The basis of that program was that my ad would appear in their search results under certain search criteria. They show 10 results per page, so my ad would be on the 1st page roughly 10/total advertisers on a random basis. IE, if there were 100 advertisers i would appear roughly 10/100=10% of the time.

Earlier this year, they changed their systems to offer what they call ‘heavyweight’ listings and normal ‘mediumweight’ listings. All listings are mediumweight, unless you pay an additional fee to become a heavyweight listing.

The search results still show 10 results per page, but now show up to 6 heavyweight listings at the top, followed by 4 or more mediumweight listings. Therefore, by chances of appearing on the front page have been reduced from 10/total to only 4/total; or, if there are 100 advertisers, from 10% to 4%.

I called to enquire about this change on the 20th April 2009. I was unsure as to whether this was a breach of contract, so I had asked for someone to point me to the relevant section of their T&Cs. I was called back 15 days later, on the 5th May 2009 and directed to their terms and conditions.

Point 10 states:

we may modify Yell.com or any of the Services from time to time without prior notice but in so doing we will try not to diminish the value and utility of the Services to any material degree. If we consider, acting reasonably, that such modification is likely to have a serious detrimental effect on your financial position, we will notify you of such modification and you shall have the option to:

1. agree to the modification and continue to receive the Services; or
2. terminate the Services and you will be entitled to a refund of that part of any Charges you have already paid to us and which relates to a period after the date that the Services have terminated.

Fundamentally, I believe this to seriously diminish the value and utility of my advertising program and was not offered either of these options when the new system was introduced. I voiced my opinion to the person on the phone and asked for my payments from the date of introduction to be refunded. I was told they would not be.

I then asked if yell.com believe this change could seriously diminish the value and utility of the service offered, I was told it did not. I then asked for that statement in writing – specifically, that a drop of up to 60% in adverts appearing on the front page was not a serious decline in value and utility. I was told that I could not have that information in writing by the person I was dealing with. However, they did offer to consult with the legal team to have a statement prepared and would get back to me when it was completed.

I would like to point out that it was at this point that my wild sense of humour kicked in and I asked when they thought that might be. As it had taken 15 days for them to reply the first time, would it take another 15 days? Would it take 2 years? Or would it take 60% longer than the first time – if so, I might consider that to be a serious drop in value and utility of their customer service! I also asked the representative if they knew if the letter would be written in full, or if i’d only get 40% of the words on the page. I was told that they did not know how to answer that question!

As of time of writing, I am waiting to find out what the response from their legal team will be, although the personal oppinion of their representative was that I would not have my payments refunded. I am waiting with baited breath.

Their solution is to send me an HDMI – DVI cable. My graphics card has an HDMI port, and my monitor has a DVI socket, so it should do the job.

My dilemna is as follows: the 12-15 hours I have wasted on this issue, the hours of anger and frustration, to get a solution which is not entirely satisfactory…is that worth me returning the entire computer and both monitors for a refund, to purchase a slightly better spec machine from someone else?

I’m pretty sick of the hassle, but I also feel that I don’t want to do business with Dell ever again.

Imagine my amazement (and by amazement, I mean frustration) when it arrived today with a graphics card which only has 1 DVI output (and 2 HDMI outputs). It came with a handy guide on how to set up your computer, saying that if you have two monitors you should use the DVI splitter cable which allows you two plug two monitors into 1 DVI output (splitter cable was not included).

Naturally, I opened up the case to inspect the graphics card and read the model number. With no obvious model number, I decided to call Dell and see what they thought about it.

Ensue over 90 minutes of phone calls. The first 30 minutes (to an 0844 number I might add) were spent shouting down the phone to people in a foreign country who kept telling me they couldn’t hear me. I put the phone on speaker and they were still quieter at my end than a normal call, despite the phone’s speaker being pressed against my ear. Hugely frustrated, I decided that there must be someone in the UK I could speak to, so I phoned their head office.

