Well I’ve gone and done it: I’ve just bought a secondhand 2006 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade in red and black from Robspeed in Grimsby.
I won’t be collecting it until June 11th as they are going to be fitting some new Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa tyres, some crash bungs, braided hoses, a tail tidy and some bespoke graphics to hide a big stone chip in the fairing.
In the meantime, here are some photos of the bike as it is at the dealers:
I suppose I’ve been spoiled by online merchants like Amazon and even Dell. I expect to place an order online, fill in my debit or credit card details, specify a delivery address and then expect my goods within a few days.
Sadly, not all big names are like this.
HP are, without doubt, the most useless company to try to buy directly from.
My daughter needs a laptop for university so I’d narrowed the selection down and found a decent option at John Lewis (where she gets staff discount). I then looked at HP’s own website where they were offering the same unit with £150 off, so that was the cheaper option. I filled in my details online, billing address as my debit card and delivery address to my partner’s house where most other stuff gets delivered to. This was on the 9th May. They then did nothing with the order until the 12th, when they rejected it, helpfully telling me:
“Thank you for shopping at the HP Store.
Unfortunately, the order cannot be completed, as we are unable to verify some of the details on the order used for the purposes of our payment verification process.
Please note that there is nothing to worry about, and if you believe that your details were recorded incorrectly on the order, please re-submit, checking that the information given is complete and correct.
Some helpful hints:
- Â Â Â Your credit/debit card must be registered to the billing address provided;
- Â Â Â The billing address is to be entered in the same format as what appears on your credit/debit card statement;
- Â Â Â The card holders name must be the same as the person stated in the order billing address details;
-    An alternative payment option may be available via HP Store, such as bank transfer (BACS).If you have any further queries relating to this order, please contact our customer service team by emailing {removed} or calling our advisors on 084.560.429.21 (lines are open Monday – Friday 09:00 – 17:30).”
I was travelling that day, but rang from the hotel given that none of those “helpful hints” matched whatever issue they were having. I was offered the option of prepayment instead so I placed the order again and was told to expect an e-mail with payment details. This arrived a few minutes later:
“Thank you for shopping at the HP Store. We acknowledge the receipt of your order and we are currently checking all the data.
Your order number is: {removed}-002
The acceptance of the order is dependent on receipt of your payment. You will receive an order confirmation email as soon as the order has been approved.
We will send you a pro forma invoice along with payment instructions within the next days. However, if you would prefer to arrange for immediate payment, please find below the required information, allowing you to proceed with the fund transfer:
BACS Instructions:
Payment Ref: {removed}
Please ensure that you provide your HP Store Order Number as payment reference.
The order will be released when HP has visibility of the funds in our bank account. Please note this can take up to 6 days, due to the banking process…”
So, as instructed, I made immediate payment using online banking and was told that payment would be made instantly. This was on May 12th. No order confirmation e-mail. No pro-forma invoice either. Nothing.
I rang them this morning. No, they hadn’t done anything with the order as it usually takes them a few days to match the payment to the order – despite me putting that as the payment reference – and that they now needed me to send them proof of payment. This meant taking a screen capture, editing it to remove all the other details and then e-mailing it to them. Nothing at all about this in their e-mails, obviously. That would be way too easy, wouldn’t it?
We will see what transpires now. Just as well she doesn’t need it for a couple of months, eh?
In the meantime, a challenge for you: try to visit the HP website and work out how to track your order. The best I managed was to do it in six steps: Home | Support & Troubleshooting | HP Branded Products | Buy Direct Online | Buy HP products online direct from HP | Track My Order. Not exactly intuitive, is it?
Here are the videos I took (with apologies: I couldn’t actually see the screen as the sunlight was too bright).
After an early start – despite staying over at an ever-decreasing-quality Travelodge on Friday night, Jack, his mate and I made our way over to Japfest 2010 at Castle Combe Circuit. Loads of gorgeous Japanese cars, some trackday shenanigans and some demonstration drifting from some pros, coupled with brilliant sunshine meant a fabulous day. Here are some photos:
…is that that composite word is a contradiction in terms. My Nokia N97 is becoming the most annoying thing in my life at the moment. Why?
So I’ve decided to replace it with something else. Now, the iPhone is no good as it’s too large and restricted by network (unless you pay top dollar from Expansys) and I’m now no fan of touchscreens anyway. Sony Ericsson have a Google Android device that looks good but is again a touchscreen and Android’s implementation of Bluetooth is again full of fail in terms of voice dialling. No, if only I could have a GPS-equipped version of my favourite current phone, my SE W595.
Well that would appear to be the Sony Ericsson W995 then? Yes … and no. Can someone explain to me what on earth possessed SE to shove a metal stand on it? SRSLY, WTF? I mean, do they reckon that you’re going to get together with friends and family to sit around a tiny mobile phone perched on a coffee table to watch a movie? No, that’s what TVs are for! And in the meantime, that stand is going to be flapping around all over the place – take a look at any demo unit in a phone shop and see what I mean. So it’ll get caught when you put it in or out of your pocket. Being metal, it’ll scratch any other gadgets in the same pocket. Of course, I could just break it off or superglue it down, but that’s not a good way to treat a new phone, surely?
I have heard precisely nothing from anyone since that last post. The police came to see me to take a statement and asked me if I was prepared to give evidence in Court (to which I answered “damn right I am!”) and there was a bit of a rush for them to get it from me. And then silence.
I’d spoken to the insurance company to ask them about buying it back when it was recovered and a week or two later got a phone call from them asking me if I knew where the bike was as – apparently – the police hadn’t been in touch with them.
Since then? Not a thing!
Alan, a friend from the ZRXOC – where his nickname is sifu2 – sent me a DVD with his footage from Kawasaki Day at the Ace Café which I’ve ripped and uploaded (with his permission, of course). It’s on YouTube but also here:
Click it to start and/or go large.
I have been pondering the present economic crisis and looking at what is behind the latest financial scare, Greece’s debt reclassification as junk.
The company behind this latest panic is S&P and their word is gospel to governments and financial markets. And they were, of course, the ones who gave AAA ratings to the “collateralised debt obligations” that brought about the major global financial collapse and indeed gave Lehmans an A rating shortly before their collapse (excuses here). Oh and there’s some good analysis from the BBC’s Robert Peston here.
Arse? Elbow? They don’t know.
But what if Greece were to say, “no, S&P are right and our debts are worthless. Tell you what, world, why don’t you shove your debt up your bum because we’re not going to pay”? What would everyone else do? Send the bailiffs round to collect their televisions? I doubt it. So Greece, why not simply say you’re going to continue with the austerity measures and get your balance of payments back in kilter and become self-sufficient so as to be able to become less reliant on world trade and certainly world financial markets. Because, realistically, what can the rest of the world actually do?
Oh and S&P (aka Standard and Poor)? Fuck off!
Well Nunns have sorted things out: they arranged for me to bring the batmobile in today to fit a new relay for the rear foglight – it switches to the trailer when the towbar electrics are connected and back to the car’s when it’s disconnected – and a different iPod integration module following Nunns’ discussions wit Mazda Europe.
And lo and behold, it works with my old iPod as well as my new “RexPod”, displaying track number (from the playlist) or artist or track names.
Result!
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