1/17/2016

WTF foodie moment 11: Orange Burger Patty

I see a sign of Wagyu beef burger patties at a popular butcher place in a popular market. They look a bit orange. I ask a 60+ female attendant:
>Do the patties have any condiment?
>>>>>No
> No? Any spice mixed in it?
>>>>>No
> So why do they look orange?
>>>>>They are not orange! 
> They look very orange to me.
>>>>> It is the lighting.

You know when you are being laid to, don't you? Just for the pleasure of confirming it, I bought a couple of these burgers. The fact is:
> They are orange. :).
> They have spices mixed with the meat, even though they are not hot. The taste of paprika was clear to me.
> They have condiments as the parsley was clearly visible at a distance :). 
>  I doubt there is any Wagyu in there. More a "Fagyu" meat and lie to customers.

One wonders whether there is a food inspector in the city willing to visit this market stall. Give me their number. I feel an urge to call.

Since when lying to customers brings any customer back? Since when being a liar earns the respect of anybody? Why do you believe that any person is going to swallow your lies? Why do you believe that believing your own lies isn't a psychological sign that you need to be treated and medicated adequately?  

I hope she gets a bit of her own medicine. She deserves it. My curse already has it.  WTF!!!!

1/14/2016

ProductReview Reviewing Site

UPDATED REVIEW NOV 2016
Well, sadly, this is another case of a site that appears to help customers to make informed decision and voice their frustration or joy with some services, and ends becoming a coveted platform to make money out of customers' reviews for marketing and business purposes. See for example the screen shot just taken recently. A person reviewing Ozsale, just with one review written, is featured on the front page of the site. Then you go to the Ozsale page within the site and understand why is that. They surely are paying for that, and, in a way, paying for the reviews with vouchers or prizes. See screenshot below and the notice at the top asking for reviews explains it all. Stinky...!
Product Review is really interested in having your reviews there, and in making your departure not easy or obvious. You have to go to the FAQ and look for a contact link to ask them to erase your account. Why not providing customers with a delete my account button? Oh, well, because some people don't bother to browse around to do that. Besides, when one deletes a review, this is not really deleted, it is just hidden, they say just in case you change your mind. Stinky! Stinky! ! 

If this wasn't enough, one of the abusers who popped up in my private email some time ago, had (and has) his account restored despite my reporting this subnormal twice. My reply to him was erased, no insult uttered was erased almost immediately. So  he must be linked in some way to the "staff". Stinky!

To this date, there is no precise information about the people behind the platform, who they are (names), how they fund themselves, or the coveted practices they practise in a supposedly customers orientated site.  That is BS! 

 I am getting sick of this customers helping sites.   


FORMER REVIEW 
ProductReview is one of my favourite reviewing sites online. 

