1986 – Diego (God in Spanish) Maradona sent England home from Mexico World Cup tournament after scoring for 2-1 with… his right hand. After the game he declared that it was Diego’s hand and Maradona’s head scoring.

2010 – Luis Fabiano (Brazil) plays twice the ball with hand scoring for 2-0 in a game against Ivory Coast. Guess what has he declared? “It was God’s hand!” Only this time God helped twice.

When I first saw playing football more than 30 years ago it was not uncommon for players to admit during the game to referee they committed fouls so that the decision should not affect the overall evolution of the game. (more…)

Real Case:

The story, part one

A month ago, a friend of mine had an incident with his 3-years old VW Polo. As one of his employees was driving on one of the few and short motorways in Romania the car overheated and stopped.

My friend went to find out at the dealer what was wrong with it and soon discovered that the engine is destroyed beyond repair. The car’s mileage was 30000 km and had all checkups done properly as suggested in that authorized dealers service shop and everything under driver’s control were OK when problem occurred. The manufacturer warranty has just expired and the dealer immediately volunteered to make him a good offer for a new engine. However, my friend was less than happy to invest in a new engine for his old Polo an amount pretty close to the market value of the car. So he, furiously, requested a letter from VW stating that the Polo engines are designed to work properly for only 30000 km. (more…)

Real Case:

UPC – I’m paying monthly for more than 3 years RON 80+ for digital TV and internet (actually I am paying TV services for close to 8 years). I receive together with the bill an offer for new customers (really stupid to send such thing for actual customers as you will see later). Guess what was stated in that offer? For the same service that I receive someone who has never paid a nickel to UPC pays RON 10+ less and, in addition, gets 3 months free (for 2 years contract) and gets new modems that are technically better than mine for free. I called and asked just for price reduction only and they said no, unless I buy additional/upgraded services from them which I actually do not need. Talking to the operator they agreed that the only way to get a cheaper fare is to cancel the actual contract and then get a new one with the new terms. So their marketers decided that someone walking on the street is far more important than a client who has paid regularly for almost 8 years. Guess what am I going to do? Cancel the contract! (more…)

We are in full mass messaging campaign. I keep getting SMSs from pople whom accidentally got my phone number years ago (together with some from close friends). This messages are non personal (some limmerik like) probably sent to whole address book! They can say in the best case: “Hey, I’m still having your phone number! I don’t care if you still own it but you know: I do not care!” (more…)

I do shopping for stationary & other for my office/company in Cora. Paper still plays a major role in lives of many Romanians and I have to go to a special counter to dispense a proper invoice for my purchase. Every single time I have to feed them my data to be injected in a system which never remembers it even for a minute. I am losing at least 5 minutes (although the rule is 10) for this purpose every time I am doing so. Surprisingly enough they waste a similar amount of time (I mean here MONEY) employing someone to do the silly job. (more…)