Luckily, I was put through to the most unpleasant woman Dell could find to answer their phones. She told me that I had to be transferred to their foreign call centre because no one in the UK could take the call. I told her they could not hear me and she told me to ask them to transfer me to another line. She then proceeded to cut me off mid-sentence and transfer me anyway. So, I called the head office again, and got the same woman who told me the same thing, but still didn’t seem to grasp the point that if they could not hear me, I couldn’t ask to be transferred to a better line.

She then cut me off again and transferred me to their corporate customer service department in Ireland, where I was told I would be transferred back to India. I decided to go with it and finally got through to a technical advisor who could hear me if I shouted with the phone on speakerphone (it is at this point that I might add that everyone I spoke to on each step needed my full name and order number, and I spoke to at least 10 different people).

I explained my problem. The ATI website clearly states that the HD 3650 has 2 DVI outputs, yet the card I received has only 1. I was told that I did receive the HD 3650 and that it only has one DVI output. 30 minutes later, it was confirmed that it has 2 DVI outputs and that I must have received the wrong card. The advisor then told me he would find out how to get it changed.

I was then transferred to someone who told me they could not hear me properly, which is when I suggested (loudly and clearly while on speakerphone) that Dell employ customer service advisers closer to their customers, and my advisor said “I’m sorry, could you repeat that, I can’t hear you properly”. He then told me that I had received the correct card, and that the HD 3650 has 1 DVI and 1 VGA output, so even if he sent me a new card, it would not have 2 DVI outputs. I clearly expressed that my card does not have 1 VGA output and he said that I should talk to sales if I want a card with 2 DVI outputs.

In the end, the advisor is requesting that a new HD 3650 is sent out to me and I will take the issue up with the sales department when it arrives if it does not have 2 DVI outputs (which is highly likely).

What does all this mean? Dell has seriously gone down in my expectations. I bought a Dell because I wanted reliable customer service for my business. Their customer service has been very poor on this occasion, not just because I have dealt with unpleasant people, but because their operational systems are inadequate to effectively handle customer support.

HD 3600 Series specifications.

Photo of ATI Radeon HD 3650.

So, in a state of bewilderment I called BT to have this obvious fault rectified. The friendly American voice at the other end told me that she would see what she could do as it was the first time i’d used the service. She then came back on the phone and told me that she would credit me “4.8 dollars”. Confused, I asked her to clarify if that would be £4.80 or US$4.80, and she confirmed that it would be half the price of the call: £4.80.

Further confused and bewildered, I asked her if I had been charged £4.80 per minute of the call, and that this was not a simple error in their systems. When she confirmed that was the case, I then asked who I could speak to about this situation as BT’s website clearly states the charge is 20 pence per minute with a £1 connection charge. I was then told that she did not know what was on the website, but that since I hadn’t asked the price before I called, I must have been unware of the charge for the service.

She then endevoured to find someone else I could speak to, but instead informed me that she had checked with her supervisor and I would be credited the full £9.60 as it was the first time I had used the service. Somewhat infuriated by this point, I asked who in BT I could speak to regarding the fact that they charge £4.80 per minute for a call, when their website clearly states the price at 20 pence per minute. I was first told that there was no one who could deal with such a request, then after I contested this I was transferred to the supervisor (another friendly American accent – do BT use US call centres?) who told me that he would take my points and transfer them to the relevant party.

Am I going crazy? Am I living in a parallel universe? Can BT honestly charge people £4.80 per minute to use a Payphone? Is that legal when their website clearly states the price? This is all somewhat worrying as it’s the day after i’ve just signed a 5 year BT Business contract!

I can see an argument for them ten years ago so that people can get a local rate call to companies in other parts of the country, but the fact that so many people use mobiles today means that they are little more than a corporate rip-off! What further fuels my anger is when a company publish an 0800 number (which are also not free from mobiles for some absurd reason) for their new customer sales department, then rope their existing customers into dialling an 0870 at a premium rate!

However, it gives me great pleasure to direct you all to Say No To 0870, an online database of alternative numbers for many large companies. Join with me in the fight against this abuse of power!

I recently had some experience with an iPod Touch, and i mustadmit i was left slightly disgruntled again.