THE THINGS I LIKE
> PR is a great forum to review products you use and see what simple reviewers, people like you and me, say about any product. I especially like and find helpful those related to electronics, household electrical machines, gas & power companies, phone & Internet providers, and removalist companies. I have used the site to discard products I needed to buy, to choose services I needed, to to comment on the good or bad of products I have used.
> They are not a social network just a consumers forum. No contributor rankings. No BS.  Reviewers are not used or manipulated by the site to promote any business or increment the number of reviews of any business. What a relief.
> Their posting guidelines are clear and extensive, and easy to see when posting.
> They have zero tolerance with spammers and trolls. Yai!
> They have representatives of mayor service providers in Australia replying to questions, or dealing with a problem you might have. This is most helpful. In fact, they have helped me in the past!
>  They check every single review before publication. If they think you are mixing potatoes with bananas, they will tell you, so you put things separately. This also weeds out crap, insulting, abrasive or toned-up reviewers and reviews.  
> They request proof of purchase for services when reviewing a service.
> The place is good  for both reviewers and businesses. The former can vent their frustration or excitement about a company or product, while the later can listen to what consumers say and improve themselves or the products they sell. I think it is a win-win situation.
THINGS I DON'T LIKE
>> Access to private emailing from members is given without giving the members the option to say yes or not to have it open. A little button letting reviewers to do that would be great. Once, I came across a delusional angry customer accusing me of being part of a company I reviewed positively. He could have commented on my review in public, but he came to insult me in private. I don't want this sort of scum emailing me at all. If I was given the option, I would not give access to private messaging at all. 
>> People can send questions to people who have posted reviews on a product. They are sent to all contributors. Tons of people join the site just to make a single question. Although some questions are understandable, most of them are unnecessary and bordering stupidity. The sort of "How do I?" that could have been answered by simply reading the back of the packaging. Other people ask about gadgets that seem no to work, but most of the time 1. they haven't read the manual of instructions to see if they are setting up the product correctly and the troubleshooting and 2. they haven't called the retailer from where they purchased their product to see if this might be a real defect and needs to be returned or just the customer not reading the manual of instructions. Besides, there are gazillion "deboxing" or "how to" of whatever product on YouTube to help you sort out small hiccups when first starting to use a new electronic.    
>> They have been working on the site to make difficult for you to completely erase your reviews and to cancel account. The delete erase your account is no longer existent, and erasing reviews is not permanent, and it is painful to do if you want to erase everything or most of it, as there is not batch handling of those reviews and the page display just a bunch each time, something that you cannot customise. One wonders why so much interest in keeping you there against your wish.  I think the next point has something to do. 
>> The site is a forum with no association to any of the services or products reviewed. That is fantastic. However, right on the site, there is a call for advertisers to target the viewers. They tell business things like these: "Advertise on ProductReview. Reach the most targeted audience for your brand!"  Or that they will be provided with, "An 'Official Website' button will link directly to your site, enabling you to track when a visitor turns into a customer."  I never see ads on my screen as I use an ads-free adds-on in my browser. It would benefit you to do the same. Forget those who say that you are destroying the Internet and those who pay for free sites. The Internet is using you anywhere everywhere, profiling you, using your data without your consent to target you as a target. Adds-free all the way. I understand that the site has to generate some income to keep it operative, that is great, but then, if businesses pay to advertise, the independence of the site is a bit between quotation marks.
>> Their zero tolerance to trolls seems a bit more relaxed now, a subnormal who abused me is back into the site, an abuser. I complained and nothing was done, so I take for granted that they tolerate and have not a problem with the way people behave in their site, or just that subnormal is related to one of the workers of the site.  
>> There is no feedback button to give feedback or direct way of contacting these guys. Unless you are a business and want to advertise!

THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED
 >  Their "About us" is too generic. We know already that this is a forum, that they have millions of visitors per week  and have appeared in the media. However,  I would like to know more, just for the sake of clarity.  Why? When? Who? created the site?  Do they have any connection with any Consumer Office? Choice Australia? How do they fund themselves? Who is the CEO?
 > Editing any review is a bit of a pain. I am a compulsive editor, so I can convey what I say in the best possible way. Every time you edit a text has to go through as if it was a new review. This is a burden for both parts involved. There must be some software out there to figure out if you have re-edited a bit or changed the review altogether, and to discriminate accordingly.
> If you write a new comment on the same product or service, the first one is erased. That is unnecessary and misleading for viewers. There is an easy way to keep both. You have an "update this review" option, and the new review of yours seats on top of the older one. That favours balance because in the past I complained about the phone service of a company that, for the rest, I think it is great and my previous review said that clearly. The only thing visible now is how bad their phone service is.
> Most people reviewing online in sites like these do so when something fails, when they are desperate, when they are frustrated, when something bad happened to them. However, the same people don't say a word  when things go well, when a product is great, or a service is awesome. In that regard, it is difficult to balance any reviewing site.
> Star systems are misleading unless they take into account several variables. Like/Dislike, quality, durability and so on. Personally, I think the five star is the worst possible rating option, 1-10 is more flexible and accurate.
> The Help Centre is too basic. 

 IN SHORT
This is the reviewing site I respect the most. Yet, it can improved and it is becoming more authoritarian by the month. . If they want to be independent, they should do something, be it!  But is all a big lie to get your reviews.

1/09/2016

Zomato Reviewing Site


I was really shocked when Urbanspoon was absorbed by Zomato because I thought the former was quite a balanced site, and equally favoured businesses and foodies. Besides, their app was fantastic and it has a good name out there. 

