Internet, Rants

Student Property Shop request clarification

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I’ve received an email from Chris Johnston from the Student Property Shop requesting that I clarify something for him. Chris’ website, StudentPropertyShop.com is in no way related to the website I blogged about last week, The Student Property Shop known as thestudentpropertyshop.co.uk.

Chris’ website and business has been around since June 2005, whereas the thestudentpropertyshop.co.uk website is brand new, and has just taken up residence in Leeds.

Chris writes:

Hi, please would you be able to point out somewhere on your website that ‘The Student Property Shop’ is nothing to do with my website StudentPropertyShop.com (which I have been running since June 2005). I am currently in a dispute with ‘The Student Property Shop’ about their choice of trading name.

Thank you,
Chris Johnston
Founder, StudentPropertyShop.com

No problems Chris, sorry if anyone thought that your website was in any way related to the letting agent in Leeds.

While we’re on the subject of the letting agent in Leeds, we wrote last time how they’d leached an image from the website of My Homez (note, by leached, we mean stolen – that’s an Internet technical term meaning a website is using an image hosted on another website). Well, now it seems that the website for thestudentpropertyshop.co.uk has now been taken down, as the domain name shows a ‘coming soon’ message.

But… they haven’t done it properly. Would you have seriously expected them to?

No, they’ve removed the index page, but left the rest of the website (including the Google Maps which is registered to another website, as explained here). Have a look and see what we mean.

Here’s the home page, removed, and here’s the website, still accessible!

Good work guys, you’ll get it right one day.

Rants

My reply to Chester City Council Parking Services

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As you may have read previously, Chester City Council are trying to extort money from me for a parking ticket, when I tried to pay for my parking, and the machines didn’t work. I complained about it, but they responded, refusing my complaint.

Naturally I phoned up this week, was told someone would call me back, which they didn’t. Then I phoned again and spoke to a chap named Chris Follis. Chris asked why I didn’t phone them at the time. Like I was going to phone up Parking Services, on a Sunday, from the car park, in the pissing snow!

Anyhow, he confirmed that the car park does have CCTV, so it should be a simple matter to prove I am telling the truth. Just check the damn footage!

He said I needed to complain to a more senior parking official, Mike Leicester. Here is my letter to Mike.

Dear Sir

Further to my complaint dated 4th January, and your subsequent reply from the 29th January, I wish to challenge your decision regarding my parking fine. As per my original email, I tried to pay at TWO separate machines, only for them to refuse to accept my money. Furthermore, as per my email, they gave me an additional £2 to that which I tried to pay – a bizarre thing to make up if you believe I am lying.

As I tried to pay, twice, I will not be paying your fine and suggest you check the CCTV footage from the car park which will show that I tried to pay, at two separate machines. If the CCTV footage does not show me attempting to pay I will not only pay your fine, but you can have my car.

I refuse to be extorted by you when I made every effort to pay and will gladly go to court to prove my innocence. I have already decided to never spend any further money in Chester, and will stick to Manchester from now on.

I await your response.

Rants

Chester City Council try to extort money from me

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I wrote a while back at how I received a £50 parking ticket when I visited Chester, and the two pay machines didn’t work when I tried to pay. I wasn’t the only one, another woman at the time couldn’t pay and there were several cars without tickets.

I sent an email to protest about the fine, as there really was no way I could have bought a ticket, and I’ve just had a reply. They’ve said they’ve investigated, and found that the machines were working and that I have to pay the fine within seven days.

Here’s the reply:

Thank you for your letter

I have considered your appeal but I am satisfied the parking ticket should not be cancelled.

I have checked my records and there were no machine faults reported by the Patrol Officers or by other motorists for this car park. Our Patrol Officers issued no other parking tickets for this offence to support your appeal.

Please pay the £50 parking ticket within 7 days from the above date. Send your payment to Parking Services in the pre-paid envelope. Cheques should be made payable to Chester City Council.

So they’re calling me a liar? Tell you what, if they can produce CCTV footage of me turning up and walking off without trying to pay, not only will I pay the fine, but they can have my car.

I will phone them up on Monday morning and rip them apart. I am not paying this fine because the machines didn’t work.

They are lying, thieving bastards and their attempt to extort money from me won’t work. It’s the last time I ever go to Chester to spend money, their parking services try to steal money from you in a sting.

Google, Internet

WhatDVD.Net is a PageRank 6

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I have to admit, I used to be quite hung up on Google PageRank. Every time an update was due I’d get quite excited, and start checking different data centres in anticipation of any gains or losses to see how my sites were doing.

