Customer Service gone bad…

After reading my friend Sam’s latest post about Tiscali and the bad customer service that he received from them, I thought I’d write a little about my experience with them.

In May last year, after being with Tiscali Broadband for a few years, I switched to TalkTalk for their broadband and calls package, as it would be saving us some money each month.

Before I switched provider, I had been impressed with Tiscali. Whenever we had moved house they had re-routed our connection on time.

So, thinking that everything was hunky-dory in the world, I was surprised to receive a phone call from a debt collection agency. They informed me that Tiscali had passed on a debt for unpaid broadband fees from May to July, which was impossible as I had changed provider in May. This was the first that I had heard of it, and so I rang Tiscali Customer Service, and after spending some time on hold I finally spoke to someone regarding this.

Speaking to them I told them that I had never received any letters or correspondence regarding the owing of monies,and that I had changed provider in May. After some discussion they said that they would send out invoices etc relating to the debt so I could take a look at them.

I left it there to wait for the invoices to arrive. After a couple of days I rang them again to say that I’d not received anything from themselves. They assured me that they had sent them out. So, I gave them another couple of days to see if it was just a delay in the post.

After another couple of days I phoned them again. They have been sent, was the answer. I was not impressed, and after a few words it turned out that they had sent everything to an old address. This wasn’t just the previous address that they had on record, oh no, this was the address before that. It was no wonder that I hadn’t got any letters!

In the meantime I received another letter from the debt agency saying that if the account was not settled within 7 days then they would be taking me to court.

So I phoned Tiscali again, and eventually, after numerous phone calls, I got them to write off the debt, £29.98 in fact, as they realised that they shouldn’t have been trying to take the money.

That was so nice of them!

My experience with Tiscali is not one that I would like to go through again. They never do anything that they say they are going to do. I’m still waiting for the invoices even now, and a letter to say that everything is sorted out. Knowing them, it has gone to my old address.

My advice, avoid Tiscali at all costs!!!

Some Parents Obviously Don’t Care About Their Children

You don’t see it very often but when you do, its something that makes my blood boil!

What I saw today is still making me angry, even now, a few hours later as I am writing this.

As I came out of work this afternoon, and was waiting to cross the road to get into my car, my attention was caught by a car waiting at the junction. The first thing that caught my eye was the colour. It was a bright orange Ford Fiesta ST, not a subtle colour by any means.

The next thing I saw has made me angry. Sitting in the front passenger seat was a small boy, who I would guess was probably about 5 years old. Nothing too bad in that you might think. But if I tell you that the boy was perched on the edge of the seat, and not even wearing any sort of seatbelt or in a car seat, you can understand my anger.

What the hell was his mother thinking? Why would someone be so stupid, and reckless? Doesn’t this woman care about her son?

So many questions for her to answer. It’s times like that, that you wish that a police car was passing at the time.

Why would a parent let their child sit in the front seat, without restraints? I just don’t understand.

I really hope that she never does that again. Next time could be bad!

How to make your employees feel wanted

Its that time of year when we are all looking to have the little break from work for Christmas.

Just before Christmas in work we are usually given some shopping vouchers as a little thank you for all the work that we do during the year. Its not a lot, but it just makes you feel wanted, and that your work is valued.

Well, not this year. Instead of £20 in vouchers, we are going to be given an extra £15 in our pay. We’ll be getting in our January pay because they forgot to include it in December’s, and of course we’ll be taxed on this. So, instead of the personal touch of £20 in vouchers and a thank you, it is a bit of a let down with us getting a greatly reduced amount. After tax it works out at about £11, equivalent to 23p per week. It sucks really.

The biggest complaint that we have is that no-one in senior management has told us that we won’t be getting the vouchers. Just a simple explanation would suffice. That is all we ask, a little bit of honesty.

If you look after your employees, then they will look after the interests of the company. It’s not a hard concept to follow.

Merry Christmas

More decorations….

…and it’s still not December.

Last week, I told you that I’d seen the first Christmas decorations of the year. Now I’ve seen the second set. Our other next door neighbours have now put up their decorations. Our house is now the meat in a Christmas decoration sandwich.

I don’t understand why people put their decorations up so early. Christmas is now only a month away, but I feel that this is too early. It is still November.

Ever since I was a kid, it was customary to put the Christmas decorations up around the middle of December. Usually around the time that we would finish at school. Until the decorations go up though, I cannot get into the whole spirit of Christmas. But, if they went up any earlier, then by Christmas Day I would be bored of the whole thing.

I am sure that my whole attitude will change as Ellie grows up. She is still a little young to fully understand what is going on at the moment. Next year she will have a greater awareness of everything. No doubt Gemma and I will be told what she wants Santa to bring her. But until then she will be all innocent, and not too corrupted by the adverts.

But until then I think I’m just going to be a grump!

(Note: I’ve re-written this post, as I thought that the way I had written it was below par)

Anybody want a dog?

Dog for Sale. Free to a good home.

Really well behaved, doesn’t eat any kitchen utensils or anything with stuffing in (like his bed!)

(That last sentence was very sarcastic!!!!)

If anyone wants to take Max off our hands I’d be very grateful!

