London has fallen!!

Or at least that is what I keep reading. Statistic sucking, doom mongering arseholes, the lot of them.
There is so much negativity coming from all angles, it is hard to keep up with who is the biggest problem.

First we have the good people of the UK. Lately there have been quite a few who no longer live in London (there is your first clue), who want to let everyone know that when they were growing up in recently post-war London, it was so much better. Errm, yes, the war had just finished you muppet. London was a thriving, and rapidly growing city.
Your decision to leave London in your later years indicates you had a preference to live elsewhere, so quite obviously your love of London was waning. It's not for everyone of course, and as it has exploded into the 24/7 city that it now is, I can totally understand peoples desire to move away.

If you have never lived in London, it is quite an overwhelming place to be. Many visit from afar in the UK, vowing never to return. So many people, so rude, too busy, so many police etc. I get it, I really do.

But then just because it is not for you, is no reason to condemn the place. Let's be honest, if you are not au fait with a place, or it is just not your cup of tea, your opinion is never going to be a good one, let alone very balanced. It's like getting a vegan to do a review of a new meat market!

I of course fully respect the opinions of those living in London currently, especially those in the slightly more "challenged" areas, shall we say.  South East London for example, where I live, and grew up too. Has it changed, sure it has, in ways which are almost impossible to explain. As I found out telling my niece the other day about how we used to play in the streets.

Has it "fallen"? Is it beyond repair? Un-salvageable as I saw it described the other day. No, of course not, don't be so dramatic and stupid about it.
The crime figures are up, the violence is getting a bit out of hand, and its crazy busy.
Statistically there is more chance of being a victim of a crime than there used to be. But that is probably the case for a hell of a lot of people.

But we hear about a new stabbing or shooting every day in London! Yes, that is probably the case. But just for one second, consider this, it is a media driven agenda. You will hear about whatever they choose, and it will be drummed into your head 24/7. Apparently amongst all this crime, a certain couple are getting married soon too. Just one couple of course, no one else, or at least that is the impression you get from the media.
There is an infinite amount of information out there to absorb daily, but most of us "trust" just a few sources. The more they report something, the more it must happen, and the more important it is, right? NO !!

I am not saying there is not a serious issue with stabbings, shootings, and other "epidemics" in London, I am simply saying that they are really not as wide spread, common, and expected as the media would have you believe. Most violent crimes (attacks not involving a secondary crime such as robbery) have a back story, although the character witnesses would have you believe otherwise.

The shortage of police is causing this!! Errm, no, no it didn't. While more could be invested in getting the numbers of police on the street up, the lack there of does not inspire someone to stab someone else. They behaviours and involvement in other circles are one of the biggest causes of that.

What I am getting at here is, London is far from a danger zone, a no go zone or any other negative term. It is a thriving City, with plenty to offer, and pretty damn safe on the grand scheme of things.
Amazing how our focus is diverted from one thing and onto another. London is dangerous, there are stabbings. Well yes, there are. But lets not forget it being the focus of terrorism too. However that is quickly forgotten after a week or two of media bombardment, telling us to believe something else.

Having grown up in London while the IRA was still very active. Seen areas like Bishopsgate, and Isle of Dogs overhauled with explosives and hatred, I would say the threat has changed, but the city and its streets remain as they always were. The streets of a capital, any capital are tainted with an air of danger, all from their own unique threats. There is no such thing as complete safety, believing it, or suggesting  / promising it is utter bullshit.

Now there is the other side to all this. While the media drive the agenda, and make sure the world sees its current portrayal of the city, the politicians also play their games too.

If your car broke down, and an onlooker suggested they could fix it, you would welcome them, work together and fix it.
So in politics you would hope it would work the same way. After all, politicians get into politics to serve the people, and for their love of their towns and cities, right?
Well, no, actually, when it comes to politics the analogy is slightly different. Going back to the car, the onlooker will stand there and mock you, berate you, and carry on until you give up on the car, then walk away. Then they will run over and take the car. It still won't run right, but they will botch the fix to drive off in it, only to break down a bit further down the road.

