Severdia

Knight of the the Burning what?

Well, it's official. I got the part I wanted in Knight of the Burning Pestle in the Marin Shakespeare Festival. The callbacks were gruelling and over 6 hours long--about 100-120 people there total throughout the day. I saw some decent audtions and some very, very mediocre ones (I guess those are the people that do great monologues but can't cold-read). The part I got is actually two parts (insert inside joke here: "fah-werk"); it's Michael, the "slow" brother of Jasper, as well as Princess Pompiona of Moldavia. Before you think to yourself, "But that sounds like a woman's part..", let me tell you it is. I have a long scene where I attempt to seduce the Knight and it's very funny. The whole thing is very Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-Grail-esque so expect silly humor and wacky antics. The cast will be:

George - Julian Lopez-Morillas
Nell - Linda Paplow
Ralph - Darren Bridgett
Jasper (also the Barber) - Drew Hirshfield
Humphrey (also the Host) - Andrew Jackson
Michael (also Pompiona) - Ron Severdia
Luce - Mary Knoll
Merrythought - Jarion Monroe
Mistress Merrythought - Maureen O'Donoghue
Venturewell - George Maguire
Tim (the Giant) - Robert Leach
Jim (the Dwarf) - TBA

Darren Bridgett did one of the best auditions I've seen in a long time (a Mavolio scene from Romeo & Juliet--it was clear he'd played the role at some time or another), Linda Paplow is a longtime friend (we did Our Town at College of Marin about 15 years ago), and Maureen O'Donoghue is a fellow thespian from the Ross Valley Players.

You're also trying to think of when Shakespeare wrote it--he didn't. The festival stages classic plays from Shakespeare's period, not just ones written by him. The other shows coming this summer are Two Gentlemen of Verona (directed by my cohort Jim Dunn) and Romeo & Juliet. Reserve your tickets now!

Amazon participating in scamming

Well, it seems that all Amazon can do is pay lip service to its customers and harbor scammers. In response to my previous emails to them regarding the scams I encountered while researching my purchase of a Canon 350D Digital Rebel XT they wrote me "Strong feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide." Um...sure it improves the selection because there's a multitude of scammers to choose from. Improve the service? How about improving your customer service by not cutting and pasting crap from form letters into your responses to customers? That's one way you can start. The second way would be to buy my friend Karen Leland's book, Customer Service for Dummies from your own store.

Another quote from their brief response to my email: "Thus, rest assured, we have an investigating team which keeps an eye on such sellers. Whenever we notice such practices, we take appropriate action." What's that appropriate action? There are at least 5-10 scams on any given day for that model of camera ALONE. Since I have only been focusing on the Canon camera, one can only assume that the scams are widespread on Amazon. What's their solution? To cancel the scammer's account. Then the scammers immediately set up a new one and continue without any hiccup--even using the same email address (I've seen this!). What other measures are they taking? Apparently nothing. The tone and message of their emails is "we're doing all that's necessary to protect our customers."

Not nearly enough... So what's the difference between a complacent attitude and outright allowing their faithful customers to be ripped off? Not much in my book.

The Amazon saga continues...

I got a pretty generic response from Amazon to my letter. Basically, they apologized for my monetary loss (which I had none whatsoever), advised me not to transact outside of their system otherwise I wouldn't be covered by their guarantee (duh!), and they mentioned that it would be "brought to the attention of the appropriate department".

Today I went shopping for the same camera and most of the scammers were gone, but many still remained. It's easy to tell because they are well below market value for the camera and the transaction wil not successfully complete through Amazon (then customers attempt to contact the scammer through the email they use for their username--usually a Yahoo address). I wrote a succinct response to Amazon:

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Hello Ankit Gupta,

Thank you for your response. However, I did not successfully purchase the camera I described. in fact, that's the scam. When attempting to purchase the camera from EVERY SINGLE ONE of the sellers which were several hundred dollars cheaper than the average price, the transaction always failed stating that there were no more left. Naturally, when the scammers use their email address as their username, people will be hungry and email them why they couldn't complete the purchase. The scammers will use this opporutnity to convince the Amazon customer to send them through another means like Western Union.

You can alleviate this by forcing sellers to have at least ONE item they are selling in stock for it to come up on the product page (thereby allowing the transaction to successfully complete through Amazon's payment system) and not allowing sellers to use their email address at their username (probably not possible at this point).

Some of the sellers of the Canon 350D which were scams are gone today, but there are some still there. I know because I went through each and attempted to pay for the camera through the Amazon system. I was confident I wouldn't end up with 10 cameras...and I was right.

The point is, I was smart enough to do my homework and I am very web-savvy. But what about the other 95% of the population? What are you doing to protect them? And your loyal customers who have placed their trust in your system?????
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We'll see what happens....

