Westpac: The Banana That Humiliates the Bank

This will really make you laughing in tears. A magnificent corporate bungle that really humiliate this big old bank, one of the finest in Australia (and the world). There was a big news and furor happening when it was launched in Australia on 2nd week of December 2009. People laugh but angry about it, but no one can really do anything about it except condemn it. Maybe a bit of excellent example of corporate greed? Who knows this is an intentional publicity stunt engineered by the clever people at Westpac !

Security For Everyone: Beware The Phone Call

This just literally happen again to me today, twice. So, I thought I have to emphasize the critical aspect of this issue and the fact that it is really easy to get overlooked. What am I talking about ? I am referring to the verbal ID verification during phone conversation when you are dealing with (usually) your bank, financial institution or other service provider. Disregarding this you might end up exposed yourself to identity theft, fraud, scam or other unwanted nasty that we really don’t want to deal with. Beware !

Golf Membership Bungle: $1000 is Better than $150, Silly!

I might mention on other article that I actually take golf as my “official” sport. Hence, that will involve a golf club and its membership. Just happen to me, I see that there is something strange on membership scheme that I cannot comprehend in any angle at all: from business perspective, from membership perspective or even logic. You might be surprise that this scheme is not uncommon here. It could be running in yours as well.

Covered Call & Suspension: Does ACH Know What They Are Doing?

The decision from Australian Clearing House, the clearing house for Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to reject the security as collateral for its own option has shown to the world that perhaps ACH does not know the real effect of what they are doing. If you are option trader, in particular doing this covered call aka buy write aka share renting, or option broker or anybody else that understand option, you will need to know this bungle and found out that the solution is pretty damn simple. Keep reading.

Credit card payment: 1 time is not enough

I have been one of millions customer of bank “C”. One of the product that I use is their credit card and saving account. Then I link them together so that the auto-payment can take some money to pay the credit card when it is due. (Yes, fully paid your credit card every month is [...]

UYMG Sydney: Sorry, No bandwidth!

“Yes, we will provide you with your own dedicated internet connection. But we did not specify how much the bandwidth is, isn’t it ?” – D’oh!
Unleashed Your Marketing Genius (UYMG – PDF dump, 276k) is one of the signature event from the great Stephen Pierce. With proud, yes, I am one of his disciples.
The [...]

“Problem with your credit card”

My mobile rang: – “Hello ?” – I greet the unknown caller
“Oh, hello. Is this Mr Kristanda ?” – a pretty voice on the other side.
“Mr. Kristanda, we have a problem with your credit card, sir …”

This big international seminar promoter “Empowernet” who carry some big name such Anthonny Robbins on their pay check, contacted [...]