What really pisses me off, in times when the reputation and future of London is in question, is seeing these politicians standing around mocking each other. Saying how they would have done things differently, and when they get back into power, they will make everything better again.
If you cared, if you really wanted to make a difference, you would act NOW, offer the solutions, sit around the table and have the discussions which would lead to a better London. At the end of all that, I would not only respect the opposition a lot more, but I would also be better informed as to who some of these people really are, and be able to see who the genuine politicians are.

Instead, bad crime figures are seem as a posturing opportunity. Rather than trying to be constructive and help improve things, they are used to try and secure their future term in power. If we are totally honest about this, investment in the police will not STOP the issue, but will instead allow more manpower to gather intelligence and act on it. Having a stable economy didn't stop the IRA, having good exam pass marks hasn't changed the threat from ISIS, and having a strong housing market and good job prospects will not change the attitudes of the scummy little fuckers who are causing all the issues with gang violence and moped enabled crimes.

Watching politicians attacking each other on TV just shows how disorganised things are at the top, and chips away at the belief and trust we have in the politicians. Seeing them squabble and shout over each other at PMQ's and other debates in the house, just set a bad example to society. Politicians have no respect for each other, and bad mouth each other both privately and publicly at every opportunity, so why should anyone else behave differently?

Then finally we have the public. Large swathes of them with no respect for the police, but as usual, calling upon them to put a stop to everything. Stop and search is bad, but why are people being left to walk about with weapons. Tactical stops on mopeds involved in crimes need to happen, but if someones child is injured while involved in such a crime, lynch the copper from the nearest tree.

I will finish up with saying this.
Instead of blaming the schools, police, politicians, labour market, housing market etc, take a look a little closer to home.
For every one of these trouble making scrotes, there is someone who knows them simply as a human being. Sure other member of a gang are not going to pacify them, but somewhere in their social circles there is a friend or family member who knows the real person. These are the people who come out in mourning when a loved one is killed. They are the people who can see something isn't right, but do nothing.
I am not saying it is their fault, however they are the first to see there is an issue, the first to have the opportunity to say something to someone, and the first link in the chain which eventually leads the person to an early death or prison.

While it is easy, just like the politicians, to point your finger and blame others, society also needs to take some responsibility, and do their bit. Stitches for snitches, no one likes a grass etc, all the wise words of wisdom which over the years have pushed the decline in family and friends interventions.  Sadly, sometimes, it is the best way.

London isn't broken, it is just running a bit rough at the moment. It is not un-salvageable, it is simply undesirable to certain groups of people.
We, Londoners, just need to pull our bloody fingers out and each play our part. No more turning a blind eye, no more "someone else will report it", take some bloody responsibility.
Likelihood of that happening of course is about as high as the chances of everyone clearing the snow from outside their house, which in turn would clear the whole street. Rather than whining at the local authority to hurry up and do it.

Entitled, lazy, uninvolved, just a few words which describe the modern day Londoner. And maybe that is the problem. Not immigration, the influx of people from other countries wanting a better life for them and their families. Willing to work long hours, doing manual jobs for little financial reward.  But the influx of selfish, entitled, and disengaged people from elsewhere, demanding gentrification, the removal of the poorer members of society, who are too self obsessed to play the important role which is required of them.

Me vs Bromley Parking, part two

Given that my appeal to Bromley council regarding my parking ticket was rejected on the basis that there IS adequate signage for their CPZ in Bromley Town Centre, I have finally, some 2 months later received the 'Notice to Keeper' which entitles me to officially challenge the ticket and their decision.

So here is the letter I am about to submit to Bromley, to again try and make my point.
I am somewhat entertained that in the same week that I decided to make the formal challenge, that a story would appear on the BBC website, stating that some councils, inc Bromley appear to be setting targets, therefore acting illegally with regards to parking enforcement notices issued.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25865055

So, here is the letter which will be completed and sent off via email, the appeals website, and of course in paper form too. I will in the meantime be speaking to other media outlets to highlight the behaviour of Bromley Parking, and in an effort to get the area re-signed in a more open and fair manner.