An open letter to Amazon.com

Our digital camera died recently (Nikon 5400 with the infamous "Lens error" for no apparent reason) and I was shopping around for a new camera. I found this little beauty: the Canon 350D, which is a bit out the price range I was hoping to pay (around $800-900), but I thought I might find a good deal online somewhere. I looked it up on Amazon.com and I saw that there were sellers selling it for $270. Upon further investigation, I was shocked to find out what Amazon was allowing to happen on their own site. So I wrote them this email describing my experience:

Hello Amazon,

I wanted to purchase a Canon 350D camera today and found that several z-shop sellers were selling it for far below the average $900 price tag. I emailed one of the cheaper ones "nanik_martin@yahoo.com" to confirm a US warranty on the camera and he replied that it was an "International Warranty" and that Amazon had the product and would ship it to me as soon as I paid him and he called you to ship it. Upon additional emails, I discovered that he wanted me to pay through Amazon, but that it was through Western Union but that it was at Amazon's request I do it that way (see email exchange pasted below).

I tried the cheapest one thinking that at least Amazon will make good on their A-to-Z Guarantee if I never actually receive the product. Unfortunately, during checkout, an error came up saying that there were no more of that product available. At first, I thought someone had just bought it seconds before me ($270 for a $900 camera is a deal that wouldn't ordinarily last very long), but then I tried each and every one of the other sellers with EXACTLY THE SAME RESULTS.

So that's the game? You allow these people to "sell" ficticious products (full well knowing that the transaction can't be completed through Amazon's system) and then lie in order for people to send them their money? Aren't you going to do something about this blatant fraud and thievery?

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Ron Severdia wrote:
Hi,

I saw your new Canon for sale on Amazon. Does it include the standard US warranty? How fast can you ship?

Thanks!

Ron Severdia

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On Mar 16, 2005, at 9:26 AM, nanik martin wrote:

Hello,
?
The product is band new in the box ,unopened,with 1 years international warranty,we are small company in Romania and here all products are cheaps for others countrys like US. If you are interested ,i will explain you the method : We can make the deal trough amazon. You will give me your shipping address where you want to receive the product,i will send the product to your address and after you'll receive the confirmation from Amazon,they will told you what is the next step to make the deal.The products are already at amazon,we have a contract with them.You will receive the product in 2-3 days after will get the email from Amazon. So let me know about your final decision to make this deal more fast. Please read with carefull this email and respond me as soon as possible. If you are agree just give me your full name and address to start the transaction.
?
Thank you.

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Ron Severdia wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for your response. But I don't understand one thing you wrote.
You wrote that:

"after you'll receive the confirmation from Amazon,they will told you what is the next step to make the deal."

What do you mean? What's the "next step"? Don't I just pay for it and you send it to me without any more steps?

Thanks!

Ron

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On Mar 16, 2005, at 9:40 AM, nanik martin wrote:

in that confirmation the tell you how and were to send the money and confirm you that the product have been delivery? at your name and address if you agree mail me with your full name and addres to start the transaction
have a nice day

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Ron Severdia wrote:
Tell me how and where to send the money??? Shouldn't I just pay
through Amazon?

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On Mar 16, 2005, at 10:40 AM, nanik martin wrote:

If you wanna buy the product please send me your full name and adress so i will call at Amazon to put the produt on his way to you when you will recive the confirmation from Amazon in the same mail you will have my adress and name where to pay (Amazon.com tell you the instruction of the payments) using Western Union (money order).
If you agree mail me ASAP
Best Regards

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End of email conversation. So that's the gig, eh? I'll tell Amazon to send it to you and you pay me through Western Union to Romania. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Back in the freeeeze...

Posting here has been limited because of our trip back to Europe. We just arrived last weekend and personally I'm still recovering from the jetlag. One word pretty much sums up the whole trip...COLD. It was -10 C over there at night and it hovered around 0 C during the day (that's around 32 F for you Americanos). Even though there were a few sunny days, it was freezing. Being the California guy I am, I woke up and looked out the window to see the sun shining on those days and was ready to put on a pair of shorts....Um, nooo. We paid a visit to Natalia's grandmother (photo at left with her neighbor and friend) in eastern Slovakia (where it was even colder).

It was good to see a lot of my old friends. Of course, there's never enough time to see everyone and we're always in a rush everywhere we go. We picked up a few CDs and DVDs which you can only get over there. Natalia bought a big ol' glass plate (which I had to carry back on the plane) and lots of Studenska chocolate for our buddy Martin Knazovicky (Or should I say "Martin Schaefer"?). Robo Knazko has decided to go hippy and there were a few others I met- now in the photo gallery. Misha promised me that her new CD (actually a double CD) is even better than her first so I picked one of those up while she was with me (a slightly surrreal experience--buying the CD of the person who you're shopping with). She wanted to get an iPod so we drove over to the Polus Shopping Center and she serenaded me all the way there. Mostro and Natalia are getting married soon and he wants me to be the best man at the wedding, which is very exciting. It means I'll have to go back there . . it also means a wild bachelor party is in order.

It's a bit difficult getting back to work and getting into the swing of things. I'm in the process of redoing my design portfolio and going to add a video to my acting site. Stay tuned...