Topic: Technology
Orange – The Mobile Operator Without A Clue?
Sometime around the summer of 1999 I joined the then fledgling mobile operator Orange and got a Nokia 3210. The phone was great the service was nothing but exceptional. Over the years I had all sorts of combinations of pricing plans and handsets.
One could say I’ve paid my dues with the company as over the last ten years I’ve probably spent no less than £4560 just based on the lowest priced contract I’ve held. The figure is probably higher when you add data services, paid handset upgrades, calls outside of the contract and so forth. It’s a big number in these days of people switching operator every 12 months.
So when I call up and report a fault with my Blackberry, why must I be sent from pillar to post over what is a warranty exchange. The call I made should have taken no more that 15 minutes to resolve but instead it took 3 phone calls and about an hour and a half. That’s 90 minutes of my life that I could have done something far more productive and useful.
On the first call the customer service representative took my details, diagnosed my fault and then told me as I had collected the phone from an Orange store that I would have to visit the Orange store again so they could return (Note not replace but return) it for repair. When I asked why couldn’t she organise the exchange I was told it was because the Orange store is not part of Orange. Thats right Oranges own stores are not part of the same company as Orange.
Getting nowhere fast with the customer service department I rang the store who informed me that I could either ring 150 for the customer service department that I had just spoken to to organise an exchange or I could visit the store and they would … ring the customer service department for me and arrange a replacement.
So for the second time I called the customer service department and explained the fact that I was somewhat upset at being given the run around. After a little discussion the representative arranged for a courier to swap my handset tomorrow morning.
While I’m under no impression that any network operator is any better when my contract comes to an end or any loophole becomes available in my contract I’m off somewhere else. I’m getting sick of being treated like a second rate customer by a company that I’ve spent an awful lot of money with over the years. Maybe someone else will finally give me the handset I ask for rather than making a pile of excuses why they can’t and then fix it quickly when it breaks without any hassle.
Professional Recognition
Today Justin Mingaye from the IET came to visit us at the office to talk about the route to professional registration namely CEng or IEng. I’ve always been on the fence about going after Chartered status, but seeing how straightforward the process is and witnessing what appears to be quite some support within the company for it I’ve decided to get started.
Over my cup of afternoon Tea I took the first step and completed the application form for membership of the IET, ticking the box to apply for the status of Member and the designatory letters of MIET.
Once the application is processed and approved I can start on the next step which is assessing my skills and experiences against the 16 competences in the Engineering Councils standard for CEng.
Homebrew iPod Dock
When I picked up my iPod classic the friday before gangshow the first thing I thought after unboxing it and loading it with tunage is what a fab dock the box would make. Today this widget arrived from sparkfun which means I can access every pin in the dock connector.
Councils Turn Street Lights Off
According to the BBC Pembrokeshire is about to become the second county to turn some of it’s street lighting off in order to reduce it’s energy bill. Apparently the lights that have a special timer photocell fitted turn on when it starts to go dark and then shut off at Midnight. Then at 5.30 in the morning come on again for the last few hours of darkness. There has been the usual banter about how turning the lights off reduces safety and increases crime but looking into the story the lights being turned off are ones in rural and low risk areas and quite frankly apart from staggering back from the pub and a night workers who really needs street lighting between Midnight and 5.30
There is also a brief mention about how much CO2 is being saved by doing this, which is nice but we all know the real reason is to save a few quid on the electric bill and good on them. If it keeps the council tax down during the current spate of high energy prices then it has got to be worth doing.
Now I just wish Walsall council would implement this with the street lights outside my bedroom window.
You can read the article here > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7650110.stm
Facebook! And Why It’s A Steaming Heap Of Junk
Last night I was trawling for one or two people on the Project X Presents group that I wanted to add as friends on my Facebook profile. Thankfully they where right next to each other and a few short mouse clicks later and the requests had been sent. Scrolling down the page a bit further I stumbled upon another member of the collective that I wanted to add, so I clicked the “Add as Friend” link and was presented with a red dialog box telling me that I had exceeded the limit for adding friends and I had been blocked.
No indication of how long the block would be or why. So here I am almost 18 hours on and I still can’t add this one person to my friends list. Apparently the act of adding two people has made me a digital leper on Facebook.
It seems that on a site where the point is that you form your social and work networks the very act of creating those networks would allow you to add more than two people at a time. In my opinion the site is just rubbish, but unfortunately everyone uses it and Myspace just sucks more.
!Update It’s now almost two days since I could add friends in Facebook, I tried just minutes ago and still get the same message.