Dear Sir / Madam
I am writing to you in relation to parking ticket #******** issued on *********.
I have contacted you on a previous occasion relating to this matter, and already pointed out by email, and open letter, the flaws regarding the signage of the suppose Bromley CPZ.
I shall again make my point, in the hope that it is better understood, taking your original response into consideration.
I approached Bromley town centre from Bromley Hill, coming in from Downham. To be precise, up Bromley Hill, onto London Road, left onto Tweedy Road, along Kentish Way, right onto Masons Hill, straight on onto High St, and right onto Elmfield Road. At no point along this trip was any form of CPZ sign seen. On parking and walking the route in the opposite direction, I finally found a sign. Just after the bus stop on Masons Hill. Please see the attached image from Google Maps of the sign, turned sideways, tiny in size, and ridiculous to believe that Bromley Parking consider this 'visible' and 'adequate' to notify drivers entering the area that it is indeed a CPZ.

Furthermore, I should add that on standing in as near as I could to a driving position in the road, when a bus is at the bus stop, or just pulling away, the sign is completely obscured.
From my understanding of the requirements to establish a legitimate and lawful CPZ, one of the requirements is for the signage to be clear and visible, maybe even adequate. Given that the distance travelled from entering the borough of Bromley, to the point of the ticket being issues is some 2 miles, and that the area apparently covered by the CPZ is just after an area of slower moving traffic, with traffic lights, and open roads with many opportunities for better signs to be erected, I am left only with the belief that the sign has been carefully placed to ensure there IS indeed a sign, but it is of absolutely no use to motorists entering the area. There is no other logical explanation as to why a sign of such importance would be put in such a hard to see place. I should also point out that after turning from Kentish Way to Masons Hill, the number of pedestrians and hazards for motorists increases astronomically, so concentrating to hunt out a hidden sign is rather dangerous from this point on.
Unfortunately on reading recent articles such as this one on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25865055 , I am led to the only logical conclusion, and that is that this is an attempt to gain as much revenue from parking enforcement as possible, while skirting what Bromley believe to be just within the legal requirements of a CPZ.
Therefore, on this occasion I completely reject the argument that Bromley make,  that there are 'a number of signs from London Road, all the way into Elmfield Road' where the ticket was issued. I can honestly state that I observed NO clearly visible signs on my way to the point of parking. And upon finding a single yellow line with no hours of enforcement close by, I parked in good faith believing I was entitled to do so. Obviously now I know the centre of Bromley is a CPZ I would not do this again, and would choose to park in one of the many VERY well signed pay on exit car parks.
It seems that Bromley are happy to point people in the right direction of a pay to use car park, but not so keen to warn people that yellow lines fall under a badly signed CPZ. Seemingly a win win situation for Bromley.
At this time, I feel I am well within my rights to appeal this ticket, and the decision made by Bromley the first time I appealed, on the following grounds.
CPZ is not adequately signed.
Appeal decision states signs are in a place where they are not.
I look forwards to hearing back from yourselves on this matter in the near future.
Please note, as before, this letter will be shared openly on my blog, as well as Twitter, as will any reply received unless explicitly requested otherwise.
Regards
Michael Snasdell

The polls are in, and Yodel.......

... well quite frankly they suck !

A recent poll from a reputable source, conducted in the UK about domestic parcel delivery put Yodel dead last.
In fact they were SO last, they actually had almost double the amount of BAD votes to the next placed carrier. Now that really says something when it comes to customer DIS-satisfaction.

Good		592 votes (18%)
OK		654 votes (20%)
Bad		2104 votes (63%)

As the boss of a company scoring THAT badly, surely you would start to look for ways to improve.

As the boss of a company USING a company that scores this badly, surely you would be looking for alternative carriers to keep your own customers happy.

But thats not how business works, we all know that by now. 

Most people complain about foreign call centres, but more and more companies are outsourcing their customer service centres by the year.

So, all my moaning, all my complaining and blogging. It seems I was far from alone in my bad feeling towards the company. Even more reason to maintain my stance that I will NOT order anything from a company in the knowledge that they use Yodel as a delivery agent.

