1. Check the site authentication mode. It must have only one authentication. Check “Anonymous” and un-check “Integrated windows”
2. Check Theme style link binding. Sometimes you need to add aspnet_isapi.dll wildcard in order to make the theme work again.
   IIS > Website > Properties > Home directory tab > Configuration > Wildcard application maps > Add (C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll)
   Make sure to UNCHECK “Verify that file exists” or you will have 404 errors everywhere.
3. Check if your server have all required MIME types eg. Silverlight MIMEs
4. Give the website folder “ASPNET” and “NETWORK SERVICE” WRITE access
5. Reindex all your search indexes.
6. Update your license file to correct site domain license

… will add more as I find things later.

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Related Posts:

• Sitefinity – New Site Setup DOs and DON’Ts
• Sitefinity – Fixing Version Dependent Custom Controls Errors
• Sitefinity – Linking External JS file in Master pages
• How to fix Cruise build deployment that adds extra assemblies and .nlp files
• Sitefinity – Empty Document Uploader Screen and Silverlight MIME

Could not load file or assembly ‘Telerik.Sitefinity, Version=…, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b28c218413bdf563′

To fix that, place the assembly binding redirect info to the runtime section of your web.config and change the values of the “oldVersion” and “newVersion” acordingly. Your site should work again after a rebuild.

<runtime>
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Telerik.Sitefinity" publicKeyToken="b28c218413bdf563" />
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.1.1574.0" newVersion="4.2.1650.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Telerik.Sitefinity.Model" publicKeyToken="b28c218413bdf563" />
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.1.1574.0" newVersion="4.2.1650.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
</assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

Some of the most recent version numbers I’ve tracked are as followed:

• Sitefinity 4.0 (4.0.1210.0)
• Sitefinity 4.1 (4.1.1395.0)
• Sitefinity 4.1 SP1 (4.1.1405.0)
• Sitefinity 4.1 SP2 (4.1.1501.0)
• Sitefinity 4.1 SP3 (4.1.1574.0)
• Sitefinity 4.2 (4.2.1650.0)
• Sitefinity 4.2 SP1 (4.2.1733.0)

Another short note/ref to check out is this post on stackoverflow explaining some of the solution to version conflict error:

“Found conflicts between different versions of the same dependent assembly”.

Below is the direct quote from Brian which I find it pretty useful.:

This warning means that two projects reference the same assembly (e.g. System.Windows.Forms) but the two project require different versions. You have a few options:

1. Recompile all projects to use the same versions (e.g. move all to .Net 3.5). This is the preferred option because all code is running with the versions of dependencies they were compiled with.
2. Add a binding redirect. This will suppress the warning. However, your .Net 2.0 projects will (at runtime) be bound to the .Net 3.5 versions of dependent assemblies such as System.Windows.Forms. You can quickly add a binding redirect by double-clicking on error in Visual Studio.
3. Use CopyLocal=true. I’m not sure if this will suppress the warning. It will, like option 2 above, mean that all projects will use the .Net 3.5 version of System.Windows.Forms.

Here is a utility to identify the offending reference(s):
http://www.brianlow.com/index.php/2010/01/25/find-conflicting-assembly-references/

K that’s about it for now.

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• Checking SQL Server Edition Version
• How to fix Cruise build deployment that adds extra assemblies and .nlp files

Exception Details: System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.VisualBasic.Activities.Compiler’ or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

The Error Page

I did not make any changes to the build configs at all and the site runs fine locally. There is no reference to ‘Microsoft.VisualBasic.Activities.Compiler‘ in my project and it doesn’t have VB code. I found some extra files, see below list, in the deployment bin while comparing the bin assemblies on deployment server and my local. Once remove those files, the site comes back on, but the files are added with every cruise build.

