Andrew Speakman

I have done a few funky image edits, check them out. They’re probably not that funny or relevant if you don’t know the subjects.

The BID boys

Jason C Lampard

Vader Bullemor

I never knew who he was but today I do. Someone else got mistaken for him (another Guy), they become famous, Guy Kewney also gets strong press coverage. We’re all winners, right?

Maybe not – Guy Kewney has really taken some hard knocks in comments about his blog posting on the subject. I had a big ranting essay prepared which was sympathetic with Guy Kewney, but I hit the wrong button and it was lost (maybe it’s for the better anyway). What my essay boiled down to was that I think Guy hastily posted on his blog, without considering his wording carefully, and some people mis-interpreted this. Once this happened all and sundry jumped on the bandwagon and unleashed their fury.

I then went on to say that I respected Guy for actually standing up and contributing, and that I had little respect for those who with far less tact and thought than Guy had laid into him, with ignorant accusations of racism and disrespect. It’s easy to annonymously take a dig at someone, but I wonder if those same people would be brave enough to make the same comments if their identity was openly available like Guy’s is. I also wonder if these same people actually make a net contribution to the internet with a blog or website.

At this point my rant turned to my own experiences which I related to Guy’s, concluding that political correctness can be used as a screen and taken too far, which can result in more prejudice and also create the ideal diversion for genuinely bad people. I also babbled a bit about consumption and all take but no give and how even though we’re a very consumer-centric society, many people realise and more are realising the need for a natural balance.

E&L are the champion procrastinators. At least they answered their phone the last time I called, though.

A few weeks ago I got a letter in the post from E&L it asked me to confirm my claim amount by signing a slip and sending it back to them. So maybe I’ll actually get to see the money before the end of this year! I do hope this isn’t another delaying tactic though.

 

 

I also got a worrying letter from them saying that my pet’s condition would no longer be covered by their policy. I’ll switch after the claim is through, even if no-one else will cover against the formation of Struvite crystals.

Another ‘Myspace Killer’ is likely to appear soon. My experience of myspace is that it is awkward to use and unreliable. But it’s got the most people on it, and is geared towards music, so I’m sticking with it for now.

Maybe it’s where I live, but we do get an awful lot of door to door sales (as well as illicit cold phone calls). Reading this article in the Times spurred me to write here. As in the Times article, I have had Talk Talk around trying to get me to sign up wit them, but I find Southern Electric a much worse culprit.

Only this weekend a man with braces (on his teeth) came knocking on my door. He started by telling me that I was paying too much for my electricity and that Southern Electric ‘supply’ the power to my home (which I know is not true, it’s EDF who maintain the infrastructure around here), which means that they can give me cheaper electricity. Apparently he had a ‘special’ deal for people in the area. I told him I wasn’t interested, not wanting to enter into discussion. He then persisted to ask me if he could have a look at my meter. ‘No!’ I told him, ‘Why not? We own it!’, he said. This is a blatant lie, it was British gas who came to fit a new meter recently, and it clearly states on it ‘Property of Capital Meters Ltd’. And even Capital Meters couldn’t just turn up on my doorstep to look at the meter. So I told him that he couldn’t come in whether he owned it or not, and sent him on his way.

In the past Southern Electric have used other tactics, like telling me nothing will change when I switch providers (yes it will, my money will go to someone else, and probably in different quantities), and that I should compare prices after I have signed up with them (before would be more sensible). What concerns me is that a more vulnerable person could be trampled all over by salespeople like this. My advice: Never sign up to anything from cold caller, tell them you’re not interested. If you want a better deal, do the comparisons in your own time.

Yet another rant about services / products that I pay for.

First the good. I bought a new camera from a web shop called cameras2u.com. It was a good price and it came the next day, and delivery was free. Plus when I called them to confirm that next day delivery was offered I didn’t have to wait long on the phone, and they had a very useful message when I was waiting telling me what number I was in the queue (I started at number 2). More companies should use this system on their phones, then you can get an idea of low long a wait you face from what number you are in the queue and how quickly it is going down.

