Month: January 2010

Apple iFad, sorry, iPad

| Richard

So Apple has unveiled its new iPad, a tablet of around the same size as a netbook PC but at twice the price, as usual, because people who like Macs are prepared to pay for the pleasure.

What you get for at least $500 – so £500 in the UK, then – will be a glorified ebook reader with the ability to look at photos or browse the web and send e-mail … provided you’re at a WiFi hotspot because it doesn’t ship to start with with any 3G connectivity (and won’t at that price either).

What’s worse is that, like an ebook reader, it’s not exactly pocket sized either.

Now if you’re in the market for an ebook reader that’s twice the price and that brings the option of web browsing where there’s a WiFi hotspot – and with no USB ports a 3G dongle is not an option – then you might want to consider it. For me, I’ll make do with a 3G phone for portability and the ability to look at photos, play music or films, and send e-mail and browse the Internet, or I’ll use a cheap netbook like the one I already have that does a similar job for half the price.

Thanks, but no thanks, Apple.

Another Tesco.com Non-Delivery

| Richard

Oops! They did it again. After the recent debacle with Tesco cancelling my groceries delivery after the expiry of their two hour delivery slot, I placed another order at the weekend for delivery tonight between 8.00pm and 10.00pm.

And guess what? Yes, they rang me at 9.20pm and cancelled tonight’s delivery leaving me without food and milk due to a problem with the van. Great! Tesco cannot afford more than a man with a van that’s a bit rickety, apparently.

The customer services operator was surly at best but after prompting from me, he promised me another £10 voucher against my next online shop and in the meantime rescheduled the delivery for Wednesday night.

We’ll see if they can be arsed this time!

It doesn’t really matter though because after I’ve used that voucher, I’ll be switching to Sainsbury’s…

YouTube – Contact Us

| Richard

Well I would … if I could find a contact form that doesn’t threaten me with being banned if I use it!

I’ve now received two ’strikes’ in 6 months from YouTube on an account of mine for videos I’d posted a couple of years ago. They’re not explicit or anything and yet – according to YouTube:

The following video(s) from your account have been disabled for violating the YouTube Community Guidelines:

  • {Video Name}

Everyone hates spam. Misleading descriptions, tags, titles or thumbnails designed to increase views are not allowed. It’s also not OK to post large amounts of untargeted, unwanted or repetitive content, including comments and private messages.

This is the second Community Guidelines warning sanction your account has received within six months. Accordingly, the ability to post new content to YouTube from this account has been disabled and will not return until two weeks after you acknowledge this message. Please review the YouTube Community Guidelines and refrain from further violations, which may result in the termination of your account(s).

Helpful eh? Of course they’ve also helpfully removed my ability to actually access the ‘offending’ video but having looked at the one in question offline, I really, really don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

So I thought I’d ask them to clarify what was wrong, but no. There’s no actual way on the YouTube site for me to be able to query this with anyone. How stupid are these people?

Tesco.com Grocery Non-Delivery

| Richard

Well thank you very much!

I put through an order for a load of groceries from Tesco.com for delivery tonight between 8.00pm and 10.00pm.

At 9.30pm, I had a quick look online for my order to check the delivery slot and the website said I could not change it as they were currently filling the order.

No sign of the delivery by 10.00pm.

At 10.04pm, I get a text telling me that they have had to cancel my order due to bad weather. It’s not actually snowing and the road between my flat and the store is passable. Of course, if they’d have cancelled my order earlier and told me then, I could have gone out myself and got my groceries earlier this evening!

I am not a happy bunny and I’m waiting in a long telephone queue now…

[later] Well they’ve apologised and are sending me a £10 e-voucher to use for my next shop. Off I now have to trot to get my essentials…

Candy Tumble Dryers – Summer Use Only!

| Richard

I recently needed to buy a new tumble dryer. After the horrendous service I’d received from Currys, there was no way I was going there again, so Comet it was. They had a Candy GOV58F vented tumble dryer at a reasonable price, so we bought it and I connected it up.

When we actually came to use it properly, it started but within a few seconds stopped and all the lights flashed. Nothing in the manual helped and it was the same whether we were using the sensor drying programmes or timed drying. So we rang the 24 hour service number which is only working from 9 to 5…

Eventually we spoke to them today: apparently when it’s cold, the sensor gets too cold and refuses to allow the dryer to run. It’s a known fault. And the remedy?

“Try using the dryer when it’s warmer.”

Like? When it’s not winter or when we’d be pegging things out on the line? Ah…

Currys – Avoid At All Costs

| Richard

I don’t think I have ever experienced such terrible ’service’ from any company in my life before!

A few weeks ago, I decided to buy a new dishwasher. After looking on the John Lewis web site, I found a suitable model but it was out of stock. Currys’ website indicated they would price match as they were overpriced in comparison. Ringing them elicited the response that yes they would price match and take a further 10% off but no, we couldn’t order one until Friday as it was out of stock, but maybe we could find one in store.

Off to Grimsby Currys on the Saturday afternoon. After looking around at what they had in store, I eventually had to go and break up a cosy chat between four of their staff to get one of them, Jenny Noble, to actually sell us one as they were apparently uninterested in serving us. She graciously allowed us to make a purchase of an integrated dishwasher but as it was now 3.01pm, they wouldn’t deliver it on Sunday, as we’d missed the 3.00pm deadline…

We were told that delivery was free but that we could pay extra to have it delivered, installed and the old one disposed of. We were charged £20 extra for this.

So today it was delivered but we were told that the delivery man was only dropping the new one off as he had 5 minutes only and 30 deliveries to do.

We rang Currys who eventually said they would get Rob, the manager, to check with Jenny and ring me. They didn’t. I rang back and was told that no, she wouldn’t have made a mistake and the additional money we were charged was for … something else. After much to-ing and fro-ing, I was told that installation would cost another £100 but Rob would allow us 20% off that. I argued that we’d already paid for installation and after Curry’s Customer Services hung up on me after refusing to put me through to a supervisor, we were told that Rob had withdrawn his generous offer and if I wanted installation it would cost another £100.

I told them to come and collect it: it would be on the driveway.

In the meantime, my partner was telephoned and it was agreed that they would refund the £20 … but I’d have to go to Grimsby from London to get the refund! Eventually a few days later we actually got the refund.

So thanks to Rob at Curry’s Grimsby, we’re never, ever buying anything from Currys again, anywhere in the country. I already don’t buy from them online as Currys’ online prices are much more expensive than Amazon’s anyway. Oh and that will also extend to PC World who are part of the same group of companies.