New blog for ASS

I just created a new blog, entierly dedicated to Audi's service. I intend to send the link to the service and marketing manager atAudi in Sweden, Audi in Germany and some automobile newspapers. Silly? Perhaps, but I am so fed up with a) such a good brand being deteriorated by poor service b) having so much problem that cost me time, money and affects my blood pressure.

Let's see if consumer power and the total transparency of information flow has some effect or if it is just marketing theories... Visit the blog at Audi's service sucks (ASS). I am afraid that I will have to do some more updates in the near future.

ASS even more

My dad and I went to my Grandmother's to shovel some snow, and we were taking my car. You know the parking light on the left hand side that Audi fixed when I actually wanted to mend my right half light... it doesn't work... So I have to get on the phone tomorrow, probably sit in some mysterious holding queue for 20 minutes to get to the shop reservation, get a notice that they don't have time to service my car February the earliest, and even if I get a time I will probably have to pay them to fix the same thing that they fixed two weeks ago... I am so f*#ing pissed off with Audi right now..

Audi's service sucks (ASS)

I picked my car up from service - they fixed the issue with the door not opening. As soon as I drove away from the shop the right light stopped working. I immediately tried to call Audi to make reservations for a new service. I got connected to the switchboard to tried to reconnect me. I was waiting in cyber space for 20 minutes, and then I hung up. I called the switchboard again, and they tried to reconnect me. I waited for 30 seconds and then I got a busy signal; of course I didn't get routed back to the switchboard. I hung up and called the switchboard again, this time I was quite pissed and I asked them if they don't have some kind of functionality that reroutes the caller back to the switchboard if they don't get a reply or if there is a busy signal? "Yes, you should get connected to the switchboard", she said. Well, I didn't, but that is just what you should expect from Audi I guess. Next car an Audi... ??!

In order to honer the suck ass service of Audi in Sweden I just created this group... Audi's service sucks (ASS)


Feel free to join in...

Letter to CPH Airport - service minded?

To whom it may concern!
I just booked a return SAS ticket to Thailand for me and my girlfriend and since we live in the "IT-era" I choose to travel with e-tickets. Since we're having a lot of slack time in CPH I thought that I'd book transfer hotels for us on our way home. I must say that I am truly surprised when I saw the n.b. stating that passengers travelling with e-tickets can't reserve transfer hotels.

Can you please explain to me, why I'm not able to utilize transfer hotel becuase I choose to travel with e-ticket? Isn't e-tickets the best way to travel, both for me as a customer but also for you as an airport?

I look forward to hearing from you soon, preferably with a reply saying that "Of course you can book tranfer hotel with an e-ticket".

Yours sincerely,
Thomas Nordén

Hur kan ett så starkt varumärke ha så svag service?

Hur kommer det sig att ett så starkt varumärke som Audi (fortfarande!) kan tillåtas ha en så kass service – inte bara på en verkstad utan på flera (ja, i alla fall tre av tre provade verkstäder i Stockholmsregionen).

Jag hade en A3 tidigare som jag lämnade in på service i Hammarbyhamnen. När jag skulle hämta ut den hamnade jag bakom en tjänstebilsförare som skulle hämta ut sin bil. ”Nej du… vi kan inte hitta din bil. Den verkar vara borta”, hörde jag kundpersonalen säga. Jag kunde inte låta bli att småle lite… det var förstås inte lika roligt när även jag fick samma besked. Jag fick dock låna en annan bil tills de hittade mig. Det visade sig att de hade lämnat den till någon underleverantör.

Numera kör jag omkring i min drömbil, en TT. Jag köpte den begagnad och jag kom överens med säljaren att vissa saker skulle åtgärdas, bl.a. kondensen som fanns på bägge strålkastare. Denna gång lämnade jag in bilen på service i Järva eftersom det ligger nära mitt jobb. Kanske borde jag vara nöjd att de fixade den ena lampan… Jag kör fortfarande omkring med den andra lite käckt immig. 50% rätt. ”Nej, det ska vara lite imma på den här typen av lampor”, försäkrade verkstaden mig. ”MMmm, säkert”, tänkte jag och dum som jag var lät jag dem komma undan med detta svar.

