Category Archives: Rants

Rants

BBC Watchdog doing a follow up story on Providence Properties

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You may remember the posts I made a few weeks ago about the letting agents in Leeds who appeared on BBC Watchdog. The posts generated a lot of comments from angry people who claimed to have had their deposits kept by Providence Properties. They were very angry indeed.

As a result of the posts I also received an email from Providence Properties’ solicitor, who threatened to take me to court if I didn’t remove the posts.

Then I received a phone call from Basharat Zaman asking why I was trying to destroy his company?!?

Whatever.

Well, followers of the excitement take note that this Monday, 22nd of December on BBC One at 19:30 the chaps at Watchdog are doing a follow up on Providence Properties, where they say they’ve managed to get a face-to-face interview with Tariq Zaman. Watchdog have asked me to spread the word on this so as many people as possible watch the show.

Remember, BBC One, Monday 22nd December at 19:30.

Rants

David Brailsford wins best coach at BBC sports personality of the year

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What the crap was that about? How the chuff did David Brailsford win the award for best coach? He was the coach of the British cycling team at the Olympics, who admittedly did quite well in Beijing, but seriously… a coach? For cyclists?

What advice and leadership could he have possibly given? Go out there, ride your bike and pedal faster that the other guy. It’s a nonsense. He was up against Fergie for Man UTD’s Premiership and Champions League win, Gatland for Wales’ Grand Slam, and Redknapp for Portsmouth’s FA Cup win. Surely any of those deserved it more?

Coaching a rugby nation or a football side takes real knowledge and tactics, it deserves the acknowledgment. Coaching some cyclists to pedal quicker is a farce. Yes they did well, but be serious with these awards or don’t bother doing them. Bloody joke.

Rants

Manchester congestion charge thrown out

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Manchester has voted, and the proposed congestion charge that would have seen people who work in Manchester paying an additional £1,500 each, per year, to fund some more busses and a few trams so the people who don’t work can get around a little quicker has been thrown out. Manchester has voted no.

What an utter waste of time and money the whole affair was in the first place. Why would anyone, in their right mind, vote yes to the congestion charge? It would mean more buses on the road, and motorists down £1,500 every year!

We can all agree that public transport is shite, however charging motorists more money in a pathetic attempt to fix it isn’t the answer. Only this week I tried to get a train from Manchester Piccadilly to Heald Green, or even the Airport, that would have done, but there wasn’t a train to be seen. The boards said that a bus was due in over an hour, which was of course utterly useless. It would have been 2:00am before getting home. We got a taxi, obviously.

Give up on public transport, it doesn’t work. It never has. The Germans can do it, the Japanese can do it, shit, even the French can do it. We Brits however haven’t got a clue.

Rants

Woolworths into administration

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Woolworths may be one of the oldest names on the highstreet, almost 100 years old, but it hasn’t saved their brand of oddly unrelated tat products from going under in the credit crunch. Amid cries of despair from the public, and over shadowing the demise of MFI (doesn’t anyone give a toss about them?) Woolworths has gone into administration and will be broken up, sold off and its staff made redundant.

So why are people bothered? If the general public actually shopped at Woollies this would never have happened. When was the last time you went into a Woolworths store?

Personally I’m glad they’re going under, good riddance. I’ve two awful customer service experiences in Woolworths over the years and am not in the slightest bit sorry to the latest, and biggest, casualty of the credit crunch.

First off, when Star Wars was released on VHS in the special edition format I pre-ordered it from Woollies in Newport, South Wales. When I went into the store to pick it up, on the day of release, they said they didn’t have any widescreen versions left and that as I hadn’t specified widescreen all I could have was a full screen version.

If I’d wanted over half the film cut out of it, I’d have asked for it. Still, I left, giving them my number and instructing them to call when the widescreen came back in… the widescreen I’d ordered and paid a deposit for. Some weeks later they called saying my VHS boxset was in. Great. I went into town to collect it, only to be told that they’d just sold the last one.

What about my pre-order? I’d just received a call to say it was in??? Nope, they’d sold it.

I demanded my deposit back and bought the Laserdisc version from Our Price.

The second bit of Woolworths lunacy came some years later when in Bracknell. I picked up two Thomas the Tank Engine products for their ‘buy one get one half price’ (BOGOF) offer. The offer said ‘ALL Thomas the Tank Engine products’.

Sure enough, one of the products I picked up wasn’t on their list, so I was refused the discount. Despite bringing their attention to the sign in the store and the wording on the sign they refused. I left.

I then filed a complaint with Trading Standards and phoned Woolworths head office. Trading Standards investigated the matter and Woollies head office said I could go back into the store to get the discount. It was too late though as I wasn’t about to head back into town again.

Now, today, I see that Woollies has been advertising its closing down sale (not before time) with a ‘All Stock 50% Off’ sign in their windows. Yet, the sign is wrong. Very few items are 50% off and shoppers have been angered by the lack of a sale.

Way to go Woolworths, you can’t even do a closing down sale without annoying your customers. Is it any wonder they’re going under?

