So it’s official, I will be traveling to London and attending Nokia World 2010 after my wish to attend the event was granted by @NiklasatNokia during a twitter event introducing himself as the new EVP and board executive member of Nokia Espoo, Finland. This happened on August 5th 2010.

I am happy to say I have finalized my Visa and everything is ready for the trip.

BREAKING NEWS

Just when I thought things could not get any better, the guys from Forum Nokia announced the finalists of the Calling All Innovators 2010 Contest and guess what, the free educational application eLiteracy that I submitted to the contest earlier this year has made the finals.

So after hours of blood, sweat and tears, the boys and girls of team AppCRAFT have something to celebrate, not only is this the 2nd year in a row that we have made the CAI finals, we are also this year the only South African development house to have made the global finals.

Let it never be said that a small African startup, opperating in the Garden Route has no potential. A HUGE shoutout goes to the dedicated team who worked with me on this project.  It was not easy, we risked alot to get where we are today, but at the end of the day, with great risk comes great reward. I thank you for not giving up and for believing in my sometimes crazy idea’s.

So now it’s off to London to see what the future holds.  We are up against some serious competition in the Life Improvement category and it’s great to be competing with such great apps.

Life Improvement category

• Car Black Box by Neusoft Mobile Solutions S.R.L. (Romania)
• eLiteracy by AppCRAFT (South Africa)
• Medica by IRWAA, LLC (Egypt)
• Mobile Babycare by Shenzhen LEG (China)

I wish all the other contestants the best and look forward to seeing you guys in London.

Any friends or media, wanting to meet up with me in London can DM me via twitter, or make contact via email simonbotes_<AT>_gmail_DOT_com

“Simpler, Better, Faster” I think not!

Tourists and locals in South Africa who use Standard Bank Credit Card Processing machines or who’s transactions process through Standard Bank should be aware that some of their purchases will only reflect and be debited a few months after the purchase! This is partly because some local stores are over worked and process the transactions late but also because Standard Bank seems unable to keep up with the work load and process the transactions late.

Whether or not this late billing is intentional is debatable.  During the 1995 World Cup Rugby, Standard Bank was also linked to a similar “banking bug”.  So the question begs to be asked, is this white collar crime or is this just a bug in the system? If it’s a bug, why are clients made to pay for Banking bugs?

As an example of the current “bug”, On 3 January 2010 I purchased a Tent and some other small items from Game Stores in Tzaneen while on vacation. The transaction was only “completed” on 26 April 2010 when the funds left my account.  Both Game and Absa, the bank that Game uses have let me know in writing that they processed the funds in January and that they never debited my account in April, however my account was debited in April and not in January. So who debited my account in April?

Absa writes:

“I confirmed with our IT dept, that the transaction never settled on 26/04/2010 on our side.  It could be that STANDARD BANK only release the file on 26/04/2010?  That is why there is a late settlement on the cardholder’s account.” Martie Mentz  (Absa Bank Corporate Admin Assistant)

If Game and Absa denies debiting the money from my account in April then this April transaction is an unauthorized transaction? So I emailed Standard Bank.  Their response to my request for help and to reverse the unauthorized transaction. They (Standard Bank) first try to point fingers at both Game and Absa bank and then when the evidence comes back that shows that both Game and Absa are not the guilty party they then send me this response.

“The amount in question was never deducted from your card and due to this you are liable for this amount.”

Denise Singh
Manager: Executive & Escalated Complaints Resolution
Office of the Chief Executive, Customer Contact Centre
Standard Bank of South Africa

Since when can a bank process a transaction 4 months after the purchase and then hold the account holder liable for the transaction?  Surely there is a legal cut off date for processing these type of transactions?

In December/January most people have bonuses, this additional money is used to purchase luxury / much needed items while on vacation. Now Standard Bank debits the funds months after the purchase when funds are low and credit cards are maxed and then lump heavy fee’s onto the late transaction. This does not seem legal or fair.

Standard Bank’s Denise Signh follows up with this comment, regarding my complaint:

“As a gesture of goodwill I can reverse the charges pertaining to this transaction.”

