Tag Archive for Phones

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!

Rants

27/02/2011 PC, Phones, Rants, Tech Stuff No comments

*Warning* my first post for a month and it’s going to be a big long and full of rant’s! *Warning*

PART1 – Fucking Vodafone Rant

#1 – Vodafone – Where on earth do I start? After posting this http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/06/08/vodafone-sure-signal/ and then following it up with a post here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/12/04/mobiles/ how much can things change in the space of six months?

My sure signal stopped working almost as I hit submit on the latest post. I contacted Vodafone about this first of all via twitter; they told me to log the problem on the support forum. Which I did, the support forum asked me a few questions, and then they told me to email support using the contact form on the website. This I also co-operated with and did.

I was expecting a quick turn around on this bearing in mind I have been passed from pillow to post. But no! I am now receiving an email from Vodafone about once a week asking me either some more questions or just fobbing me off.

Adding the shit service I’ve received personally to the awkwardness Vodafone gave us at work in moving 150 numbers from Vodafone to o2. I will not be renewing my contract with Vodafone when it finishes in July.

PART2 – IT Rants

Now I am meticulously tidy with my computer, some may even say a *slight/massive case of OCD (as posted here http://www.richardhickson.com/2010/10/23/window-sizes-in-window-7/) However a few things are really pissing me off lately.

#2 – iTunes – Thee most annoying heap of shit software on the planet. Really fucks me off that you have to manage an iPhone using this software. When you update iTunes it changes your shortcuts (for example try pinning it to the start menu) Once you run the update its gone, now I don’t have only a few apps installed on my machine so to try and find the application again is a complete pain in the arse! Pinning a program to the start menu is just another fucking shortcut. Why not leave it there?

#3 – Adobe – This includes Reader and Acrobat! They are both a complete c*nt. Why on earth would you create programs that automatically create a shortcut on your desktop? Who on earth loads up adobe reader and then opens a pdf? Next to nobody I bet! That’s not to mention all the start-up entries and services they put into MsConfig.

#4 – Microsoft Word 2010 – Now this is one that is driving me mad when writing this post especially (I write all posts in MS word for spell checking.) The zoom, if you have word maximised and want the zoom at 100% it shows you two pages at once side by side, which I find very distracting. To get one page on its own at 100% you need to shrink the word window down. This is equally distracting if you have something open in the background that changes on its own accord – For instance TweetDeck, Facebook or even the windows 7 Wallpapers set to change of their own accord!

Now I know the first two may only be small rants, but when you’re so meticulously tidy with your computer, they need to be sorted out before I can carry on using it!

*Delete where appropriate

Mobiles

04/12/2010 Phones, Tech Stuff No comments

Now it’s coming to that time of year again, when I can allow myself to start thinking about my next mobile upgrade. I currently have the iPhone 3gs 16gb. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great phone. However apples reluctance to let you do anything with it that they don’t want you to do, as well as the crap battery life is driving me insane!
I honestly have to charge the phone up every night, sometimes even twice a day.

This past week due to snow I have barely been out the house for longer than an hour whilst I fight with the crowds at Swanley station to get on SouthEastern’s non-existent Contingency service. Yet, despite having full Vodafone signal, and not using the phone due to being in front of my pc the whole time, I’m stull charging the phone twice a day!

Now; I close all my apps when I’m finished with them, I never Ever leave anything running. I run the battery down (not through choice I might add!) at least once a week so it’s completely flat as they recommend. It’s always running the latest version of IOS as soon as it’s released.

Ok, yes, I do have 3g on the whole time, but I have a Vodafone SureSignal in the office and at home, so I do have full mobile signal. I also have Wi-Fi on the whole time as well, although I will add Wi-Fi doesn’t appear to be doing anything until you unlock the phone.

But what’s the point in having this technology on a phone if you have to switch them off for the phone to last longer than six hours? I mean I have been out of bed since eleven o’clock, I’ve sent four text messages and taken one, two minute phone call and the battery is now down to 50%!

So the way I’m looking at it, I need a phone with:

• Fairly decent battery life (or the ability to change the battery)
• It needs to be on Vodafone with 3g
• I use the GPS/Google Maps a lot when I’m out the office.
• Wi-Fi is a must.

From what I’ve read on different sites and from what’s available. I think I’ve managed to whittle this list down to a few handsets. The choices are mainly HTC and Blackberry. But I’m almost certain that it will not be another iPhone.

