i am not a fan of unions, im not a fan of disrupting business in their work, however i welcome and support the walkout by refinery workers up and down the country today.
will our beloved government be hung by their own spin in the coming months?
weve had the waffle of grand statements by brown and co, weve had the token gestures of discussions from the limp unions, who fund brown and co, but today ive noticed a seed change in the approach of the people.
in one movement, the people have rendered labour's spin and the view of the unions completely irrelevant! the government have no choice but to tackle this head on, "british jobs for british workers" sounds pretty clear to me - waffle andspin of "gordon didnt really mean british jobs for british workers, he meant that he wanted them to be trained and ready for work" will not suffice! the people have walked out, not due to a voted for strike, not under union rules, not because of government spin, but because they have realised the one thing that brown and co, have tried to stop from happening since 1997, if the people stick together, there isnt a damned thing that any union of labour party can do about it!
their simple message is.... "british jobs for british workers" was promised - honour your promise or face the wrath of the people!
so where does brown go now? spin like "we are doing all we can" "we are in discussions with...." "we are working together with unions and business to bring a swift end to this..." just wont wash.
if he stops the italians working on the site - the government will be in breach of european law and facing huge fines - however, brown will be showing that hell be standing up for british workers.
if he does nothing and even remotely threatens police action for an unlawful strike - more people will unite against brown and his position as prime minister is in danger.
will brown try to spin his way out of it? i have no idea, but its going to be fun watching him squirm!
Denz on 01.30.09 @ 11:46 PM CST [link]
Thursday, January 29th
value for money?
the banking industry is suffering from a lack of customers who have funds
the saver has seen their interest rate fall from over 5% to less than 1% in a year.... crazy idea, if a bank wants to attract more custom, INCREASE THE SAVERS RATE OF INTEREST???
mortgages people are not taking out mortgages... could this be because fees and charges have rocketed? could it be because when interest rate cuts come from the bank of england, they are not passed onto the mortgage holder?? (interest rates are at 1.5% yet most mortgage olders are being charged over 5% interest on their mortgage - why?) another crazy idea... if a bank wants to attract more business, then lower your interest charges??? reduce the cost of fees and charges???
current account users the interest given on a standard current account has been less than 0.2% for some time now, even for accounts that never use an overdraft.... why? current account charges are going through the roof and the court case to prove a legal precedent (that already exists) is being dragged out through the courts for more than a year so far.
most people are unaware that the law states that if you want to be paid in cash each week/month you can be, you dont need a bank account!
idiotic idea for the banks...... why not stop the fudge on bank charges and refund those that dont reflect the actual cost of account activity? (£30 to send out a letter on a non paid direct debit - when it actually costs the bank no more than one single pound) banks want more custom then pay a fair interest rate on current account? stop charging customers fees for non payment of standing orders - they dont cost the bank a penny piece! (if the money is not in the account the bill is not paid - simple as that)
the car industry:
has anyone else noticed something strange with car sales? simple idea... if you cant sell any cars, perhaps its because THEY ARE TOO HIGH A PRICE??? ive heard about people not getting credit or not being able to shift thousands of cars already made, etc, i have yet to hear anyone, anybody, anyminister suggest lowering the prices.
on the radio a while back i heard an ad saying the new renault... now half price! great i thought, until they revealed the sale price, was £14,995 now £7,499! sounds good? the same car was only £8,499 3 months ago.... when did costs force up the price to over £14,000???
why hasnt the prices of all these new cars they cannot sell come down?
people are tired of being ripped off by car manufacturers and dealers, banks and building societies, etc, its not the credit crunch, its the people now seeing you all for what you are, rip off merchants!
Denz on 01.29.09 @ 04:53 PM CST [link]
monopoly on web building?
following on from giving up on wordpress after 3 weeks, could it be there is a monopoly on website building?
i wonder this as im having a go now at php, starting with some basic lessons. set up database - no problem logged into it - no problem sent command to set up a basic table... didnt work shouted for technical help.... no response for 8 hours now (all afternoon and evening wasted) checked server's own help files... no solution checked server's own instruction list.... still no joy cut and paste commands from the servers own helpfiles.... still did not work!
the only options open to ordinary people who want to advance their skills to do their own thing as regards building websites, are to use some bug ridden open source program and tinker with it for weeks hoping for the best and not really learning anything.
other than this us normals have to pay for a "web designer" to build a website for us
if we try to learn programming skills using a set up like ajax or php or css etc, no matter how many searches you do for information, the result is the same: vague possibilities and no one (not even developers) seem to be able to diagnose and solve, a basic fault
if its not a closed shop, why is it so hard to get technical help on programming a website?
after 3 weeks spent trying to configure and set up a basic website using wordpress, im giving up. not because im impatient, not because i do not understand most of the stuff needed to fix it, but for the sheer lack of technical help from the very people that proclaim its excellence....
when you first visit the wordpress website, you are told its a "5 minute installation" and works "straight out of the box"
dont believe it for a second. my problems all stem from the features actually included within the wordpress 2.7 programme itself.
without any problems i installed the stuff, i installed a few basic plugins and a new template.... as soon as i tried to put a post on the site, the text didnt work correctly, i asked for help... none came at all i found more help on websites slagging wordpress off than i did from the site developers and technical (i use that term loosely) i finally got posts working, so i thought id add a widget that comes with the package.... first up text widgets.. they didnt work finally got those working after 6 hours of fiddling about... i added "tags" widget.... it knocked off all my other widgets, so i had to remove it, over 24 hours ive read forums till my eyes went bog, still no joy so i removed the tags widget and the other widgets started working again, next up the calendar... this worked but left a big gap above it,no end of css corrections.. still wouldnt work.... i tried to add banner widgets.. 3 of the main ones.. all three failed to work... the last one i tried broke my template all together... you get the picture
im sorry but for me technical advice of "remove all your widgets until you get your website to work" is not very helpful the typical advice of "go back to default template" is simply not good enough.
wordpress is designed to be a quick and easy blogger/website builder, that allows people with basic knowledge to build a website and make their own chosen improvements from the vast array of technical wizz kids who know all about css styles and coding, etc.
in 3 weeks i have had to edit so many css sheets and read up on each and every problem, that i could have learned how to program in a language and build my own website from scratch.
my advice to anyone considering using wordpress...... dont bother its a bug ridden bag of crud!
following on from david vine, a class commentator whom i remember best whilst watching ski sunday years ago, and a downhill skiier just vanished from the moving camera shot, only to return to the corner it had just been filming to find the skiier tangled up in the safety netting (almost made me wee myself that did)...
sadly we have lost another great from the world of commentators.. reg gutteridge, from the world of boxing.
i remember the legendary fights from the 80s, with benn and eubank and watson, from around the world and against each other (with jim watt helping him) but ill best remember reg from the riddick bowe v evander holyfield fight, where a bloke landed on the apron of the ring with a hovver pack on and fell on top of jesse jackson's wife....
rest in peace reg.
