Anyone for Tea?

27/03/2010
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

The boys have a party in the garden.

Park Right!

Customer Satisfaction
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Dear Tide:

I'm writing to say what an excellent product you have! I've used it all through my married life, as my Mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties, I find it even better! In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse. My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to berate me about how clumsy I was, and generally started becoming a pain in the neck.

One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with a lot of his blood on my white blouse. I tried to get the stain out using a bargain detergent, but it just wouldn't come out. After a quick trip to the supermarket, I purchased a bottle of liquid Tide with bleach alternative, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all of the stains came out! In fact, the stains came out so well the Detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative and then my attorney called and said that I would no longer be considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband. What a relief!

Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect!

I thank you, once again, for having such a great product. Well, gotta go. I have to write a letter to the Hefty bag people.

Scuba Humor

(Turn the sound off if you speak German!)

I can't make Mass this week

Perils of a Catholic Upbringing

As I walked down the busy sidewalk, knowing I was late for Mass, my eye fell upon one of those unfortunate, homeless vagabonds that are found in every city these days.

Some people turned to stare. Others quickly looked away as if the sight would somehow contaminate them.

Recalling my old pastor, who always admonished me to 'care for the sick, feed the hungry and clothe the naked,' I was moved by some powerful inner urge to reach out to this unfortunate person. Wearing what can only be described as rags, carrying every worldly possession in two plastic bags, my heart was touched by this person's condition.

Yes, where some people saw only rags, I saw a true, hidden beauty.
A small voice inside my head called out, 'Reach out, reach out and touch this person!'

So I did.......

I won't be at Mass this week.

Oldy But Goody!!

This is great fun but a real time waster as its hard to give up !!!!!!!

This is cool! Try not to spend all day at this... Hint: watch the wind sock.. err undies... for wind speed and direction! Click here: PARACHUTE JUMP

Standards of Service

So Katie has done me a favour!  Well thanks, Really I would have preferred a router in double quick time, or quick time.  Not 2 DAYS time...

 

In case you are interested, we qualify for £25 for being down for all that time.

 

I am bowled over.  NOT!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Venus Katie <Katie.Venus@thus.net>
Date: 2009/12/4
Subject: Standards of Service

Dear Mr. Papouis,

Further to our conversation today, please find below the link to the
Standards of Service for Demon Business ADSL, and the request form for
Service Credits:

http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/broadband_sos/

I have requested the credit on this occasion and you will receive an
email once it has been added to the account.

A wireless router has been ordered and will be dispatched on Monday, due
for delivery on Tuesday. Once this has been received we will issue a
returns bag for the wired router so that this can be sent back.

I hope this information is of some assistance however please do not
hesitate to contact me should you require any further details.

Kind Regards

--
Katie Venus
Customer Relations Advisor
THUS, a Cable&Wireless business
Tel: 0845 270 0052
Fax: 0870 051 8740

It Has Arrived!!

Well the router arrived!  At just before 3pm  Almost exactly 2 days!!! since I requested it.

Guess what??  Yup.  They sent the wrong one!  Our previous router was wireless, this one isn’t! Good thing that we can survive without the wireless functionality (for the time being).

All excited (as I really don’t like lawyers shouting at me) I plugged it in and connected it up.  Guess what???  It did not work!

I checked that the correct password was entered, and finally gave up and called the Help Desk (Glutton for punishment that I am).  10 mins of waiting on the phone and a human answered.  Would you believe it the connection sprang into live that very second.

Great!

The chap on the phone said he would ask the supplier if they will send us another correct one.  He did not sound to hopeful.  If they do I suspect that they will want to swap the one we now have, on the spot.  That is a non starter, unless the office is empty.

I tried to call Katy to tell her.  But she has gone till 4:00pm.  Her colleague promised that she will call me.

So now we need to talk about compensation.

There is the 48 hours of down time.  There is the cost of my time chasing Demon for what should have been, at worst, a next day delivery (with no chasing).  There is the time the lawyers have wasted having to send long emails on Blackberry (actually I suspect some of them slunk off to a local internet Cafe, but even that costs).

I am now going to send a text to Stuart to let him know the current status.