Well done Wonga.com ..... Almost !

After my last rant about Wonga.com and their failures to bother to contact me or respond to my emails... They did !!
Imagine my surprise when Andrew from Wonga called up and said he was aware of a serious issue and complaint I had made, and he would like to look into it to get it sorted and stop me having any more problems with my payment.
We spoke about the issue, how it had been escalated to him, and what the cause seemed to be. Andrew told me he would like to get some information then have time to look into it, and get back to me with the fix. I agreed.
As we spoke, it became apparent for a while that he thought it might be a problem with my bank account or card, and not an issue at their end. So after collecting some information from me he started to tie up the call. Before he could continue I asked him if he could take the payment there and then to stop me having to go through the hassle of sorting it out later. He agreed but with the added line that it might be a problem with the card, so a payment might not be successful.

Having spoken with my bank earlier in the day, and confirming that there was NO issue with my card, account etc, I was positive it was an issue with Wonga.
Sure enough, seconds after agreeing to 'try' and take the payment, a somewhat surprised Andrew came back on the line and confirmed the payment had gone through, no issues, and it must indeed be an issue with the system their end. No shit Sherlock !

With my mind at ease, and with the payment made, we ended the call there and agreed that he would call back later that evening after he had heard back from the IT dept.

7pm came around, and as promised the phone rang and it was Wonga again. From the offset it was made clear that there had been an issue with their system, and it was explained that my card, even though the ONLY card on file, was not set as the 'primary' card, therefore was not being used to collect payment. So in reality, rather than all the stupid emails I was getting, someone could have checked and spotted this months ago, or the system could have just spat out a 'no primary card' error. But instead its always better to blame and harass the customer, of course !

With that resolved, I was assured that it had been corrected now, and that the future payments would not have issue with them, as long as my funds were available and card didn't change. Once again rushing to end the call, Andrew again apologised and started to say his goodbye's. Stopping him in his tracks I asked if I could have the contents of our discussion in an email, as written confirmation of what had actually happened, and of the action they had taken to prevent it happening again.  This was agreed to.

20 mins later the email came through, and indeed stated all the required information for my own records.
Problem solved....................... but not the end of it.

On the day all the emails were sent to Wonga I had received the automated 'thank you' email, but none of the patronising 'better to call us' rubbish that they seem to send out when they just don't want to deal with the matter themselves. At least that's how it comes across. Every email I sent that day had all the information they usually ask for, name, email, DOB and address. Given that I had supplied all this, and received a call back, I assumed that was that.
So imagine my surprise, when 2 days later I get two more of the 'we don't know who you are, please call us' emails.

From this I can only assume that the left hand doesn't have a CLUE what the right hand is doing. Notes are not put on customers accounts, and information is not shared. All this comes together to make quite simply a piss poor customer experience.

So... Wonga, thanks for starting to sort my issue out, now maybe take a deeper look at how your contact system works, and stop sending stupid emails for no reason. Especially when you are asking for information which was contained in the email you are replying to ! DUH !

We shall tell next month if the issue is REALLY resolved or not. Watch this space on Dec 18th.

Dear Wonga.... YOU FAILED !

I would like to openly discuss my experiences with Wonga, and go into some more detail about how its all worked out.

Many months back, in desperate need of a quick injection of cash, I resorted to Wonga. A friend had kindly helped me out of the bog of financial despair with them once, but I fucked up, plain and simple. Even more stupidly I missed my payment / renewal date, and was faced with paying it all off in one hit, or entering a 'payment agreement'.
Settling for the payment agreement I spoke with the team about it, and was very pleased with the experience setting it up. 2 months down the line my debit card was renewed and I screwed up and forgot to tell Wonga, so the payment failed.
I contacted them, apologised and gave them the new card details. Crisis averted, or so I though. The following month I recevied an email saying the payment had failed. I called up again, the agent had forgotten to save the card details. No big deal.
The next month, payment failed email again, I call up, this time its a system outage and the payment HAD gone through, but one system didn't tell another, so the email was sent.
Next month, payment failed, month after, payment failed.... I tried in vain to contact them to sort this out, emails, phone calls etc all covered in previous blog entries, but nothing worked.
On calling last month the agent took a payment over the phone without my authorisation, I complained but Wonga failed to get back to me, so with this I approached the Financial Ombudsman who have taken the matter on.

