A serious flaw: Online shopping for technology gadgets

Due to increasing counterfeit technology gadget, there is an increased risk of getting counterfeit items through online shopping. Since you will not be able to verify the quality personally, it is easier for unscrupulous sellers to copy the original items description while sending counterfeit items to you. More so happens when you buy on promotional pricing.

Many agents state quite clearly in their description that they serve no responsibilities for the items posted on their website for third parties sellers. Hence, the buyers bear the most risk.

My personal opinion here is that there is too little done to protect the buyers in my country. Countless of buyers have been cheated of their hard earned money. It seems really lucrative to be an unscrupulous seller in this country. Unless there are plenty of cases raised against you, or perhaps you were unlucky to be caught and news populated in the media, most of the time you will earn quite an amount from such a business. Of course, there are ethical and legit online shops out there, but there is an increasing number of counterfeit ones as well. So how do we avoid those when we are shopping online?

1.   Always check the buyers' reviews
Although this is not a foolproof method, it generally provides an accurate opinion of the quality of the product. Do look for the reviews on the quality of the products of the store, not just delivery punctuality, and packaging. Additionally, do beware of the online shop with little reviews, they might not be actual customers but staff who wrote them to encourage buyers to buy. Hence, looking for an established online shop with real customers reviews and look at their comments on the quality of the product may be more reliable in determining the product quality.

2.   Check Sellers' responses on Q&A
This not only reflect the service quality of the sellers, it also tells you how the sellers describe their product. If you ever doubt the authenticity of the product, post a question and wait for a reply. If the seller avoids answering your questions or refuses to reply, you should avoid buying the product.

3.   Recommendation from buyers
Giving a seller a good review on the product is different from recommending a product to others. If they recommend a product to other buyers would mean that they are more than satisfy with the product. Of course, do look out for staff who are posting fake reviews. A good indicator would be the number of reviews the shops received and how each review differs from each other.

I hope this will serve as a useful guide for others who love to do their shopping online, especially on technology gadgets.

Silent Protest: My own problems...

It seems almost as if I am fated not to smile, nor talk at all.

There have been countless articles about the prices of goods and services. I wish that I could trust the reportings, however, based on observations I have my doubts doing so. For the same product at the exact same store, the price increased by more than 200%. It is scary. Moreover, the service level had decreased tremendously. The product was ready within 3 days, and now it takes more than 2 weeks. There were direct and obvious reasons behind this which most are aware but little are willing to point out.

Sigh...The little power a peasant has...

My First Headphone: Upcoming review in the next two week

Recently, I have gotten myself a new Sennheiser headphone. It is my first audiophile headphone in my life. Just three days of listening and I couldn't believe how much I was missing out in the past. I consider myself sensitive to changes in sound, however, being able to listen to music was already a blessing to me. Now, being able to listen to music on Sennheiser headphone proves to be an amazing experience. 

I have a couple of things to review about and I do not wish to list them all here. I will take my time to listen to it more and over longer hours to gauge comfort level of this new headphone. I come from a pure earphone background and, hence, I may have some nasty thing to say about the comfort. I bought the headphone after reading tons of review confirming that it was one of the most comfortable headphones in the market. Apparently, I had not done my research enough. This is what you get when you jumped into a product too fast, too impatient, too blind. Besides this, others were all GOOD and above expectations. I will be doing up a full review soon as I am going for a surgery next week and will be having the time to do up some reviews which I have been missing out on. 

During this holiday season, I spent some time looking for Christmas gifts for my colleagues. I felt guilty not buying anything for them as most of them did give me presents and they were not cheap. Hence, I did spend some time and effort repaying them as well. 

I felt that I have more free time than ever. Why is this so?

Yet, I felt as if I am more tired than ever. So strange...

My mind is not thinking positively anymore. For a period of time, I was. 

I am taking a data science course and I was supposed to finish up my assignment today. Yet, due to the poor internet connection, I had to restart my wireless broadband and computer which gives me the excuse to skip it. To put it simply: Procrastination, yet and again. Really, when will this bad habit of mine stop? I will probably have it done by tomorrow. I ought to check for the deadline first. 

Hope you are enjoying your season holidays. Cheers.