Denz on 01.25.09 @ 10:51 PM CST [link]
CSS
i want a basic css template. i want to then incorporate it within a html page i want to update that page and insert text and images, in side menus, footer content etc.
so how does a website builder do this?
i dont want nor need: - to learn about the history of coding in depth - a breakdown/list of all css commands - to read for 3 smeggin days about the history of html
someone somewhere must have a tool to view where html code goes into a cascading style sheet and they can view it (without having to upload it to webspace every time they change one single thing on it)?
dreamweaver says you can build a site like this.. not true wordpress says you can build sites in this way... not true
im sick to my back teeth of online websites that pretend to have even a slight clue about how to do this... they do not, they just want you to sign up to yet another email campaign or click on their adverts etc, their only purpose is to send spam about viagra or sell your clicks.
i cannot believe a person sits down to build a website, from scratch, and uploads each and every little changed page to servers to view it... it would take months to do a basic layout.
css is not some fly-by-night programming gimmick, it is supposed to be the industry standard, so why is it that no one knows how to use the crappy thing?
in fact most "applications" that are available to the interested website builder are complete turd.. but thats for another post.
back to wordpress:
ive spent days (and i mean days) trying to build a site with it, ive deleted complete website set ups and databases left it for a couple of weeks, then tried setting it all up again from scratch with a clean install, every single time ive tried, ive come across a wordpress problem, that noone can solve!
in my experience with wordpress, ive installed and tweaked it, on 3 occasions:
- wordpress "support" people dont know how to correct faults (numerous instances advice consists of "delete all your plugins until you find it works" or the popular favourite "install it on the default theme only" which begs the question why have endless pages of free wordpress themes if none of them work with the application?) - basic wordpress features that come with the application dont work - "out of the box" and "5 minute installation" are misleading in the extreme - ive had to mess about with htaccess files, server databases, css template code, (thats just to get a basic clean install working) - the application comes with plugins that you can turn on, but try to configure them and you may as well twist your own arm up your arse and try juggling at the same time. - its incapable of letting you post a post to display, including an image, without the image overlapping into other postings youve made. (spent more than 3 hours trying to sort this problem out - despite the option to add images to a post being built in)
to summarise: dont touch wordpress with a bargepole, youll spend literally days configuring the thing until you get to post, then youll find that wont work either and you have to delete or modify code to get it to work, then your other plugins will no longer work!
youd be better spending your time sawing your own arm off or watching steam condense!
the BBC refuse to show appeals to help the people of gaza, after the recent bombings and shootings from israel.
the BBC reasoning is "The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story." exactly how is this different from all the government spin they put on news stories when the economy is collapsing? its pathetic!
meet and greet: the city minister Lord Myners this man is a government minister and today came out with a statement that reveals some interesting insight into how our country has got into financial trouble.
"Banks and their grossly over-rewarded executives are partly to blame for causing the economic recession" - in the same way ministers of the government are rewarded for complete failure to do their basic duty correctly (ref: financial services authority management - overpaid pillocks!)
"Executives had no sense of the broader society around them" - exactly mirroring the way the government is seen by the people of the UK?
he also revealed the bank system came close to collapse last October (2008), ahead of the government's £500bn rescue package. - why then did his own government spin it to the british people as "stimulating the economy again"? why didnt brown and darling tell us the banking system was collapsing?
"I have met more masters of the universe (bank executives) than I would like to, people who were grossly over-rewarded and did not recognise that. Some of that is pretty unpalatable." - pretty unpalatable? sounds exactly like gordon brown and his "pinball" government!
"Let us be quite clear: there has been mismanagement of our banks." - perhaps the minister would care to explain, (or answer a single question) about the failure of the FSA to regulate banks since they took over this power from the bank of england one day after labour got elected in 1997? what about the mismanagement of the economy? we now have a bigger national debt than we had from the second world war.. banks were allowed to continue borrowing money to make profits from lending, despite not being able to refinance themselves if it went wrong, the power to stop this, was a power that the FSA had, but failed in 11 years to carry use, ONE SINGLE TIME! why?
"Bank executives should decide for themselves whether to pay back their bonuses or lose knighthoods" what a gormless statement to make!
lets make things clear for the minister (we are such givers!)
- the FSA had the power to stop banks overstretching, it didnt use it (for reasons the ministers in the government wont tell us or answer questions on) - the banks will earn money for their shareholders in any market they operate, they were only operating in the financial markets under the regulation that gordon brown set up. if gordon brown had sorted the regulations out, we wouldnt be in this mess now would we! in normal people's terms minister - banks only traded under the rules that gordon brown put in place.
but still, if you were doing your job correctly minister, perhaps you and others on the labour side, would have had some balls and stopped it happening?
bank executives should give back their bonus' or their knighthoods? i think it is all these government ministers who are in the lords that should be giving back their knighthoods!
the employment record of lord myners:
* The Daily Telegraph as a financial journalist * N M Rothschild & Sons merchant bank * Gartmore, a pension fund manager, becoming its Chair in 1987.
He has held directorships with: Bank of New York IMRO - (regulates the activities of firms which manage other people's money - unit trusts and investment companies, merchant, banks, insurance companies and pension funds) bridgepoint - major international private equity group, which buy up middle market businesses then "release value within companies" Coutts - "Coutts (more fully, Coutts & Co.) is one of the UK's leading private banks, owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). RBS acquired Coutts and all of its overseas subsidiaries when it bought NatWest. On 1 January 2008, Coutts' international businesses were renamed RBS Coutts, aligning them more closely with the parent RBS Group. Coutts offers a range of private banking services including investment management and advisory services. Lloyd's Market Board and finally NatWest
how much has he made in bonuses during this time?
i dont care if he's a lord or not, you would think with all his financial experience, hed have half a mind to spot troubles coming, just goes to show how much bull comes out of this blokes gob!
do us all a favour lord myners.. shut yer piehole and bog off (im being polite)
Denz on 01.24.09 @ 08:36 PM CST [link]
Friday, January 23rd
energy prices
a statement for you: i am of the clear opinion that the government have fixed it so energy prices in the UK, are kept artificially high!
now before you slate me for this "farsical opinion" which you may think has no factual basis whatsoever... hear me out
how the government want you to think: - they have given OFGEM special powers to force energy companies to provide information on the actual cost of the energy to them (so they can compare with what is being charged to the invididual in their home) - they have "been in long discussions with the energy companies" to try and get the cost of energy down for "hard hit families and people in fuel poverty" (fuel poverty being households that spend 10% or more of their total income on energy needs)
reasons why i believe the statement above: severe financial difficulties were around the corner no matter how it happened, why, etc, long before august 2007, many "experts" and people on the street (normals like us) predicted major financial problems were coming. government ministers may have denied this and used spin to hide it from the public, but without doubt, they knew it was coming months before they started acknowledging it in public!
* last year energy bills shot up by 30-40% (for ever pound we spend on energy, the government get 5p via the tax system)
gordon brown urged people to go online and find a cheaper supplier (backed up by ministers on news programs) sign up for fixed energy prices in a volatile market? where the price of energy could fall as a result of gordon brown having long discussions with energy companies? surely any sensible government would have clauses on energy provision for the country it rules over, when allowing the energy companies of that company to go into private hands? both on prices and costs it was allowed to charge the people?
they knew the banks were in trouble, they knew that prepayment metered users were paying substantially more for their energy use, isnt it a bit of a coincidence that the government encouraged people to fix their prices for energy, before the turd hit the fan so to speak and direct debits for energy were just about to increase - in some cases from £65ish to £110ish per month! (what better way of getting more money through the banks books, when they need it most!) the rise in direct debit charges for energy also brought the government an increase in tax revenues!
