1987 Ford Capri

Posted on January 19th, 2010 by MrDaz

capri

I dug out this old photo recently and had to upload it here. It was taken somewhere around 2004 and shows a 1987 Ford Capri that I bought, unseen, on eBay for £1,100. It was in excellent condition when I bought it, but alas due to daily commuting from Cwmbran to Bristol (around a 70 mile round trip) it didn’t last too long before it needed repairs that were too much compared to its value.

It’s still a great looking car though and maybe one day I’ll get one again. Though, if I do buy another Capri it will be a 3ltr rather than the 1.6ltr that I had here. I might also go for Professionals silver, instead of white… or maybe one of each.

Tags: General // Add Comment »

Laithwaites Complaints

Posted on January 15th, 2010 by MrDaz

This complaint with Laithwaites started as just a mild niggle, and one that I thought had been cleared up quickly and effectively by the Laithwaites customer services department… alas I was wrong.

I ordered a case of Spanish red wines before Christmas, and it arrived (via HDNL would you believe) in good time. I was impressed, and a little shocked. When I tried to open the fourth bottle, removing the foil cover, I found that the cork was damaged. There was only half a cork, it was on its side and the win in the bottle had been exposed to the elements since it had been bottled – it smelled very bad.

I phoned Laithwaites customer services team and was mildly surprised to find that they were willing to deal with it very quickly, offering to send me a £10 gift voucher for the bottle of wine. The chap on the phone said it would be with me by the end of the week.

A couple of weeks past, and several decent looking email offers from Laithwaites came and went while I was still waiting for my £10 voucher (which I would have used on one of the offers), to the point where I phoned them on January 5th to ask where my £10 voucher had gone.

Here is the phone call in full, together with the relevant section from the previous call in December where I WAS told that my voucher would be posted.

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Laithwaites Customer Service

In this call I am told once again that my compensation voucher would be posted to me, and yet, 10 days later, still no voucher.

To be honest, with Laithwaites customer services being so lackadaisical I’m not that keen on ordering from them again, even if this £10 voucher that I was promised before Christmas does eventually show up.

I paid for 13 bottles in December and have only been able to drink 12 – I still have the damaged bottle as evidence, or for emergencies should the alcohol levels in the house become dangerously low ;) .

Has anyone else had any problems with Laithwaites, or had to make Laithwaites complaints?

Tags: Complaints, Rants // 5 Comments »

A-Team movie trailer

Posted on January 9th, 2010 by MrDaz

This is the official 2010 trailer for the A-Team movie, and I just wet myself when I saw it. As a big A-Team fan I’ll be seeing this film, and hope to wangle my way into the UK premier, but until then I’ll have to make do with this trailer… and what a trailer.

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Tags: The A-Team // 1 Comment »

New Year’s Resolutions for 2009, how did I do?

Posted on January 4th, 2010 by MrDaz

It’s a little late this year, but I thought it time to tie up my New Year’s Resolutions for 2009 to see how well I did. Here are the resolutions in case you want catch up, and here’s the success, or lack of it.

1. Buy a house
This one’s a check! Bought a house in Manchester in March and have been living there since then.

2. Clear my bank loan
Another score. Cleared this loan around the same that I bought my house, so now I don’t have any more debts draining my finances each month.

3. Don’t buy a new car (unless it’s a DB9)
Another success. I have managed to avoid buying a new car, or a second hand one, and am driving the same Z3 that I’ve had since 2004 (even though it has been stolen once).

4. Be more outspoken on MrDaz.com
Things have been quiet on here lately, but due to content on other websites I have managed to garner another two solicitor’s letters for different incidents. Good stuff!

5. Invest more
I did buy some shares at the beginning of the year. They haven’t done too well, but I still have them and hope that this particular bank makes an upward turn before too long.

6. Don’t have any fault (or non fault) accidents
Success! I didn’t crash once in 2009. I made it a whole year without hitting another car, inanimate object or pedestrian. Go me!

7. Go to the premiere of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
This one was another big check. I attended the premier and the press conference with Megan Fox and Michael Bay. That was pretty damn good.

8. Get my back sorted
This was sort of a success. I saw a surgeon and found that I also have a slipped disc, but an operation would mean going through my stomach due to my steel spine. The surgeon advised I leave it as most slipped discs get better, and it has slightly. I still can’t walk very far, but it’s better than it was in March.

9. Get in shaped (at least try)
The key word here is ‘try’. No, I didn’t get back in shape, but I did ‘some’ exercise. I’m chalking this one down as a success too, but there’s more to come in 2010.

10. Cook more
The final resolution was also a success. I pretty much cooked something from scratch every month, which is about 12 times more than the previous year, so I’m happy with that.

That’s 10 successful resolutions. I have another 10 for 2010, and I’ll reveal those shortly.

