LinkedIn madness: Can you endorse me?

Linkedin is one of the few sites that has certainly impressed me with it's clever design. I would rate it very highly for professional networking. It has one very popular feature "recommendations". Well while I am not against recommending or get recommended by, as I have done both in past. But I see people who
think that more and more people they have in their list (no matter how they know well each other professionally) and more recommendations they have received (mostly by requesting others) would make their prospects better. Umm oh, I wonder why are they are madly behind this. I receive a quite
a few requests often. Some morning you check your emails and you see that some colleague in your company 2 years ago sends you a mail with subject "can you endorse me?". And the email says something
similar.

Dear ,
I'm sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. If you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

-

Now this above guy could be someone I don't know that well how well he/she is skilled. But now I can't deny the request so in a day or two I would look at some other recommendations available for my other LinkedIn friends, copy some matter and send what is requested for. He happily accepts and send me a nice Thank you email. I see people who worked completely unrelated departments and has probably no ability to judge other's work, go praising out of good relationships. May be what should happen on Orkut testimonials or somewhere similar.

Does these people who have tens and hundreds of people in network and so many recommendations have no work other than hopping the jobs and sending such requests.

Next time I interview a guy with many endorsements , I would probably more cautious hiring him.

My new gadget

After a good research on websites like compareindia.com, I reached no conclusion, perhaps didn't get exactly what I was looking for.
I was looking for a mp3/ogg player with decent builtin speakers, which can be used as USB storage (4/8 GB) , with quality good FM reception and friendly to my pocket (5 - 8000 INR).
Samsung's player yps5 did come close however some strange firmware defaults that stops you from using it as USB storage made me nervous.

Not substitute but finally I brought this local made ("Krish" brand ;) ) ok quality sound FM box . The gadget hides in my study desk and entertains me most of the day. Cost Rs. 130, you might get it for even less but so far I guess I have got good returns for the money.

Airtel Bill Harassment

Communication between me and 121@airtel.in.
Escalated to Nodalofficer.Mumbai@airtel.in .

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Hello,

I was a customer of Airtel. I had a postpaid connection taken plan which was surrendered few months back to your customer relationship center on FC Road Pune. After that I have not used the SIM at all.
In fact I have surrendered this particular connection twice. Second time I was told that although I have requested for the service termination the SIM is still active and there is some outstanding, so have cleared these dues (?) as well. But every month? since then I am getting a bill. I have mentioned the bill details below. As you can see, these bill do reflect that the card is not used at all.
My question is after filling up the termination form and submitting it twice why is my connection still active and why am I harassed by sending the bills.
I request that please take this matter seriously, stop the harassment and do reply back.

On receiving further bills I would consider to take further action on this.

Connection/ latest bill Details:
Account no. ********
Bill no. ********
Airtel no. ********

Thank you,
********

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Dear Mr. *******,

Thank you for contacting Airtel

You have expressed your concern over the disconnection for your Airtel number *******.

We understand your concern and will work together to resolve your issue.

We realize that this situation must have greatly inconvenienced you. We are a customer centric organization and as such would want every interaction you have with us to be a pleasant one.

As per the previous interactions with our executive regarding disconnection the service request number *******, we would like to inform you that the service of your Airtel number has already been stopped on 24/12/07.

Please be informed that the disconnection is being done in the middle of the billing cycle, hence the forthcoming bill will also be generated and rental will be calculated on prorate basis.

In addition, we wish to inform you that there is an outstanding amount of Rs. 422.60/- on your account. Hence we request you to make the payment for the same.

Alternatively, we request you to visit out website www.airtel.in to know the outstanding amount for 15 days after the disconnection.

We value your association with Airtel and thank you for using our services.

For further assistance, mail us at 121@airtelindia.com or SMS to 121 (toll free).

We value your association with Airtel.

