The weekend is almost over.

Well it might as well be, the weather is crap, the other half has gone home for a family dinner, and I'm broke. So it looks like another day in front of the TV for me.
On the plus side, it gives me a little time to thin about this whole building collapse thing, and think of new angles and approaches to get things in motion.

Its not so much whats happened now, more about what is left that could still happen. The wet weather has arrived for the season now, and also freezing weather is approaching, which is all bad news for unstable ground, and buildings sitting on the edge of it.
So with the issues at the site down the road, I am going to selfishly attempt to steal a little of the spot light it is receiving and focus it on the site remaining empty at 6 Church Rise. Since its collapse there has never been a detail investigation carried out, nor an inspection on the foundations of the property I live in.

Now correct me if I am wrong here, but if a building collapses from the foundations up, with a huge pit dug BELOW the house, just a couple of metres from the house next door, would you too not assume that your property and foundations had been compromised? Especially when the cracks start to open up in your rooms nearest to the collapse. When floorboards no longer reach the skirting boards, and the concrete path between the properties moves over half an inch AWAY from your property. Am I just being paranoid here, or do I have a valid point that someone needs to look at this properly?

In an idea world I would call in a private surveyor, pay for a full survey, and put my mind at rest. However we all know this can cost a lot of money, especially when its foundations you are looking at. So my next angle may be to approach Lewisham and ask if they will send their own surveyors. if they are not willing to, then I shall take the angle of "If you are SO confident that there is nothing wrong, I will call the surveyor in, and if they find anything, not only will I claim back the costs, but I will sue too for failure of duty of care". Next step, find out how much this kind of survey costs lol.

Anyway, im getting caught up on this whole house thing again. My god I thought I was done with it all, but realise now that it has only just begun. With the change of management of the property, maybe I need to contact the new company to see if they are happy with the situation too. OK thats enough about that for now.

So the rest of the weekend, only thing I can say really is FAIL. That just about sums up my weekend. Things planned to do, not done. Things planned NOT to do, done! Too much eating, not enough getting out there and doing things.
Which leads me neatly to the next part. Failing to get the dog food from the shops yesterday, has led to the the other half leaving here today a little pissed off with me, and me a little grr at us for being lazy. Its only a quick trip to a shop a few miles away, but we didnt bother, so thats the dog food running dangerously low.

My plan for the remainder of the day, sulk a little, eat a little, get the Wii Fit out and mess about a bit.

Hope your weekends have been a little better than mine.

PS, pissed off but still positive :)

Oh PS.... I got a letter from my mates at Orange yesterday. Over 2 months since I cancelled my home broadband account they send me a letter which simply says "you own use £27, pay in 7 days or we take you to court" OK there were a few more words that than, but totally unprofessional, unacceptable, and something I will be following up agressively. Bloody cheek!

Today is D Day, for Orange that is.

Well after a couple of days of grace for them to sort the matter out, today is the last day that was agreed I would wait for them to sort the issues out.
Its 8 days now, this all started over a week ago now. After loads of diagnostics there is still no joy with the matter. Suggestions have been that maybe RIM has accidentally blocked the wrong PIN as the phone seems to be behaving as if its data is blocked on purpose. (or its just bloody broken!)

Either way, I agreed with Orange Executive Offices that I would wait til this afternoon before chasing them up again, and its coming up for 1pm. So in a couple of hours time I will be calling them back and asking what decision they have come to. Either way, with Easter just around the corner (tomorrow) I am likely to be without my Blackberry for a few days more until a replacement is sent out, if they even agree to send one out.

If there is no resolution agreed today its gonna get a little bit messy. I understand that networks have grace in-built into the contracts to allow them time to sort stuff like this out, but I am not sure it is quite this long, certainly not without them even having diagnosed the issue.
So if I am told they are still waiting on RIM, the response will be something along the lines of, breach of contract, failing to provide a service or reasonable timescale for resolution, and so on.
My solution offered to them will be, I will return the phone in the next available mail service, they can keep it and sort the problem out at their own leisure, and either replace it or return it to me repaired. In the meantime they can suspend billing on that account, reimburse me for the calls made to tech support, and discuss how they are going to convince me to remain with Orange as my contracts begin to run out.

I will update as it all unfolds, but either way, I am past caring too much about it now, the whole scenario has dulled my enthusiasm for Orange by about 90%, and if they are not willing to talk about it, I will start to pull the contracts as soon as economically viable.

Is this what they call "progress"?

Well after another entertaining day speaking to Orange over and over and over, I have made I believe what some would call progress.
After an earlier encounter with a call back from Orange, which just put be right back at the beginning, I searched the web and found an email address for the Executive Offices for Orange. The address is executive.office@orange.co.uk . After emailing them I was expecting the same sort of response as most other promises of call backs etc. But to my amazement, after a trip to the loo I came back to find a missed call and a message. Michael from the exec offices had called back to discuss the matter, and see what they could do to sort the matter out.