Oh and by the way, the left hand needs to talk to the right.  I am now informed that the delivery cut-off time is 2pm.  Had they told us that 2 days ago I would have gone out and purchased a router and not gone through all this pain.  Shame that this information has not percolated round Demon.  Katy tells me that she did know this.  Nice of her to tell me.  Or is this all part of the Demon Fantasy land?

Katy has just called.  Apparently we can request “Service Credits” to compensate us for loss of service.  Apparently I have to go on their website and fill in some forms.  Bit of a cheek really, considering how much time they have wasted.  I asked her to do it.  Let’s see shall we.

All in all, this has to be the worst service I have received from a company, that I did like a lot, for a long time.  I used to recommend Demon to my clients, but I shall have to give this some thought.  Can I in all honesty recommend them?

Clearly Demon do not give a hoot about their clients.

Watch this space…..

The Boss Sends me a Text

Stuart Smyth has just sent me a text, telling me that the router should be here by 3pm.  And apologising.

I appreciate the gesture, but am not sure that it will placate the ravening hordes that have not been on the net for 2 days.

Before you ask, I am posting this from email on my phone.

The Clock Ticks…

How long does it take to get from Birmingham to London?

I always thought you could mask this journey in under 3 hours (on a motorbike so that traffic is not really an issue).

Well Demon Internet have taken 2 days to NOT get a router delivered from their Birmingham based router provisioning department (external supplier).

The story so far…

On Wednesday at approximately 2:00 I called Demon to tell them that our router had failed. Foolishly I called the standard fault line 0845 2720040. After about 15 minutes of talking to a lady she still could not find us on the system and would not discuss our issue. I got fed up and tried calling the number I should have used in the 1st place. Yes I know, it was my mistake, but it was a simple fault (viz the router had died).

I called the correct number 0845 2720054 and, after a further 15 mins waiting, spoke a knowledgeable young man that correctly diagnose that the router was broken. I explained to him that this was urgent and that we would happily pay for a courier to get it here ASAP. He said that the “Cut-Off” time for deliveries was 3:00 and he should be able to get it in for next day delivery. He promised to call back and confirm, if there were any issues. As we did not hear I assumed all was OK.

Thursday. Morning. No delivery. Wait… 12:00 No delivery. Call Demon.

Apparently even though we had made the cut-off time we had only done so by 5 mins and so our order had not been processed. Surely a cut-off time means that that items received before will be processed and items received after will not. Perhaps they should rename it “Cut-Off time’ish”. We will process stuff received before, if we feel like it. Or perhaps they should move the cut-off time forward to 2:30.

We again offered to pay for a courier and were told it would cost £175 and may get here by 8:00pm! (5 hours from Birmingham??). We were advised that we could have it delivered by 9:00am for free. We agreed, assuming it would definitely be here.

Friday. Morning. No delivery. 10:00 Start to chase.

1st Steven Costello (allegedly a manager – 01702 2446611) tells me that they had tried to deliver it this morning, but they could not find us. We are in the Lloyds Building in the centre of the City of London. It is quite a distinctive building and hard to miss (http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/The_Lloyds_building/Pictures_of_the_building-exterior/)

He says he will chase it. 11:00 I get a call from Minesh. He is from the provisioning department. I tell him that I want it delivered by 12:00. He cannot do that so I request that one be put on a bike in Birmingham, he can’t do that either. I ask to speak to his boss (Sally Barton). She is not available so I said that I wanted the issue escalating. Apparently that is to Anastasia Carter. But she is not available so I get Katy Venus (0845 2700052).

This is like talking to a brick wall. She ignores the fact that it should have been here at 9:00 and discovers that the courier has apparently gone AWOL (http://www.hdnl.co.uk). If that is the case then how do they know that he had tried to deliver it and couldn’t?

I asked for the name of the Senior person at Demon. Apparently it is Stuart Smyth (0141 567 1234). I call and leave 2 messages.

Katy is chasing. I make repeat requests for the router to be put on a bike. All refused. She starts to quote SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) and I point out that regardless of what the SLA says 2 DAYS! is too long for a company to be down and to get a parcel from Birmingham. Silence.

1:00pm I get a call back from Stuart, he says he will look into it. I then get a call and a text from Katy telling me that the couriers are in the area and may get it here by 3:00pm. I asked “if they are in the area, can I go and meet him and collect the router?” apparently not. I asked about plan “B”. What do you mean? I mean what are you going to do if it is not here by 3?? Nothing. There is no plan B.

