Archive for March 2011

Count down to San Fran

19/03/2011 Fitness, Me No comments

I’ve decided I’m going to lose some weight before I go to America for Stuarts wedding. So i registered on runkeeper.com and am appalled at my inability to even run around the block. I was knackered after ten minutes and had to stop.

Admittedly I hadn’t had a drink before I went and had had quite a boozy night last night so was quite dehydrated. But I’m not going to make excuses for myself; I currently weigh 220lb (or 15.7 Stone) I want to get this down to around 13stone.

So the plan of action is: a run three times a week, every week increasing the distance. My first run was today and I managed a measly 0.76 miles. This was when I was on the verge of passing out, drenched in lager smelling sweat. Having been appalled by my fitness level, it’s no wonder I didn’t enjoy my extremely short time playing football at the beginning of the season!

Needless to say, I’m documenting all activities on runkeeper.com and will give periodic updates on the new healthy me!

Results – At last!

10/03/2011 Phones, Rants, Tech Stuff No comments

I’ve had two massive results this week,

  1. Vodafone replaced my sure signal.
  2. O2 are replacing my sisters blackberry.

Vodafone Logo
The first result was achieved by simply cc’ing in the CEO of Vodafone (guy.laurence@vodafone.com) in an angry exchange with the Vodafone minions on their email support that takes the best part of a week to reply.

The angry email simply explained that after I had first tweeted them they advised me to use their support forum, the support forum then asked me to email them. The email exchange went on and on and resulted in me sending the below when they asked me to then phone them!

Hi Tony,

What other methods of communication would you like me to use? I’ve used your twitter channel, the customer service forum, email, and now you’re telling me to phone them? Shall I send a telegram and a postcard as well?

I shall be contacting watchdog about the rubbish customer service I have received and i have also CC’d the CEO of Vodafone UK.

Kind Regards

Frustratedly Yours

Rich Hickson

Needless to say, Mark Shaw from the CEO’s office called me promptly and within 3 working days of my angry email, I had a brand new SureSignal in my possession.

O2 Logo

The second result was a similar sort of thing. My sister had tried to get her almost brand new Blackberry Pearl 3G replaced under warranty after the charger port came out with the charger. O2 refused to fix it and actually sent it back with a lovely letter saying they basically couldn’t be arsed because it looks like its damaged! No Shit Sherlock!

So I slipped into email writing mode again, and fired off an email to Ronan Dunne – Chief Exec of O2 (ronan.dunne@o2.com) I didn’t have any account details for Liz. All I had was an aim, to get a new phone, a refund or the phone replaced. One politely worded letter explaining my sister’s distress, unhappiness, upset and a very strong feeling of being let down by O2 in the fact that they won’t repair a phone that’s under warranty.

A couple of days later, I received a phone call from a lady in the CEO’s office, who has organised a replacement blackberry to be shipped to my office tomorrow. We shall see if it turns up and they do as they have promised, but so far so good!

Now why does it take an email to the CEO to of companies to actually get a result? If people sorted this first time when it was logged then everything would be fine!