Anonymous cold calling

We have covered printed crap through your letter box in the past. What about all the obnoxious spam phone calls that you might get? Sometimes these are more than just a nuisance, for example the outright scam schemes targeting the elderly and computer-illiterate by telling them to pay to have viruses removed from their PCs. These calls are unaffected by whether you have registered with the toothless TPS or not. Here are some examples I received recently:

• A woman who claimed to be 'Jessica' (she refused to give any other names). She insisted she was doing a 'British Survey', but refused to give company name or contact details, and eventually hung up when I kept insisting they be given.
• Automated spam recorded message about an unclaimed refund on a payment protection policy.
• Recorded voice claiming I was entitled to a prize.
• A call from someone claiming to work for all the major gas electricity companies, offering some kind of refund. After asking again and again they finally said they were working for 'JANCKOH SOLUTIONS' and their name was 'JANG' and their phone number was 99928251 - they hung up at that point when I tried to clarify the phone number.

In each case I dialled 1471 afterwards but it said "We do not have the caller's number to return the call". It is annoying how easy it is for these spammers to remain anonymous and untroubled by any regulation. I contacted the TPS but they were as useless as I had expected - they will only do something if you have a legitimate company name and phone number. If the callers either
refuse to give these, or make them up (bear in mind that 1471 does not work on their calls) then the TPS will not do anything.

As well as the TPS, most phone companies would suggest other things you can do to deal with cold calling spammers below:

• Many phone companies have a feature called 'anonymous call reject' – this service rejects any caller that withholds their number on dialling your line. However there is a monthly charge for this (c. £1.75 per month, charged by BT).
• Another feature is 'choose to refuse' - a PIN dialling system that rejects the last number to call you. However this only works if you know the number dialling you and once again this can cost c. £1.75 per month.
• You can change your phone number (at a cost of £15). It is possible that you might get another number that has been used and is on even more spam lists.
• There is a 'Silent Guard Service' – this is another independent service that supposedly helps to limit cold calling and the number is 08443722325. However it seems slightly suspect.
• You could perhaps install a device that shows the caller's number, and refuse to answer if the number is withheld. This may also need a paid service.
• The final option is to go through the NCS (Nuisance Call Service). This is a service monitored by BT and the police that carry out call tracing and logging to discover who is calling you and will endeavour to stop the calls. This however is in the extreme and the charge levied by the NCS is £130 ex vat. 
• There is more advice here, from Ofcom.

The common feature is that the victims of cold calling and spamming are the ones who pay, thanks to the failure of BT, Ofcom and the TPS. Do you suffer from these plaguing cold calls too?

March 2013: Which? starts a campaign on this issue. It includes this excellent suggestion from the comments:

"If junk emails can be blocked easily then why not phone calls?
I think the answer lays with the fact that the phone companies must be making millions from the companies that are making the calls.
If we had a system where unwanted calls could be reported or blocked - the same way that we dial 1471 for example.  The most frequent offenders would be quickly identified, chased, fined or banned.  The "number withheld" calls could also be logged by the same system (the phone companies must know the numbers and I don't need to know)."

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Potentially good news

Junk mail is an irritating scourge in the modern world: wasteful of resources and time, demanding attention like an obnoxious child, and hiding the important post amongst a sea of glossy paper waste. Royal Mail have received a high crap score from us for their part in promoting it. Well, the good news is that a new initiative should make it easier to opt out in future.

"The average UK household receives more than 370 items of unsolicited paper mail a year, the majority of it unaddressed." Source

Sadly the Telephone Preference Service is still useless. It is funded by the companies which make money from spam calls, so was never going to be any use in combating them, was it? I receive spam calls every day, despite being registered with this service. I tried to complain to the TPS but they only act if you have the company name and their phone number. Since the spam callers I spoke to refused to give a real company name, and also it was impossible to get their phone number, it means that the TPS refuse to do anything. So when the situation occurs where you need someone to step in, they turn their backs on you! In their automated (and no-reply) response, they said:

"You may already be aware that TPS does not have the facilities to know which companies are calling you and therefore relies on the complainant to ascertain this information upon the receipt of an unsolicited direct marketing call."