She gives me a tracking number and a website for HDNL. She does not seem to see the irony in this (i.e. How can I check the website when out router is dead!!).

A quick visit to an internet cafe and the lies start to appear…

03/12/2009 20:49:00 DROITWICH Sorted at our hub
04/12/2009 05:53:00 NEW CROSS DEPOT Received into depot
04/12/2009 09:24:00 NEW CROSS VAN Loaded on to the drivers van

If it only got put on the van at 9:24 this morning how could they have failed to deliver it BEFORE 9:00?

Draw your own conclusions.

OK, so it’s now 1:20pm… Lets see what happens shall we. I will not be holding my breath.

Watch this space…

Her Diary-- His Diary

Her Diary, His Diary
 
Her Diary

Tonight I thought he was acting weird.  We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink.  I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment.  Conversation wasn't flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk.  He agreed but he kept quiet and seemed so absent-minded.
I asked him what was wrong. He said nothing was wrong.  I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset.  He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.  On the way home I told him that I loved him and he simply smiled and kept driving.  I can't explain his behavior.  I don't know why he didn't say 'I love you too.'
 
When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.  He just sat there and watched TV.  He seemed so distant and aloof.
Finally, I decided to go to bed.  About 10 minutes later he came to bed, and to my surprise he responded to my caress and we made love, but I still felt that he was distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else.  He fell asleep - I cried.  I don't know what to do.  I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else.  My life is a disaster.

His Diary

I shot the worst round of golf in my life today, but at least I got laid.

Nokia Support

Let me start by saying that I am a long term Nokia fan.  I am also a big fan of Symbian (having owned many a Psion).   So you can imagine how pleased I was when I heard that the N97 would not only be Symbian, but would also be a new version.

You can also imaging how disappointed I am with the reality.

I shall not list the problems I have had with the N97 as many other people have had the same and you can find plenty of other write ups about it.  Basically I still like the phone and it does mainly do what I want (love having a “real” keyboard”).  I can live with some of the foibles, although the inability to answer some calls is getting a bit annoying.

The thing that has really started to wind me up is the corruption that is occurring in the music database (or more specifically the podcast database).

Basically what is happening is that the database is getting out of sync with reality and so some podcasts are getting “stuck”.  What this means is that I cannot play them, and I cannot delete them.  I cannot even re-download them, in the hope of clearing the blockage.  The files themselves are gone, but the music player program shows them as still present, and they are building up.

Now, as you may know, I am an IT person and have a good idea how this stuff works.  I have given this some thought and have come to the conclusion that the application must hold it’s own database of files that it builds from the real files on the disk.  So surely the cure must be to remove the corrupt file, rebuild the database.  Easy.

Now the fun begins.  I called Nokia support to see if they can give me some guidance. The 1st couple of people I spoke to seemed quite clueless, but then I managed to get through to Alex.  He seems quite knowledgeable, but alas his knowledge does have limitations.

The only cure he could give me is to reset the whole phone, back to factory default.  This does seem to be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!

Nobody at Nokia UK seems to know how this phone works.  All they seem to know is how to reset it!

I have requested that the call be escalated, but he is not sure that he can do that.  I have been promised calls from a manager twice, but none has called.  I have asked if I can upgrade to the new 20 firmware, but apparently this has not been authorised by T-Mobile.

That is the end.  Bog off and bother someone else.

Nokia.  Here is some free advice…

Your flagship phone has to WORK AS ADVERTISED
Resetting back to default is NOT A REPAIR

If you want to compete with the likes of the iPhone You need to up your game and start to provide some service.  You are transitioning from a phone company to something else.  The Smart Phone is not just a phone it is a computer that forms the center of my data life.  My diary is there, my phone book is there (surprise surprise), my email is there and, as I find more useful apps, it is a very important tool in my work life.  It is not just a phone.

If I know that every time I have a minor bump in the road I will have to reset the pesky thing, I simply will move to a more reliable platform.

Oh, and one last thing.  Pretend that you care when a customer comes to you wanting to work through an issue!

del.icio.us Tags: Nokia,Phone,Issues

The Power Of A Great Story

This is great

 

click here

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past

Here are a few pics from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP

Here are a few pics from the past

More Blasts from the past

More Blasts from the past
Originally uploaded by CosmaP