After being bombarded with FOREX ads all over the internet, it seems you cant dodge those ads anywhere you go even if you have any kind of Ad Block, I finally caved and decided to try this FOREX thing using virtual money (Practice Account).
One of the easiest and friendliest user interfaces seemed to be ETORO, having both novice and advanced modes. So long story short I tried it for few hours and gave it a long thought and I decided that its an interesting thing to learn more about before jumping on with real cash. Yet I later caved again and wanted to deposit some money but not to go crazy and try to take it slow.
The next day I get a phone call from ETORO middle east customer support, and I was amazed that he spoke Arabic, although talking about FOREX in Arabic was awkward but I had a long chat with him, and he kept going on and on how etoro is the best invention on the net (ya right), I didn’t mind it as I was eager to know more although I knew he just wants to make a sale.
Everything was fine until I asked him a question about money transfers via credit cards and PayPal and if they support it and so on, the second I mentioned PayPal he went crazy, and asked me what’s my nationality I told him “I am Jordanian”, so he went mad again and started insulting all Jordanians!!! that we are cheap and etoro is not for “my” kind of people!! So I taught him a lesson on how to treat future customers and ended the call.
Just minutes before his call I was thinking seriously to deposit $500 dollars to try it out, and also to try the “Islamic” accounts, but after that unprofessional rude unacceptable treatment how can I do so?? Few days later I am chatting with a friend and FOREX came up and he told me nearly the same thing happened to him too!!
What is wrong with these people? Are they expecting FOREX professionals to talk to them? or are they expecting new users to deposit thousands of dollars from the first try? Their whole pitch is that they are user friendly and that their system is “EASY” for beginners?! Actually their minimum deposit is $50 US Dollars. Although I think etoro is an attractive and simple system yet they really need to seriously filter their customer support employees for the middle east and employ those who are pro and who knows how to effectively and respectfully communicate with their customers.
July 24th, 2009
The latest promo on MBC:
I can see the MBC network executives pulling their hair now, but no one can blame MBC, no one could have predicted this kind of chaos. Fight after fight year after year and it never ends, an actor/actress is leaving or being removed, some even being offered big bucks to move to other series !!! The fighting even reached between fans who are now in two or more teams, those who blame the director who is controlling everything now as a producer and those who accuse the actors to be troublemakers for asking more money, Yes this is the level it reached to?!
Bab El 7ara is the series that was reminding us of the beautiful old simpler times, pressing on going back to traditional values, good manners and bravery in a society that is so polluted in our current days. How can I believe the actors in their roles any more now after seeing all what is happening in behind the scenes??
Yet MBC will still be profiting hugely from “Bab Al Hara 4” this year and the 5th season next year. I believe even if MBC just show a black screen with the words “Bab El 7ara” written in Arabic on it will be enough to catch millions of gazing glued eyes.
The first two parts of “Bab El 7ara” were too good that anything coming after that would find a gigantic audience, we all know if “Bab El 7ara 3” was shown first no one would care to follow it. It is being speculated that this season is well written and will avoid amateur mistakes that happened in the third season. I guess we can only wait and see.
And here is the “Making of” segment in the MBC Morning Show:
July 24th, 2009
On my clock it was 2:49 AM when I felt the tremors in my room, I was reading my favorite blogs and I felt the bed shaking and then I looked at the mirrors in front of me and they were shaking, although these kind of tremors became more normal during the past few years, yet I still do freak out and panic whenever they happen because I keep wondering if this could be the BIG one.
As usual I quickly went to the USGS website to check what happened but it was still not reported, then I checked twitter where I found couple of people asking the same question I had, DID YOU FEEL IT?
