2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Around a month ago I was at the airport early morning, I had just finished checking in and headed towards the money exchange to get some currency. I gave the exchange employee my Knet card but got an error saying my card was declined. I tried it again but got the same error. I knew I had money on the card since I had double checked the night before. In any case I decided to log in with my banks app and double check but I got an error logging in as well. I then told the money exchange clerk I would be back and headed to one of the ATM machines at the airport to withdraw money but also got an error. So I called the banks call center number and spoke to an employee who proceeded to tell me their system was going under maintenance and I wouldn’t be able withdraw any money or use any of my cards for the next two hours.

I was furious.

Here I was at the airport about to travel and I didn’t have any cash on me and I wouldn’t be able to get any cash either and not because I didn’t have any money but because my bank wouldn’t give me access to it. When I asked the employee why they didn’t inform me and their other customers about this so that we would be prepared (I could have converted currency the night before and withdrawn money), his response was we did… on Instagram and Twitter. And this is where the problem lies. I hung up with the call center employee and headed to the lounge where I proceeded to tweet my frustration as well as send their customer care an email. I didn’t get any response from them until 30 days later when I had to tweet and remind them that it had been 30 days without a response.

Now this is where I would be interested to hear from you guys since maybe I’m over reacting here or maybe it’s me being an asshole but wouldn’t you agree it would be best if the bank SMS’ed their clients important information like when you won’t be able to access your money or any of your cards for two hours instead of posting that kind of important information on twitter or instagram?

First of all why the hell would I want to follow my bank on twitter or instagram? I follow only 15 friends on twitter and I follow around 100 friends on Instagram. The image above is a result of me following my banks twitter account (I had to so I could send them a direct message). They tweet so much and so often they ended up taking over my twitter feed. Why would I want to flood my twitter feed with their tweets on a daily basis?

Secondly, my bank have my phone number and I receive a ton of useless advertisements from them all the time. Why is it ok to SMS me useless adverts but not ok to SMS me important information like when I will not be able to use my ATM or credit cards because their system will be down?

So this is my suggestion to my bank (you know who you are):

1- SMS or Email your customers when there will be a major disruption in the service

2- Be clear about what the disruption will be. “System will be undergoing maintenance” could mean anything from I won’t be able to log in to your website to your call center employees won’t be able to order their daily fix of Caesars pizza. It’s too generic, instead tell your customers clearly that on a certain date at a certain time they will not be able to use their ATM cards.

3- Respond to emails. 30 days with no response means you’re ignoring me. I sent an email to Zain the other day and got a response in 15 minutes so if they can do it so can you.

That’s my 2 cents. And yes this post was censored by Fajer.

Best Electronics currently have a special promotion on Hurom juicers. They were previously selling them for KD99 but they’ve now dropped the price down to KD74 which is cheaper than Amazon. Slow juicers supposedly retain more nutrients during the juicing process when compared with conventional juicers. I personally love my “conventional” juicer and wouldn’t trade it in for any other juicer, but if you’re a fan of slow juicing then this should be of interest to you. [Link]

Note: You need to add to cart and check out to see discounted price.

Bayt Lothan are holding a poetry reading this coming Thursday night. If you’re interested here are the details:

Date: Thursday December 19th, 2013
Time: 7PM
Location: Bayth Lothan:
Tickets: KD5

The tickets are sold at the Q8BookStore or at Bayt Lothan. They will also be sold at the door on the same night.

Does anyone remember when the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to Kuwait? It was back in the 80’s and I think it was held at the Mishref Fairs Ground. I just remembered it today for some reason and I can’t find anything on Google about it. If you happen to remember it or have any photos leave a comment below.

Update: A reader found the following quote in an article about Kuwait from the Chicago Tribune back in 1987 which I thought was hilarious..

When an American Wild West show visited recently, cowboys were forced to ride around an arena pointing their fingers in the air and shouting “bang, bang,“ because Kuwaiti authorities would not permit them to bring in their blank-firing six-shooters.