• Microsoft.VisualBasic.Activities.Compiler.dll
• Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.dll
• Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.xml
• mscorlib.dll
• normidna.nlp
• normnfc.nlp
• normnfd.nlp
• normnfkc.nlp
• normnfkd.nlp
• PresentationCore.dll
• System.Data.dll
• System.Data.OracleClient.dll
• System.EnterpriseServices.dll
• System.EnterpriseServices.Wrapper.dll
• System.Printing.dll
• System.Transactions.dll

I google a bit to check similar problems out there and found only one link, which was fixed by installing missing SDK or something. I didn’t think that was the right solution for me but got an idea to check for target platform configuration on the solution and project files.

I compare with one of my working project many times using visual studio property window to check for the solution and project file configuration properties but they seemed to be the same, using ANYCPU for the build platform. I didn’t trust the VS property designer so used WinMerge to compare the two files and found that there are some additional configuration lines added to the solution file. So I open the .sln and .csproj in notepad, removed all the extra configs, see the image below, checked back in, forced build the Cruise Control and walah all those craps gone and the site is back to the way it was.

.sln Solution file comparison and the lines to remove

.csproj Project file comparison and the line to remove

The point I like to make here is that although no error with cruise build, your site can still be broken and freaking Visual Studio design views lie many time so remember to go for the good old way of editing it in notepad.

Note: If you don’t have any working version to compare, just search for “Mixed Platforms” or “x86” in .sln file and “<PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>” in .csproj file and remove them accordingly.

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<sf:JsFileLink id="jsLink" runat="server" ScriptType="jQuery"></sf:JsFileLink>
<sf:JsFileLink id="jsLink" runat="server" ScriptType="prototype"></sf:JsFileLink>
<sf:JsFileLink id="jsLink" runat="server" ScriptType="mooTools"></sf:JsFileLink>

To use it, reference the assembly from the project and add the following code in the master page.

<%@ Register Assembly="Telerik.Cms.Web.UI" Namespace="Telerik.Cms.Web.UI" TagPrefix="sf" %>

It didn’t mention which version of Sitefinity it’s used at but after testing, found out that it’s definitly not for our current 4.1 SP2 version. The “JsFileLink” property is for older version of the sitefinity 3.6 etc which comes from Telerik.Cms.Web.UI assembly.

Did a bit more digging around and got the right referencing for 4.1 version.

1. Add this to master page, immediately after Page tag.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="sf" Assembly="Telerik.Sitefinity" Namespace="Telerik.Sitefinity.Web.UI.PublicControls"%>

2. Place the following inside the “form” tag, NOT in the “head” section.

If you have the “JS” folder location as mention in this structure, reference as followed:

<sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl runat="server" ID="jsLink1" ScriptEmbedPosition="Head" Url="~/Sitefinity/WebsiteTemplates/YourSiteTemplates/JS/test.js"></sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl>

If you have the script folder in your website root, use the following:

<sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl runat="server" ID="jsLink2" ScriptEmbedPosition="Head" Url="~/scripts/test.js"></sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl>

For built-in JQuery library, reference as followed:

<sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl runat="server" ID="jQyeryLink" ScriptEmbedPosition="Head" ScriptType="jQuery"></sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl>

3. Must have unique “ID” and specify “ScriptEmbedPosition” fields.

The JavaScriptEmbedControl will register a script in the selected ScriptEmbedPosition (Head, InPlace, BeforeBodyEndTag). This control is also available in the page editor in the Scripts and Styles toolbox section. You can add references to scripts when editing the page through the UI, and even write inline scripts by hand. ref

IMPORTANT
Place all the external JS link or code blocks at the end of the page rather than the “Head”. ie. use “BeforeBodyEndTag” for some reason sitefinity loads it’s own copy of jquery in the middle of the markup and it tends to mess up the rest of the scripts.
eg.

<sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl runat=”server” ID=”jQyeryLink” ScriptEmbedPosition=”BeforeBodyEndTag” Url=”~/scripts/jquery.min.js”></sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl>
<sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl runat=”server” ID=”JavaScriptEmbedControl1″ ScriptEmbedPosition=”BeforeBodyEndTag” Url=”~/scripts/jquery.cycle.all.js”></sf:JavaScriptEmbedControl>

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• Checking SQL Server Edition Version
• List storedprocedures or database objects by last modified date

Name the solution.
Open the solution via Sitefinity Project Manager and save the solution in the project folder with proper name

Set up DB with appropriate name.
Click “Browse” on the Project Manager to set up the DB.

