An Ipswich Shopper

Charging me up - getting new phone batteries

2008-04-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

My Nokia 6230 takes a small BL-5C battery. I've had it for a few years, so the battery doesn't take much of a charge any more. Getting a replacement has been a struggle, tho.

My first port of call was Amazon. Lots of those batteries there... until you discover that they're all practising a scam -- ask £4 a battery, and then £9 postage! Lots of stuff about 'genuine Nokia' batteries gives the impression of lots of counterfeits around, eh?

Anyhow, I order two: "Nokia Genuine Battery for 6230 Bl-5C Li-Ion Nokia Sealed product" - £8 each plus £8 P&P.

A day or so later, a tiny jiffy bag flops through the letter box. Posted first class letter post (cost less than 50p), it contains, loose, a single (1, not 2) BL-5C battery, not in any kind of wrapping at all, as if it had come straight out of the back of a phone. The P&P was clearly less than a pound. Back it went, and, to their credit, they made no fuss.

Bruised, I try ordering direct from Nokia online. They stock the batteries, but want a lot. Total order is £35! I order, sit, and wait. 8 days later, I look on their site, and it has not despatched. I email them and ask when it's available. No answer is received. Next day I telephone their customer service. I get an Indian who tells me that the order has been cancelled and that I should talk to my bank. As far as he is concerned that is the end of the matter. Considering the quantity of books I have bought over the last week, I know better. Nokia, it seems, don't care about customer service at all.

I'm not going back to Amazon. I want a reputable supplier. In the end I try an online advertiser again, Foneshop.com. I ordered two today, £23 including next day postage. Let's see what arrives...

Ipswich Hospital - robbing the sick?

2008-04-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

I went to see my GP today, and he asked me to do a sample and drop it in to Ipswich NHS Hospital for analysis. I drove up there, parked... and found that they wanted £2.50 for the privilege. I was there around 10 minutes in total.

Petty officials can be very mean and very impudent when they think that they can get away with it. It's hard to imagine such a nasty tax on the sick -- worst, of course, for those poor souls who must go there regularly.

The moral of the story is that the NHS probably needs to be abolished. It's sad to say, but what can you do with so rotten an institution? It's not as if it is free for most of us. It costs £100bn a year; since there are around 25 million workers in the country, that means each worker pays around £4,000 a year for the health service in tax. Most of us probably get about £15 a year of value from it. You could get a pretty huge amount of care for that sum, privately.

I'd rather have a proper NHS. But at the moment, we pay...and pay, and pay ... for one which is cheapskate in every respect.

I noted today that Rose Gibb, who was 'chief executive' of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent, and was forced to leave after a dirty-hospital scandal, is sueing for 'compensation' (See The Great Simpleton: Rewarding failure goverenment style). In my opinion she deserves to hang. What can you say, however, about an institution that handsomely rewards greed, impudence and negligence, at the cost of our health and lives?

British Gas - shortchanging the customer?

2008-03-10T03:19:00.000-07:00

I've had a British Gas homecare agreement for years. They used to service my boiler every August. In 2006, I got no letter arranging an appointment for this; I rang, eventually, and it was done in November. In 2007 likewise no letter arrived; I rang in January and it has been done today. Not that they serviced it -- today BG call it "an inspection".

The engineer managed to turn off my pilot light and couldn't restart it. This was very bad news, and somewhat annoying. I don't need to have someone come out to disable my system, after all. But then he announced that he would have to call someone else to fix it. "I don't carry parts" he said. "You'll be lucky to get someone today". "You need a technician". When I queried whether the service engineers used to carry parts, he confirmed that they did. "We used to do services in the summer and concentrate on breakdowns in the winter."

Fortunately it was merely being difficult, and restarted after a few attempts and a long wait to reset the thermostat. But I feel swindled. British Gas forced me to take half a day off work. If there was work to be done, that's fine; but to make me wait even longer, possibly a day or so, if they manage to break something?

I want my boiler serviced every year. But in fact they're stretching the window longer each year. And they don't service it, they carry out "an inspection". And then they won't fix any fault they find?

Cunning rascals

2008-03-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

After blogging on the Royal Mail scam, whereby they charge you an £8'international handling charge' to receive your parcel if customs decide to levy VAT on it, I thought that I would try complaining. The industry is regulated by PostComm, so I went to their web site. This said:

Contact Royal Mail
If you get no joy, try Postwatch
Otherwise you can sue (ha ha)

So you cannot, in fact, complain to Postcomm. It looks as if it is just a quango.

