Damn those bus drivers

Stagecoach OJ09BZH
Originally uploaded by KK70088

Don't you just hate it when you try to get on the bus and the driver shuts the door just as you arrive. You knock on the door assuming that he'll see you and open the doors to let you on, but no - the ba$tard just drives off and you're left there cursing him, buses, public transport and Gordon Brown.

I was on the bus the other day leaving Oxford and I saw exactly that happen to someone trying to get on my bus. The driver could easily have let the guy on the bus, so I emailed the bus company to query their procedure.

This is what I was told:

Prior to departing a stop the driver is to:

1) look in their mirrors to ensure there are no persons intending to board their vehicle
2) Close the doors
3) Put on indicators to show that they wish to move out right
3) Look constantly in both offside/nearside/inside mirrors to look for any obstacles and ensure that persons are safely seated
4) If safe to do so move off from the stop at slow speed

Once the driver has closed their doors and started their checks we state they have commenced their manoeuvre and should therefore not pick up again on health and safety grounds.

As you can imagine the issue surrounds point 1. If the driver did not see the person in time they will commence their manoeuvre, however the intending passenger may believe they should have been easily seen creates conflict over the interpretation of the incident.

Additionally, if the driver was due to depart a few minutes earlier they will at some point have to commit to making progress and departing, as they have a responsibility to operate the service on time for the other intending passengers left waiting at stops further up the route.

Can't really argue with that. They have to pull away at some time and they are only following procedure. In Oxford, where the buses are quite popular, you can be left sitting on a bus for ages waiting for it to pull away from the city centre while there is a steady drip of people constantly getting on the bus.

Don't get me started on the summer foreign language students!

LoveFilm result! I think...

I got the following reply from LoveFilm after my complaint email yesterday:

Dear Steven,

Thank you for your email.

I would like to apologise for the inconvenience that this matter has caused you.

I can confirm that I have now contacted my colleague in the warehouse regarding this issue and have been informed that we have limited stock of "Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 - Disc 3" only. We are in the process of obtaining more copies.

I can confirm that I have now requested for "Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 - Disc 3" to be sent out to you as an extra disc (this will be on-top of your normal allowance).

Please bear in mind that when we wish to allocate your extra disc, and the desired title is not available to be allocated to you, no extra disc will be sent out to you. The reason for this is because I have requested for this specific title to be sent out.

In the future please bear in mind that we do have a no late returns policy which make it impossible for us to promise our customers when a specific disc will be send out. It all depend if we have an available copy of one of your high priority titles in our warehouse once we receive a disc back from you and have to allocate your next one.

Instead of waiting for one of your high priority titles to be available we will then sent out one of the other titles on your list to prevent any delays.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by this and do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information, we will be happy to assist you.

Let's see if it turns up now!

My plea to LoveFilm

I've been having some trouble getting the next DVD in the Battlestar Gallactica series from LoveFilm. I'm waiting for Season 3 DVD 3. I did email customer support and got some generic reply, but my patience is wearing this so I decided to email again tonight. I've been waiting 4 months.

Dear Yousuf,

As I sit here, still waiting for the next DVD in Battlestar Gallactica Season 3, I look at the copies of Enchanted and Volver (chosen by my other half - they look kinda rubbish) that arrived from LoveFilm today and must conclude: I am not satisfied by your answer or LoveFilm's current level of service.

First, BattleStar Gallactica Season 3 is not a new release. I can not see why there would be particularly high demand for Season 3 Disc 3 unless, unbeknownst to me, it perhaps has an episode featuring Michael Jackson moonwalking across the flightdeck of Battlestar Gallactica itself. Given that I have been waiting months for this disc, and old MJ only died a couple of weeks ago, this explanation is quite unlikely.

I can understand that one cannot expect to get a specific movie on demand, and indeed that you will have different stock levels for different movies. However, Battlestar Gallactica is a series of episodes. This means that people usually watch them one after the other, sequentially. It helps make the storyline flow. Therefore, one would assume that a stockist of any series would have equal numbers of each DVD in the series. Perhaps you might have more DVDs of a later series overall, but one would assume (lost/damaged DVDs notwithstanding) that within a series there would be the same number of DVDs in your stock. Logically, this would enable you to send the DVDs out in order, without too much of a wait between DVDs.

