Yodel... the final curtain

So after much messing about with Yodel over the past couple of days, and many stories exchanged on Twitter and Facebook about the amazing behaviour of what seems to be the biggest useless company in the UK...... I finally got my package!! Woohoo!

How you may ask. Well here goes. The DELIVERY company were meant to deliver Tuesday, pretended they had, put a false scan on the package, stating they could not get into an open, functioning business during our business hours... while I was sitting outside and saw no one show up.

On Wednesday after lots of complaining to @YodelOnline and @SpirtsDirect_CS I was told the package would go out.... Then by 2pm with no scans on it, and no movement I was told it was staying at the depot and could go and collect, from the DELIVERY company. By this time SportsDirect had refunded my postage costs much to my delight, so it wasn't too bad. But as I was at work, it wasn't practical.

At just after 4 the package suddenly showed it was out for delivery. With business commitment of 5.30 it was never getting to my work on time. Yet faithfully I waited til 6.45 (past my finish time) As expected, nothing showed. And as expected, a short while later it was coded as no one in again.

Today I had reached the end of my tether and told SportsDirect to just cancel it, but didn't hear back. Frustrated I tweeted again at both companies, only to get another reply from Yodel inviting me to collect it. This would mean heading in the opposite direction to work, and being late for work!

Fed up of the whole thing, I gave Yodel my eta as 30 mins, and left home. Exactly 30 mins later I arrived there, told them who I was, gave ID and began the wait.

The guy at the counter thought the package might actually be out for delivery, so it took longer to find out where it was. Turned out it was in the warehouse anyway, where it had probably been since Tues. While I waited another lady came in, she had been waiting 5-6 days for her parcel, and like me had seen lots of activity on the tracking website, suggestions that it had been out for delivery, that no one had been home and other comments.

When the guy finally found her package he pointed to the address, telling her this was the problem and it was wrong. She said no its not, that's exactly where I live, he didn't accept it was right. When she said she would never use Yodel again, he replied 'please don't madam, please don't ' 

Finally my package arrived at the counter, and as it was put down, it was quite clear there was a slash across the front of it. Quite purposeful, and carefully done so not to damage the contents. I would go so far to say done to check what was in the package and if it was worth stealing. Done with a sharp object, cutting right through, but not touching the contents. As you can see I took a picture in situ on the counter.

Asking them to record the damage, the first guy didn't have a clue, the second said 'yeah mate, I'll put something on the system' and asked if the good were damaged. I pointed out they were dirty, he said 'ok'.

With that I took my package and left. Needless to day I tweeted my dis-satisfaction to Yodel, and after a response asking if anything was damaged, I have not heard back since.

With that, I have now vowed I will NEVER buy from a company who uses Yodel again. Along with a growing number of people I believe. Working in the parcel logistics business I am fully aware that problems happen. But I am yet to have a simple transaction with Yodel, and have never know SO many other people have such a foul taste in their mouth about a company also.

Given the volumes that Yodel deal with, I imagine even a huge number of complaints still leave a high satisfaction rating. God only knows they tweet all the positive responses they get. But you only have to search twitter for Yodel + shit / useless / crap / rubbish / bad etc and you will see just how many people complain about them daily.

In fact they are SO reactive to negative comments, that even when a friend tweeted to me, mentioning I should not be surprised how shit Yodel were, they asked him to DM them with his tracking number. 

So, I now have a dirty orange jacket, collected myself from the delivery company it was assigned to. I do wonder if to save money during a peak period, they are simply bullshitting delivery attempts and getting customers to collect. Thus keeping the shipping fee, but saving the delivery cost.

Food for thought! 

A&E at breaking point

I am the first to admit that I have probably spent more time than some in hospital A&E departments, so coming from me this might all be a little hypocritical I know. But stick with me for this one, and see the subtle differences.

From an early age I have been 'unluckly' shall we say, and managed to find myself in many situations which have resulted in trips to the hospital. In the 80's growing up, I was so well known in fact at Sydenham Children's Hospital (now flats) that Sister Bell could get most of the paperwork done without asking my mum a single question. Broken arms (plural!), knocked down by a car, and referrals from the GP for various things like ingrowing toe nails, ruptured testicle (sorry I had to include that one)  etc. It all happened there.