Add all references as solution items.
Copy all reference DLLs from the bin folder of the project to the “Lib” folder. Add them under solution folder items.

Repoint/Rereference the dlls from “Lib” folder
Remove all sitefinity related references from the project and rereferences them from the “Lib” folder.
Tip: The easiest way to reference the sitefinity related dlls to the project file would be:
- open the project file in the notepad
- search for “bin\”
- replace the appropriate dll refernces with “..\Lib\”
DO NOT hit “Replace All” as not all places require replacement.
All sitefinity related dlls will be rereferenced to correct folder EXCLUDING AjaxControlToolkit and a few others.
Search for the followings:

..\Reference Assemblies\AjaxControlToolkit.dll
..\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\WindowsAzure\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.dll
..\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\WindowsAzure\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.dll
..\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\WindowsAzure\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient.dll

and repoint to Lib folder as well.
Note: Everytime you do the upgrade or add a custom dlls, make sure to add/update them in the Lib folder and repoint the project references to Lib.

Rename the Assembly and DefaultNameSpace with the project name
Right click on the project > Properties > Application tab > Type in project name in the “Assembly name” and “Default namespace” textboxes.

Build the solution
If the aboves are done correctly, your solution will build successfully and once browsed, will display “Thank you for visiting our web site. Please return soon for updates.”
Else you’ll get the error mentioned in the DON’T section below.

DON’T

Don’t use dots “.” in the project name.
Current version throws error when using dots in the project name.
Don’t build the solution before repointing the references.
After creating a new sitefinity site using Sitefinity Project Manager, do not build the project or solution as it will overwrite the dlls from the bin folder and throw the following error.
_”Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.”_ Ref

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select serverproperty('edition')
select @@version

And another annoying thing I found is that when you script the whole database with schema + data, it generates huge script file which sometimes cannot open in SQL Management Studio and even if the file gets opened, cannot execute it due to not enough memory problem. So found out that I cannot solve the problem of restoring backups on different servers by scripting whole db.

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I wished many times to list storedprocedures by last modified date but stupid enough never Google it and just did the painful way of noting down and scripting them. Then I face the problem of all those script files keep piling up over the period of time and lost track of which scripts have been executed or not.

Today I’m in a bit of sensible mode and did a quick googling and found this useful script, so I’m posting here for later reference.

Listing last modified storedprocedures
select name, create_date, modify_date
from sys.procedures
order by modify_date desc

Listing last modified tables
select name, create_date, modify_date
from sys.tables
order by modify_date desc

Listing db objects by type and date
SELECT *
FROM sys.objects
WHERE type in ('P', 'U')
AND DATEDIFF(D,modify_date, GETDATE()) < 90

Type “P” is for storedprocedures and “U” for tables. More on available Types: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190324.aspx

Now that I know which objects have been last updated, I can do the DB script very easily by just selecting those objects. Sweet isn’t it?

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Via: Gapingvoid

Damn Dishwasher
I need a good flask or a little teapot for my tea. Don’t wanna waste tea bags for each cup of hot water I drink. 1 tea bag can be used for about 3 cups ie. I just want a mild lukewarm tea so gotta get a good little flask and have to keep it save in my drawer. Whenever I clean a cup and keep it on my desk, it disappears the next day. The office cleaner must have taken it back to the kitchen. Let me keep my own clean cup at least! I don’t like the dishwasher they have here, it’s not clean at all and very disgusting with many residues still sticking to the dishes after. Why can’t they just leave a traditional liquid soup and a sponge there! Anyways…You see, I use this folded tissue paper to cover my tea cup just to keep it warm a bit longer. I’ve been wondering why the side facing the hot water doesn’t get wet but the outer side does. Hmm someone care to explain me the reason? I’ve never been good at Chemistry.

