Category Archives: Internet

General, Internet

Phillip Schofield calls out MrDaz

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Last Friday I travelled down to London for a filming of the gameshow The Cube, hosted by the silver fox himself; Phillip Schofield. While there, sat on the front row might I add, Schofe (as he likes to be known on Twitter) asked that any audience members who had an Internet enabled mobile and a Twitter account tweet at him, and he’d read them out.

The Cube

Well, I couldn’t resist an invitation like that so I did. The trouble was, as the Silver Fox is so popular on Twitter it was hard for him to find tweets at him from people who were there in the audience, as opposed to just random tweets telling him how great he was, or how much someone loved him.

Nevertheless he found one from an audience member, MisterDaz 😉

It’s a shame I didn’t record it with the phone too, as having Phillip Schofield announce MrDaz would have made a great video for the site. I’ll know for next time.

As for the show, it was a celebrity episode with Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley Cropper) from Coronation Street. I won’t tell you how well she did, because that would spoil it, but she was a lot of fun!

Complaints, Internet, Rants

Play.com and the magic, disappearing complaint form

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As Play.com admitted recently, they’ve been getting an awful lot of email complaints about orders not turning up and they haven’t even bothered to reply to most of them. But, one wonders just how many more complaints Play.com would have received had it not been for their magic, self-clearing complaint form.

That’s right, if you’ve tried to email Play.com from their website using their contact form, you’ve probably noticed, and raged, about how the form seems to clear itself of any data you enter. You can spend ages writing out a complaint letter, check the order number on your email confirmation, go back to the complaint form and poof – the email disappears. Just like that!

Play-contact-page
Data completely vanished from Play.com complaints form

Is this a mistake? Is it something you have done wrong? No, Play.com has coded the form to clear itself whenever you change the focus of the form fields.

I’ll explain. Focus means that you have selected one of the fields of the form to write data into, such as your email address in the email field, your order number in the subject field and your long complaint letter in the message field. As Play.com has default text in those fields, they have set the fields to ‘clear’ whenever you select them (OnFocus), but the trouble is that they also clear when you click on them after writing your email. This means that your email is lost, instantly, all courtesy of their form.

Here is the code used on their form, so you can see exactly what I mean. ‘OnFocus’ means to do the action when you select the form field, or click on it with your cursor, and ‘javascript:clearText’… well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.

Play-Clears-Text-on-Emails

So you see, not only is Play.com struggling to meet the demands of orders this Christmas, not only is Play.com even refusing to reply to emails asking about orders, but the website is doing its darndest it ensure that complaints aren’t even making it through in the first place.

Complaints, Internet, Michael Jackson, Rants

Snow affects emails from Play.com

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I emailed a complaint to Play.com on December 11th, and am still yet to receive even a reply to the email. This is quite incredible seeing as they ‘aim’ to respond to emails within 24 hours. Needless to say I emailed them again with the following:

I still haven’t received a reply to my email from DECEMBER 11th, that’s over TEN DAYS to reply to an email. I realise the snow plays havoc with deliveries, but tell me just how does it affect your response times to emails?

I need to return the Michael Jackson doll because it arrived damaged, again. You can see it here: http://www.mrdaz.com/play-com-replacement-item-also-arrives-damaged/

I am also still awaiting three orders. I would send you the order ID numbers but sadly your order history page conveniently doesn’t show them!

I take it from your ‘wait 21 days‘ policy I have no chance of actually getting any of these items before Christmas, and your ‘can’t be arsed to even reply to emails‘ policy means I’ll never hear from you on this matter either.

Before you click delete on this email, as that appears to be how you actually deal with complaints, try Googling ‘Play.com complaints’ – you’ll see every step of this issue being reported online, on page 1 of Google. The next post is up to you.

After having sent that I received an auto email from Play.com, one that they have presumably sent to everyone who is concerned that a) they haven’t received items they’ve ordered for Christmas and b) Play.com can’t even be bothered to reply to emails.

Some of Play.com’s excuses can be read below:

We would like to update you on the delivery of your recent order with Play.com. You are probably aware that the adverse weather conditions are causing issues throughout the transport network in the UK and this has resulted in delays for our delivery partners. However, making sure your order arrives in time for Christmas is our top priority and we are working tirelessly with them to try and make this happen.

Understandably, many of you are contacting our Customer Service department to get an update on the status of your order. As a result, we are seeing an unprecedented level of activity and while our team is working long and hard to address all your calls and emails, we are seeing an impact on our normal level of service.

If your order was despatched without a tracking number please be aware that the item has been shipped and is likely to be with you before Christmas.

We appreciate that this is an important delivery for you and we will continue to work closely with our delivery partners over the coming days to do our utmost to make sure your delivery arrives before Christmas.

So, they’ve acknowledged that they’re not even replying to emails, en masse, and they’ve stated that orders are ‘likely to be with you before Christmas’… I don’t personally believe this is very professional, or reassuring.

Looks like you can’t rely on Play.com for Christmas shopping in the slightest.