På torsdag denna vecka skall jag besikta min TT och som ett brev på posten har den högra lampan valt att fungera lite när den själv känner, inte när jag tycker att den ska det. Eftersom Järva inte hade tid provade jag min lycka på Danderyd. Jag lämnade min felbeskrivning och de skulle återkomma med prisförslag innan de gjorde något. De skulle även återkomma när de var färdiga med bilen. De gjorde varken eller. Jag ringde därför själv och hamnade i kö. Lämnade mitt telefonnummer. Jag blev uppringd utav någon som inte visste vad som hade gjorts eller vad det skulle kosta. Han återkom dock med uppgifterna inom kort. Till saken hör dock att de inte alls hade kikat på det högra halvljuset. Jag fick dock betala över 500 spänn för att de fixade en glappkontakt till vänster parkeringsljus.

Hur kommer det nu gå med besiktningen? Säg det? Och vem kommer att betala utifall jag får anmärkning? Om jag behöver lämna in bilen igen? Skall jag då betala en till ”undersökning”? Det frågade jag när jag blev uppringd. ”Vi får ta en diskussion om det då”, blev svaret, Med tanke på hur föredömligt servicen har skötts hittills misstänker jag att jag kommer att få stå för notan.

Nu har jag dock tur på andra plan än fordonsplanet; min livssituation håller på att förändras och en TT kommer förmodligen inte att vara den lämpligaste bilen länge till. Ett byte kanske förestundar, med andra ord (mamma och pappa, nej, det är inga barnbarn på gång från min sida... inte vad jag vet i alla fall). Tror ni att jag kommer välja Audi en gång till?

Ps. Igår slutat förardörren att fungera, så jag får graciöst klättra ur och in genom passagerarsidan

Ps2. Idag skulle jag besikta bilen, trodde jag, men jag hade inte betalat avgiften

Ps3. Det gör inte så mycket eftersom bilen inte hade gått igenom med trasig dörr

Succumbed to the ministry of domestic terrorism

Today I filled out the application for a transponder for my car - we're having road taxes on a "trial basis". Trial my ass, I say. Who believes that a trial that costs 3,8 billion sek will be just that, a trial? Not me. Oh, sure, we're supposed to have a referrendum about the whole thing, but since referrendums in Sweden only are "guiding" and don't have any executive power I am pretty certain that the extra tax will continue after the 31th of July.

I seldom get annoyed, but this "trial" really pisses me off. I've been able to shield out my aggression, but now when the "trial" is drawing nearer, they are starting to build the infrastructure, you have to order transponders, you read more about the tax and you see the prices that you will pay... well, that really ticks me off!

I'm all for caring about the environment, but this tax is discriminating to us leaving inside the tolls. Well, it is discriminating forthose who live outside and have to go in as well. Just how many taxes do we have to pay for having a car? Most of the costs for buying gasoline is tax, we pay car taxes, road taxes and now friggin tolls. My only comfort is that the maximum amount that I will pay per day is 60 sek. That makes 300 sek per week. 1200 sek per month. Money that I have to pay with taxed income, since I don't drive a company car.

Why don't we offer free public tranportation for a trial instead? And here is an idea, why don't we make the public transportation work without major delays and cancellations?

I sure hope that we will get another government in Sweden next election - because although I've succumbed to the ministry of domestic terrorism the struggle isn't over. I will fight my war at the ballots, although 70% of all people living in Stockholm are against this trial so it is not really "my" war.

Service to e-mail large files

I just wanted to let you know about a superb service that lets you send files up to 1 Gb for free. It is called "You Send It" and you can get there by clicking here.

Photoshop TV

There is a podcast (iTunes for you who didn't know) that covers Photoshop. It is called Photoshop TV and I can really recommend it... informal, quite funny and with some useful tips and tricks. And it is for free...

Visit photoshop guys for more information or go to Itunes and search for Photoshop.

