Commodity Trading on the International Market-Evaluating the service provided by Intelvision |22 May 2009

Intelvision offers different packages to provide cable TV, fixed-line telephone and internet services.

One of the common complaints about the cable TV service is that the company is repeating programmes during the same day. Customers have said they are frustrated because they are not receiving the services as advertised by Intelvision.

And some customers have complained that they have paid for the cable TV connection but have had to wait for a long time before the service was installed. Also, it has been reported by customers that they have no signal or are getting bad reception.

Still referring to cable TV, several customers have claimed they were disconnected for non-payment of services when they had never received the bills.

Perhaps Intelvision has a lot of public relations work to do to address these complaints or perceptions. In the case of cable television, normally there are no bills – customers just go to the Intelvision outlets to pay in advance for the service.  

Customers have also complained that when they were disconnected, they phoned or called at the office for reconnection but it took them a long time to get through to the specific person who is supposed to reconnect them.

What’s more, customers have also said there was a problem with Intelvision’s billing system.

Other complaints are in regard to Intelvision’s phone services. Referring to the internet, customers have reported that at certain times during the day, they do not have a server connection and so do not have access to the worldwide facility.

This complaint has, however, been referred to the Information Communications Technology Section and they are addressing this issue, according to Natcof.

New cargo of LPG
 
Sepec (Seychelles Petroleum Company) started this week to sell a new cargo of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) it imported at a slightly higher price than the previous consignment.

However, it is keeping the price at R15 a kilo.   

Property prices down 41% in Dubai
 
Property prices in Dubai plunged 41% during the first three months of this year, a report has calculated.

The decline is from the last quarter of 2008, said global real estate consultancy Colliers International in an end-of-April report.

It is just the latest indication of the extent to which Dubai’s property boom of recent years has come to an end in the face of the worldwide recession.

Colliers said prices fell as global finance dried up and job opportunities in Dubai declined.

The firm’s report measured property prices in parts of Dubai where foreign workers have been allowed to buy homes since the market was opened up in 2002.
 
The 41% drop in prices between January and March followed an 8% fall in the previous three-month period.

Colliers added that speculators – people who bought property in Dubai as an investment – had already left the market.

It said prices were now likely to continue to fall, but it was too early to predict when the market would hit rock-bottom.

“The heat has gone out the market completely,” said Colliers’ Middle East chief executive John Davis.

Dubai has enjoyed rapid economic growth over the past decade, led by a construction boom, as its ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sought to diversify the economy away from its diminishing oil reserves.

It is one of the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates.
 
Commodity briefs from around the world
 
• Tropical storms threaten Philippine rice output

• Fine weather allows great start to Chinese planting

• Japanese compound animal feed output falls in March

• Ukrainian grain exports fall short of record target

• Costa Rica expects lower coffee production

• Disagreement arises over Zambia’s maize floor price

• Zimbabwean sugar output falls for yet another year

• Egypt sees significant boost in wheat imports

• Argentine rain improves short-term planting prospects 

• New Zealand will subsidise locally produced biodiesel

• South Korea buys American soyameal and maize

Crude oil prices
 
As at 21/05/09
 
Nymex Crude Future                         60.77 dollars per barrel
 
Dated Brent Spot                               58.66 dollars per barrel