Internet, Movies

Cat with two faces

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This has to be the unluckiest cat in the world. He has two faces, four eyes, two mouths and possibly two brains.

Now, I’m not posting this video because I think it’s interesting, or funny, or even sick. No, I’m posting this video because the website About Blank has been told not to. You see, this video is from the Telegraph’s website here. About Blank, just like MrDaz.com, have used the embed code offered by the Telegraph to post this video, so we’re not actually hosting it – the Telegraph are hosting it. If they didn’t want us to post the video they would remove the embed code so this video would stop working on MrDaz.com, About Blank and every other website that has posted the clip.

However, someone can’t grasp that concept, as you can see from the comments on About Blank here.

I love this sort of stuff. Someone thinks they can bully websites into removing content when they don’t actually grasp the concept that the website in question isn’t actually hosting it. That’s funnier than a cat with two faces.

Seriously though, put the cat to sleep.

CSA, Podcasts, Rants

Child Support Agency admit their blunder

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On Wednesday 21st November I was informed that the CSA had instructed my employer to deduct £550 from my pay each month for child support and arrears.

That’s quite a lot. More than I should be paying for sure as I’m supposed to pay £320 per month. Since last July I have have been paying my ex-wife’s half of the mortgage on our jointly owned property, costing me £650 per month. Half of that £325, which is £5 more than they wanted me to pay.

As you can see, I am not in arrears.

However, the CSA refuse to speak to me on the phone because they know I record my phone calls, and they are frightened that I will post them on this website; which so far I have not done. Until now.

I have been trying to contact the CSA since January this year when I telephoned them the very day I first had contact from them to explain that I can’t afford to pay even more money than I’m paying as we’ll lose our house. Steve Gibson from the CSA was supposed to call be back. He didn’t. I tried again, and again, and again – Steve Gibson eventually telephoned me in March, 3 months after I had tried to speak to him. I explained that I was paying money already in various ways and he said he’d send me a variations report.

That was the first and last time the CSA telephoned me.

I filled in the report and sent it back. Then in August Steve sent me a letter asking for the report because he hadn’t received it, even though he had received it AND he had replied!

This kind of incompetence continued with various people refusing to speak to me, promising to call and sending me stock letters. You know the sort of thing, their level of professionalism is legendary in the UK. They’re a laughing stock.

Anyway, I received another letter from them in October saying they would be contacting my employer and deducting money direct from my pay. Hold on there big fella, you still haven’t sorted out what I’m supposed to be paying. I’m already paying the mortgage for our house. That’s more than I owe already. I can’t pay any more than that, I don’t have it.

So I phoned them and explained this, even though they said they can’t speak to me. Even so, they did and said they’d get a letter and another variations report sent out to me. Guess what? It never arrived.

Then I hear yesterday that I am to have this money deducted from my pay, starting now.

So we’re up to date! I telephoned them yesterday and once again was met with a ‘we can’t talk to you’ response, yet the guy, Ryan, did.

What he told me was quite remarkable. He said they had posted a letter and a variations report to me on October 31st so I had plenty of notice of all of this. Hmm I thought, no, you didn’t. “Where was it sent?” I asked…

Guess what???

That’s right, they sent it somewhere else, despite having my address on the system; on the screen in front of him. This is an exceptional piece of incompetence mind because their letters are printed. Any idiot can copy down an address incorrectly when it’s written on the screen in front of them. It takes a CSA kind of idiot to press the PRINT button and STILL get the address wrong.

Naturally him telling me they’d screwed up like this, yet were still demanding money from me that I don’t actually owe them seriously pissed me off. So much so that I am now posting this podcast online. Listen to the phone call and marvel at the sheer incompetence of the CSA.

The CSA admit their blunder Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (422)

What happens now? Well… as I’m still waiting for the CSA to send the variations report to me they were supposed to have sent last month I may well end up with the house repossessed. I did try to contact my ex-wife to ask her if she would be ever so kind as to explain to the CSA that yes, I have been paying her half of the mortgage on our jointly owned house for her, but she refused.

She’s like that.

Internet

1and1 Internet hosting review

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So often on MrDaz.com you’ll read blogs by me complaining about poor customer service, incompetence or in some cases downright fraud on behalf of companies. It’s because of this that I always relish actually praising a company, and this week 1and1 Internet really impressed me.

I’ve had a dedicated Windows server with them for some years now and this February my server was down for a few days due to a technical ‘incident’. As a result of that I took out a second server contract with them so I could spread my ASP sites across both servers, though I never really utilised it.

This week I contacted 1and1 and asked if I could cancel the second server (which was costing me £70 per month) even though I had over a year to run on the contract. I explained that I could cancel the server I am using (as it has no contract tie-in) and then spend several days moving the websites to the second server. I didn’t want to do this however because it’s a lot of unnecessary hassle.

