Suicidal Hotel-keeping in Sproughton

Out for a drive in the sun, and I drove from Tescos Copdock towards town, down to the dilapidated hotel -- is it still a Holiday Inn? -- at the lights. On a whim, I turned left and headed into Sproughton. A right turn, and ... what's that? That can't be a Premier Inn sprung up there, can it? Well, it turned out it could. It's got a nice view over Chantry valley. It might be a little close to the bypass for quiet nights, tho -- I'm not sure.

In to ask about room rates. And a shock -- the receptionist murmurs that they don't do the "old way" of having a standard room rate Monday-Thursday and a cheaper one Friday-Sunday "any more". Instead they have "dynamic pricing". "What's that?" I ask.

She tells me that they charge a lower price when the hotel is empty, and as the hotel fills up, they increase the price, until the last few are at a high price. (I could almost hear the computer algorithm ticking under the desk). What is the "low price", I asked. The answer was £60, which in a recession for a place hard to get to seemed steep. And the "high price"? It could be in the mid-£80's. I thanked her and left.

I remember when the British hotel industry died, back in the 80's. Booking a hotel room was an exercise in pain and stress. Every hotel had a rate which it quoted, which was incredibly high. This was known in the trade as the "rack rate". If you turned up, weary, one evening, this was what they would do to you.

But if you were in a position to negotiate, they might -- or might not -- offer you a cheaper rate. So you had to haggle. You had to book in advance.

Corporates didn't bother with all this. They outsourced the job to agencies, who obtained 50% or more discounts and fixed rates for their staff. Staff were told to ask for "the BT rate". Sometimes hotels would ask for staff ID!

The result was that most people felt overcharged (except the business customers, who weren't paying anyway -- the company paid). Even if you weren't, you could not be sure. Most people hate haggling; but this was what you were forced to do. So most people were ripped off.

Organisations that rip off their customers cultivate a culture of hate towards them. It was no surprise, therefore, that the British hotel was notorious for the poor quality, the "couldn't care less" attitude of the staff, the appalling food. By dehumanising the tired elderly couple at the desk into "two rack rate customers, full price", the hotel staff dehumanised everyone.

The result was that no-one stayed in a hotel if they could avoid it. The only people who did were commercial travellers, who were avoiding all this, but even so suffered from the poor quality endemic in consequence. And the hotel trade died. No-one, even now, will stay in most British hotels without gritting their teeth.

Then Travelodge came along. They imported the US concept of the motel. They were convenient, they were well-built, they were at a fixed price, and they were all identical. You knew exactly what you were going to get, and at exactly what price, anywhere in the country.

And they boomed. People loved them. They could be more expensive than some "discount deals" in the rotten old hotels, but few were tempted; none tempted twice.

Travelodge were soon joined by Premier Inn. The build quality was not so good, but the room quality was generally better.

Time passed. Travelodge were part of Little Chef, and that organisation was passed round and round, getting more and more run down and shabby. Eventually the hotels were bought by some venture capitalists, who have started opening new ones.

But the recession hit, and bookings dried up. Every year the prices had increased. So the fixed price had to go, and weekday and weekend rates came in. This was still acceptable, because you still knew that you were getting the same price for the same room.

Then Travelodge introduced discounts, bookable in advance on the website, where you could not cancel if you couldn't come. Suddenly you were back in the old atmosphere. You had to gamble; book 4 weeks in advance at a high price, when you might have to cancel; or 4 weeks at a lower price, when you could not. Stress! Stress! Stress!

Today I learn that Premier Inn have abandoned the fixed price altogether. Instead they will charge a high price when the place is empty, but gouge people who book later. We're now so close to the old hateful system.

Now watch these chains die.

The "new" Premier Inn was apparently taken over from a Holiday Inn Express. It ought to have said something, to the dipsticks clearly in charge now, that Holiday Inn couldn't make it work under the system they are now implementing. What idiots!

What it means, of course, is that once again we cannot travel in Britain.

Still silly at Sainsburys Warren Heath

I was running low on laser printer paper, so I popped down to Sainsburys Warren Heath to get some. I know they do this at £2 a ... well, whatever you call one of those slabs of wrapped copier paper.

Oh dear. None in stock. A large shelf, completely empty on a Friday night, peak shopping time. I call over a shop assistant who goes off to see if there is any "out the back". Back she comes, and there is none. There's been none since Thursday.

Over to Tesco at Copdock this morning. Loads of £2 chunks of paper there. I bought two. That epitomises the difference between the two places.

