Groupon Deal: London Weight Management Slimming Package

Groupon, the "group coupon" offering quantity discounts which suppose to achieve a WIN-WIN deal between the retailers and the buyers.

Buyers will get the product/service at a lower cost and the retailers will get free advertisement via Groupon posting with millions of users and good word of mouth publicity from the users who purchase the product/service (generally people is more willing to try out thing that is at lower price).

But, does this ideal WIN-WIN is achievable or is being carried out faithfully by the retailers? Let's me share the real experience and you judge it.

I bought the deal for my wife as one of her birthday presents, thinking of letting her to relax and to try something that is "branded", a similar not branded traditional full body scrub and massage by a makcik will cost about 2.5 times more. Does it really have "cheap-good-great" stuff on the reality world?

Here is the chronology of the events:

22-March-2013: 

• Purchased the deal, printed out the Groupon and bring to get more detail from the branch in Seremban.
• The staff was trying to tell my wife it is a single session Groupon and does not come with all the goodies listed. I went again for "further" inquiry and show them the detail of the deal in Groupon website. The staff was then "oh" it is a RM28 2 sessions deal and say that I do not need to do further booking via the online booking system in Groupon deal.
• Okay that's fine. So we make an appointment on 30-March-13 3:30PM.

30-March-2013:

• I fetched my wife to Jusco Seremban branch at 3:25PM, to ensure we are not late. So as usual my wife is being brain washed to purchase their package for around 1 hour together with the so-call body analysis.
• Then she was left doing nothing by the staff until 5:30PM, the reason given by the staff is there is NO available room to do the treatment! WTF, what kind of service is being provided by a reputable brand, what the purpose of asking a customer making an appointment and there is NO room?
• By 7:30PM, the session one is completed, according to my wife there is 3 staffs trying to convince her to buy the slimming package, which I think is fine for any business, it is a payback for the discounted service.
• The staff promised to call on 31-March-31 to schedule the second session body steaming of 45 minutes.
• We were given some voucher, but there is no London Exclusive Slimming Kit (Oxy Trimming Gel, Sea Salt Scrub & Trimming Fluid worth RM68) and Complimentary ampoule (for bookings before May 2, 2013 only)!
• This is the 2nd WTF, you can get a free trial without paying anything, whereas I paid RM28 and get NOTHING! I'm not sure what went wrong or it is just Seremban branch that went wrong! It is not about the money, it is all about the unfulfilled promise and consumer's right!

31-March-2013:

• Waited and there is no one call to complete the second session. I'm really disappointed with the service provided!

My thinking of doing business: Provide your service faithfully and professionally, customer will always come back even without the hour of brain washing and customer don't mind paying as long as it worth the money. For now, I won't recommend the company at all or at least the Seremban branch at all! They are very unprofessional and zero customer satisfaction.

I'm going to send complain email to the company headquarter and see how will they response. You won't find their customer service email on their company website, I will send the email through their HR recruiter and may post in their FB page. I will keep yours updated.

Costumer is not always right, but customer has consumer's right!!

Customer "feedback" I captured from their FB page.

Testing

second script




3rd script

Groupon

Permanon & Honda Jazz Hybrid

PERMANON.USA: Permanon is a brilliant 21st century surface protection that eliminates the need for buffing or polishing. Permanon utilizes waterborne nano-engineered particles of Silicium (14Si) that electrostatically bond to the surface being protected. There is no chemical or mechanical action to damage, or alter, the surface you are protecting. Permanon is designed to protect polyurethane topcoats and other solid surfaces such as glass, FRP, stainless steel, chrome, rubber, finished leather, granite, varnish, enamel, and solid surface products. Permanon protection will outlast any wax or oil based renewable surface protection and comes specially formulated for Aircraft, Yachts, Boats, Cars, Trucks, Interiors, Pool & Spas, and Glass.

Summary of natural protection characteristics of Silicium (14Si):

• Lotus effect
• Temperature resistant from -40°C to +300° C
• Resistant against ultra violet (UV) light exposure
• Resistant against acids/alkaline of pH 1-12
• And much more

In Malaysia, you can order online from the following:

• PERMANON Malaysia
• WAXSON
• LOWYAT Forum

The price is more or less the same, sometime they do provide discount and some include postage charge into the product price and some don't. So please do your own "smart-shopping". 

I bought a Permanon Platinum Starter Kit which consists of

• Permanon Platinum, 50ml.
• Permanon Diamond 2 in 1, 100ml.
• Permanon Hecta PL, 100ml.

Yes, it comes in ml and not LITER that you buy in Jusco or Tesco! It is expensive, but is the product really worth the cost you pay? Let's find out.

23-Jan-2013: The sky rained. It gave a very good chance to see Permanon in action. It did exhibit strong water repellence effect.

28-Jan-2013: The car was full of dust mark (dust catch inside water droplet), I forgot to take photo before car wash. The car was waxed by the dealer with cheapo wax before delivery, thus I can't be certain that my application on 22-Jan-2013 was good. So, I followed instruction to perform Step 3, washed the car with Permanon Diamond 2 in 1. It was really shinning right after Step 3.

