Boo ... new technology failure

After MONTHS of waiting, our new Sky+ box was not delivered today

I reserved the box back at the start of July. Due to the strange system that Sky use, you have to wait to actually be allowed to order it (I think it's a way of making it look like they're not totally rubbish that doesn't really work). Last month I was told I could order it, and today was the earliest they could install it. Not what I would call great customer service

We had the usual thing of an appointment any time between 8am and 1pm, so I dutifully waited in to make sure I didn't miss the engineer when he arrived. At 11:30, Sky rang to say that they wouldn't be coming because the engineer had rung in sick.

Whereas I do understand that you can't predict sickness and there isn't much you can do about it at short notice, what I don't understand is why it took them until 11:30 to call me. That was 3.5 hours after the Engineer should have been working. It just adds another instance of dreadful customer service that we seem to have to put up with because there is only one company that we can use to get anything like a decent TV service.

Close call

This time last week I was on holiday.

We were just about to do our last couple of dives, spend a day on shore and then fly back to old blighty on - guess which airline? Yes, Excel.

And today, they went into administration.

We had a rather close call since if our holiday was a week later, we'd be waiting to here about what replacement airline they'd lined up to ferry us home (I understand Iraq Air aren't too busy at the moment) and if we were two weeks later we'd be wondering how we were going to get there at all.

It was fairly obvious that Excel were struggling. They repeatedly reduced their service, by removing free food, putting in-flight prices us, charging stupid amounts of money for exit row seats and so on. But the budget airline model is quite a well trodden route and Excel did is so badly.

Their seating poilicy sucked - not only could you not pre-book seats, you couldn't even guarantee your party would sit next to each other - only "in proximity". Their baggage restrictions were rather draconian and set to get even worse, their seat pitch was dreadful, such that even I (with short, stumpy legs) found it difficult to get comfortable. The flight we were on also ran out of food - for which they were charging (a princely sum) thus immediately depriving them of one of their most lucrative revenue streams.

All in all, they just ran the business badly. They obviously felt they had to compete on cost and to hell with everything else. I don't quite understand this, as they were a tour operator themselves, not just a budget airline. They seemed to lack the basic marketing nouse that would tell them it's about the customer proposition, not just the cost. Poeple are very aware of their choices these days and, frankly, there are a lot of other people out there doing a far better job than Excel.

I'm sorry for those that are being inconvienenced by lack of return flights and those who stand to have their holiday plans ruined, but I won't be shedding many tears over the demise of this company.

Interview - or not

This morning, I had an interview scheduled for Thursday. Now I do not.

Some scummy contractor has decided to do the job instead. Well good luck to them.

I don't normally get too bothered about people cancelling interviews on me at the last minute, but this is now the third time in a row I've had an interview set up (after lots of chasing and badgering and trying to find out what the hell's going on) only to have them cancel at the last minute. I'm begining to sense a conspiracy.

In the meantime my current company is ploughing forward and, I believe, about to make some serious mistakes that I want nothing to do with.

Don't know why I'm so hacked off about it, but I am.

Clueless

Despite my resolution at the begining of the week, the past three days have been the normal techno-hell.

The following facts have come to my attention during the last few days:

1. Our IT support sub-contractors are clueless
2. Whoever configured the routers in the office is clueless
3. Whoever cancelled the wrong ADSL line is clueless
4. I am clueless (for leaving my laptop power supply in the office and losing an hour going to get it)
5. Surprisingly, our ISP appears to have support staff with more than one clue to rub together

So, I've had to sort it all out myself and finally have some picture of the things that have been going wrong.

On a positive note, our electronics sub-contractors are now talking to one another and have vowed to sort out the mess they created, I actually found a job worth chasing and it's Friday and I'm off to the pub tonight.