CSA, Podcasts

CSA DEO is wrong, admit CSA

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I’ve had a staggering £160+ deducted from my earnings each WEEK for the last 6 months or so, and slightly less than that since December 2007. They claim I’m in arrears, which I have disputed, but as the CSA is regulated by itself and governed by itself, any complaints get dealt with internally, all with the same conclusion.

Nothing doing.

Anyhow, the last notice I had from the CSA said that my DEO would change in November 2008 to something like £90 per month… which I knew was also way off the mark. It’s more like £105 per week. But hey, at least the CSA are consistent with their incompetence.

So as it’s now late January 2009, and I’m still having £160+ per week deducted from my pay, I thought it prudent to phone them and find out just how much they think my arrears are, and what they think I still owe them, and have paid so far.

What they told me was unbelievable.

They said I had been paying off arrears for the last 23 weeks (it has been more than that) at £58.75 arrears per week, totalling £900.

Um… 23 x £58.75 isn’t £900, it’s £1,351.25.

So what’s happened to the extra cash I’ve had taken from me? Even their own records don’t tally, and that’s what they admit to taking, they’ve actually taken a lot more than that!

Apparently I now have to wait a few weeks to find out what they’ve done while they ‘recalculate’ the arrears. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

If you think this all sounds too unreal to be true (then you’ve obviously never dealt with the CSA) you can listen to the phone call here.

CSA get it wrong again Download (1330)
Google, Humour, Internet, Rants

The Student Property Shop, Leeds

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You may remember the posts last year about the letting agent in Leeds who was featured on BBC’s Watchdog twice accused of withholding deposits from students. The posts received a lot of comments from students who were claiming their money had been withheld, and some of them got quite upset about the whole thing.

The letting agent in question is no longer located at the premises in Leeds, and a new letting agent by the name of The Student Property Shop is now in their place. Some students are sceptical about whether the companies are related, judging by the emails I have received on the subject.

Anyhow, I decided to have a look at the website for The Student Property Shop, which is www.thestudentpropertyshop.co.uk. The website is hosted with our old friends 1and1 Internet, on the IP address: 87.106.210.120. If that IP address seems familiar to you, it should. It’s the IP address of the website for My Homez, which can be seen at www.myhomez.co.uk.

So the two websites are hosted on the same server, with the same IP address. This doesn’t mean anything, except that the same person runs the account with 1and1 Internet.

However, when you dig deeper you find something a little more interesting. Have a look at this code for example.

<img id=”mainimage_back” src=”http://www.myhomez.co.uk/images/property/{DA84A2EE-9A01-4FDA-961A-151ABC9A6168}.jpg” alt=”Student property in Leeds” width=”275″  />

You can see that the code for the image is from the website for My Homez… except this code isn’t from the My Homez website at all… it’s from the website for The Student Property Shop.

Here’s a screenshot from the code itself.

I wonder why they’ve done that?

Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that My Homez and The Student Property Shop are in any way related, but if they’re not, The Student Property Shop are stealing images from My Homez.

So, to find out more about The Student Property Shop I clicked on their contact us, and found that the map the website uses (from Google Maps) didn’t work. The reason for this? Well, just read the alert from Google in the below screenshot.

Seems the API key for Google maps was registered for a different website. Anyone care to hazard a guess at what website that is?

General, Rants

No word on my parking fine yet

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Two weeks ago I received a parking fine in Chester. I tried to buy a ticket at the time but the machine didn’t work, so couldn’t, then when I returned to the car I found I’d been fined £50 for the privilege. I’ve yet to receive any reply to my appeal, even though payment was due by now.

I do hope I’m not going to get a further fine, or perhaps a court summons, for this obvious trap which as I explained last time caught out a few people.

I’ll keep everyone posted on the saga.

General

My CAT scan is booked for next Friday

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As I mentioned last week, I need a CAT scan on my spine for potential surgery to remove the steel rod I have in my back that is supposed to keep my spine straight(er). That scan has been booked (rather quickly) for next Friday, 23rd. This is all becoming quite real now as once I’ve had the scan and spoken to the surgeon (not sure if that will be on the same day) they say it will be within 18 weeks to have the surgery (if of course it’s deemed necessary, which the surgeon said it most probably would be).

This means I could be going in to have my spine operated on within 20 weeks… not something I’m feeling too chuffed about, and not the way I wanted to spend the year.

General

I now need a CAT scan for my Scoliosis

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Yesterday I went to see a spinal surgeon at Salford Royal about my back. The operation I had on my spine in 1990 went well at the time, but recently my left leg has been suffering from severe pains when I walk more than a few hundred yards, or even stand up for more than a few minutes.

Anyhow, when I arrived I was told I needed more x-rays because the surgeon wanted a better view than the x-rays I had in September provided. Once I’d had these done (and is there anything more degrading that wearing a gown with work shoes?) I saw the surgeon, who explained that the surgery I had in 1990 was phased out just a few years later. Because of my Scoliosis (a deformity of the spine) I had a steel rod known as a Harrington Rod inserted into my back and attached to my spine. The rod works in straightening out the spine, but it makes the spine flat so that it can’t bend. This means that my nerves are being squashed, causing me to lose circulation in my leg.

