These things are sent to try us
I hate it when people let me down.
Not that I'm perfect and never fail to carry out my own promises, but when you pay for a professional service, and it isn't delivered, then a bit of righteous indignation is justified, I think.
Two ongoing breakdowns in service are giving me grief at the moment; comics and the internet.
I get about fifteen comic titles delivered every month. There's no comic shop nearby, so this is the best arrangement. It also cuts down my spending - for me going into a comic shop is a bit like being given the keys to the candy store.
For years I got my comics from an outfit in Glasgow and each month my parcel would arrive with its magic contents intact. About a year ago, the Glasgow outfit merged its operations with another comics supplier based in Colchester. Customers in Scotland would be served by the Glasgow depot, while the rest of the country (Wales included) would receive their comics from Colchester. At first this seemed to work just fine, but after a while things began to go downhill.
First off some of the comics started arriving without bags. Since I was paying extra for these, this was a bit annoying. Fair enough, when I complained they sent me out a pile of spare bags and since then the mistake has been rectified. I let it pass.
Then, every so often, a title would be missing. Again, a quick email would see the comic in my next order. One comic missing every three or four months I could cope with, though I'd never had any go missing from my order when it was coming from Glasgow, but for the last four months there's been something missing from every order. Last month, they sent someone else's title out instead of one of mine. This month they put a slip in my order saying that their supplier had not delivered enough copies of Warren Ellis' Nextwave #2, and that if it wasn't in my box, they were trying to get some more. If they didn't send me one in the next two months, then they'd deduct the cost from my order.
What the fuck? They still haven't even sent me Nextwave #1 yet and they're telling me they might not be able to get me #2. But meanwhile I've got to wait two months to see whether I need to try and get it from somewhere else (by which time it will be probably more expensive than when it first came out - supply and demand.) This doesn't sound much like customer service to me.
And to cap it all, at the beginning of the week I got a letter from a complete stranger. In it was my receipt for this month's comics, complete with my credit card details, including expiry date and full number, which had been sent to him in his comics order by mistake.
The camel's back just gave way.
Then there's the internet. I use an ISP based in Harrow who offer a somewhat unique service. For the lowest monthly fee I've seen anywhere you get a limited amount of monthly usage. If you go over that, then the fee increases up to a maximum that is still cheaper than most of the mainstream providers. Any use beyond that costs no more. It sounds like a good deal, and in many ways it is. But there are some strange anomalies.
Quite often I simply can't get into Blogger through this ISP. It just times out. The office over the road uses a different ISP and I've never been unable to access Blogger through it. Likewise I've never had any problems using my dad's computer, or my little brother's. Only when connecting through my ISP.
Odd, but I could probably live with that. More annoying is the way my connection keeps dropping out. Now this might not be the ISPs problem. The lines around here are a bit of a mess, and I'm right at the ragged end of what broadband technology can cope with here in terms of distance from the exchange. But again I can only look at the system in the office, just across the road. Same distance to the exchange; no connection drop-outs.
Today I've had to reconnect at least a dozen times. And quite often it won't reconnect at all for half an hour or more. It's frustrating when all I'm doing is blogging (and even as I type this there's a little warning triangle at the bottom of the page with 'warning, could not connect to Blogger' beside it, so you may not get to see this post after all). When I've got a remote desktop setup going through a VPN connection to the Institute of Rural Studies server and I'm fiddling about with some crucial settings, the last thing I need is to lose my connection for half an hour. Academics get very tetchy when their computers stop working for no apparent reason.
Oops, there goes another camel.
I'm a lazy slob. It takes a lot to get me stirred up enough to take some action. But these two have been bugging me for long enough now. It's silly really - the man responsible for introducing me to Mr Stuart, all those years ago, runs his own comics shop in Aberdeen, so I can place my order with him. I should really have done it back when he first opened the place, but that old key to the candy store thought stopped me. Mike would forever be introducing me to new titles, and I would let my monthly habit get out of control. Bad enough what it costs to buy fifteen comics these days; I waste far too much time reading the things. Not to mention the catalogue I've started building.*
And as for the ISP. Well, I'm not tied into any length of contract. I can walk away from them at any time. But will another ISP provide a better service? I could go with BT and then they really would have to sort out problems with the line, but everything else about their service sucks the poo. Decisions, decisions...
Right. Back to work then. If I can just get connected.
* I told you not to mention that**
** with apologies to Robert Rankin - who does live in Brighton
Not that I'm perfect and never fail to carry out my own promises, but when you pay for a professional service, and it isn't delivered, then a bit of righteous indignation is justified, I think.
