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Newsletter August 16

 

I hope you are well and enjoying our pathetic summer. Not much IT news around but here’s a summary of a few things you may find of interest.

Over the years I have tried to give you a few hints and tips. But now, I’m about to give you some information which could help you dramatically in the future. Not only for things to do with computers, but absolutely anything which involves complaining to a large company.

But before I do that, you should learn the background of how and why I’ve learned this very valuable life lesson. The next 2 stories will illustrate the reason for my revelation. Interested?? Read on;

BT Mobile Vs Vodafone.

I have been a happy Vodafone SIM only customer for the last year, and was coming to end of my 12 month contract. Instead of doing the sensible thing and staying with Vodafone, I researched the market. I found that the recently launched BT Mobile package gave me a much better deal. It gave me more data allowance (from 6Gb to 15Gb per month), and 40% cheaper than Vodafone. The only downside was that BT didn’t offer free data roaming when abroad. So I went ahead and paid £30 extra so I could use get my email and internet when I went to Spain. BT also doesn’t offer any type of phone package, so you have to pay 4p per minute to call back to UK. Unless you have wifi and can use the BT Smart Talk app, where calls are free. To cut a long story short, I got to Spain only to find that I couldn’t use my Internet or the Smart Talk app. Despite many calls to BT to try and get this fixed, they couldn’t do it. So I had no Internet, emails or free phone calls whilst away. I felt terribly let down by BT and just wanted to come running back to Vodafone, even if it meant paying a bit more. The problem was that I’d signed up for a 12 month contract with BT, so to cancel it early would cost me an extra £132. I’d also chosen to pay £120 to Spotify, which had been free as a Vodafone customer. I wasn’t a happy little bunny.

Accident on EasyJet flight.

You won’t believe this: As our flight landed back at Luton at 4am and the pilot turned off the seatbelt signs, passengers stood up and opened the overhead lockers. Some idiot had left a very heavy glass 2 litre bottle of gin in the locker above my wife’s head. As they opened the overhead locker, the bottle fell out and came crashing down on her head. Thankfully it didn’t break, but caused a big cut in her head, which started bleeding heavily immediately. Although the flight attendants were helpful and helped stopped the bleeding, she is still suffering from the accident 2 weeks later. She went to the hospital the next day and has seen her GP since, due to the ongoing after effects, and needs an MRI scan to determine the extent of the injury.

As a result of these two stories, I have learned a valuable lesson on how to go straight to the top, if you want to complain and get things done.

I was so upset about the fiasco with BT, and despite raising an official complaint through the normal channels, nothing was being done.

So I decided to go straight to the top. I typed in BT into Wikipedia. That gave me name of the CEO and Chairman. I then typed in the CEO’s name and then Contact Email into Google. It directed me to a website called ceomail.com and gave me his proper email address. I wrote to him at 9.15pm on a Sunday night with brief details of my complaint. Within 5 minutes, he replied to me!! He was very apologetic and said he would get his team to investigate first thing tomorrow. And lo and behold, the next morning, I got a call from one of his senior team. I was on the phone to her for about an hour trying to rectify the problems I’d had in Spain. Even she couldn’t get it fixed. So she asked me what I wanted to do. I said that all I really wanted was to be released from my 12 month BT contact without having to pay the £132 penalty for early cancellation, as well as having the money I’d spend on buying extra data, and the cost of all the calls and texts I’d made while away refunded. She said that’s fine and would organise it. And she did. So I’m now back with Vodafone again. I even got my 12 months free Spotify back through Vodafone. So I wrote to Spotify, explained the situation, and they have refunded the £120 I paid upfront, which I was very pleasantly surprised about. So I’m a very happy bunny now.

I did exactly the same with EasyJet. I found the CEO’s name and then her email address. I wrote to her with details of the accident. Within a few minutes I’d had a reply from her. To cut a long story short, their solicitors have now written to me accepting liability for the accident. We’re now waiting to see what they’ll offer by way of compensation. The story continues and we’ll see how it concludes. Thankfully my wife is on the mend now but still not 100% recovered.

So, the moral of these stories is that if you want to complain and get things done immediately, go straight to the top of the tree. CEOs of big corporations do not want to be bombarded with complaints, so they will pass it to a member of their senior team, and things get done, quickly and effectively.

I hope that this could help you now or in the future.

 

Windows 10 Free

At the end of July, Microsoft will stop offering a free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8, to Windows 10.  So, if you haven’t yet done it, should you do it? I believe the short answer is Yes. I’ve been installing W10 in over a hundred computers since it was first launched a year ago. The vast majority of my customers have found that it a benefit, with little or no problems. I’ve only had about 5 or 6 customers who have experienced problems with the upgrade, and I’ve taken them back to their original Windows package. But on the whole, W10 has proved to be a good stable upgrade.

So, if you are a Windows 7 or 8 user and still undecided, then make up your mind in the next 2 weeks. After that, it will cost you £100 to upgrade to W10.

If you would like to upgrade, then you can either do it yourself, which will take around 3-4 hours then some tweaking to get it right, or I could come and do it for you properly. Please let me know if that’s of interest to you.

 

App of the Month.

WAZE

Forget your car’s Sat Nav system. Waze is a fantastic free app for Smartphones and tablets. It’s a great SatNav programme that knows the current traffic conditions, roadworks and diversions, and unlike most car satnav systems, directs you through the little backstreet shortcuts (not only the main roads) to get to your destination quickly. It also shows you speed and traffic light cameras well in advance, and only takes a minute to install on any Apple or Android phone or tablet. Brilliant.

And Finally

I think we can all agree that the world is in a strange state right now. Political unrest at home and abroad. Europe. Terrorism. Financial instability. General uncertainty about the future. So why not take 3 minutes out of your life just to de-stress with music. I’m a fan of all genres of music. I heard this on TV last night for the first time in donkey’s years, and thought it’s just perfect. Listen to the simplicity of the piano, double bass, and the smooth velvety voice. You’d never think a fan of loud heavy rock music like me would like this, but see if you agree that this is 2minutes 47 seconds of sheer perfection. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aJfZw3SA2c

 

 

I’m afraid that’s it for now. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer and the weather improves before were back to the doom and gloom again.