Like most Apple products, the packaging was great, the product looks and feels fantastic, is very easy to use and has some really great features. I was particularly surprised that i liked it a great deal more than the iPhone, probably because i had lower expectations and it proclaims to do a lot less. What it does do, it does it pretty well.

However, i’m sad to say that although the device works very well and that searching and viewing your media is fantastic, the process of getting it on there is an absolute nightmare! The computer it was linked to did not have the latest version of iTunes (7.5), but the older 7.0 version, so it didn’t recognise the device. When the 50MB download of the latest version was complete and installed, it then informed me that Windows needed to be updated before that particular model of iPod could be recognised! By the time Windows was updated, iTunes needed to be reinstalled before it would work with that model of iPod. So, after only 3-4 hours of updates, you can get iTunes to see your iPod – then you just have to work out how to get stuff on there!

Music is pretty simple and it hasn’t changed much, but heaven forbid you want to put movies on there…! Unless you downloaded your video from Apple directly, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll have to convert it to MP4. If it’s from a DVD then you’ll first have to rip it to your hard drive, then convert it!

Now it’s not often that i get angry, but didn’t some clever fellow invent plug-and-play for a damn good reason! There is no sound reason why the iPod family shouldn’t plug into any USB socket, be seen as an external drive and have drag-and-drop functionality for a wide range of media formats…hmm…perhaps including the two most common – MP3 and AVI!

I believe their ad should read ‘Hold me, touch me, kick me (by the time you’re so frustrated because you can’t actually use me!)’.

At least they’ve decided to not sink the headphone jack this time so the lucky user is allowed to use a set of headphones other than the standard Apple lot!

Another sad day for Apple products, and a slightly embarrassing one for me because said iPod Touch was a gift for someone else! “Here’s a nice shiny new iPod, now spend 4 hours updating your computer, 2 hours converting and transferring some music on it, and don’t even bother trying to put videos on there as it’s too much of a pain in the ass!”.

Bear in mind that for the last 16 months i’ve spent little more than 6-8 weeks in one place without travelling on somewhere else. I’ve now been home for 2 months…and am starting to feel the routine set in. I feel like i should be moving on somewhere…packing up my bag and heading to some exotic and remote land to discover the discoverable and eat the edible (not always edible!)…however…i’m sitting at my computer at 6.30pm…it’s dark outside and damn cold…and i know i won’t be going anywhere anytime soon!

It’s a bit of a depressing thought, highlighted by meeting people planning trips to distant lands in the not-too distant future. It got me thinking that i really need to go somewhere…and soon. It also highlights for me the reason why so many people never make that first step out of their homes. It’s so easy to settle into routine…the adventurous side of you slowly but surely subsides and makes way for finding adventure in trying a new breakfast cereal, or spreading your toast with the wrong side of the knife (not that i’m quite at that level yet!).

I’ve just had a reading week at uni and haven’t even left Edinburgh! To put all that aside, i’m off somewhere next weekend…not sure where yet…but somewhere.

It was a really cool trip and a big eye-opener. Before i delve into the details further, i’ll give a quick background of the country and the situation.

Myanmar is the country formally known as Burma. The name change which happened around 20 years ago, is one of many changes adopted by the military junta that makes up the government. Many of the major towns also underwent name changes to remove the British influence from the country – the fact that the name Burma was given to the country due to it’s majority population of Bamar people…didn’t really matter.

Back in the day, Burma was part of the British Empire, and along with many other countries, the people strove for freedom. A movement led by Bogyoke Aung San (Aung San Suu Kyi‘s father) eventually secured the country independence in 1948, despite him not living to see it. Aung San is still regarded as the country’s greatest hero…being the bringer of freedom. However, due to some side switching by General Aung San during the war (he was originally trained by the Japanese and helped to fight the British during WWII, then switched and sided with the Brits) and some other internal conflicts, the country decended into chaos and there were rebel groups fighting with the new government, and with each other. The situation is quite ironic as General Aung San, and some comrades, formed the first Burmese Army when they were trained by the Japanese, so by the time they won their fight and got their freedom, it was essentially a military government in power.