Tags: General // 1 Comment »

American style bar table

Posted on December 4th, 2009 by MrDaz

As my sale of the bed and dining room table went so well (and they did!) I’m now flogging this American style bar table on eBay. This table again has the starting price of 99p, only this time it’s located in Manchester for anyone who wants to pick it up.

You can bid on it now, and maybe get a real bargain.

Bar Table

Tags: General // 1 Comment »

Carphone Warehouse employee lies

Posted on November 25th, 2009 by MrDaz

I’m pretty sure I’ve explained reputation management on this website before. It’s quite simple, it’s about making sure that your business or personal name features positive results in the search engines when someone searches for you.

That’s the basic idea at least. Yet most people don’t understand how this works, and they think that by visiting websites and forums that feature negative comments, and ‘pretending’ to be someone impartial who is posting a positive comment, they’ll redress the balance.

This is of course idiotic. The public aren’t that stupid and anyone who tries this will be found out for the moron that they are.

Take this comment by a ‘Carphone Warehouse customer’ for instance. The post itself ranks on the first page of Google for ‘Carphone Warehouse Complaints’, and has obviously been spotted by Carphone Warehouse themselves, who hoped to convince the 70+ people who had commented on the blog that Carphone Warehouse were in fact a good company, by pretending to be a customer.

Here is the comment in full:

Just thought I’d add, I’ve been a carphone warehouse customer for over 10 years now and have never had a bad experience with them. I have had to put 2 phones in for repair due to faults, I paid my deposit for “loan phone” and within a couple of weeks recieved my phone back working fine and had my deposit refunded within a reasonable time.

Happy customers don’t seem to get so passionate about their experience as unhappy buyers…

Surely we should be getting upset with the manufacturers issuing substandard goods onto the market, then washing their hands of said products, leaving the retailer to pick up the tab.

Sounds a little fishy doesn’t it?

The first line for example, “I’ve been a carphone warehouse customer for over 10 years now and have never had a bad experience with them” – that set the alarm bells ringing straight away. Anyone who claims to have been with Carphone Warehouse for 10 years and has never had a problem with them is clearly delusional, or not to be trusted.

The use of wording too seems a little odd, almost as though it came from a handbook “had my deposit refunded within a reasonable time”. What’s a reasonable time? Couldn’t they commit to a time?

The final paragraph that sided with the retailers clearly shows that this person works for a retailer. Nobody speaks like that otherwise.

Of course all of this is conjecture. I may be reading too much into this and this person may indeed be a genuine customer of Carphone Warehouse with 10 years of nothing but good experiences with them.

Then again, as this idiot used their REAL email address to post the comment, robinsc02@cpwplc.com, perhaps their comment should be taken with a HUGE pinch of salt.

C Robins of Carphone Warehouse; when you attempt to play reputation management online, pretending to be a customer of your own company, at least have the intelligence to NOT use your own business email address!

Muppet.

Tags: Complaints, Humour, Internet, SEO // 18 Comments »

Cheap bed and dining table for sale

Posted on November 15th, 2009 by MrDaz

I’m having a final sell off of items from my house in Cwmbran, which includes a sleigh bed and a marble table. These two items represent the two most expensive things I’ve ever bought, not counting houses and cars, which is kinda sad really.

The bed cost around £1,100 in 2005 and the table was £1,600 with six chairs. Anyone interested in buying these two bargains can bid on them on eBay, as they have a 99p starting price and no reserve, so I could sell them both for less than £2!

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Hope not though.

Have a look on eBay and see what you think. The bed can be found here, and the table and chairs can be found here.

Tags: General // 1 Comment »

When I met Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander

Posted on November 13th, 2009 by MrDaz

I’ve been sifting through some more images lately and I’ve come across these two photos from several years ago. One is from Collectormania in Milton Keynes and the second is from the London Sci-Fi Film and Comic Con.

At Collectormania I met Beatie Edney, who played Heather MacLeod in the 1986 film Highlander. Here is the photo of the Highlander sword I bought that day, where Heather has signed the blade for me. This was a logistical nightmare actually, as the convention in Milton Keynes was held in the shopping centre, and despite buying the sword at the convention, I wasn’t allowed to just ‘whip it out’ without having security there to oversee it.

2006-10-29_163644_DAZ-PICS-004

In fact, if I remember correctly the security guards had to remove the sword from the tube for me and I was only allowed to stand by it, without touching it, before they put it back in the tube.

adrian-paulThe second photo is from London a year or so earlier where I met Adrian Paul, who played Duncan MacLeod in the TV series Highlander. He doesn’t seem to have aged either, but then he is immortal, so I guess he wouldn’t have.

I’ve been watching through the Highlander TV series lately and it’s awoken a desire to dig out my long coat, choose one of my swords and head onto the streets for some head lopping action.

I must resist, that is really frowned upon round our way.

Tags: Movies // Add Comment »

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