Zomato has never reached the same level of balance as Urbanspoon had, even though they have improved a lot in the last year. Although I'm not a business owner, I'm not sure that Zomato is that good for business or for foodies who are not interested in being part of a social network. Yelp does a better job to pamper foodies and to create a Yelp community that is healthy and awesome, at least in its inception in Perth WA.

Zomato, nevertheless, is a great place to post or find reviews on restaurants and cafes, find recommendations and discover new restaurants in many countries. Generally speaking, this is the place where you will find the most foodies.  

Zomato's website and app are great, very pleasant to the eye, very easy to browse, and very well organised, with many filters to search for restaurants by  neighbourhood, type of cuisines, type of food, food by time of the day, and other features. They also have a few collections (listings) of restaurants, the most interesting being the "newly-opened" and "trending this week." They have a huge amount of photos, mostly contributed by reviewers, so you can see in advance which sort of food you are going to find, how the restaurant looks like and what you can expect.

Zomato has a stronger presence than Yelp on Google. If you look up the name of the restaurant, and Zomato and Yelp are in a given country, Zomato references will pop up first, sometimes way first, than those of Yelp. In that regards, it is better for businesses.  

However, Zomato has been getting into my nerves due to a series of issues that don't favour any online platform. I consider some of them unacceptable. Let's spill the beans:
> Their website and app aren't always synchronised and some functionalities are great on the app but not on the website, or vice versa. For example, the search tool in the app does not allow you to search by neighbourhoods from your current set location, something that you can easily do through the desktop/browser version. Also, the search tool is not always accurate. I have found that a restaurant that I had bothered to list was already listed there but had not appeared in the look-up in the app and website.  Also your own collections do not show in the browser but are recorded in the app.   
> The place has been highly commercialised in a direction that I don't think benefits the site long term:
  •  O  Recommended paid restaurants popping on the screen, as recommendations. Also you receive offers directly from the businesses when you bookmark a business. I remove the bookmark as soon as I notice. An offer is great, for sure, but if you go there with a printed offer or just mention it, their behaviour will change for you, the reviewer, so that you leave so happy that give them high ratings. This is understandable, but also very manipulative. 
  • O  They are also offering takeaway from specific restaurants, which you can order through the Zomato app. I consider that OK per se, but a bad move for Zomato, as you can find specific takeaway websites and apps that do just that in many cities and countries. In a way, they want to cover so much that they are getting confused and losing their purpose. And, to be honest, I am not sure if these businesses are benefiting.
  •  O   An Uber link appears now in the page of each single restaurant. If I wanted to take an Uber I would download the app and use it myself, without the need of having it "suggested" every single time I visit the page of a restaurant in the Zomato app. Can't we use public transport, please, which benefits Society in general and not a Google boosted money-making company that does not pay taxes in most countries? Wouldn't be more sensible having our city's public transport app integrated there? 
  • O  The lists and collections used to be a lovely feature of Urbanspoon. They were made by locals who know their cities and their eateries inside out. The collections displayed on the Zomato's front page nowadays are those made by Zomato. The main criteria to be there is... unknown. The user would guess that these restaurants are the best in their category or they would not be featured, right? The answer is provided by Zomato itself. I you check Zomato Business they tell business willing to pay for a membership that they will be featured in the collections. So, basically, the lists are manipulative ways of reeling you in to believe what is never said.   