With fighting all over the country and the economy worsening, something had to be done. After ten years of conflict and fighting, the government began to get the upper hand and bring the country under control. Power changed between two main figures, U Nu (Aung San’s protoge) and General Ne Win, often voluntarily and with the use of the army to help bring law and order to the country. However, by 1962, General Ne Win was getting unhappy with the fact U Nu had been in power for a while and forcefully seized the reigns. He abolished the parliament and set up his own 17 member Revolutionary Council! Unfortunately, at the time this wasn’t seen as such a bad thing – the Burmese Army was viewed highly being set up by the country’s hero and the same army that fought for their independence. General Ne Win’s party has been in power ever since.

After suffering for a number of years, the people joined together and took to the streets in 1987/88. Spurred by the fact that Buddha had said the country would become free on the date of 8-8-88 the people took part in anti government demonstrations and prodemocracy rallies. Ne Win eventually stood down as chairman in order to try and solve the situation, however continued to control the party from the background. With the government seeming to be losing it’s power they resorted to the only means that armies understand and murdered some 3000+ people over a six week period and brutally crushed anyones hopes of a democratic government. The people still fought on and by the time the third successor to Ne Win took control in September 1988 under the new title Slorc (State Law and Order Restoration Council) he promised to hold a democratic election in 1989. The opposition rallied together and formed the NLD (National League for Democracy) and championed their enigmatic spokesperson Aung San Suu Kyi.

The government tried to appease the crowds by a number of cash injections into the economy, but rather than hold an election in 1989, they arrested and detained Suu Kyi, eventually putting her under house arrest. Thinking that the situation was under their control, the government held an election in May 1990 and the NLD won 82% of the votes (despite the government moving whole villages and trying to rig the election). Slorc banned all NLD representatives from the parliament and used their moment in the spotlight to raid offices and arrest it’s members. Since the election over 100 elected parliamentarians have been imprisoned, exhiled or killed.

In 1995 Aung San Suu Kyi was eventually released from house arrest (after a number of international awards including the Nobel Peace Prize), alongwith many other party members who had been imprisoned, and began to give speechs outside her home. The road was promptly blocked to all traffic so that people could not go to listen, and hundreds of people who attended her meetings or speeches were arrested and imprisoned. In the years after 96 her travel was severyly restricted and she attempted to leave Yangon (the capital city) and was forcefully brought back to her home by the military. in 1999 her British husband (and Oxford professor) was refused entry into the country and soon after died of cancer (after having not seen eachother for 3 years), and by 2000 on her second attempt to leave Yangon, she protested by sitting in her car at the blockade for 6 days before being returned to her home where she was again placed under house arrest.

After 2 years and secret talks with the government, she was unconditionally released and began touring the country and visiting supporters and NLD offices. However, just 1 year later in May 2003, while touring with a large group of NLD members, they were attacked in the Sagaing district (near Mandalay) and over 100 party members were killed. Aung San Suu Kyi spent a number of months in prison with many of the other party members who had survived and began a hunger strike. She was eventually transferred back to her house in Yangon where she has yet again been placed under house arrest, and where she remains today.

Today, the situation has barely changed since 1960. The military government is still in power and the atrocities they’ve committed over the years can rival Pol Pot, Mao and other such reforming dictators. The army doesn’t sit in the same light that it used to as the Burmese are aware of their situation. The rich have conitinued to get richer and the poor have got much poorer. Foreigners have severly restricted travel rights around the country, so the areas of extreme poverty are kept out of the photos, and the shiny gold pagodas are pushed in their faces instead. The ever intelligent government has imposed lots of changes and reforms on the country…but none of them seem to be having much beneficial effect for the people.