Maps after the jump…
View My Saved Places in a larger map
May 8th, 2009
At first I would like to thank all those who emailed and asked what’s wrong, and why ibrahimo.com lately is not as usual. Well I had couple of issues before and during the holy month of Ramadan, and then after Ramadan by around ten days my Toshiba Qosmio G30 stopped working properly, the screen would melt (as seen in the image) just after few minutes from booting. Later I find out it was the Nvidia video card which is embedded on the motherboard. After calling Toshiba (Al-Futaim) here in Dubai I gave them my notebook’s model number and an explanation on what was happening, and they quickly and over phone told me what was the problem, they told me they needed around a week to order the card from Germany!!
That was not the funny part though, I could not stop laughing when I was told that if I had warranty for one year it would be expired by now and I will need to pay something between 3500 to 4500 thousand dirhams!!!!! The notebook itself cost me something like 6500 thousand dirhams. So later I found that I was covered til 2010 and the repair will be done for free.
I was not posting on the blog as normal during the past 3 months, this blog is still considered semi-personal, I will post my views and opinions on Technology, Sports, Politics and TV. New improvements will be implemented soon. So stay tuned…
October 25th, 2008
I became suicidal today, yes, this was the worst 2 hours dealing with customer support in my life. I call customer support of many companies, there are great ones and there are bad ones, DU is simply THE WORST.
Two Hours and I still did not get any info. Yes, I repeat I have spent two full hours and I still did not deal with my issue, I did not get any info, at all. The thing started when I got the "DU Call Select" device, I think they call it "Autodialer", am not sure. The phone number which was printed on the device and in the manual was 800155, so, silly me, I called the number and chose the Arabic language, after that I waited and waited and waited and…. you guessed it WAITED. I tried my luck in the English language hoping some human might answer and I waited and waited and oh! I suddenly heard a voice, could it be a human voice I said hello and the employee said hello… YESSSS!! At Laaaaaaast….
My dream came true and I reached someone and when I asked the first question he said "please wait" and the same obnoxious music started playing AGAIN, he didn’t even wait for me to say a word. I was thrown from one employee to another, don’t forget that until this moment I still did not ask any important questions this was only me starting a conversation. Anyway, eventually I reached another employee who was shocked why I am stressed and shouting, I told him why I was pissed and he said "oooh! you called the wrong number, you should have called 04-3905555" those are the ones who deal with landlines, but I made it perfectly clear I did not want help in "DU Land Lines" I want help in "Du Call Select" which has a device that when connected to regular (ETISALAT) landline you can call in DU’s rates.
He totally ignored my point and told me he is 100% sure that calling 04-3905555 will end my problems. So I called the number and after chatting for couple of minutes the lady tells me that they are not the ones who deal with this service and they deal only with DU Landlines and broadband and TV!!! So… She gives me another number, I call them praying that they can actually help or even answer my first question, but when I call them the guy says "Oh, I guess you made a mistake…", so I tell him "Don’t tell me that this is the wrong number, please do not give me another number", he laughs and say "well if you want help you should have called the number printed on the device, 800155"!!!!. I hangup, and laugh hysterically, non-stop tears run out of my eyes and I keep on laughing for around 15 minutes until I get myself under control and decide that this should be shared with my blog visitors & subscribers.
I think it is really a big big SHAME that a company such as DU has this low quality customer support, I believe that 800155 should be able to help current or potential customers in any matter ever, I like Etisalats new approach where calling 101 will lead you to each and every aspect and departments of the company. I am not saying that Etisalat customer support is fantastic but for sure they are million times better than DU. I also think that with DU not having such a great mobile service as everybody actually keeps complaining on the weakness of the network and mainly how crappy the reception is, I would have thought that they would be having a better customer service . Thank God that I do not have a DU card, my father and brother got it and they keep on having nervous breakdowns at least once a week.
Note: Please share any of your positive or negative customer support experiences with any company, especially Du or Etisalat.
October 8th, 2008
I thought, like others, that Bab El 7ara Part 3 or Season 3 like some likes to call it, is the last one and the door will get closed. But those behind the series finds a great opportunity especially that the viewership of the third season did not decline, so now they have decided to produce two new seasons to be aired in 2009 and 2010. What does the director Bassam Al Mulla wants exactly, he wants us to see the grand grand sons of the series characters?