OFGEM - in place to hold the industry to account - in october 2008, they announced that energy companies must reduce the price of their products it may have special powers to force energy companies to reveal the costs of energy to them, but does it make sense that everytime OFGEM investigate the market it presides over, it has to enforce these special powers to get information?
who pays OFGEM wages? are they truly "independant?" and why after months of complaints and investigations, they only announced in october 2008 that companies must reduce their prices?
and why give them till the end of february 2009 to comply before they "take tough action?" why make a ruling and give the energy companies until after the 4 coldest months of the year have passed (when people use the most energy), for them to comply before they take any action?
british gas announce that from february 19th 2009 they will reduce their prices of gas (not electricity) by 10% other companies are expected to follow suit - again within the "end of february 2009 deadline" why have none of them reduced any prices now? why is there no mention of the costs to the energy companies? why no electricity price reductions? why will this reduction not apply to prepayment metered customers or those on a fixed arrangement???
bearing in mind, that the government makes a priority of "tackling fuel poverty" why no outrage from government and OFGEM, at the reduction not being applicable to the millions on fixed deals and prepayment meters? could it be that they are more than happy to have the increased revenue this is bringing into the treasury whilst in all other departments is falling?
its amazing that as the economy crumbles, the areas that bring in vast sums of money into the government's pocket via taxation, are the very things that seem to be making big profits or are being protected by the government (through lax regulation via official bodies or taxpayer bail outs)
petrol prices are still way too high energy prices are still way to high banks are allowed to drag out their charges defence in court whilst receiving billions in taxpayers money, and at every turn the government are encouraging everyone to take up various schemes that involve using a bank account
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said... "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." never has a saying been more apt than when applied to this government!
after watching an itv special the other night about people losing their homes, and reading (yes reading) through the times money section (im a month behind with my paper) - one thing that struck me, about all these people being interviewed..... was they all (and i mean all) despite their hardships, didnt appear to be that hard up at all.
how could i think such a thing? each one (and i kid you not) told of searching for work struggle - not by walking (remember that?) but by going on their laptops and logging onto the internet. (instant saving available there - swap landline for mobile internet connection, or a crazy idea... do without!) they then got in their cars/vans and drove around the supermarket whilst pleading poverty (car/van? insurance? road tax? petrol/diesel each week? doing all their shopping at a supermarket? returning no doubt for a few more supermarket goodies later on in the week?) they all had plasma flat screen teles, the latest video games consoles (playing the latest games no doubt) - dvd players - microwaves - tvs in other rooms.... the list goes on.
has britain gone soft?
one bloke actually said "we are getting by with our last credit card for shopping, its that bad!"
practical tips for you - free of charge:
- do something, anything, to help yourself, TODAY! it doesnt matter how small, make a start now! - avoid supermarkets where ever possible shop on the market stalls for fruit and veg, find a local established butcher and buy from them (you cant haggle with a supermarket checkout) - itll last longer and be fresh stuff! - milk, get a milkman! better quality and price, fresher eggs etc. more flexible (plus if you are not nipping back to the supermarket once or twice a week, the supermarket cannot target you in the pocket) - i can feed three adults for around £40 per week,and thats eating fresh fruit and veg, various choice cut meats and a dozen free range from the milkman. - grow your own! as a 70s kid we always had spuds and veg growing in the back garden, nothings changed, dig up the crappy decking and get planting when the frost stops!
- you can survive without most things, but not your house! if needs be get rid of everything that takes money out of your pocket each week, if it safeguards your house, then you can at least sleep in shelter!
- if your cold, you can always use a blanket, you dont have to have the fire on you shouldnt be using the fire anyways - use your central heating, fires burn energy and only warm one room, with your heating you warm the whole house and get hot water! i grew up without any central heating until i was almost in my teens... it can be done. the energy companies only take lump sums from your pocket if you let them! - start cooking! you have parents and grandparents, if you need help, ask around! get off your backside and cook your own food! ready meals are shocking in their content, they are hardly real food at all, cook from fresh where ever possible, its better for you and youll feel a damned site better for it!
- get to know your neighbours! daft sounding this one, but imagine the money you can save when they come across things they will need and you find things they need... youd be surprised. add to this when you need help with anything they will help you and visa versa.
i know dealing with unemployment and arrears payments on a home is one of the most stressful things in the world, but its surprising how doing for yourself that helps YOU can make you look at things differently. whilst your out and about helping others, the chances of you getting chatting to someone whos looking for someone to help with something is the best way. dont sit indoors all day trawling the internet, get out and about, and imagine the good impression you make when you are digging over someones garden with them and a friend calls in and sees youre doing it for free to help them!
look around your home, and write down all the things you can live without thats in it,i mean material things, youd be amazed just how how much crap you have. you dont need central heating, you dont need your satellite tv, mobiles, computers, flash telephones, dvd players, games consoles, etc etc.
these are just material things that come and go, that the marketing world tells you, you should have... as long as you have running water and a roof over your head, youll be fine. good luck.
elderly man is duped into paying over £850, to sell his timeshare weeks that he doesn't use anymore.
the sting involves:
company contacts individual (saying they have a buyer) - on receipt of £850 deposit, which will be refunded on completion - individual pays out £850 on visa card - letter arrives two weeks later saying "the buyer has pulled out but dont worry we will advertise it for you for 12 months for free and find another buyer" - the website listed for advertising hasnt been updated in over a year - no magazine advertisements are placed - within 30 days of paying £850, visa and the card company are notified of fraud.
VISA: luckily the gent has paid with his card... simple issue then, he is protected by the visa guarantee, whereby the card company refund the money and then decide wether or not to pursue the fraudulent company via the courts and criminal system.
- at first contact, the gent is advised to wait until the 12 months is up, then contact them again (why? they didnt answer) - the card company then sent out a letter stating, "sorry there is nothing we can do as we cannot find the transaction on your bank account details!" - a letter goes back to them pointing out it has nothing to do with the gents bank account, it is his credit card that has been used in the scam - reassurance from card company, once again told to re contact their fraud dept. once the 12 months is up - after 12 months is up, contact with fraud dept is made. - 3 months later the card company finally respond with a quick phone call saying "theres nothing we can do, get a solicitor and take out a legal action against them yourself!"
so what is the visa guarantee for then? its upto visa to refund the amount fraudulently taken and then decide if visa/card company want to pursue legal action.
obviously with the credit crunch in full flow, visa and the alliance and leicester cant be bothered honouring their obligations and legally binding promises!
their visa guaratee is not understood by their own staff! dont believe a word of it, after 15 months of reporting the fraud 3 times, they cannot be bothered to do anything.
the whole process stinks and is extremely bad business for the individual - my advice would be, cut up your credit cards as the robbing dogs are quite happy to charge you interest on the card and couldnt give a stuff about your rights or their own contracts - offering no protection for the individual at all
disgraceful conduct alliance and leicester and the visa company!
Denz on 01.21.09 @ 04:59 PM CST [link]
Tuesday, January 20th
BBC reporting?
when the stock markets opened, BBC morning program went to their "financial commentator" for an update on the bank's share prices.
youd have thought he was going to explode! ".... banking shares are bouncing back, rbs (down 70% the day before) have shot up by 15%!" (they went from 12p per share to 13.5p per share hardly record breaking stuff)
a bit odd then when from 9.30am (ie, after the majority of people have gone to work/school) this same commentator, was downbeat in his reporting on the same figures, which had hardly changed a bit.
the BBC wouldnt be talking up the economy when the most viewers are watching would they?
at least £100 BILLION pounds has been made available to banks through a package of measures, to help the banks to lend again today. This is on top of the £60 BILLION pounds (£8000 per adult in the uk over the age of 18 years) they have already been given.
so my question is this: would it be so bad if we let the banks collapse?
mortgaged homes: if administrators were called in for a bank to sell off assets, if only one bank dropped, then others would step in, but if most of the banks folded? - no one would buy them,not banks not anyone, as they wouldnt be able to raise funds unless it was done privately. - couldnt the government buy many of them? - would the mortgage holder not be able to buy it at a substantially reduced price from the bank administrator? - if no one wanted to buy the mortgage book, then wouldnt the house become property of the mortgage holder? (im wondering if the mortgage contract between the holder and the now defunct bank would now be unenforceable?)
to trade as a bank it needs a consumer credit licence. if it has debts that stop it from operating as a bank, then its consumer credit licence would be revoked (as it wouldnt meet the criteria required by law) as such the mortgage contract would be unenforceable or it would have to be renegotiated, which would leave the householder (ie, the individual) in a very strong position indeed! with no possible buyers, and the costs of renegotiating each individual mortgage on its books (solicitor fees, etc) the individual would be able to get a vastly reduced deal.
the reason im wondering all this: no matter what happens during this home grown crisis - when does the individual benefit?
