Well I’ll tell you what’s in mine ...

IT'S that time of year once again to do my bit to promote some of the other great blogs out there. These are essentially the ones in my blogroll, which you should be familiar with by now, but for any new-comers (welcome) these are what you may be missing out on:

• Gottaquirk operates in the realm if eMarketing and is an online child of Quirk – Africa’s largest eMarketing agency. Published upon their great wooden desk design are posts relating to everything from online reputation management and SEM to web development.

• Justin Hartman is one of SA’s great and fearless online leaders. He is the MD and co-founder of Afrigator - Africa's largest social media aggregator, which spawned several Gator offspring, such as Adgator and Gatorpeeps. Justin has a knack at explaining complex online strategies to entrepreneurial and eager young minds in easily-absorbable ways. He often shares his well-illustrated presentations on his blog.

I’m confident that 2oceansvibe needs no introduction. Winner of the 2009 SA Blog Awards, 20ceansvive has reached the top of the charts on SA’s blog aggregators, and deservedly so too. It’s updated several times a day with sexy photos, videos and really entertaining pieces. It’s creator is local celeb and all-round nice guy Seth Rotherham, who lives by his motto, “Work is a sideline, live the holiday”. You may want to increase your cap before visiting Seth’s site as you’re likely to spend a few hours perusing his content.

• SA Rocks. There’s no doubt about that. How great to create a blog about all the positively South African people, places and events that make South Africa rock. Nic Haralambos has done just that by punting positive action on his blog SA Rocks, which will always leave you feeling proud to be associated with SA.

• Shaun Oakes is quite a character. One can never be sure where he is or what he’s going to blog about next, but with his cheeky and sarcastic sense of humour, he can make anything sound entertaining. He is an inspiring novelist who has conjured up convincing characters such as The Girlfriend and Some Other Guy. A little grotesk at times, shaunoakes.com is not recommended for sensitive viewers or alien life-forms.

Cape Town is home to the most popular bloggers in SA and Cape Town happenings is often what’s hot in the blogosphere. Cape Town Alive brings you all the events going on in the mother city in a witty, entertaining way. It is also the domain of one of my favouritly-humoured blog writers Kyle Stroebel (a.k.a. stroob).

• The Art of Manliness offers something completely different on the blogosphere - a blog dedicated to uncovering the lost art of being a man. It may sound a little silly at first, but the husband and wife team behind this tasteful creation have done a fantastic job. They delve deep into the history of manliness and research the lives of great men to offer articles on helping men be better husbands, better fathers, and better men.

• The Art of non-conformity is my best find on the blogosphere to date. Its founder is Chris Guillebeau – role-model to the world. Chris has travelled the globe, done volunteer work, published books and is on a mission to help people live unconventional lives, make their own choices, and change the world. Chris’ selfless, bi-weekly blog chronicles his writing on how to change the world by achieving significant, personal goals in the field of work, life and travel all while helping others at the same time.

If you’re a whizz in the kitchen and are keen on learning some new recipes, you need look no further than Cookbook.co.za. It is by far the best cooking blog I’ve come across that is extensive, user-friendly and 100% free. It has recipes for baked goods, chicken treats, Chinese cuisine, yummy desserts, drinks hot & cold, fish, meat dishes, pasta, salads, sauces and soups.

• Web AddiCT(s) offers a daily dose of tech – more specifically posts on web and cellphone applications. Quite technical by nature, don’t feel bad if a lot of the content offered here goes over your head - you're bound to find something to pique your interest. The site recently underwent a re-design and is looking pretty sweet.

• The above are some of the top blogs (and bloggers) in the South African blogosphere according to our great aggregators. All are listed in my blogroll to your right.