Of late however I haven’t given it any thought, cos let’s face it; Google PageRank is pretty damn pointless in the grand scheme of it. It’s only people who sell links and idiots who think PR is a measure of their site’s success who actually bother with PageRank.

Having said that, I’ve just noticed that in the last PR update (which I completely missed) my DVD reviews website WhatDVD.Net jumped from a PR 4 to a PR 6.

… ahem, Google’s PageRank is vital for the success of your website, it’s the most important thing ever and should be lauded!

Nah, seriously, it’s pointless. Still nice though 🙂

British Telecom

I’m counting the days until I can tell BT to fuck off

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I’m moving house very soon, and in the new home I’ll be getting Virgin Media for the TV, phone and broadband. This means that, finally, I can rid my life of the incompetent bunch of lying bastards that call themselves BT.

As this blog has chronicled over the years, BT have consistently managed to fall short of acceptable service, lying to me in emails and on the phone, being deceptive over prices and even stealing money from my account.

All of this I could have overlooked, if their broadband had actually been any good. However, it’s not. Their broadband is atrociously bad. It’s slow, intermittent and overpriced. I’m currently paying over £120 per quarter for Internet and phone, and I don’t ever use the phone.

BT are a joke, and as soon as I get a completion date on my move I can finally call BT (obviously waiting several hours on hold before I get through) to tell them where they can stick their pathetic excuse for a service.

I will of course record the call for everyone’s pleasure, and upload it here if it’s humorous enough.

Bye bye BT, bye bye.

General, Humour

Onyx wine glasses

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I recently bought some Onyx wine glasses on eBay to drink my wine out of, and look down in a superior fashion on the rest of the world. However, despite the abuse from my flat mate that I’m trying to seem all knowledgeable about wine like one of our friends, who we’ll call Eddie (his name actually is Eddie, I couldn’t be arsed changing it for the sake of the story) I have to protest that I just like the look of the stone glasses.

Now Eddie (our wine loving friend) is from North Manchester and constantly berates us for our lack of taste in wine whenever he’s over for a drink, but I feel I have to share this tale of the man’s class.

One night, while Eddie was drinking his £16 bottle of sweet wine (and getting very pissed, because he doesn’t drink much) he took a distaste to the fact that my flatmate had managed to find 3 bottles for £6 in the local shop. How did Eddie show his distaste for the cheap plonk? Did he spit it out? Did he throw an eloquent torrent of abuse directed at the poor excuse for a wine?

No, Eddie (in his best Bury manner) whipped out his knob and dunked it into the glass.

You can’t buy class.

General

I had a CT and MR scan, can I buy a vowel please?

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I went for my CT scan today, and it was over in a matter of minutes. Result, I thought. I can go back to work. No, seems the surgeon had left a note for me to have an MR scan as well, which they’d booked in for me at 10:15… only they were running late, and I didn’t get to have it until almost 12:00.

I knew what to expect with the CT scan as I’d been prepared, but the MR scan was a whole new ball game. It was claustrophobic, noisy (and the ABBA on the headphones doesn’t help, only makes things worse) and it was of course magnetic – which as I have a steel rod in my spine made for an interesting experience.

I didn’t leap up and stick to the ceiling, nor did I experience any tingling, but the rod in my spine did heat up with the magnetic field, which made for an extremely strange sensation. I felt like Wolverine, but not in a good way.

Thirty minutes of loud noises, a burning sensation from within my spine and ABBA… what a way to spend the day.

I now have to wait a few weeks to see the surgeon again, before the inevitable decision to cut me open and whip this steel out is made.

Humour, Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson coffee scale

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In a busy office environment it’s often better if one person makes a round of drinks for everyone, that way you don’t all leave your desk at the same time and the work flow isn’t interrupted too much. However, it’s difficult when making tea and coffee for five or more people when you have to do them all differently, sugar/no sugar, white/black, various degrees of milk. This is why I’ve come up with the Michael Jackson coffee scale. It’s simple and easy to understand, as everyone knows who Michael Jackson is, and what colour he was at different stages in his career.

For example, if you want a black coffee you ask for a 1968 Jacko, if you want it really milky you ask for a 2002 Jacko. If you like a splash of milk, you ask for a 1984 Jacko.

It’s very straightforward and everyone understands the scaling system. Plus, if you need one for your office wall, here’ a handy printout that you can paste up in your office. You can even use it to pantone match the colour of your coffee.

How do you take your Michael Jackson?

Download the Michael Jackson Coffee Scale PDF here.

So much anger, so little time