- the bank goes tits up with over borrowing - the public save it from collapse with tax money - the bank still cannot stop the losses - the public bail it out even more with tax money - the bank despite having had its debts paid off by us, continue to raise money in other ways from us - charges increase - these cannot be stopped or claimed back (despite being unlawful already under legal precedent in common law) as the government has allowed them via the court system to challenge them and its being dragged out through the courts as we speak (which could take years) - savers interest is slashed - people who have savings have their value fall - the banks win again - mortgage interest rate still over 5% when the bank of england's interest rate drops below 1.5% - we lose out again - the banks share price collapses - the value of our pension funds drop through the floor
with today's bail out included, the amount of money given to the banks is greater than £16000 for every person in the uk currently over 18 years of age - now what could you do with at least £16000???
pay off credit cards - saving on the interest? (the bank gets the money) pay a lumpsum off your mortgage - saving on interest? (the bank gets the money) go on a shopping spree? think of the jobs it would help! the businesses would pay off their overdrafts and debts (the banks get the money) save the money in an account - as the competition for all this money hots up between remaining banks, the saving interest rates would rise (the bank gets the money)
which ever way the money is spent, it always filters through to the banks - so why not filter the "giveaway" through the people and give us a chance to pay of any mortgage arrears/bills/debts/loans etc?
theres a lot of spin and bluster doing the rounds regarding "the global economic downturn" being responsible for a fall in sales between spetember and new year 2009.
i say its hot air and spin because it is... the real reason for falls in sales for companies, is because the economic downturn (which has came about here in the uk and grew into a crisis because of policies followed here in the uk by those in charge) has developed in the uk simply because people have seen through companies and more and more are viewing the bull spouted by companies as exactly what it is.
a significant change in people's attitude towards retail, as well as the housing market, shares, pensions, etc. has come about and not before time. dont believe me?
woolworths the administrators announced stores were closing, huge sale posters went up. i went into my local woolies, some items had gone UP in price! reduced tickets went on the shelf under each product, which was the same price as two weeks earlier, and still could be purchased cheaper at other outlets.
a large tin of quality street - was £5.50 after administrators announced closures and reduced tickets went on - same tin of sweets cost £6.50 sales continued to be sluggish (and rightly so) two weeks before christmas, the final clearance posters went up - tin of sweets cost £6.00 (still 50p more than before the administrators were called in days before final closures - tins still for sale at £5.50 the day before closure, same price.
the public had been conned.
on the news, people telling reporters that they queued up all night for bargains, went in and found prices remained high and the same as previous sales. closures announced "everything was for sale at next to nothing prices" my local woolies, on their last days trading, were selling second rate dvd films that were not much cop in the cinemas, for £17!
with this in mind, the same sceptism from the public was applied to various company "sale" notices.
over priced goods of inferior quality are no good for british shoppers, too long have they been fed a line of every increasing prices way above the actual value or cost to make of the goods being sold. good value is a price based on what it costs a company to stock a product, not cheap tat bought in 3rd world clearance sales and promoted as good quality.
marks and spencers 4 items bought from their stores over november and december - 2 have been returned already because they fell apart. marks used to be high quality clothing and footwear, thats why they cost a little bit more - a £15 pair of slippers which come apart after a week to reveal a flat piece of cardboard sewn in (substandardly) under the insole, isnt what id call good value!
other stores have reported an increase in sales, john lewis are traditionally more expensive, but they offer better quality products, they seem to have coped reasonably well. mothercare, who have many high quality lines, again have reported a small increase in sales etc.
yet the media prefers to report the global economic downturn as the reason for companies like halfords falling sales, stating in the latter example, that satnav sales have dropped off dramatically. nothing to do with sourcing more of their stock from china etc then? a reputable car part seller which now sells dartboards, and table football games, had no effect then?
businesses have been rumbled, the worm has turned,the world of spin and marketing is slowly being seen through by a growing number of people...
whilst picking up some tennis balls for school (30 good quality ones for £10 - decent deal) at one of my favourite sports shops, they had a 75% sale on championship dart boards. quick call to the sprog, are we goin halves on one? and i picked one up.
setting it up in hoover towers, some amazing things occurred! - suddenly the tv wasnt the main focus of the evening - internet use came a sad 3rd (normally reading online, or wow dominates, when theres nowt decent on the tele) - mental arithmatic was ever present for 3 hours - attitudes disappeared, concentration on a double or hitting the green ring around the bull was paramount
dont get me wrong, im no darts expert, imnot a decent player but i can join in and make up numbers. the sprog however, has never played before (weve had a dartboard for some years but a couple of years ago gave it to my brother as it never got used) we measured it up so it is set at "championship" height and distance, fixed the cheap darts up and we were good to go.
after a few goes, i was hitting the 20s and the odd treble 20, the first accusation was that ive been playing for years, and vented frustration from the sprog as he couldnt get three darts close to where he was aiming them but after calming down, he started having more success in his aim, and everytime he passes it now hes having 3 or 4 throws (not bad for a couple of hours play in his whole life)
however.... as we were playing, when i was younger (in the 70s cheeky!) came flooding back. having an older brother at home when i grew up, any sports event was keenly followed, mainly the big televised events, darts championship, football, the world cup, the ashes, olympics, wimbledon, grand national, etc. for example two weeks before and after wimbledon we couldnt get on a court anywhere and would make our own in the street, the rackets and old tennis balls would appear from behind the shed or greenhouse, etc, and we would try and emulate our favourite players (borg was always my fav)
the competition between me and my brother was fierce!
and not just sport, it would be chess,monopoly, marbles, running, space hopper showjumping, snowball fights, sledge or go kart races, etc.
many scuffles broke out, but on the whole, it was great entertainment, as wed beat each other at most things, there wasnt one that one of us would always win at. i learned two things from this that i still use today:
* always play against people better than yourself - its the best way to learn! * rivalry and getting beaten, improves your own game, no matter which sport it is.
not since i was 15 have i had this competitive edge around at home as the sprog is not a sports fan, and of course real life has long since taken over the enjoyment of pummelling my brother's ego into the dirt as a younger sprog (ie me) destroys his game and wipes him out (for at least 24 hours until he thrashed me) surprisingly i find i miss this banter and rivalry, i guess it will never come back now we are "boring adults"
so if you have this in your household, then make the most of it, because once bills - work - responsibilities - adulthood decends upon you, youve had it and most of your fun goes with it!
additional: can you imagine the chaos if wed have had a wii machine? it was bad enough with the old "line" bats of the fearsome tv game!
see if you can get your head around this then. im trying to do some css basics, here's how geeks explain the simple process of putting a border around a table of information.
"..... If you want the border to 'shrink wrap' around the table, then you have to use the *span* tag instead of the *div* tag. But that is not quite proper CSS or HTML, because a *span* is for inline elements. A table is not an inline element, therefore the correct tag is a *div*. If you play around with it a bit then you have a good chance to achieve what you want and still have correct HTML/CSS"
geek lesson (from the above text): lesson 1 - to get a border to shrink wrap around a table, you have to use the *span* tag lesson 2 - the *span* tag replaces the *div* tag lesson 3 - if you follow lessons 1 & 2, it wont be correct CSS or HTML (the geek has just contradicted themself) lesson 4 - a *span* tag is for inline elements lesson 5 - a table is not an inline element (so the *span* tag should not be used) (the geek has contradicted themself a second time) lesson 6 - *div* is the correct tag that you should use (the geek has told me the opposite of lesson 1 and 2) lesson 7 - "if you play around with it you have a good chance you will acheive the aim and still have correct HTML/CSS" (contradicting himself yet again)
i read this 5 times then threw something across the room in a vented rage, before asking others to try and decypher it... they couldnt, which made me feel normal again.
the very people who play at being experts with it (ie, geeks) are destroying it!