Pretty crappy, TPS.

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Pestering Banks

 

Note the annoying nag screen - there is no
option to permanently disable it

When you use Internet Banking with the Co-operative Bank they now always make a popup box appear trying to persuade you to install extra software - see image above. Most people won't want to do that. Not only is it extra hassle (on top of the stupid and wasteful gadgets that many customers refuse to use on ethical grounds) but the Co-operative Bank state that they won't compensate you if the software damages your PC or data or causes problems.



However, even though most customers therefore won't want to install extra, unwanted software, the only option on the popup box is 'Remind Me Later'. Why isn't there an option for 'Don't tell me again, I'm not interested'? It is incredibly irritating to keep seeing reminders to do something you don't want to do, and never intend to. Who wants to be continually nagged by a large company? It doesn't show much respect for their customers.

When the bank was contacted they just said that they were not going to remove the message, they will continue to nag their customers to install unwanted software. Pretty crappy!

Oh, and there are many people who consider it to be dodgy software that is designed to be a pain up the arse to install - see the comments at the end of this post.

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"Argos t'shops, and y'know wot 'appens?"

The original Argos shop experience
Twice in June I went into my local Argos. Both times the item I wanted (in any colour, and even variant models) were out of stock. I assumed that those checks were monitored and that therefore new stock would come in for the in-demand items. Any sensible company would do that.

I made my way to Argos a third time two weeks later, assuming one of the two options would be in by then. I got to Argos around 3pm. They were still out of stock. Not wanting a wasted journey I looked at other options and found something I would accept as a close match to what I needed. I paid for it and was told to wait three minutes. I was number 648.



My number was called so I went to the desk but had to wait while others were served. It went past my number. Eventually I was told they couldn't find my item and were all looking, and someone should have told me sooner. The assistant asked if I could go and do something else and pop back later, but I had only gone into town for this one item and needed to go to an appointment. I was told other staff were looking. Awful music blared out of the speakers. The kind that makes you want to give up on life. Yes, the muzak was that much of an irritation.

I had wanted to be out by 3.30, but was still there. At 3.33 another member of staff looked at my receipt, apologised, and said they were still looking. The ticketing system reached number 667, 3.40 pm, and still nothing. An assistant said, "You're not in a hurry are you?" I replied that yes, I was. At 3.46 pm the manager said they still couldn't find it. They suspected they had given the item out by mistake at some point. I asked for a refund. I was asked for personal details such as a mobile number, postcode and house address: details that I refused to give. This was wasting even more time. I was told that I would not get my refund for 48 hours. I asked for some kind of credit note as an apology for Argos' mistake and my wasted time, and was told I couldn't have one. So not only had I wasted about an hour and a half if I included travel time, but Argos would be getting the interest on the false sale and I had extra paperwork in recording details and checking the bank account. It was almost 4pm when I left.

I was annoyed that Argos didn't get more stock in when a product was in demand; that I had such a long wait and my time was wasted; that the money was out of my account for two days when I didn't even receive anything. They turned a customer who was keen to buy into one who was irritated at the shop.

The complaint
When I got the chance I contacted Argos Customer Services to complain about Argos' stock mistakes and my wasted time. Unfortunately things got worse.

Firstly their 'email' option does not provide an email address - instead it makes you navigate a menu of options that often don't fit with what you want. This is one of the Bad Practices many companies adopt. Example - what if you want to ask about the availability of spare parts for the product, or how long the HDMI cable on a TV is, or how many Db a projector is rated at? Obviously you would select:

Question about a product I would like to buy

However the only options then are:

Stock for home delivery
Stock available in a store
Leather or fabric swatch request
Confirm the price of a product?

i.e. none of them are relevant.

Eventually I got to a form and typed in the details of my complaint, selected my local store, and clicked 'send email'. However I just got a screen saying:

"Sorry we couldn't find a match for your search. This may be due to our data, or because your search contained special characters not recognised by our search tool (such as " - the symbol for inch)."

The email was lost - clicking 'back' on the browser just went to a blank form again. Argh! It was as if Argos was trying to make things as difficult and irritating as possible for customers. Why not check store details BEFORE letting people type a message if it is going to be lost by their system?

