Monday morning blues

Or should I say red?

Woke up this morning to find this...


(that's frost on the windows)

Like a lot of people in the UK, we usually park our car by the pavement or the sidewalk, as it is known in the US. Well, someone broke the side view mirror on the left of our car.

Must be one of those B"£$%^& kids on the way to school.

Later went to my favourite garage here in Coventry - Taxi & car repairs on Stony Stanton road. Isfaq, the owner of the garage, fixed it for free. Thanks a lot.

Scotland trip cancelled

We were all set to spend a week in Scotland. Had a cottage booked, serviced the car and even bought snow suits for any eventuality - we were hoping that it might snow over there. However, it appears that we won't be able to go. My son is teething - he has four new teeth coming out and is in a great deal of pain. He is not eating and drinking much and we were quite worried when he came down with fever day before yesterday

We had hoped that he would get better by today but that was not to be. He's in a bad mood the whole day and it really breaks my heart to see him grimacing with pain. So we finally decided to cancel the trip. A call to a friend also confirmed our fears - that the money won't be refunded.

It was a bit of a downer but I tried to look at the bright side - we saved on fuel and other expenditure and it's probably too cold to enjoy ourselves over there. A case of sour grapes, I know but it certainly helps us feel better a bit.

Financing a car

One of our friends was recounting how they bought a car and to finance it, took out a loan. The interesting thing was that their decision was based on the advise of the salesman at the dealer where they bought the car. According to them, the salesman made it sound so attractive and that they were the best deal around. However, as they later found out, that was really not the case.

It's not surprising as I also financed my previous car - Proton, with a bank recommended by the dealership. Talking to a few other friends also confirmed the same thing. That is apart from a few other guys who were wiser because of prior experience. They had done their research and went with a lender that gave them the best deal.

It's amazing with a wealth of information at our fingertips on the web we still depend on the salespeople at dealerships for our financing. There are numerous sources on the web that can provide comparisons between the various offers available.

If you are looking to finance car purchases, do check out the the car finance section of the Motors Today (http://www.motorstoday.co.uk) website. They have links and information relating to loans, insurance and a link to HPI, a UK Company specialised in checking the histories of used cars.

They also a car tax calculator that will show the tax payable for the next three years. As for insurance, the company has paired up with Money Supermarket so that you can instantly compare quotes from leading UK motor insurers.

Reconnected finally

I have a big grin from ear to ear as I am writing this.

As you might have guessed, we are finally connected to the net from home. This is the first post I am making using the TalkTalk broadband connection.

The modem and the installation CD came by post today morning. The modem was fairly easy to set up but I was not really keen on setting up a network with wires in the house. It took me a while to figure out but I later realised that I actually didn't need the installation CD to connect to the net after all. All I had to do was reconfigure our old Netgear wireless router with the new user ID and password, which by the way, TalkTalk had already sent over sometime back.

Kick myself on the backside a few time

I will be posting the technical details in my SEO Expert blog.

Haven't checked the speed as yet but it definitely feels much faster than our old AOL broadband connection. Incidentally, both AOL broadband and TalkTalk are part of the Carphone Warehouse Group PLC.

3 Skypephone competition

I lot of guys have been asking me about the 3 Skypephones. Well I have some great news from you. The guys at 3mobilebuzz.com are running a competition. The winner stand to win not one but three 3 Skypephones, the second place gets two and third place gets one.

Also, two devices will be awarded to the blog that refers the winning entry. So, I may win too if you name me as your referrer.

All you have to do is say why you want a 3 Skypephone – and this is not limited to bloggers. It can be a forum thread, a webpage, a set on Flickr or even a YouTube video. Check out the the clip below:

It depends on your creativity. However, the content should be original.

Finally, one more thing - don't forget to inform Jack (the hallowed keeper of prizes, enforcer of rules and judge of all) about your entry by emailing him at Jack@3mobilebuzz.com

The deadline for submissions is midday on Monday 17th December

Check out the post on the 3mobilebuuz.com site for more details: "3mobilebuzz is running a competition!"

TalkTalk Broadband update

I don't like to beg but if anybody from TalkTalk is reading this ... Please, Please, can you help me get connected to the net.

We were supposed to be connected by last week. "You will receive your modem and installation CD within 5 working days". That was what the lady on the line said, when we called them on the 30th of November. A lady called Aparna confirmed it when we called them again on the 3rd of December. It's almost Monday and I am fuming - you probably know why.

Technically we are connected and as I mentioned in my last post, TalkTalk switched us to the new TalkTalk plan and started billing us since the 21st of November. However, we can't "go live" unless I get their stupid Connect & Go installation CD.

Called them up today and Stephanie, the lady on the line intially told us that the stuff had already been posted but then later said that we should receive it within 7 days.

I hope so because if we are not able to get a broadband connection by next Sunday (16th), I am going to move to another provider and ask for a refund for non-delivery of service.

Selling is not marketing

Warning: Ranting ahead.

The past two weeks has been very frustrating time for us. As some of you may be aware, AOL cut off our broadband connection without any warning (but still billed us) and we have already signed up for the 'TalkTalk 2 International' plan, which comes with a free broadband connection.

The upgrade was quite smooth and the new plan came into effect on the 21st of November. The guy we talked to, promised us that we would have the installation CD and new modem by the 30th of November. Today's it's already the 2nd of December. We are hopping mad because we have already received the bill for last month WITH the new plan, which happens to be costlier, even though we still don't have any CD or modem in sight - meaning no broadband connection.

I am really pissed off because I missed a meeting with my supervisor yesterday because I only got to read her email quite late YESTERDAY. And then there is the loss of earnings from my blogs. It's only when we get cut off from the net, that we realise how dependent we are on it.

After a year here in the UK, I have come to realise that a lot of British companies are really good at "Selling" their products and services but very poor at retaining their customers. Take broadband service providers as an example. There are so many of them to choose from but according to what we have experienced and what our friends who have been staying here for several years, almost all of them are equally bad in their after sales service if not worse. They keep on changing service providers every year in the hope that the next might be better. Some of them have accepted it as a fact of life here in the UK which is wrong. We might accept this in some third World country with no infrastructure or the communications network is controlled by the Government but this is the UK.

It's no wonder because most of their marketing departments here are actually filled with sales people while technical complaints are handled by call centres in India. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't know of any which has a customer retention plan in place. And I am not only talking about the broadband providers but the entire private sector.

I sometimes can't believe I am learning marketing here. I pointed this out to one academic and according to her, that is one of the reason why a lot of British companies apart from a few, have not been able to compete globally.

On the other hand the Government offices are really efficient. That's quite funny because a lot of the former colonies of Britain, blame the British tradition for their own paperwork laden sluggish bureaucracies.

I remember an old post I made sometime back, "Malaysian Companies and Marketing". I think it applies here in the UK as well.