So Standard Bank holds account holders liable for banking errors and then think that “Goodwill” is reversing the heavy banking fee’s lumped onto this late billing? HUH??  Is this how you treat your long standing loyal customers?

Looking at Standard Bank slogans - I think it’s time for another change.

1. ‘Simpler, Better Faster’ I think not!
2. ‘Inspired. Motivated. Involved.’ nope not this one either.
3. ‘Moving Forward’ HUH? Nope it’s more like “Billing Backwards!”

So when visiting South African during 2010 or if you are a loyal Standard Bank client. All I can say is.

LET THE BUYER BEWARE!

As for me, I think it’s time to start “Moving forward” to another bank.  @FNB here I come..

1. Download or don’t download one of my new premium Sign Language Mobi Guides (Exclusive to Nokia touchscreen handsets)
2. RT this message: RT and you could win an #iPhone4 - http://tiny.cc/rxbft *Terms Apply #HandSigns
   
3. Blog about this competition everywhere to get more points. Don’t blog to get less points
4. Sit back and wait..

It’s that simple. But what’s the catch I hear you ask.

1. I will only give away an iPhone4 when I reach 10000 premium downloads/sales in ovi store.
2. The competition is valid for 3months, from date of this blog.
3. If I don’t reach 10000 downloads then I don’t give away an iPhone4.
4. If I get more than 10000 downloads, then I give 1 iPhone4 away for every 10000 downloads
5. If I can’t get my hands on an iPhone4, I reserve the right to give an alternative prize.

My last free guide in Ovi Store clocked 16300 downloads in less than 3months. Lets see if we can get the premium sales that high aswel, using Twitter, social media and a shiny new iPhone4.

So what are you waiting for –> Let the downloads and RTing begin.

Legal Terms:

1. This promotion is free to enter.  You do NOT need to download my app to win.
2. This is a global promotion - Spread the word and who knows you might win.
3. Contractors and their family of AppCRAFT cannot win. Sorry guys
4. The iPhone4 prize handset will be ordered and shipped using any online store I deem fit to get the handset delivered to the winner fastest. I cannot guarantee that the handset purchased will work in every country and you may need to jailbreak it. If you want to take the chance, enter this competition.  Handsets purchased in this way have no guarantee and Apple will not honour the International warranty.
5. This promotion is valid until 8 September 2010 and prizes are only given away if my premium guides clock 10000 downloads in Ovi.  So the more downloads the better.
6. I reserve the right to give the prize winner cash or alternative prize if I cannot legally get my hands on an iPhone4 or if they are out of stock.

Ps. I live in South Africa, so getting the new iPhone4 is going to take some doing.  What this means is that I will buy a handset from an Online store and ship it to the winner when it becomes available online.  I cannot take responsibility for the handset shipped as all I am doing is purchasing the handset via the online retailer, the handset goes directly to the winner.

To racap:

Wealthy residents of Natures Valley were receiving an 85% discount on toll fee’s while the poorer Coldstream community who live just as close to the tollplaza received only a 70% discount.  I wrote an open letter to the minister of transport asking him to urgently intervene in the case.

Social Media:

I spread the open letter via Twitter and within no time Twitter folks started spreading the link, AlgoaFM picked up the story and gave it some radio coverage.  A few of the local Plett websites like Goplett and SoPlett gave it some online coverage.  So what happened next?

My letter was ignored and I got zero communication from the minister and or his office, even after repeated calls to his personal assistant. What about the Tsitsikamma Tollplaza or SANRAL?  Well they also ignored the letter and I got no communication from them either.

The good news:

As of 1 May 2010 The Coldstream community now also receives the 85% discount so they now also benefit from the same rates as their Nature’s Valley neighbours.  This news you will notice comes late on my blog. Why you may ask?  Well because this new rate for The Cold Stream community has been rather quite and if a local Cold Stream user didn’t tip me off I would never even have known.

To date I have received zero communication from either the ministers office, the Tollplaza company or any other people involved in this saga.  Surely this type of news should be made public? In any case 1 small victory for Social Media one large benefit for a local poor community in South Africa.  The lesson, if you see an injustice happening speak out for those who cannot! There are always good results!