dont believe me? check this out:
installed the latest version of wordpress,no problems, took a day but i found a theme i can use for the layout, no probs, uploaded a plugin (plugin = simple add on that runs alongside it) not working. checked all the help forums,still no joy.. spent 3 hours fiddling with it...nothing would get it to work. read through various forums for advice, found a person that had the exact same problem (by a total fluke) heres the instructions given by the author:
"... all you have to do is edit the code at php line 12, 17 and 21!"
geeks just dont get it do they... the whole purpose of a program like wordpress, is that you simply upload and install it to your webspace, finda layout you like, and then add plugins to make it do what you want it to do. the entire basis for the program is to allow a thicky (like me) to be able to build and run a decent looking website with the minimum of fuss or hassle.
the minute you have to start changing code because plugin number 1 doesnt work... is the time you may as well build your own website and stick two fingers up at the geeks once you have spent the best part of 2 hours getting 1 plugin to work, chances are, plugin number 2 wont work as its installing on the code you have just spent 2 hours changing! and so on and so on...
the whole purpose of the stand alone platform, is SO YOU DONT HAVE TO EDIT CODE! understand that geeks do you?
wordpress: the blogging/website package that sits on your webspace creating a semi professional look that even a normal can set up. problem is, most of the themes dont work, most of the plugins require code editing to work and your "wonderfully simple yet professional" website, looks like a bagger of spanners when viewed through a different browser than internet explorer.
"stand alone" "straight out of the box" "five minute install!" .... should read: dont bother, as this application is a complete WASTE OF SPACE!
ever used this program? ever used an editing program?
ive used dreamweaver for about 3 years now to design basic (very basic if youve seen my pages) webpages. im trying to learn new things, and the huge range of helpful options that comes with dreamweaver, is ideal for all types of user as regards website building.
now im trying to set some websites up, i thought id use dreamweaver to build a web template for my sites. how hard can it be?
making a web page in dreamweaver in html is easy. you can edit code manually (and switch to browser view) to see if it works, or you can use the icons in the browser page to see how it will look, and switch to code view if you want to see how html is done. save the page once done, upload to your webspace and byu (bobs yer uncle) you can see it online... excellent.
but this is just the tip of the iceberg using this program. imaginea fully working CSS (cascading style sheet) editor. by building a template in css, websites load in your browser faster, they are safer and cover more browsers than html, plus the layut of the webpage is more consistant between different browsers.... this is for me!
for three days now ive spent every waking hour following geek's tutorials as regards building a basic page in css, using my the excellent dreamweaver. despite the step by step tutorials, the example style sheets that i can edit, i was starting to get angry with it and blame myself for doing something wrong or "missing" something. the only success ive had is manually typing out code and saving it as a css file and uploading it to my server to test it.
so tonight i opened dreamweaver for the 50th time, and started the basic step by step instructions from the company who make the program. the first 8 bits i can do manually by hand and save as a css file and view and attach to a basic webage.. no problems there.
the next part instructs me to select an already provided, editable, style sheet.... which i did. to my surprise, and immense frustration as i thought id done something wrong, i couldnt switch between browser view and code view, i had to save the file upload to my webspace and then view online, the only thing icould do was edit thecode in the text type editing page...
but i could already do this with notepad or microsoft word so it begs the question.... what is the point of having an editor that doesnt give you the option of editing in anything other than text, (which can be done with any other text based application)? why have all the icons in boxes for html pages,but nothing at all for css editing?
i did ask the company directly...... they dont know!
not bad that a thicky like me can blow a whole company's major product apart with one basic question:
whats the point of having a huge program to edit css pages, if it can only edit a css page in text (ie the code itself) which can already be done by any text based application (notepad or word eg)?
3 days wasted looking for a way round it thinking i had done something wrong, when all the time the program id been told was so fantastic cannot physically do what the company geeks pretended it could do!
for years the government has moved the goalposts to hide unemployed people from the figures released every month. they are openly misleading us and have been for some time, well one of these "tricks" is about to rise up and bite the government on the arse.
its fair to say that most people now know about how labour hide people on various benefits so they are "not counted" towards the regular total, all done of course to make them look good against previous conservative unemployed totals, none of the subsidised jobs (where tax credits - subsidised by the taxpayer jobs) appear, but now the government face a mighty kick in the backside... one they cannot avoid.
one of their methods for easing unemployment figures (i say figures as this process hasnt actually helped the unemployed, just helped the numbers of reported unemployed) was to increase the take up of university courses (a plan that has raised alot of money for the government) this also helps hide away hundreds of thousands of people who need jobs but cant get one on leaving school.
only now companies are not taking anyone on, so where do the hundreds of thousands of university leavers go?
according to the university minister, John Denham, "we cant just leave them to their own devices can we?" shame that, as you have neglected to provide an environment for genuine full time work for more than a decade by hiding the unemployment figures, so that your government look favourable to the electorate. labour have decimated manufacturing, destroyed private initiatives to build businesses and subsidised more jobs (via the tax credit system) than any other socialist government in history!
a lollypop man is not needed to work a pelican crossing outside a school, but labour now have both, why? the creation of jobs comes from business, not directly from government, yet more than 1.8 million civil service jobs have been created under labour, each and every one of them funded and paid for by the taxpayer. ie, me and you.
call centre workers by the thousands, which do nothing but add another layer of beaurocracy to the service they operate in.
so now there is nowhere to farm off all the university leavers, some of which cannot even write a letter in plain english. no doubt in the months that follow we'll hear all about "how we brought in apprenticeship schemes to help them" the best help you could have given them was sustain and run an economy with a balance between manufacturing and service, not run the economy into the ground and hide unemployed people off the figures trying to win elections.
i hope the british people kick the labour party in the proverbial nutsack come the next election, whenever the conditions for winning will be favourable to them, in the meantime labour will parade around as if nothing bad is happening, hiding away the damage for a time when they wont lose power to reveal it and tell us all that they are "getting on with the job"
how comforting to know that the person who burns down your house, is the same person who gets a medal of bravery for putting the fire out!
a letter arrives a day later from the finance people:
"sorry that you are not entirely happy with the vehicle (understatement of the year so far) we sympathise with the problems you may have experienced with the car. We understand that the dealership are agreeable to investigating matters further with a view to repairing the car if any faults are found.
With this being a reasonable solution to the matter, we do not accept your rejection of the vehicle and urge you to contact the dealership to book the vehicle in for inspection.
As regards comparisons with your previous vehicle and claims that representations were made as to comparisons in similar fuel useage; without anything in writing, its a your word against theirs basis, and as such we are not able to do anything about this.
We would like to point out that these two vehicles are different (our old focus an the seat leon we now have) and have diffeent characteristics. Notably, the seat leon weighs in the region of 350kg more than the ford and this will have a bearing in performance and fuel consumption."
so seat dealership and the finance company find the following acceptable:
high fuel consumption problem (120 miles less than our old car on a full tank of petrol):
- when selling the car on the basis of economy and reliability, compared with our old car, they recommend a casr that has same size engine and petrol tank, but neglect to mention any "miles per gallon" or mileage acheived from a full tank of petrol - 120 miles less! reliability - the car has been back to the dealership 4 times (thats 4 times 28 mile round trips) - the engine management chip has a major fault on it for more than 3 months with no action from the dealership - they admit the fault is there, both the mechanic and the service manager - after a week, the service manager and the senior sales manager deny the fault exists - 3 weeks later the mechanic reads the chip and says the fault is still there - 3 weeks after sending off a report, no action is taken, not even a phone call to let us know - the engine warning light comes back on 3 times and is now permanently on - the finance company state there is no fault (after speaking to the dealership) after a month without even reading the letter
once legal action is threatened - the finance company now state that there is a considerable weight difference which affects performance on fuel - the dealership ring us to book the car in urgently to fit a major part (for a fault they deny to us and the finance company, even exists!)
