Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Frederick’s of Hollywood/iShopUSA

Published on 29 March 2010 in ecommerce fail, Frederick's of Hollywood and Syndicated. Closed

Never again!

I will never again buy any shoes from Fredericks of Hollywood. For non-US orders, they use iShopUSA to ship them and they are utter fecktards:

2 March, order paid by credit card:

“Credit Card Payments
Your credit card will not be charged until we have been able to verify the details of your credit card information”

2 March, e-mail from iShopUSA:

“Dear Richard,

Due to the high risk of credit card fraud associated with international transactions as well as discrepancies regarding your order information, we ask for your understanding and cooperation in verifying your identity with us, since we always strive to do our utmost to protect our clients from fraudulent and unauthorized transactions.

Before we can proceed with your order, we need you to provide us with the documentation outlined below:
1. The signed credit card authorization form (click here to download this PDF document)
2. A photocopy of the front and back of your credit card
3. A photocopy of your driver license or passport
Please send all required documents to Anti-Spam e-mail Link or fax them to +1 310 882 5447.
Please note that we need you to send us these documents only once. As long as you use the same credit card, it will not be necessary for future orders.

Please take the following security precautions before emailing or faxing the documents:
- Cover all digits of the credit card number except for the last 4 digits
(Please note: This does not apply to the credit card number field on the credit card authorization form; this field has to contain the full credit card number including all digits.)
- Cover the driver license/passport number
- Send the documents separately
In order to avoid delays with your order, we suggest that you scan the documents and send them via email or at least set the fax resolution to high, so that they are clearly legible.

Alternatively, you may also pay by PayPal.
In case you’d rather like to pay by PayPal, just let us know. We will then revise your order and send you a link with which you will be able to pay for your order.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
As always, if you have any questions or need help with your order, please contact our Customer Experience Specialists at Anti-Spam e-mail Link or give us a call at +1 (424) 903-4002. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks in advance and have a good day.
Kind regards,

iShopUSA”

2 March, my reply:

“Sorry, but no chance!

PayPal will be fine: please send me a payment link.”

3 March, PayPal link received.

3 March, e-mail from iShopUSA:

“Dear Richard,

This is your revised order containing a change in payment method to PayPal.

As soon as you accept the revision, we will be able to process your order. Please reply to this e-mail and send it to revisions@…, so that we can proceed with your order. Please be advised that your response has to include a copy of this revision as well as your statement accepting or declining the revised order. If you do not include the statement or the copy of the revision, this may delay the ordering process. If you do not accept the revision, please let us know as well. Thank you.

If you would like to respond to this revision in order to accept or decline this revision now, please click the reply button in your e-mail program, add your statement that you accept or decline to the e-mail text and make sure that the e-mail address in the send-to field is revisions@…. You may need to replace the e-mail no-reply@… with revisions@…. Please note that if you try to reply to no-reply@…, we will not receive your e-mail.

You can check your order status any time you want by logging in to your iShopUSA customer account.

Thank you for your order!”

3 March, e-mail from me accepting the order.

3 March, e-mail from iShopUSA to my PayPal e-mail account:

“Dear Richard,

Due to the high risk of credit card fraud associated with international transactions as well as discrepancies regarding your order information, we ask for your understanding and cooperation in verifying your identity with us, since we always strive to do our utmost to protect our clients from fraudulent and unauthorized transactions.

Before we can proceed with your order, we kindly request that you to reply to this email to confirm that you placed this order.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused…”

3 March, e-mail from me to iShopUSA:

“There are no damn discrepancies with my order. You’ve been paid. Now stop pissing about and send the damn shoes!”

4 March, e-mail from iShopUSA to me:

“Your order has been successfully processed!

The amount of time it takes for items to arrive at our warehouse varies between 5-7 business days. Once we receive your item and inspect them they will be shipped out to you. At this time we will email you with a tracking number.”

Silence.

29 March, log in to their website:

“Status: In transit to warehouse”

Looking at the explanation of what this means reveals this little gem:

“In transit to warehouse:
Your items are on the way to our warehouse in California where they will be consolidated and eventually shipped out to you.”

