British Airways - doncha hate 'em?

Maybe a little less hateful than RyanAir, but still frustrating to deal with - have you tried speaking to them?

I recently bought a ticket online - £125.78.  I subsequently received an email confirming my payment together with a breakdown of charges. No matter how I added these charges up, I could not get them to equal £125.78.

So I phoned customer support. Four times. Didn't get through once.

So I emailed customer relations. Received an acknowledgement with impressive speed. Then received another email:

Thank you very much for contacting us.

To be sure you have an answer from us as swiftly as possible, I would be grateful if you will speak to our customer support team. They deal with all pre-travel enquiries and they'll be happy to give you individual assistance.


@*$$£!!!

I wish I hadn't discovered Atlantis

Not the fabled underwater city but firm of the same name with whom I have just concluded a very unsatisfactory relationship.

Without revisiting the painful details, the gist of the story is that I felt let down, badly served and generally unloved by an organisation that had happily taken money from me for a largely negative experience; not entirely but, to my mind, mainly ascribable to its own shortcomings.

The conclusion referred to above resulted in the firm conceding several points of contention and parting with a less-than-princely sum in compensation with the result that I am now only about £2500 out of pocket from the experience.

We live and learn - sometimes.

I liked the razor so much it was a shame about the carry case

For some time now I had been meaning to buy myself a new beard trimmer. (Not a razor - so the gag in the title doesn't really work but WTH)

A few days ago I found myself in a branch of Boots that had a display of many trimmers. In consultation with the knowledgeable assistant, I settled on a Remington. Good name, good reputation and the late Victor Kayam had been so impressed ....

All went well at first. The trimmer trimmed adequately. The adjustable trimmer comb adjusted satisfactorily. The cleaning brush cleaned efficiently.

Then I decided to pack it away in its little fabric pouch and pop it into my wash-bag ready for my holiday. In went the trimmer. In went the moustache comb and cleaning brush. In DID NOT go the charging cord and plug. The pouch is too bloody small!!!
What a farce. Did it not occur to the doubtless university-educated and highly trained designer of this product that someone might want to use it elsewhere than at home? Where a carry-pouch would in any event have been redundant! Or was it designed with the continental 'small plug' market in mind and no-one could be bothered to adjust the spec for the UK market? Whatever the inadequate reason for this major blunder, it is all too symptomatic of the shoddiness of modern products.

BLACK MARK REMINGTON!!

Low cost airlines - are they an NHS plot?

I've just been through the trauma of booking a cheap flight. Needless to report, my stress levels rocketed and my blood pressure went off the scale.

It's not just the irritating, petty charges and rules that upset me; it's the underhand way they are introduced. Why do I have to wait until I have spent 30 minutes wading through the complexities of the booking system before I find out what I will have to pay for the privilege of taking luggage with me? Depending on the airline involved, this item alone can make a previously apparent best buy uncompetitive. Do they really think I am not going to ditch them? Do they think the hassle I have been through (and will have to repeat with their competitors) will outweigh the fury I feel at their mendacity? It won't - I will trudge from airline to airline until I find the least despicable operator to give my money to.

And it will not necessarily be the cheapest. So the fact that UneasyJet appears at first glance 4p cheaper than Rypoffair will not save them when the baggage deal turns sour. And the aforementioned Rypoffair will have to be vastly, vastly price competitive to save them being dumped in favour of a slightly more expensive Beami who at least treat me like a member of the human race, albeit an oppressed minority member.

So, is it all a plot to drive me to an early grave and thus save the NHS a few quid on the drugs they currently supply to keep me going? It wouldn't surprise me; and it has to be a more likely conspiracy theory than that junk about the twin towers.

iTailor strikes again!

Remember the i-Tailor? Well, not content with sending me the wrong shirt and absolutely refusing to do anything about it - or even admit his mistake - the S.O.B. has had the cheek to put me on his mailing list! In Vietnamese or Korean or something, so, to add insult, I can't tell whether he is trying to sell me something (fat chance!) or abusing me for complaining.