- They demonitised the two largest bank notes so that everyone who had them instantly lost all their money.
- They made an overnight switch of the side of the road for cars to drive on (from the left to the right) but since most people are too poor to buy cars, the majority of the cars in the country are older than 30 years and therefore right hand drive (so much so that oll booths are on the right hand side of the car, despite the fact you drive on the right hand side of the road), most of the public town buses are left from the colonial days and are around 85 years old.
- The exchange rate of the country is fixed at 6 kyat to the dollar, despite the unofficial rate being 1250 and the biggest bank note being 1000 (less than US$1).
- All media is heavily censored and full of propoganda.
- Many educated people were moved from their homes and forced to do manual labour on farms
- Most building work and public work is done by forced labour from the citizens or by prison labour (including building of many new roads and buildings for the visit Myanmar year of 1996, building of most the tourist attractions, cleaning of sewars and drains, gardening etc etc).

Unfortunately today China is one of the governments biggest supporters, and the opening of the border between the two countries has seen (or hasn’t seen as the case may be) a huge flow of trade for the illegal teak wood loggers, cocaine producers and diamond and gem stone smugglers. The Chinese government openly supports the junta’s policies – which has now changed it’s name from Slorc to the State Peace and Development Council after hiring a (guess who??) US PR agency to spruce up their image for the world media!! Glad to see that American firms still like to make a quick buck out of dictators who steal money from their people…does the world ever really change??

So….all this leads me back to the start…and my time there. It took me a few days to work out what was odd about the place. Sure it’s poor…but it’s different to other places that i’ve been which are equally poor. The key difference i noticed is that it’s more than destitute, it’s delapidated. It used to be rich. There used to be nice buildings and expensive new cars…well…they’re still there…just they’re not so nice and not so new anymore. They have the worst roads i’ve ever seen, it’s a miracle that the ancient cars still run!

I stopped writing this post earlier as i had to go out (probably just as well cause it’s pretty big!!), so i will add more about my experiences in Burma soon.

Aung San Suu Kyi – Wikipedia (new window)

Time for a rant. Asia seems to be covered in tiles. I think…a long time ago, a wise man once talked every king into the idea that they should tile every square inch of every country. The result – you can’t walk anywhere without trouncing on the smooth polished surface of ceramic tiles. The problem – it rains a lot! Everytime it rains, every pavement, shop front, tunnel, set of stairs…just bloody everywhere…becomes like an ice rink! Unless you are equipped with a zimmer frame and hiking boots…it’s likely that you’ll nearly snap your neck roughly 74 times a day! Hence the fall yesterday!

If you don’t read this post, at least please check out this link.

Lies on two accounts here – one by me saying that I wasn’t going to write anything for a while – I disguised my publishings yesterday by making them pages instead of posts – probably unnoticed by the masses! Check out the ‘what I’m up to pages’ to see what’s going on in my life aside from these daily ramblings.
The other lies that are perpetually told and believed everyday are shown so beautifully here. For all those people that laugh at me when I say I don’t eat McDonalds, or wonder why I don’t drink Coke – other than the fact it tastes like mule’s piss after its drunk 7 litres of sulphuric acid.
I would also like to point out for the record that I am a hypocrite and I do have both Nike clothing and Gap clothing and use P&G products (since they own like every fucking type of toothpaste in the world!), or Nestle and some of the rest. However, this is more because I am weak to advertising and the influence of ‘cool’, but I shall do my utmost from now on to not use such products and influence those closest to me to do the same. Please check out the site, join their mailing list and convince others to do the same. Every little helps (irony intended!).

Anyways, when i get served, this guy tells me that you can only get a refund within two days. A little…just a little…annoyed, I say fine, I tell the guy i don’t want it, cause I know you can get them elsewhere for like $1.50. Without me realising he puts my other items to the side (like $3 worth) and puts the adapter through the till. (Quick note, Mustafa put everything in white plastic bags and then zipper tie it so you can’t see inside). Blind and stupid I may be (having not seen him put the wrong thing through the till and not realising that I am not holding the other items but a big lumpy adapter in a sealed plastic bag), I am well versed at the old numbers and wrong change game. Pointing out to the man that he has not given me enough change he points to the receipt which says i have paid $7.30 for this stupid and overpriced adapter. So, I say to the guy that I didn’t want the adapter but I want the other two items. So, he tells me that I told him I did want the adapter and that I didn’t want the other two things. This goes back and forth a few times before he tells me that he cannot give me a refund and I am to go to another counter.