I had to retype everything a second time. This time I entered the store code instead.

That data was lost too. The form clearly said: "Store Name or Number", and the details of the store in both cases were copied from their own site. What had started as irritation had now grown into feeling completely pissed off. Why put stupid checks that don't work on an enquiry form?

In the end I had to start a third time and not choose the option that it was about a store. That lost the details too. Luckily I had copied the data into a word processor this time, so I could paste some of it from there. After trying twice more, using different options and email forms on the site and getting the same results both times, it was obvious that their 'Email us' button was broken. I rang up their Customer Services to ask for a NORMAL EMAIL ADDRESS to send to, not a broken form, and after some time - and lots of questions - was given one.

Finally, I could email them.

The result
On 21st June they replied, with standard platitudes copied and pasted from their guide book - sorry for the inconvenience... we value our customers... etc They offered a £10 voucher as compensation. Fair enough. It was strange that it could take "up to 28 days" to arrive - surely they only had to print and post it, a week at the most?

On the 8th July I contacted them again, just to ask when it would arrive and why it was taking so long. I wanted to buy the item but use the voucher for it.

The same day I received a reply with the usual empty statements, and it ended with: "Your voucher will be with you within 28 days."

Uh? Had they reset the time?

July 26th I wrote back again:

It is now 34 days since I was told "The gift voucher should reach you within 28 days". Why does it take so long to post a single piece of paper?

On that day I was told: "Please allow 21 days to recieve this".

The voucher arrived at the end of July.

The kicker is that I bought the item I originally wanted, got it home, washed it, and the water seeped into cracks in the glaze and revealing what a poor quality product it was. The cracks didn't show up on a quick glance at the item in the shop. I can't face returning it for an exchange, it is too much... That is the last time I buy a bread bin!

Conclusion
So 1 crap for not checking stock properly; 1 crap for not having an email option or simple system; 1 crap for wasting time with broken online forms; and 1 crap for taking so long to send out a voucher.

Argos' current score:

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HTC disappointment

I really wanted to like HTC as a company. Their smartphones are attractive and promise so much. Sadly there are some flaws, and when you contact them you realise that their customer services are pretty useless. As ever, there will be evidence to back this up.

When contacting HTC
Some months ago I contacted HTC via their website.

HTC's Customer Services website. Two cardinal faults straight away. 1) No email address offered. 2) The form REQUIRES the serial number for a product - so if you want to contact HTC with a pre-purchase query you are stuffed.

I can't remember the exact query, but I was surprised to get a blank email in response. It was a 'noreply' address so I couldn't respond and tell them. 'Noreply' emails are the third big sin from any Customer Services department. I couldn't be bothered to go through the whole form process again so gave up and forgot about it.

Some time later I ran into other problems with my HTC Desire smartphone. In this case it was a problem with their 'HTC Sense' service. It was one of the reasons I bought the phone. The idea is that you create a HTC Sense account, and can then go on their website and track your phone if it is missing or stolen, put a message on the screen, download all the text messages and so on. Incredibly useful. Except it doesn't work. Even though I went through all the procedures the HTC Sense site still claimed that I hadn't activate the phone locator function on the phone (I had, along with other features that might have been required). However every time I visited the HTC Sense site all I saw was:

Device Finder was not disabled - it had a tick next to it, you liars!

It was like that for weeks. I could make my phone ring but that was all. The finder service was turned on on the phone and I had tried turning it on and off, enabling and disabling GPS etc. There are loads of complaints on various fora with exactly this problem so it seems to be a fundamental technical error on the HTC Sense site, something they have dishonestly promoted as a feature even though it does not work. For example see here, here, here, here, here, here ... and so on. Obviously a fundamental bodge on HTC's part.

I contacted them on 31 May 2011 asking about this. Then after an acknowledgement I got the reply below a couple of days later:

Yes, a completely blank email. No text hidden further down; not white text on a white background; nothing there when you copy and paste the contents into notepad or forward it. Just a blank line. I tried reading the email on the server - no text. I tried downloading it on another PC and email client - still blank. Neither PC or client had any kind of spam filtering, and nor is there any on the ISP end. HTC's Customer Services system really was sending blank messages.

