Caveat Venditor

Yahoo Messenger Problems

Ok, so Avant Blog seems to work (although it doesn't seem to handle umlauts well). But it seems it only makes sense to use it when you dont have wireless access - if you do, why not use Blogger's web posting system?



Anyway, about Yahoo Messenger. As far as I am aware, it is the only IM system with which Windows users can see my iSight. But now I can't use it anymore. I was using it fine last night to talk to my friend Khash, but had to log out for some reason. When I tried to log back in again, it stopped me, saying that I had been logged out because it detected me logged in on some other machine (I'm not). this problem, which several others have reported on the web, is very robust: I tried other usernames, and even re-installed Yahoo Messenger, but the problem persists. Any help appreciated.



From the University of Sk�vde

Avant Blog

Ok, let's see how easy it is to blog on my iPAQ H5550 using AvantBlog. The wireless network I have access to here won't allow AvantGo syncing through its firewall. I find this to be very common. And yet, if I use Missing Sync to establish a bluetooth connection between my iPAQ and my Powerbook (which is sharing its internet connection from the same network), Avant Go syncing works fine. Weird.



From the University of Sk�vde

Spam as revenge?

I received this odd piece of spam before Christmas:

From: "UKCards" 
Date: Fri Dec 5, 2003  12:57:55 PM Europe/London
To: 
Subject: Transaction Receipt (UKCards)
Reply-To: "UKCards" 

--------------------

Please note: All charges to your statement
will appear in the name "UKCARDS LIMITED".

Order Information
Amount: £399.95
Currency: GBP
Merchant Name: HUNTINGDON MAIL ORDER
Description: iPod Music Player 40GB

Customer Service
Telephone: 01480 456111
Email: N/A

Delivery Address
47 Silver Street, London, NW1 5TR

If you have any questions on the delivery
of this order or product details please contact
the merchant directly using the above details.

--------------------

I can't figure out the angle on this. The "order" has no connection with reality, but I can't figure out the motive for sending the spam. The only hint is this: The telephone number is actually for the Huntingdon police station. So perhaps someone wanted to cause them some hassle, when thousands of "wronged" people phone them up about a fictitious iPod order?

Here's another page about this hoax.

Dell fleeces the vulnerable?

My mother offered me a pack of expensive DVD+RWs. As my only DVD writable drive is on an iMac, which uses DVD-Rs, I declined her offer. Why did she have them in the first place? Because when she bought her latest computer, she asked the Dell salesperson who was handling the transaction if there were any accessories that she needed, and she was told that these would be a good thing to get. The only problem is that the Dell she was sold does not have a DVD writer, nor did my mother express any intention of buying one. I'd like to think this was just Dell incompetence, but when my mother confronted them with the mistake, Dell refused to let her return the DVD-RWs for a refund.

I'm going to complain to Dell. It's interesting to note that their contact form does not have a "complaint" category...

AOL and internet connection sharing don't mix

While visiting my mother for the holidays, I had no problem staying wired: She has broadband from Earthlink, and although she uses Windows machines and my laptop is a Powerbook, there was no problem plugging an ethernet cable into her router in order to use her internet connection (and share files with her computer for printing -- I haven't yet been able to get my Powerbook to print to networked Windows printers). In fact, I didn't even need to use the "Earthlink TotalAccess for OSX" software they said was required. In theory, since mu mother's router is a D-Link wireless access point, I should have been able to use the internet connection via Airport, but I couldn't it it to work other than haltingly, and at slow speed (even if I used TotalAccess). Nevertheless, the ethernet-based sharing worked fine.

However, upon arrival at my sister's in LA, I had problems. AOL is her ISP, and although she uses a mac, it is an old PowerPC running Mac OS 8.6, which doesn't in itself support internet connection sharing, as far as I can tell. After a bit of Googling, I discovered Vicomsoft.com's Intergate software, designed to provide exactly what I needed: internet connection sharing from an OS 8.6 machine.

But AOL is a special case, it seems. In order to share the connection, Intergate must dial the connection itself. Yet AOL (deliberately, it seems) does not allow any connections that are not via its dialler. So Intergate (a nice bit of software) was useless in the face of AOL's annoying incompatability.