• Blackberry Pearl 3G – Nice Size, weight. And I loved the original pearl! Although not as feature rich as the others.
• HTC Desire – Nice size, nice weight, running android. So very feature rich.
• HTC Desire HD –higher spec then the HTC Desire although it I feel it’s too big.
• HTC Desire Z – Don’t know an awful lot about this phone, Looks to be lower spec then the HD but higher than the Desire.

There are some others which I will read up some more on. Still I’ve got 2 months before I can upgrade. There may be something out there that I’ve not seen coming out!

iPhone OS4 (or IOS4) Follow Up

29/06/2010 Phones, Tech Stuff No comments

Ok, I’ve been using IOS4 for a week now. I’m not overly impressed with the fact the battery life seems to be far worse than it was before and that’s with the so called “task manager” empty.

The task manager is more like a recently used program list, as when you load up an app from there it seems to start it from the beginning. This maybe that some apps have not been updated to work with the task manager though. Time will tell!

The good side is I like the red squiggly spell check line when writing emails which is identical to MS Office (fig1). Then if you click on the line you get a list of possible options. (fig2)

The folders is the most obvious addition and I love it! It took a while to get used to after I OCD’D them. However know I don’t understand why they wasn’t an option in previous versions.

The camera changes haven’t really been used, as I very rarely use the camera at all!

As for the problems I mentioned in the first review, Google fixed these the very next day. So my email, Calender and contact sync’ing is now all back up and running flawlessly.

That is about it for my thoughts on it!

(fig1)
IOS4 Fig1

(fig2)
IOS4 Fig2

Random, Rants and Things

14/01/2010 Phones, Rants, Southeastern No comments

I’m sitting here on a train to Edinburgh writing this blog, Not entirely sure where the post is going but as it’s nearly a whole month since I last updated I thought now was a good time. However it’s not good going considering one of my new year’s resolutions was to update at least once a week! Ah well, that resolution has gone the same way as all the others: No drinking for all of January, well that lasted until about the 1st of January. Healthy eating, Well that didn’t really start instead I just feel guilty after I’ve eaten something unhealthy and carry on with my life in the normal way.

I’m a bit disappointed today, as my iPhone was meant to turn up before 1pm. However when I left the house at 12.45pm to head to London and eventually Edinburgh it hadn’t turned up. I then check at it was signed for by my next door neighbour at 12.55….Bloody typical!

Another small rant about Southeastern? Why the hell not! This afternoon I was standing on platform three at Swanley station with the train due. There was a loud tannoy announcement, telling us that “the train due to depart from platform three, Will now depart from platform one.” Now this wouldn’t have been so bad, if they had told us before the train pulled onto the platform. I picked up my bag and along with everyone else walked down the platform to the stairs, up the stairs across the bridge and down the other side, just as the doors shut and the train started pulling away. I think this is unacceptable, Changing the platform as the train is pulling up and not giving people the time to change platform. However I probably would have made it if I didn’t have my big bag but the three old dears that had walked down the full length of platform three to be at the front of the train did not stand a chance.

We went to complain at the ticket office and was told to go and find the station manager on platform one. So around twelve people, including myself descended on the station manager’s office. To be very rudely and aggressively spoken too by the guy in the office – As if we had interrupted his quiet afternoon watching TV. By this point myself and another guy where getting quite irate and walked away after he had slammed the door on us all. Leaving the other members of the crowd to try a different approach. We walked up to the top to find out what time the next train to London Victoria. I decided to stay up there and wait to see what platform it would come in on.

When it came in, I spoke to the guard at the back of the train asking him what was going on, His reply was “I’m not sure what’s going on, but you’re the third person to complain about this happening today. One driver even left the platform whilst a disabled person was trying to get to the train from another platform after it was changed at short notice.”

Now Southeastern, How much sense do you need to realise if the platform has been changed at late notice, you need to wait a couple of minutes longer on the platform to let the people make their way to the new platform. As for the rude aggressive guy in the office at Swanley station – F#ck you and I hope you have a really shitty day!

Phones

26/10/2009 Phones No comments

Evening all,

Just got home from the start of another week and I’m looking forward to pay day in a big way!!!

Have had a result on the laptop/ebay/keyboard front, I still haven’t received the keyboard so contacted them this morning and have a full refund coming my way! I also found a replacement screen for my drunkenly broken Nokia n73, so will get that once pay day arrives. Fingers crossed it will be easy to swap the screens and it will work as if it does it will be the first phone to last for the full 18months of a contract (with the repair that is!)

Any way that’s all for know.