From noreply addresses. So you couldn't email them back and say 'This is all I got, please try again or ring me on this number'. It is as if they are doing everything possible to fob people off. Which is the only way a company gets featured on this website...

I contacted them again the same day, pointing out that I had contacted Customer Services using their form twice, and in each case I had received a blank email in response. I pointed out that whatever system they were using for dealing with queries obviously has errors in sending at least some of the emails - yet since it is a 'noreply' address I had no way of responding to point out that the email was blank. I included a screenshot to show the problem. Then I specifically asked: "Please can someone email me from a normal address with the answer to my query, not the automated system. As you can imagine this is incredibly irritating." Surely that was clear?

Guess what? They ignored my request, used their automated system, and sent me a blank email.

Yes, I could try and do things over the phone, but a) that costs money, b) I hate the music that is played while you sit there for 20 minutes, c) sometimes when you ring companies no-one picks up at all, d) you have no record of what is said, e) you can't include screenshots for clarification, f) you have to read everything out when you already had it typed up, wasting further time.

Despite that I did ring HTC Customer Services on June 6th 2011. I pointed out that their system didn't work - their first response was to tell me to use it again. Then to tell me it must be a problem at my end, somehow my fault. Was I filtering their emails and marking them as spam? (No!) Then to say that they had not heard of this before, no-one had replied saying they got a blank email. "Perhaps that is because it is impossible to reply to your emails due to the use of a 'noreply' address; and therefore people just give up?" I pointed out. I asked if I could be emailed from a normal email address since their automated system was only sending blank content. "That is not our normal process," I was told. True - but the normal process was not working. I was told to wait while they spoke to someone else. I got put on hold. No-one came back. Eventually I hung up.

That's why I prefer to do business by email and avoid ringing companies...

No-one got back to me.

I used their form again on Tuesday June 7th, as follows:

"I have pointed out numerous times that your automated system is only sending blank emails. I have included screenshots. Some of the refs are:
11GBCW24ENA000535
11GBCW23ENA001840
11GBCW23ENA001138
I have also tried ringing you but even after a long phone call this has not been resolved.
Having a system that sends out blank emails and gives no way for a customer to reply is pretty poor. Please can someone contact me via a normal email so that I can reply and sort this out. I bought a HTC phone full of optimism, yet various things don't work as described."

Did someone reply via normal email as asked (again)? No. They used their broken system and I received another blank email on 9th June. Maybe my fourth blank email (possibly fifth, I may have missed one out of this account).

On June 10th I received an automated email asking for feedback on how well HTC had done:

"Subject: HTC Customer Service Excellence
Thank you for using HTC Customer Service. We want to make your next visit even better and would like your feedback. If you haven't already done so please help us improve by taking a quick survey on your experience using HTC Customer Service.
We are unable to receive replies to this email account. Please visit us at http://htc.com if you have any questions or need further assistance."

Was is a spiteful joke?

I filled in their damn form.

"After having used your online form multiple times and pointed out that the HTC replies were only sending BLANK EMAILS so I couldn't read them, still nothing has been done. I have tried this 6 times now (11GBCW24ENA001161 is the latest), same result from any PC I used. I wasted loads of time ringing your phone support and got no joy. The emails you sent out are NOREPLY so I can't even point out the problem without opening a new query. Even though I said I am not receiving the text from your automated system your staff still keep using it, knowing I can't see what they write. I have never come across such a stupid system and as I said last time I will be featuring it on my blogs. Any sensible company would have offered an email address I could use instead, since it is obvious your automated CSM system is faulty."

Then I got two more emails asking me to fill in their feedback form. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

To be fair, following those comments someone did ring me back. However they had not heard of this problem before and passed it on to their technical staff. I have heard nothing since.

