All entries for February 2006

NTL …. customer services rating = 0%

Guess what? I’ve joined the “I BLOODY HATE NTL” bandwagon.

Scenario:
Upgraded to 10MBit. Currently on 2MB on a Terayon Modem.
Only 5MBit can be achieved according to www.adslguide.org.uk

6:30pm

Called NTL Customer Support.

“We currently have 75 callers waiting to speak to a customer services advisor, the wait time will be approximately 4 minutes…”

They say that some cable modems cap out at 5 to 8.5MBit. I am entitled to a free cable modem upgrade to cater for the 10MBit speeds. So they pass me to Broadband Technical Support to ask for the sales department to sort it out.

Broadband Technical Support asks me to some really long ass winded series of tests using their appaulingly bad “Test My Speed” website. This is simply a random 50MB file dumped on a webserver. Download with Internet Explorer and save it to the desktop and look at the transfer rate (blah blah blah, very ‘sophisisticated’ speed test). This peaks at 280kb/s. I give them their MAC address, they disconnect my cable modem remotely and reconnect again, by the time this got reconnected, this took 10 minutes, and by then my mobile phone died of battery.

Called up Broadband Technical Support again. This time it was a different person, explained the situation again. In the slowest possible manner(and perhaps the most dumbest idiots english ever), they ask me to go back to their shitty “Test My Speed” website. I confirm the transfer rate (again)... it’s still the same (again), they ask for my MAC address (again), they disconnect/reconnect me (again). Thankfully this took shorter time. “Test My Speed” website again, download 50MB file AGAIN …. TRANSFER RATE IS THE SAME …. AGAIN!!! They tell me it’s definately the modem is capping out at 5MBit … (yes, even customer services know that), ..... they DON’T offer free replacement modem because my current one is too old and that it’s still working ... (WTF??????), they transfer me back to Customer Services to sort out this modem business with them.

7:30pm – Called up Customer Services

“We currently have 90 callers waiting to speak to a customer services advisor, the wait time will be approximately 4 minutes…”

I’m getting a little pissed off now. Spoke to some nice woman on the other side. She also agrees that Broadband Technical support offer a free cable modem … (deja vu?). No-one in customer services can arrange cable modems to be delivered. They pass me back to Broadband Technical Support …... AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!! DOUBLE WTF????

7:45PM – I got cut off …. %!$!!!!

7:50PM – Called up Broadband Technical Support, long ass wait again.

Person on the other end spoke to his supervisor. He cannot provide me a free cable modem without paying £60 for it (Isn’t your rip-off package of £34.99/month STILL not enough???). I have to speak to customer services AGAIN….. and request a 3-way conference with Broadband Technical support.

8:10PM – Called up Customer Support …. AGAIN!

“We are currently closed, we are open from Monday to …. ” CLICK

_following several minutes of kicking my cable modem around the room, I finally left myself with 3 options …

1) Call up those blatantly proven useless idiots at Customer Services and create threats to send a nuclear warhead to NTL HQ.

2) Find the nearest sledge hammer and smash up the cable modem to pieces. (Yay! It’s faulty, so they should replace my modem for free!)

3) Quit NTL completely, and go through the painful and expensive hassle of getting a BT line, ADSL modem and ADSL router, and find a decent ADSL provider.

I can also explicitly prove the following facts:

1) Customer Services and Broadband Technical Support don’t get on well.

2) Customer Services are more knowledgable than Broadband Technical Support.

3) NTL cuts people off the telephone queue, because they don’t like receiving complaints, nor do they care about them.

4) NTL provides the worst ever customer support I’ve ever experienced.

: 27 Feb 2006 20:52 |  Tags: Customer Ntl Services |  Comments (18) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Infection saga … the end

Follow-up to INFECTION :'( from Vince's Blog of Rubbish

All the blisters have finally crumbled off. Red patches and open wounds left over.
Still particularly painful opening my eye at times, but antiseptic cream seems to be healing the open wounds pretty well. This was probably one of the most pain-enduring weeks I've ever had. Hopefully I'll be back to normal next week.

The question still lingers on why I contracted shingles in the first place (I certainly don't remember a record of chickenpox …).

Which comes to my "Things that annoy me" #3 …

… when I see people finishing their business in the toilet, and not washing their hands …

: 24 Feb 2006 03:06 |  Tags: Chickenpox Illness Infection Shingles |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Infection saga … part 3

Follow-up to INFECTION :'( from Vince's Blog of Rubbish

Last night, as usual… I woke up after 4 hours after experiencing pain. Slept ok, but still rough.

Today, it's been from a stingy feeling to an unpleasant burning sensation around the eye. Still messy around the eye, but clearing up slowly.

My head feels really sensitive, and my swollen glands are ridiculously sensitive. Another 8 tablets, 8 eye ointment applications and regular 4 hour doses of pain killers done for today, and god knows how many times I've washed my hands (I ain't taking any chances…).