This month  I decided to be proactive, and called Wonga a week before the payment was due. Went through it all with the agent, and confirmed they had all the right details to take the payment on the due date.... This morning I get an email... PAYMENT FAILED! So this time, paranoid that something was wrong at the banks end, I called the bank.

First up  THANK YOU NatWest for having such a coherent bunch on both Twitter and phone banking, they are amazing to deal with and answered all my questions faultlessly and promptly.

In this conversation with NatWest it was confirmed to me that not only had no payment failed, but no payment has even been presented to them for authorisation.
Seriously Wonga, you are hassling, harassing, and upsetting me with emails saying I have in some way failed to keep up my end of the bargain, and YOU have not even asked my bank for the money.

As per my emails, YOUR MOVE !! I have called you, emailed you, tried to work with you to give you my money, the money I agreed to pay you after my own slip up..... Now its up to you. I will make NO further efforts to make payment this month until YOU contact me. I realise that you will probably ignore my emails about the matter like you did last month, and that the next things I will get are emails or letters saying you have cancelled the agreement, are going to add interest, and all other sorts of financial threats. Thats fine. IF you can't be bothered to engage with a customer to resolve matters of you OWN failures I will quite happily wait for this to reach County Court level, then explain to them the poor levels of customer contact you have, and produce the emails, and call logs of when I have tried to make payment and resolve the matter.

As a matter of principal I am no longer willing to waste my time trying to sort the matter out, and if it does require any further input from me, other than answering a call or email from yourselves, I will start to add admin fees.

So Wonga..... YOUR MOVE! I look forwards to hearing from you.

At least someone is replying !

Thank you to the Financial Ombudsman for taking the time to review my email and get back to me with a case number regarding my complaint against Wonga.com

Dear Mr Snasdell

Your complaint

Thank you for contacting us. We will reply as soon as possible – but within six weeks.

If you need to get in touch before then, please use your reference, XXXXXXXXXXX

In the meantime, Wonga have still not managed to overcome sending me the same perpetual automated replies, asking me to call them, or asking for more information so they can work out who I am.

Well we have established one thing for sure.... My name is NOT Stephen! Idiots!

I don't really expect much from Wonga, at best, the next email I get with my name on it will probably be this time NEXT month saying they have screwed up again and my payment has failed again !

Are Wonga just taking the piss now?

Just got this automated template again!

But this time with a twist.

I'm positive they are just taking the piss now!!

Dear Steven,

After reviewing your email, it seems clear the best way to get this matter sorted is over the phone. 

Please call us on 020 7138 8331. We look forward to discussing your account and trying to help find a solution for you.

Who the FUCK is Stephen ?

More Wonga bullshit.

For the third time now, in the past couple of days, Wonga have sent me another automated reply, this time saying all is well. Still unable to get a human to look at the problem, they simply persist in sending automatic, template responses, answering nothing.

Obviously by them saying this I could be led to believe that my payment went through ok on the 18th, and in turn assume that the unauthorised payment was an extra payment they had no right to take?

Of course, if a human just took 5 mins to look at the account and explain it to me in an email it would all make far more sense, and be clearer, but no. Seemingly it's not the Wonga way!

Wonga, you continue to be a cause of stress and frustration in my weekend, so please once and for all, read the damn email I sent you, address the questions and give me a straight answer.

Oh and one more thing, that script you give the outsourced call centre..... When a customer phones up distressed and angry that YOU have failed to take a payment.... scripting the agent to ask 'so how is your day going so far' is a bit fuckin retarded! #JustSayin! 

So here is the template you can expect to receive when Wonga mess up, then you try to sort it out...