Thanks... whoever you are

I just wanted to send a big "Thank you" to the person who handed my wallet in to the police. I lost it (or rather, someone close to me lost it for me... a girl... good looking one...) last week. Driver's license, credit cards, some cash, security cards, everything lost. This meant that I had to cancel all the cards, reapply for new ones... Not having the cards had a very negative effect on my cash flow, I can tell you. No money for a week makes you save money (and starve) no matter if you want to or not.

Anyways, when I got back from work tonight I found a letter from the police, saying that they have my wallet. And do you know what, it still has the cash in it. So, kudos to you, whoever you are, for returning my wallet.

The only bad thing is that I no longer have a real reason to make a new photo for my driver's license, which I really should because I look like a convict on it...

I am a model - buy me!

One of my friends, Ola Strangeways, is a photographer and he took some "artsy" shots of me once. Well, now it turns out that one of them has been submitted to an image buerau. So if you like, you can now buy me... You like?.

Yesterday he took the picture that you see here, on the right. I am supposed to be "death", it is for some project that Ola is working on. And, no I am not about to slash the tyres.

Deja vu... I am an uncle again

Oh happy day!!! Today I became an uncle for the second time! My sister gave birth to a little Adam Thomas Fraser (still to be decided, but of course I am axtra proud about the middle name). A little person has joined three other wonderful people in the Fraser family... :-)

A little sad that they live on the other side of the globe, though. Or rather, a little sad that I live where I live.

There are time machines...

Is it only me or doesn't time go slower when you're waiting for the microwave oven to "ping" or the coffee machine the eject the last drops of coffee (which I am addicted to, by the way). For some reason a few seconds seem to take minutes.

Time also seems to go sloooower when you are waiting for new software. I have ordered the upgrades for Cinema 4D and Macromedia Studio 8 but they never come. Although the invoice for Studio 8 greeted me when I walked through the door yesterday. "Hello, and welcome home", it said. You might be wondering where the actual software is, the invoice continued. Oh, you'll have to wait another few days for that... at least...

What's luck got to do with it?!?

I am doing some simple freelance work and every once in a while I need to get down and dirty with administration and contacts with the "authorities". I am about to register a trade mark and after a few hundred mouse clicks on prv.se and bolagsverket.se (I can guarantee that there has been no user testing made for these sites what so ever) I stumbled across, by a fluke, an online form. Great!

What amazes me is that the instruction for the form ends with "Good luck". Why on earth would you need luck to fill out a form?! Are the cells jumping back and forth? Do you have to guess what they are asking for? What? As you can imagine I have not tried to fill out the form yet... I have to gather my strengths first...

Signed up for Stockholm Marathon 2006

I just signed up for Stockholm Marathon 2006. Come and cheer me on on the 4th of June. Oh yeah... I haven't got any sponsors yet so if you want to endorse your company, products, services please send me a message. By the way, there is no guarantee in the world that I'll make the whole 42+ kilometers... but I'll try.

Waaaay cool...

Today I played around with Cinema 4D and Terragen, a software that can generate very realistic landscapes. I guess it is like Bryce, although I've never given Bryce a try. The neat thing with the combination of C4D and Terragen is that you can import the landscape files into C4D and add your own models etc. and they interact with the landscape. Terragen is for free if you use it for personal purposes and it is available for Mac. There is a bunch of links to pages with tutorials, surfaces and stuff for Terragen...

Speaking of Cinema 4D, I just visited Maxon's homepage at realized that there will be a new release out soon, version 9.5, and apparently the advanced render module has a sky generating function which seems to be well worth investing your money into. I know I will.

What a nifty little tool

Hey, check it out. Google has released a tool called Google earth; maybe it has been around for a while, what do I know? What I do know is that I tried it for the first time today and it is very cool. What does it do? Well, you get to pan and zoom around satellite images of mother earth. Add to this all sorts of layers such as waters, 3D buildings etc. I could actually get some detailed images of my street on Södermalm.

The only bad thing, apart from some areas not being so detailed, is that the darn software isn't available for Mac. Not yet, anyway.

Check it out at Google.