1-Feb-2013: The car is full of dust mark again! I wondered is it due to the product or the skill I applied or the environment as I work in an industrial estate with metal recycling factory next to my working place?

2-Feb-2013: I "beh-tahan", I did Step 1 and Step 2 again with minor change in the application detail after doing some reading from the Internet.

I used the soft microfiber cloth (instead of the orange color wax type) to "touch" (use very minimal force) the surface after spray the Permanon Platinum and did not rinse the car after that. Along the way, I used the wet (with excess Permanon Platinum) microfiber cloth to wipe (with minimal force) the windows to apply a layer too. I can feel the smoothness of the surface this time.

4-Feb-2013: It rained again.

The windscreen water droplet, exhibit Lotus effect.

When reached home, these are the only left and there is no dust mark on the rear window. Impressive?

The bonnet is still shinning as it is just Permanon-ed.

7-Feb-2013: It is a raining day again! Let's see how Permanon "channel" the water, notice the wafer "free-fall" from top to bottom.

 
 

8-Feb-2013: The dirt on the car.

9-Feb-2013: Washed the car with water without any shampoo. The car is 95% clean as some dirt is difficult to remove without shampoo. The smoothness is still there.

Stay tune, will continue to update the effectiveness!!

Hybrid Vehicle & EMF Part 4: Final Verdict

After Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 information, here is my personal final verdict:

1. I do believe EMF in hybrid car is safe for now. BUT, there are many unknown the scientist has yet to discover, I will be cautious on it and may purchase some protective gadget.
2. When selecting a hybrid car take note on the AC/DC (DC is better), voltage (lower is better), electricity current (lower is better) and most important the distance of the battery pack from the passenger (further is better), to minimize the potential risk.
3. Try not to use hybrid car for long duration (hours) frequently.

I did a few days of survey on the EMF protective gadget:

1. http://www.lessemf.com/magnetic_shielding.html, effectiveness should be good but with high price tag.
2. There are few from Amazon, but I doubt their effectiveness as there is no sufficient scientific data as evidence (EMF meter can't detect a reduction in field strength reading), but with good testimonial from customers:
• From Amazon
  
  
  
• From EMF Blues
• From Energy Works

Most probably I can't try all the above, as convert to Malaysia currency and add up the international shipping cost, it is out of my budget.

I also discover an interesting product in Malaysia online shopping web site called I-Protech Energy Neutralizer EMF Radiation Reduction, it reduces the EMF meter EMF strength reading, which is unseen from any resonator. You may want to take a look on the video in the product selling page.

For now my target is to try out good quality charcoal (yes, CHARCOAL), from this blog, charcoal has the natural ability to dissipate Electromagnetic (EM) Fields. Definitely I will buy when I visit Singapore, product from Taketaro looks promising.

Hybrid Vehicle & EMF Part 3: EMF In Hybrid Vehicle

Let's do a recap on the electrical property of hybrid car

Car Model	Electric Motor Type	Motor Output (kW)	Battery Voltage (V)	Current ( A = W/V)
Toyota Prius	AC	27	201.6	134
Toyota Prius C	AC	19.3	144	134
Honda Civic Hybrid	DC	20	108 - 172	116 - 185
Honda Jazz Hybrid	DC	10	100.8	99

Some guess works:

1. It is DC between the battery packs and the electric motor.
2. There is no step-down or step-up in both voltage and current between the battery pack and electric motor. Any step-down and step-up will cause heat and energy loss.a

Although multiple study show that there is no evidence of health risk on low frequency EMF, is it really the case for hybrid car, where you are so near to the EMF source, in an enclosed metal cage (like in a microwave oven) and expose for long duration?

In early 2010, Israel Ministry of Environment Protection is expected to publish the results of the study this week. The study will group hybrids sold in Israel into three different radiation groups, reports Israel’s Calcalist. It’s expected that the current-gen Prius will be deemed ‘safe’, while the Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid (as well as the prev-gen Prius) will be listed as emitting ‘excessive’ radiation. Recently, the research committee stirred the public conscious as it advised the Israeli Police against adding hybrid cars to its mostly diesel powered fleet, due to medical hazards to officers exposed to radiation for lengthy periods of time. (Source: The Truth About Cars)

Quote from Wikipedia:

However, Toyota^[136] and several independent studies^[137][138] have indicated that aside from a brief spike when accelerating, the electromagnetic fields within the Prius are no different from those of a conventional car and do not exceed the ICNIRP^[139] exposure guidelines.

Sound alarming? BUT Consumer Reports released a study on car EMF level in mid year 2010, surprisingly they found non-hybrid car generally generate higher EMF compare to hybrid car.

Also information from Japan EMF Information Center, indicated that EMF in hybrid car is within the safe level: Assessments of exposure to magnetic fields of hybrid cars and electric cars were reported at the BioEM 2009 Meeting held in June 2009 (jointly hosted by the European BioElectromagnetics Association (EBEA) and the Bioelectromagentics Society (BEMS)). The result of measuring EMF of direct current to 100-Hz frequencies leads to the conclusion that "the average exposure was within 5% of the reference level for the public specified in the ICNIRP guidelines(1998) and the maximum value was up to about 15% of the reference level."

Go to Part 4