General Musings for the week 28th November 2010

Two things to NOT talk about this week:

1) How close Christmas is.

2) England and the Ashes (although they're getting better).

So with that out of the way let me talk about... phone networks.

I'm currently in the middle of moving cellphone network providers as I've recently purchased a new phone. I moved onto a one-month contract with a provider here in the UK. (I won't say their name but apparently they are the network for the mobile internet) and when the sim arrived I put it into my phone to find there was next to no reception at my house. I drove down the road to the nearest village to find that the reception was almost as bad. As it was a one month contract I has signed I could cancel it and not have a problem.

So I then went to a second provider. I ordered on-line, received the sim the following day, dropped it into my phone and voila! a good signal. Investigation revealed that this provider used the same network as my existing phone so I know I'm in good hands.

So I called the first provider and told them I wanted to cancel the contract. The first thing Mohammed on the end of the phone asked me was why I wanted to cancel. I told him because I had no reception at home. He confirmed my postcode, checked his computer and told me that the signal in my area was good. I reconfirmed to him that, in fact, I didn't have a signal in my house despite what his computer told him, and would like to cancel the contract. He confirmed the one month sim-only contract I was on and then offered to reduce the monthly amount by 30% to get me to stay. I told him that whilst this was a great offer and one I would normally have considered, it was not going to solve the main problem which was that I had no signal in my house, and I asked him for a second time if I could cancel the contract.

He put me on hold for a few moments (or it could have been half an hour, I lost track of time. No doubt I will be reminded when the phone bill arrives as I was being charged 5p per minute for this call), to tell me that he would like to put me through to an engineer who could help me find out what was wrong with my phone because their computer was indicating that the reception in my area was good. He told me that I could then come back an--

"I really don't want to have this conversation with you, Mohammed" I interrupted. "I understand what you are saying, I appreciate you trying to help, but I know for a fact that the signal in this area isn't good because I have tried the sim with a phone and was virtually unable to call anyone. Speaking to your engineer will not, miraculously make the signal any better, and reducing my monthly bill will not provide signal where there is no signal. So for the third time of asking, could you PLEASE cancel my contract!"

Mohammed cancelled my contract. Finally.

This week's video of the week is awesome. Hat tip to Ian Gotts (a contact from my other life in business) who had a post about Facebook and noted this video from somegreybloke. Absolutely fantastic. If you get a few moments pause whenever a screenshot is shown and read what's on there.