Anyhow I complained to Royal Mail who sent me a long canned email suggesting that I complain to HM Revenue and Customs. This, of course, was disingenuous -- it is Royal Mail who impose this charge -- indicating that Royal Mail know full well that they're engaged in a scam.

I then complained to Postwatch. I got back a long canned email from them, which was interesting in that it retailed the Royal Mail line and then added:

"Issues relating to customs and excise is outside Postwatch's remit therefore we cannot become involved in disputes regarding this matter."

In other words, because Royal Mail claim that this is to do with customs, they can charge us what they like?!

Clearly this is a loophole in the law, which Royal Mail have discovered and are abusing for profit. Nasty, nasty stuff.

One other interesting snippet:

"Customers can refuse to pay these duties and charges, in which case the goods will be returned to sender at Royal Mail's expense."

If only we could all do that, and specify that another operator be used.

Royal Mail "International handling fee" scam

2008-02-16T03:51:00.000-08:00

This is a good one!

I'm rarely in when Royal Mail deliver, so I often come home to a little red card on the mat telling me to come down to the sorting office and collect it.

In January I ordered some software on Ebay from a US supplier for $150, or about £75. Postage was $19, or about £10.

Then I came home to find a grey card on the mat. This demanded £21.45 in charges. The duty is merely VAT, at 17.5%, or around £12, so I scratched my head a bit at this.

Down I go to the sorting office. I query the charge, and they shrug and say 'nothing to do with us'. The parcel is presented, plus a sticker on the side, which says that the Royal Mail have added their own 'international handling fee' of £8!?!

And so it proves. A look at their web site reveals that a year ago they imposed this charge -- almost equal to the cost of international parcel post.

Clearly this is a rip-off. They've been paid to deliver the mail. If they want to put a sticker on it, that costs nothing. If they take money for the government, that costs almost nothing either. So the fee is just profit.

Is it really legal for Royal Mail to invent charges of any size, as a ransom demand, on mail for which postage has already been paid? Really? But who can afford lawyers in our country?

I don't much appreciate having to pay Gordon Brown £13.45 out of money which he has already claimed tax on at 46% (22% income tax + 11% 'national insurance' tax + 13% 'employers' -- as if! -- 'national insurance' tax). But Royal Mail are taking the p***.

Interestingly the sticker has two different telephone numbers on it; one is for HMRC about the VAT. But the other, added to the bottom, reads "Queries about contents or handling fee should be referred to Royal Mail International Tel: 08457 740 740". I imagine that HMRC got tired of getting irate phone calls, and insisted on Royal Mail printing this number as well. So they know, and Royal Mail know, that a scam is being perpetrated.

Adam Crozier, the CEO of Royal Mail, who thought this one up, is paid over £1m a year to invent ways to steal from the public like this. I don't know where he lives, but I hope his neighbours make his life hell.

See also:

http://paulm.com/inchoate/2005/04/customs_royal_mail_clearance_scam.html

The regulator is Postcomm. Their website is mainly about referring you to someone else! I've emailed a complaint to Royal Mail, so when they ignore it I can escalate it through their tree of people.

Not so Sage when it comes to Payroll

2007-12-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Sage Instant Payroll is something that we've used at my company for years. The directors used to do a run and pay people ad-hoc -- often missing several months out. But Instant Payroll coped with this. We also had to pay for SageCover -- £100 a year -- in order to get updates. However this seemed like poor value when we discovered that it didn't include more than telephone support (which we hardly ever used), a booklet telling you how to do the end-of-year, and a booklet with PAYE numbers to type in whenever Gordon Brown made his annual raid on our wallets.

A couple of years ago we dumped it. This was because we had to re-enter all the data at the end of year -- they hadn't checked that it actually worked!

But the HMRC calculators didn't do the job, so we bought another copy back in May. The interface is a bit weird. Worse, it had a bug so that you couldn't register the programme, and we had to ring up and ask for help. We didn't buy SageCover this time, until we were sure we were going to use it.

We ran the payroll then, and it seemed OK. Then we left it. But last week we needed to run it again. And... we couldn't. The damn thing just sat there. Our employees that we needed to pay simply would not appear in the list of employees to pay. They were there in Instant Payroll, but we couldn't pay them.

It looks as if Instant Payroll requires you to run a payroll run every month, whether you need to or not. This is a real problem for a small firm, which doesn't need to do this. Of course if you do a run paying nothing each month, you end up with a pile of payslips for your people and have to manually total the lot up to work out what to pay to who. This is NOT what you buy a software package for.