Tweets of the week
I just find this two pretty amusing.
@kaoskongo #YouKnowYourFijian ‘Umbrella’ is pronounced ‘Um-ba-re-lla’ #ella #ella

@sher0d Just viewed source on Bing: <html><head><title>Bing</title></head><body><iframe src=”http://www.google.com”></iframe></body></html>

Aussie Guys
Yesterday I was walking along Pitt St towards Castlereagh St and saw this two men kissing passionately in the middle of a very crowded street. Then another couple around World Square was hugging and whispering as they walk. Again this morning when I was on the way to work, on the bus, this big guy sitting next to me was flirting on the phone but I can very clearly hear the receiver from the other end was a man as well. Then I remember my Czech ex-flatmate once says; “In Australia, all the guys are either Married, Taken or Gays“. Hmm…O…K… I have no discrimination toward bi, tri, quad or whatever genders. I just find that people over here are very passionate and very openly show their affection in the public places. May be I’m just a traditionalist or come from a place where I don’t often see those kind of public affections so it’s kind of new for me.

Santa’s Close Relatives
I always have a problem with hairy people, especially those with extreme facial hair. I just can’t understand why they’re so very much in love with their facial hair; some cultivate them very carefully, some just have them for the sake of having them and some just doesn’t own a mirror or a shave. Whatever their reasons are, they just freak me out and kind of scare me. We had a lunch at this bar, Lord Nelson Brewery, last Friday. It was quite a crowded lunch hour; our table was right beside the entrance and 80% of the guys coming in have all those ugly facial hair and untidy long bird nest hair…urgh! Anyways, the lunch was nice, I had chilli crab spaghetti. I’m thinking of trying out the pie next time cos’ the table next to us were having pies and I’m very much curious about what those green stuffs on their pies are.

Ok that’s all for now. Ohhohoho

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“Anticipation leads to disappointment“, said so the instructor many times. He kept telling us to follow the men’s lead and let the guys do the thinking cos’ they are the brains here and women just follow whatever the guys do.
He said, there are only two rules in dancing (and in life as well);

1st rule – “The man is always right”;
2nd rule, “If you think he’s wrong, refer to rule #1″.

If you step on the guy’s feet, say sorry cos’ it’s your fault, you’re not following the guy’s lead.
If he step on your toes, you apologise, it’s again your fault, cos’ you didn’t move your foot back.
(hmm…)

I would agree to follow the lead if the guy is a good leader but some of the guys are just very bad at dancing; forget about leading, they can’t even get their own footwork right. We have to rotate around the floor so get to dance with everyone. You make heaps of mistakes if the guy partner is terrible. There’s no team work in dancing, it’s just follow the guy’s lead (according to the instructor) so blame it all on the guys. It’s quite true cos’ you dance so well if you get to partner with bronze level students or an advance level guys. They can lead you on not only on the footwork but also on the body movement as well. For us beginners, we only concentrate on the footwork and none at all for body/hip movement that all of us dancing like stiff mechanical robots at the moment.

You have to practice a lot in order to get the foot work right without looking down at the feet all the time. But for me, I forget the steps the min I step out of the studio so there’s no way for me to improve in dancing. Every Friday 8-11pm is a social dance where you can practice whatever you learn with everyone. The music keeps changing every few min and you get to dance with whoever ask you to dance. The problem for me is, I don’t even know which music beat is for which type of dance and even if I kinda know the beat, I forgot the footwork for the dance. I’m totally hopeless in this area. At the last social dance, this girl asked me what’s my plan after this class, and I told her I have no idea cos’ I wasn’t planning to join the classes to start with and I’m just coming here for a bit of laughter and fun since I need to de-stress myself. As for her, she comes to the studio to practice everyday, she’s really an advance level once and can dance so beautifully, plus she’s a very pretty Java Software developer. Whoop what a girl!