Internet, Rants, SEO

Amos Web Designs

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A few weeks ago I received a comment on one of my posts from Thomas Amos, of Amos Web Designs. It’s always nice to hear from fellow Internet professionals – well, it’s almost always nice, Thomas’ comments were the exception to the rule.

Thomas took offence to a post I made about Computeach. Thomas believes, for some strange reason, that I actually work for Computeach, and he gave me his opinions wrapped up in a torrent of abuse.

Now, having spoken to the owner of Computeach on the phone about the nature of some of the comments on that particular page I can confirm that I do not work for Computeach, and have never done so. If I did work for Computeach, I might perhaps have been more selective over the comments on that page. Anyhow, Thomas Amos, from Amos Web Design, had this to say:

Mr Daz Your a complete prick. You are blantently working for computeach. I have been completly ripped of on my course and I am going to get every penny back from them robbing cunts. I done the first module and am on the second and have not got one thing that I was promised yet. What a joke. People If you want a carear in IT go to colleage or university night school but what ever you do dont go to a long distance pretend education centre.

Now, I would normally pick at his obviously low intellect and lack of attention to detail in what he has written – but he was clearly upset and it is just a comment on a blog. He can be forgiven for writing dross, making up words and generally having a distinct lack of understanding of the English language. Instead, let’s have a look at his own website, where he offers his web design (and SEO) services.

I can’t help it – sorry.

Amos-Web-Designs
Amos Web Designs

On this page of his beautifully designed website (a real showcase of his talents) he promotes himself thus:

Our prices are reasonable, wont break the bank and to your needs.

There is a distinct lack of punctuation and cohesion there – probably how he can promise that his services won’t break the bank – he’s saved on the apostrophes and non essential words. He goes on to promote his own ethics, which is a laugh.

Were reliable, honest and professional in everything We do.

They ‘were’ reliable, but presumably not now? At least he’s up-front about it, stating that he used to be reliable, honest and professional.

Guess copywriting isn’t one of his services.

Anyhow, thanks for the comment Thomas, Thomas Amos, from Amos Web Designs. I do hope you sorted your problems with Computeach and you managed to forge out a decent ‘carear’ in a ‘colleage’ somewhere.

Internet, Magazine Articles, SEO

How to know when you’re being fleeced by an SEO salesman

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If you’ve managed to get hold of a copy of the Internet and web designer’s bible, .Net Magazine, this month you may have noticed my cheery mug staring at you from with its wisdom laden pages. That’s because yours truly provided a column on how to spot when someone is talking through their proverbial in their efforts to sell you SEO.

It’s a common problem with business owners, website managers and even new start-ups as search engine optimisation, despite the efforts of some companies to bring transparency to the industry, is still steeped in the mire of underhand tricks and perceived dark arts because of the actions of many. Therefore, when people look for SEO services for their website they’re often confronted with someone spouting techno babble, half-truths and out right porkies in an attempt to get their business.

Anyhow, have a look at the article and be sure to pick up .Net this month if you get the chance. It’s not just great because I’m in it – although that is a solid enough reason!

dot NET-Magazine December issue

British Telecom, Internet, SEO

Getting British Business Online offers free websites

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Getting British Business Online (GBBO) offers free websites and domain names for businesses in the UK – but are they any good?

I remember when I first discovered the possibility of owning a website. It was, I believe, back in 1997 and someone at university suggested that I should get a website for a film that I was working on. His idea intrigued me, as I would be able to create a ‘website’ for this film, showing photographs and screening dates, and host it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.

However, my initial excitement was tempered when I realised that I would have to pay for this new privilege. I would have to pay for a domain name (which back then was a lot of money for a student), I would have to pay for a hosting account and I would have to, most likely, pay one of the interactive arts students to show me how to use a web authoring program – and who knows what it would have been back then, probably MS FrontPage or some equally tripe rubbish.

So the idea sort of died a death, which was a shame. I eventually did create the website for the film, but it was about a year or so later – too late for the film’s big screening. Now, if I’d had the opportunity that the GBBO offers now I would have snapped their hand off, as a free domain name and free website would have gone down a treat for me back then.

The trouble is of course – the type of websites offered by the ‘Getting British Business Online’ initiative are actually circa 1997 anyway, if the designs I’ve seen are anything to go by. You see, while getting a free website back in 1997 would have been a big boost to my then business efforts, the web has evolved a long way since then. Now, in 2010, you need more than a basic template with some free images to make a website successful – and I’m not talking about a professional design here either.

No, for a website to be successful these days you need a sterling SEO campaign, one utilising the latest techniques in terms of link building and content – and the sorts of websites offered by the GBBO simply don’t allow for that level of on-page SEO work. Plus, when you consider the sorts of prices you can pay for hosting these days, the ‘offer’ of a free domain and free website isn’t exactly the huge boost it would have been 13 years ago.

With a registrar such as 123-Reg (who I would in no way recommend using by the way) you can pay around £5 for a .co.uk domain name for two years. That’s peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Then there are hosting companies offering hosting for just a few quid each month. That is again nothing, comparatively speaking.