Indeed, for Seasons 1 and 2 of Battlestar Gallactica that was what happened. Every time I sent back a DVD of Battlestar Gallactica, I was safe in the knowledge that the next one would be popping through the door in a couple of days. In fact, although I have quite a low LoveFilm package (4 DVDs max a month I think) watching Battlestar Gallactica was the first time I had "maxed" my allowance. I confess I was addicted to the series (have you /seen/ Starbuck!?!) so I actually welcomed the enforced breaks.

But let me show you the pattern in DVDs received from LoveFilm that makes me suspect that something is not quite right here:

Between 10th December and 5th January this is the pattern (the date is the date of the returned DVD according to my account):

Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Disc 1 10th December 2008
Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Disc 2 22nd December 2008
Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Disc 3 22nd December 2008
Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 - Disc 4 5th January 2009

on 5th January I also returned Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End.

Then between 9th January and 24th February the pattern was as follows:

Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - Disc 1 9th January 2009
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - Disc 2 19th January 2009
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - Disc 3 26th January 2009
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - Disc 4 30th January 2009
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 - Disc 5 24th February 2009

Season 2 was interspersed with Kidulthood, the Orphanage, Penelope and We Own the Night. It seemed for this season that one of my DVDs would always be a Battlestar Gallactica DVD and the other a normal movie.

March also saw we watching 27 Dresses and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Please don't judge me. I happened to enjoy them both. I consider Russell Brand to be a fine comedic actor, his whimsical style amuses me, and 27 Dresses was surprisingly good.

This brings me to the end of March when I received and watched Battlestar Gallactica Season 3 DVDs 1 and 2. They were really exciting! I can't tell you why, because I can't remember now it's been so long since I watched them, but Battlestar Gallactica is always exciting, so I'm gonna stick with it.

Since I returned Season 3 DVD 2, I have received 14 different DVDs - FOURTEEN!!! - none of them Battlestar Gallactica. Just for your interest, my top rated DVDs in that time were In Bruges, which I gave 4.5 stars (the missus and I really want to take a holiday to Bruge now) and the first series of The Inbetweeners, which I gave 5 stars. Yes - 5 stars! It really is that good! Fortunately the whole series came on 1 DVD!

Can you see where the pattern breaks down? I don't know if you're a mathematician Yousuf, but there is certainly a pattern in the Battlestar Gallactica DVD distribution, which kinda falls apart around Season 3 DVD 3. I can see it.

So, it has now been nearly 4 months since I had my last dose of Battlestar Gallactica. FOUR MONTHS! I doubt many people would think to themselves, "yeah, I'm really enjoying this series. What I could really do with is a 4 month break between two episodes". Nah, no one would say that because they would have to be an idiot.

Does a 4 month wait between episodes seem normal or reasonable to you?

Is there not the slightest chance that there is something wrong with your system?

I'd say I've been patient so far, but the thought of watching Volver and Enchanted has ended that.

Or maybe you know something I don't? Maybe Battlestar Gallactica gets really rubbish at Season 3 DVD3. Maybe you're actually doing me a favour! Really, I'd like to be the judge of that. The rumours I hear are that it stays pretty good throughout.

Anyway, Yousuf I'd really appreciate it if you would look in to this for me. I really have enjoyed using LoveFilm's service over the past few years, but this experience is putting me off. I may consider cancelling my subscription if I don't get the next Battlestar Gallactica DVD soon, and I fear that jobs at LoveFilm may be put at risk by the loss of my £7.82 payment every month. I couldn't cope with having that on my conscience Yousaf.

Yours Sincerely

-Steven




--- On Wed, 1/7/09, support@lovefilm.com wrote:

From: support@lovefilm.com
Subject: Re: Feedback:: Re: Film and TV queries: Battlestar Gallactica - LF8230560TID
To: xxxxxx@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wednesday, 1 July, 2009, 5:06 AM

Dear Steven,

Thank you for your email.

We would like to confirm to you that that the priority system is not intended as a way
of queuing your selection exactly in the order you wish to see them. Instead it is only intended as more of a 'preference'
system, by which customers can indicate which films from their selection they would prefer to see, from those that we have available in stock to dispatch to you at the time your last return is received.