Hi Michael,Thanks so much for your patience while we were checking your account. Your payment was received and your plan remains in good standing. We really do appreciate you keeping your word. The status of your arrangement can be viewed, and payments can be made anytime, by logging into the 'my account' area of our site. To avoid any hiccups, please make sure your debit card information is up to date. If you know of any potential problems, please call us on 0207 138 8331 asap.Best wishes, Collections Team

Dear Wonga.... you utter muppets!

So, if you had not already guessed, my previous blog entry was referring to ... WONGA.COM. Those happy little people that are great when all is going well, and I have had good dealings with before. But when anything goes wrong, they are simply UTTER SHIT !

3 months the issues have dragged on for now, with them not even being able to arrange one single monthly payment from my account without sending me shitty emails telling me how they are going to systematically drain my bank account over the next day if you dont call them immediately. And if you DO call them, the agent will just take an unauthorised payment anyway, so its lose lose suckers !

So after saying in my email I didnt want a templated response from them, and would like the matter looked at properly, this is the insulting shit they send.

Hi,
 After reviewing your email, it seems clear the best way to get this matter sorted is over the phone. 
Please call us on 020 7138 8331. We look forward to discussing your account and trying to help find a solution for you.
You may also find you can get things sorted by using the options in the ‘my account’ area of our site.
Best wishes,

Hi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, HI !! are you fuckin kidding my. My email signature has my name on it, my account has too, hell, even your threatening little YOU FAILED email has my first name on it, but now im 'Hi' FUCK OFF !!!

From this point in, everything goes public, nothing is a secret, and yes, I fucked up and used a pay day loan company, my bad! lol.

Wonga, your customer 'care' is an utter disgrace, disorganised, ill informed, poorly trained, and a complete polar opposite of the experience you offer when tempting people into taking loans with you.

I can see now why so many organisations have targeted you, and understand fully the stories that people like Sky News have run.

Shame on you !

Disgusted!

After a running battle with a financial company, that shall remain nameless for now, I am finally at my wits end with it all. I have just sent them the most balanced email I possibly could at this time. Right now I am full of anger and contempt with them for the way they are behaving, and can understand why they have come under such intense fire from the media over recent months.

I am of course going to follow up this matter, and forward it to anyone who might like to take a bite out of them, as well as the financial ombudsman and maybe a few media outlets, given their unauthorised activity on my bank account today.

VERY ANGRY RIGHT NOW !!

As my letter and blog writing skills show, im mind is not my own right now.

Dear Sir / Madam
I have just come off the phone from one of your agents after having probably THE worst customer 'care' ever. I am outraged at the events on the phone, as well as how your company has behaved over this matter. I therefore wish to advise you of my intentions to approach the Financial Ombudsman with this complaint.
Please see below the catalogue of errors which has lead to this issue.
A few months (payments) back my debit card was changed. Forgetting to advise yourselves, I rightfully received an email saying my payment had failed, and that I needed to call. I did so, and made payment there and then, as well as giving my details and authorisation for future automated payments to be taken.
Last month I received an email saying it had failed again. So I phoned up only to be told they could not check anything or change anything as the computer systems were down, and to try calling back later. Which I did.
I was then told that the payment had gone through fine, the email was an error, and all would be well THIS month.
Well, yesterday I received an email saying my payment had failed yet again. Not having time to stay on hold as the wait was a long time, I emailed, to which I received no response. Today I received an email saying the payment had failed, the plan was cancelled and that an attempt would be made to take the full amount tonight.
Let me just take that last email for a second and try and work this out. Your system and my bank for some how doesn't allow you to take 10% of the sum owed, so somehow the logical thing to do is to use the same system and bank details to take 100%. That makes sense doesn't it!
So, I have called your call centre again today, and this is where my biggest issue really starts. The scripted drone that I spoke with advised me that your systems were running very slowly today, so getting my details up would take a while, while waiting she asked me various security questions, and details of the existing arrangement and payments. While doing so she enquired about the agreement amount, which I told her of. Shortly after she asked for the last 4 digits of the card being used, and the security code, which I also told her. After a short pause she said 'ok that payment has gone through today'. I enquired what payment she meant, was the system showing the same as last month and had in fact collected payment. No she replied, the payment I just requested...
This is appauling that without so much as 'would you like me to try and collect a payment from your card now' or similar, she authorised herself to take payment on behalf of your company. Therefore I protest at this unauthorised payment being taken from my account in this way, and will be formally advising the financial ombudsman of my experience with yourselves. From what I see in the media, im sure it will just be one of many.
Falling into financial hardship is bad enough, without complete jokes of companies like your own behaving in the way you do.
On the ending of the conversation she also advised me that she had set up a payment plan that would come out on the 18th of each month from Nov. Once again, please accept this as my notification of intent towards your company. IF the payment fails for any reason other than fault of my own, and I receive the same automated email threatening to systematically milk my account of every penny you can, I will immediately cancel payment and willingly forfeit the settlement, with the explicit intention of taking legal action.
For the whole time, I have maintained my side of the agreement, but on a monthly basis you fail on your side time and time again, with escalating incompetence.
I expect this matter to be thoroughly investigated, and for a completely human typed, non templated response to be sent to me explaining the actions of the agent today, and explaining why oh why something as simple as this cannot be maintained.
I really hope this matter can be resolved properly once and for all.
Thank you sincerely for ruining the start to my weekend.
Michael Snasdell
PS, this letter is being published on my blog at the same time of sending. The company name has been withheld at this point out of common courtesy. 