Problems with HTC smartphones

• Their Weather widget (which ties in with the clock app too) only includes some cities and towns. None of the ones anywhere near my home were options, so the only options were to choose somewhere a huge distance away where the weather would be different anyway; or leaving GPS on all the time, which drains the battery and has privacy issues to do with everything being tracked by Google via their 'Google Location Service'.
• Some app icons disappear from time to time and get replaced with the default Android ones. The only fix I could find was to delete the app shortcuts and put new ones there, but that is fiddly and should be unnecessary.
• There were problems with a number of other HTC widgets and apps, e.g. their 'Peep' app, which often failed to format things correctly. See here, here, and here. I had this problem with direct messages, where the top comments are just in black, not boxes, and have no pics.
  
• You have to have a Google mail account to access many features, even just to download FREE apps from the Android Market. Even a Google Applications account is not enough. Also the phone is then tied to that account for good so if you later change accounts you have to wipe everything from the phone and start again. That is a huge disappointment but is mostly an issue with Google and Android as a whole. However there is no reason why HTC couldn't disable the feature whereby the phone is locked to one account without a hard reset.
• HTC give very little information about the structure of files on their phones. Admittedly the mess is probably caused by Google, since they allow apps to choose their own locations. Install a PDF reader and two e-book readers and already you will find about 5 different folders and locations where content can be stored. It quickly becomes a mess. Where should you put Word docs, TXT files, pics, RTFs, PDFs etc? HTC could have done more to at least help new phone users understand where they should add files, and how to get and back up applications (.apk files) without having to do it all through Google's store.
  
• HTC's phones are basically multifunction computers. Yet they provide no way of turning off the phone service altogether to avoid call interruptions, but letting you keep using it as a PC over wi-fi with sound. If you switch to flight mode you can't then browse the Internet.
• HTC Sense: not only does it have problems finding phones even when they have the correct settings selected, but features such as being able to copy SMS messages off the phone don't work at all.
• HTC Sync: this is the software HTC provides for synchronising your phone with content on your PC. Yet once it is installed there is no option not to have it run every time Windows starts. Since I only use it c. one in ten times that I start my PC it is irritating and unnecessary extra junk. I had to use a registry edit to stop it running automatically, yet that should be a basic option in any software.
• Annoyingly there is a separate 'credentials password' for connecting to some services. HTC should have let you instead use your existing phone security options such as the screen lock swipe system. It is a pain having yet another password.
  

Conclusion
So what do HTC earn for all this?

• 1 crap for HTC offering features that don't work.
• 1 for general failures such as no email address to contact, silly requirements on contact forms, noreply addresses etc.
• 1 crap for using a faulty customer management system.
• 1 crap for repeatedly ignoring the customer even when they pointed out that they couldn't read the emails sent by the system, and requesting someone to send a normal email.

I have contacted them linking to this blog and looking forward to another blank email.

Update August 2nd 2011: Reply from HTC! And yes, they sent another blank email, even though I had included a link to this blog post showing them that their CMS does not send out working emails! Idiots. See pic below.

Mmm, nil points HTC.

Update August 13th 2011: They sent another automated email asking for how good their service had been. I spent time filling their form in, explaining where they had failed. Then when I submitted it I got the message below. Yes, I checked the serial number three times. It was correct. It is a good example of how irritating it is when companies use automated forms that require certain fields to contain data. As soon as their form breaks it means you can't do anything and all your time is wasted. What a shit company.

HTC's current score:

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HM Revenue & Customs: communications hell

I needed an answer from HM Revenue & Customs about a tax issue. If you make a mistake then they will hammer you so it is vital to get the correct answer.

"That shouldn't be a problem," I naively thought. "I'll email them with the relevant information and get a response. Quick and easy and no cost - and even better, you have a record of the response." Ha! You can't email them, it turns out. No, you have to ring them - and if, as in this case, you want to point them to a long URL and documents then get ready for a real pain up the arse.



So I rang. And battled with automated and long-winded, confusing menus. The first time I tried I sat there confused - was I an individual or self employed? Well, both actually, so which option do you pick? After battling through I was told there was no-one free. Good bye. End of call.

Grrr. I tried again another day. This time a huge wait, with horrible music, until I gave up. Only on an attempt weeks later did I get through to someone after waiting for 20 minutes.

The kicker was that in the end the answer I got was not even definite, and unlike email I have no record of it in case they ever come back to me about my paperwork. Argh!