As I have remarked before, the management of Sainsburys Warren Heath is atrocious. To allow empty shelves at the start of the weekend ... hey, the idea, guys, is to SELL stuff. If you don't have stock, you go out of business. Even if you don't allow your store to become a cold, smelly shed, as they have chosen to do.

123-reg - avoid like the plague

I have a domain name for my company website. I decided I wanted to transfer it from my existing provider to a UK provider. I chose 123-reg.co.uk. But I had problems, and I don't feel very happy any more. In fact I would recommend avoiding them.

When you sign on with them, they demand you create an account before anything else. When you try to log in, so you can do the transfer, they demand your credit card details before you can see anything -- despite the fact the fact that you haven't bought anything yet. And they make clear that this is so they can store it -- remember you have done no business with them yet -- and automatically debit stuff without your permission, unless you unsubscribe from auto-renew.

This is scary stuff. None of this rubbish about "opting out"; I don't want to pay for anything unless I explicitly say so. There's no way I want to have my credit card details stored anyway.

But it gets worse. You request a transfer, and are taken to a screen where you have to put in a lot of personal data. You're asked somewhere to check a box to say you have read their terms and conditions -- but if you click on the link, you're taken to a page full of links to other articles, some obviously irrelevant. It's hard to know what you are supposed to read. If you click on the first one, it spews legal definitionese at you -- I couldn't follow what I was agreeing to.

And worse again. I entered my domain, and the website said "add to basket", so I presumed that was what I did. When I did, they added half-a-dozen other domains automatically to my "order". It turns out that further down the screen was a long list of other possible domains, and they had "helpfully" checked some for me in advance, where I wouldn't see them.

All this makes you nervous. These are loan-shark tactics; force you to hand over your details, force you to consciously opt-out of paying, make it unclear what is happening.

Fortunately for me their website then crashed when I requested the transfer. In fact it did so twice. At that point I decided I wanted out. In particular, I wanted my credit card details removed.

But ... they don't want emails from you. The website is set up to make it impossible for you to contact them. There's an 0871 number (10p a minute, and you can be sure it will be many, many minutes of obfustication) or a postal address. There is an electronic form... but when you fill it in, you're told that they thank you for your "suggestion" but won't necessarily reply.

It is crap like this which has always caused me to avoid using UK domain name providers. Some are sharks. One extorted money from me, years ago, to transfer out -- probably illegally. US ones seem better regulated, and that is what I will now seek.

123-reg? Avoid them. Instead consider Network Solutions, or PairNIC, both of whom seem reputable.

Oh Brother! No printer cable at PC World?

I've just been to PC World over at Copdock. I bought a Brother HL 2035 laser printer, and lugged it home through the ice and snow.

Getting home, I opened the box with excitement. Out came the power lead. Out came the manual. Out came the drum cartridge. But... where's the printer lead?

I open the manual. It says "not supplied". It says "make sure you get a USB2 printer cable". Eventually I find a picture of the item, so I know what I need to get.

Only... it's Boxing Day. I can't get a printer cable. I can't go back to PC World now! So I'm buggered. I've spent £80 on this lump of electronics, and I can't use it. I can't use it until I can get a cable, which won't be until Monday now.

Nor will it be cheap. It would probably cost Brother, doing bulk buy, about 50p to supply a cable. It will cost me at least 10 times that, plus the cost of petrol to and fro. You bastards!

It's pretty bad that the first emotion you get on buying something is to find that it isn't all there. It sort of ruins the moment. Excitement is replaced by frustration and rage. Why would anyone do this?

Of course all businesses face cost cutting. But to cut a small cost that will really annoy your customer? Only an accountant could have proposed that. Indeed some suit probably got a bonus for proposing it. In the mean time... I'm stuck.

Oh, and PC World? Why the HELL don't you indicate on the box, on the display, somewhere, that it isn't supplied?

Taking Sainsburys down-market in Warren Heath

I frequently shop at Sainsburys in Warren Heath, and have done for years. But today I needed some stuff, and I deliberately went to Tesco at Copdock instead. Why?

Sainsburys at Warren Heath used to be rather like a Waitrose; good quality surroundings and goods, and quite upmarket. Over the last 10 years it has slipped, and slipped. Today you go into a large, cold, smelly warehouse-like building, with dirty flooring, and look at rows of own-brand goods. It's getting to be like a caricature of Aldi or Lidl. Often there are shortages of basic goods; or items just vanish. The shelves are frequently allowed to become unstocked over the weekend, at least for things I look at.