> Their policy for abuse, insults and harassment needs to improve. Actually, the current architecture of the site favours the proliferation of trolls, which were absent or not that easily on view in Urbanspoon, not visible at all in Yelp. I have found trolls popping up in reviews to make veiled or explicit insults, provoke or to stalk. The anti-spam guys are lovely, to be fair, but unless the comments are directly abusive, racist or with profanity, or the trolls are stalking, they don't do much as they are bound by the polices of the site. Profanity is subjective, and an Hindu would be insulted by some words that a Christian wouldn't or vice versa; besides, I am an adult, old enough to decide on my own what it is insulting to me! They want people to talk, to build a community. That is great, but they aren't there yet. Talking does not equal provoking, patronising, insulting or vilifying. Talking is not trolling. There is a group of trashy pals who are contributing zero to Zomato regarding reviews or photos, and every time they appear is to make a trashy comment. They are the usual scum: the misogynist, the sexist  online gamer, the angry moron who appears shouting, the usual creep with barely any level of education and  confidence issues who tries to boost his/her ego by stalking and abusing others, or the hospitality worker who can't accept that the place they work for or have pals in has X stars and not the 5 their delusions things it should. That is pathetic to anybody with a brain. Nobody in the site should read this unprovoked trash. If you complain and the comments are abusive or stalking the anti-spam guys will remove them and warn the user posting them, but they won't deactivate their accounts until they re-offend. I personally don't think leaving abusers to camp at will is a good move, it is a conscious decision that attracts trash and repels people who contribute instead. People like me who have contributed enormously and felt taken for granted and disrespected and treated the same as these morons. Having a blocking button to keep the trash away or allowing users to decide whether they allow comments on their reviews or not would be a great improvement. Let's hope that common sense prevails. Zomato could be doing much more to create a healthy community, but they have self-imposed a set of policies that, simply, do not work. The main shift to happen, here or in any major site with this sort of problems, is to focus on good/bad behaviour not on bad words to weed out this scum. They have to ask themselves, which sort of people do I want in this site? Do I want to be respected as a site? At the moment it seems that having as many people as possible, no matter how trashy, is their aim. To me that is a countdown for a bye-bye. In  fact, I have erased manually all my 700+ photos and reviews in Zomato.      
>  The restaurants rating system is not the best. Most people cannot differentiate what it is good from what they like. Put it differently, if you like a restaurant you consider it instantly good. But that is not always the case. Urbanspoon's ranking system was way better, as it was based on your like/dislike. Now we have a five point ranking system with half points possible, so it is like a 10 point system. 3.5 is a 7 for example. Yet, people will rate in the same way as they like/dislike. Rating is not liking, mind you. So you find restaurants which are just OK, bashed with poor ratings while hyped up cafes with OK food have really high ratings. That is misleading to the public, and does not favour any business who is not at the top.  I would rather have no text and review by numbers, with categories: Like/Dislike, price, taste, freshness of ingredients, serving portions, ambience, quality of the service, tempo of the serving, level of comfort, time of waiting, that sort of thing and then make a total out of that and produce a rating. That would be way more useful and would offer more balanced ratings. More real ratings. But Zomato is not interested in that as they make money out of businesses, so it is an independent platform.
> Some reviews are terrible. Some examples. 
1/ The sort of review that says, simply "yum!" Nothing else. 
2/ Or "I loved the food, 5 stars! (mind you I love Hungry Jacks, this does not mean that their burgers are deserving of a a 5). 
3/ Or "I don't like the cuisine of this country but I went there anyway and I don't like it and it is 2 stars from me." (Would you, a vegetarian, go to a steak house to trash the use of meat or how they cook it? Or vice versa? I am sure, you would not. Why people think that doing this is normal? I guess they are sub-normal). 
4/Other reviewers will tell you that they went there and had a great time with their pals, blah blah blah, they tell you their life (I don't care about your life sweetie) but do not mention anything relevant about the food or the service.  
5/I've come across a moron who only rates high Chinese and Asian-Chinese restaurants with very low ratings for anything else; her reviews are like bad in content and writing, her photos are terrible. She defines herself as writer and photographer. She is a pathetic moron. Her reviews have a level of stupidity that unnerves me, and the worst thing is that she has a ton of followers, one of the top people in her city. I guess stupidity is the new way to become popular, the stupider the more followers. Good on her. She certainly has the crown. I feel for the businesses, some of them great restaurants, that have to stand the crap coming out of her mouth.      
 

