We are all working harder – well most of us….

The general theme that comes across when I talk to people in business is that we all appear to be working harder than ever (generally for lower fees), this is not a complaint (that comes later) – it is a fact of life. The economy is in a bad way so we have to ‘dig in’ and work through it, or at least most of us do – but not it seems the Royal Mail…..

courtesy of Viz…

I will admit to not being one of the Royal Mails biggest fans, I have blogged various times before about them and can’t recall any of them being positive, and this one isn’t either!

I accept that if I am not in the Royal Mail can’t deliver packages to me, and I have asked them not to deliver them to my 85 year old neighbour. Previously the card left asks me to wait 24 hours for the package to return to the sorting office – around 2 miles away. That is fine, I really don’t have an issue with this.

However, it now appears that it takes 48 hours to do this – why?

All I can assume is that the package is placed back into the Royal Mails own post – as we all know everything (even first class post) takes at least 48 hours these days……

 

One of my least favourite place!

Last week I had to visit one of my least favourite places in Nottingham – the post office sorting office on Clarke Rd – it is always a pleasure and something that I save up for ‘special occasions’ (not). This time it was especially exciting for two reasons;

Firstly I saw @harters34 (who was also collecting a package, he was aware of my ‘issue’ and asked when I would be doing this blog – and I don’t like disappointing people😄).

Secondly I was collecting the iPad mini case my son had ordered from the USA. Delivery had been fairly protracted (a few weeks) so he was keen to get hold of it to protect his pride and joy. The package had however attracted the attention of the UK Customs, any package is due to pay VAT on its value if it comes into the UK from outside of the EU – and it appears customs are particularly keen on US mail.

So there was 20% to pay – around £4 on the cost of the item (which is very cool and not available in the UK). I don’t have an issue with this, tax is tax, and we all have to pay it (well those of us who play by the rules).

What I do have an issue with is the Post Offices approach to collecting this tax on behalf of the revenue. It is done on a flat fee basis of £8, so in this case a rate of 200%!

So if I had imported a higher value item for let’s say £500 I would be due to pay £100 VAT and the collecting fee would still be £8 – or 8% – rather than the 200% paid in my case.

Surely there is something wrong here?

 

A classic example of what is wrong with football?

I have a somewhat ‘jaundiced’ view of the ‘beautiful game’ – I have blogged numerous times about it and have to say it really doesn’t appear to be getting any better – that is football as well as my grumpiness!

This last weekend we had the 3rd round of the FA Cup – the chance for lower league clubs to have a go at some of the Premier league clubs if they are lucky enough to be drawn against them. The Premier League clubs all tend to see it as a chore to go to the lower league clubs as it gets in the way of their main reason for existing (to make money?).

Anyway – locally we had Mansfield Town taking on Liverpool, the excitement in the area was palpable – I wasn’t there (no surprise there), but I know a man who was. I gather that Mansfield left free seats in the stand in memory of the 96 who died at Hillsborough, a very nice act that I approve of. They also played well and only lost out to a last-minute goal from Suarez – which was the result of his hand ball.

Mansfield’s manager would not be drawn by the press on the foul, and was full of praise for his players. Suarez played on as if nothing had happened and then on Monday I saw this tweet from Grant Holt (Norwich City) – the general tone is in my view appalling – basically supporting cheating – (and I guess most professional footballers have the same view?) – surely not what we should be saying to our kids?

 

The blurring of the seasons

One of the things that is great about the UK is its weather – no honestly! We have very varied seasons, recently they have become even more ‘varied’ which in some way is worrying, but in another way it confirms why we are like we are – life is varied so we are a varied race. We have set dates and times for things – some based on religion and some on the seasons – we know where we stand.

So good so far – but then the world of marketing gets involved. I am talking Cadbury Creme eggs here – I am old enough to have been ‘in at the start’ of the Creme egg ‘thing’. I also love them and can eat an obscene quantity if given the chance! In the early days of their availability (the 70′s) they appeared in the shops at Easter at the same time as all the other Easter eggs came out, which seemed sensible?