After a long call to the techs, he came back with almost what everyone else had said, that tech were SURE it was a problem with RIM now and not the handset. The issue has been passed on to Research In Motion for further investigation. Unfortunately as they are a 3rd party Orange are unable to give or enforce timescales for these matters, so it is simply a matter of waiting again now til RIM contact Orange.

So really I am no further down the line. Although on the other hand I am, as I have a single point of contact now, who is going to see the matter through to resolution. We have also started discussing reimbursement for time wasted, calls placed and services not provided.

One comment made me chuckle though. He said he was happy to make such a credit to my account but would do it once resolved "in case" it is another week of no service". My response was to laugh and politely inform him that if it drags over to next week I wont be an Orange customer anymore. He understood this clearly.

So onwards, and nowhere for the time being lol. I am in higher spirits about it now, thanks to a settlement cheque arriving on my mat this morning, but that's about the only thing keeping me from driving to Orange HQ and having a word in person.
IF..... and I mean IF, this turns out to be a handset fault after all, the whole thing will become VERY messy indeed. As I explained to one of the call centre guys, I am not a guinea pig for them to experiment with their theories on. I am a paying customer, and a high paying customer at that. I expect to be treated like an individual, and not someone they can mess about, just so the geeks in the basement can prove they can fix the phone.

Thursday afternoon is the cutoff for this whole matter now, which was made clear to the exec when we spoke. If I have to call them back that afternoon as its not resolved, then I will be asking for an address to send the phone to, and will be rid of it once and for all. At that point I want nothing more to do with it until it is fixed, working, and I don't have to call Orange again. Renewal time is nigh, but I am having serious doubts about it all now, unless they can do something really special. REALLY special.

Emailed the CEO of Orange

OK so im not expecting him to personally read it and mail me back, but some attention from someone higher up the food chain would be good right now.

I escalated my issue to Orange earlier this evening, before my last entry. At this point I was told the issue would be viewed by a manager or team leader and I would get a call back. Well suprise suprise I am yet to hear back from Orange in any way shape or form.
On calling them about an hour ago I was informed by the lady I spoke to, that she was not allowed to discuss the matter further with me until the manager had called me back.
When I asked when this would be, she was unable to tell me, as she is based in Darlington, but the dept the manager was from are based in Bristol.

Instead all she could suggest was that I was owed an apology, and I would have to wait until the manager called back until the matter could be continued/resolved.

So I finally got fed up and fired the email off to the CEO in the hope that it will find its way to someone who can actually do something about this once and for all.

Lord give me strength.

OK im not religious at all, but I sure as hell feel like I need divine intervention on this one.
On Thursday my Blackberry 9700 started playing up, no data. I called Orange to register the fault with them.
Since then it has been constant phone calls to them, speaking to numerous people all with a different take on the matter, different departments all suggesting wild ideas on how to fix the issue, and quite a few promised deadlines for call backs, however there has been no offer of replacing the phone yet.
Its Monday now, I mean come on.
Even the lady I have just spoken to has said, just on the notes she has read on it, some of which have been entered a number of times, the handset should just be replaced now.

So the clock starts ticking again now. Apparently networks have my case logged, are working on it, and will get back to me as soon as there is a decision, or with my luck, more questions to be asked. I am SO hoping that this time they finally just say REPLACE, and this whole nightmare will be over. If the outcome of the next callback is not heading in the right direction, its time to call cancellations and talk about "inability to provide the contracted service".

So, cross those fingers, replacement 9700 for me by tomorrow PLEASE!

P**sed off with Orange

Just sent an email off to Orange UK cust services regarding the ongoing issue with my Blackberry.
I think, all things considered its pretty damn polite.

"I have had a data issue with my handset now since Thursday AM. I have spoken to numerous call centre agents, handset fault engineers and now network engineers, but as of yet, at 19.00 on Saturday evening I am still not able to use the said handset.

No one seems to be listening to the fundamental issue which is... The SIM in the handset operates fine in another of my Blackberrys, and the SIM from the working BB will NOT work in the 9700... It is a hard/software issue NOT a network issue. Yet still I am bounced from department from department, being told each time to run through the whole matter again as if no one has made any notes on my account.

On the last call I was asked to verify the PIN and IMEI from the software, the handset and the box as if I am trying to con Orange or something.

I have 5-6 contracts with Orange and have had for years and I have NEVER had such a long winded, frustrating and outright unacceptable issue in all my time.

I have been without the handset for 3 days now, will I be credited this? Should I even consider renewing when the contracts expire? Right now the answer is no.

I just want my handset working, my Blackberry functioning with data, and not to keep being told to pull the battery, delete service books, and other pointless exercises. Is there ANY chance of a replacement, please? "

Fair ?

Michael

Sent using BlackBerry®