“Eventually” being the operative word, it seems…

Dishing the Dirt

Published on 29 March 2010 in dirt, filth, kids eh?, R3 and Syndicated. Closed

Whose stupid idea was that?

Having cleaned the R3 midweek so it would be looking at its best when my kids got to see it, I drove up from London to Norfolk early on Saturday morning. Unfortunately the drizzle in places meant that there was enough dirt and salt on the road to make the car dirty at the back, but still they loved it.

And then there was the football match on Sunday…

Jack, his mate Dan and Dan’s grandfather in the car after their match. And now the interior is dirty. Maybe I should have just had him adopted or made them walk home?

Lost and Found

Published on 27 March 2010 in Insurance, police, recovered, Syndicated and thieving cunts. Closed

Well, well, well.

This morning I received a phone call from the Met. Wilf has been found somewhere in Lincolnshire!

No news on its condition or anything and of course it now belongs to the insurance company but if it’s not been totalled, I may well see if I can buy it from them. It should be worth less as a stolen recovered vehicle anyway and of course it’s almost a year older, but it’s worth asking.

In the meantime, I’ve got an appointment for early next week to give a statement to the police to say that it certainly wasn’t being used or stored with my permission so they can (hopefully) prosecute the scrote that had it.

Flash RX-8 Game

Published on 26 March 2010 in games, RX-8 and Syndicated. Closed

I just stumbled across this Flash racing game featuring RX-8s:

http://www.spikything.com/games/mazdamania/popup.html

Mazda RX-8 R3 and Janey

Published on 25 March 2010 in photos and Syndicated. Closed

Mazda RX-8 R3 and Janey, originally uploaded by Captain Blue.

iPod Integration

Published on 25 March 2010 in Audio, fail, iPod, R3 and Syndicated. Closed

A bit of a nightmare, this. The R3 comes with an auxiliary socket in one of the cubbyholes to allow you to connect an MP3 player to it, but all the play or selection functions have to be performed from the player.

When I ordered the car, I also spec’d it to include Mazda’s iPod integration module which is by no means cheap.

And it’s full of fail!

So far, I’ve tried it with three iPod nanos of varying age and although all connect to the system fine, none of them will actually play through the Bose system. And worse still, fitting the iPod Integration Module apparently disables the auxiliary socket as well! So I’m worse off with it fitted.

I’m giving it one more try: with a birthday coming up, I’ve asked for a new, 5th Generation 16GB iPod nano which should – in theory at least – work. We’ll see. Mazda’s Customer Service department did not have a clue when I specifically asked them the question…

Bluetooth

Published on 25 March 2010 in Audio, BlackBerry, Nokia, phone, R3, Sony Ericsson and Syndicated. Closed

The Bose audio system – which is fabulous – also includes Bluetooth telephone compatibility which dispenses with a car kit. It allows you to pair a number of phones with the car as well.

Sadly, it appears that one manufacturer’s implementation of Bluetooth differs from another and I have had some ‘issues’ getting one of my phones to work properly. I presently have a Nokia N97 for general use, a BlackBerry Curve 8900 for work and a Sony Ericsson W595 as a spare (those hyperlinks take you to the results of Mazda’s tests on the handsets).

Whilst all three phones successfully paired with the R3, the Nokia will only receive calls through the audio system and make calls only if dialled from the handset. Both the other phones make and receive calls by voice alone, which is effectively another nail in the coffin for the Nokia.

Thirst

Published on 25 March 2010 in mpg, R3 and Syndicated. Closed

Oh dear! I have been running in the R3 more a few days now and around 360 miles down so far. By ‘running in’, I don’t mean running in like we used to do – keeping the revs below a certain limit for a few miles then slowly increasing, etc. – but more not revving the nuts off it everywhere.

So I was surprised that despite having a load of motorway miles in the total so far, I am only averaging 17½mpg!

It should hopefully loosen up and improve with a few more miles.

Badges

Published on 22 March 2010 in badges, Nunns of Grimsby, R3, RX-8 and Syndicated. Closed

A fellow R3 owner over at the RX8 Owners Club has pointed out that his R3 has a Mazda badge in the usual place on the boot lid and mine hasn’t. Looking at the Gallery over at Mazda UK’s site, this also shows a Mazda badge there. One for the dealer to answer, I think.