Potential Fraud
Posted: Wed 26 November, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts 3 Comments »While we were in Cambridge over the weekend, we went out for a meal at La Tasca.
When it came time to pay, I handed over my Switch (Sorry, Maestro) card for the transaction. Having keyed in my PIN, the waitress waited by our table for a couple of minutes, then wandered off with the card still in the machine. She came back a couple of minutes later with another card machine, showed me the “transaction cancelled” slip, and asked me to put the transaction through again on the other card reader.
Needless to say, alarm bells went “Rinnnnggggg!” in my brain.
We went through the transaction again, and all went well. And then we left the restaurant.
At which point, I called the bank and cancelled the card completely. I explained why, that I felt it was a dodgy transaction, and while I had no problem with the transaction for the meal bill going through, I didn’t want anything else going through on that card. The lady from the bank agreed that it sounded dodgy, cancelled the card immediately, ordered a new one, and said they’d raise a flag against La Tasca in Cambridge, just in case there were other issues in the future for their other customers. (Whether they will or not, I’ve no idea)
I’m sure that it was just me being extra-paranoid, but at the same time I’d rather be slightly inconvenienced by a few days without a Switch card than by being complacent, thinking I’m just being paranoid and then having to deal with discovering that money had been taken from my bank account by fraudulent transactions.
Demographics and Commercial Radio
Posted: Thu 20 November, 2008 Filed under: Advertising, Customer Services, Thoughts 1 Comment »Interesting piece in the Guardian today about Commercial Radio, and why they should stop whining about Chris Moyles.
I listen to Radio 1 when I’m driving – if I’m not listening to the radio, I’ve got a CD going instead – because I find Radio 2 to be ineffably dull, I’m not into Radio 3, and when driving I find Radio 4 just doesn’t do it for me. So Radio 1 it is. There are certain presenters on there that make me turn it off (as the article says) but for the 45 minutes on the way to and from work, Radio 1 is my station of choice.
As for commercial radio, I just can’t stand it – and again, for exactly the reasons listed in the article. The (station-defined) limited playlists mean there’s no variety, and the constant repetition of banal ads is just awful. In fact, while driving I’d be hard-pressed to think of anything worse than having to listen to commercial radio…
Phone Upgrade – Speedy Delivery
Posted: Wed 19 November, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic Leave a comment »Herself has just phoned me to let me know that the new phone has arrived at home.
That’s 36 hours from being ordered.
I can’t deny it, that impresses me.
NIN Photos
Posted: Wed 19 November, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Music, Photography Leave a comment »One band who have always seemed to grasp the power of t’internet is Nine Inch Nails. I’ve been a fan of theirs right back to the first album (Which I originally had on cassette, to give an example of timescale) so it’s been great to see that they’ve now launched an official photostream on Flickr.
Among the photos are hi-res images of the photos taken for the cover-art of Downward Spiral, which will make an excellent desktop image as well.
In addition, there’s photos from their concerts, and a bundle of other goodies.
Fantastic!
Phone Upgrade
Posted: Tue 18 November, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic 3 Comments »Ye Gods, it’s time already for a phone upgrade.
Personally, I’m happy to stick with O2, so that makes life easier. I was torn between two phones, the Nokia N95 8Gb, and the new Sony-Ericsson C905. The iPhone just doesn’t appeal to me at all, I don’t actually need all the functions that the new HTC Touch Diamond has (plus I don’t want to go back to Windows Mobile) and I can’t stand Blackberry phones. Come to that, I’m no great fan of Nokia either – although as it’s about eight or nine years since I last had one, I suppose that at some point I should give them another go.
The main extra I wanted on a new phone was GPS – and yes, fanboys, I know that the iPhone has GPS too, but I just don’t like it, OK? – as I’ve had a few occasions now where GPS would have come in useful (road diversions, etc.) so it became something that would be useful to have.
Other than that, I really just wanted the “normal” phone functions – decent memory capacity, messaging, phone calls, that kind of thing. I use the camera function on occasion, but it’s not usually a defining factor – although I’ve used the camera more on the current phone, where it’s a 3.2Mp job that is actually pretty good.
So in the end I went with the C905. While I don’t use the camera-phone all that often, I can’t deny that I’m intrigued by an 8Mp camera on a phone. It’s got the GPS I wanted, and the memory card is compatible with the current phone, so that’s extra storage I’ve got already. (it’ll also make it even easier to copy stuff over from Old Phone to New Phone)
It should arrive at home in the next few days, so once that’s happened, I’m sure I’ll write more about it. Now, let’s see what kind of money I can get from Envirofone for the old K800i…
Done Tiling
Posted: Mon 17 November, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »I forgot to mention it over the weekend, but Herself completed all the tiling and grouting on Friday morning, and we moved our stuff back into the bedroom on Friday evening.
It all looks fantastic, and it’s great to have another job off the list of things to do. Of course, I’m sure it’ll soon be replaced with other stuff.
Next on the list is to sand down and re-varnish/seal the teak parquet flooring in the hallway. When that’s done (probably before the Festering Season is upon us – or at worst, done in early January) then that’ll be pretty much all the major inside jobs completed – with the exception of the kitchen, which we’re currently thinking about, and debating options.
Oh, and we managed to get the tile-cutter for half-price in the end, because of the blunt cutting wheel. In fairness to HSS, when we do have a complaint, they fix it as soon as possible.
Disabled
Posted: Wed 12 November, 2008 Filed under: Advertising, Customer Services, Cynicism 1 Comment »Travelling to work this morning, I found myself sitting behind a van for a company called GarTec who supply platform lifts for disabled people. (You know, the little boxes you see in offices, so people in wheelchairs – sorry, people with mobility issues – can go between levels)
Only the slogan on the van was
Gartec – Disabled Platform Lifts
And the first thing I wondered was “Why would anyone sell platform lifts that don’t work?“