Anyways, so far I’m enjoying the lessons except for getting occasional sore toes cos’ the guys keep stepping on my toes. Especially those tall guys who have long steps which keep clashing with my steps. And yes, yes, I did apologise them for not moving my foot far enough. I get hurt and have to apologise too, not good at all! The instructor told me I think too much; he told me not to think at all but just follow the guy and go with the flow. But but, I just can’t do it, my brain just automatically tick tick tick and have to go figure out what’s the next step is, so yes, my anticipation keeps getting me sore feet and disappointment. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying the dances so far!

Here is my favorite Zouk vid published on the studio’s site. You can check out some more vids and a bit of the info on Zouk here. They are all performed at the “Step Up Dance Studio“. So very cool yet so hard isn’t it?

Zouk-Lambada

And here are recent Spring Ball performances and previous functions too. They are asking if we want to participate in the next function. We can ask the instructor of our choice to partner with us and he’ll teach us the choreography and everything. It’s pretty fun to watch all those previous performances.

Oh yes, coming Friday is V Day special social dance function so everyone has to wear pink or hot pink or anything to do with pink. Let’s see what the guys wear then. Ok, that’s all for now and I’ll be at the social dance tonight.

Enjoy your Friday!

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I normally use literal or panel server controls to show or hide the confirmation messages. But in this code, the div tag can act as a panel control by declaring it as HtmlGenericControl.

In the front-end you add id and runat=”server” elements to the div tag.

<fieldset>
	<h3>Registration Validation</h3>
	<div id="divValidated" runat="server">
		Your account has been validated. You may now log in.
	</div>
	<div id="divNoAccount" runat="server">
		No matching account. If it has been over 30 days since you registered your
		account will have been deleted. Please sign up again.
	</div>
	<div id="divNoNeed" runat="server">
		Your account has already been validated.
	</div>
</fieldset>

In the back-end you declare it as HtmlGenericControl.

protected System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl divValidated;
protected System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl divNoAccount;
protected System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl divNoNeed;

Voila, you got your div panel with all those member variables you can make use of. So here is a little info on HtmlGenericControl.

Use this class to represent an HTML server control element not directly represented by a .NET Framework class, such as <span>, <div>, <body>, or <font>.
Caution
This control can be used to display user input, which might include malicious client script. Check any information that is sent from a client for executable script, SQL statements, or other code before displaying it in your application. ASP.NET provides an input request validation feature to block script and HTML in user input. Validation server controls are also provided to assess user input.
HtmlGenericControl Class
HtmlGenericControl Members

Pretty cool isn’t it? Well, I didn’t know that and now I know.

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It’s at “Step Up Dance Studio“, Level 1, 160 Castlereagh St, Sydney Australia, which is a few streets away from our apartment.

We’ve started the first lesson, Waltz, this evening. There are 2 instructors, 1 helper and 5 beginners including my sis and I. The lead instructor was quite talkative and friendly. I didn’t prepare anything at all to start with; my footwear wasn’t fit for dancing but still doable. I was the worst in the group, kept making mistakes with footwork but I didn’t step on others, just tripped my own steps. We are going to learn 9 dances in this 18 lessons. Details as followed:

Beginners Group
You will learn the 9 dances in the beginners lessons:
Latin American: Samba, Rumba, Cha Cha, Swing and Salsa
Ballroom: Waltz, Foxtrot and Tango, Zouk-Lambada!

Cost
18 Week Lesson Block – $270 per person

Time:
Tue: 6:30 – 7:30pm
Thu: 7:00 – 8:00pm

I have no idea what all those dances are; I’ve heard of the names but don’t know which is which. So I shall see the differences and a few basic moves out of this beginner lessons. Overall, the first lesson was pretty fun and apart from keep tripping myself, I enjoyed it a lot.

There’s a social dancing session on Fridays which is open to all $15 for 3hr; instructor said it’s a good time to mingle with other dancers and practice your dance skills. Alrite, so whoever interested in learning some moves, you can join us and you’ll see me making a fool out of myself there.

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People telling me, I look strange and sickly in my photos these days; no doubt, I lost the radiance of My “He”. Sob*

Oh how I miss My “He”!.

