Archive

Archive for 2004

Halifax Home Insurance/Empire Commercial

October 29th, 2004 No comments

Here’s a tale of good service for a change…

Last week, I dropped my Digital Camera while it was in its case, and damaged the screen.

On Tuesday this week, I rang Halifax Insurance to claim for accidental damage. They said Empire Commercial (part of Empire Direct as it turns out) would contact me shortly, which they did. Empire asked me to send the camera to them.

I sent the camera on Wednesday. Early on Thursday morning, Empire called to say that they had inspected the camera and it was beyond economical repair, and they would be replacing it with a new one.

I received the camera today.

Well done Halifax and Empire!

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: ,

Missing CD/Album covers for iTunes

October 3rd, 2004 No comments

If you’ve added your CD collection to iTunes, but wish you could have the album covers displayed like tracks downloaded from ITMS, take a look at this site. Find your cover and (if you’re using a Mac) simply drag the picture from the browser to the CD cover window on iTunes.

Categories: Misc Tags: ,

Labour Party don’t believe in Mail Preference Service

October 2nd, 2004 No comments

I have been registered with the Mail Preference Service for some time now, and yesterday I received a piece of junk mail propaganda from the Labour Party. They obviously don’t believe in the legal requirement to check the MPS opt-out list before sending unsolicited mail. I will be reporting this breach. We will see whether they get fined.

UPDATE

I received a reply from MPS, saying that they do not ‘get in the way’ of communication between people and the Government or Political parties. Fair enough on the Government side of things, but as far as I’m concerned a political party (whichever party) peddling it’s political opinion is no different to a company peddling unwanted goods.

Muller Customer Service

October 2nd, 2004 1 comment

I was unfortunate to get a Muller Yoghurt which, despite being within date, was very watery with curdled bits. A quick call to Muller and they sent me a letter apologising and 5 pounds of vouchers.

Well done to Muller.

Comment from Julie Heron (6/1/05):
Interesting thoughts on the Muller yougurt. I personally find them obstructive! I once bought one which had a toe nail in it. They would not accept responsibility!

Comment from Caroline Ryder (2/4/05):
what a funny website, but I also had the same problem with Muller yoghurts, esp the lemon cheesecake!

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:

McAfee requires IE

September 23rd, 2004 No comments

Trying to re-install McAfee on a new PC, but McAfee’s website requires that I download using Internet Explorer.

I find it ironic that a company who is supposed to be protecting my PC, requires me to use an insecure piece of software to download it’s AV product.

Booking Fee Rip-off

September 10th, 2004 No comments

It costs no more to process a booking for 100 tickets than it does for 1 ticket.

How then can ticket agencies like Ticketmaster justify imposing a booking fee PER TICKET and then have the cheek to add a separate fee for postage? The word profiteering springs to mind.

Behaviour at Speed Cameras

September 8th, 2004 No comments

Why do people slow down to 40mph to pass a speed camera in a 50mph limit?
Don’t they trust their speedometers? Do they think they’ll get done for 48mph? or maybe they simply have no idea what the limit is.

Royal Mail – Again!

September 8th, 2004 No comments

Royal MailOrder from photobox.co.uk sent by Royal Mail ‘First Class’ on Monday afternoon.

It was daft to expect it on Tuesday I suppose, but it’s still not arrived today (Wednesday).

Royal Mail shouldn’t be allowed to call their service ‘First Class’ – I’m sure it contravenes the Trades Description Act.

UPDATE: it is now Thursday and still no sign.

UPDATE: Friday, and still no photos. This means that if they actually do turn up on Monday, it’ll be a week for supposed ‘First Class’ – watch this space.
Royal Mail are you listening? – You do not deserve to run a monopoly.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, the photos didn’t arrive on Monday. I emailed Photobox, who apologised, and said they would reprint the order and despatch the same day.
Photobox shouldn’t have to apologise for Royal Mail. The reprinted order arrived today (Wednesday). The original order still hasn’t shown up.

Top marks for Photobox.
Minus 100 for Royal Mail.

UPDATE: The original order finally arrived on 1st October, almost a month late!

Smoke Alarms that can’t tell the difference between Smoke and Cooking

August 24th, 2004 2 comments

Is it any wonder that people die in house fires after pulling the batteries out of smoke detectors.

How many smoke alarms out there are non-functional because people get sick and tired of the smoke alarm mistaking cooking for smoke?

I’m not talking about burning food here, just normal cooking, no smoke, yet the smoke alarm keeps going off. Can nobody design a smoke alarm that detects just that, and only that?

Powerhouse Website tied to Internet Explorer

August 21st, 2004 No comments

Tried to access the Powerhouse website today, but got the following crap:

Welcome to Powerhouse Online
You may be experiencing difficulty in accessing our site because your Internet Browser needs to meet the following criteria:
? IE 5
If you wish to use our site you will need to update your browser accordingly.

So, I sent this email:

Please note that by excluding users who choose not to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, you are alienating an increasing number of customers, and also bucking the trend of webmasters who support more and more browsers.
Many people choose not to use IE, mainly because it is full of security holes and there are better browsers out there. Even CERT have advised people to switch from IE because of security issues.
If I visit your store, you wouldn’t require me to leave my car unlocked, but you are doing the same by requiring me to use IE to access your website.
The comment on your website suggests ‘updating’ to IE, but to use IE is a backward step.
Please update your website to use industry standards and not be reliant on the proprietary features of IE.

UPDATE: I received a reply:

Dear Sir or Madam;

We are currently looking at future site developments and enhancements. We value our customer’s feedback and will take you comments on board when making future changes. We apologise for any problems that you have experienced and hope to eliminate these in new developments.

Best regards

PRG Powerhouse-Online