This story caught my eye! Novel ways in which Chinese tea companies can compete with Starbucks, and Coca Cola. I’ve already looked at the tea business in Taiwan, but this video story follows up quite nicely. Enjoy!
hong kong
eBay Suspension: It wasn’t me, I didn’t do it…!
For those of you who remember my situation with eBay, they finally answered my email, after I reposted my email through the user center (again).
Last month, I was suspended from using eBay for no apparent reason, with a somewhat abrupt email from eBay and poor help from their customer *dis*service center.
Here’s the follow up email I got, spelling and grammar mistakes are theirs, not mine:
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to write to eBay. I am happy to assist you further.
Recently, we have detected some Taiwan accounts have the risk of taking by the third party. In order to protect the personal information of users and maintain those accounts safty, we have suspended your account.
You could choose:
1. Please reply this mail for account closure (related personal information will be deleted at the same time)
2. Please provide us scanned or digital picture of your Identity Card in attachment format to: hkappeal@ebay.com (Note: Please control the size of attachment within 100K and save it as .jpg format). Our staff will reply you within 48 to 120 hours from receipt of the requested information.
3. Needn’t reply this mail, this suspension account can’t be used till the process of option2 has been completed.Your persional information is safe with the suspension status.
Sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused, thank you for the understanding!
Thank you for your interest in helping to keep eBay Hong Kong a fun and safe place to trade!
For further contact, please reply this email with the original text. Thank you!
Regards,
eBay Hong Kong Customer Support
I appreciate the long answer, and the fact that the person writing it really tried to help. But still, I wonder why I am being found guilty first then being expected to prove my innocence. It seems odd.
I didn’t do anything wrong, but I have to appeal, and have my appeal judged. Wouldn’t it be better PR to find another way to get this information such as advising us that all accounts need to be ‘upgraded’ (with additional services), but to upgrade you need to ‘verify’ who you are. Isn’t that what Paypal does?
I still can’t decide if I should bother or not. Oh, and scanning my ID and shipping it via email is REALLY secure, isn’t it? I might as well just type my credit card number in the email, too. Haven’t they heard of identity theft?
Hong Kong, Taxes and Us…!
Today’s Issue of Steve Sjuggerud’s DailyWealth
Hong Kong Adapts to the
Brave New WorldOne of our favorite anecdotes about Hong Kong dates back to 2003, when the S.A.R. was mired in doom and gloom (property prices were down –70% from their highs, people were hysterical about SARS…). That year, taxi drivers went on a strike to ask for… lower cab fares! The logic was that, at a lower price, more people would ride taxis (the government refused on the premise that the cabs would then start competing with the buses, tramways & MTR). If nothing else, this story illustrates HK’s amazing power of adaptation and “can do” attitude.
An interesting discussion that seems to follow on logically from the Globalised Economy. I had wondered if HK was in fact just raising taxes, but it seems to be actually shifting its tax portfolio. Continue reading