**EDIT**
In a hilarious twist, the company concerned have just replied to my email, stating they cant find a record of me, and for me to supply more information for them to be able to help me. I wonder if they have 'lost' my account finance information too, I doubt it eh ! 

Dear Yodel, poor confused Yodel

Firstly let me say, thank you to the guys from Yodel on Twitter, for making things happen, shooting from the hip and just being down to earth. Without your input today I would be fuming. 

So lets get to the fun part.

Last night I tweeted, blogged and Facebooked my frustrations about a failed delivery, which was eventually scanned as an incomplete or unusable address. The call centre told me in no uncertain terms that the soonest the package could go back out was Friday. I was NOT happy and vented this by complaints of many forms to Yodel.

This morning, first thing I get a tweet from Yodel asking if they can help, 30 mins and a few messages later and I am assured the package is going back out for delivery, and am told the time the package was scanned onto the van. 09.52. And indeed it shows on the online tracking as just that.

02/05/2013

09:52

Parcel with courier, its on its way!

So, with this in mind, and knowing I am still pretty much housebound anyway, I relaxed a bit.
You can imagine my confusion when I then received an email from Yodel customer services in response to my rather sarcastic email from yesterday evening, stating the following....

Please accept my sincere apologies that you have had cause to contact Yodel regarding your delivery.
I have looked on our system that states you called around 7.30pm yesterday evening to re-book your delivery, unfortunately our cut of time for re-deliveries is 4.30pm therfore the nearest available day would be Friday as advised by the adviser you spoke to.

This email was sent at 10.24, a full 30 mins AFTER the package had been sorted and scanned onto a van for delivery TODAY. Naturally a rather sarcastic reply was sent questioning the accuracy of the information in the email. What this says to me is that the person replying to the email didn't really look into the matter at all, but just grabbed a few bits of information, took a guess and replied with lip service not customer service.

Had they looked into the matter properly they would also have noted that the call was connected at EIGHT thirty, not 7 as stated in the email, that was of course after being on hold for 30 mins. At my expense I should add as apparently..... I quote..

 With reference to compensation for calls, Im afraid that this falls under the category of consequential loss and as a company Yodel do not cover this. We strive to ensure that all our customers receive excellent service and I realise that on this occasion you feel it was not achieved. 

So in short...

Yodels drivers will lie when they cant be bothered to try and deliver a package, and state that the address was wrong.
When the address on the package is confirmed as correct by a call centre agent on the phone, they will then in turn suggest access to the house was not possible, or that the road is small and not on a map. And that it will take TWO days to get the package back out for delivery,
When you email customer services to complain about the whole matter, the agent will simply fabricate a call time, ignore the comments made about getting it back out for delivery THE NEXT DAY, and instead say SAME day reattempt is not possible. Finally stating that it  WILL take 2 days, and the 30 mins on hold is for you to pay for.

