So BT, those lovable rogues, have decided to cut off one of our clients for not paying a bill THAT DIDN’T EXIST!

That’s right – the client cancelled the BT broadband, so BT decided that they would cut the client off after they didn’t get money for a service they were no longer providing.

Not only did they decide that the client could no longer have the cancelled broadband on the line, BT cut the entire line completely – meaning that ANY broadband on the line would no longer work, i.e. the company that was now supplying the broadband on that line.

Now this sounds like a bit of an inconvenience, and may be relatively minor for most companies, in this case though the clients systems are mainly Internet based – no Internet = no business. Also the client has multiple branches connecting to head office over the Internet – no Internet = no branch access to the head office…
You get the picture…

As usual there is no admission from BT, no acceptance of any fault on their part, and no apology coming – why oh why do we have to put up with this???

I’m popping over there tomorrow, though I think there is little I can do.
The ‘earliest’ BT can get an engineer out to “verify if there is an issue”, is THURSDAY!
Like this is any kind of solution – it’s costing the client £000′s

I’ll restrain from venting the true depth of feelings I have toward this once useful company – it’s their complete dominance in the telecommunications market that makes them blasé at best.
Suffice to say that regular readers will note my usual unhappiness with them…

Sigh…

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Firstly I must apologise for not posting here for a while – we’ve gained a couple of large projects requiring most of my time. More stress = more requirement for sleep!
For once I’ve actually been getting some
(ooh er missus!)

Thought I’d share a quick rant with you!

“Microsoft is providing the Browser Choice update to comply with a legal settlement with the European Commission. Microsoft is required to inform customers who currently use Internet Explorer as their default browser that there are other web browser choices available.”

That’s the opening shot from the Microsoft website detailing what and why this stupid thing is (read it here)

It goes that the European Commission, those for who it’s important that bananas have a certain straightness, decided that Europeans needed to have enforced choice of how they viewed the Internet.
We were no longer allowed to simply use the installed version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but we had to be offered a choice of which browser to use. Apparently, installing an Internet browser within your own operating system is anti competitive and was an example of Microsoft abusing it’s dominant market position.

I have two points to say…

• Firstly – surely those people who would like to choose their browser HAVE ALREADY DONE SO.
  Downloading Chrome or Firefox wasn’t that difficult for those people who wanted/needed to change was it?
• Secondly – why enforce the choice?
  Surely MOST people don’t actually want to change at all. I NEVER hear clients complaining that their Internet browser is poor quality!

Within my own experience counting the number of clients who have called to ask what this ‘Browser Choice’ thing is, there really was no point to this stupid offering.

I have even experienced some clients accidentally changing browsers when they NEED Internet explorer for some specific business critical software to run.
Admittedly simple to fix but the client has wasted time changing to a different browser, calling us then getting it reset back to where they wanted it in the first place.

Just another pointless waste of European funds – paying idiot bureaucrats €€€€s to make our lives just that little bit more inconvenient.

PLEASE LEAVE THE COMPUTER DECISIONS TO THOSE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!

#Note#
If you would like a quick quiz on some of the stupid rules that the European Commission have passed try this from the BBC

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Once again I have attempted to venture into the world of finance – this time to open a bank account for some savings…

This proved to be far too inconvenient for the branch of Barclays I popped into this morning…

Off I pop to the local branch, chipper to the last as I strolled in to the branch, waited patiently for a cashier to become free, and advanced smiling…

“[holding the account flyer] Can I open one of these accounts please?”
“I’m sorry sir, you need to see the lady over there [points], but she is busy and she works on an appointment basis”
[Like I'm not a busy person]
“I can fit you in this afternoon at 2:00 or tomorrow if you wish”…
At this point I’m looking non to impressed – I’ll not bore you with my comments…!
Suffice to say I wasn’t too impressed

Ok – now this account NEEDS you to go in to the branch to open in the first place (the terms state you must be an existing customer to open the account online).
NOWHERE did it say you have to go into the branch to make an appointment to open the account, before you go in to the branch to open the account.
This is ridiculous!!

HELLO BARCLAYS! I’M TRYING TO INVEST MONEY HERE!!!

What is wrong in the minds of man, that makes you think that people want your service SOOOO badly that they’ll perform tricks for your pleasure Barclays?
I just want to open a savings account – not apply for £1,000,000′s – it’s not too difficult for you is it?
The last time I opened an account it only took 5 minutes ONLINE, and required not much more than my name and date of birth.