[YouTube]

Here’s a cool new music video and it’s not a rap video! Amin Farid Abdal is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican with a background in music performance and production. His latest music video is for a track called ‘WebCam Girl’ and it’s off his upcoming album ‘Neon Darkness’. Check out the video above and then check out his SoundCloud page for the rest of the tracks [Here]

I passed by Sony today and picked up a Sony PS4 to review for the blog along with two games, Killzone and Knack. My brother is going to be reviewing it since he’s in charge of the gaming posts on my blog. If you need to know anything about the PS4 just leave a comment below.

I found out about this today and have managed to confirm it with multiple sources. Saturday early morning around 2:30AM an unidentified person walked into Hamra Mall and headed up the service elevator towards the food court. He then walked towards Elevation Burger which was closed at that time and jumped over the counter and pretended he was an employee cleaning the place. Four hours later the unidentified person took the safe and wrapped it in a garbage bag before putting it on a trolley before casually rolling out with it from the mall.

All of this was caught on CCTV and the police are currently investigating the robbery with the help of Al Hamra Mall security. Al Hamra Mall believe the unidentified person was an ex-Elevation employee while Elevation are denying that fact and instead believe he could have been an employee from any of the other places.

I’m trying to get my hands on the CCTV footage but no luck so far.

Caliburger, the burger chain from South California will be opening five locations in the Middle East next year, the first in Bahrain in February followed by Kuwait in April and then Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Erbil (Iraq). From all the locations Erbil is probably the best idea while Kuwait is the worst. Unless it’s a huge name like In-N-Out or Wendy’s, we have too many burger franchises here as it is already. [Source]

This horrific accident took place in Sulaibikhat. If you want to know what the car was check the comments below.

UCYCLE is a new small business that just launched two days ago. They’re a bike rental company and just started renting bicycles at the Mishref Mamsha (walk path). They offer three kinds of bicycles, normal bikes, glow in the dark neon Purefix bikes and two person tandem bikes. Here are their prices:

Normal Bicycles
1st hour: KD3.5
Every hour after KD2

Neon Bicycles
1st hour: KD5
Every hour after KD2.5

Tandem Bicycle
1st hour: KD10
Every 30min after: 5KD

They’re planning to change locations every week and you can stay up to date by following on the following social media channels:

Call/ Whatsapp: +965 98037123
Twitter: @UcycleKw
Instagram: @Ucyclekw
Email: [email protected]

Lanvin started a 60% sale yesterday on menswear and only on menswear. Turns out they’re closing down the mens section permanently so they’re getting rid of their stock. I picked up a wallet but they also had some good tshirts and you can’t go wrong with their sneakers (although 60% off on KD300+ shoes is still KD100+). Lanvin is located in Prestige section of Avenues between Ralph Lauren and Tod’s.

Kuwait’s Zaid Ashkanani secured his first race win in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East in race two of round two at Dubai Autodrome on Friday, in what was the closest contest of the series’ fifth season so far.

Starting from pole on the 16-car grid, Ashkanani led throughout and took the flag despite immense pressure from reigning champion Clemens Schmid. Al Nabooda Racing’s Schmid almost snatched victory on the final lap, but the Kuwaiti kept his cool to cross the line first. [Article]

If guys are winning without a race track in Kuwait, imagine how much better and much more drivers we would have if we did have a track.

Note: That’s Askhaknani’s car on the left. Download the wallpaper sized version of the photo [Here]

The fight took place over the weekend. [YouTube]

Update: From Arab Times

A Kuwaiti citizen and an Iranian expatriate sustained injuries when they were beaten by three youths during a quarrel in a popular commercial complex in Al-Rai area. According to security sources, the citizen was shopping inside the commercial complex with his wife and his friend of Iranian nationality when three youths made a derogatory comment about his wife.

He immediately confronted them and it resulted in a fight between the two groups during which the citizen and his Iranian friend sustained injuries. Securitymen and paramedics rushed to the location when they received information about the quarrel. Paramedics referred the two injured victims to the nearest hospital while securitymen referred the three youths to Andalous Police Station where a case of sexual harassment was filed against them.

Too much pressure on men, and unrealistic expectations from women.
I’m pro censorship of abs.

Last night the updated Kuwait Blogs iPhone app became available in the Apple Store. This update fixes two things, the app now works with iOS7 and the app now runs in full screen. There were a bunch of blogs that were no longer being updated and I also removed those while updating the app.

To download the app just search for Kuwait Blogs in the Apple Store or click [Here]