Gutted.

He advised that I have a CAT scan in a few weeks so that he can see the lower part of my spine more clearly and see whether the rod has fused with it OK, which he believes it hasn’t. If this is the case (as is probable) the best course of action will most likely be for me to undergo surgery again to have the steel rod in my spine removed and the new technique (which I haven’t researched at all yet) implemented.

I’m not looking forward to this, but as the surgeon rightly stated – if I don’t have it done my leg and back is only likely to get worse. It’s a case of have it done now or risk the act of walking becoming increasingly more difficult.

So it looks like spinal surgery again for me, 18 years after I last had it done! Whoopie!

General

I’m seeing a spinal surgeon today

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This evening I have an appointment to see a spinal surgeon at Salford Royal, an appointment I’ve been waiting for since August after having my x-rays done. I don’t talk about this much, but I’ve got double Scoliosis of the spine, which is a curvature of the spine. My spine forms a letter ‘S’ shape and was operated on back in 1990 (during the World Cup, I came out of hospital on the day Germany beat England in the semi-final).

I’ve been OK for many years, but recently my back has grown worse and my left leg goes dead and doubles up with cramp when I walk for more than a few minutes. I just checked my blog for past mentions of Scoliosis, and found this post in November 07, where I mentioned how I couldn’t walk for more than a few miles. It’s much worse than that now, which isn’t a good sign. It’s been bad since the summer and yesterday when I was shoe shopping in Chester I struggled to walk from one shop to the next without needing to sit down.

Anyhow, I’m seeing a spinal surgeon later today to see if anything can be done about it, as only being able to walk for a few minutes at the age of 32 is pretty shite.

I’ll be sure to let everyone know how I get on, and maybe get some images of my x-ray, which I have seen since and the rod in my back has slipped quite considerably.

Rants

Where can I buy sized 12 shoes?

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Like most guys I’m not particularly keen on shopping. I’d much rather do it from the comfort of my home via the Internet rather than traipse round town centres and shopping centres. However there are some things you can’t really buy online and shoes are one of them, at least if you want them to fit properly.

When I go shoe shopping though I get very frustrated. Not because I don’t like trying shoes on, because I can’t find anything in my size. I’m only a size 12, which isn’t particularly big. I’m only 6’2”, which while tall isn’t exactly freakishly tall. There are many people taller than me in most rooms or shops, yet it seems that most shoe shops only carry a limited stock of size 12 shoes. Plus, the shoes they do have in a 12 are never the ones I want.

Why do shoe shops only cater for short, stunted guys? When I have to pick up a shoe I want and ask the poor girl at the till if she has it in a size 12 I feel slightly embarrassed. Why should I feel ashamed to have such gargantuan feet? I’m large; I can’t be the only one? There must be other guys out there who require size 12 shoes, yet the best designs are made just for midgets and inadequate guys who wear size 8.

As a nation we’re getting taller year on year, but no one seems to be adapting to that when it comes to making shoes. I don’t want to feel like a freak for asking for a 12 in a shoe shop, yet because I’m bigger than most men it seems to happen that way.

Anyway, I did manage to buy two pairs of sized 12 shoes in Chester yesterday. One was in Jones’ the Bootmakers and one was in Debenhams. They were OK, the pair of Kickers from Debenhams were quite good, but I saw better shoes elsewhere that only come in midget sizes. Next had a cool pair that seemed to only go up to an 8, and they couldn’t even order a 12 because they don’t carry them. There was a great pair of Adidas in another shop that seemed to peak at a 10.

Life is tough when you’re not a stunted midget.

Rants, Stolen Car

Chester City Council try to sting me on parking fine

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Is my car cursed or what? The car that was stolen, crashed into and the subject of my ex-wife’s insurance fraud has now been hit with a £50 parking fine by Chester City Council, even though I couldn’t actually pay!

I went to Chester today to shop for shoes, and being a sized 12 it was very difficult (but I’ll rant about that another time). I entered the car park and parked at the bottom, next to the Pay Station. When I put a £2 coin in the machine, it came back out – together with another 2 £1 coins. I was £2 up already, result!

However I didn’t have a ticket, so I tried the £2 coin again. It came back out. Then I tried a £1 coin, and it came back out. I then made my way up to the other Pay Station in the car park (and by this time it was starting to snow heavily) where I tried both the £2 and £1 coins again. Same result; they came back out.

I went back to the first Pay Station, where my car was parked, to find a woman having the same problem. I told her that neither machine was working, and she couldn’t get a ticket either. I saw that some cars had tickets, but others didn’t. Assuming the machines were now full, I went into town to shop.

When I returned around 3 hours later I found I had been given a £50 fine for not displaying a ticket.

Obviously I’m not paying it. I tried to pay the £4.90 for 4 hours, but neither machine would take my money. No way am I paying a fine when the fault lies with the Pay Stations that didn’t work.

I’ll appeal this and let everyone know what happens. If I have to go to court I will. If they get away with this they have carte blanch to charge everyone £50 for parking there.

No doubt quite a few cars received fines today, which must strike them as unusual.

So much anger, so little time