THEN.... You speak briefly in under 140 characters to a helpful bunch at @YodelOnline via Twitter, and they sort the whole matter out, get it back out for delivery, and are polite and honest in the process.

Thanks again to the small contingent of Yodel staff who are actually helpful. As for the rest.. Karma gonna get ya!

Right..... now wheres my bloody package ! Haha

Yodel, you complete and utter joke!

To say I have had a bad experience with YODEL the delivery company today is pretty much an understatement. The only saving grace is that I am off work sick today, or I would have in fact just wasted a whole day of my life waiting for a package that was destined NEVER to show up. Of course it wasn't, Yodel were dealing with it, what was I expecting.

My new phone ordered from the CarphoneWarehouse was dispatched yesterday, and the online tracking began, ending with ...

01/05/2013

20:01

Parcel returned to delivery depot

The reason for this, apparently my postal address of 30+ years was a little too complex for someone along the line to cope with, so they just took the package out for delivery, drove around South London with it since 10am, finally decided they didn't know where SE23 was, and scanned it to say the address was inadequate. The tracking screen updated an hour later to say it was back at the depot.

So I called the call centre.... and waited...... and waited, oh and errm waited some more. THIRTY minutes later I finally got through, and after a long discussion about how hard it is to walk up my drive way, or why a courier would not know where the road was, it was agreed it would be redelivered.... ON FRIDAY !!

FFS are you kidding me, its gonna take them 2 days to get the package back out to me, im not allowed to get someone to pick it up for me, and they can only give a 12 hour delivery window.

At least I know a rough idea of why they are called YODEL now. Its either the method of communication between customers and customer service, or the sound the thoughts make as they travel across the vast expanses between some of their staffs ears.

I shall leave you with my email to Yodel.



I have waited patiently all day for a package to arrive and watched as it was updated to received at depot, til out for delivery. Finally at 8pm it updates to say its back at the depot.
On calling your call centre and spending 30 mins on hold, I finally got through to someone and was told the courier was unable to find my postal address. I should point out at this point that I too work for a large international courier service, and know our drivers would never take out a package which they thought the address was incorrect or incomplete on.
So why is it this courier in question has spent all day with the package with a perfectly good address and postcode on, only to claim it was inadequate? And now to rub salt in the wounds I am told I can neither collect it, nor have it reattempted until Friday, and even then its a 12 hour delivery window.
I have a job to go to, I have a life to live, and I now have a rather large phone bill as I had to join the end of a VERY long queue of people probably with similar comments and complaints as myself, waiting to speak to someone at the call centre.
So, can I collect this package and save someone the painful task of trying to navigate across the vast, open, confusing to navigate wilderness also known as South London, or can someone armed with a medieval artefact know as a map manage to deliver it before Friday.
Im not quite sure why it would take 48 hours to turn a package back around and out for delivery again.
This has been a totally ridiculous chain of events, and in turn deserved nothing less that a ridiculously sarcastic email to complain about the service.
Quite simply, can someone please arrange for this package to be delivered, properly and before Friday. And a refund for the call cost would be quite delightful.
Regards

RIM ? Blackberry finally admit a 'small' problem

Blackberry finally posted on their Twitter feed half an hour ago.
"BlackBerryHelp Research In Motion

Some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing. We’re working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. ^PM"
Just a short while after declaring the issues from the previous day were resolved.
By all accounts, its not 'some' areas affected, its more likely a 'few' areas working, and they are mainly on BES from what I can tell.
The outrage continues as RIM try to resolve the problems. Meanwhile the networks are sending out apologies to their customers for the poor service, but are unable to give any other info as RIM have not been forthcoming with the required information. Virus, fire, hardware failure, human error..... Throw us a frickin bone here RIM !

Meanwhile, Twitter remains alive with frustrated, angry customers who just want info.
On the flip side, think of it this way, a friend just told me her friend cannot contact her husband in Afghanistan because of this outage, that is just heartbreaking.