Vacation is almost over

Arrrgh... panic is creeping upon me. Today is the second last day of my summer holiday. But I shouldn't complain, I've had a great time together with Linda... I only wish that I would have realized some of the many plans that I had for my three weeks. For example, making the home page for my company, getting my stupid book keeping software up and running, modifying a few of my clients' web pages, visiting friends (and eating muffins...) etc. etc. Oh well, I guess I will have to do that the coming weeks, after I've finished some of the things that I have to do at my real job.

Enough about that, now I am off to watch some women soccer game...

www.thomasnorden.se

I just wanted to let everyone know that you can access my page via www.thomasnorden.se.

I lost a good friend today...

I went to the gym today, and as always I brought my Ipod mini which I have clipped to my pants/shorts. I also went to the men's room and guess what went into the toilet? Yup, my beloved Ipod. What are the odds that it should fall straight into the water without even touching the porcelain?! World Sadness!!! It is dead. RIP.

Music for your ears

Yesterday I went to a club called Alcazar here in Stockholm to see our former bass player, Colin, perform with his one man bad - wilmacakebread, released under cocohippo. It would be really interesting since I've never heard his stuff before.

He had rigged his equipment on top of a couple of ironing boards accompanied by a few desk lamps; the set looked like as if a little boy had tried to build his own space ship in the kitchen, which set to mood quite well. There was also a small projection film hanging from the roof above his "cockpit", and this was operated from backstage by a friend of Colin's.

Wilmacakebread's gig was fairly short, 5-6 songs, I can't really remember. But hey, there is this trade-off between quantity and quality and wcb went for quality, at least to my opinion. The music was really good. Bass and drums decorated with quirky sounds from xylophones etc. No songs, just Colin clearing his throat every once in a while because of the smoke machine. It sounds a little bit like Sea and Cake have lunch with Tortoise. Or if you know Matt Elliott/Third eye foundation, wilmacakebread sounds similar to that Third Eye, but opposite, instead of darkness and anxiety wilmacakebread plays happy music…

The band that played after wilmacakebread was Surplus People, a three piece band consisting of three girls playing bass, organs, trombone/singing/megaphone and a drum machine. Their music was really great! I couldn't hear the lyrics, but the musicscape was energetic and sometimes aggressive. Inbetween songs the band cheered and made jokes. I've spent this morning looking for a place where I can buy their stuff and I've finally found a few places. Their cd will get it's airtime on my ipod, that is for sure.

A book that makes a difference

If you are like me you like to learn new stuff, not only about facts and figures, but also about yourself. Well, if you are, I can recommend taking a look at "7 Habits of highly effective people", written by Stephen Covey.

I have to be honest and say that the book could fall within the "quick fix" category, but if you take your time to read the book (and better yet, do it alongside with the workbook) then you can get some nice pointers for how you can improve your life. As the title of the book suggests, it is about principles, so you have to make an introspective journey... which is good becuase it challenges you to question yourself.

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Another book that I can recommend if you're a Swede or if you are trying to learn the Swedish language is "Svenska Skrivregler", ISBN 914704974X. Not being the one to judge people, but I've got a feeling that we're getting worse at writing here in the heart of the Nordic countries. There are some really simple things that could improve our written Swedish considerably.

Bass player wanted

The band that I'm playing drums in is currently one guy, or girl, short. Our bass player has left us. He says he wants to play "happy bouncy music" as opposed to our somewhat gloomy lo-fi rock.

So, if you live in the Stockholm area and want to join, get in contact with me.

Trying this blog thingy out

For the moment I'm sort of pissed off. Always bragging to friends and colleagues how easy it is to use a Mac, I have been proven wrong. I tried to install a blog software that uses php, and mysql and this mysql bit caused a lot of anguish. Well, it still is.

I just can't understand how to get around the terminal in Mac OS. Sure, I know a little bit of ASP, ActionScript and XPresso, but I am kinda lost when it comes to Unix commands. I know how to Ping an address on a PC but that is as far as my administration skills go.

So, I have to resort to this solution; we'll see how it turns out...

[Edit] I've looked into this blog thing and I think it should be a pretty straight forward thing to build a solution of my own... however, the problem with mysql still remains, unless I do it in ASP and Access, but that seems a little bit lame.