Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Barclays' Definition of an Upheld Complaint

A little while ago I made a complaint on the Barclays website about my Barclays Debit Card vs Oyster woes. I wasn't really expecting a response having never had one before, but not only did I get one response, I got two! Admittedly the first was to say that they had promised to keep my updated, and so they were keeping my updated by letting me know that they hadn't finished investigating yet. But the second letter (banks haven't discovered email yet) was the really exciting one. They admitted that some customers had had problems, and went on to say that they didn't have a solution for the problem yet* and then, and this is the best bit, they went on to say that my complaint has not been upheld. Let me just recap, they admit that they have a problem, they admit that they don't have a fix, and yet my complaint is not upheld. One wonders under what circumstances Barclays would uphold a complaint.

* In the meantime I have been to my local branch to request a non-Wave and Pay debit card as suggested. A very helpful chap called the debit card issuing department who said it wouldn't be possible, but after three days he called me back to say that they'd found one down the back of the sofa and that it would be on its way to me soon. I have yet to receive it.

UPDATE: I got on a bus on Friday and did my usual trick of waving my wallet around at the Oyster reader and the bus driver actually asked me if I had a Barclays' card, so it's obviously quite a common issue.

Monday, September 07, 2009

WeGame.com Spam

I got these two spammy looking messages this morning informing me that "Fioleau" waned to show me a picture. I marked them as spam and clicked the unsubscribe link. But then a friend of mine said he'd received the same thing and that we did actually know a "Fioleau". Curiosity getting the better of me, I foolishly clicked on the "YES" link. Of course, I had to sign up, so I did*. The hilarious, amazing, funny, life-changing image is shown, top-right. Once I had got up off the floor from ROFLMAO I looked for the "delete my account" button. There must be one somewhere, surely? No. In fact I can't even see a "logout" link.

Did "Fioleau" really want to ruin my day with that image, or did WeGame go through her address book spamming every address she had?

* I signed up using a different address to the one that I was spammed on, and at no point did WeGame check I had access to the address I used.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Best Sausage Roll Ever (London, St. Paul's)

Grace Sausage RollAs well as doing fantastic coffees and quality sundry lunch items, Grace on Creed Ginger Pig Sausage RollsLane, near St Paul's (in grey here in its previous guise as Tantric Tonic) also do the most perfect sausage rolls (crappy picture, left). Light, crisp and flaky pastry surrounds just the right amount of coarsely ground pork and a whiff of mustard. I'm really not into Ginger Pig sausage rolls (right) where the sausage is the size and shape of your fist.