Of course creating the website could be tricky – but when you consider the fact that CMS systems (content management system – systems) such as WordPress and Drupal are free, and each has thousands upon thousands of free templates, you can easily create your own website, without any knowledge of coding, in a few minutes – a website with cleaner code, and a far better starting point from an SEO point of view, than anything offered by the GBBO.

The worst part is perhaps the fact that when people register their ‘free’ domain name with GBBO, and decide that the website they’ve been given isn’t suitable, they then can’t transfer the domain away from GBBO for at least 60 days!

Getting British Business Online is a good idea, but one that is probably a decade too late and one that has been implemented very poorly. Any business that relies on one of their free websites for its business site is going to find it very hard to compete in the marketplace – especially as that marketplace gets even more crowded as a result of new business start-ups brought about by the recession.

Google, Internet, SEO

SEO Ellesmere Port

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Using geographical keywords in search engine optimisation is one of the most difficult to things to make natural, and something that many inexperienced SEOs fail to do quite spectacularly.

The use of geographical keywords is help your website rank for searches on specific services in conjunction with locations, so if someone is searching for ‘SEO’ and they’re located in Ellesmere Port, they would most likely search for ‘SEO Ellesmere Port’. Of course, in order to rank for a phrase such as this you need to use the phrase in your content, but ‘SEO Ellesmere Port’ is not grammatically correct – you would have to use a stop word such as ‘in’, making the phrase ‘SEO in Ellesmere Port’.

However, if you want an exact match on your SEO keywords, you’ll want to try to get the phrase into your content without the stop word – but doing that while maintaining the integrity of your content can be difficult. There are ways to do it though, as you can use punctuation instead of stop words. For example:

One of the most important marketing services is SEO. Ellesmere Port companies often look for…

You can use the Internet to look for local companies offering SEO; Ellesmere Port for example has several of these companies.

By using punctuation such as this, you are able to use geographical keywords and make them read naturally.

Complaints, Home Delivery Network, Internet

HDNL driver wants comment removed

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Ever since I first posted a solitary blog about the idiot at Home Delivery Network, now called Yodel, who launched a parcel over my gate on that fateful cold, wet Manchester evening this website has been bombarded with quite literally thousands of comments from dissatisfied customers and unsavoury delivery drivers.

Some of the drivers have been abusive, sinking to the depths of racism against customers who’s names appear to be of ethnic origin, and some have even been open and honest about the poor infrastructure at HDNL, blaming their impossible workloads for the poor service.

One such driver recently emailed asking for comments to be removed, even though what he had said was, in my opinion, fair comment. He asked:

Please can you delete my comment i made on 23rd october as i have been in trouble at work for making a comment. Thanks.

Of course, he hadn’t actually said what his comment was, or on what post it was made, so it took a while to find it – there have been many HDNL posts and thousands of comments about them. Anyhow, find it I did, and this is what he had said here.

All i can say is – Ive worked for HDN for several weeks now. Every morning at 6am it is madness, at the Wrexham depot we have 70 vans where only 16 fit in the depot so you can imagine the cue outside of all the vans waiting to load! They do their upmost to get every parcel out and delivered. The company has just invested £11m on a new system called Quinteg which tells the company where every parcel is and where the exactly the property is and what parcel is to be posted / collected on time and most importantly making sure the drivers do their job properly! They have also bought the other courier company DHL so together they will become one big company called YODEL. The Wrexham depot is also increasing in size to fit all vans on and they have just won contracts with M&S, Tesco and Argos. So…before you go knocking the HDN..watch this space….a massive improvement 🙂

Now what’s wrong with that? His comment is almost intelligent when compared to comments from other drivers, such as ‘Redman Nottm’ who threatened to knock off someone’s ‘wrag head’ for complaining about a delivery.

Good on Welshlloydy for his comments – it’s a shame more weren’t as honest as him.

Now, while I’m on about HDNL, listen up because I’ll only say this once. I have something to say in their defence… I know, make sure you’re sitting down. While there’s no excuse for the language and offensive nature of their drivers on this website, you can excuse the level of frustration they must feel dealing with ‘some’ customers if a recent email I received was anything to go by. I actually received an email, to MrDaz.com, from someone complaining about the fact they kept getting parcels meant for another address.

And no, they weren’t trying to enlist the help of a blogger to expose the mistake… they believed this website WAS Home Delivery Network.

Moron.

The email read:

Mr Daz Enquiry: Wrong Delivery Address

I seem to be getting a delivery always for Thomson of 48 ******** Street Helensburgh. The delivery van on two occasion this week left at card at my door which my house clearly states “Arden” which is part of my address of 46 ********* Street no house number shows because of a Ivy tree that grows around the pillar. Your delivery person has broken this tree down in order to look at the house number. I am extremely angry as this tree is part of my feature to the entrance of the house. Please make sure that the delivery address for the Thompson’s should have all the appropriate delivery instructions. I will also in turn speak the the Tompsons of 48 ********* Street, they should also be using their house name. I will also send you on your reply a photo of the damage tree. I can be contacted on ***********. I would appreciate a reply soon. Yours Truly, Maria ****** ****

Please do send the photo Maria; I’d love to see it out of curiosity.