I am having a back to front day apparently, I just put a comment on a friends blog and when I read it back, after posting it mind, some of the words are back to front, so if you see this happening, you will just have to decipher the best you can.

I get the keys to my new house a week tomorrow, am I ready, erm nope, am I panicking, erm nope, this is so much fun, revising, packing, sorting, falling out with the big bosses at work. Isnt it going to be a fun week

Anyway, I will now have room for those brave enough to tackle the yorkshire weather to come for a visit, so long as its not fifty at a time

And thats about it for now, hope everyone is ok, oh and dont forget to pop over and say happy birthday to this lovely lady http://dietingtobethin.blog.co.uk

I finally received a reply from Virgin

I will give you the reply word for word, the ones inside the brackets are my thoughts upon receiving it as I read it.

Dear Miss (full name here)

Thanks for taking the time to contact us. We're just writing to let you know that we've received your letter regarding the recent problems you've had ( No mention of the umpteen mails and trillion calls I notice, and recent problems? )

We're really sorry that you're not currently happy with the service you're getting from us (what service?) I can assure you that when we contact you we'll do everything we can to ensure that's put right ( See thats ominous the 'when' )

We'll try to get back to you within the next two weeks (Oh wowee that will make 11 weeks so far!) to help you resolve your complaint but we're really busy at the minute so it could take a little longer. Please just bear with us and we'll be with you as quickly as we possibly can be.

Regards

Customer support team
Virgin Media

Now I dont know about most firms but mine would not have let that letter out, we're instead of we are, the whole letter is filled with these, not good for a letter to a client. Secondly it was unsigned, which means no one is taking the responsibility for sending it, no letters leave our section until they are signed by the person hadling the case.

Another two weeks and possibly more that means it is going to be three months or more from the start of this to actually getting anywhere, it has already been nine weeks!

And in true Virgin style two days later I get another letter, wow thinks I that was quick, except it was not from the same place this one stated

We see from our records you have not paid your bill, if you do not pay this we may have to place the account with a debt collecting agency

Another example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?

My fun with barclays bank continues, whle I think that their complaints division is brilliant, again they are just fobbing me off with fancy words, 'do not move your bank account, stay with us and let us restore your faith in the bank' they then turn round and charge me £30.00 for being overdrawn, still no sign of an overdraft being granted, so how exactly do they plan on restoring my faith?

Considering that bank charges have been deemed illegal, how come the banks are still charging them? As always they deem themselves to be above the law, much like Virgin really.

So as you may have gathered I am as of yet no nearer getting my services back. However I can use my sons when I desire the problem is having to go there to use them, especially as I am trying to revise for an exam that is a mere 21 days away Oh and pack and sort and get more and more disenchanted with work.

I am still smiling, hope everyone is ok and things are good for you all.

Tuesday, over two weeks since Virgin restricted my internet, well they call it restricted, I call it non existant. Strange people, cut off your internet and tell you it is only restricted?

Still a resounding sound of silence, well they do actually have another four weeks before they match the answering the emails sent outlining the problems and the complaint, and of course they only sent that response because I refused to pay them, so what happens next?

Well I will continue to refuse to pay them, they will then tell me that they are going to take me to court and I sincerely hope that they do,what better way to get my point across than to attend the court and make sure that there are papers there?

I am hoping that before then they will have sorted things out, but it doesn't look like they are making much attempt to do that, not even a phone call to say that they are looking into the complaint. Still what more do I expect from a company that thinks they dont have to operate under the same rules as everyone else?

So meanwhile in the land of the living/ish

Work is bemusing with all the changes going on, do they really think that changing the name of the company will wipe out the reputation? The team that I work on does their best to sort things out but to be honest since the changes were announced things have become worse, the call centre have adopted an I dont care attitude as far as the clients are concerned and it seems are only there to pick up a paypacket. The amount of complaints that I am having to deal with concerning them and their attitude is getting higher. And the fact that they never read notes or take any notice of what is written on the front screen.

Still there may be hope on the horizon as my CV is lodged with several companies, we will have to wait and see what happens.