Please understand that although your priority titles selection serves as an indication to us of which titles you would prefer to see first, I'm afraid we are unable to guarantee the dispatch of any particular title within any time frame. As we do not offer a 'Title-on-demand' service, the allocation of titles from your list on the day of dispatch is simply dependent on availability. If none of your priority 1 titles are in stock on that day, we will send you an alternative from your list.

I'm afraid it is the nature of our system, that we are unable to guarantee that we will always be able to send you any one particular disc (or priority of disc) at any one time. We simply cannot do so as we only have a finite stock of
any disc, and it is impossible to predict when the ones you want to rent will be in stock. This is especially true of new releases, which are always the most heavily requested for the limited stocks we have. Because we know this is not possible to offer this guarantee, we have the selection list system, and not an order queue. We will always dispatch you a priority 1 DVD if it is available, but if not we will dispatch a priority 2, and if that is not available, then a priority 3.

Hope this has answered your query. Should you have any more questions, please do let us know and we will be happy to assist you further.

Please let us know if this answered your question.
If yes, click here:
http://www.lovefilm.com/help/feedback.html?r=p&e=d259a6f6d32efa6aecd69ce62dd701fb


If no, click
here:
http://www.lovefilm.com/help/feedback.html?r=n&e=d259a6f6d32efa6aecd69ce62dd701fb


Kind regards,

Yousuf
--
Customer Services
LOVEFiLM.com
Find the films you want to watch
www.LOVEFiLM.com

LOVEFiLM UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales.
Registered Number: 06528297.
Registered Office: No. 9, 6 Portal Way, London W3 6RU, United Kingdom.


Major Groove wrote:

> For the love of the Almighty I have still not been sent the next BSG DVD!
>
> What happened? Did you get a cheap batch that only had one copy of S03 DVD3??? I had them one after the other then I have to wait months for this one!

Lovefilm no-return envelopes

Lovefilm.com Film Desktop
Originally uploaded by lildude

As someone who enjoys (and whose job involves) data analysis, I imagine that one of the cool things about running a huge business to consumer internet company, apart from the pots of cash, is the chance to analyse customer data and work out its affect on revenue.

Where do your customers come from? What sites refer the most paying customers? How long do they stay on the site?

What's more interesting than analysing the data, is making changes to your website and your business and seeing the effect that this has on customers. For example, does moving the "buy now" button to a different part of the screen increase conversion rates, how does a customer sign-up process affect customers completing their purchases?

These changes can mean millions of pounds of extra revenue for internet companies. Of course not all customer behaviour changes involve the website itself.

LoveFilm has recently made a change to the way its service works. It's quite a subtle change, but I have no doubt that it means extra revenue for them.

It used to be that if you received two DVDs at the same time from LoveFilm, you would also receive an extra return envelope with your DVDs, in addition to the envelope it arrives in, which you usually convert in to a return envelope. LoveFilm are desperate for you to return as many DVDs in one envelope as possible. Obviously sending two DVDs back in one envelope means that their postage costs are halved.

Fair enough. When I did happen to watch two DVDs in short succession, I would return them in the same envelope. However, like most people I usually watch them at least a few days apart. Once I've watched one, I want it sent back so I can get the next semi-surprise DVD as soon as possible.

But that doesn't help LoveFilm's bottom line.

So, recently they have stopped sending you a spare envelope as standard. This means that if Lovefilm sends you two DVDs at once, you can't necessarily just watch your DVDs and send them back as you watch them. Of course, they say you can send them back Freepost in your own envelope, but that costs me an envelope, and you can be sure that most people won't be bothered to do that.

The obvious cost saving is reduced postage costs, but I do wonder if they save more money by altering customer viewing habits. If you wait till you've watched both DVDs before sending them back then you hang on to your DVDs longer, which means less DVDs get posted out, which means less handling costs and less DVDs need to be held by Lovefilm.

What really annoys me, is that Lovefilm claim that you can still request an extra return envelope to be sent. At first it was quite easy to request an extra return envelope. My memory might be playing tricks on me but I am sure you used to just have to click a button requesting a new envelope. Now, however you have to search around the website to get any info about it, and eventually if you dig enough you will find that to get a return envelope you have to send them an email asking for one.

/edit Thanks to the comment from the helpful LoveFilm user experience bod below, I have now been shown that there is in fact still an easy link to request an extra envelope. Doh! I've clicked it so only time will tell if I receive one.