: 21 Feb 2006 02:11 |  Tags: Chickenpox Illness Infection Shingles |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Infection saga … part 2

Follow-up to INFECTION :'( from Vince's Blog of Rubbish

01:46am

It seems that the eye ointment is taking some effect. Blinking with my left eye doesn't seem as painful as Saturday now, and some of the blisters outside my eyelid are drying up.
One thing that is worrying me tho, is that I've noticed a few faint red spots developing just outside the main affected area. Is the infection really growing? :( I've got about 2 small blisters around the bridge of my nose and about a cm away from my right eye… I'm sooooo not hoping I'll end up with twice the pain :-(

I really cant wait to give my face a proper clean once this infection is over. Seeing all this gunky crap around my left eye is just so disturbing.

Oh yeah, and thanks for the support from my friends who have been contacting me on MSN. I'm gonna get though this … it's really sucky being house-bound with practically nothing to do but moan on my blog :-/

Now … will I be able to get any sleep tonight? I'll be lucky if I can get 4 hours without waking up grieving in pain…

: 20 Feb 2006 01:54 |  Tags: Chickenpox Illness Infection Shingles |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

INFECTION :'(

Writing about web page http://www.aftershingles.com/shingles.html

The past few days have been nasty. Starting from Monday, where a little red spot above my eyelid was just a pimple.
Next few days, I realised that it wasn't disappearing, and a few more came along by Wednesday, so I went to my GP from which I was given a tube of Fucidin …. this didn't help …
Thursday, feeling a bit worse, took another day off work.
Friday, felt the same …. I wouldn't expect an instant cure in 2 days.
Saturday … AGONY …. my eyelid was unmovable, I nearly jumped out of my skin looking in the mirror and the pain was so immense. I got rushed to A&E by my dad…

Following a few days of torturous pain, sleepless nights and days off work. Yesterday I was just diagnosed with "Shingles" around my left eye from South Warwickshire Hospital. Transferred to the eye clinic in Coventry Hospital, and took back home a heap of prescriptions.

Current prescriptions:

• 4.5g Zovirax Eye Ointment (5x daily)
• 4g Chloromycetin Ophthalmic 1% Ointment (3x daily)
• 800mg Aciclovir AntiViral Tablets (5x daily)
• 50mg Diclofenac Tablets (3x daily)

Now …

It's 6:40am on a cold sunday morning… the pain that subsided about 5 hours ago has come back. Still feeling restless. My left eye is irritable, but at least I can still open it without too much of that 'glued-in' feeling. I wish I could clean up the crap around my left eye, but that would spread the infection even further. My glands are also heavily swollen.

My room has practically turned into a hospital bed overnight, with medication all over the place.

Although I've noticed a significant improvement ever since taking the medication (after waiting over 2 hours in the waiting room, in agonising pain). Anyway… another application of zovirax eye ointment goes into my left eye (such a pain in the ass to apply), and a dose of pain killers. I want some sleep ….

I have to stay off work for a week minimum. I have to stay house-bound, drowning myself in eye ointment and tablets. I'm NOT happy :'(

Oh, and I'm rather reluctant to posting a photo of my eye on here, just in case I horribly disturb anyone reading my blog.

: 19 Feb 2006 07:04 |  Tags: Chickenpox Illness Infection Shingles |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Things that annoy me #2

Note changer machines that change a £10 note into:

8 x £1
20×10p

: 07 Feb 2006 09:38 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Road rant 2

I generally do not have a problem with cyclists on the road. The following rant applies to a very small minority, and that suicidal chav whom I nearly collided with just outside Leamington

(.... yes, he's a chav, baseball cap, OTT jewelery, brand name sports wear, and he even has his tracksuit bottoms tucked into his adidas socks. Okay, I'm just very observant…).

Rule #1
You're still a road user just like all other vehicles on the road. The highway code doesn't explicitly apply to motor vehicles. If you approach a give way marker …. GIVE WAY.

Rule #2
If you fail to give way, and end up zooming so fast around the corner directly in front of a car travelling on a 40 mph road, consider yourself lucky if you're still on your bike, and expect a loud horn coming up your rear.

Rule #3
Do not …. and I repeat… DO NOT stick your middle finger or some profane gesture in retaliation. The simple message is "BECAREFUL YOU FOOL!" … it's YOUR fault … learn from it and don't do it again.

Rule #4
Do not continue to stare at the driver behind you, who spared your life and waving your middle finger for a further duration of 5 seconds. Particularly when you're approaching a red light at a cross junction.

Now, if for some ridiculous reason you broke ALL of the rules above, the following outcomes may proceed to happen:

Outcome #1
The driver may sooo willingly be happy to run you over.

Outcome #2
Approaching the cross junction, and another vehicle from the side might run you over, or they'll slam on the brakes and beep their horn loudly at you. You will break Rules #1 and #2 again, and potentially #3 and #4 if you're still mentally retarded.

Outcome #3
You avoided a near-death traffic accident.

In my particular scenario, the outcome was #3 …

: 05 Feb 2006 17:06 |  Tags: Chav Code Cyclist Highway Road |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem