try.

So, on the Friday I went off to the shop, with my cutting list eagerly clutched in my hand. They had exactly the wood I was looking for, so I left the cutting list with them, and I was told the wood would be ready on the Monday. By the Wednesday, I was still waiting for the wood, and I asked the manager what was taking so long, and I was told by them that I had only dropped off the cutting list on Monday – not on Friday, and I had to wait a few more days.

"No, I dropped it off on Friday"

"Impossible – it only went in on Monday"

"Are you calling me a liar – shall I show you the till slip with Friday’s date on it?"

…and so on…I had already paid for the wood – none of the shops will cut the wood before you pay, so I was stuck with them.

Eventually, they promised me the wood on Thursday – which I collected.

When I started working on the job, I found that not only were a few pieces cut incorrectly, but they had put edging on some of the wrong edges!

Even worse, they couldn’t even cut the wood to the correct size – two planks of the same size were about 2mm different in width! Now this might not seem like a large amount, but the bench saws are very accurate, and this is a huge problem when you are trying to get all your edges to line up (you can see in the picture above).

The also did not cut the boards correctly, in that they splintered the edge of the chipboard. A good bench saw should not do that.

Next time I will goto Mica or Chipbase – you guys know what you are doing!

So, De La Rey – here are your onions!

Last week, I bought a new car. Part of my insurance arrangement is that I need to have a satellite tracking device installed in the car. I found out that it would be cheaper to install a brand new system from Netstar (the competition) and take up a contract with them than it would be to remove the Tracker unit from my old car and have it installed into the new car.

So, I telephoned Tracker to arrange to have my contract cancelled, so that I could go ahead with the Netstar installation. Tracker asked my why I was canceling, so I told them – the installation fee from Netstar was much less.

Without blinking, Tracker asked me if they arranged to remove the Tracking unit from my old car (on the same day), and to reinstall into the new car the next day, would I remain as a customer? This seemed reasonable, so I said yes.

About 10 minutes after speaking to them, the Tracker technician telephoned me to arrange to move the unit, and as promised, it was removed from my old car that afternoon. It turned out that the old unit was now outdated, so they installed a brand new tracking unit into my new car the very next day (as promised), 24 hours after the initial phone call.

This is outstanding customer service from Tracker, and service that all companies should strive towards. They were about to loose me as a customer, and they did everything reasonably possible (without question) to meet my needs.

Tracker – well done – here are your orchids.

Incidentally, I completed the online application on Netstar’s website about three days ago, and I am still waiting for them to contact me – so you have been awarded a single onion.