So many brainless people, like this one, are commenting on nothing, producing crap every time they write a review an open their mouths. This is not specific of Zomato, of course, unfortunately. However, ratings is what matters to most people. They create a trend. Trends matter these days. Most people nowadays check the reviews online for anything. You decide to go to a restaurant and check how many stars the restaurant has because you don't want to go to the crappy ones, right? Many people don't bother to read anything. Yet, ratings based on nothing, are still counting.  
> They have tried, from the beginning, to increase the social network. The network existed before, but was not promoted. Now you have a "follow reviewer so-and-so" suggested by the fives in every page you visit. You wonder why the social network is imposed and forced upon us these days. Which interests lay beneath this interest to force us to be in a social network to do anything instead of perhaps creating a social net made of human beings face to face. Why do we need followers or to follow anybody to post a review on a restaurant? Why do we need to be part of dumb herd? I would be OK with the "follow" shown in the profile of each member, not suggested every single time. Otherwise, they are feeding a monster as they are not thinking about the Community they want to create, they just want a huge Community. 
> The point system to generate foodies' rankings could be better.  The point system is clearly mentioned and clearer and more explicit than in Urbanspoon or Yelp, but they don't consider a few factors in the ratings, or don't give points for: number of kingdoms in a city, number of cities where you have reviews in, number of countries, if a town has less than 10 restaurants to get the kingdom or not, etc. Of course, all of this is utterly vacuous, I am the queen on my planet, like everybody else on theirs, it is just a matter of fairness and making those ratings believable.
> Closing your account can take up to 30 days. Why? Why? Why?! I want to close it, push the button, do it automatically. We live in the computer age, you don't need to go to a building, look for a folder and put it in the coal-fed fire and wait until it becomes ashes. Software just does that in a microsecond, if you want. The answer is simple, the people who benefits from your photos and reviews is Zomato so they don't want you to go, even though they sell that the site is great for you to stay.   

***

Zomato is still a place I look up for restaurants on a weekly basis, every time I go to eat out basically, as it is the best place for that. Yet, you don't need to join, or get the app, you just need a browser and browse without getting involved.    

UPDATE
Well, they have make difficult to use the website desk on the smartphone  as photos are not displayed so you are forced to download the app. Yelp has a similar promotion of their app but you can search their site on the phone without being pushed out of a cliff. 
 
 

1/08/2016

THAI Airways


My first flight ever was with Thai, an inter-European one, and I was impressed. I thought that this would be the standard of all airlines. I felt from Cloud 9 in my next flight. Thai had just started operating in Europe, and doing small well-known routes and offered first-class service and excellent prices. I was mesmerised by the colour scheme of the upholstery and design of the aircraft, the little orchid on each seat, the hot towels before take-off, the nice meal, the classy beautiful flight attendants.

Since then I have flown quite a bit with Thai, for continental and intercontinental flights. They still have good comfortable planes, good meals, a good entertainment program, the usual gods and goddesses as flight attendants, and a good customer service overall.

I have never ever had a problem with them regarding delays, lost luggage or missed connections. Service is not as good as used to be for Economy, the attention to detail perhaps gone, but they are still a good airline and one of my favourite to fly. 

Red Bus Tour and Online Booking Centre (Johannesburg, South Africa)


Johannesburg (or Jazi as the locals call it) is a city full life, with many interesting spots to visit. On the other hand, the city, or parts of the city, has a name for being dangerous for foreigners unless you know where you are going and know the city well. So, the Hop on-Hop off Red Bus is a great alternative to walking on you own and touring the main areas in the CBD safely, still capturing the vibrancy of urban life, colourful characters, and interesting corners. There is always something happening in the streets of central Johburg! We even witnessed one of the massive demonstrations of the metal workers, who had been striking for weeks for a raise of salary. 
 
The bus route is not as good as in Cape Town, due to the constrictions of the city centre for  buses of this size, but it is good enough and you can experience a mix of culture, entertainment, fun and history.

There is a little mini-tour through Soweto scheduled at set times if you buy the ticket that includes it. The entry to Mandela's house or any sight in Soweto is not included. You should take it, just a suggestion. Even if it is just 3 hours or so, it will be a good teaser to make you want to return. A couple of young  Sowetans will drive you there and show you around, and transmit to you the passion they have for this very special place. Although there are a lot of people selling souvenirs around some of the landmarks there, they are very easy going, not invasive at all. To me, visiting Soweto was a dream come true. A place that has been so pivotal in the fight against Apartheid, a subject very dear to my heart when I was at University. Today's Sowetans are the nicest people in South Africa. Source: me. I would certainly love the Soweto tour expanded or just a separate Soweto tour offered by the same company.

The recorded program you hear in the bus (available in 15 languages) is very engaging, with a mix of local music and a narration that mixes historical events, sight description and curious facts about the life in the city. Nothing boring or too long. 