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คุณได้รับข้อความนี้เนื่องจาก iTailor Shirts แบ่งปันกับ jim@jimewan.com ยกเลิกการสมัคร รับอีเมลเหล่านี้


See what I mean? Beware the i-Tailor! BTW, see below for me trying to fasten the too-small, wrong-spec, overpriced piece of garbage they landed me with!

Beware the i Tailor!

Wow! I discovered an on-line tailor who would make me a made-to-measure shirt for £17.99! Well, not exactly - there was postage and stuff to add on and, once I had become a little creative with the spec it was going to come out at a little over £30. But that's pretty good for a genuine made-to-measure ...

So I ordered a shirt - quite excited; selected contrast fabric in collar and cuffs, specified collar shape, pocket shape etc etc. At £30+ it still seemed a bargain. Completely wrong shirt arrived - looked like basic £17.99 (which the enclosed invoice confirmed!) with collar way too small. I complained (nicely) and got a reply that said shirt was right but invoice wrong and £30+ invoice enclosed! Pointed out this not so - reply said yes it is, look at your order history. I tried but my account was blank apart from my address details. Emailed this fact and they replied saying sorry - technical problems check again. I did. Apart from the fact that my account, previously blank, now contains some very sparse (and new to me) order details, it also specifies the size to be 'SML' which looks very much like three sizes to me!

And now they are ignoring my emails!

Why do they imagine I would complain if I had got what I ordered? I would have bought another half-dozen! I think I am probably banging my head against a brick wall but I just wanted to warn everyone about the problems I have had.

And incidentally, the problems many others have had - see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2721767 for pages of complaints

Thames Water update for those with long memories

Back in 2009 I began trying to get a refund from Thames Water for a service they charged for but did not provide to me - surface water drainage. TW was, of course, unhelpful and obstructive.

I complained to the Consumer Council for Water. A very nice lady did her best but the Council was, of course, feeble and useless.

But, hey, I found a new clause on the back of this year's bill - top right, saying I could appeal. So I did.

And now I have, at last, received a reduced bill.

Now to begin pushing for a refund for the 24 years that they have been overcharging me!

I'll keep you posted - so check again in two years!

And check your bill NOW! Turn over, top right, see what it says about surface water. If you are being charged and you don't seem to be getting the service, check your water company's website to see how to appeal.

What's going on at the Info Shark?

Me, looking puzzled. An old picture - I haven't been puzzled for ages. Until now!



What's puzzling me? Trying to figure out what's new at the Info Shark. Not much it seems.

No updates for weeks ... no response to emails ... no longer claiming to be associated with Simon Cowell.

Information and rumours welcome.

Guest grump - T-Mobile and Philips

From Frank Legroux, entrepreneur and bon viveur

Let me tell you of my T-Mobile experience a few years ago. When I was getting nowhere with T-mobile I found out that they were owned by Deutsche Telecom. I then phoned DT in Bonn, requested and was put through to the Chairman's PA, who readily gave me her e-mail address to which to send my request for service. Shortly after e-mailing her I was contacted by a most apologetic, courteous and concerned senior employee of T-Mobile in the UK, who took immediate and effective action to sort out the problem I was having. I hope that this is of help to you and/or anyone else who reads it.

Health Warning: This tactic doesn't always work! I tried it subsequently with Philips over a defective Philips-branded laptop sold in PC World to an acquaintance for her daughter. The upshot was that the Philips global head office in the Netherlands declined to communicate with me (i.e. told me to get lost). I then managed rather too readily to talk to the PA to the UK boss. It took her a week and my reminding her to badger her colleagues to discover that the product was not made by or for Philips, which had licensed use of its name for the product to the Dixon's Store Group. Philips had no further interest in the matter.

These are my first comments on this site; I do hope that they are sufficiently grumpy..