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1. What is your name: May
2. A four Letter Word: Moon
3. A boy’s Name: Michael
4. A girl’s Name: Marilyn
5. An occupation: Manager
6. A color: Magenta
7. Something you’ll wear : Marc Jacobs + Maybelline
8. A food: Mutton + Mashed Potatoes (Moon Cake + M&Ms for dessert)
9. Something found in the bathroom: Mat + Medicine cabinet
10. A place: Melbourne
11. A reason for being late: Malaria or Mad cow disease
12. Something you’d shout: Mwahahaha!
13. A movie title: Me, Myself & Irene
14. Something you drink: Mocha
15. A musical group: Muse
16. An animal: Mongoose
17. A street name: Maunicau Rd (ok not exactly a street)
18. A type of car: Mini Cooper (Mr. Bean’s car) or Mini Bus
19. The title of a song: My Life Would Suck Without You, My Heart Will Go On
20. A verb: Motivate

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We (brother and I) have opened a joint saving account at ANZ main branch early August (18th to be exact). I’ve asked the lady who opened our account when we will get our ATM cards; she said “should arrive to you post box after two days”. I knew when they say two days that means two weeks with added “Fiji Time” but I wasn’t worry about it as long as I get the cards after two weeks.

We usually check our post box three or four times a week and there wouldn’t be a week we forget to check it. I was anticipating the cards should arrive after two weeks but no sign of them, not even a note to collect from their branch after four weeks. So, on 17th Sept, I looked for some contact details on the ANZ Fiji website and used the general enquiry form to email regarding the lateness of our cards.

They responded my email after 25min, requesting the account number as they were having some problem with the system and could not search by name, which was surprisingly fast and I was happy about their prompt service. After I sent the account number, the “Electronic Business – Fiji (ebusfj)” forwarded our cards numbers to “EBS HelpDesk HUB” asking for the cards’ despatch date as “ebusfj” couldn’t retrieve the action date due to the difficulties on beam (whatever the beam is).

“ESB HelpDesk Hub” then replied that both cards were posted out on the 28/08/09 to our post box. I replied them confirming the post box number is correct and we never received the cards. Local mails should not take that long and I wondered the cards were sent from overseas. I then requested for their advice on what action to take.

“EBS HelpDesk Hub” did not explain why the cards did not reach us or where they were sent from. But they replied “the only action we can take now is to order new cards for both of you. Please advise if we can proceed with this request.” Of course, what else should I have done since that’s the only advice they gave, so I gave a green flag, go ahead, order away; and asked how long will those take this time. They replied saying the orders have been placed, both cards and pins can be collected on Wednesday the next week.
Okie! I was all cool about it, I shall get my cards next week. Now, this is where the major problem starts.

On Friday 18th Sept, the cards reached our box. I was a bit confused; I thought we were suppose to pick up from the main branch; anyhow I did not mind receiving them in our box. On 22nd Sept, I prepared to pick up our pins at the branch and before doing so, I happened to logon to internet banking page and check my balance online. There was $10 shot in my balance.

I told my brother, who is the joint partner of the account, what to do about it but the arse ignored me and tell me to forget about it as it’s only a merry 10 bucks. I disagreed, arguing it was unacceptable to waste money like that and we should do something about it. I then realized that it definitely was not a merry 10 bucks but added consequences we might have to suffer for his so called merry 10bucks. We might lose on the monthly interest as the nature of this particular saving account only gives interest if we deposit each month and do not make a single withdrawal. The thoughtless brother did not seems to realize it and even fought with me for fussing and picking on him.

With no help from him, I had to take things into my own hand and sent the following mail to “EBS HelpDesk Hub” and “ebusfj”.

Hello XX,
Thanks for the help.
I’ve received the cards in my post box last Friday; it has 17th Sept 09 stamped on it.
It is very clear that ANZ has never sent the cards on mentioned date ie. 28/08/09.
With these new orders you just made, you have charged $10 stating: 21/09/2009 DEBIT REPLACEMENT DR CARD FEE 18/09/09 on my account.