I have done this two or three times, and each time I get an email back telling me I will receive an extra return envelope with my next DVD. I have yet to receive an extra return envelope.

It's not that it hugely bothers me - I've been maxing my account out on Battlestar Galactica recently anyway! It's just irritating that Lovefilm have moved in to that phase of their success cycle when they do things that are just irritating to customers, but which probably result in higher revenues for the company. We've seen Ebay do it in spectacular style, by giving the impression that they almost want to alienate their entire customer base. It would be a shame if Lovefilm went the same way.

That said, I'd say about 1 in 4 of the DVDs I receive these days are nearly unwatchable. I'm sure it didn't use to be so bad.

and another question - if the DVD pouch doesn't mention the DVD on it, does it really matter to return it in the same pouch? I can't see any kind of chip in them...

eventually DVD postal services will die off just like visiting your local Blockbuster. We'll all be downloading all our movies (legally that is). I wonder if Lovefilm will still be around then...

BBC Complaint Response

I received a reply to my complaint to the BBC:

Dear

Thanks for your e-mail.

I understand you feel we show a lack of understanding and disrespect for the people of Scotland through our coverage of Scottish Premier League football and our specific coverage of Rangers and Celtic.

It's worth noting that over time supporters from a number of different clubs contact us about the placement of their team in the programme. It proves that we cannot please all the fans all the time.

I do understand that this is a matter you feel strongly about and to this end please be assured I've registered your complaint on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

I'd like to reiterate that all feedback we receive, whether positive or negative is always appreciated. We're committed to developing better links with you, our audience.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your comments.

Regards

BBC Complaints

Basically - tough luck! I doubt Rangers and Celtic supporters ever have cause to complain. Just all us diddy teams! Oh well. Business as usual.

BBC Complaint

I've just sent in this complant to the BBC. I'll post up any reply I get:

There is often a perception that the BBC is too London and England centric, and ignores Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A typical complainant might say that Andy Murray is referred to as British when he wins and Scottish when he loses. I think this type of accusation is generally unfair.

However, there is one area where the BBC shows a lack of understanding and disrespect for the people of Scotland. That is in its coverage of the Scottish Premier League football.

I have got used to the fact that you will only ever seen footage of Rangers and/or Celtic on BBC news programmes. I can just about justify that with these two teams having the largest support in Scotland.

Although the SPL is in general treated like a sideshow, what does particularly annoy me is when you treat the rest of the SPL as if it does not exist.

For example today on Radio 1, I twice heard the newsreader mention that Celtic was playing Aberdeen. Not once did they mention that Motherwell were also playing Dundee United.

To be that shows a complete disrespect to Scotland and Scottish football (granted the quality isn't great!) - the assuption that there are only two teams in Scotland is both insulting and patronising.

I suggest that if you are ever going to mention a Celtic/Rangers game in the SPL, you have the courtesy to mention the rest of the teams playing.

Ebay, PayPal and Council Victories!

I just got an email from PayPal. They have investigated my complaint against the guy who sold me the fake Motorola and decided in my favour! Result! The money will come out the cheating git's account! Ha! Teach him to mess with "Honest Steve".

I'll have to wait to see how much money I'll get. The email says that the full amount has been recovered for me and will be credited to my account, but I'm sure I read that PayPal take a "processing fee" for recovering money. I hope not - I don't see why I should have to pay anything for counterfeit goods. Counterfeiter git!

If I do get the money back this will restore my faith in Ebay.

Also, Rina pointed out that BA were breaking the EU regulations for delayed flights by not compensating us for our rubbish flight to Geneva this year, so I wrote back to them demanding compensation (they have already told me to get lost once). Rina already got £50 from them for the same flight, so Wendy and I should get the same. Nice try BA gits!

Lastly, The council have finally collected our recycling. Quite efficient - it only took them about 4 months! I'm sure that has nothing to do with my complaints though. Loser council gits!

Oxford City Council Pretend Recycling

Oxford City Council Pretend Recycling
Originally uploaded by major_grooves.

What is the point of trying to recycle in Oxford? The council don't care. What they have cleverly done is set-up a "pretend" recycling scheme, whereby they hand out recycling boxes and leaflets and then never, ever bother come to collect the recycling. Genius!