But in my defence, as a child 'shit happens' Seemingly more to me than others, but kids just have accidents, fact.

As I have got older, I have managed to take the stupidity a bit, and my visits have become less and less frequent. Which I have to say is a blessing for two reasons. Firstly I'm not hurting myself as much, and secondly the kind of people you get in these places is alarming. And it's this point that it all really starts with.

For those lucky enough not to have visited an A&E or an ER, it will all be a little alien to them, seeing these shows like 24hours in A&E, and 999 what's your emergency. How it all works, what the system deals with, and who uses it.

Let's look at the name Accident and Emergency.

An accident which causes you harm requiring immediate attention, or an emergency situation where your physical well being is for some reason jeopardised. Now that's a wide spectrum and does indeed have scope for everyone and everything in there. But apply a little common sense for starters.

The TV shows occasionally show us scenes where someone has done something really quite minor and has chosen to blow it out of proportion, and turn it into a drama. Deciding that their situation is so horrific and unbearable, that they require IMMEDIATE attention. And I mean immediate. You see, for some reason, the more trivial the injury, the lesser the need for attention, the MORE irritation, anger and impatience oozes from these people.

'I have only sprained my finger and you want me to wait 4 hours?'... you know, you're right... FUCK OFF HOME THEN!

For anyone who has not visited an A&E dept, for you lucky people, allow me to tell you one thing for a fact... Certainly in London, if you visit one between 8pm and 6am, you can be sure that a LOT of the people seeking attention are under some level of influence of drink. And will see things like black eyes, sprained wrists and ankles, bumped heads, and other stupid falling over drunk kind of accidents.

Now of course, any incident causing injury to yourself which may require attention should be attended to, no doubt there. But maybe there needs to be some adjudication here, and maybe compare it to car insurance. Most of us pay PAYE tax and National Insurance which is our contribution towards health care, so consider this a third party insurance policy. Anyone making a genuine claim would be covered.

But... if you are a drunk who always likes to spend the early hours in A&E because you fell over for the 5th time this year, then maybe you need to be fully comp, or pay for your own repairs. I use drunks as an example, there are of course many more people who fall into the time wasting or self inflicted categories, as well as the pure time wasters.

Anyone visiting A&E is booked in, and 90% are at least seen by triage. People who think A&E is just like a GP but is a walk in clinic are clearly stupid, and people like this should be charged, or at least warned that charges may apply for further misuse. There are specific walk in clinics around the country, which are NOT A&E departments. Having just waited 2 days to get an appointment to see a GP, and having spent the end of last week and whole weekend in agony, with no sleep and in lots of pain, YES, I know it's not ideal, but sometimes you just have to wait your turn, plain and simple.

The culture of 24 hour shopping, banking, car washes and a life of convenience seems to have gone a little too far now, and people seems to misunderstand the role of these vital A&E departments.

They are over stretched, under staffed, and over run with time wasting morons who are drunk and think they are funny, bored and think it's a pass time, or people who are far too important to wait their turn. Meanwhile ambulances are stacking up, serious cases are being kept waiting, and seriously ill people are being left for hours undiagnosed or untreated, while 2 more stupid people have their little boo boos attended to.

Seriously now, WAKE UP BRITAIN!

It's the same time wasters and arrogant people who choke up these services with petty things, that sit there complaining that their toe nail which is torn needs URGENT attention, and that 3 hours is too long to wait, and how ridiculous is it. Stating that there should be more staff working, seeing people quicker, and then make sharp intakes of breath when they read the latest waiting time figures.

Don't you get it.... IT'S YOU! You are the cause of these issues. The staff are adequate on most shifts to deal with the genuine cases that come through the door. It's the time and resource wasting antics of stupid and arrogant people that cause these figures to skyrocket.

Responsibility for our actions was shunned a long time ago, and now society demands that whatever the cause, whatever the issue, public services should bow to your needs, and you should be given the attention you demand of it. Well, tell you what, NO! It needs to stop. 

Refuse collection used to be one bin fits all, now it's broken up, and people who don't comply end up with unemptied bins. Drink driving used to be tolerated, but now it is frowned upon.