I wasn’t expecting them to agree to let me cancel the server that has the long contract still tied to it, but to my surprise they said as an act of good faith they would!

Shocking. A company that actually put its customer first. They knew I’d been with them for a long time and I’m a good paying customer, so they waived the contract and allowed me to cancel the server that I’m not using. Well done to 1and1 Internet. I wish other companies were like that.

British Telecom

BT transfer a customer through to ANOTHER customer!

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I’m pleased to say that it’s not just me who finds British Telecom an utterly useless bunch of morons. This extract comes from the blog Norton42.org.

At one point, two days before actually moving house, I was actually transferred from a BT operator to some guy in his living room at home. He was watching TV at the time and seemed quite annoyed that another person had been put through to his phone. I obviously wasn’t the first! He said I should tell BT about this, but in order to do this I had to hang up. But after spending another 45 minutes on hold I gave it up for the day.

This is shockingly bad. Passing someone through to the wrong department seems to be the BT policy, but transferring them through to another customer at their home? This must surely represent the worst example of customer service ever.

The rest of Phil’s blog explains in great detail his seemingly endless struggle to become a BT client. I wonder if it was all worth it?

ReviewMe

Make free logos with logo design software

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A striking logo is the key to the branding of any company, or indeed any blog; such as MrDaz.com! The caricature in our logo was created by Aled Williams, a rather spaced out Welsh designer. A useful person to know if you need a logo or two, if however you don’t know Aled you might want to find a cheaper solution to creating your logos.

This is where The Logo Creator comes in. It’s a piece of logo design software that allows you to easily, and with little or no design ability, create impressive logos for your company. The software comes with an extensive logo design library that you can manipulate yourself, and edit to produce your own logos effortlessly.

There are 7 different packages for you to choose from, focusing on sectors such as Corporate, Travel or Sports. The website offers you the chance to view the quality of the logos before you part with any cash as well, so you know exactly what you’ll be paying for. The best bit is of course the price. The software and the bundled logo designs come in at just $29.99 each, that’s just £15 Sterling.

Alternatively you could buy the Mega Pack which includes all of the different packages and 380 professionally designed logos for you to edit for $189.95.

You needn’t worry about compatibility either as the software is available for both PC and Mac.

Royal & SunAlliance, Stolen Car

BMW say my engine is fine, I guess standards have slipped?

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I’ve just had a call from RSA again about my car. Apparently BMW can’t find anything wrong with the engine and they’ve estimated to have the work finished on my locks and the bodywork next Friday. That pushes the whole thing dangerously close to December and the dreaded 17 month mark.

Obviously there is something wrong with the engine as the front left side of the car sounds like it’s grinding metal when you turn right, so if the car is delivered back to me without the work being completed I’ll just drive it straight back. I’ve a feeling this could continue.

I’ll call BMW myself later today and let you know how I get on.

Humour

Revenue and Customs lose 25 Million people’s bank details

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In an amazing show of incompetence I thought I’d never see reached by any Government agency, the HM Revenue and Customs have gone and made the CSA and the other morons out there look positively professional.

They’ve managed to lose the details, including names, addresses AND bank details for ALL 25 Million people claiming child benefit in the UK. That’s 25 Million people who’s bank account details are in the hands of shit knows who right now, and I could even be one of them!

How did this major fuck up happen? Simple, some bright twat posted a CD with these details on to another department, and it got, how shall we say, lost. Was it recorded? No, of course not. What was the response when they realised it had gone missing? Why, they went and posted another one!

For fuck’s sake. What a cock sucker.

From the BBC.

In an emergency statement to MPs, Mr Darling apologised for what he described as an “extremely serious failure on the part of HMRC to protect sensitive personal data entrusted to it in breach of its own guidelines”.

MPs gasped as Mr Darling told them: “The missing information contains details of all Child Benefit recipients: records for 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families. “

Unbelievable eh?

It’s hardly surprising though is it? One excuse given today was that too much pressure was put on the already strained HMRC as they’d had job cuts recently. They’ve been asked to perform the impossible, was the bullshit I heard on Radio 5.

Asked to perform the impossible???

“I say, could you try awfully hard NOT to lose the bank account details of 25 Million people?”

…That’s Impossible I say! I’m under too much pressure!!!

Fucking wankers.

Don’t worry mind because the CD, they say, was password protected. I can imagine the level of complexity involved in the choice of password from someone stupid enough to post the bank details of 25 Million people. Let me have 3 guesses now at that password:

  1. password
  2. childbenefit
  3. 123456

That last one is the kind of password an idiot would have on his luggage. If you’ve ‘found’ this CD and are having trouble ‘cracking’ it, try one of those 3 passwords. I’m sure you’ll have success.

Fucking idiots.

So much anger, so little time