Our recycling hasn't been collected since way back in January. When I complained at first I was told it was because there was a new recycling scheme and I needed a blue box. Well why not tell me that instead of just leaving the recycling you dumbasses?

So I get a blue box and put all the tin cans into. Ooh - now we can even recycle plastic stuff (PET1 and PET2). We got our blue box around the 26th of January - and it has not been collected since. The green box with glass and paper still gets collected.

I've made three phone calls to Oxford Council about it. Each time they tell me they will look into it as a priority and get back to me. LIARS! They've never got back to me and my recycling box is still full.

I'm perfectly prepared to accept that I could have done something wrong. Perhaps I've committed some heinous recycling crime, like left a label on a tin can or something. It's a new system - if people do things wrong they need to be told. Not just ignored.

Well, I can only presume that this is all part of Oxford "bloody useless" Council's clever pretend recycling scheme.

We'll stop trying to recycle now. We'll just chuck everything in the main bin. Serves us right for bothering to try.

Ebay fingers burnt

I think I might have had my fingers burnt on Ebay.

I bought a Motorola HT820 bluetooth headset from a seller in Hong Kong, intending to use them with my Nokia N95 for wireless music listening. Unfortunately there is so much sound pausing that they are nearly unusable.

There is a good guide to getting over this problem here, but reading it does also lead me to think that my headset is either a fake, or a refurbishment. There are traces of glue at the connection to the earpieces, there is no designation/serial number on them, and I can't get it to enter flash mode so that I can even try the above linked fix.

So although I got them cheap - I don't think I've got the real deal. I've emailed the guy to tell him I think they are fake/refurbs, and I have asked for my money back. I suspect he will ignore me and I will have to escalate this with Ebay.

train complain - result!

I got fined for not having a ticket on the train last month.

However I had a good excuse so I appealed. Today I got a letter telling me they had cancelled my penalty and would be sending me a cheque. The tight gits have taken the price of a single fare out of it though! I did even buy a full Zone 1-4 travel card after I got fined anyway so they didn't need to charge me for that!

Still it's satisfying to get some money out of them. The ticket inspector guy was a right git. Quite tempted to take a trip down to London (with a ticket of course) so I can tell him my appeal was successful! ;)

triple complaint

In the past few days I've made two complaints

1) To the Royal Mail - Why does our postie leave the mail for our block at the bottom of the stairs? I think he is paid to deliver it to the flat, not just dump it. I don't like having to rifle through other people's mail to find mine.

2) To Oxford Council - Why has our recycling not been collected for three weeks? Why do they take the glass and paper but not the tins?

I have to get around to making my complaint to BA for the rubbish flight to Geneva and it will be a triple complaint week.

Complaining rules!

Steve vs lovefilm.co.uk

Result: Score draw!

I thought I would win this one, but lovefilm (formerly screenselect) offered me a fair compromise so I accepted it.

The end result is that I pay for 1 month's subscription - the October WOAH *realisation* I was about to mention how I was going to get 3 months subscription free but I just realised they have tricked me again and all I get is 1.5 month free subscription.

They really are a bunch of shysters! These "free subscriptions" are really just a way for them to get hold of your credit card, so that when you forget to cancel it, they can charge you the full subscription. In this case I didn't forget to cancel it - I cancelled it and they decided to keep sending me DVDs anyway and charge me for the privilege.

To put it simply, my free sub was due to expire on 4th October, so on 2nd October I cancelled it and sent my last DVD back. Despite cancelling the account on the 2nd, when they received my returned DVD on the 3rd they sent me another DVD. Apparently they had already processed my account so they couldn't prevent the next DVD being sent. As I was sent another DVD, there was no way I could return it before the 4th, so I got charged for a full subscription. Does that stink of a con to anyone else?

So I took this as an opportunity to complain. However, these guys weren't budging. Even when I worked out the reason they were charging me was because I had sent back the "extra" DVD after the account had been cancelled. Seriously, trying to get these guys to admit they are in the wrong and credit me my money is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

After lots of complaint emails, the eventually offered me 3months free for paying for the unintentional 1 month. What I've just realised as I typed this is that they count from when I paid that amount till now as included in the "free" extra sub time. All that time I was in dispute with them so wasn't using it! Cheeky ba$tards!