Hope everyone is fine and dandy, and I will be back as soon as I am able, probably Thursday with an update, but dont hold your breath

So here I am, back again for a quick post and a quick visit to as many as I can while I have the time. My son and his wife are snoring away in bed, I have fed the child and he is playing in his bedroom. I have the computer to myself for a little while.

So what has been happening? well, work is getting worse, and I am fast losing patience with it. I even fell out with my manager yesterday as I objected strenuously to a decision made on a case I was working on. The result was that the case was passed to someone else to have a look at and for the rest of the day everything I did was wrong? It is cool, Monster jobs.com here I come!

I am researching for my last slice of this years study, and of course revising for that exam in October. Lordy it is so close!

I have a new house, whoo hooo, two bedrooms and an attic, fully fitted kitchen, and a lovely large living room. But best of all, though it is not exactly a garden, I have a back yard fenced off to hang washing out in and for Molly to play in. I should be in there by the end of October, fingers crossed, and I cannot wait. So of course I am sorting and packing on top of everything else.

As you may have realised the Sound of Silence from Virgin is deafening, not even a phonecall to say that they are even looking at it. Its cool I have been offered two packages so far by different suppliers, I shall be leaving it until I move though as there is little point in getting it set up to have it moved a few weeks later.

So thats me for now, hope everyone is ok, and I cant wait until I am back properly.

Be good/ish

There is a standard complaints procedure that is set down by The Trading Standards and other such governing bodies. This entails sending out what is classed as a holding letter, the letter informs your client/customer that you have looked at their complaint and are dealing with this and they will receive a full response within twenty-eight days.

Of course the original complaint to Virgin took nearly six weeks to answer, I received no such communication as I have outlined and the complaint was not addressed. Since the first phone call in which I was spoken to in such a rude manner and was hung up on I have had two further phone calls, one from me to them, another from them to me. Both calls recorded, supposedly, my complaint in full on the system, I have yet to receive a response either in writing or by telephone to even say that they are looking in to it. They have also received a letter, outlining the full complaint and what I want from them to make it right.

Silence is golden they say, but not in this case.

It appears that Virgin do not think that they have to follow the same rules that apply to all other companies that provide services to the public and that the public pay for. They do not think that the guidelines and regulations of their regulators which are Offcom, Trading Standards and of course our good friend the Financial Ombudsman actually apply to them?

Maybe they think that people like me wont actually do anything and we will just go away or cave in and pay for services that we are not receiving. Well I don’t know about you, but I am tired of these companies thinking they can do as they please with no comeback.

I am not the only person that has a complaint, which has been shown by the response to my previous blog, the amount of private messages that say they too are having problems. I never expected a completely smooth ride, there are always times when the services go down no matter who the provider is, many times this is beyond the suppliers control and is something as simple as traffic on the net, a violent storm etc, etc. Courtesy when you call and a simple answer is all that is required, if the answer does not cover what is wrong, a promise of sorting it out and actually doing so is even better.

The sound of silence will not keep many customers happy, it is not good business, and it most certainly is not good for the reputation of a company.
But we all know that if Virgin start to falter its illustrious owner will simply sell it and move on to something else as he always does. Perhaps then we will get an answer to our complaints?

So it looks like a while until I am back, as I am supposed to be moving soon I dont see the point in getting a different supplier where I am, once I move I shall be looking at who may be the best one to get, though right now there seems little to choose between them all.

Hope everyone is ok

And catch you all later

Virgin Mediocre Media has once again shown why it is being classed as the worst media company around. How on earth they got awarded best customer service I don’t know because I can honestly say it is one of the worst customer services that I have had to deal with.

Admittedly I have had problems from the start when it was Telewest, I did however get pretty fair customer service from them, I say fair because mainly they told you what you wanted to hear and you still didn’t get anything done.

Lets start at the beginning for those that haven’t read it before.

They came to install my services, the engineer was courteous, respectful and didn’t even flinch when he found the computer was up two flights of stairs, he placed the cable tidily and professionally with not even a little bit that could be fallen over, I have to say he did a brilliant job and he was a lovely guy too, we chatted about his children and Molly followed him everywhere, a good sign that he was trustworthy. But, I had signed up for the full package, phone, TV, cable, he couldn’t put the phone in, as there were no available lines, um why tell me I can have it then?