We were a bit cross at this. So we emailed Sage, customer relations and technical support. We accepted that we had no contract, and that we were out of the 30-day warranty period. But on the other hand we plainly had only just bought it, and didn't want to pay another fee to get it to work (if it could be got to work -- we don't know).

Sage didn't respond. No reply whatsoever. No doubt they felt that they had our money and we could go to hell.

All this suggests that Sage is in trouble. If they had any business sense at all, they should be ringing us up and trying to sell us something to get us out of our problem. (Indeed endless sales calls from SageCover is something I remember well). An unhappy customer can be turned into a delighted customer if you know your job. An angry customer can be turned into a customer for life if you keep your cool. But no customer thinks highly of a firm who ignore emails. I've read in the press that their profits have been taking a hit, and perhaps the firm really is in trouble.

So we won't be using Sage ever again for anything. They ripped us off; but never again. What we've decided to do is to ring up their competitors and make sure that the product will do the job. At the moment Tasbooks and MYOB are in the frame. If their product will help us, we'll use it. If their 'cover plans' give us something useful, we'll buy them.

Anyone want to buy a copy of Sage Instant Payroll?

Direct line to your wallet

2007-11-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

Insurance companies enjoy a chequered reputation. Direct Line have just managed to do something interesting. A letter arrived telling me that they were going to renew my insurance automatically. It seems that, without my knowledge, they had stored my credit card details. They had also awarded themselves a mandate to deduct from it every year, again without my knowledge.

I complained, of course, but got nowhere. I then complained to Barclaycard who said "what do you expect us to do?"

I would have thought that this was fraud. Apparently the rules are different for insurance companies.

The smell of Dell

2007-10-25T01:45:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would buy a laptop from Dell PC. I have two already, but the experience has been so horrific that I am now looking only to escape.

Yesterday I placed an order through their internet site for a laptop. The first sign of trouble was that the confirmation email didn't list the specification of the laptop that I had chosen -- thus I had no record of my choices. Going back into the system and trying to build the same system so that I could print it off came up with a different price! It seems to change, within an hour or two!

That night Barclaycard decided to throw a wobbly and block the payment (see elsewhere). They told me to ring up Dell and get them to attempt the charge again.

I ring Dell customer service. I get a robot. I follow the options and end up in a dead end. I try again. I get an Indian woman who asks for the details. She tells me that Dell don't send emails when orders fail, only when they work. After telling her the story, she then asks if the laptop has arrived! Obviously she didn't understand anything that I told her. I query this, and she starts demanding aggressively that I tell her if it has arrived. At that point I put the phone down and ring again.

This time I get another Indian, who asks for the details. She then transfers me to another Indian who asks for the details and transfers me to another one who does the same!

By now I am getting rather frustrated, but -- I have played before -- I remain calm and state my queries calmly and clearly.

I'm then put onto someone who clearly isn't an Indian, but tells me that the order will have died and that I will have to reorder the laptop again. At this point my instincts flare -- these people are so disorganised that I could easily end up with two! She passes me to a saleswoman -- another Indian -- who tells me that I want to make an order. Of course I don't, so she passes me back to 'customer service' -- the same gang of Indians as before.

The next one to come up asks once again for all the details of my order. This time I refuse, and say that I want to make a complaint. I am transferred to yet another Indian, who tells me that she is placing a complaint for me, but refuses to allow me to say what my complaint is -- she clearly doesn't understand what the word means! At this I snap and ask, calmly and clearly, for the order to be cancelled. This does seem to be understood, and I am told that I will get an email in 24-48 hours confirming the cancellation.

I wonder if they can manage that...

Barclaycard problems

2007-10-25T01:40:00.001-07:00

Barclaycard's fraud prevention team are destroying their business, I think.

In the summer I bought a holiday. I got a call one evening from Barclaycard telling me that they had declined the payment, since it was unusual and made overseas. I had to call up the holiday company and tell them to take the money again. This was a pain, but not unreasonable since the holiday company (for reasons known to themselves) had a payment processing company in Belgium.

Yesterday I tried to buy a laptop from Dell. Last night I got The Call. Barclaycard had decided to decline that payment too. Would I ring up Dell and tell them to take the money again. My experience doing that is detailed in the following post, but of course I couldn't get any cooperation. So I decided to cancel the order, and, since Dell were in such a mess, to make sure that the money was blocked.