Home Delivery Network, Internet, Rants

HDNL Complaints

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The delivery company Home Delivery Network (HDNL), who deliver for Internet retailer Amazon, have managed to annoy a great many people online. My posts on the subject have received hundreds of comments from outraged customers and idiotic, vulgar and racist drivers for HDNL alike. Most of the customers have been trying in vain to get hold of someone at HDNL to locate their delivery, but there is no phone number on the company’s website.

Luckily, I have it. The phone number for HDNL is 08448 111 816 – but don’t expect to get anywhere when you phone it.

One thing I did notice in Google when I searched for HDNL (besides this very website of course) was the website reviewcentre.com. Anyone who runs a dodgy business like HDNL will know all about reviewcentre.com, the website shows up on the first page of Google for searches on every dodgy company you can think of (try it ;)).

The funny thing about the site is that when companies like HDNL get listed on there, and get awful reviews from their customers, they all tend to react the same way. They go onto the website themselves and submit fake reviews of their business, with really obvious made up comments. You can tell they’re fake because the real reviews all give them 0/10, whereas the staff of HDNL give themselves 10/10… that’s quite a discrepancy!

Plus, the idiotic staff of HDNL who have reviewed their own company have all tended to add reviews as ‘guest’ writers, rather than having the good sense to create an account, log in and write a few genuine reviews for other companies before spamming their own listing.

Don’t any companies know how to perform reputation management online?

I guess not.

So again, if you want to complain to HDNL, you can ring the Home Delivery Network phone number: 08448 111 816. Mention this website for extra annoyance factor!

Guest Posts, Rants

The Bridge Pub, Deansgate Manchester

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This guest post was brought to you by Simon.

This Saturday I took a trip to the bridge pub in Manchester for lunch. Having dined there before, I felt confident that I had picked a suitable public house for lunch and a few beers. This confidence was misplaced.

Having walked in and seen the dining area rather empty I assumed that there would be no problem getting a table. That was until the barman told me that he would “have to the clean the tables” before we could enter the dining area, this despite there being plenty of unused tables available. Not wanting to quibble and having no objection being sent towards a bar, we waited by the bar for him to clean the tables. And waited, and waited…. until eventually the bone idol cretin finally said it was okay to take our seats some 15 minutes later.

We ordered what seemed like two very rudimentary meals, fish and chips. Having been hungry, slightly sedated and sat next to a bunch of scumbags from Salford we were very keen for the meal to arrive swiftly. 30 minutes later nothing had arrived, when the food did come it was most enjoyable albeit rather meager in size. At no point did they ask if we wanted more drinks which meant we had to queue up at the bar.

All in all a pretty piss poor effort at lunch- over priced and served by a bunch of morons who couldn’t care less about the patrons. Unsurprisingly I do not recommend the bridge pub on Deansgate.

Home Delivery Network, Internet, Rants

Why does Amazon persist with Home Delivery Network?

35 Comments

In January this year I posted about the delivery company ‘Home Delivery Network’ (HDNL) and how they’d chucked my parcel over the side gate, which was 6 ft high, into a puddle in the pissing Manchester rain, to be soaked through all day.

The post really touched a nerve as it has now received over 100 comments from people who have also been angered by HDNL’s failure to deliver parcels, their lies, their blatant disregard for property and their driver’s utter stupidity. The post has also received comments from HDNL drivers attempting to defend their actions and their company, yet coming across as total morons (one even tried to spell moron and failed).

Now, to the serious bit. Whenever you order something from Amazon, and let’s face it most of us have, you run the risk of HDNL trying to deliver it. When, oh when, will Amazon drop this utterly useless, incompetent excuse for a delivery company? I’m reluctant to use Amazon anymore, and will always check any website’s delivery terms to see if they use HDNL before ordering.

I urge anyone and everyone to do the same. Do not use any website that uses Home Delivery Network for its deliveries.

This is my plea to Amazon, for your own sake, drop HDNL like a hot coal. They’re costing you orders. They’re costing you money. They’re costing your customers time, they’re harming your reputation. Drop them, drop them now, if you care about your customers.

Rants

What’s with mortgage companies and lenders these days?

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For a Sunday afternoon thought provoking post I’d thought I’d post about the current mortgage crisis in the UK, and what mortgage companies are doing about it. I hope none of this info has changed, because this post was written last Tuesday and set to go live because I’m on holiday this week.

Yeah, I’m probably pissed right now.

Anyway, back to my point. I recently looked at getting a mortgage through C&G for a property in Manchester, and a few months ago was told that I could get a 90% mortgage, which would mean I’d need a £9,000 or so deposit. No problems.

However, C&G, despite offering the 90% mortgage package on their site, aren’t actually offering 90% mortgages at the moment. Instead the best they’ll offer is a 75% mortgage, which means I’d need around £22,000 for a deposit, which I don’t have at the moment. Who does?

But… Lloyds TSB, who are C&G for the sake of arguing, will offer me up to £25,000 as a personal loan, which I could use as a deposit! So, they won’t offer me the £77,000 as a mortgage, secured on a property, but they will offer me the amount if it’s split up, and £25,000 of it is unsecured.

What the heck’s going on there?

No wonder there are people being repossessed left, right and centre. Lenders are giving the people the money, but in two lumps, making repayments higher, interest rates higher, and offering them unsecured.

Sort it out C&G and Lloyds TSB.