 Now the bad. E&L pet insurance. Pleasant people when you get to speak to them, which is more of a challenge than you might think, see my previous post for an intro. I have now figured out that the best way to get to speak to someone at E & L pet insurance is to call, and if you don’t get to speak to someone within about 20 seconds, hang up and try again, eventually you’ll get someone answering almost as soon as it starts ringing.

Anyway, back to the story, I received a letter from E&L about my claim, asking for medical history. It’s been  more than three months since I placed a claim and they still haven’t sorted it out! I’d already provided E&L with medical history, as requested, over a month ago, with a covering letter explaining that our cat was a rescue cat. I had also called to check they’d recieved the information and it was OK. So I was angry. After the usual E&L phone frustration, I got through and explained what was happening, I was told to send a letter explaining that my cat was a rescue cat. I told them I had already done so, and the man put a note on the ‘system’. We’ll see what happens, but I am starting to wonder if my claim will ever see the light of day.

 It looks like I’m not the only one unhappy with E&L:

 http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-57547.html

Plus see my review of E&L at
http://www.reviewcentre.com/review193365.html

 http://www.bullyonline.com/insurance.htm 

In early November a piano fell on my toe, last week my toe nail finally fell off.

 

Enhance photo  in my picture editing software has really brought out the grimness.

I also saw this intaresting [sic] business card last week

I recently received a call to my Vodafone mobile from their customer services team. I was told they were ‘checking up on whether I was happy with the service’. As a matter of fact I did have some valuable feedback for Vodafone.

I was having trouble stopping them sending me regular text messages advertising expensive multimedia services. I pay for the service, I should have choice whether I get adverts for extras. I’d spoken to customer services twice, once I was told to go to their website and change an option, this option didn’t exist, the second time I was told I should no longer get the adverts, they kept on coming. I also never received a receipt for a replacement phone, I asked to be sent one, and was told it was in the post… It never arrived.

I gave Vodafone my feedback, they seemed pretty disinterested and told me I would have to speak to customer services about the receipt. The annoying adverts, well they were part of Vodafone live, I couldn’t do anything about them! So why were Vodafone calling if they weren’t interested in my feedback? To make a bit of extra money of course. I would get a whole £25 credit to my account if I agreed to extend my contract from 12 months to 18 months. A good deal? I think not! If I agreed to this, I wouldn’t get a free handset upgrade for an additional six months. If I terminated my contract after 12 months I could get a new handset and a reduced line rental.

OK, my experiences with Vodafone are nowhere near as bad as those with Three, but I’m making no commitment to staying with them longer than necessary. Maybe next time I’ll try Easy Mobile or Orange.

It happens to me regularly. I send someone an email containing either meeting minutes with actions, or important information that they need to act upon. They get the email and don’t read it, or at least not properly, no matter how much emphasis or explanation, they won’t read it.

I’m guilty of this, I’ll read the first few lines of an email, interpret them, and leap to action, only to realize that I’ve mis-interpreted. I don’t bother to read full reviews, I skip to the conclusion. If I read executive papers, I’d go straight to the executive summary. To read things and actually understand them requires concentration and thought, but with so many distractions, this can be difficult.

At university I remember getting frustrated going through my notes because I’d have to go over the same page lots of times to fully understand it. Everyone else was flying over their notes and getting out books containing more information, because the lecturers always said that the notes only contained the bare minimum to scrape through. This wasn’t true the notes were comprehensive as long as you actually read and took time to understand them.

 Maybe in my effort to make others understand I am over-explaining things. Perhaps leaving things hanging and open to interpretation will provide better results, but I doubt it.

 In a world where we think we need to do more, more, more, perhaps what we actually need to do is less – less action and more thought. Then we’d only need to do things once instead of three or four times.

 The boss is coming… Look busy.

Somewhere in America