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SOCIAL MEDIA VS. SAA: What the web can do to improve SAA

FOR those of you who don’t know, Justin Hartman has created a space on the interweb for people to complain about their treatment by South African Airways and share their horror stories online. He simply calls it SAA Sucks. Here’s a quote from his introductory post:

“It is clear that SAA are living in complete arrogance and have a total disregard for their clients and I think we need to take a stand. I’ve been a big pundit of the power of social media and now we can really put it to the test and see if we can make any difference whatsoever” - Justin Hartman

It would be interesting to me to see whether social media in South Africa actually has the power to get the fat cats of large companies such as SAA to change their tune with regards to consumer service. So here is my contribution. It’s a letter I wrote to SAA last year when I was trying to book a ticket to get back to varisty to write my final exams. I lost 10 days of life through the process…

Dearest SAA

I have only flown a handful of times in my life, each time having been enjoyable and hassle-free. It was now time for me to fly back to varsity to write my final exams and enjoy my seventh trip in the air. I decided to go for the cheapest flight, which so happened to be South African Airways. I booked a ticket online at and all seemed to be in order. I only awaited my email to confirm the booking.

The next day I found an empty inbox, so I went to the SAA website for the second time to check if my flight was confirmed only to be told that my details (i.e. reference number and email address) were incorrect. It didn’t, however, specify which one of the two was incorrect or let me change either of them for that matter. So I attempted to book again online with the obvious fear of getting charged twice.

The next day there was still no email of conformation awaiting me and I was again told that my details (with the new reference number) were incorrect. So I phoned the airline service in Durban, and after listening to “Smooth Operator” about seven times over I was told by the ‘customer care’ operator that their link was down and that there was nothing that they could do. I wasn’t told what my next step should be or whether my two bookings were at least in the process of being confirmed. So I left it for a day hoping that all would be well the next morning.

When I phoned for the second time I was told (by a different ‘customer care’ operator) that there was a problem with the credit card details and that a “SafePay” error had occurred. Yet this was not displayed when I booked both times, and I know that actual problems display themselves in red digital ink. So I went online yet again and attempted to do a bank transfer from a different account. It all seemed to go smoothly and I printed the deposit slip and faxed it through the next day as had been instructed.

I phoned again the next day and realised that “Smooth Operator” must be your only song to entertain people while they wait for an answer. When I was finally received I was told that my online booking was still on their records but they hadn’t any record of payment. I was then told by the smooth operator that she would phone their accounts department to see if they had any record of payment and that I should phone back later. I kindly asked if they could rather phone ME back when they had done their magic. Telkom isn’t cheap these days.

About an hour later I got the call and was told that there was no record of any payment. I felt really perturbed at this point as for one: it said on the deposit slip “payment made successfully” and two: I feared that I had now paid TRIPLE the price for a ticket that was not even yet mine.

So the next day I phoned for the umpteenth time with an optimistic air that everything would have worked out and all would be right with the world. So after singing to “Smooth Operator” (as I now knew all the words) I was told that I still owed R455! In a tone devoid of any hint of hope I asked, “So what do I do now?” It was suggested to me that I physically go to the bank and try deposit the money directly into SAA’s account.

So I took R455 cash down to the bank and did just that, after which I had the latest deposit slip faxed through. I attempted to phone several times after I got back home (from 4pm onwards). I gave up around 6pm as my ear was getting sore from holding the phone against it. The only relief for the day was that they had changed their ‘entertainment’ music (to something equally annoying).

Knowing the number off by heart at this point I speedily dialed SAA again the next day. I explained that I had been to the bank, physically transferred cash into their account, had faxed the deposit slip at exactly 4:08pm, and had attempted to phone them immediately afterwards without success. I was told that they would call me back after they look for the fax.

Waiting patiently for the call, and feeling quite constipated at this point from all the stress, I was phoned and told that the fax could not be found. I explained what the accounts department had said to me but was told that it didn’t matter; the ‘customer care’ operator needed to have a fax of the deposit slip in front of her. She asked me if I could fax it again. I explained that it WAS a bit of trouble as it meant going into town in the pouring rain to do exactly what I had done the previous day (the fax machine at home was on strike and refusing to work). But no, she needed to have a fax of the deposit slip to help me.

Getting ready to venture back into town I decided that it was really unfair that I had to fax the damn thing again AND pay more money to do so. So I thought I would phone the woman back, give her an earful, and ask her to look for my fax again. I hung up the phone after enduring about five minutes of “Smooth Operator” which seemed to be back at the top of the charts.

I’m now back at home. The latest deposit slip has been faxed and I am about to attempt calling back in the hope that this whole nightmare will end. That or suicide - I can’t decide. It’s been 10 days at this point…

Yours faithfully
Galen Schultz

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