But Intergate helped me get around this. I realised that if I could install AOL on my Powerbook, I could just dial up AOL on the Powerbook modem, and use my sister's account (via a new screen name, to avoid getting her email). Initially I thought this was inferior to sharing the PowerPC's connection, since the Powerbook's internal modem is only 56k, yet when the PowerPC connects to AOL, it says "connection established at 206400 kbits/second" or some such. However, when looking at the actual download speeds on the PowerPC, I never saw the bandwidth go higher than 48k. And I was to discover that 48k, not 56k, was the speed at which the Powerbook modem would connect.

But how could I get the AOL intaller on to my laptop without an internet connection? Even if one of the usually ubiquitous AOL free CDs were on hand, it would be useless to me, since my Powerbook's CD/DVD died the week before, a few days before leaving the UK. Intergate provided the solution: it allowed me, after a bit of tweaking, to network/fileshare via TCP/IP (I couldn't use standard AppleTalk for some reason), so that I could download the intaller onto my sister's PowerPC, transfer the installer to my Powerbook, run the installer on the Powerbook, and then connect the Powerbook to the phone line. So I am back on line, on my own laptop, no thanks to AOL's inflexibility.

BarnesAndNoble.Com not a reliable choice for Christmas

A few days ago, I decided to buy a gift for a family member from BarnesAndNoble.Com. It wasn't the cheapest price I could find on the internet, but 1) B&N, unlike, say, Amazon, participate in iGive.com's charity donation scheme and 2) B&N said that if I placed my order before midnight Monday that my item, since it had a "ships in 24 hours" availability, would arrive before Christmas using (free) standard shipping. I placed the order, thinking that was that.

Unfortunately, B&N emailed me a few days later to say they were wrong, and that the item would not become available for a few more days, and thus it would not arrive in time for Christmas using standard shipping. When I asked if they could send it express for free, since the mislabeled availability was their mistake, they said "no". So I had to cancel the order. Since B&N had lost me a few precious pre-Christamas days, I could no longer order the item online. Instead, I had to pick it up at Best Buy, which cost me an hour of time and $10 more than the item would have cost online. Merry Christmas, B&N. Next time, please consider making up for your mistakes by covering the extra postal charges they incur.

SplashDVD update

Just before I left for the USA on Dec 14th, SplashDVD sent me an email saying they had shipped the remaining element of my order. They also said they were shipping a DVD entitled "Sea Change" with no explanation. It may be a mistake, it may be a peace offering, no way of telling. If it's the latter, I suppose that's a nice gesture.

Update 16/02/04: No such luck. There was no extra DVD in my package upon arrival. I pointed out to them that their invoice mentioned two DVDs, but I only received one. Over a month has passed, and they still haven't replied.

Flying hungry

I fly to the the USA pretty regularly (at least once/year), but because my long segments are usually Transatlantic, it wasn't until this trip that I noticed a substantial change in hospitality on US airline domestic flights. No matter the fact that my Delta flight from Atlanta to LAX was almost as long as my Continental flight from Gatwick to Newark, and straddled lunchtime; there were no meals served on the flight. Actually, I take that back: Meals were served for those willing to pay the expensive price. I only found out about this new development a few minutes before my flight, so didn't have a chance to buy something at Atlanta airport to take on with me. But since Delta practically owns Hartsfield, I'm sure they have fixed the prices so that they take advantage of you no matter which way you do it. I was starving -- the vanilla wafers that Mom packed for me just weren't going to be enough (Mom: Vanilla wafers don't travel well). So I shelled out for a $10 salad (which was actually very good -- I noticed that the flight attendants all chose this for their own lunches).

I gather that this isn't limited to Delta, but that all domestic flights on US airlines have dropped free meals. (Anyone know of any exceptions?) I suppose someone might argue that this is a good development: By cutting out the meals, airlines can reduce costs, making fares more accessible, while those who are able to pay the xtra $$ for meals can do so. But I remain to be convinced. In particular, I was travelling on a ticket that I had redeemed from Delta's Frequent Flyer programme, so I didn't benefit from any fare reduction that cutting out meals might have produced. I suggest this: all US airlines should provide free meals on frequent flyer tickets (just as they do for their "platinum" members).

