Barclay's PINSentry

When I first received Barclay's little calculator-a-like PINSentry device I was pretty annoyed, nobody likes change, and I didn't really want to have to carry it around with me all the time, but I've got used to doing just that, and I now have a Nationwide one too which works with Barclay's card which I keep at home, and obviously the added security is a benefit. However, whenever I try to pay somebody for the first time I have to enter the details ten or so times while the pages cycle from step 3 to step 4 back to step 3 without any error messages. So having tried my ten or so times, and my patience, I finally rang Barclay's to enquire what might be going wrong. The chap on the other end was ever so slightly patronising and asked me to go through it with him, and it worked. He said "you're welcome" without me even thanking him and I felt like screaming "YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!" But I suppose I should take this as the lesson it is, as it is usually I who stand there watching as the computer miraculously behaves itself while I'm watching trying to keep my patronising and sarcastic thoughts to myself. Just yesterday a client rang to say that our software had somehow deleted a different record to the one that she was on.

Kai has also blogged on this too of course.

Opodon't

I have never known a company as bad as Opodo, they don't even give you the option to opt out, they just tell you when you order to "please automatically subscribe through the unsubscribe link in our emails or email us at unsubscribe@opodo.com."

Junk Mail

Oh my God I hate junk mail. I have had to ring up Virgin Media three times. They had our hose down as the house and two flats. I swear I have told BT before that I don't want any of their crap. I usually find that ringing the number on the junk gets best results. It was actually quite frustrating ringing Virgin as they were so reasonable and polite. Sky is another major offender.

Thoughts On British Gas

British Gas have to be the most incompetent fuckwits I have ever had to deal with. They cannot even keep their own appointments. My flatmate waited in last week, took a day off work, and they didn't turn up. Today we arrive home to find one of those notes to say they came but no one was in. Well what a fucking shocker, maybe that's because you were A WEEK LATE.

A few months ago we had some problems with our boiler. They first needed to come round and assess the situation. Someone then came round to fit a new expansion vessel. He arrived in the afternoon and when he saw the boiler said that it was an all day, two person job. He went away and left the expansion vessel with us. In the mean time a private firm came round. They informed us that the expansion vessel wouldn't solve our hot water problems, and that they didn't think the expansion vessel that had been left with us was the correct model. Over a series of long phone holds and eventual conversations I tried to persuade various people on the phone that we needed a different part. I don't even need to tell you what the outcome was.

Fixed Variables

Kai has previously blogged on this, the practice of charging/paying a fixed amount each month for a variable bill. How does this make sense? Who benefits? Do the companies hope that eventually you'll start over paying and forget about it? I suppose it might be argued that the customer benefits as their bill is buffered. I was pretty shocked at my latest BT bill which stated that unless I contacted them they would more than double my monthly payment. How did they get it so wrong in the first place? My bill is very little over my fixed monthly line rental. I called and asked why I couldn't just pay the actual bill each month, well I can!