Arriving at the next counter I ask for a refund. The guy there stands around a while, checks my item, checks the receipt, stands around some more and then tells me I have to go to another counter.

Arriving at the next counter I ask for a refund. The guy looks at me and the sealed plastic bag, checks the item, checks the receipt, stands around for a while, then tells me I have to wait because he is about to serve some woman who has just pushed in and shouted for assistance. Slightly more annoyed that he is serving this woman who arrived after me, I stand and wait. He eventually comes back, looks again at the bag, decides to spend 5 minutes opening it, then closes it again and tells me that he can’t give me a refund and I have to go to another counter.

Arriving at the next counter I ask for a refund. The woman looks at me and the sealed plastic bag, checks the item, checks the receipt, then politely tells me I have to go to another counter. Well, by this time (half 11 at night and tired), I tell her that this is unacceptable and that I have already been to four counters and that the first prick should’ve given me a refund in the first place for cocking up my sale. So, she tells me that she cannot give me a refund and I have to go to another counter. Working out that this may go on for a while, I ask her to get me someone to take me to the counter and to the person who will give me my refund. So, escorted up the shop a bit…

I arrive at the next counter and I ask for a refund. They guy is serving someone else, so, looks at me and the sealed plastic bag then asks me to wait a minute. He (as slowly as I think he possibly could, without people thinking he was dead) unpacks the guys blender, plugs it in, turns it on, turns it off, turns it on again, turns it off again and repacks it not much faster than he unpacked it. He then turns to me and asks what the problem is, so I tell him I want a refund. So he gets out his book and looks for the right page. When he finds it, writes down some stuff and asks me for my details. So, me, John Sampson that lives at 5 Kings Way, London (email – john@hotmail.com) writes down my details. He then picks up the phone ‘blu bla bla bla hak hak la la’ and tells me I will have to wait here for 5 minutes while he goes away. Away he goes, 5 minutes later he comes back and tells me I have to go to another counter to actually get a refund – he only gives me a refund slip.

Arriving back at the woman I hand her my slip and ask for a refund. $299 she tells me. A little shocked I realise some dude had already put his stuff through the till and had wandered off and was now back to pay for it! So, looking at the refund slip for $7.30 and at the other items I want to buy for $3 she asks me what I want to get for the difference.
All hell breaks loose. Satin suddenly could no longer control his bladder and a shower of shit rained down on that counter that very second. “I did not ask to buy this item, I told the cashier I did not want it and he put it through the till anyway. I have been to 6 counters to get a refund that was not my fault and I want my money back now. I am not going to another counter, I am not going to bend over and let your manager stick his dirty cock up my arse, I just want my fucking money back.” (although the rude parts I just added in here…i’m not that impolite to strangers no matter how unhelpful they are). So, she calls over a male colleague who gets the same story from me and politely tells me that I will have to go to another counter.

Arriving at the next counter he proceeds to pick up the phone and start yakking ‘bla bla bla la la la customer bla bla bla bla customer yak yak yak customer dak dak dak’. He then tells me that I will have to wait for his manager. While waiting I loudly comment to Erik (who couldn’t stop laughing) that I don’t think they get customer service training here. Manager arrives, gets briefed by the woman at the cash desk then comes over. Doesn’t look at me but says ok and walks towards the till. As he passes I comment to him that his staff have been very unhelpful. Without even looking at me he keeps walking and pretends he hasn’t heard what I said.

Arriving at the next counter, he gets the refund put through and I get the other items deducted from the money. They get bagged, tied but he doesn’t give me them. Some problem with the till and it hasn’t printed a receipt. Telling him that I want my items and I don’t care about the receipt, he completely ignores me and waits for the receipt despite me trying to take the items, which are now legally mine, out of his hand. When I do get them and the receipt I crush it and drop it on the counter infront of him and walk out.

Over half an hour just to get my money back!