pub quiz

I am not sure if I am more disturbed by the fact that davo, scally and myself only managed 6 out of 20 or that I knew a dodgy Gypsy Kings remix of Hotel California from the first bar.

Wendy assures me the questions are not normally this hard – and I believe her – I did work with her for long enough 😉

Congratulations to the A List who will no doubt fill you in on the rest of the answers and some of the questions too!

[details from swishcottage]

dodgy dealing

Isn’t it amazing eh? If you walked into a shop and picked up a suit with a ?100 price tag and went to the till only for them to tell you they had none left at that price but they can do you the same one for ?230 or the trousers only for ?95 you would wonder what was going on. Yet this is normal for train companies and airlines.

Eurostar have a number of adverts for fares from ?79 at the moment so I logged on to book to Brussels for mid November. Now on the site they have an interwebnet™ offer of travelling first class for ?100 so I thought great – except the booking engine stopped working so I get the number from directory enquiries [helpfully the error message fails to give the booking number] only to be told that the cheapest economy fare available for that weekend is now ?95 as they have no availability for any other offers. So essentially even though they have seats left they are changing the price.

Doesn’t seem fair somehow does it.

Needless to say i am looking at bmi yet again as they seem to be the only people who offer static fares at a low cost with availability [even though they are sometimes delayed].

Look on the brightside though reading 8letters™ is free*

*for a limited time only for a limited yet undisclosed number of viewers. prices and availability may be subject to change and there is bugger all you can do about it

fickle

I have just been accused of being fickle 🙁

me fickle?

I need an online test immediately…

fickle adj 1: marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; “fickle friends”; “a flirt’s volatile affections” [syn: volatile] 2: liable to sudden unpredictable change; “erratic behavior”; “fickle weather”; “mercurial twists of temperament”; “a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next” [syn: erratic, mercurial, quicksilver(a)]

It just doesn’t sound like me.

NTL v BT

okay now Fabio the new flatmate spends a fair bit of time on the phone and I use the interwebnet™ a fair bit so it seemed to make sense to get a 2nd telephone line put in – I called BT and they said sure ?79.99 plus another ?9.99 per month line rental – this would have been a staggering ?19.98 in line rental a month alone – eep. So I called NTL who are offering free connection and signed up for 2 lines and digital TV – I figured I may as well combine them and ditch Sky as well and save some money. Now this has been going on for a while and NTL still isn’t installed – not all there fault but hey.

So to cut a long story short… I am on my third account number and no one there seems to know what is going on but think I will have TV and phone installed on the 26th.

I am now concerned though as Nigel sent me this letter today I’m not sure if it is true – but it doesn’t bode well…

Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone.

During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties – or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office.

My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive at all, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website?. how? I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing with my testicles for a few minutes – an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools – such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived ? a total of six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.

I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is roughly 35%? these are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers.

I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman?. and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to.

Frankly I don?t care, it?s far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.

Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought BT were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of god-awful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That?s why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn?t anyone else is there?

How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum – incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom – wankers though they are – shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy.

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver ? any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief ? although these feelings will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you, and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit – they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it?s worthless employees.

Have a nice day – may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats,

Yours psychotically,