Max has become such a menace, and is getting far too big for our house. We never anticipated that he would get so big. He is still only 10 months old so he’s still growing! When we bought him, it was thought that he would grow to the size of a Labrador. But he is already past that size.

What I can’t understand is why he has to try and eat everything that is not his. He’s got his own toys and things, but would much rather chomp down on the kitchen spoons than his toys. Nothing is safe in the kitchen. We can’t leave anything within reach of him on the worktops because he will get the items and destroy them. Even things which you assume to be safe, are not. I have no idea how to stop him doing these things. Nothing seems to work.

I’ve had enough of him. He is causing me so much stress, and it’s not just me, Gemma is also feeling it too. I am just so frustrated with him. He is a really friendly dog, too friendly at times and loves attention. He is great with kids, especially Ellie. She can maul him and give him loads of hugs and he will put up with it.

Max is not a bad dog, but lately I’ve had no time for him. I haven’t got the time or the patience to spend with him to get him back on track. It is very frustrating.

It will be a sad day if we find him a new home. But in the long term it is the best thing for him and and also for us. He deserves someone who can spend loads of time with him.

I really feel like I’ve let him down. Sorry Max.

I hate Halloween

31st October…….I hate the day!

You get home from work and while you’re trying to do things there is a constant ringing in my ears! Oh yeah, its the bloody doorbell!

On the first instance of the doorbell going I’d forgotten what day it was and stupidly answered the door. There standing on the doorstep were a couple of teenagers half dressed up in some sort of costume, don’t ask me what cos I couldn’t tell you.

The words “Trick or Treat!” greeted me as I opened the door.

Immediately I went into “Scrooge” mode and just told them “No, thanks” and shut the door. The door was not answered again, and there must have been at least
I’m not totally against Halloween itself, its more the mass commercialisation of everything. I remember enjoying Halloween as a kid, but as I got older it is less and less important to me.

One of the things that I don’t like is the amount of groups of kids and teenagers who wander the streets knocking on everyone’s door. Why they feel the need to bother people they don’t know, and I’m sure that elderly people don’t like these kids knocking on their door at night. I’m sure that Halloween, and ‘trick or treating’ is great for little kids, but come on, teenagers haven’t they got anything better to do.

I know, I must sound like a right mardy git, but I just don’t like Halloween. Sorry! I’m just getting old!

Middle lane drivers

Why do people insist on only driving in the middle lane on the motorway?

The worst type of middle lane drivers are the ones who stay in the middle lane for the entire duration of their journey. They get onto the motorway and head straight to the middle lane, even if there is nothing in the “slow” lane! And there they stay until they want to get leave the motorway.

The thing that annoys me about these drivers is that if they come up behind some traffic in the middle lane, they won’t overtake by going into the outside lane if it is clear, they’ll slow down behind the traffic and wait for it to pull back into the inside lane. They will then put their foot back down and accelerate.

This was the case on Saturday, when we all went to Wrexham, as it was Gemma’s dad’s 50th birthday. Gemma was driving and she is not a driver that will speed, but the amount of times we passed the same few cars was unbelievable! We would overtake these cars that were sat in the middle lane, usually stuck behind some traffic, and then pull back into the inside lane. Then as the traffic moved back to the inside lane you could see them putting their foot down, overtaking us again and then when they came up behind some more traffic they’d slow down yet again, and the whole cycle would start again.

There have also been a lot of occasions recently when we’ve been travelling at 70mph in the inside lane with nothing in front of us for miles, and we are actually travelling faster the the”fast” lane. The cars are all bunched up trying to overtake a couple of middle lane hoggers.

The reason that many people do this, is that they lack the concentration for driving on a motorway. Yes, we all know that driving on a motorway is boring, but that is no excuse for you to switch off and sit in the middle lane. In fact, people should be even more alert as to the dangers of driving at high speed.

I think that this is one of the reasons that the government is sanctioning using the hard shoulder in places to cut down the congestion. There is no need to do this, just make everyone move back to the left hand lane after they have made their overtaking manoeuvre. That would then keep a 3-lane motorway a 3-lane motorway, not reducing it to a 2-lane motorway.

While I’ve been writing this I looked “middle lane drivers” on Google and did you know that there is a website dedicated to these people, and their misdemeanours! It’s called Middle Lane Morons. I also came across another website, How Motorways Work, that covers even more indiscretions on the subject of motorway driving.

I feel so much better knowing that there are other people out there who think the same as me. Glad I’ve got it off my chest!

Some sense at last!

Finally, the EU has not got its way with the way of life in the UK.

Reading this article on the BBC website, EU gives up on ‘metric Britain’, I am glad that we’ll not now be getting rid of the imperial units that we all know and love. Even though they’ve been trying to get rid for the past few years, there has been a large resistance to changing the measurement system.

The EU were determined to wipe out every existence of the Imperial system, which would have meant that you wouldn’t get your traditional pint of milk, or enjoy a pint of beer down the pub.

Can you imagine it? Walking into a pub and asking for “568ml of beer please.”

It just wasn’t going to happen. For a start it would have cost millions to change every road sign in the UK from miles to kilometres, which no doubt would have left many people confused about how far they needed to travel.

So, I’m glad that all of those bureaucrats in Brussels have seen some sense, just for once.