What about the legal case regarding fraud and Forgery, did it get anywhere?

Sadly the public prosecutor dropped this case, seems it’s not very good for business to take action against these huge businesses and government.  The lesson, if you wanna make big bucks in South Africa, defraud the poor in South Africa and pay off as many government officials as possible while doing it and then not even the Police or legal system will do anything against you

At least they felt the social media kick and lowered the rates for the poor community in this case

A special word of thanks goes out to Dr. Shortreed of the Knysna Animal Welfare who spent the entire day trying her best to #savemypuppy. I hear she was rather cut up about the puppy not pulling through and just want to thank her for being willing to try when other VET’s in the area were only interested in making money.

It realy is a sad day for animals when VETS are more interested in making money than preventing suffering. The Plett VET who I won’t name in this blog really needs to catch a wake up and focus less on accusing people of being cruel to animals and see that just because you havn’t got funds at the moment does not mean that you do not want whats best for your puppy, also ask yourself why you didn’t even offer to give or sell me some pain medication for the puppy before the trip to Knysna, where is your heart, shame on you! Giving a lethal injection to a pet because the owner doesnt have cash is not whats best! Good proper treatment is whats best and this is exactly what Knysna Animal Welfare at least tried to give to my puppy and I thank them for this.

I didn’t plan on turning this blog into a finger pointing post, however I need to highlight one thing.

Without the special help from mostly total strangers on twitter “my puppy” would not have been able to get the best treatment that he did and I would like to thank everyone who Tweeted, Retweeted and donated towards the medical costs.  You are really special people and will always have a special place in my heart.

The list of names is to long to thank personally in this post, but you know who you are.  THANK YOU!

The VET has finally invoiced me and I have paid the bill and donated the remainder to KAWS.  You can see a detailed breakdown of the invoices, payments and donations here.  You will notice that there is R20 still in my bank after payments have been made, this is because one of the contributers asked me to purchase a little something special for the remaining puppy (sister) of the dead puppy. I decided to keep this little something as small as possible so that the max can go to KAWS to pay it forward in a way to someone else that may need urgent help. So will buy her a nice juice bone or something small

You may also se that the bill was for R558 and my first payment was for R580.  Oops I was slighly dyslexic when I made the payment and only noticed it when making the screenshot for twitter.

Thank you again to everyone who helped.  You guys ROCK!

Hi guys,

Wow firstly let me say I am blown away by the responce on Twitter.  R200 is alot to give out to something that you really don’t need to help with and it say’s alot about people when they step forward and help like this when they don’t really have to.  So within only a few hours many folks tweeted, Retweted and stepped forward to help and we have now raised R800 of the estimated R1000 needed, only time will tell what the final cost wil be but we are all hoping it will be enough.

The VET is still working on the puppy 5hours and counting but says that the stomach damage wasnt that bad and it will heal, most of the time has been spent stitching up the neck and other bite wounds and lets hope for a speedy recovery, but its to early to get happy as the VET also says that puppies sometimes die because of the stuff they give them before the opperation so lets see what happens.  I will know more in the morning once the puppy is awake.

Thank you yo everyone who stepped forward to help. You guys are legends!

If the little puppy survives he will personally send you a card to say thank you

I will update more info very soon.

So as reported yesterday on Twitter my dads puppy (TweedleDumb) yes thats his name, hey I never chose it got malled by 2 evil Alsations who live on the farm next door.  Yes in their defence I suppose they were just protecting their property from a killer puppy.

You can see pics of the puppy and his wounds here: Puppy be warned though its graphic and gross!

So this is were it gets tough.  The dog is not my dog and even if it was mine, atm both my dad and I are in a somewhat tight spot, lets just say, the economy isn’t like it used to be a few months ago and so its not possible to pull out R2000 to fix the dog.  Heck it’s not even possible to pull out R200.

