Get screwed over have a chat with your Telecom provider

The most frustrating thing at this very minute is my blooming slow broadband. I want to kick the hub, scream at the ISP provider, throw the phone out with the rubbish. Then pull up the phone line as well wrap it up.  For you should not have to pay £16.99 to get  a phone line in order to get broadband.  The standing charge is exorbitant for something which is hardly used, ISP providers who generally are also telecom providers are milking the system.  They are monopolising access to broadband by making it a necessary condition households must have a phone line. Then in order to ramp up their profits they get a continuous stream of cash by ensuring the standing charges remain relatively high.  When the reality is, phone lines have been laid and upgraded and have paid for themselves many times over.

Probably the biggest culprit to this is British Telecom, the once nationally owned telecom provider is now so wealthy it is a constant revenues cash cow.  Speaking to BT has also been made an ordeal.  Call centres for repairs are based in third world countries where staffing costs are negligible andso is their understanding of English.  They just don't get what you say.  Especially when it is necessary to speak slowly and describe faults to them, this must be done repeatedly.  So phoning up because of a fault is a trial in itself. It gets to the point where you just cope with the fault, poor phone reception, poor broadband until it is critical and there is no choice in the matter.  Because you know this will take weeks to sort out and it will take hours of your own time.  Let alone money lost from taking time off work to be in the house for the phone engineers.  The strive for profits has made BT's quality of service actually non existent.  What BT does have is a great selling department where all the customer services staff are indigenous English speakers and based in the UK. Here they fully understand any request made are bend over backward to be helpful. It is important to have a good first point of call service for those who are in the switching process.  However, once they are hooked and have signed the contract it's all downhill.  The contract I signed up to with BT was set to last 18 months and it is now at the point of being completed and like an elector at the general election I have real power to kick them out and to shop around.

Another instance of crap service provision this week has been the screwed up account of a man trying to cancel his Sky package online.  Gavin Hackwood from Newport, spent 96 minutes in a Sky online chat trying to cancel his Sky bundle.  You might of thought it would of been easier, and in theory doing something like cancelling a subscription to any service should only be a matter of giving a short period of notice especially where the contract has already been broken. At one point Mr Hackwood stated to the customer service rep called Rachel:

“I have been on this chat session for an hour and we are no further forward. I have made you aware I wish to cancel which is all I am obliged to do under the terms and conditions of the contract with Sky… please cancel the account and stop wasting my time."

In reply she writes:

 “I am not doing this to annoy you. I made it very clear that I would need to go through this before I could make any changes to your account.” 

Sky and certainly this individual called Rachel who as far as we know is likely not to be Rachel but someone using this as a pseudonym for their real name. Unfortunately Mr Hackwood could not cancel his subscription until the story became a national news item.  What an utter and complete shame and embarrassment this should be for Sky who in reality should of offered a free service for a year and an unequivocal cancellation of the service with no hassle. This is certainly one provider I will not swap over to, as it would be going from the frying pan into the fire.

Before changing to BT my provider was ntl and before BT broadband it was TalkTalk who provided internet.  However, with TT the provider could only give a 2 meg line.  Time and again I asked them about upgrading, and repeatedly they said it was not available in my area.  However, it might be at some future date. The reality is TT were again stringing me along, I have never seen TT upgrading hardwiring. So it became a simple choice to convert to BT because in my mind it is BT who own the underground network of wires and fibres.  I had waited on TT to do something for about four or five years at the time.  Then moving over to BT was not as simple as I would of thought, even after getting a MAC code, which I had to do a second time.  It probably took about 4 months in all. Again this is unacceptable.  TT could not provide a service at the speed I wanted, I was also paying what I thought was an exorbitant rate for poor quality internet speed.  They must of been pretty sad when I left.  The thing was, their correspondence also stated when a customer leaves they should not cancel the direct debit. It will happen automatically and then I would get charged at the pro rata daily rate it was they provided internet.  However, TT took out the normal full month direct debit charge from my bank account.  They then sent me a credit bill and advised I contact customer services in order to get a refund.  However, this seems ridiculous because they already have my bank details and they should of automatically refunded any credit directly to the bank account.  I have vowed never to use TT again, but at the same time I now feel I don't want to ever use BT.

What I need to find is a small ISP provider which values every customer and can't do bend over backwards far enough for both loyalty and custom.  The question is are there any such companies?

Goodbye, bigoted, big, millionaire Tories who don't give a shit abou the tax payer

Over the next few weeks the media will be saturated with politics as all sides do their best to gain
votes.  Last night saw the one and only TV debate with Cameron, our now ex Prime Minster selling himself. Now some may question when I use the term "ex" well in fact Parliament has now dissolved.  All those  men and women (not representative) who sat in chambers and incessantly argued with each other officially have no power until the election is heard. However, and it is a big however, they still get full pay for the two months until the election has been re held.  I can't think of many jobs where the ex employee continues to get full pay when they are not doing any work.  In addition to this every part of the civil service, local and central are restricted in making statements which could be construed as political or sway the voting public this period is known as Purdah.


Regardless of the process in the run up to this next election, which is going to be a historic collection; it is during it and under pressure we see how the ex most powerful man in the UK reacts. We get to see his personality.   When under pressure applied in the form of cameras, audience and a looming election the stress of the situation may well show Cameron's cracks.  Patterns of Cameron's previous traits in his patronising attitude towards women, biting his lip, physical and facial tells of him holding in anger like a corked Vesuvius arise.  These are flaws in a individual who should not be allowed legally to have as much power as he had over the last five years.  He is like a child, if he didn't get his own way he would throw the rattle out of his pram.  However, something else which strikes is perhaps that Cameron is not the smartest man in the world for there seems to be an inability to put together the pieces.  Similarly Ian Duncan-Smith acts the same way when someone disagrees with him, when he is unable to tackle alternative view points or calmly rationally discuss them. The individual who keeps their head is the person we most look up to in any stressful situation. I don't view PM Questions as a particularly defining time because each leader has their gang behind them. A gang to heckle and grumble or cheer like good sycophants they are. Though saying this there have been odd occasions when Milliband did get under his collar, but not enough.

