

My driver plays obscene songs as his caller tune and I pay the bill.. - rodinhood
http://rodinhood.com/Driver-Hindi-Ringtones-Caller-Tunes

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mcritz
This story reminds me of the time I paid my butler to travel with me to the
Four Seasons in Milan. What was I thinking? </sarcasm>

~~~
pkaler
I think you should attempt to understand the culture before being sarcastic.
Most people don't own cars and don't drive in India. Getting a driver in India
is more like getting a ZipCar for the afternoon here in North America.

~~~
jey
Well, kind of. The difference being that a much larger fraction of the
American population can afford to rent a ZipCar than the fraction of Indians
who can afford a driver.

Edit: I just realized that your statement makes more sense if one counts taxi
services as "hiring a driver".

~~~
rodinhood
I dont think you have ever been to India. My driver has been with me for 10
years and his job has allowed him to fund his daughter to attend high school
(in her village) - something that is unheard of in rural India. Also my driver
sends a nice stipend to his family every month. India has 1 billion people -
if they all became drivers, we would be 10 times richer than any nation in the
world.

~~~
jey
I don't understand what you're trying to say. I wasn't claiming that being a
driver is a bad job in India. My point was that most Indians cannot afford to
have a personal driver (or even a car), whereas most Americans can afford to
rent a ZipCar.

FWIW, I was born in the US but go to India regularly to visit family. My dad
grew up in a mud hut in a rural village in Tamil Nadu, where much of my
extended family still lives.

(Sidenote: How did the son of rural farmers get the kind of education that
allowed him to immigrate to the US? It started with government programs that
were put in place to bring affordable education to everyone.)

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jeremymims
To an American, the tone of this article is beyond bizarre.

"Yadav aka ‘Maharaj’ is a rather decent bloke. He is demure, soft spoken and
usually never has an opinion. All he loves to do is drive and polish the car."

So the definition of a decent person is one who doesn't have an opinion or get
in the way?

"Yet, when I call him on his mobile phone (provided by me) for logistical
coordination and other errands, the caller tune he forces me to hear makes me
go insane. He has chosen the choicest of bawdy, vulgar and obscene bollywood
songs available as his caller ring back tunes."

The truly infuriating thing about this driver is that he dares to have
thoughts and a personality of his own (which the author only says he can get
behind if he's drunk)! I get the distinct impression that the author would
quickly fail Tony Hsieh's airport test.

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Psyonic
You were considering doing the same thing in China? That makes me wonder what
you actually wonder about this scheme? Anger? Jealousy?

~~~
redorb
He said he was approached to do it, I consider most things I'm approached
with.

------
andreyf
$720M of yearly revenue is nothing to sneeze at. Just because we don't stand
for this by American standards hardly makes it a "mafia". Many Europeans would
never stand for how we handle our energy or health sectors, that hardly makes
them akin to a mafiosi.

~~~
sorbus
Adding services without the knowledge or consent of users, and making the
process to remove them needlessly complex or impossible? It's generally
considered to be criminal to charge someone for something they don't want (and
haven't asked for).

~~~
kujhygtfghj
They did ask for it, they texted to a number or clicked a pop-up.

Scott Adams wrote an article about this, in America it's a lot more
profitable. To the Indian poster it's not worth cancelling a 60cents/month
service, to Scott Adams or a middle class American iPhone/Blackberry user it
wouldn't be worth spending an hour each month arguing with customer service
minions to cancel a service that might cost $20-30

~~~
andreyf
The truly scary thing? There's a lot of money to be made in determining who
the "customers who will call in and cancel it" and "the customers who won't
notice or care". My cable company has now twice added a "premium bonus"
$15/month for a little more bandwidth, without having been asked.

------
hristov
This is the reason class action lawsuits in America exist and should exist.
That kind of behaviour would be quickly punished by class action lawyers in
the States.

------
rodinhood
Never did - never will. Incidentally, after such scam offers cam our way,
China Mobile and China Unicom cracked down hard on 'sms spammers'. Folks whose
services were suspended (for days to months)included some of the biggest
portals in the PRC.

