More Service From HTC

Finally getting to the bottom of my HTC service woes. Actually spoke to the repair centre today, who claim that there is no way that my phone could have been scratched while in their care. When I told them that after the first repair it had come back without a screen protector it sounded like I was making it up :( They also said that I didn't fill in the check sheet the first time to say there were no scratches, well that was because there were no scratches. Also really annoyed that it's taken days of effort from me to actually get this information out of them.

HTC Service: No Longer Funny

So I sent my HTC Touch HD back for the third time a week ago. Usually by this point I have had about three emails giving me some useless, meaningless, but I now realise still reassuring, information. I called today as I am going on holiday tomorrow, and I don't really want it delivered while I am away. The first call made me wonder if they had just lost it. The phone that is. The guy said that it had been delivered but that "delivery had failed" and then asked if it had been collected. Well yes. He didn't call me back. The second person tried to call the repair centre while I was on hold. When they didn't pick up he explained that they might be on a break, and would I like him to ask their secretary to get them back in from their break. Not especially. He also couldn't see any record of my request to not have the phone delivered until I'm back from holiday. He didn't call back either. At 5 I called back again, and finally was told that my phone was "on hold" due to the fact that I hadn't replied to the email that I hadn't received. Apparently I needed to answer some question, which she couldn't tell me, but she would email the repair centre, which by this time was closed, who would email me the question again.

Recommended Listening

This year's ever excellent Reith Lectures began this morning on Radio 4. The first lecture, Markets and Morals is especially relevant with the news today of Shell capitulating days before they go to court over the executions of Nigerian activists 13 years ago.

Favourite quote from the lecture: "We need to recognise that there are some things that money can’t buy and other things that money can buy but shouldn’t."

Scratches Without The Service

I spoke too soon. Once I'd received my phone back for the second time, still scratched, I wasn't so happy with HTC's service. I am even less happy with their service a day later when neither of the two people who've promised to get back to me have done so, and I still haven't received any emails regarding the next pick up.

Apparently they have two problems. My phone is regarded as still in transit, despite the fact that I have it in my pocket, this means that they cannot open a new support call. Also they have just discovered that they cannot make outgoing calls, to people such as the transit company/department to ask about why my phone is reported as still in transit. Presumably this is also why no one has called me back, though why they didn't know they wouldn't be able to call me back is anyone's guess.

Incidentally I have found that the best way to get through to someone quickly who will be able to hear and understand you is to dial 01279 206906 and then choose technical support, option 2.

Something That Sucks About news.bbc.co.uk

I really like the BBC News site, but there is one aspect that completely sucks: search. First you type in your search terms, so far so good. Now press enter or click "Search". What's this? A random list of results from the entire BBC site. But I was on the news site, blatantly I want news results only. So click on "News & Sport". Now I want the most recent result, so I click "Order by date". But I'm not getting the video I want. Oh, videos are separate, of course, on the right. So I click "more like this" under the videos, but it's not there. Now how do I get back to the normal results? How many clicks is that? I don't know, I've lost the will to live.

Eventually I gave up and found the video I was after on YouTube. Albeit in worse quality.

Another thing they could do would be to provide links to new stories from previous articles on the same story, currently they only do it in the opposite direction.

What I Learnt Today

When you get spam messages from your friends on Yahoo! Messenger! and the like about pills to reduce the size of your measurement in one direction or increase it in another, it is apparently not because that friend has a virus on their computer as I mistakenly assumed, it is apparently because their password has been compromised and there is some presumably automated process out there sending messages remotely. So my replies of "you have a virus" were wasted, you actually need to email your friends and tell them to change their passwords. So if you happen to be reading this Sonia, Diana, Morgan or Raquel, change your passwords.

Service With A Scratch

About a month ago my phone (an HTC Touch HD) started to behave oddly, often not having reception in residential areas and not being able to make calls or send text messages even when it did. Being used to fluffy (l)user support calls I gave it some time and eventually compared the reception of my phone to my friend's HTC Diamond Pro. The reception of my phone was undoubtedly, markedly worse so I started the returns' procedure, which apart from an amusing email ("The quotation has been resolved... Don’t worry, we’ll keep you fully informed.") and phone call ("What does 'The quotation has been resolved' mean?... This line's very bad... isn't that a bit of a problem for a call centre?") went smoothly and my phone was picked up and fixed under warranty, without question (despite the fact I'd bought it on eBay) in 5 working days. However the screen has been scratched and the unlock code wouldn't work as they'd changed the main board and hence the IMEI number. So I called them up again (I have to say that it really is a lot more pleasant and less stressful to speak to a native English speaker) and again they agreed to take it back to fix it without question, they will even collect it this very afternoon. So I am left with an overall sense that HTC offers good service, despite the fact that if their phone hadn't broken in the first place, and then hadn't been scratched while being repaired I wouldn't have had to go through their returns procedure, no matter how quick and pain-free it is.