I ring up Barclaycard, and have to listen endlessly to their robot system. Eventually I get through to someone who listens and blandly tells me that they can't block any payment from Dell -- why not? they did yesterday! -- and that if one is made I should just raise a claim. Well, that was worth sitting in a queue for!

Barclaycard ARE good for chargebacks. But I don't use a creditcard in order to have to ring up and confirm every purchase.

Orange Broadband problems

2007-08-27T00:41:00.000-07:00

Friday night, 8:45pm, I fire up my trusty laptop and hit the connect icon. And... nothing happens. All I get is a message that 'remote computer not responding'. I repeat for 2 hours, with no better results. Same all day Saturday, so I look to ring them.

One problem with Orange is that they hide their contact details. You can look on their web site for quite a while without finding a number, and, if you have no internet access, a number is what you need. In fact the status of their service can be found at 0845-330-7124. Customer services is 0870-010-2462.

I call them up, and end up on the phone for 22 minutes while they get me to create a new internet connection, reboot, etc, which of course fails. Then they tell me to keep my PC on for 4 hours (!) while they do a line test. But *I* have to ring them again -- on their national rate number, naturally -- to find out the results.

I don't use my PC on Sunday, so power the PC up at 8:15am on Monday. Still no connection. Turn off and draw curtains, etc. I then go for the phone, at 8:40, and restart my PC. To my amazement it connects. Evidently someone came into work at 8:30, saw that something was down and flipped a switch.

I'm not sure how I feel about Orange. Their service is very reliable, and outages are few. But they do not deal with them very well when they occur.

Certainly their customer service has improved from what it was last time, when they pretended never to have heard of my modem -- a Speedtouch 330 USB, which every single one of the customers they bought from Wanadoo would be using -- and simply tried to get me to sign up to a new contract. But... they still have some way to go. We wouldn't tolerate a telephone outage of 48 hours, without apology. Why should we expect one for the internet?

Wheel clamps

2007-08-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

Great news today that the government has issued new guidelines (although, when did we stop having laws subject to parliament and start having guidelines issued by anonymous civil servants?) to stop the menace of wheel-clamping. Let us all raise a glass to Ruth Kelly, who has put a stop to it.

This evil was always hated by everyone. It's worth remembering that all things pass. The government does dumb things, which we must endure. But once the civil servant who made it happen has been promoted and rewarded and passes on, his successor feels no obligation to continue it and gets rewarded etc for dumping it. Thus there is a natural term to these things.

When we see some bit of evident madness, let us remember that this too will pass.

GP: Collins &c again

2007-08-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

I'm off to sunny Libya! So I need to make sure I'm jabbed up. I went last year as well, so should be OK! But I need to check.

I ring the surgery. They tell me I must physically come in and see the nurse. I'm at home this week so reluctantly agree. Then they tell me I must do so next week some time, when I will be on the road. I politely ask whether I will be forced to take a chance and go without jabs? The receptionist takes my details, not all that graciously, and says that she will leave a message for the nurse who may ring me.

Rather to my surprise the phone goes 10 minutes later, and it is the nurse. I don't need any jabs: great news! So that's all fine. And she'll pop the travel advice sheet in the post -- better yet. Good service -- excellent.

But... why the difficulty in the first place. Something seems unsatisfactory in the management of this practice.

GP: Dr Collins & Partners, 235 Felixstowe Road

2007-08-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

I don't go to the doctor very often. When I do, I have mixed feelings about the experience. This practice is one of the better NHS practices, but something is going wrong with it. Like most, they no longer bother to open outside office hours, which is very awkward if you work away from home.

Last month I went there and saw Dr McCarthy. I felt fobbed off. I was led to suppose that my ailment would never get better and that it would always come back, which can't be true. But he also asked me to leave a urine sampe to test for diabetes.

When I rang back for the results some days later, they had no record of the sample. It had been lost, it seemed. I was asked to drop another in. Such things happen; they did send me a container in the post -- full marks for being helpful --, and I returned it.

When I rang for the result on this, it too had been lost! But this time the receptionist was a bit more clued up; apparently the sample from the first time had not been sent off, but analysed in-house, and the results were on the screen (and negative, thankfully).

Naturally I was concerned. But I could find no-one who cared, although one member of staff seemed eager to have a fight with me (ah, the joy of public sector 'services'!)

Is an NHS GP actually any use? For some time I have felt that very few of the minor ailments that I take to my doctor ever get sorted out. I get fobbed off, I get 5 minutes at most, and somehow I have lost hours of earnings for very little result. It simply isn't worth going there, most of the time.

Perhaps the answer is a private GP; restore the link between money paid and performance? Are any of these any good?

Royal Mail -- robbing the public?

2007-07-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

I've just come across a new scam! It's a beauty....

Remember when the Royal Mail was established, set up by Rowland Hill? There was a single stamp, at one penny, for a letter to go anywhere, for next day, with weight categories. In the 1960's they introduced 'first class' and 'second class'. This of course made it more complicated.

This year they introduced tariffs by size as well. I've just been caught by it.

You see, all businesses tend to send out mail in A4 envelopes. That the standard size of printer paper; the standard size of photocopier paper.

I just did my trading accounts for the year, and posted them to Companies House, to the taxman, to the accountant, and so on; in A4 envelopes with a nice first class stamp on it.

Today I was in the post office, looking at their complicated letter-size measuring template, and realised with a sick feeling that all those letters would not arrive. Instead the recipient would have to go and collect them from some dingy mail office, and pay some huge sum to do so. I have some doubts that anyone from government offices bothers to do this. So I have been forced to send the items again, again in A4. So the Royal Mail gets two lots of payment for each item!

Nice scam, eh? Does anyone believe that this isn't intentional?

But there is more. No-one has any idea what the new rate for these might be, except that it is more than a first-class stamp, and less than two. No-one keeps stamps of varied denominations, anyway; and no-one is going to queue in some smelly post-office behind people trying to register their car. So most of us will just put TWO first-class stamps on the letter, and get on with our lives. Thus the post office can overcharge us for our mail again. Again, does anyone believe that this isn't intentional and foreseen?

In post offices around the country undelivered mail must be piling up. Items sent, paid for, and never arrived, diverted silently so that the Royal Mail can make just a bit more money in fines. The loss to everyone, the nuisance, the interference with the postal service -- there must be a huge cost in time and money to the community. All this, just to squeeze out a bit more short-term profit.

I don't know who runs the Post Office. I don't wish him very well, somehow. The post should be simple and easy to use. To make it complex so as to fine people for failing to follow the rules is the quintessence of third-world officialdom.

LowCostSpex.com again

2007-07-21T07:13:00.001-07:00

Just a note to say that I have worn their £15 prescription spectacles ever since I got them, and they have been fine. Indeed I am wearing them now. Everyone comments how nice they look. So I may not bother to get the lenses changed in my old ones, titanium or not.

I have recommended them to my parents, and my mother has placed an order herself. Let's see what happens!

LowCostSpex (online opticians)

2007-07-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

After my experiences with SpecSavers of Harlow, I was interested to see what this firm could do for me, over the internet. I had my prescription.

I didn't have the "pupil distance". This is the distance from the centre of one pupil to the other, but it's best to get the optician to measure it. However LowCostSpex website shows you how to measure it.

The form was a little confusing, but thankfully there was a box in which I could clarify things. For ordinary glasses you just specify "distance glasses". I chose a frame, hit the button, and ordered some glasses. Price for frames with prescription lenses was £15, plus ca. £2 postage. Well, at that price, I can afford to throw them away if they're no good!

The following day I get a call. It's LowCostSpex, who want to make sure they understand my order. I'm astonished, but pleased.

A week later a jiffy bag drops onto the mat. Inside is a hard-case -- the normal kind -- containing a gleaming new pair of spectacles. They're easy enough to bend with my fingers, so I quickly get them to fit.

Five days later, I'm still wearing them. They seem excellent. The frames are a little flimsy, but at £15 more than adequate. If you just want a pair for a few weeks, they are excellent. They look smart. Frankly they are worth every penny.

In short I am delighted. Excellent service, excellent value.

Now all I need is an online firm to 'reglaze' (technical term) my old frames, at a good price. The Ipswich Co-op quoted me £150 to reglaze. I wonder what the lowest price I can get online is?!

Addison Dental Practise, Harlow

2007-07-02T03:12:00.000-07:00

Teeth. The only worse than having teeth is not having any. Mine hurt. I ring up a Harlow NHS practise that I have been to before today, Monday, and tell them that I have toothache. They give me an appointment on Wednesday 4pm. Hmm.

More on Mystery Shopping

2007-06-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's been interesting to see how British retailers have measured up over one short month, just going about my daily existence. The good have been very good. Even the bad have been polite. I've had no really terrible experiences so far, although there are clearly retailers who need to sharpen up and deliver better value for money. The old adage of caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, is still as potent as ever. Always shop around.