It is very unfair and unacceptable that you charge us for your insufficient service.
I can bring the stamped envelope and letter as an evident to you to prove that you only sent our cards after I made this email enquiry on the 17th Sept.
It is not our fault that you delay your posting but why must we be charged for your lack of commitment?
I demand that you do something about this unfair charges and like to have my $10 back!
We do not need extra cards and only requested what we should have received 3 weeks ago.
If you have sent us the cards as promised date, we would not have wasted our time emailing back and forth plus this kind of situation would never happen.
Failure to provide the service is very unprofessional and on top of that charging customers for your failure is unacceptable.

Tomorrow I’ll have to come collect the newly order cards + PIN and like to talk to relevant personnel for this matter.
Kindly let me know who to talk to in order to explain this situation and make a proper complaint.
I must say, trying to claim back this merry $10 seems foolish but this is very important to point out ANZ lack of professionalism in their services and customer care department.

Regards,
May

PS. I forgot to mention that due to this implication, I might lose on my monthly bonus interest fee since Fast Saver account requires no withdrawal in a month to have a bonus interest rate. So, please take this matter very seriously and let me know the best solution to solve this.

After that I had to shoot two emails before they replied me admitting that it was their mistake.

“EBS HelpDesk HUB” replied:

Hi May,

Thank you for your email.
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
Could you please provide your account number so that we can attend to the reversal of your card fee today.

“Electronic Business – Fiji” replied:

Hello May,

This is an error on our part and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. We will confirm once the reversal is carried out.
As for the interest for the month of September, we will manually calculate this and credit your account by the end of the month.

Kind regards
XX

Alright great, as long as they know their mistake and fix it the next day. But I have my doubt that the implications in Fiji never resolve that easily. So I waited for end of the month to check my account balance again. And of course, I was right about never resolve easy part. Here is what I saw in my account and what I emailed them on 1st of Oct.

Hello XX or YY,
Could you check my account again and explain why the promised action has not been performed?
You haven’t fixed my interest manually as you mentioned in the previous mail and on top of that you have charged $5 for withdrawal fee.
I like to know what that withdrawal fee is about and why there is no interest added to my account.
I have deposited $__ on 1/09/09 and made no withdrawal the whole month, which means I’m entitled for 5.25% interest rate September.
Now, kindly explain why in the name is wrong with all those transactions shows on my account and how to fix all those mess up!!!
Please see the attached screenshot. I would like this fixed by today and don’t want to keep wasting my time following up this issue again next month.

Thanks.
May

I got no respond from them after a few hours. So I made a call and as expected, the phone service was worse than the emailing. The call handlers were very impatient or rather rude about it and never listen to what I have to say but keeps putting me on hold and transferring among themselves. After 5th round of transfers, they won’t even say Hello anymore as they recognized my voice and put me on a long wait. I got so fed up had to hang up.

So, I shot another email:

Hello,

I called this number: 679 3213 000 and asked for one of you and they keep transferring me back and forth, putting me on queue for more than 10min and I got no one to talk to in the end hence hung up. This is outrageous!
Could you give me the direct contact number or person full name to talk to regarding this issue please.
You should at least help me properly on this part as nothing has been working out well with contacting anz via emails.

They then replied:

Hi May,
We are working on your interest today as its the 1st of October since we need to sight all your transactions from 01/09/09 to 30/09/09 respectively. We will advise you by EOB once the credit is done.
Regards

To reply to that, I sent:

And plz explain what is that $5 withdrawal fee is about.
I also need a direct contact person name and phone number.

Ebusfj replied and explained:

Hi May,
Please call my direct line on (___)_____ and I will assist you.
Thanks
XX

———–

Hi May,

The $5.00 fee will be reversed as well as it was the result of the second debit on the account (Acess card fee)
Regards
XX

Since, she’s care enough to respond my emails, I gave her a chance to do her job and planned to wait till end of the day to check on the account again.

During this time, I had to go to ANZ for another matter and happened to meet the Branch Manager Sales. I was not there to see him in the first place but to see another personnel.