Two ongoing breakdowns in service are giving me grief at the moment; comics and the internet.
I get about fifteen comic titles delivered every month. There's no comic shop nearby, so this is the best arrangement. It also cuts down my spending - for me going into a comic shop is a bit like being given the keys to the candy store.
For years I got my comics from an outfit in Glasgow and each month my parcel would arrive with its magic contents intact. About a year ago, the Glasgow outfit merged its operations with another comics supplier based in Colchester. Customers in Scotland would be served by the Glasgow depot, while the rest of the country (Wales included) would receive their comics from Colchester. At first this seemed to work just fine, but after a while things began to go downhill.
First off some of the comics started arriving without bags. Since I was paying extra for these, this was a bit annoying. Fair enough, when I complained they sent me out a pile of spare bags and since then the mistake has been rectified. I let it pass.
Then, every so often, a title would be missing. Again, a quick email would see the comic in my next order. One comic missing every three or four months I could cope with, though I'd never had any go missing from my order when it was coming from Glasgow, but for the last four months there's been something missing from every order. Last month, they sent someone else's title out instead of one of mine. This month they put a slip in my order saying that their supplier had not delivered enough copies of Warren Ellis' Nextwave #2, and that if it wasn't in my box, they were trying to get some more. If they didn't send me one in the next two months, then they'd deduct the cost from my order.
What the fuck? They still haven't even sent me Nextwave #1 yet and they're telling me they might not be able to get me #2. But meanwhile I've got to wait two months to see whether I need to try and get it from somewhere else (by which time it will be probably more expensive than when it first came out - supply and demand.) This doesn't sound much like customer service to me.
And to cap it all, at the beginning of the week I got a letter from a complete stranger. In it was my receipt for this month's comics, complete with my credit card details, including expiry date and full number, which had been sent to him in his comics order by mistake.
The camel's back just gave way.
Then there's the internet. I use an ISP based in Harrow who offer a somewhat unique service. For the lowest monthly fee I've seen anywhere you get a limited amount of monthly usage. If you go over that, then the fee increases up to a maximum that is still cheaper than most of the mainstream providers. Any use beyond that costs no more. It sounds like a good deal, and in many ways it is. But there are some strange anomalies.
Quite often I simply can't get into Blogger through this ISP. It just times out. The office over the road uses a different ISP and I've never been unable to access Blogger through it. Likewise I've never had any problems using my dad's computer, or my little brother's. Only when connecting through my ISP.
Odd, but I could probably live with that. More annoying is the way my connection keeps dropping out. Now this might not be the ISPs problem. The lines around here are a bit of a mess, and I'm right at the ragged end of what broadband technology can cope with here in terms of distance from the exchange. But again I can only look at the system in the office, just across the road. Same distance to the exchange; no connection drop-outs.
Today I've had to reconnect at least a dozen times. And quite often it won't reconnect at all for half an hour or more. It's frustrating when all I'm doing is blogging (and even as I type this there's a little warning triangle at the bottom of the page with 'warning, could not connect to Blogger' beside it, so you may not get to see this post after all). When I've got a remote desktop setup going through a VPN connection to the Institute of Rural Studies server and I'm fiddling about with some crucial settings, the last thing I need is to lose my connection for half an hour. Academics get very tetchy when their computers stop working for no apparent reason.
Oops, there goes another camel.
I'm a lazy slob. It takes a lot to get me stirred up enough to take some action. But these two have been bugging me for long enough now. It's silly really - the man responsible for introducing me to Mr Stuart, all those years ago, runs his own comics shop in Aberdeen, so I can place my order with him. I should really have done it back when he first opened the place, but that old key to the candy store thought stopped me. Mike would forever be introducing me to new titles, and I would let my monthly habit get out of control. Bad enough what it costs to buy fifteen comics these days; I waste far too much time reading the things. Not to mention the catalogue I've started building.*
And as for the ISP. Well, I'm not tied into any length of contract. I can walk away from them at any time. But will another ISP provide a better service? I could go with BT and then they really would have to sort out problems with the line, but everything else about their service sucks the poo. Decisions, decisions...
Right. Back to work then. If I can just get connected.
* I told you not to mention that**
** with apologies to Robert Rankin - who does live in Brighton
Comments
They are awful. If not the Worst ISP EVAH then pretty damn close. Dreadful. Rubbish. Terrible.
As for comics, I suggest checking out the good folk at Mega City Comics. Very handy. Good service all round. And by the sounds of things, the actual shop is a bloody great Aladdin's Cave of comicy goodness.
Also, NEXTWAVE was massively under-ordered/printed for no. 2, so it's not too surprising.