Paid sites, a new form of harassment

There is mushroom growth in number of paid websites on internet. There are many sites out there which promise emails worth the likes of $5, $50 or $100 and upwards. They never honour their promises. DO NOT join any of these sites. These are ridiculous attempts to take your money and you will never see a penny back.They keep a wall of secrecy between them and their customers. This secrecy goes to such absurd limits that customer even do not know who are the owners of these sites and to whom they should approach in case of a problem.

There are no doubts sites which pay once you reach the minimum payout. But these sites also play tricks on customers. I prestigious paid site, www.mylot.com, blocked my user ID just before I was reaching the minimum payout of $10. I have sent them many communications but they have not told me the reason. The problem is that there is no mention on the site about the owners of the site or Administrator or Webmaster.

People join these sites, spend their time and resources in the form of computer, internet connection, power bills, upgrade free membership by paying fees, and these sites cheat them.

Presently there is no body which can supervise the work of these sites. These sites are under no control. Some people, no doubt, are maintaining a list of scam sites, but that is only for information. Such list are growing with more and more sites are proving scam sites. Below is a link where you will find a list of scam sites. Refer to it before you sign any paid site. It will give you some protection.

LIST OF SCAM PAID SITES

I want to become President of India

After I became eligible for the post of President of India, many opportunities came before me to become President. Many people contested and became President. I never thought of it. I have always opined that the post of President is the most ineffective post in India. You simply can't do any thing except addressing the nation on the eve of 26th January and 15th August; address parliament; inaugurate functions; give away awards etc. Most of the time the address is given to you and you have to only read it. You don't like the order sent to you by Govt but you have no option but to sign it. Govt does every thing in your name but you have no role to decide your actions.

Now, you will ask that what has motivated me to think of becoming President. The answer is harassment. President is the least harassed person in this country. I have used the word 'least' because no body in this country can claim that he or she is not harassed, and President is harassed only by politicians and that too indirectly.

Everybody harasses me and I can't do anything. No body bothers that their harassment is making my life difficult. They are simply not ready to leave me alone. They always harass me as though they are doing their national duty. So I thought why not become President of India. I have just missed a chance. Next chance will come after five years. In these five years I will work to garner support of those who vote in the election of President. I know that they are the people I detest most but to avoid harassment I will have to seek their support.

I request all to help me become President of India.

Public Relation Officer in Regional Passport Office, Delhi

I do not understand why Govt of India has appointed this officer. By its designation, it is assumed that this officer will maintain good relations with those visiting passport office for matters related to passports. On my visit to his office I found that he does not maintain any relation with visitors. People normally visit his office to know the status of their applications for issue, renewal of passports or any other action. They interact with him and come back without any addition to their knowledge about status of their case. He has a stock reply for every question.

You tell him that you submitted your application in Jun, he will reply that applications received in May are being considered.

You tell him that you submitted your application in July, he will reply that applications received in Jun are being considered.

You tell him that their website is not working properly and page to see status of application is not found. He will reply that it does not matter as it will tell only that application is under process. People already know that. After wasting their time when people reach his desk they are told what they already know.

Go down and you will find another post on how passport office harasses people.

Designation of this officer should be Public Harassment Officer (PHO).

Added on 30.08.2007

The PRO told us that applications received in May are under consideration. I visited NIC Website and there I could find link to another site. I visited that and found a link to status of application. It opened and I could see the status. It said that due to unavoidable circumstances passport could not be dispatched, and it will now be dispatched in this week. To whom should I believe, the PRO or the Website.

I wrote to NIC about the problem at RPO Website. They have corrected the problem.

Added on 08.09.2007

Yesterday my son received the renewed passport. But two days before this PRO had told him that applications received in May 2007 were only being processed. Why Govt does not put this man on some other job?

Credit cards - convenience or harassment

Credit cards were started to make financial transactions convenient. One can not carry hard cash all the time. It is risky also. But over the period, credit cards have become a source of harassment.

Me and my son are member of RCI, the time sharing company. It got into an arrangement with Standard Chartered Bank and offered us a credit card. The bank issued us two credit cards, one for me and one for my son. My son travels a lot and he used the card very frequently. Slowly we discovered that it would be advisable for us to check the bills sent by the bank very thoroughly, as there might be wrong entries causing us financial loss.

We discovered that bank was charging interest from us for late payment, whereas we had made payments well before the payment date. Now, every time the bill comes, we will have to make two to three calls to the bank to tell them that we had made payment well before the date and how can they charge the late interest. They will check it, say sorry and interest will be reversed. This had become a routine.

Now the credit card was more of a harassment than any convenience to us. In November 2006, we asked the bank to cancel the card. They will give all sort of assurances but the process of adding late payment interest will continue. We will receive phone calls at inconvenient hours from different people. Some of them will call us defaulters in payment. The damn card had become a nightmare for us.

Now after many months, they had blocked the card. But the harassment continues. The phone calls keep coming telling us to make outstanding payment. The callers are not interested in listening to our side that we have made all payments and nothing is outstanding. When we ask them to send us their details of outstanding, they say that as per bank rules they can not send the details in writing. Such illogical stand by a multi-national bank is difficult to understand.

Sometimes I feel that our Indian system is best. No credit cards, no purchasing on credits, no tension, no harassment.

Harassment by Passport Office

Regional Passport Office at Delhi does not lag behind in harassing its customers. It talks of Tatkal schemes but for routine processing of passports it has no bench marks.

It has a most useless website. The page 'Status of your application' probably does not exist. Any time you click on it, it shows error 'Not Found'. For last one month I am not able to access it. When I decided to send feedback and clicked on 'Contact Us' the source opened and not the page. Webmaster seems to have forgotten to close the tag. WHAT IS THE USE OF HAVING SUCH A WEBSITE?

My son applied for renewal of his passport. The application was submitted at Pitam Pura District office on 08.06.2007. It was yet another unpleasant experience. Although all originals were verified, photo copies were taken, but after some days we were visited by a policeman. He said he had come for verification. Again all originals were shown to him, photo copies were given, forms were signed. But renewed passport has still not arrived.

When we visit their website the relevant pages do not open. A clear case of harassment, wasting time and resources of citizens.

Visit the link if you wish to have real experience:

REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICE

Edited on 24.07.2007

After I could not get any positive response on the website I sent an e-mail (address provided on website) to rpodelhi@mea.gov.in, but it bounced with remarks - "The addresses had permanent fatal errors (reason: 550 5.1.1 <rpodelhi@mea.gov.in>... User unknown).

So, this is the website of India's External Affairs Ministry and its e-mail address. And they were considering the minister for making him President of India - rewarding for harassing the people.

Added on 05.08.2007

Site is still down. E-mail are still not being accepted. Message shown is - ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <rpodelhi@mea.gov.in> (reason: 550 5.1.1 <rpodelhi@mea.gov.in>... User unknown).

Today I have sent an e-mail to Chief Passport Officer. LET US SEE WHAT HAPPENS.