This level of service is complete shit. It is a lottery as to whether you get any help - and you pay through the nose for it. No email option? Come on HMRC, this is 2011, not 1991.

So 1 crap for not having an email option. 1 crap for not answering the phone. 1 crap because the calls cost me about £10 to make and took well over 45 mins of time in total. And 1 crap for having no record of the outcome (which email would have provided).

Watch this video if you can put up with the monotony and horror of contacting HMRC.



HMRC's current score:

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Bryncarnedd Cottages, Aberystwyth

The view from the 'garden' - that is the 'launderette'

We definitely can't recommend Bryncarnedd Cottages, Aberystwyth.

We paid £380.00 for six nights at the end of March. However we were unhappy with a number of things and complained.

The view if you go for a walk - agricultural rubbish, rubble, decrepit caravans etc. More like a tip than the countryside.

Pricing
We made the booking in a hurry but in retrospect were overcharged. I had been told that it was £400 for a 7 nights and days, which is c. £57 a day. So for the 6 nights of my booking the charge should have been £347, not £380, i.e. I was overcharged by £33.

I've since been given wildly different prices by other people who have stayed there, and it has been suggested to me that is why no prices appear on the web site - it is impossible to check whether you have been overcharged or not then. Always beware of any site that refuses to show prices upfront.

The scruffy car park

Rubble and rubbish by the car park

Accommodation
There were a number of issues with the accommodation itself, each fairly minor in themselves but they add up and are not generally expected in cottages which are billed on the website as 'luxury'.

The freezer was not on when we arrived, and obviously had not been on because there was a sickening smell when it was opened. There was no obvious way of turning the freezer on, and combined with the awful smell we did not want to use it. This meant things were not convenient in terms of storing food.

The rear door was incredibly stiff and needed the wood shaving. However it was the door that was most convenient for the car so was used all week, putting up with the effort required to open and close it.

The vacuum cleaner was completely clogged up. Since there seemed to be an expectation that guests would use it before leaving we spent quite some time trying to unclog the hose, a messy job that still left the vacuum cleaner with poor suction.

Some of the lights did not work at all, including the large freestanding lamp in the living room.

There was a dock for an mp3 player which was broken.

The surrounding area was not as depicted on the website - there was agricultural rubbish, bits of pipe, piles of bricks etc. See the photographs throughout this page.

Those are the cottages, just past the piles of junk

Internet
The accommodation was meant to include wi-fi, but this was not working according to the instructions in the welcome booklet. Of the 6 days of the stay the Internet was unavailable for the first three, and was only set up on Wednesday PM following a number of phone calls. It was one of the features that my family had been looking forward to.

Click to enlarge - complimentary wi-fi

The worst was that the person who visited while I was out, and pointed to a different network connection (not listed in the welcome book) could obviously tell that my mother knew little about computers and he tried to con her. At first he asked for ten pounds as a 'callout fee'. Who ever heard of being charged to 'fix' things that you have already paid for and didn't work? She only had £5, launderette money, so he took that instead. As a result she could not get her clothes washed that day, and had to go into town for more change the next morning. I feel that this was completely out of order.

Bearing in mind the issues above we felt that we should be entitled to a partial refund and gave the owners (who also own a hotel in Aberystwyth, The Marine Hotel) giving them a chance to make reply and make up for the cited issues first. They refused a partial refund so we will warn others about this so-called 'luxury' experience.

Pictures sticking out of frames

Update: In their reply of 16th April, the manager said:

"other than you cannot agreed to this!? So, this is no reply for us to come to an agreement on, but there is no further agreement we can come to now with you having to upload this site, as if we agree on a refund we don’t accept guest to go behind our backs and do such comments on the property. And with regards to the pictures, most of them are misleading to guest as the ones that are shown on the site are ones away from the main complex! Once again, we are very sorry that you are feeling this way against Bryncarnedd Cottages."

No partial refund then! It never ceases to amaze me that companies would rather have bad publicity than give a partial refund when they have failed to live up to what they promised.

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LoveFilm again

LoveFilm post updated - see end section.

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