I've had angst over the devastating decision a love lorn Nick Clegg made to eat from the same table as the Tories.  When the two were put in office it was like two newly weds in the halo of happiness. 

It's true they were both happy to be there, but Nick sold his country and sold his party out when he jumped in bed with the Tories.  There were promises made in the Liberal Democrat's manifesto, pledges which amount to falsehoods. If a party doesn't stick to its manifesto which they are elected on then how can they be trusted? The people of Sheffield Hallam will make their view heard soon, if only the same students are about who accepted what Nick said on the last polling day, they will have a few memories and feel they have been betrayed. Clegg should never be allowed in the political arena again. Sheffield make  your vote be heard kick him in the bollocks.

Again when looking at Tory character failures, Osborne is yet another one who grinds incessantly on

the ordinary working class psyche. For there is not a time I have seen him on TV when I think here is a rich smug bastard who likes to boast and show off.  Here is someone who doesn't know what it is like to live in a world of poverty or who has ever experienced any aspect of it. There is also something of a rich kid nasty effeminate look about him.  You may have met or known the kind the bitchy man who comes across as bitchier than a woman could ever be.

In an interview which should of been with Osborne we saw Jeremy Paxman give a grilling to an unfortunate Chloe Smith.  After which

it was clear she would no longer have a political career.  She was very young, naive and ultimately took the fall for Osborne's U turn on fuel duty.  Yet it shows Osborne to be a weak coward for he should of been sat with Paxman not Smith.  Smith went on to get married and have a family, now well and truly forgotten except for her bumbling interview which has become the ultra political fail all can see on Youtube. She was like a little lamb who was put in a wolf's cage. Osborne would of cacked his breeks (as the Scots say) if her were there.

We can see how spoilt Osborne has aged with the weight of office.  Losing some of his porky appearance he even has a more gaunt face.  Perhaps (not) to do with his austerity plan, the plan which helps the rich become ever more wealthy and takes money away from the poor.  Well there are so few rich and so many poor. It's easy to see how Cameron and Osborne come from the same privileged backgrounds they might of shared the same shower at some time, Ossy would of been letting Camers flick a wet towel at his arse and probably liked it. Clearly these people have no empathy with anyone outside of their own class, therefore they should not be ruling anyone outside of their own class and certainly not the country.

It has been a constant drag since the Tories and Liberal Democrats got into office and the actual date of dissolution.  They managed to sell of one of the state's greatest remaining assets the Post Office. Typical of the nature of Tories when considering British Gas and British Telecom. As well as sell off the most successful profit making state ran business to date.  The East Coast Mainline railway service, which is now going to be ran by Richard Branson. Who as the West Coast travelling public will know likes to cram them in with restricted space and higher profits, not to mention hard uncomfortable seats and poor condition toilets.  Standing back as an observer the gradual decimation of the UK can be viewed. For it is the errors which are made that stand out most especially when at the time they are being made there is an outcry and good reason such initiatives should not happen.  Just as Tony Blair (Tory in red) brought in the Public Finance Initiative like a stone around the neck of a drowning victim. The PFI contracts for public organizations has meant they are continually overcharged by private contractors who they are tied to and can not break away from. Heard the story of the £10 toilet roll sold to a public nursing home? All because of a PFI contract.

If there ever was someone who would stab another in the back it has got to be Ian Duncan Smith.  His behaviour can be seen when he gets a grilling from the select committees. They have tried to make him accountable for the fiasco of Universal Credits.  Of which 400 million has been written off in ongoing IT costs. I saw Glenda Jackson ask IDS a question and it was disturbing to see how he talked over her and down at her.  It was outright bullying behaviour, poor Glenda was shaken.  Seems like he must of taken lessons in charm from the same school as Cameron.  Smith can often be seen lying, he debriefed his own department to push the blame of UC failures on Permanent Secretary  (to DWP) Robert Deveraux although a civil servant if there is one slippery character it certainly is Deveraux.  He is not allowed to make allegations or defend himself like a politician.  However after seeing his performance at a select committee his  unknown second name must be Mr Teflon, or to those in the know Teflon Man. However it is IDS who lies as the saying has now been changed to "lies, lies and damned IDS" the UK Statistics Authority will back this up. IDS is witnessed lying in nearly every interview, it may not be in what he directly says, although sometimes it is, it is in every nuance of his physical appearance. Body language, demeaning talk over, shifty expression. His claims of UC being a success are lies downright misleading lies. This is one welfare benefit if bought in the way the Tories want it to be brought in, will end up with masses of homelessness on the streets of the UK. Which will solve the problem for the rich who just want to buy up properties whenever they can. Especially the rich millionaires or corporations based overseas. It's such a shame the empty properties looking over the Thames Gateway are not lived in by real families.

The first past the post electoral system is unfair. We all know this, voting is not compulsory so those who do get voted in are a result of those who bother to turn up at the voting box and nothing else. There is a larger proportion of the population who do not vote than those who do, to an extent because of this politics in the UK fails. Each party now panders to the grey vote for they know this portion of voters do hit the voting boxes. They don't care much for advertising to the youth because the youth just can't be bothered. Politics is boring and politics is not on the  national curriculum yet another one of those very useful life things which should be compulsory.  If it were, then we might find the very irritating and unelectable didn't get elected as they did last time round.