Not a major problem, but not the full service I expected, still, I let it pass.

The engineer left and I began the installation of Blueyonder, no let us amend that, I attempted the installation of Blueyonder. It got past checking my computer was compatible and when it went to connect to its services, nothing, it stopped dead and then told me it couldn’t complete installation. No problem, maybe I did something, try again, numerous attempts later and a very frustrated woman calls her son. He attempted, no joy. For a week we kept attempting, we had Internet explorer so it wasn’t a major thing. I called them and told them, they sent me out an engineer, now each time they send someone out I have to take a day off work, they can only give you an in-between time and it is always through the week. So the installation cost me a days pay, the engineer cost me a days pay and the installing of the phone, which should have been done at the same time as the other two, cost me a days pay.

I let it pass.

The engineer had no more luck installing Blueyonder than I had, he told me not to worry as I didn’t need it and to be honest it was rubbish, I could download the home page if that was what I wanted, um, no I want what I paid for? So Blueyonder never was installed, I was slightly perturbed when told by their own engineer that it was rubbish and he couldn’t do it on his either. But I let it pass.

For the first month, things seemed fine, and then the fun started.

The first time I thought my computer had crashed and burned, bearing in mind this is a brand new dual core all the bells and whistles state of the art (Well almost) computer that wasn’t even four months old, I turned it on, and it never got past the first page, to say I was concerned would be to put it mildly, it just sat there, would do nothing. But, it didn’t have the normal message I get when something has gone wrong, the blue screen etc. I unplugged the modem, as I wanted to move the tower to make sure all the wires and bits and pieces were in the proper places, and the computer started, as normal? I plugged it back in, and the computer told me it didn’t recognise the application. I uninstalled the modem and then reinstalled it, and everything was back to normal.

I rang the unhelpful help line, probably a power surge, should be all right now. Hmmmm, ok then, except it wasn’t since then I have had to reinstall my modem at the least twice a week, sometimes twice a day.

Meanwhile Virgin Mediocre media have taken over.

The first thing they did was lose us programmes, while I agreed in principle with the reason that he did this, he didn’t ask his customers, maybe if he had asked his customers instead of spitting his dummy out he might have found that we didn’t mind the extra few pounds a month to keep programmes we liked? The main thing was, he didn’t replace them!! So we are paying the same amount of money for fewer programmes!

He then moved the Broadband to its own help line, this cost you money to call and you can never get through. Ring the normal help line and you are told “ sorry we can’t help you” and they don’t even record the fact that you have called?

When my mailbox went down I tried the help line, no joy there then, so I went on to the web page and emailed them, giving them an alternative mail addy as the blueyonder was not receiving or letting me send. No response, I sent them another one a week later, no response, after four weeks of not being able to get through to the supposed help line and being told the other one couldn’t help me, I cancelled my Direct Debit, there seemed to be only one way to get their attention, they had had five mails, numerous calls and I had received no response whatsoever.

I received a phone call on the Saturday, “ About your Bill”
“What about it”
“I am calling so you can pay it now by Debit or credit card, if you don’t we will restrict your services, so are you paying it?”

Now I don’t know about you, but that sentence spoken in an arrogant condescending manner got my back up, no why have you not paid, are you having problems is there something we can help you with?
So just as bluntly I told her no I wasn’t paying it until someone sorted out my complaint, so she said right I will put you are in dispute and she hung up on me!

I called the help line about an hour later as my service had gone down, I presumed they had cut me off, but wanted to make sure, the lady I spoke to was friendly and very helpful, why couldn’t I get her before, she gave me the address of the Customer Concern department and said she would record all I said.

Lo and behold, the very next morning I get an email from Virgin telling me that in all probability my mail box was full, umm, now I know I am not one of the most technically minded people in the world, but one of the first things I did was delete any unwanted mails and anything that might cause a problem like attachments. I sent one back that basically stated that I didn’t think it was that as I had sorted that out first.

The reply and I quote “ I can assure you your mail box is full ” Whoa! Are all Virgin customers treated with such arrogance? I sent a mail back that asked, “ Do you treat all your customers with such an arrogant attitude?”

I also asked if that meant that my Blueyonder Mailbox could hold less than a hundred mails in total as opposed to my AOL mailbox that holds seemingly hundreds and still allows me to receive well over a hundred a day if that was the case it was a very poor service, and that they had not even mentioned the problem with the Modem? Guess what? No response!

I talked to the Trading Standards, nice guys the Trading Standards, they tell me that Virgin have broken the contract by not supplying me with the service that they promised, and that they cannot argue that Telewest promised me that service as they bought the contracts and so have to uphold them. I have written to the Customer Concerns department, wonder if I will get a response from them?

Anyway it means I am off line until this thing is sorted out, but no problem as I am using my Sons Sky for now when I can, and I am seriously thinking about going and buying a freeview box, going back to AOL and having a BT phone, it has got to be easier than this?

Course I could always have Sky installed

Catch you when I can my friends, be good and take care.

Morning, chilly but not wet, quiet, as early morning tends to be. As the sky lightened one lone star stood out in the sky. Kinda know what thats like not that I am a star, but you know what I mean.

tuesday and work, but I am smiling, sort of

Have a great day whatever you are doing.

Last night I thought I had stumbled in to November, cold wet and windy, even Miss Molly wasn't keen on staying out in it. After the few lovely days we had been having it was quite a drop in tempreture.

However as miserable as it was it didnt stop me from stopping and gazing at the stars that appeared when the clouds parted, it was beautiful, and I stood and watched until the clouds and Miss Molly took my attention away from them again.

Today is much the same as last night, cold and wet and windy, looks like it is set in too. Ah well, not to worry maybe we will get a summer next year?

Right have to go before the white rabbits find me, have a great day whatever you are doing.

Not only have I already passed this section of the course, but I got my extension! I can now do it with no pressure as I know I have already passed.

All I need now is a win on the lottery tonight and all will be well in my world.

How has your day been so far?

This week I have been doing the work of four people, two staff on holiday and one sick left me to run the whole of that part of the department, as I have mentioned before the person that took over the settlement side hasnt a clue so I have been doing some of that work too.

As a consequence I have been working over most nights to get the work done. I am also working tomorrow. Mentally I am on auto pilot. So when it has come to study, it isnt working. I worried, about this assignment, it is the last one before my exam, and though I have intense study over the next six weeks, this one I thought was mega important.

It seems that I have worried for nothing, as, apparently I have already passed this part of the course! As long as I get over 50% in mt exam, which is a given even if I had put in this assignment, you always have to get over 40%. So hopefully I will get the extension that I have asked for as well, but it doeant matter, as I have already passed. This part of it anyway.

Maybe now I will get some undisturbed sleep.

At seven this morning I sat here with a blank page in front of me, my assignment has to be in by midnight and ten hours from when I started I am still sat with a blank page in front of me

I cant not do it, without it I fail, but my mind is a total blank

Ah well try again

Sometimes you can look up from whatever you are doing and capture a beautiful moment, everything is perfect including the backdrop.

I looked up from my desk, I had been humming/singing 'Summertime' to myself and just lifted my head up to gaze out of the window for a moment, perched on two chimney tops were a pair of Magpies, heads up and proud, behind them the sky was bluey grey tinged with purple, the fields were emerald green, and it all seemd to stop for one breathtaking moment.

Sometimes even a camera cannot catch the true beauty of a moment.

This was written by a figment of your imagination

Time for a break.

I guess it depends on the job you do as to whether youlike Mondays or not. I dont really mind them, though I will say sometimes I dislike them really I neither like, not dislike them. Admittedly they are the most hectic day of the week. Especially in a business like ours, those letters/phonecalls that have arrived over the weekend and they have been sat stewing on.

I work in a fairly good team, well, if you count the manager and me that is, and the others sort of make the team up

I like my manager, she is easy to get along with and we are on the same wavelength. She knows I will tell her if I have something to say and I know she will listen. She is away on holiday this week, so Monday was met with a bit more trepidition than normal.

The woman that is attempting to run the team in charge this week, this is the woman that has made a right mess of taken over the division I used to run, I know that she resents the fact that I can do it blindfold and she is struggling, but she wont take help or advice and I know her well enough not to offer it.