loud road noise fault - dealership state it "is down to bridgestone tyres" - the mechanic writes on his report that he cannot find the source of the fault, and testing another model of the same car, same age, same tyres, etc, and says there is no fault. - no solution is looked at, the senior manager and the mechanics boss, deny there is a fault.
this is how seat treat their customers. - you have to wait 3 months and threaten legal action before they even address or admit a major repair is needed - they have information to compare their own cars to other cars when training staff and selling cars, yet even when the customer requests similar economy and reliability is needed from the car they are selling, they simply dont tell you that performance is considerably worse than a ford focus you already have and assume that 120 miles less per full tank of petrol is "a minor difference"
advice bodies and guilds, in place to help the individual are being influenced by government, leaving the individual with a lot of talk, but no actual help.
bought a car, returned it because of major and minor faults, here's how the system treats the individual:
car goes back the first time, high fuel consumption and loud road noise whilst driving (sounds like an old washing machine on spin)- they have the car back for 9 days
* they find a fault on the engine management chip (high fuel consumption), but it needs investigating. after 3 hours of "investigating" seat technical state that labour costs are chargeable to the customer, the investigation is stopped. * the loud road noise is tested and changing of wheel breaings is recommended. only one is changed and the noise is still there - a car of same age and engine size is tested with the same tyres on it, the noise is not there - the service manager states "this noise is just a characteristic of the car!" - the mechanic working on the car tells us "i cannot solve the fault"
The high use of fuel fault is wiped off the cars memory chip, we are advised to take it away use it as normal and test it, if its still there (like it would just disappear?) then take it back.
a week later, nothings changed, high fuel consumption and the loud road noise still there - car goes back again head of dealership takes it out for a test drive, then calls us into the office with the service manager.
* high fuel consumption fault - nothing wrong with the car, around town the car does more than 120 miles less than our ten year old banger, to a full tank of petrol! he is happy that nothing is wrong with the car. * loud road noise fault - its the compound of the tyre. i show him the mechanics report which shows he tested like for like models and no fault was there, he changed a wheel bearing and in his report states fault still exists. the senior manager states its down to tyres and "if you put some dunlops on the car it'll probably solve the problem!"
i made it clear this was not good enough.
i rang the finance company dont worry just send in a letter detailing the faults and the issue of them selling us "a like for like car" which turns out to be considerably worse on fuel consumption than our old one - ie, mis selling.
i wrote them the letter and sent it off (recroded delivery) almost a month later - nothing i rang them again - oh he hasnt read your letter yet!
i said id speak with trading standards and left it at that an hour later we get a call from finance people stating they cannot do anything except ask the dealership to fix the faults (that they deny exist) and we should have got it in writing that our old car (with the same size petrol tank and engine size) does 120 miles more mileage on a full tank of petrol than the "new" seat leon!
how many salespeople put in writing that the product they are selling you is worse than your old one, then ask you how you want to pay for it? (17 years of working in retail i have come across this sales technique not one single time!)
2 days later, the engine management light comes on the dsashboard, warning of a fault. again another 28 mile trip to the dealership, the mechanic tests the car and says "the fault you had before is still there!" (really? wow!) hes done a test and sent it off to seat technical at the head office.
2 weeks later..... nothing... no repair no phone call... nothing!
i rang them up - we are waiting to see if it can be repaired as a warranty they say i rang trading standards, apparently its not been mis sold as its "only your word against theirs!" i can now reject the car (notifying dealers, finance company and trading standards in writing) then sit and watch the car sat outside whilst i pay for a solicitor to take it through the local court system!
trading standards kindly offer to write to the dealership to "clarify there side of things" but theres nothing more they can do!
fat lot of good they are then!
so im missold a car on the premise its like for like with our old one as regards reliability and performance (same size petrol tank and engine size) the car is deemed fit for purpose by trading standards - despite having a major fault which the dealerships mechanic says is there, the service manager says is there then says isnt there then says is there again loud road noise fault which doesnt exist - may or may not be rectified by using premium branded tyres - but the dealerships senior manager states that there is nothing at all wrong with the car.
trading standards are doing naff all about it and see no reason to take up our case!
exactly how bad does a selling technique and series of faults have to be before they get their arses into gear?
if i want to proceed via my local court, then i have to stop all work for 6 weeks (as we are not allowed to drive the car) and watch it sat outside the house until the court rules we can return it, and of course i have to pay for a solicitor just to try!
where's my rights?
ADDITIONAL: after telling the finance people of legal action, the dealership have rang us to book the car in and fit a part all day on monday, for a fault that their service manager and senior manager denied even existed!
i got a large shovel at the door waiting for you
Denz on 01.08.09 @ 11:08 PM CST [link]
Wednesday, January 7th
why complicate things?
why does everything have to be so difficult? complicated?
i loathe technoheads with a passion... or more aptly named.. geeks you know who you are, the "technical help" people who when asked a straight question... dont actually know the answer so you blag it!
most of us normals, if we dont know something we just say we dont know, or well try and find out etc. simple isnt it! not for geeks.. they have to be vague, they have to twist you up and run you around in circles, or if all else fails... tell you a pile of turd thats not even close to the truth. so they appear knowledgable (twonks)
example: i dont know how to set something up, i write to "technical" for the info, stating the question "i dont know how to set this up, can you help?" using their fantastic 365 days a year/24 hour technical dept. i wait for more than 5 hours.. a reply comes through at last!
"have you read the instructions? basically you click log in then click on add new"
i can do that.... or at least i would be able to IF THE STUPID OPTION WAS THERE LIKE YOU SAY IT IS! so i email back, again using their wonderful 365 days a year/24 hours a day service... its now been more than 20 hours and still they havent replied!
if you are going to sell a product or a service.. it might be a tad beneficial if your technical people actually know HOW IT WORKS!
another example is british telecom: not a clue how their own systems and departments work, you could ring up 3 different people in the same department and they all give you a totally different answer....
another example of complete failure and people justifying their own job by spouting complete pap, is trading standards: car is mis-sold, car is faulty and fault is denied by the manager of the dealership, service mechanics in the same dealership say there is a fault... they cannot decide between themselves what to do.. muggins here, is stuck in the middle.
heres trading standards advice: - contact dealership - done that got nowhere - contact finance people - done that they didnt understand what we wanted basically spouted trash down the phone took them a month to read a simple letter (pointed out clearly that we want to return the car and cancel any agreements) despite this they "dont understand what we want and cannot help!" - so back to trading standards - "nothing we can do apart from send a letter out asking their side of events" oh great.... remind us what you are supposed to do again.... thats right, support the individual when theres a dispute.. great so you cant be bothered then???? (this of course takes 3 working days as they cant be arsed to pick up the phone and make enquiries) - other than this we can take the matter to court (for a rip off fee) then argue the case infront of a judge, who may or may not have a valid opinion depending on what day you catch him/her on!
in the meantime, trading standards advises we reject the car and write to all three parties stating this, which means for the next 6 weeks i can look out of the window at a car i cannot use and am still paying for... brilliant! how do we all get to and from work then? trading standards "dont know"
billions of pounds spent on yet another useless unknowledgable waste of space...
as we all freefall towards the weekend, the back of the week (wednesday) brings me some unexpected good news....
* a dodgy door prevents kids from getting into school, so instead of having to work all afternoon, i just have to do 1 hour today - which leaves me free to do other stuff this afternoon - result * this has a knock on effect, as i now dont have to set off early because i have to jump start the van (which hates cold weather) which means i can use the car, so i might even get some heat!
what other "little victories" are around the corner i wonder???
this week is a struggle for many, coming after the christmas break, and getting back into a routine again. i am looking at planning something for the near future to give us something to look forward to and aim for.... ive yet to come up with anything though!