The tour is very well organised, punctual, and the drivers and staff are top notch people. They are friendly, welcoming, warm, caring and they put a face to the city we all see passing by. I haven't found people more enthusiastic about a foreign visiting their home city than these guys. If they see you twice, they will be elated.  

BUS STOPS

1- City Sightseeing Office at Gautrain Park Station. I love the Gautrain. But you can always end the tour here and go directly to the airport. Or vice versa.
 2- Carlton Centre, the tallest building in Africa. You are guided there by one of the guys of the company. The shopping mall is mostly for working class locals, or that was my impression, and a inner elevator leads you to the top, where there are several popular cafes as well. They don't let you go unescorted there.
3- James Hall Museum of Transport. For car nuts.
4- Gold Reef City Casino and city park. I decided to enter and visit... the toilet. I was so comfy that I let the bus go :D. They don't let you take photos and there is an electronic control at the gate, but it is worth visiting. 'Shocking' in away. Wonderful front fountains and sculptures, lovely surroundings, ample parking, beautiful building (a hotel actually), lovely  flashy interior, many eateries, many pokies, bling bling. Worth a visit, even if anthropological.
5- The Apartheid Museum. This is a MUST. A fantastic comprehensive museum on the history of Apartheid and how affected the lives of the "Bantus". It is also huge, very well documented and structured, but exhausting to visit all at once, saddening and very confronting as well. I would recommend structuring your visit in at least two days. 
6- Mining District Walk. I would not go there on Sundays or public holidays or when there is not many people around. Not alone for sure. 
7- Newtown precint, with plenty of cafes, music bars, night clubs, museums, and art galleries. Very arty place.
8- Newtown Junction Mall.
9- Origins Centre at Wits. If you have the time I would recommend going to the Craddle of the Humankind, which is an UNESCO's world heritage, and blew my mind. However, if you don't have the time, this will do. 
10- The Grove, Graamfontein. A groovy area with lovely street art. A TV ad was being shot here the day we visited!
11- Constitution Hill. A MUST. I wasn't sure whether to visit, but it is my favourite part in the tour. Really! The area is a bit secluded, quiet and peaceful, with lovely sculptural pieces and paintings of the Fathers of the Country, and a magic ghostly light before sunset. The place has a special energy, the one that always gives me the goosebumps in places embedded with horrible suffering inflicted by twisted souls. Here, you have a short guided visit through what is left of the old political prison at no. 4, and you are told of the brutalities committed against black prisoners; you can see the remains of the jail, some of them in quite a good state. Gandhi, whose personal story is intricately linked to South Africa, was briefly in this prison as well and there is a room devoted to him. Next door is a new building, the Constitutional Court, which was built using part of the demolished prison. I was blown away by it. The engraved huge wooden doors, the collection of artwork inside (free to visit) and, most importantly, the narration of our lovely rastafarian young guide. I was amazed at how good the Court has been for human rights in South Africa, and about how it has been used by simple 'nobodies' to obtain benefits for the general of the population. If you want, you can take with you a copy of the Constitution, free of charge. So much of the history and of the heart of the country is on that hill, the worst imaginable and the best possible.  

Moreover, the bus stops are also close to many other landmarks or places of interest, and the recorded program will tell you. Among those I wanted to visit, was one of the museums that exhibits contemporary South-African Artists, which unfortunately closes on Mondays.  

THE ONLINE SITE

I did all my bookings online while in Johannesburg, and it was really easy and convenient. The website has changed since I visited, and now is more polished and easier to browse. The site is very informative, and you can easily check the itineraries offered, get general information about each stop in the route, and information about the different kinds of tickets available. Of course you can buy your tickets through the website, the most economic being the Sunday Pass (but... it ends earlier and the city is not its usual self either) or the two-day combo tickets. At least when I visited, the used tickets gave you an 5% discount on any purchase of a Red Bus ticket anywhere in the world if you mentioned the number of your ticket. In fact, I used mine to get a discount on my Cape Town tickets.

***

If you want to see everything in the itinerary, you will need at least three days, unless you want to run like an emu in the Nullarbor. You don't. You can't. You shouldn't.