Cllr. Gavin Ayling

I said a while ago that I’d chosen not to go with BT because they were rubbish on the phone when setting up the account.

Well it seems that they did set up an account and a Direct Debit Instruction (now cancelled) and collected one month’s line rental! The bloody cheek!

Now while talking to them I have been told “We do not care about our customers after 8pm” although their phone lines are open until 10pm. I was transferred three times (without being told why) before the last lady hung up on me (probably justifiably).

Apparently their is a “Wholesale Department” (I don’t care) who are the only ones who can cancel my “order” (I didn’t make one). There was a whole series of other pieces of information I couldn’t (as a customer) care less about… The customer just wants a reasonable request dealt with. If an agent is unable to deal with that aspect of the business and the department that can is closed, then provide the poor people on the phones with a way of putting a message through to the now-closed department. Does that sound like rocket science?

Anyway, I phoned back and ‘Vikram’ said he needed to transfer me to the ‘higher department’ (Why?). He insisted and then transferred me to a line where a machine voice said “I’m sorry. The department you have called is now closed. Sorry for any inconvenience.” And promptly hung up on me.

Update

Would you believe it, I tried again (hey, it’s a freephone number, and I quite enjoy testing a company’s rubbish service) and the lady who answered (whose name is unpronouncable sadly) was very helpful and apologised profusely. Why didn’t answerers 1 - 4 manage that?

“Hard work never killed anyone, but I figure why take the chance.”

I like that quote. I wish I lived by that principle. Even now, with a moment to myself, I feel obliged to post something to my neglected and, now, less and less visited website!

An advert in the cinema claims this summer may be a perfect summer of film.

I think the advert may be right — I watched Shrek the Third (which was great) and tonight Die Hard 4.0 (the perfect action film). This summer also has Rush Hour 3, Harry Potter, Transformers, The Simpsons and Evan Almighty to name a few.

The most classic trailer of all time is The Simpsons one though. Marge: “Why are there trotter prints all over the ceiling?”. I was still laughing in the car on the way home! Actually, I chuckled a couple of times when writing this too.

Note: I’m not telling you what the answer to that is.
Update 11:09am 08/07/2007: Found the answer here though somehow it’s not so funny when you haven’t seen the rest of the trailer so resist the urge.

… it’s so subjective what chance do government have of improving it?

What one person sees as a nerve-racking, horrible experience, others see as an opportunity or an adventure. Recently I have done a lot of things that scare me — actually cause me to lose sleep, worry a little (which is a new experience for me) and experience what I think some people call ’stress’.

But I am loving it. While it is, on the face of it, unpleasant, nothing really seriously good happens to you unless you take a chance.

If government tries to make people happier, if it starts to prioritise that above wealth creation, will they actually focus on happiness? Will they not instead accidentally concentrate on risk mitigation, harm avoidance and generally making life more dull.

People don’t want dull lives, they want eventful but safe lives that do not have too much sadness. Can government deliver that? Is it in their power?

No.

Again I’ve lost the urge to write. We all know what we want: low taxes, genuine democracy, less central government interference in local government, freedom from the EU, secular government, non-socialist environmentalism, care for those in need, less government, fewer rewards for the lazy….

So what with my new job, new home and hopefully other good news shortly, there’s more on my mind than politics and none of it interesting enough to share with you. So I’ll return (probably tomorrow knowing me) but this message is just a warning that I may not be around much.

A couple of busy evenings and I’ve 91 unread emails (that I know aren’t junk). If you’ve written to me, please accept my apologies for the tardy response (when you get one).

I visited Bodiam Castle yesterday. It’s not a full day out, but well worth a look.

See the National Trust’s page about it.

Obviously (I do it a lot) I forgot my camera so I’m afraid I won’t be adding any lovely pictures to FlickR…