This does however not mean that we do not love the puppy and want whats best for puppy and have tried everything to keep him healthy and in peace after the attack.  Now it turns out that if you don’t have cash, your dog is as good as dead.  Payment plans for dogs are not really what they should be and if you can’t pay then they just want to put the dog out.  There is no option to take him home again and treat him yourself like in the good old days and the VETS get all bully like and make out that if you care for the dog yourself at home then you are being cruel to the dog.  So there really is only one option, get them to perform a costly opperation and keep him in ICU until Thursday.

The basic estimated cost  being R2000 and the Dr at Knynsa Welfare told me that at a regular VET it could run up to R12000 because the damage is very severe.  The private guys don’t tell you this beforehand as thats exactly how they make money.  If the dog dies then oops you pay the fee for a dead dog.

So this is the plan.  Knysna welfare will today opperate on the dog and see how much internal damage there is and see what the cost will be to fix.  They will try to cap the total cost to R1000 however if more is needed then we will have a few hours to decide to either kill or the dog or cover the aditional costs.

The puppy is currently btw just for peace of mind safe in their hands and is so high on Morfeen he wont feel any pain, he can however not live on Morfeen and the operation needs to happen soon

So this is what I thought.  Seeing I don’t have funds to help even though I wish I did, I thought what if I open this up to the Twitter community, if people are begging for money to buy new cars on Twitter then surely I can beg for a small amount to save ‘my’ dog.  (I call it my dog now, because I was there with this dog from birth, so it feels like my dog)

This is what we currently need.  5people who can donate R200 will cover the capped amount of R1000.00 then if more is needed once they have determined the internal damage then I can come back here and update everyone and see if we can raise more.

Already via Twitter one kind lady has stepped forward (Thanx Nikki) so we only need 4 more people.  I will donate the petrol and time going back and forth to Knysna (100km roundtrip from my house) to collect/dropoff the puppy.

If there is anyone else out there who can donate R200 towards this please leave a comment below and a pledged amount or if you dont feel like doing it publcally and wanna help privately then email me at (simonbotes_AT_gmail>DOT>com).  I will not call on everyone but the idea is to see how much is available if it is needed to pull the puppy through.  Currently we only need R1000 for the first opp.

To keep this open I will upload the invoice from the VET at the end so everyone can see where the money went.  I will also update pics of the puppy if he survives the opp.

The only catch is that we need the first R500 today as the downpayment.  I will email each person who comments below directly with bank details, as I am not sure how safe it is to put bank details in the open domain.

I thank you for taking the time to read this and for opening your heart to save our puppy during this time.

This sure is a HUGE step in the right direction for South Africa and an even bigger leap for Africakind. I happily pledged two units to show my support. A good Angel Funding network has been missing from South Africa for a long, long time. I look forward to the day when Africa is leading the world with technolgy startups, that kick serious ass. Angel funding has for a long time been lacking in South Africa and this is surely the best news since Thabo fell off the bus

Lets hope that investors in this new project get to vote on which projects to support.

The next few weeks are going to be interesting. I won’t take my eye’s off this project. Lets see what happens. hehe can only be good things to come…

I refer to my open letter dated Feb 16, 2010. Re: Tsitsikamma Toll Fee’s

After repeated calls and emails to both you and your personal assistant I still have no responce.

Ignoring my letter will not make me go away. Your silence has caused an issue. This issue will be dealt with now by the law of our fair land. Since my writing to you I have opened a criminal case against the managment of the Tsitsikamma Toll Plaza, SANRAL and Aurecon. The case is for fraud and forgery.

“Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents, with the intent to deceive. The similar crime of fraud is the crime of deceiving another, including through the use of objects obtained through forgery.”

I never added your name to the criminal case because I really beleived that you were not part of it. By ignoring my emailes and telephone calls and by not replying I am starting to think maybe I was wrong.

I beg you take action in this case and stomp out corruption and bias in South Africa. I realise you are busy but also realise that I am also just as busy. However sometimes we need to take action before it is to late.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this URGENT matter. This letter is an open letter and will be posted online.

Kind regards

Simon Botes
0832407796

Apparently they are busy in parlement at the moment and so this could take time.  Something that is running out for residents of the affected area’s.  My open letter to Ms Sibongile Mdletshe is attached below.

Dear Ms Sibongile Mdletshe