Legalised
Posted: Tue 22 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Corbett, Cynicism, D4D™, Geeky, Legal, Marketing, Stupidity, Time Leave a comment »It’s now two years since my little spat with Ian Corbett (of Toyota Ireland) and his legal advisors was completed. I said at the time that the way they’d requested things to work out wouldn’t actually get rid of the search engine results that annoyed him so much. But he’s a marketing manager, so one assumes he knows these things, and that I would be wrong.
On a random whim, I searched the other day on Google for said person – and lo, I was right. Even when searching for just name + company (with no mention of D4D™ at all) up comes D4D™ with a nice healthy 4th place in the search results. And now there’s also Google Images, I can also see what the glaikit bawbag looks like, too.
All told, I can’t deny, I do find this very amusing. And there’s nothing at all I can do about it, it’s all in the hands of That There Google.
To The Ombudsman!
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 2 Comments »As nPower have today announced that the average joint-fuel bill will be going up by over 10% from December 1st, I’ve decided that I’m now definitely going to take my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman, and cost the fuckers some money.
Jesus christ, a 10% increase. Do they think people are made of money? Fucking hell.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there were any decent alternatives to change over to. Sadly though, they’re all as shitty as each other.
Utilities 6 – nPower Communications
Posted: Sun 13 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, nPower, Utilities 3 Comments »[For the rest of this one, click here]
Yesterday, I got a letter from nPower – addressed to the correct name, at the correct address. (This is actually noteworthy, as it hasn’t happened in the preceding eighteen months) It relates to the complaint I made about – um – the fact that they couldn’t (well, hadn’t) corrected my name and address on my account, despite repeated requests to do so.
Apparently, because they haven’t been in touch in so long since I raised the complaint, I can now speak to the Energy Ombudsman about it. (Which I threatened to do last month, when it all actually got sorted)
So. Should I do so?
After all, the complaint has actually been fixed, but it now looks as if their entire system is so broken that even though it’s been sorted – and the correctly addressed envelope proves it’s been sorted – it hasn’t been flagged on the system as sorted. Which really is pretty fucked, however you look at it.
I’m tempted to do so, and cost them some more money (apparently even registering an issue with the Ombudsman lands them with a fine) and see where it takes me…
Utilities Part 5 – More Metering
Posted: Sat 12 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Anglian Water, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Utilities Leave a comment »[You can read previous bits of this here, if you care]
This morning, Anglian Water are supposed to be (finally) fitting my two ‘smart’ meters. They’re due sometime between 8am and 1pm.
Whether they’ll turn up – and indeed whether they’ll get it right this time – as yet remains to be seen…
CEOP and NCA
Posted: Thu 10 October, 2013 Filed under: Cynicism, People, Security, Thoughts 1 Comment »I see that with the introduction of the new National Crime Agency (whose name sounds more like a criminal organisation, similar to Murder, Inc., than a law-enforcement one – you’d have thought National Crime Prevention Agency would’ve been a better choice) they’ve also wrapped up CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) into it as well.
I’ve always had my doubts about the use of CEOP as anything except propaganda. (and I’ve said so before) I don’t doubt that there is such a thing as child pornography, nor that abuse happens, that it’s more prevalent (or at least more reported on) now, and that t’internet has made things easier for paedophiles and abusers to both find victims and distribute those images. (And on a related subject, I also just read this story from the Guardian, and Bloody Hell)
But – ah, but – I do doubt that the methods for distribution of those images include things like Facebook and Twitter. I do doubt that ‘abuse’ on social media is as prevalent as CEOP makes out. The stats they release every quarter always make me think that they’re more about justifying their own existence, as do most of their stories, press releases and news soundbites. Yes, there should be an area of Policing and/or Law Enforcement that deals with these issues – but in my opinion it should be a part of standard policing, similar to New York’s Special Victims Unit (yes, it’s real, not just part of a TV Series mythology)
I’d rather see specialists per force – with the ability to communicate and operate between forces – than an agency that works so hard to justify its own existence.
Or of course, I could be being wholly cynical and uninformed about the entire thing. Who knows?
Too Hot for Football
Posted: Fri 4 October, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Sport 2 Comments »I must admit, I really don’t understand the whole ‘it’ll be too hot’ kerfuffle going on about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
After all, you would imagine that FIFA were aware when they awarded the World Cup to Qatar that playing it in the Summer is likely to be – well – bloody hot.
But no, it seems to have come as a surprise to them that any countries would be a tad upset at this, and also at the ‘back-up plan’ of playing it in Winter rather than Summer. Because well, playing it in Winter means that the football seasons for many of the countries in question will be spectacularly disrupted for a couple of months.
I don’t get the thinking behind it – assuming there was any – although I have to also point out that I don’t much care one way or the other anyway. It just seems pretty stupid to organise a sporting World Cup in the middle of summer in the Middle East. It’d be like awarding the Olympic Games to the region. But then, what would I know?