Back to the complaining: Accucard

I was initially attacted to Accucard's customisable credit card (whcih for me means no annual fee and maximun cashback) with 0% on balance transfers for six months. And indeed, they gave me initial approval and sent me the final credit agreement to sign pretty quickly (much faster than Egg did, for example). But I hadn't heard from them for weeks, so I phoned them up. They say they haven't received my credit agreement. A real annoyance, because I need to transfer my balance to them before my current low interest rate on my MBNA card expires. Yet I am in the USA, so they can't just send me another agreement to sign. What a screwup.

On the positive side...

Sick of me whingeing? Then have a look at "Geekdom Incarnate" (see link in sidebar), where I praise the excellent Bridge Cinema de Lux in LA for its IMAX screen presentations of the Lord of the Rings, as well as its free WiFi.

Other praise goes to Wahl, manufacturers of fine electric razors. My brother-in-law in the USA gave me a Wahl for Christmas 2001, and about 6 months ago or so the battery stopped charging. No problem: Wahl USA guarantees their razors for two years. And the UK office for Wahl, who usually only deals with one-year guarantees and UK market razors, happily repaired mine without asking for any proof of purchase, even though to do so they had to order a part from the USA. A clear example of when it is more economical to pay the little bit extra for an established, reliable brand.

Poor service from SplashDVD

I was seduced by www.SplashDVD.com's low prices and apparent wide range of stock. I placed an order for two DVDs on October 21st. I heard nothing until October 31st, when I received an email saying that one of the DVDs had been shipped that day. As of today, I have not received either DVD, even though my credit card was charged well over a month ago

To be fair, I should add that Splash have offered me a replacement for the DVD that has already shipped, and have said I can cancel my order for the other DVD. But there are other problems.

I also pre-ordered, on November 8th, a DVD to be released on the 18th of November. On the 19th, I phoned to ask when I should expect shipment, and was told the 21st or 22nd. It is now the 26th, and I have received nothing.

But all this is nothing compared to SplashDVD's poor customer service technology. Here are some emails documenting that:


From: Ron Chrisley
Date: Wed Nov 19, 2003 17:52:32 Europe/London
To: queries@splashdvd.com
Subject: complaint

I have been on hold on your customer service line for over 35 minutes! When I first called, it said my position was 2. 10 minutes later, I moved up to 1, where I have been for 25 minutes! What the hell is going on?! I can't afford to pay for this kind of nonsense.

Ron Chrisley



And then:


From: Ron Chrisley
Date: Wed Nov 19, 2003 18:04:18 Europe/London
To: queries@splashdvd.com
Subject: your faulty telephone system

OK, I finally hung up after 40 minutes. Then I immediately re-dialled. I was then told you were closed, and that you had been for 30 minutes! Your phone system would have kept telling me I was going to be helped, and that I was next in the queue, all night?! Ridiculous. And why couldn't I find your hours on your web site? This waste of my time and money, combined with the fact that you now tell me that my order, placed at the end of last month, might not arrive until the 28th of November, is just too much. OK, so the postal strike was out of your hands. But you emailed all customers to say that everything should be delivered by the 17th of November; why didn't you email again when you found out you had given us false information?

I will certainly be telling my friends not to buy anything from you, and will put up a factual account of my dealings with you on my web log.

Ron Chrisley


These emails were sent to the address listed on the website. I heard nothing for a week. And then today, I received an automated response (it took a week to do that?!) to each of the above messages:


Dear Ron Chrisley, We regret to say that the email you sent us on the Nov 19 2003 5:55PM, cannot be replied to. This is due to a change in our Email system. We have moved to web based Email in order to improve our customer service. Initially this will cause some inconvinience as those emails that did not contain Order Reference Numbers cannot be replyed to. If you want to send us an email please go to www.splashdvd.com/splash/newemail.cfm.
Kind Regards,
The Splash Team


I have re-sent the emails via their web email system.