However I see now (in fact it has been this way for a number of years) that Cadbury Creme Eggs are available now – in fact they appeared on Boxing Day this year in my local COOP. They also make an appearance at Halloween as ‘screme’ eggs!

We all have to make money, but this is really pushing things and to my mind rather ‘devalues’ the product. I am sure they sell a huge quantity of the eggs between Christmas and Easter, but perhaps they are no longer ‘Easter’ eggs?

 

I am getting old!

I have another birthday rapidly approaching, which is probably why I keep relating current ‘problems’ to how it wouldn’t have been an issue when I was a kid! Let me explain;

My car has Xenon headlights that give an amazing light and also steer with the car – sounds a bit flash but they are brilliant and I make no apology for them (or the puns included within this sentence). This week I had a message appear on my dashboard to tell me one of the low beam bulbs had failed (not difficult to spot in the dark, but the message confirms it!). So, on arriving home I got the manual from the car to see how to replace the bulb – shouldn’t be too bad – or so I thought.

Is the one on the right really better?

In big red writing it told me it wasn’t something that I could do and it had to go to the garage to be sorted – not a great start, but a call to the garage confirmed they could sort it for me. However, on arrival there the lamp had lit again, and no issue could be found!

Now when I was younger and cars had bulbs that anyone could change we didn’t have this sort of problem! Are things getting just too complicated, or am I just getting old?

In reality the cars in the 70s and much of the 80s were rubbish (apart from my 205 GTI) – unreliable, made of rubbish materials, and lots of things failed – but I can dream!

 

Call centres – time for another option?

I have recently had cause to speak to a call centre in the Philippines – it services T-Mobile and has the usual very polite and friendly staff that one gets in all call centres. So what is my problem? If the service is friendly and helpful why complain?

Well friendly is all very well, and in my experience the staff are always very apologetic (I only appear to call if there is a problem) – my issue is that they all work from scripts that don’t usually answer problems – they just deflect them! I find that the only way you can get a resolution to a problem is to ask to speak to a manager, and in effect escalate the issue – which is always a major issue for the staff member you are talking to!

I realise that call centres can work for very basic issues – like “how do I do this on my phone” or “why won’t this work on my phone” – but as soon as you throw them a “curved ball” the system can’t cope and they just end up being even more apologetic and friendly!

So why can’t the call centres have an option when you ring up (and they have lots of options!) that is for people like me who only call when they are forced into a corner? The option could be something like this;

“Press 4 if you are at the end of your tether a want to kill someone”

It could work and actually save time at the call centres as well!

 

More ‘joy’ with a mobile provider!

I appear to be developing a bit of a ‘thing’ with mobile providers – I don’t know if I expect too much from them, or whether they are just all useless – but they really don’t ‘cut the mustard’ as far as I am concerned!

My latest problem is with T Mobile (Now called EE it appears). My stepdaughters iPhone was stolen and is not insured with T Mobile but via Endsleigh Insurance (who I would add have been brilliant – highly recommended!) To sort out her insurance claim we need two documents from T Mobile – the first to confirm the blacklisting of the iPhone, the second a proof of purchase. One would not expect this to be a problem – it has actually been a nightmare and I have had to resort to emailing the CEO of EE (Olaf Swantee). Rather than explain the story the email is set out below. I have no idea if I will get a reply – I hope I do – but I am not holding my breath!

Dear sir

I am sorry to have to contact you, but I am running out of alternatives. I am attempting to obtain a proof of ownership and blacklisting document for my stolen iPhone which is on contract with T-Mobile (but not insured through yourselves).

I first requested the documents on the 17th December, your call centre in the Philippines confirmed the documents would be mailed to me and I would get them within 5 days. I was also told that one of them would be emailed to the EE store on Clumber Street in Nottingham for me to collect the next day.

On arrival at the store no such email had been received, as I had made a special trip into town I was not amused (and out of pocket due to parking) however I shrugged it off as the documents would be in the post.

Roll forward to Christmas Eve – nothing in the post yet so I rang again. This time I was told that one of the documents was only done the day before (not on the 17th as I had been assured previously). I asked for them to be emailed to me which I was told was not possible – on hearing this I asked to speak to a manager. As it was lunchtime in the Philippines there were none available, so a ring back was arranged between 1pm and 2pm.