So now I have "accepted" their offer I probably can't get back to complaining, so I will just have to watch some DVDs for a month and a half.

Well here is my final "complaint" email for posterity. Feel my wrath!

Hi,

I have worked out exactly what your mistake is now.

I cancelled the account on the 2nd and sent the DVD (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) back that day which was received on the 3rd. As the billing date was the 4th that should have been enough to close the account. As I had cancelled the account I should not have been sent any more DVDs. Please note I received the "cancellation pending email" on the 2nd stating I just had to return this DVD for the account to be closed (this email was forwarded to you recently).

Despite cancelling the account and sending back "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" I was still sent another DVD on the 3rd which I received on the 4th (I think it was "Ray"). You state that I have been charged because I sent my final DVD back which was received on the 11th, which was after the billing date of the 4th. However you are charging me in relation to a DVD that was sent AFTER I had cancelled the account. I should NOT have been sent this DVD so I should NOT be charged on the basis of its late return. As I was not expecting to receive this last DVD (having cancelled the account) I was not available to return it immediately, hence you have only received it back on the 11th.

I trust the situation has been fully explained to you now. You cannot charge me a subscription on the basis of a DVD that was sent to me in error AFTER I had cancelled the free trial.

Please credit me as soon as possible.

Thanks

-Steven

iphoto is the work of Beelzebub I tell thee!

Trying to sort out my photos since I left the macs at NIMR and am now on a PC at home.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of using iphoto when I was on the macs. It's all very pretty and nice when your on the mac, what it doesn't tell you is that it is cunningly re-organising all your photo folders so that you will never know where anything is again!

I wonder what's in folder 29? Oh of course, it's folders 8,9,11,13 and 16 which each have some of the photos that you though might be in a sensibly named folder like 'California Photos'. Grrrrr

Then when I try to delete some of them I'm told they're 'in use'. LIES! I am not using the folder so damn well put it in the recycle bin you stupid little...

Once I've sorted this out, I'll be sticking to Picasa.

Distraction leads to AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Last Thursday I was I was on the West side of the Oxford Ring Road in the 50mph section doing a bit over 50 in the outside lane of the dual carriageway overtaking some slower vehicles.

In my mirrors I noticed someone coming up fairly quickly behind me and though it was just some agressive git in a hurry. I knew we were coming up to the NSL section, so I just thought I would hold my speed and make sure I dominated the lane with my positioning, then open the throttle at the NSL and speed away.

The car got very close, then vanished from my mirrors - it was overtaking me even though I was in the outside lane! I didn't think there was anyway the car could get past but she was right over near the central crash barrier!

I put my thumb on the horn and kept it there for a good long while. I was kind of in disbelief so kept up with her just sounding the horn. I then went alongside her and kept sounding the horn (just got the horn fixed!)

It wasn't some male git though - it was a bloody pensioner - must have been in her 60s!

I kept sounding the horn and she paid absolutely no attention to me. I think she might have mouth 'oh go away', but there was absolutely no acknowledgement. I think I would have been happier if she'd given me the finger!

I looked in the car to see if there was a dying child in there or something as that was the only excuse that I could think of for that sort of driving, but she was alone.

So on Thursday night I phoned Thames Valley Police to report it. They told me I would have to go to a police station in person to report it, then the woman would at least get a letter warning her about her dangerous driving.

Well, I went to the station tonight and it turns out that I can't report it without an independent witness!

I was somewhat... annoyed and went back to ride my bike home... whereupon I tried to ride off without removing the disc-lock! End result - me dropping the bike and now my caliper bracket is snapped. The brakes still seemed to work so I rode the bike the 1.5 miles 30mph journey home, but there's no way I'm riding it at 70mph+ to get to work.

So time to get on the phone to the breakers to get a new part. My bike has had nothing but bad luck since I moved to Oxford.

It's a shame as I was in such a good mood after winning an Ebay auction for an Autocom intercom unit for the motorbike.

British Gas: Incompetent or liars?

Try a Google search using the search phrase British Gas Incompetent and you will find quite a few results.

My experience with British Gas over the past two weeks suggests that both of these desciptions could be applied to BG.

Now I've already posted about BG, but the situation has been (mostly) resolved so I think it's time to re-cap.

Firstly, credit for the title for this entry goes here to someone I have already linked to and who had a similar experience to me. I comparison to this guy's experience I had a walk in the park...