My normal manager leaves me alone to get on with my work, she knows that I know what I am doing and will get on with the work. If I forget to task myself something, it doesnt matter she knows that I will remember I have to do it and it will get done.

The amount of mails I received today to say you havent tasked this or remember to do that, she checked on everything I had tasked to me throughout the day. She disliked it even more when Directors were sending other managers mails to ask me to do something for them

Hopefully she will realise at some point in the week that if she concentrated as hard on her work as she does on mine she wouldn't be so far behind.

Apart from that I had a very productive day, and I hope yours was a good day too

Isn't funny how time seems to whizz past when you are enjoying yourself and goes so slow when you are not? This is because when having fun you don not watch the clock and so the passing of time becomes a secondary thing.

When you are not having fun, maybe when you are working and the work is boring, or like me yesterday someone is preventing you from doing the things you want to do, then you are watching the passage of time, waiting, and so it appears to go much slower.

I was thinking about the phrase 'Time and Tide wait for no man' and I imagine some person running down the beach shouting "wait for me, wait for me" and the Tide saying "Oh for goodness sake cant you see I am in a hurry?"

Of course the trick is to make the most of the time you have, though of course we never think of this until we start to run out of it, and then we think "Oh I meant to do that today" it is a wonder we get anything done!

Of course the down side to that is that you are timing yourself and that means you are fully aware of the passage of time, making it harder to enjoy what you are doing. Maybe somewhere in the middle, like I will do that today, but not specifically give a time for it doing.

And now time is running away with me and I have to get ready for work, have a great day, even though it is Monday.

It has finally stopped, the music, hopefully this time it will stay off as it stopped once before and I was just settling down to some study and it started again.

I haven't been able to concentrate on anything and I have an assignment due on friday

And I am now too tired to concentrate on coding Childrens reactions to experiments, hopefully I wont be too tired after work tomorrow to do it.

I wouldnt have minded so much if it had not been the same two CD's played continuously for twenty hours.

And of course the fact that it is Asian music means I dont understand a word of it, though I do know it off by heart now

Ah well, at least it has stopped and I can finally hear myself think, I really have got to move from here!

I hope everyone had a great Sunday

My head is pounding, next door has had his music going allnight// and it is still going, he turned it down around three, but then all I have had is the constant pounding of bass

Anyway, on to other stuff.

Isnt it funny how you can start thinking about people you haven't heard from in a while and suddenly they appear, this has happened twice in the last week, two people I met on Blog but who have become a little more than blogging friends, and the strange thing is that I visited both of their blogs, just to check that they were still there and they hadn't disappeared in to the ether. I do that visit and check, even though I say nothing.

And I have heard from both of them, the Captain I know is very busy with stuff, but I hover, and my other friend likes to let trouble find him, on occasion I am glad that they are both well and still about.

My wings are a little clipped right now, I was soaring yesterday, having gone to have my eyes checked and put through all manner of tests, I now find that I cannot afford the treatment

I have worked it out all ways to sundown, but there is no way that I can do it *sigh* so that is that out of the window, my sight is fading, and I had believed that it was an age related thing and of course that reading glasses would solve the problem, but it is apparently not the case. And the solution is out of my reach at the moment. Never mind worse things happen at sea

Right off to get some work done, hope you all have a great day.

I am at this moment feeling very pleased with myself, not just pleased but proud of myself too

I, the person who has to be forced to go to the next town under protest, went to Leeds, all by myself!

I even went shopping, sort of, well I bought myself a new top.

I worked until twelve then went straight to the station, as I got my ticket they announced the train so it was straight on to the platform and on to the train. I got to Leeds and mt appointment was not until 1-55 and I thought I might have problems finding the place but I found it right away. Which gave me loads of time to kill, so I went shopping, all on my own

Though I admit to a little Gliche on the way home, when I got to the station in Leeds the train was in, but when I got on it was packed, so I got back off and waited for the next one

But I am still feeling good about the rest of it

Hope everyone else had a good day

Saturday and I am getting ready for work

Straight from there I am going to Leeds to have my eyes looked at, what joy, so I will not be back till tonight.

Have a great day, have fun and be good