Posted: Fri 30 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Security, Stupidity, Sweary, Technology, Work-related |
Following on from the post a while back about the Marketing Manager for the Ireland distributor of a Japanese car sending out a marketing email with all the addresses CCd in instead of BCCd, I’ve had a couple more instances this week of email fuckwittage.
First of all, an email from a recruiter at Modis International (an Agency I dealt with once) who pimped out an email again using CC instead of BCC to throw it to loads of people. Even better, there were a number of fuckwits who then exacerbated the situation by using ‘Reply to All’ rather than ‘Reply’, and thus ended up spamming everyone themselves.
The second instance is even better though – at work, we’ve been setting up a secure site with SSL, and the company being used for the SSL certificate tried to email the equivalent of me@www.site.com instead of me@site.com . And tried it three times, without understanding what the problem was.
So all told, it’s been a bit of a week for fuckwits.
Posted: Thu 29 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
Seeing this story on the BBC about Taybarns (an all-you-can-eat restaurant whose business is growing during the recession) I was reminded about something I was going to write during my time down in London staying at a Travelodge, and again saw the other weekend when we stayed down in Berkshire. Buffet-style catering – and particularly buffet-style breakfasts.
Personally, I try to stay pretty sane in ‘all you can eat’ environments. From what I’ve seen at Travelodges and the like though, I seem to be in the minority in that aspect.
I lost count of the number of times I’d see people with plates piled high with food for breakfast and/or going back for second, third even (on one memorable occasion) fourth helpings. Obviously some people were just hungry, but others were doing it out of greed, and some kind of misplaced “Well I’ve paid for this so I’m going to get every single penny’s worth out of it” attitude.
I don’t understand that attitude – no, that’s not true. I can see the way some people’s minds work. I just don’t like it, and it’s not a mindset that will ever sit with me. I’d rather have the food I want, not necessarily what I feel I deserve, or that is mine because I’ve paid £x for it.
There’s more to this, I just haven’t yet got it straight enough in my head to be able to get it written down properly.
Posted: Sun 25 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related |
I’ve been somewhat antisocial this weekend, primarily because there’s been a load of stuff that needed doing.
Among the things done this weekend have been :
- Filling in and sending off my Self-Assessment Tax Form (yes, I still prefer to do it by post, so my deadline for it was the end of this week)
- Working on a site for a client, writing an e-commerce section for them
- Sorting out some other paperwork
There’ve also been some other bits and bobs, but all told it’s been a quiet – if busy – weekend.
Posted: Thu 22 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Work-related |
Yes, I know, I haven’t written today.
Just don’t ask, OK? It’s been one of those days where anything that could go wrong has. Twice.
I’ll probably write some more tonight. Or maybe not. I don’t know right now.
(And it’s all work-related, not domestic stuff. But still, one of those days.)
Posted: Wed 21 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related |
Interesting to see today that Aviva (ex Norwich Union) has been named by Lovemoney as “Britain’s worst insurer”.
We’ve never used NU / Aviva for insurance – they’ve invariably been the highest quote around for any insurance I requested. The one that always sticks in my mind was their quote of some £1,000 a year for £25,000 of contents-only insurance when I lived in Manchester. I ended up using More>Than, paying £350 for £60,000 of cover. Go figure.
My personal experience of Norwich Union this year has been abysmal for a number of reasons which I’m not going to write about here. Well, not yet anyway – it’s still a rant waiting to happen. It’s just that it’s folded in to the general crapness of this year’s fun.
So it’s no surprise to me that regardless of name/brand, they’ve been named as ‘the worst’.
Posted: Sat 17 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Advertising, Travel, Work-related |
Last week I got an email from Travelodge about a promotion they’re running.
Basically, it’s a heavily discounted rate on their rooms over the Festering Season, on limited rooms booked for stays between 29th November 2009 and 10th January 2010.
For myself, I’d hate to be in a Travelodge over the Festering Season. While they’re OK for an overnight stay – and even, to some degree or other, for staying in while working away from home – they’re still soul-less holes at best. And to spend time over the Festering Season in one of this sinkpits of despair would, I suspect, be more than I would want to bear.
Then again, I’m probably not the target customer for this kind of thing. I stay in Travelodges when I have to (like the recent contract in London) rather than for leisure/pleasure. Given the choice otherwise, I’d rather stay pretty much anywhere than going to a Travelodge.
Posted: Tue 13 October, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Work-related |
I’m pleased to say that the first day in the new place went OK. It was surprisingly organised – although some of that is due to the fact I’m inheriting a set-up and role from someone else – and everything seems to be pretty much in place.
The working set-up I’ve got is insane (in a good way) in that I’ve now got two computers (a Windows box and a Linux box) to play with, and three widescreen monitors. I don’t actually need all three, one per computer would be fine, but my predecessor had deemed it essential, so *shrug*, OK.
I’m still getting some bits set up – test servers etc. – but I’m getting there, and we’re doing OK.
In addition I’ve already had the induction gubbins, met the directors, and all that jazz. In my last permanent role, I’d been in the job about four months before we did the full induction thing.
So all told, not a bad start. Be interesting to see how it works out from there/here.