The personnel I went to see has yet another bad attitude such as making annoying/impatient faces and tassking at me on my previous visit. She ignored me, who made a prior appointment with her before coming, and carry on chatting on the phone joyfully, then 5 more minute doing her own business after hanging up her phone. She saw me waving at her and she waved back; even after, she carries on ignoring me. I’m not sure if she was waiting for me to jump up and down insanely or call out to her to grab her attention. Finally when I get to see her, she showed more annoyed face and tassked at me. I consider “tassking” a very rude thing to do especially in this kind of customer service environment. Ok, that’s another story for another time. Back to the main topic.

This time round, she was not even in the office and I planned not to wait but to see whoever for my matter. I walked in the first opened door and let myself be seated while wait for the person to finish with the call. Lucky enough, I wasn’t chased out but he kindly asked me for my business and quickly helped me with it. I happen to see his business cards and found out that he’s a branch manager sales. I quickly asked him where the customer complaint section is and how to go about making a formal complaint. He was a bit surprised by my sudden request and asked if I want to complain about him. I told him it’s not about him but about my unresolved account issue of two months and briefly explain the implications. He then gave me a contact detail to lodge the complaint in writing plus his business card. I thanked him and left planning to write a formal complaint to mentioned address if my problem was not resolved by EOB.

At 4:28pm, “Ebusfj” emailed to inform the account updates.

Hello May,
We have reversed the $5.00 fee and credited the interest for September, 2009.
Kind regards
XX

I checked my account again and confirmed that all has been corrected. I made another deposit for this month and replied her mail:

Thank you XX.
I was going to call you around 4:30 if the issue hasn’t been fixed. I guess I don’t need to anymore.
I just checked the account and glad to found out that I’ve received the interest and reversed $5.
I’ll do a deposit for this month and hopefully no such implications should arise for next month.
Thanks again for your help.
May

Case closed. The point of this long story was to note down how ANZ do their business and handle their customers’ issues.

I learnt that I should never trust their word and keeps following up on them till the end. I also wonder that how many of ANZ customers have encountered this kind of implications and never get to go about resolving them. Many might not even realize that some unreasonable fees or charges has been applied to their account without their notice and those of who noticed (such as my brother) have never care enough to make a complaint thinking it’s just a few bucks which needs not worth wasting his time upon. But I was stubborn enough to care for merry $10 and have managed to keep/save our monthly interest of $129.45 + regained $5 the unnecessary withdrawal fee. Now it’s not “just a merry figure” anymore isn’t it?

Finally, let me share those of you out there like me who did not know where to make a formal complaint, you can write a letter to the following address.

To: Lilian Alfereti
ANZ Customer Advocate,
7th Floor, ANZ House,
Suva.

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I was thinking of taking a leave just to lazy around on my birthday but then I’m expecting some emails from customers and came to work anyways. See how responsible me is.

I got a few birthday wish emails from friends and a friend asking for cake. Come to think of it, I hardly have cakes for my birthdays, am sure I only have less than 10 birthday cakes to-date. The main reason is, I’m not fond of cakes and I tend to ask for other food (Burmese food like Kyar San Chat, Ohn Noe Khout Swal etc) than cakes. Anyways, mom cooks my favourite prawns today and I’ll ask her to cook something yummy for dinner as well.

It’s a bit of noisy day at work but same old routine so not much to talk about. A friend share his good news of receiving two job offers today and heard my boss’s happy about getting some $$ or something. It’s always good to see happy people; in my attempt to join their happiness, I checked my account and found out that I’m FJD 1.51/2 richer today. hehe. You see, I recently opened my new very first saving account (joint with bro) and that’s the interest I got for the month (rather 10days). Hey it’s better than nothing rite?

Surprisingly, I don’t wish or reminisce over things at all this birthday. I’m not quite sure it’s because I’m either content with my life or don’t care a thing about it at all. I’m just treating like just another day; guess age is catching up.

Anyways, got to get back to work; I’m just dropping a few lines on my long ignored blog in memory of my birthday. So do wish my boring life healthy, wealthy and sane.

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