Denz on 01.07.09 @ 10:53 AM CST [link]
Tuesday, January 6th
the palestinian people
i dont pretend to know enough about the conflict and past of their problems with israel, i dont intend any upset by this post, i openly admit to not being able to express myself adequately.
who is standing up for the palestinian people?
the toothless governments from around the world and the UN (another complete waste of space) are spending all their time in "meetings" and issuing "statements" what a bunch of non entities! the best they can come up with after days of discussions - "someone must be held accountable" is that it????
THERE ARE PEOPLE DYING!
is there no country left on this planet that will tell the government of israel, "stop now or we will be at war with you and move to protect the palestinian people!"
how do you face a mother who has lost 4 of her children whilst putting her rubbish out, and tell her "dont worry, someone will be held accountable for this!" she doesnt want compensation, she doesnt want the assurity that the UN and governments around the world are having "meetings to discuss the issue"
she wants to be able to live her life without hardship and without fear, she wants her children back, she doesnt care one jot about hamas or the israelis, she just wants a peaceful existance. is this too much to ask?
i dont think it is... i really feel for the palestinian people, i only wish our governt here in the UK had the balls to step in and force israel to stop the killings. there has to be another way of resolving your issues.
Denz on 01.06.09 @ 10:54 PM CST [link]
British Telecom rant - lookaway now!
BT's website wont load up and leaves a blank page for 5 minutes... says it all about the company this does!
* their chairman's office doesnt respond to emails * their engineers cannot find a basic line fault in 25 attempts (8 times they failed to even turn up!) * their high level complaints team think its acceptable practice to leave a customer waiting for information from their "open reach investigation" for 6 months without reply * they fail to install a new line (as instructed to by chairmans office and 4 engineers) and instead activate the 2nd line alongside the faulty line * they thinks its good practice to then bill the customer for both faulty lines * they have given 4 assurances that the "double billing" issue has been sorted out, over a year later the problem is still happening * it is normal company practice to sell an "upto 8 meg download speed" package - quoting a speed of around 5.5 meg download should easily be obtainable - then provide a router that has a maximum capacity speed of 4 meg download only! * BT staff are THAT THICK, that not a single engineer, high level advisor or chairmans office fault team, realises that the equipment wont download at any speed above 4 meg download, without major alterations to the router they provide to their customers! * BT cannot provide a download speed which meets the minimum designated fault speed level (3.2 meg download in my case) after 3 years of trying * BT then send out an unable to resolve fault letter (you couldnt make this stuff up) and a final no resolution letter... only they failed to send it out, not once BUT 3 TIMES! * BT staff then assure their customer that the letter will be sent out again, but fail to do so after 3 weeks! * BT staff then ignore their customer and dont address the overcharging in the billing system, fix the fault or send out a no resolution letter!
* BT staff pass their customers around the different departments instead of resolving a fault * BT's chairmans office tell customers that an investigation is being carried out with their "open reach" department, then leave the customer waiting over a month without information or reply! * when the customer contacts the chairmans office about this matter - guess what? yep, the chairmans office dont know anything about "an investigation by open reach" and simply promise to send out a no resolution letter, thats right you guessed it, they fail to send the letter out!
* BT are happy for a customer not to be able to move to another supplier, as the fault still exists, moving to another supplier will simply add another layer of beaurocracy on top of an already failed repair service.
put politely - British Telecom dont know their arse from their elbow, a complete waste of space and over charge their customers for fun! they wouldnt know good customer service, if it was delivered in a box to their chairmans desk and bit him on the nose when he opened the box!
being a good old fashioned sales assistant of 17 years, i learnt my trade under the watchful eye of a bloke called chris slater. firm but fair, good standards of customer care combined with taking pride in the store appearance were an excellent starting block for a spotty sprog straight out of school. when i rejoined halfords, i landed in a shiney new branch in accrington (which subsequantly was burnt down) under the watchful eye of one mr wayne hill (the ginga ninja)
many years managerial experience behind him, he took up the mantel of having to put up with me. his prime importance were standards and excellent customer care. over many years, i laughed, as other fly by nights came and went within the halfords system, as they mocked wayne and his methods, yet the branch was always clean and tidy, shelves were always full and well presented, even the mats at the doors were cleaned and tidy. customer service ruled in his stores, meet the needs of the customer, sometimes go the extra mile, dont promise the customer more than you can deliever, etc, etc. mock him as others did (in good fun of course) but i cannot recall a customer complaint against the stores he ran that was upheld by head office as being any fault of the store. you get the picture....
against this experience, it astounds me what is going wrong in the world of sales, where ever i turn! its like i am talking in chinese!
- car is broken, drive 28 mile round trip, mechanic turns off the engine warning light and tells me a fault is there that senior management say doesnt exist. said hell send off "a report" to seat technical people, they come back to the dealership and say itll need new parts and sorting out. no phone call for more than two weeks- no information for me the customer - so i rang them up. "the service department is on the phone at the moment, hell ring you back in 5-10 minutes" i wait over an hour.... then ring them back again "theres noone available to take your call at the moment, can i get them to ring you back in 5 minutes?" they said that over an hour a go and still no call back! "ill log the call then and get them to ring you straight back..." 20 minutes later they ring back.... errrrrr hello!
whats happening with the car? .... i dont know i got a message to call you? so you thought youd ring me up without finding out whats wrong? .... errr yes just hold on the phone (at my expense) ill find out whats happening back he comes 5minutes later .... yes there is a fault! well we knew that weeks ago, whats happening now then? .... have we got your car? no, you had sent a report off .... oh yes we got a reply back last week now we are waiting for warranty to get back to us to tell us if we can fix it for you! so did no one think to ring me up and let me know whats happening? .... i dont know, well call you back tomorrow and let you know whats happening!
earlier today.... central heating switch has broken, needs a new box fitting. have you got one? .... theres lots of them need a part number okays ill go home and ring you with part number then .... ok rings them up later... its an ep2000 .... yes we can get one, for later today but youll have to pay a deposit! but i buy from you at least twice a month i definately need this box ... sorry but we have to take a deposit but i live XXX miles away it means driving back again then coming home then driving back again to collect, 6 trips in total for today! ... we cant order without a deposit sorry
so 4 trips on top of the 2 trips already... in these times of "struggling for trade," i would question why shops and stores are doing their level best to put customers off and push them to shop elsewhere???
what happened to basic good manners and looking after the customer? what happened to meeting the customer's needs? what happened to good old customer service?
in the UK it would seem, its dying a slow and bad mannered death!
"...Polling company YouGov questioned 2,004 people aged 16-25 online in October. Paul Brow, of the Prince's Trust, said the study showed there were thousands of young people who "desperately" needed support. He added: "Often young people who feel they have reached rock bottom don't know where to turn for help."
Of those questioned, 29% said they are less happy now than they were as a child and one in five said they felt like crying "often" or "always". Almost half (47%) said they were regularly stressed."
it sounds heartless to say it, but... wait till todays young get to 30 and older!
many people say im a victor meldrew, but many also admit that im simply reacting to what i see, increasing every week/month. people are not enjoying life as they used to - its as simple as that.
everything is more complicated, discrimination is at every turn, from parking your car to paying for a loaf of bread if you are not retired, from the cost of your home energy compared to your next door neighbour's... life can be a struggle.
theres always a reason to put prices up, but rarely do they come down, income increases slower than bills, so we are always getting worse off. pensioners have paid into the pot for decades now see next to nothing for their years of effort, people waiting for nhs services see people coming here who have paid nothing into the pot, getting treated before them. everywhere you look in life there are talking shops, which drain fincances from our pockets in taxes, yet do absolutely nothing!
grafting irregular hours and weekends just to keep the wolf from the door, its a struggle.
its not just young people who are finding things tough, its everyone!