Regards,

P. Senbagalakshmi
Customer Support Service
Airtel

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Have you read my mail carefully? I think you did not understand and all you are saying this just by looking at the latest generated bill.
Look, I have paid for the disconnection twice at your FC Road center, long back. Did you check those
transaction? (Please let me know if you have checked/not checked those transactions in the next mail)
Now all I am asking is disconnection so just stop this bill and mail harassment and act like a good service provider. I know there are more people who are in the same situation as me. I don't understand why Airtel is behaving like this with their customers.

Also, let me know specifically which executive conversations are you talking about?

On not receiving satisfactory response I am escalating this matter.
I hope somebody will look into this and resolve it.

Thank you,
********

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Dear Mr.********

We acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your email as on date.

We wish to inform you that the above-mentioned Airtel number has been permanently disconnected as on date as per your request. We also wish to inform you that we have waived off Rs 594.14/- towards the bill dated 12 Dec 2007, as there was no usage. Further more, we wish to inform you that kindly revert us once the final bill is generated on 12 Jan 2008 in order to process the refund of the security deposit of Rs 499/-. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you might have faced in this regards.

We appreciate your valuable subscription to Airtel and will be glad to have a chance be of any assistance to you. Should you require any assistance, email us at 121@airtelindia.comWith regards,

Best Wishes
Nodal Officer
Bharti Airtel Ltd.

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Hello,

I have received the bill generated on 12 Jan already. Now I request earliest security deposit refund.

Thank you,
********

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Dear Mr. ********,

Thank you for contacting Airtel.

You had inquired about security deposit for your Airtel number **********.

On checking our records we wish to confirm that the security deposit of Rs.499/- has been adjusted to the outstanding amount of Rs.67.61 for the invoiced date 12/01/08 and the security deposit of Rs.431.39/- will be refunded before 15/02/08 on the below mentioned billing address:
*******
*******
*******
*******

For further assistance, email us at 121@airtelindia.com or SMS us on 121 (toll free).

We value your association with Airtel.

Regards,

Mahesh
Customer Support Service
Airtel

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Thank you for your reply.

To my knowledge there is no outstanding.? If check previous communication and your records, you will find that I have paid twice to clear the outstanding in order to surrender the card. Where is the question of paying the outstanding again?
* If there is outstanding, it's against which usage?
* If there is usage and outstanding why it was not charged in previous
attempts of surrendering the card?
* If you have all my usage records please justify else return me the deposit adding calculating the interest on the period you kept my money with you.

Earlier response would be appreciated.

********

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Dear Mr. ********,

Thank you for contacting Airtel.

You have expressed concern regarding the outstanding amount of your Airtel Number *******. We understand your concern and will work together to res olve the issue.

We regret for the wrong information provided. As per the previous interacti on, we would like to inform you that, there is no outstanding amount in your account for the above mentioned mobile number.

Further, as per our records, we would like to inform you that, the refund of deposit of Rs. 431.39/- has been already processed and the same will be delivered through cheque by 15/02/2008.

For further assistance, email us at 121@airtelindia.com or SMS us on 121(Toll free).

We value your association with Airtel.

Regards,

Vinish
Customer Support Service
Airtel

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Cuppycake

One of the cutest songs that I have ever heard. Thought it’s worth a pick to share with you all. If you haven’t heard it yet, download (330KB) it for yourself and enjoy. Take my word; it’s worth wasting your bandwidth.

Song Name: Cuppycake
Lyrics & Music :Judianna Castle
Artist: Strawberry Shortcake
Album: Unknown
Year: 2004

Lyrics:- You’re my Honeybunch, Sugarplum
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You’re my Sweetie Pie
You’re my Cuppycake, Gumdrop
Snoogums-Boogums, You’re the Apple of my Eye
And I love you so and I want you to know
That I’ll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear

“I wrote this song about all of the sweet names my mom and dad called me when I was little and all of the sweet names that I call my daughter Amy.I entitled it “You’re My Honeybunch” and gave it to her as a Valentine’s day present.” - Judianna Castle