Monthly Archive for February, 2010

The Waiting Game

Published on 26 February 2010 in delayed delivery, R3, ST200 and Syndicated. Closed

It’s all getting a tad frustrating: the ST200 is bravely soldiering on having now easily passed the 130,000 mile barrier but it’s now due a service and one of the front tyres is not too far off the wear bars.

Obviously anything I spend now won’t give me any real benefit as – hopefully – I’ll be collecting the R3 on 15 March.

Let’s hope so, eh? My sister’s new Seat was promised to her by her dealer in March a few years back and she didn’t actually get delivery until the end of June!

So in the meantime, I’ll just have to keep checking the oil and tyres and see if I can nurse it through the last couple of weeks. The cash is sitting there in my bank account waiting to be spent. I’m willing but it’s on a slow boat from China Japan!

Sky and Domestic & General Services Ltd

Published on 24 February 2010 in Domestic & General Services, nuisance calls, Sky, Syndicated, TPS and TV Companies. Closed

I’m getting more than a little bit pissed off with unsolicited, nuisance telephone calls on a daily basis from a company called Domestic & General Services Limited who claim to call on behalf of Sky TV. Their number for those of you doing a Google search is 0800 1218143.

Contrary to what you may read elsewhere on the Internet, these jokers are indeed calling with Sky TV’s collusion and permission but not mine: they’re trying to sell you a £100 a year warranty for your TV and Sky box. See http://www.skyprotect.com for proof:

“Sky Protect HD is the only extended warranty scheme for Sky HD boxes that is approved and operated under the Sky brand name. Sky Protect HD is provided by Domestic & General Services Ltd.

Independent companies can legitimately offer extended warranties on digital satellite equipment, but these companies and their products are not connected to Sky or in any way endorsed by Sky. It is illegal for companies other than Domestic & General Services Ltd to state or imply that they are approved by Sky to sell extended warranty products.”

What happens is that Sky give your details to Domestic & General who then call you every single day trying to sell you this warranty, whether or not you are registered with the TPS not to receive such calls and whether or not Sky have obtained your permission to give/sell your details to them.

I rang Sky to complain – at 5p a minute too – and when I was finally put through to a Customer Complaints droid, she started looking up my details and then cut me off. And despite having my details to had, she’s not tried telephoning me back.

Appalling lack of customer service.

More Dodgy Invoices From 1&1…

Published on 22 February 2010 in 1&1, fraud, invoices and Syndicated. Closed

Yes, they’re at it again: 1&1 Internet are again invoicing me for domain names that:

  1. Are not due for renewal anyway; and
  2. Were transferred away to a different host ages ago – see this link for proof.

Maybe it’s time to get trading standards involved? I had to threaten to report them to the police for fraud before they’d credit me last time they tried this.

DVLA Registrations Fail

Published on 18 February 2010 in DVLA, government, numberplate and Syndicated. Closed

I’m looking to buy a plonker plate through the DVLA Registrations website. This requires you to set up an account and log in. So this morning I registered on the site which then immediately fell over:

“service unavailable
sorry…

This service is temporarily unavailable. Your last action cannot be completed and details have not been recorded.

If you have not received confirmation of a successful transaction then your application has been cancelled.

Please click the button below to return to the DVLA Personalised Registrations home page.”

And that’s how it remains at present: you can search and view the public site but try and log in…

Credit? What Credit?

Published on 17 February 2010 in Barclays, Citibank, Experian, Stupidity, Syndicated and US Dollars. Closed

Fed up as I am with Barclays’ Currency Call Account – you give them your US Dollars, they may or may not charge you a fee for paying them into a US Dollar account, they give you no interest, no paying-in books, no cheques or cards and then they charge you a fee for taking any US Dollars out – I decided that Citibank’s US Dollar current account might be the way to go.

So I went online, filled out the application details, sent them proof of address, etc. and then waited. Yesterday, I received a letter saying that due to my credit score from Experian, Citibank wouldn’t let me open the account.

It’s a current account with no credit card and no overdraft facility. No credit or borrowing required. So why should a credit score affect this? What a wunch of bankers!

On The Buses

Published on 16 February 2010 in bus, London, Syndicated, TFL and Transport for London. Closed

I live in Rotherhithe, SE London and I am ’served’ by the C10 and 381 bus routes.

Oh dear!

http://www.valshawcross.com/index.php?id=78&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=475&tx_ttnews[backPid]=8&cHash=e505d2fd4e

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/4221

It’s not looking good, is it?

K I M S Plumbers Revisited

Published on 13 February 2010 in Plumbers and Syndicated. Closed

Well as the heating had gone off I thought we should take a look at the boiler ourselves and the work that K I M S Plumbers had done. As we expected, it had lost pressure, so we needed to repressurise  it. And then that’s when we saw this:

Yes, that’s been left disconnected…

Delivery Delayed

Published on 13 February 2010 in delayed delivery, Mazda, Nunns of Grimsby, R3, RX-8 and Syndicated. Closed

I went in to the dealer today and asked whether the delivery date I had been told – 1st March – was definitely happening as I was making my arrangements and managing my diary around that.

I was very disappointed to be told, after waiting for 20 minutes, that it was probably going to be delivered at least a fortnight later but even that isn’t guaranteed.

Now my present insurance runs out on the 9th March. The promised delivery date of 1 March obviously would have meant that I would not need to take out insurance on the ST200, but a later date means I will have to take out new insurance and then almost immediately cancel it which will mean I incur additional costs as the best insurance quotes for the RX-8 R3 and ST200 are from different insurers.

Similarly, I was going to obtain a refund for my road fund licence but again I will be out of pocket because of the delayed delivery.

When I placed the order on 22nd January, I was told that 1st March delivery was achievable and had relied on this date, even to the extent of booking a service on our other RX-8 bought from them recently for the same day.

I have now asked the dealer for their proposals for achieving the 1stMarch delivery date or alternatively covering the extra costs this delayed delivery will mean for me.

K I M S Plumbers in Chesterfield

Published on 13 February 2010 in Plumbers, sarcastic chavs and Syndicated. Closed

What a bunch of incompetents these are. And then to make things worse, they also employ sarcastic chavs to answer the telephone (01246 554237) and ask whether you – the customer – are experts because you have said they could just get the parts at your local Plumb Centre.

That’s after they’ve played you “Alone” by Heart – oh the irony – when they put you immediately on hold!

“Till now I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone”

Well after more than two weeks without heating or hot water, we know what’s it like to be alone and chilled to the bone.

They’ve sent out one guy twice who had no idea what was wrong with the boiler and left it limping and leaking. It died later that night. He came back – after locking himself in another customer’s house – and said it needed a particular part. The guy who came out to fit that said it didn’t and that these other parts needed to be fitted. He had to order them from KIMS’ suppliers and they take three working days to deliver off the shelf parts.

So we still don’t have heating and hot water. Useless twats!

Santander

Published on 10 February 2010 in Santander, Syndicated and wunch of bankers. Closed

Once upon a time, I had a savings account with Bradford & Bingley. On 29 September 2008 Bradford & Bingley’s savings accounts were transferred to Abbey. On January 11 2010 these were rebranded to Santander, who are one of the biggest banks around. On the basis of my experience tonight, I have no idea why.

I wanted to close an account, so I rang their phone number as printed on the statement. I had to wait whilst the automated service threw a wobbly as I didn’t enter a card number – I have no card with them – before I sat in a queue for 21 minutes. The dial tone then changed … and the fuckwit telebanker cut me off!

Useless wankers.

After another 22 minute wait, I finally got through to an operator who couldn’t help me anyway!

overtone