Tempting Fate
Posted: Thu 24 March, 2005 Filed under: Customer Services, General 1 Comment »Following on from yesterday’s Customer Services farce(s) – and let’s face it, Sky are renowned for putting the arse in farce – I’ve really gone and done it now.
In a bid for “three-for-three” purity of failure, I’ve only gone and upgraded my phone with O2 from the Nokia I currently use to a Sony Ericsson K700i. Supposedly I may get the phone during the next week. Mind you, they also said they’d confirm this through email, and as yet they haven’t. So I’m not optimistic.
More pleasingly, considering the last time I had to deal with O2’s upgrade “service”, it’s costing me sod-all.
I must admit that when it comes to mobile phones I’m back to being a bit of a dinosaur. In 2004 I had a 3G phone for a while and won’t touch another one ’til the entire concept has been sorted out. Which, apparently, is still going to take some time. I don’t need video calling, I don’t particularly care about having a 1.3Mp camera (in my experience camera phones are still fairly bobbins, and as I always carry around my 6Mp camera anyway, I don’t need another one), and I don’t really need to sync the phone to the PC all the time. In short, I want a phone that makes and takes calls/messages, has a silent alert and/or a decent unobtrusive ring tone, has a decent battery life, has a GPRS (or better) connection so I can do basic webstuff, and doesn’t piss me off. As for other stuff, it all falls into the “OK, I might use it” – calculator, clock, email (sometimes handy, in my experience, particularly when running late for work or whatever), and an alarm function for reminders. But I wouldn’t miss any of those if they weren’t there.
So yeah, an SE K700i. It’s going to be interesting, swapping over to yet another phone maker. Assuming it happens, of course…
Sky’s the Limit
Posted: Wed 23 March, 2005 Filed under: Customer Services, Thoughts 6 Comments »Ah, it’s obviously customer services day today
As most readers know, back at the end of December, I moved down to Berkshire, and went through all the fun of telling everyone. And yes, that included Sky. I wanted to do three things when I called them :
- Change my address details
- Change my package to the lowest/cheapest one
- Inform them I’d be closing my account once the 12 months was up (March ’05)
Not rocket science, is it?
So I called, and lo – all done. “No Problem”, said the lady on the phone.
Change my address detailsChange my package to the lowest/cheapest oneInform them I’d be closing my account once the 12 months was up (March ’05)
I cancelled the direct debit this month – hey, they’ve had three bloody month’s notice – and got a snotty letter (to my old address) on Monday saying “you’ve cancelled. Pay us now.” And so I ring up Sky, and that’s where it all goes to shit.
Oh no, you can’t have given us three months notice. We only work with a months notice. So you can’t have given three. We’ll put you through to cancellations, but it’ll be one month from today.
Eh? I’m going to get charged a month extra, through Sky’s mistake?
Well, we can only work on a month’s notice, so yes, the notice will run from today.
But I gave you three month’s notice
But our system doesn’t say that. So it can’t have happened. Your notice will start from today
- Change my address details
Change my package to the lowest/cheapest one- Inform them I’d be closing my account once the 12 months was up (March ’05)
I go through to cancellations.
Ok, sir, I’ll sort out your cancellation, and as you’re not using your card at the moment, I’ll set the account on the lowest setting.
… *the sound of incredulity, and expletives being deleted pre-interface-with-gob*
- Change my address details
- Change my package to the lowest/cheapest one
- Inform them I’d be closing my account once the 12 months was up (March ’05)
Let’s see how the fuckers do with the process now.
Green
Posted: Wed 23 March, 2005 Filed under: News, Thoughts 2 Comments »Now I have to say, this is a brilliant idea. Equipping a school with wind turbines and solar cells in order to generate some of its own power is one thing, connecting it to the National Grid is another.
And making the entire thing into an educational experience, and show energy conservation right from school is brilliance. I just hope that others follow the example – learning about this kind of thing is essential now, and should be made part of every curriculum.
Information
Posted: Wed 23 March, 2005 Filed under: Customer Services, Sweary, Thoughts 2 Comments »A while back I ordered a couple of things for Herself’s birthday next week. (For obvious reasons I’m now not going to name suppliers etc. just yet – but maybe on April 6th I will) One of the places I used was one I’d had a mediocre experience with before, but it was a busy period, so I thought “OK, I’ll see what they’re like this time”.
In fairness, the ordering process wasn’t too nightmarish, although it’s fucking annoying to go through the entire process of finding the stuff, sorting out what’s needed, clicking it into the “basket”, then checking out, signing in to my account, and the bastard basket is suddenly emptied. That’s just bad coding, and meant I had to stay logged in and go through the guff again of finding bits, sorting out quantities, and putting them in the basket. But OK, it’s a minor hassle – more about useability than corporate efficiency.
Once the order’s been confirmed, the little doubts start creeping in. I haven’t had a confirmation email. No mention at all – not a “thanks for your order”, a “you’ve ordered this, and we’ll charge you for it soon”, nothing. Now that’s seriously not good. I’ve given my credit card number, yet you haven’t said it’s been received.
Check under “my account” on the site. And lo, the order’s there, all confirmed and so on. Let the heart-rate come down a bit now.
Today, it’s arrived. No fucking email to say “we’ve dispatched it”, no call, no mention under “my account” that the status of the order has changed at all.
I won’t be using the company again. And I’ll be writing to explain why. I may even refer them to this post…
Gothy Gardening
Posted: Tue 22 March, 2005 Filed under: Thoughts Leave a comment »The Guardian today has an article about the first black hyacinth being cultivated and now commercially available. It’s taken at least 16 years, and the three “ancestor” bulbs were sold for the gob-smacking sum of £50,000 each.
I can’t deny, I’m a bit of a goth when it comes to a lot of plants, and the idea of a black hyacinth really quite appeals to me – in a similar way to the deep-red passion flower variants and so on that you now see. I wonder what other stuff we can come up with?
Wooden It Be Nice
Posted: Tue 22 March, 2005 Filed under: General 2 Comments »via Slashdot, a guy has made a wooden laptop. Not just wood-covered, but the entire case is made from wood. Quite, quite barmy – but nicely different to the black and silver plastic that seems to be everywhere.
The world needs more barmpots like this, I think.
Sigh
Posted: Tue 22 March, 2005 Filed under: News 3 Comments »As with many things American, words fail.