Bab El 7ara is getting more than it deserves, those who used to say that they wont watch the 3rd part because of 3abbas El Noori are actually watching, they want to know what happens to the other characters. If this goes on we could end up seeing Bab El7ara 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10, Until we reach to the current time. How long will they stretch this, I don’t blame them they found the chicken which will lay golden eggs.
September 12th, 2008
Twitter, the pioneer in micro-blogging which now have hundreds if not thousands of clones all around the globe, was always blocked in UAE, don’t ask me why, while other clones like Pownce and Rejaw stayed available. Twitter is not the only blocked website that puzzled people, many other websites that got blocked had alternatives which was accessible and not blocked/banned such as Flickr and Photobucket.
It has been reported few weeks ago that more than 1000, yes ONE THOUSAND, websites will be unblocked/unbanned, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will be instructing Etisalat and DU to unblock the websites as part of a new “Internet Access Management” policy. For full info on this matter you can check this article from The National. Until now there is no list of what websites will be unblocked but I guess eventually we will be having a list either official or non-official during the next few days.
August 26th, 2008
Update: 24th of July 2009: Ramadan Series 2009: Bab El Hara 4 (Video)
Update: 11th of September 2008: Bab Al-Hara gets a fourth and fifth Season.
Update: I will try my best to show Bab El7ara here.. I had couple of problems the past 5 days, will be blogging soon. MBC changed the Schedule to 11:00pm Dubai time. thats 7:00pm GMT. More to come soon.
Everybody is waiting for Bab El 7ara 3, after two successful seasons in Ramadan 2006 and 2007 MBC saw an opportunity and jumped on it. They quickly struck a deal with the producer and director of the Syrian TV drama series and even before airing the last few episodes they announced Bab El7ara 3, and quickly created promos featuring the two stars of the series. But later everybody started loosing faith in the success of the 3rd season after it was officially announced on AlArabiya channel that one of those two stars "Abbas El Noori" was not going to be in the 3rd season and his character will die on the first minute of the first episode. Fans of the show got mad and bombarded all Arabic forums showing their anger on the decision which is believed to be taken by the director although he says it was the writer’s decision.
By the end of July 2008 new teasers of Bab El 7ara started showing on MBC and by mid August longer promos aired. Those fans who did not believe the news that "Abu Essam" the character of "Abbas Elnoori" got a clear confirmation that his character is dead.
Here are ALL Promo’s that aired on MBC starting from the oldest ad to the latest one:
August 23rd, 2008
A 35-article law includes all procedures concerning a mortgage in Dubai was issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The goal for issuing a mortgage law is to better regulate the emirate’s booming real estate sector.
According to Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, chief executive of Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority “the law is basically covering the mortgage procedures in Dubai”, this is an effort to protect the rights of lenders and borrowers and to improve transparency. The Mortgage law will come into effect after 60 days from its announcement.
The new law states that mortgage contracts must get registered with the “Land Department” of Dubai. The size of the loan, the repayment period and the value of the property must be specified. The law also states that the mortgages that are taken out on properties in Dubai can only be sold by registered financial institutions and also should be insured.
Full financial documents should be presented by the borrower and lender. “It gives more confidence to the lender and gives more security for banks” Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita said. Dubai started allowing foreign investors to buy properties in Dubai on a freehold basis in 2002.
Since then the mortgage business grew rapidly. Back in July Standard Chartered warned that the prices of the still under construction real estate will be inflated due to speculators in the market betting on quick gains.
August 21st, 2008
Previous Posts
Tremors were felt at around 3:00pm Dubai local time, at first I thought it was only me but I confirmed it with family and friends. It lasted few seconds, but sure felt as minutes. The source is a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Bandar Abbas in Iran. In Dubai tremors were felt most heavely in tall towers.