Next time I’ll take my mother (to confirm her maiden name), birth certificate, driving license, passport, National Insurance number, a utility bill (in my name and at the present address), the 4 other cards I have for other bank accounts, all my personal measurements, written confirmation of my memorable date/place/pet, written confirmation of my alpha numeric 16 letter password (from which they’ll only need letters 2 6 and 10),  a blood sample, retina scan, AND a swab of DNA/skin sample.
Maybe that will convince them that I’m me. Though I doubt it…!

Yet another display of stupidity on behalf of the banks…

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I’m one of those strange people who think that credit is a BAD option.
I grew up in a family with little spare cash flowing around, and as such like to squirrel away a little cash from time to time.
It’s with this in mind I try to keep some cash in a savings acount – In this case the Santander eSavings account.

Now this account was originally opened with the Abbey (National – for those old enough to remember), before all the banking fiasco started, and gave a good level of interest as time went on.
Then the banking crisis hit and savings rates were crushed.
Abbey were one of the banks under threat, but was ‘rescued’ by Santander – not a positive step in my opinion.

After recieving very little interest from the account for a while, and now that things have calmed considerably I moved the account balance to a new account on Monday – with the usual banking delay for a BACS transaction this finally hit my account on Friday (this is the 21st century for goodness sake – 3 to 4 DAYS to do a transaction )

This I thought would close the account – how wrong could I be!!

I logged in to the account this morning, just to check – still not closed – so as a courtesy to the bank I called them to ask to close the account.
Havnig passed the security check to verify my identity, I asked to close the account, as there was a nil balance.
I was told this was viewed as a transaction and required me to pass ANTOHER security check
After trying to guess my ‘memorable date’ and failing I was told she couldn’t close the account!!!
STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!
How could I possibly manage to move money using the ‘security’ that was previously enough – and not be able to close an empty account?

I hold another account with another bank, not closed for a similar reason. The Yorkshire bank has an account with about 30p in it because they “counld not give me the pennies” when I went to close the account.
That was about 6 YEARS ago!

What ever happened to customer service? Why do we have to jump through some ridiculous hoops just to perform simple tasks with OUR OWN MONEY!?!?!?

‘Effin ridiculous!

It’s kind of nice to know that the banks will have to administer the accounts, costing them money (albeit a small amount).

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You know, as a techie you hear all sorts of things ~ clients sometimes see you as everything from emotional punch bag, through Samaritan, to agony aunt.
It’s kind of understandable though, as the years go on and you see clients quite often, they become like friends.

It’s in this capacity I’m hearing more and more complaints about the commercialism inherent in the festive period.

The line “Christmas is just too commercial” rings true about once every two or three days, from one client or another. Usually from those a little longer in the tooth…

The truth is of course, a little wide of the perceived.

Christmas IS still a time for friends and families to get together and share things (some people I only get to see at this time of year!). There ARE still feelings of ‘glad tidings’ about too, you just have to give them to receive them.

If you think that the commercial aspect of Christmas is all pervasive, just choose to not get involved!
You really don’t have to fuel the ever increasing shops profits at this time of year ~ or brave the masses, all clamouring for the ‘bargains’ at the local department store.

This Christmas, I have managed to saunter through buying AND wrapping my gifts, by the simple method of forward planning.
We (as a couple) enjoy a stroll through the January sales, buying those little nick-nacks for stocking fillers, and/or getting things like decorations, wrapping paper and those funky sparkly paper gift bags.
Obviously, if you are a fashion victim and absolutely MUST have the latest fad in decorations, this little bit of forethought won’t be for you.

With the majority of the little things purchased and stored for next Christmas, we shopped online for the gifts we wanted to give.
A few Home deliveries and a bout of wrapping later, and we are about done :)

Once this little plan was in operation, I was free to enjoy the shopping experiences we undertook ~ safe in the knowledge it wasn’t all panic!

Organised for once?
BAH HUMBUG!!!

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Just a couple of items sparked my interest today:
UK trails on super-fast broadband say OECD figures

Oh dear – in this technological world which we live in, the UK is severly lagging behind in terms of available speed:
The top 10 speedy nations:

• Japan – top advertised speed 1Gbps
• Finland – 110Mbps
• Sweden – 100Mbps
• Korea – 100Mbps
• Iceland – 100Mbps
• France – 100Mbps
• Denmark – 100Mbps
• Netherlands – 60Mbps
• United States – 50Mbps
• Spain – 50Mbps

We rank 21^st!

This on the back of 4G mobile phone network comes to Scandinavia
Only 100mb/s second download on a MOBILE network!!!

Sigh…

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