UPDATE

Bear Grylls Is A Fucking Idiot

I've only seen two bits of Bear Grylls' TV program. Is it just coincidence that both of them have brought me to the conclusion that he's a fucking idiot? The first time I just walked in in time to see him crawling breathlessly a few metres through a mangrove swamp in Panama. He finds some sort of mussel type thing, stabs it with his knife, tastes it, spits it out with a horrified "UGH" and throws the poor wasted thing away. He then climbs a tree for no apparent reason, takes his shirt off for no apparent reason, other than perhaps to give the lucky viewers a chance to see his torso and does a frivolous back flip off the tree back into the swamp. He then struggles another couple of meters onto a sandbank, spies a crab which he again stabs with his knife. He lets us know that the crab is well and truly dead, despite the fact that it is still desperately trying to flee and you can almost hear it screaming in pain and frustration. He then rips off one of its claws, sucks out some of the flesh, again finds that the taste is not to his liking and throws the wretched creature away.

The second clip that I saw was picked for me by the annoying guy with stupid hair from the Saturday Night Project. In it Bear Grylls is demonstrating that you can drink the freshly squeezed juice of elephant dung. Nobody needs to know that, let alone have it demonstrated. He's just showing off.

Now it may seem that all survival shows are this pointless and frivolous, but somehow people such as Ray Mears just don't seem that bad. Ray Mears is so much calmer and more thoughtful, and although I can't really see myself getting stranded in the Rockies and needing his camping skills, he does demonstrate things that you could see yourself doing. I cannot see myself trying still warm crab, nor elephant shit juice. Apparently I am not the only one to make this comparison.

If you're interested, the first clip I mentioned is here and here, but you really don't need to find a specific bit of his program it's all ridiculous, just before these clips he covers himself in mud.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that my parents seem to think that Bear Grylls is some sort of modern day missionary, though I am not sure where they got that idea from.

UPDATE: Apparently he has helped some people.

UPDATE: Thanks to Anonymous below for pointing out:

These hilarious videos (you need to watch to the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBmhNA7JME4#t=1m

And this video showing that Bear Grylls continuously lies about being the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7xjwq_6ng

The World Is Not Barclay's Oyster

I started using a new wallet recently. And my oyster card stopped working. My being a cyclist combined with the rush usually associated with public transport I didn't have a lot of opportunity to investigate. It was a bit confusing though as it is just a standard leather wallet. It recently occurred to me however that it could be down, not to my wallet, but my new Barclay's debit card, which has these wavy lines on. I called Barclay's only to be told, rather condescendingly that the two cards will not interfere. So I off I trotted to Blackfriar's station, had a little chat with the guard and did some testing. Sure enough, the Oyster card was fine when my Barclay debit card was not in my wallet. The card reader even stated "Too many oyster cards" when my debit card was present. So I called Barclay's again to request a new card sans "wave and pay" technology. No deal. But I was told that I needed to call Oyster and give them my card details which would sort the problem. Needless to say I was not convinced. I called Oyster, but unfortunately I don't seem to have the right sort of card, you have to have a OnePay card to be able to pay for Oyster directly from your Barclay card. I am now bored of talking to people in call centres, do I really have to move banks to fix my Oyster card?

UPDATE: My third phone call to Barclay's got the answer I was after: Apparently I can request to "downgrade" my debit card, but only at my local branch.

See also my further update.

Welcome To The 21st Century

I called my GP surgery today to ask for a repeat prescription. I was staggered by their response: email the request.

If it's surprising to see the NHS finally reach the computer age (I can also view my blood results on-line, though there seems to be no cohesion between departments, the website I use is for renal patients only) you would hope that a major telecoms company has their shit together, unfortunately this is often not the case. When I signed up with O2 broadband I had to use a different username and account to my mobile account. After a little while I was given the option to link the two accounts, but this does not mean that the two are integrated, just that I only have one username, I have to chose to switch between the accounts once I am logged in, despite the fact that I have a "My Broadband" link while using my mobile account.

Paypal are still sending out emails that look phishy, showing a link that looks like paypal.co.uk, but which actually links to email1.paypal.com/xyz.

I've had increasing levels of spam in my gmail inbox in the last couple of weeks, I can't remember the last time I saw a piece of spam before then. It started with one or two a day but rose to about 7 on Sunday. I haven't had any today or yesterday so hopefully that's the end of it.