As you will probably be guessing now, this call did not arrive, so I called again at around 5pm(hopefully not tea time in the Philippines) again to be told to expect a call back.

You guessed it – no call back again!

As it was Christmas Day and then Boxing day next I did not call again – as no doubt there would be no managers available on such ‘holidays’. So I called again today (27th) and have been promised a call back again as soon as the previous call the manager was taking was complete. That was over 20 minutes ago! All I can assume is that you have many disgruntled customers who have lots to complain about!

Please can you sort this out for me? I am a reasonable man, but this is beginning to try my patience rather!

I look forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Regards

Simon

I have received some contact from EE via twitter which may prove fruitful, I will update this as soon as I have more news!

 

Phone networks – friend or foe?

The mobile phone is a part of everyday life now – the smart phone is rapidly getting to the same position – how many people do you know who haven’t got one?

The mobile phone operators are all keen to land us as clients – they make great offers to lure you over to them, but how is the service then? At work we received some interesting ‘care’ from Orange before we had even signed up with them – because of this we didn’t move to them from Vodafone – perhaps this should have made me think before going with T-Mobile for my daughters iPhone!

The deal was (is) good, and the network is great. But, once things go wrong the care becomes rather less ‘impressive’.

Daughters iPhone was stolen this weekend (second time – not good, but not her fault). So a replacement SIM card was required – not a massive ask you would think as we have a contract – but there is a £10 charge! They give them away free to new customers! Also the opening times on the EE website (which has recently been updated) were wrong for the Nottingham stores – but that is another story!

And it gets better, we needed a ‘fill in’ phone while we sorted out the insurance, so a cheap pay as you go was required. But, and there is always ‘a but’ – we had to add £10 airtime to a sim we didn’t want. I asked the question – “can’t you wave that on the basis that we have just paid £10 for a sim anyway” – apparently not!

So we went to Carphone Warehouse who were very helpful and let us use a pay as you go number on another network to do an upgrade and therefore pay only for the phone.

So brilliant service (and advise) from Carphone Warehouse, but money grabbing and greed from T-Mobile, Orange, EE or what ever they call themselves today. If I need another mobile who will I be going to do you think?

 

Surely this can’t be right?

As a parent of a ‘driving age’ teenager the cost of car insurance is a big issue to me. I accept that the younger driver can tend to be a much bigger threat to insurance premiums and that we all have to pay for that (although we are also paying for the uninsured – that is another story).

The insurance industry has a huge database of information on us all and the claims that are made by us. So it can accurately work out who are the biggest risks on the road, and where the worst place to live is from an insurance standpoint. This data has for years confirmed that young men are a much greater risk than young ladies in cars – and the insurance premiums have reflected this – until now.

A European court ruling last year found that gender discrimination in insurance was against the law.

The upshot of this is that insurance rates will be equal for men and women, so for some women insurance brokers are reporting rises of 40% or more in some quotes. This is for cover for motorists starting this December, compared with quotes for policies starting in November. Equally the cost for males has gone down – so potentially our roads may well be a more dangerous place in the future.

I am not anti Europe in any way – but surely this just can’t be ‘right’ even if it is ‘correct’ in law?

 

Well done Easy Jet

I am a defender of the budget airlines whenever people ‘go off on one’ when I am around. My take on it is that you get what you pay for, and I may be lucky, but I have never had an issue with either EasyJet or Ryanair.

Yes their inflight catering is expensive, and yes if you don’t do your online check in it costs you ‘a lot’ at the airport – but they are the rules that you agree to play by when you book with them!

I was however slightly concerned that I might have to be holding for hours to get through to their call centre to check on something today – I have never had to call them, but guessed that the call centre would be ‘one man and his dog’ in a shed somewhere. How wrong I was, a call at 7.30 pm, just half an hour before the call centre closed was answered in a matter of a few minutes and the matter sorted out in a similar timescale!

So very well done EasyJet, yet again you haven’t failed me!