Denz on 01.05.09 @ 09:41 AM CST [link]
Sunday, January 4th
Simple - keep it simple!
in all walks of life, everything from making pastry to the latest advances in technology, THE most annoying anger encouraging thing, has to be people or systems that complicate things for the sole reason of justifying their job! The amount of time human beings waste on totally unneccessary crap defies belief... and if you are every in the unfortunate position to experience a system or set up, it can bring out a rage in even the most placid of people.
some examples first:
plumbing: there's enough to remember in the trade, all the techniques and measurements required to bend pipes, etc. to make them fit. so why then complicate the trade if not to look smug and bamboozle the customer into paying more money, by giving every spare part, technique, fitting, procedure, even bleedin measurements, a different name depending on what era you are from or what part of the country you are working in??? small claims court procedure: its worrying enough being part of the set up, but why oh why complicate everything 10 fold, by having a set of rules for one party at the disadvantage of the other party? why are some cases always won by big businesses in one court, yet are thrown out in another court, despite being identical in the case detail? is it a lack of consistancy? or is it that outside influences are playing a part? or could it be what i call "jobsworths" attempting to justify their own jobs and messing it up for everyone else? a webpage - 2 basic tables on 1 page using a program called dreamweaver, i spent 4 hours of my life trying to find out how to do this procedure whereby i could keep information within a certain table display on a webpage in the end no one could advise me how to do this (without having a scroll bar automatically appear) so i gave up, in a rage, and reduced the information to almost nothing to get it to stay within the cell borders BT internet service: had to format my computer, (because of windows service pack messing up after updating a virus checker) anyways, i needed the details to set up my email pop3/smtp server again. no problem i thought... ill visit the website or give them a ring... the internet service was working fine, yet they had no record of me even being a customer, the wife, who isnt even named on the broadband account, was the name and password holder... but we havent used a password in over 3 years! BT have been trying to fix a basic fault for 3 years! i personally have spent more than 200 hours on the phone, 25 engineers visits, im on 1st name terms with 3 staff in the chairmans office, and have a list of emails thats longer than if you saved every spam email youve ever had for 3 years!
of course, any log in on their website (sorted this problem out over a year ago) failed, and when i rang them they denied i even existed and demanded to talk to the account holder (the wife) i told them i only needed set up details for email services, and they went into a 20 minute rant about how to change passwords and create an account.... despite me already having an account and actually being a real person! is it any wonder why customers in the UK are being ripped off!
so onto today...... simple issue - make a cubed website logo, how hard can this be? on planet earth, relatively easy, in the world of the computer.... close to impossible! get photoshop, design your own logo... ill have some of that i thought... got the program, ran all the updates, we are good to go. found a website with "a fool proof guide" - all was well until i needed to use the paint bucket icon 20 minutes clicking on all the options... no sign of the paint bucket icon googled a few websites for answers.. again no joy they all say "to use the paint bucket, click on the paint bucket icon" and unhelpfully showed me a picture of it..... I KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE BUT ITS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN!
i changed my approach and searched for where the icon is... no joy, again more pictures of what it looks like, but no advice on where to find it. even in the programs own help files, it does not tell you where the icon actually is.
after more than an hour, in the small print of about the 14th page of "help" postings, a lady saved the day! "... i know it sounds stupid, but i cannot find the paint bucket icon!" not stupid at all my love, welcome to the world of geeks and jobsworths!
* the icon can be found on the option panel to the left (not the right as all "help" sites and postings tell us) * locate the "gradient" icon on this options panel * right click the "gradient" icon, and the option to change the icon to the blasted paint bucket icon will appear!
i spent another half an hour trying out the advice that adding a background layer was one step, then adding an inside layer (over the top of the background one) can easily be done with one click... this i did.... then by changing the colour in the swatch (again easily done) i can hover over the display, and clicking my paint bucket icon, will colour in the new layer. the only problem is, the paint bucket icon, when hovered over the image, changes to a no entry icon and cannot be used to fill in the layer ive just inserted!
i looked for 15 minutes to find a way of addressing this problem with the program's own help files, they didnt list anything about it! so after spending the best part of two hours, ive got a program on my machine that even the program's own developers dont know how to control or use.
i stuck two fingers up at my monitor, and walked away, before i got a mallet and bosched the screen to a million tiny pieces!
as for jobsworths and geeks, read: a wart on the arse of humanity!
Denz on 01.04.09 @ 10:40 PM CST [link]
Friday, January 2nd
BBC - guilty of bias?
DEBATE:What do you think of the New Year Honours list?
SENT:31-Dec-2008 21:30
COMMENT:"take the awards out of the politicians hands and let the queen pick them, a knighthood for services to the insurance world? how much has he given to the labour party over the years???"
COMMENT STATUS:Rejected
bearing in mind that several donators to tony blair schemes and projects were given awards in the honours list and the subsequant police investigation into it, i thought my comment was a perfectly legitimate one to make? how did the BBC handle it?
It disappeared from the comment records for 3 days, then appeared in the comment list and was "rejected" a rejected status means it broke "the BBC house rules" ie, was abusive or contained language thats not appropriate.... looks like the BBC dont allow people to be critical of the government nor its actions in giving honours to people who may have donated funds to their party either!
started a little part time job - found out it would take me more than 7 years to train as a teacher (longer than a doctor) - given increased hours and introduced to some stark facts regarding what teachers have to put up with! waited almost 3 months for a CRB check to come through - ended the year stepping in for santa hehe
friends lost - stepdad billy ("try that one!") and family friend stephen (heart of gold) both good people, both are sadly missed. we had the joys and excitement of expecting a new sprog, only for it not to be our time and heartbreak for us - the longest three weeks weve ever experienced - we are thankful for what we have though and who knows what the future will bring
then we had the fantastic news of a new addition in the family, another little nephew arrived!
money has been tight, helped by lucky foresight in 2007 and locking all the bills down - penny pinchers was started and has saved family and friends (online and in real life) over £1700 so far! we took on a high street bank in court... and won! (very nerve racking but worth it to see the look on the solicitor's mush!)
the garden turned into a jungle hehe - be careful with poppies they grow everywhere! we had a strawberry crop, lemon plants and banana bushes grow from cuttings - we rebuilt the habitat and a cat moved in! we lost "the mound" to a neighbour - found homes (for free) for most of the furniture the van trips came across - we said goodbye to the ford focus (and then wished we hadnt as its replacement isnt half as good)
travels... we paid visits to france and holland, we got lost in antwerp (belgium) - we discovered how contrasting germany is as we drove across it - we took deep breaths as we passed through the beautiful country of poland, including warsaw in rush hour traffic (and witnessed how dangerous the roads can be!) - we went on to Lietuva thats lithuania to you - mistaking an army baracks for a park was not a good idea hehe we watched the olympic games from 4 different countries (and cheered lithuania on at basketball with the locals) we visited the russian border - then made our way back through the stunning north east poland towards gdansk - the polish people proved to be even more friendly than i had been telling everyone they were!
RAIN! was everywhere - looks like the earth is starting to move back on its axis as the weather here froze and snow fell and stayed around for a couple of weeks - summer was another wash out!
in sport - yet another fruitless season for the pool - but what a joy to see portsmouth and cardiff fighting it out at wembley for the fa cup (the game itself was an anti climax) victories for "private" sports at the olympics, not a lot for track and field events taught in schools, but victories for cycling, rowing, etc. wimbledon was excellent, nadal no doubt wowed the gerls? - it was spains year as they took the european championship as well - for me the star of the tennis year was Laura Robson, our new junior wimbledon champion! (at last)
Laura battered her way through the rounds, up against players alot more experienced and older than her, yet came through and won, she would have got my vote had she been in the sports personality of the year award (she should have won the young sports personality of the year at least!)
and finally.... christmas, hectic build up finally sat down at 5pm on christmas eve - had an absolute blast, great food and beers, few presents and enough sleep to last me a year. new years was a family affair, as always, chilled out few drinks etc, with a couple of neighbours popping round, settling into 2009 nicely.
where ever you are in the world, I hope you have a healthy and happy 2009... happy new year!