Wherever the internet is involved, the quality of service and the value for money has improved perceptibly, even among offline retailers. But so many trades are still mainly offline. I approach all such with trepidation!

Let's see what happens in July! I'm doing some work in Harlow at the moment, so expect some posts about Harlow retailers.

SpecSavers (Harlow)

2007-06-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

You know, I don't seem to see as well as I did. Those number plates are getting harder to read. I sit in a meeting, with a spreadsheet flashed up on a big plasma screen, and I can't read what it says. Maybe I need to get my eyes checked, hey?

Opticians are funny guys. They can't do any business with me unless they do an eye-test first. You'd have thought that they would fall over themselves to offer these. But not a bit of it. I traipse around. I go into Dolland and Aitcheson in Ipswich, which stinks to high heaven of mould and damp. Luckily for me the staff tell me that they can't test me.

So here I am in Harlow, and I go into the SpecSavers there. The shop is empty. They can do a test for me, so I tell them to. It's £18, which they don't mention until I ask. They do a test. It doesn't seem too bad. Yes, I need new glasses.

But I have a very nice set of frames now. So I ask for just new lenses. Problem!!! PROBLEM!!!

They won't sell me lenses. I have to buy complete frames and lenses from them. I query this. The girl who tested my eyes leads me to some manager woman who sits there, scowling. She asks. I don't get a reply; just a tightening of the mouth and a shake of the head. Then she says "Company policy." That's all I get. She looks like she's dying to rip into me. So I leave. I don't need or want any new frames. I don't need or want a fight. I didn't need to spend £18 on an eye-test if I can't get lenses.

But have I just been diddled here? OK, I have a prescription. But if I take it elsewhere, and there's a problem, the dispenser is going to blame the prescription, right? Then where am I? Glasses cost a lot. So I pretty much have to get the eye-test at the people I buy the lenses from. That means, surely, that I am £18 down?

Couldn't they have mentioned this little policy of theirs before they did business with me? Given the attitude, I suspect that they are getting flak -- and no surprise there.

I go into Dolland and Aitcheson in Harlow and ask if they could make me up some lenses. They tell me they can, but my glasses have to go away for a week or two (why?). I ask what the cheapest pair of frames and lenses would be, to tide me over while I wait. £65 they say. That's real money for something I'll use only once.

But I did find one thing to do with the prescription. I found LowCostSpex, an online dispenser. They'll do me a pair of lenses and frames for £15, if I type in the prescription. For that much, I'm willing to take a punt. Let's see what comes back! It's a lot cheaper than £65.

Glasses have gone up massively in the last 10-15 years. Looks like profits have too.

PS: Two days later I get a call from LowCostSpex. They aren't sure that what I entered in their form is correct, and want to make sure. For £15 they are certainly working hard. I tell them that they deserve to make a fortune. Meanwhile I go around 3 opticians in Ipswich, asking about new lenses -- known as 'reglazing' in the trade. One quote for £110, another for £150; just for the lenses. My, these people aren't losing money!

Abacus Fire and Security of Hadleigh

2007-06-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

These lads did a job for me back in 2006, but I came across their invoice recently and thought I would recommend them.

When I bought my house, it came with an unmaintained burglar alarm system. After it went off unexpectedly a couple of times, I wanted it disabled. Over the years I tried various firms. The response was always the same -- a long and endless argument against doing so from whoever I rang. Half an hour of argument was not exceptional; and I didn't invite argument -- I just got argued with whether I wanted it or not. Of course I didn't want to hear why a burglar alarm was a good idea; I just wanted the one I had disabled. I was never actually able to get any of these gentry to take my money, so cussed were they.

Many thanks to Abacus, then, who I rang last year after the last set of misbehaviour. After checking that I really did want this done, out they came, and they did the job. Ah the relief!

Marshall Vauxhall of Ipswich servicing (part 2)

2007-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

There was one loose end from my experience of Marshall Vauxhall. The Vauxhall Corsa has two lights on the petrol gauge. The first tells you "prepare to fill up" and appears when you are about three quarters empty. The next indicates "prepare to walk"! -- you have almost no petrol left. The first of these was not working so I asked for it to be done when I booked the car in.

On arrival, they had no record of that request. I made it again, and ensured that it was logged on the sheet. I was told that to fix this would involve removing the whole dashboard, take an hour and would cost £60; "would I prefer to just live with it"? I said go ahead; being marooned by the roadside has nearly happened twice already.

I got a call mid-morning to say that it wasn't a bulb, and that this wouldn't need to happen after all; the fitter was doing something with the connections.

