Posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 1:14am.
On Saturday, I was on Lappy when Windows Updater complained because it wanted to install Service Pack 1 for Vista.
It started, then choked. I left it a while and eventually rang up my local computer shop, who told me to bring it ’round and they’ll try and sort it out.
A few hours later, I get a phone call from them; Lappy’s basically brain dead (he was working so hard to fix the error that the SP1 install had made, that the hard drive kind of keeled over and died) and needs a new hard drive and would I authorise this? I authorised it.
They don’t work on Sundays and it’s like, 20 minutes before closing time, so they’re not going to start working on Lappy today but will start working on him first thing on Monday morning.
On Monday, I expected a phone call, telling me that Lappy is ready to go home but the call never comes.
Tuesday lunch time, I ring them to find out what the status is and stuff and they say that he’s ready to go home now. I ask my step dad to pick him up and take him home, which he does.
What an expensive “free” update – it cost me £100!
Tags: Computer Problems, Spending
Posted in Computer Related, Old Entries | Comments Off
Posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 11:04pm.
I finally bought a charm bracelet off eBay (after buying charms to go on my not-yet-existing-charm-bracelet!) and it came in the post today.
After getting it out and attaching my charms to it (6mm split rings are AWESOME. Kinda like plug-n-play for charm bracelets!), I decided to look for my old, broken charm bracelet which doesn’t fit anymore.
I found the old charm bracelet…and a few other pieces of jewelery…
Oh, that’s not ALL of it…
(And that’s STILL not all of it; some of my pieces of jewelery have mysteriously grown legs and walked off, thanks to my sister. Oh and I was still wearing my pearl necklace from my lovely boyfriend. 
)
I don’t even wear most of this stuff. Worse than that, I don’t think I have EVER worn most it and there are a couple of pieces that I’m actually allergic to (I get the most beautiful welts come up!).
I don’t know what to do with it all. For now I’ve just piled the lot back into my desk drawers and onto my necklace/bracelet tree (actually a mug tree).
I suppose I could sell some of it on eBay, along with the Elle and Lacoste watches I own and have never worn!
(By the way, if you think my jewelery collection is bad, just wait until you see my watch collection!!)
Tags: Photos, Shopping, Spending
Posted in Old Entries, Shopping | Comments Off
Posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 9:07pm.
I’ve been on Pay As You Go for a couple of months now, after being on various contracts since I was about 18.
I used to pay around £20 a month for 500 texts and 200 minutes (and I had a “stop the clock” thing too – I could call someone for an hour and it would only use up 3 of my minutes).
Since I’ve been on PAYG, I’ve been spending about £10 a week, even though I get cheaper calls and free texts.
Nice little goodies aside, I cannot afford to stay on PAYG.
Last week, I ordered the Pay Monthly / Contract equivalent from Orange. My new SIM card came on Thursday and I set it up when I got home on Friday.
It activated alright but I couldn’t make calls or send texts from my new phone; I couldn’t even ring customer services from it! I checked the diagnostic on the Orange website and it said that a 3G SIM card won’t work on a non-3G phone. I don’t have a 3G phone. 
I went into the Orange shop yesterday and told them my troubles.
I was told that they bar the SIM card from making calls and sending texts, in case someone else picks up the card.
Within a few minutes they had me on the phone to a customer service rep who could fix everything for me. It was all over and done with within another couple of minutes and I was asked if there was anything else. I said that I would like to keep my old number; that I was migrating from a PAYG package with them to Pay Monthly. I was put through to another department and they got everything set up for me.
Was told that I would have to wait between 2 and 24 hours for my old number to work for the new SIM card and within 2 hours, everything was working perfectly.
I’ve heard nothing but bad stuff said about Orange’s customer service but so far, I’ve had no problems with them; all issues I’ve had (I had a few problems when I tried to set up my last SIM card too) have been resolved quickly and all of the members of staff that I have spoken to, have been very nice and chatty. The bloke who transferred my old number for me was really funny and had me laughing out loud in the middle of the shop!
Niceness aside – I realise that, as I am still a pretty new customer – they’re going to try hard to keep me as a customer. I also realise that, right now, no company can afford to lose customers, so excellent customer service is a top priority.
And hey – at least I got to speak to someone! While I was with Vodaphone, I think I spoke to a human only two or three times and that was when they phoned me!
Tags: Spending
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