Anyway the events in short were:

Week past Sunday (19th March) the boiler starts leaking while I'm away. Wendy is in and call BG Home Care who sent an engineer to stop the leak. Good start. They say that they will send someone on Tuesday to fix it properly.

Tuesday 21st - I take the afternoon off work to wait for the engineer. No show. They apologise and say the engineer will be sent on Friday.

Wednesday 22nd - The hot water stops working.

Friday 24th - I take the afternoon off work. No show at specified time. I phone. They say the engineer will come between 5 and 10pm. I get a call at 8.30pm. "Has the engineer been yet sir?". No! Oh, well he finished work at 5pm, so he won't be there tonight. I'm sorry. I promise he will come between 10am and 12 tomorrow morning.

Saturday 25th - Eventually after many phone calls an engineer comes at 7pm. Unfortunately, he says that he can't repair it as he is only out on an emergency call. He diagnoses what is wrong with the hot water and orders the required part.

An engineer is scheduled to come on Tuesday, so Wendy takes the day off to wait for them.

Tuesday 28th - no show.

Wednesday 29th - I take the morning off to wait. The engineer enetually turns up, but knows nothing about the lack of hot water so doesn't have the part to fix it. He tinkers with the leak.

Thursday 30th - I take another morning off - he comes and now fixes the hot water! Hoorah!


What I can't be bothered mentioning is the dozens of phone calls we made to BG. Everytime I would have to recount the whole story and I would get wildly different stories off different people, including, what I can only describe as blatant lies.

I got fairly angry, and it reminded me of a Michael Douglas film, 'Falling Down' (see pic). You feel like some kind of hostage - absolutely powerless to control the situation, just waiting for the flood of incompetence from BG to subside so that someone might actually turn up and do something.

Im just lucky that my manager was so understanding and allowed me to take so much time off. As it is, I have to work the hours back, so for the next week or two I have a lot of late nights ahead! What would have happened if I was a school teacher or a factory worker? Would a BG call centre monkey be allowed to take six half days off to let an engineer in? I doubt it.

From speaking to the engineer when he was here, I felt quite sorry for him. From his stories it is clear that British Gas is in complete chaos, and, at the moment, doesn't know its arse from its elbow. And the poor engineers are on the front line taking the flak.

Time for a strongly worded letter. I bet I get another 'I can only apologise' brush-off. I have heard so many 'I can only apologise' statements from BG. Not sure if I could handle one written down...


Oh... the boiler is still leaking, but I think we'll make do with a pan underneath it for now!

First post - British Gas Home Care is rubbish!

Well, I've been meaning to do something to my website for ages and I've taken the easy option and turned it into a blog, using Blogger.

So my first post will be to moan about British Gas...

Our boiler has been dodgy for a while. It was leaking, so we called out British Gas (BG) as our landlord has BG Home Care cover. They came out and fixed the leak. Fair enough.

Last weekend while I was away it started leaking again and we now have no hot water. Wendy phoned BG who said they would send an engineer on Tuesday pm. I arranged with my work to go home early that afternoon. The engineer is supposed to come between 2 and 4pm. I wait. At 4.30pm I phone BG. "Oh sorry he's been delayed and will be with you between 5 and 10pm." Hmmm... okay I'll just stay in and wait.

8.30pm I get a phone call from BG. "Sorry but the engineer won't be coming tonight - he finished work at 5pm." That's quite annoying.

I rearrange for the engineer to come on Friday after 4pm. So I have to take some more time off work. I phone up on Friday to confirm he is coming. "Oh, your slot is 12-6pm, but there is a note to call after 3pm." So, I have to get home for 3pm. Another afternoon at work lost.

I go home. I wait. I phone. It seems he's been called to an emergency and won't be coming tonight. I'm promised he will come tomorrow (Saturday - today) between 11 and 12.

So today, I wait till 12 then phone. Blah, blah, our appointment is 'all day' and he will be here before 6pm. It's 4.47pm and he's still not here.

Some Googling suggests that I am not alone in finding BG to be completely incompetent. There was a Guardian article about it recently and this personal account of BG's imcompetence maked interesting, if depressing, reading.

So, I am currently in the middle of a BG nightmare and don't know ho wit will end. :(