That was the last I heard of it, and I presumed that it had been fixed. Today I found otherwise.

Lunchtime I rang Marshall Vauxhall. The man who answered the phone knew nothing but promised to ask around and ring back. He rang back shortly after to say that everyone was at a funeral, but that he would get back to me after 2pm. No call came back.

Around 4pm I was returning to Ipswich, so I went in to the showroom in person. None of the staff seemed to know what it was about. One started fiddling slowly with a computer system. Another came off the phone and stood by, watching his colleague interestedly. This seemed absurd, so I asked all of them openly whether they knew about it -- the watcher promptly admitted it was him! I expected an apology for the failure to ring back, but it did not come.

I was told that on the day of the servicing the fitter had decided that the defective light could only be fixed by replacing the complete dashboard, at a price of £200. No-one had called me. No-one apparently knew. They merely ignored it and carried on.

This seemed incredible, so I spoke with the foreman of the garage and verified that this was the story that they were telling me. They one and all seemed to take it for granted that I wouldn't want the problem fixed. Nor did I wish to put my car in yet again just then.

I am left with a problem, and some uncomfortable reflections. If it really does cost this much to fix a trivial problem, then why on earth are they so uninterested in fixing it? Fundamentally for them it's money for old rope. Yet all along I have met resistance. The original request mysteriously being omitted from the job sheet; attempts on check-in to get me to abandon the job; an ambiguous phone call which concealed that the fault was being left; failure to return calls; utter uninterest in getting the car in.

This is a business. Standard retail markup is 50%, so this cannot be less than £130 profit, surely? Why don't they want the money? Is there something I am not being told?

Aerial-tech

2007-06-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

My neighbours have a pet door. The little doggie shoots out of it at dawn, and it goes bang-bang-bang. When dawn is at 5am, this means a rude awakening for me.

Except that my neighbours have moved. The doggie has gone, and the pet door too. But the bang-bang-bang continues. Whatever can it be?

Looking on the roof, I see aerials. Could one be banging against another, or on the roof? How can I find out? I get vertigo going up stairs, never mind ladders!

Friday morning, and I ring a couple of firms. I tell them that I want someone to go up on the roof and see if an aerial is loose. "That will be £80 for a new bracket, and £120 for a new aerial" a smooth voice tells me. I thank him and put the phone down.

Then I talk to Aerial-Tech. His name is Neil, and yes, he can come out late this afternoon, depending on whether a job gets done. He'll charge £25 for half an hour, and then we'll see.

I get home mid-afternoon, and I get a call soon after that he's on his way. He arrives as rain is falling. The roof is mossy, and slippery. But up he goes onto the roof. He waggles one aerial -- no problem. He waggles the other -- and it moves! Indeed it moves too and fro a lot. Clearly this is the problem, and birds roosting on it overnight set it moving when they take off. What to do?

Neil shrugs. It's loose because it isn't put on properly. It's held on by a couple of bolts too close to the top, and going into a softwood fascia. He'll stick a few more bolts in there and it will be fine.

I look down the road, where the houses are lower, and see some substantial aerials attached to walls by big bits of metal and rising high over the house. I explore with Neil whether something similar is needed here. But he says no. He doesn't try to take me for something I don't need.

As he tries to go up again, the ladder shifts. It's really treacherous. But he gets it up somehow, and does the job. He charges me £25. And off he goes, leaving me happy and astonished.

One day I will want to replace that aerial, certainly when digital reception is actually possible here. He explains that my aerial simply can't receive the ITV channels on digital -- it has a yellow knob on the end indicating the wavelengths it can get, and ITV is outside that. But when the changeover comes, local boosters will change also. When that day comes, Neil will be my first choice for the business.

Aerial-Tech aerial and satellite services. Neil Wingar, 32 Westholme Road, Ipswich IP1 4HH. Mob. 07818-018510. Tel. 01473-425622. Email: aerial_tech@hotmail.com.

Marshall Vauxhall -- and Anglian Auto Assist

2007-06-19T09:07:00.001-07:00

My little Vauxhall Corsa needs an oil change. And every time I start it, the mileometer displays a cryptic symbol for several seconds, which is irritating. And the low petrol indicator light doesn't come on, which gave me a nervous time recently. It's 3 years old; time for a service.

I live within walking distance of Marshall's so I took it there. They want £180 for a service. This doesn't include changing spark plugs, or most of the filters. I pay up, and afterwards ask for a list of what it does include. It's not available, it seems. In fact, as far as I can see, all they are doing is changing the oil and checking various things are working. The latter is good, but can hardly take a lot of time. Anyway, that checklist gives them to the chance to sell me more services.