So maybe it's time for the NHS to have bouncers at the reception desk, and to turn away anyone who is not an A or an E, and refer them to another service. 

Oh hold on, I can hear it now....'but its my human right'.... well that can fuck off too! Stop the pandering, ease up on the pussy footing around, and just get hard with it. Fast track these people the hell out the door, and give the people who deserve and need the attention, every second they need.

And while I'm on the matter.. If you rock up to an A&E with a genuine case, and the waiting time is a bit long, text a mate, slap it on Facebook, hell send a whiny tweet.... don't take it out on the staff eh!

I think that's my rant over for now. But will finish up by saying this.

The NHS as a whole is an amazing system, providing health care in a way that some countries envy. For someone who has spent a lot of time in the system both as a patient and as a carer, I think the NHS and all its staff are fantastic. From call centre staff right down to surgeons, and everything in between, I salute you and thank you for you choice in life to help others and work in some horrible conditions, with some truly foul and undeserving people.

Rant over :)

Thanks for reading.

PS, if you know a time wasting arsehole that likes to chew up the NHS's time, push them down a flight of stairs and show them the difference between a boo boo and a real emergency!

Regards
Michael

Sent from my BlackBerry Q10

Blackberry service update

Well we have waited long enough for some more information, and it would appear because the problem has hit the shores of Canada now, that suddenly RIM are doing everything in their power to get it resolved asap. Surprisingly they have also upped their game in communicating their issues too. Previously when searching the Blackberry site, service updates were impossible to find. However Blackberry UK have just tweeted a very handy link to their current service status...

So for those of you NOT on Twitter, here is the illusive link to their info page
RIM SERVICE STATUS

Suddenly the penny drops, and with the issue spreading and not shrinking, it becomes apparent that this is something really quite serious. Is it more than a core switch, is there something Blackberry are not telling us here. Could this reach Playstation preportions? Who knows eh, and we are unlikely to either, but with no info all we can do is speculate. With speculation comes panic, and with panic comes abandon ship.... How many customers will have jumped ship by the end of this outage I wonder.

Fingers crossed the next 24 hours will see a return to normal status..... I can hope anyway.

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.

Farewell

Just sitting at Oxford services off the M40 at the moment after attending Stourbridge Crem for Tas's send off. I have to say the first thing I noticed was how small the number attending was. I realise people have commitments, and would not for one second expect the whole world to show up, but Tas was such a loving a popular guy I am shocked at how few made the trip. Tas's side of the family was missing, for what I understand to be religious reasons, so it was left to some close friends and loved ones to be in on the service.

I have not seen Tas for a number of years now, and while he was dear to my heart, I didn't feel I had a place in the actual service, so waited just outside while it all took place. I waited and spoke with Kim, Tas's ex-wife who also wanted to pay her respects.

Once the service had finished and people begun to exit, I left. The one thing I hate about funerals is the falseness of some of the people you will meet there. Fake smiles, false recollections, and empty "nice to see you, we should get together" stuff. Seen and heard it all before, and quite frankly it makes me feel sick, so I prefer to avoid it.

The setting and the weather however... Beautiful to say the least. A warm, clear, sunny spring day, and a hill top crematorium for him to begin his final journey.

So as I put distance between myself and the event, I sit in the sunshine reflecting on 10 or so years of knowing Tas, the moments we shared, and how things went over the years. A quiet loveable guy, loved to smile and be in groups of car lovers, pride in his ride, and an appetite for life. Tas, you were one of the genuine ones out there and your passing is a great loss to many many more than who came to say farewell today.

I am thankful that I managed to get to see Cadell and Archie (my newly adopted son lol) too. Its nice to mix some happiness with the sadness of today. Another Travelodge ticked off my to-do list. This is becoming a bit of a habit now. And a visit to a Sainsburys which seemed like something from the past lol.

So as I drive back towards London shortly I wave farewell to much from the past and present, and wonder when I will next travel these roads. Possibly to see my aunt at the weekend, who knows.

Til then, its back to the realities of home again. Sort mum out, get the dogs walked and get back on with life. Time to get off my arse, out of the sun and back on the road now I guess. *sigh
Regards
Michael

Sent using BlackBerry®