And they do! Brake pads and discs are worn -- that's another £120. They check my tires, and one is worn. Luckily for me, they don't have a tyre that size. They don't check the pressure in my air-conditioning system. I happen to know that National do this as a free check. But Marshalls tell me that there is no way to do this. Perhaps I misunderstand; but any system involving a liquid and a gas can be tested. That's common sense, isn't it?

They do change the screen-wash. They change a windscreen wiper; likewise. They give me some 'free' oil and cleaning materials. Thus I go forth, £324 lighter. That is a phenomenal sum; yet what do I have to show for this?

But I still need a tyre. So I ring around. Anglian Auto Assist -- who appear as a Hi-Q franchise in the phone book -- they have a Pirelli of the kind that I want, at a price that is not too out of line with the web. Down I go, and they do it while I wait -- £65. But on the wall I see servicing sheets, listing what they do. All of them include oil, spark plugs, filters. I ask for prices. The cheapest ('bronze') is £80; the next one ('silver') £140. The top one ('gold') isn't even mentioned. I ask about the little nag feature, if I don't take it to a main dealer. They laugh and say that they have the tool to turn that off themselves. So long as the book is stamped, the full service history stands. I ask how much notice they need; they say about 2-3 days for a service. They can do the job in a morning. They work Saturdays, so it's possible to leave the car with them, walk into town, and pick it up after lunch.

I come away, feeling that I didn't get much from Marshalls for my £180. In fact I feel that I got about £60 of value. Is it too much to ask for filters and spark plugs changed?

One thing tends to reinforce this impression. Marshall's charged me £10 to dispose of the old oil -- an 'environmental' tax. But Auto Assist charge half that, according to their price list. Are Marshall's inflating that appalling bit of government interference? Can it be so?

Moral: I must resolve not to deal with Marshalls, however convenient they are, because I feel that I do not get value for money. I will go to Anglian Auto Assist instead. If I go in a few months time, then I can get the filters and spark plugs done before winter comes on, and an oil change too.

Details: Anglian Auto Assist. Ipswich Tyre Centre. 37-41 Holywells Road (at the bottom of Landseer Road). (01473) 256321.

Ryan Insurance Brokers

2007-06-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

Ryan Insurance Brokers have just lost my business for buildings and contents. This year they sent me a renewal quotation for around £170, plus £10 fee. Looking at it, the quotation was from exactly the same firm -- Legal and General -- that they had insured me with the previous year, and the year before that. I recall that last year I rang them up and asked if that was really the best quote. They assured me that it was.

I couldn't believe that they had really gone out and searched; not this time. The renewal notice arrived very shortly before the renewal was due, which meant that busy people were under pressure to just renew. This didn't feel very good to me.

This time I used google, and got some quotes from MoneySupermarket.com. These beat the Ryan Insurance quote substantially. But the terms and conditions did not quite match my needs. I read these carefully, and saw that premiums get pumped up by accidental damage cover (which I didn't need or want) and legal cover.

The best quote was from the Halifax. These I rang, and after listening carefully and asking them to remove various extras such as the above, got a quote of ca. £130. I accepted. They guaranteed that premium for three years, no less.

So what were Ryan Insurance doing? I don't know, of course; but I can certainly guess. They took £10 from me to find me the cheapest quote. But insurance companies pay commission. Is it possible that L&G were the 'best' quote -- best in terms of paying Ryan Insurance commission? What were Ryan Insurance doing for the £10? Anything? Just offering the renewal, and collecting the commission?

There was a time when everyone went to a broker for home and motor insurance. That disappeared rapidly once telephone organisations like Direct Line got going, and the internet has made this happen even more. The reason for this was the poor customer experience; that very often the broker, supposedly being paid by you, just didn't bother to look after you. It is sad to see a firm still ploughing this futile furrow.

I intend to try to avoid doing business with Ryan Insurance again. An internet search is always going to be a better option, it seems.

The mystery shopper

2007-06-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Don't you often find yourself thinking that you wish you had never gone to some merchant, or plumber, or whoever?

A few such things have happened to me recently, and I thought that I would blog about them. I live in Ipswich in Suffolk, in the UK. Local firms often don't have web sites.

In each case I hope to indicate, not just the failings of a particular firm, but what I intend to do instead.

I hope that this will be of interest to others also. After all, bad customer service thrives on silence. I also hope to report instances of excellent service and value.