The other day I wanted some sliced pineapple. I always buy Del Monte; but Sainsburys had removed these! Not sold any more. Instead all I could buy was own-brand, or some unknown brand with a bright blue tin named "DOLE!" Reluctantly I bought the latter, ate it; and got a stomach upset. No more dole for me, thanks. Today I wanted some sliced pineapple again -- so I went to Tescos, and got the Del Monte. It's only 50p a tin. So why on earth would Sainsburys remove it?

I wanted some peas. I want Birdseye, as I can taste the difference between this and own-brand. Sainsbury feel that I shouldn't have the choice. So... off to Tescos for these.

Sainsburys bread has long been rubbish. I have no idea why Tesco can do bread, and Sainsburys cannot, but this is not a new phenomenon. When I want a loaf, again I go to Tesco.

I'm not glad at any of this. Sainsburys Warren Heath is my local grocer. I don't want to drive to Tesco. But increasingly it seems that I must.

Marks and Spencers - trimming the fat or shorting the change?

To Marks and Spencers in Ipswich today, to purchase my customary granny smith apples. But zounds! What is this?

M&S apples come packed in fours in a foam base, thereby reducing bruising. Except that this week M&S has removed the base. There's now just four apples in a shrink-wrap bit of clear plastic. Funnily enough, most of the apples are damaged, and I have some difficulty getting what I want. I notice that less popular apples are still available in the proper packaging.

I'm sure some fool will whimper that damaged apples saves the planet. But this is about cost cutting, surely? The price is the same; but the goods are inferior.

But onwards. On my way to the checkout I saw a box of sweeties in bags of string. Well, I'm quite partial to their chocolate money, so I pick up one of the little yellow bags full of "coins". But egad!?! The bag is about a third empty! Instead of the usual stack of thick coins, there's a miserable three big ones and a few small ones.

I look at the price; it's £2. It's the same as a big bar of Cadburys milk chocolate, and contains about a third of the amount. It's a rip-off, frankly.

Clearly Mr. Marks (or Mr. Spencer) has been at the accounts again. Instead of raising the already absurd price, he's decided to give short weight. At least, what else can I think that this is? So I throw the bag back. I can get a good big bar of chocolate at Tesco for 27p, after all.

I am depressed. I don't go to M&S to get cheap. I go there to get quality.

Years ago, people used to buy M&S clothes. An M&S suit was the standard interview suit. You paid a bit more, but you got rather better quality. Then the market started to be flooded with cheap chinese imports - rubbish quality, but bottom-dollar price. And M&S gradually reduced... their quality. The prices did come down a little, but suddenly you were getting much poorer quality clothes.

I still buy M&S shirts; just try buying a Tesco shirt and you can feel the difference! But I don't buy M&S as I did, and neither does anyone else, as their sales figures show. And it seems that the food department is now treading the same disastrous route.

BT doing a scam?

In my opinion BT is abusing the direct debit system to try to force its customers to buy its most expensive "all calls included" package.

Sounds weird? Let me explain.

I've been with BT forever, and my usage hasn't varied in years. In some years they put the DD up to a large sum, and I end up with a credit balance of a couple of hundred pounds on them -- which you have to ring and ask for, naturally.

This summer I got a note from BT that they wanted to jack up my standing order to around £45 a month. Now that's a fantastic sum, way in excess of what I actually use. How had they managed that?

Well, they'd reduced the DD to a piddling sum, so a debit quickly came into existence. I rang in and got them to change it to something like what I really use.

All BT paper bills are horrible. They charge in advance for this, and in arrears for that, and they bill over a period of 5 months, but only include 3 months payments, etc etc. All the messing about that goes to make their bills unreadable and inscrutable, which I imagine is intentional.

Today I had another one. This time they say I am £70 in debit. How this is achieved, given that my usage really doesn't vary? The bill is carefully constructed to ensure that the details of the calls are not shown, and I can't tell, really. And they want to put the DD back up to £45 a month.

At this point I get suspicious. The reason I pay by DD is so that I do NOT have wild fluctuations in the cost of my services. How come that it's all over the place this year, all of a sudden? Is there any chance, could it be that there is a marketing reason behind this?

I got to the BT website. And ... ta-dah! I find that their "pay us line rental and all your calls are free" package costs about £41 a month.

What a coincidence. Whack the DD up to something ridiculous, based on manipulating the regular flow of costs, and then suddenly that massively over-priced deal looks cheaper, and hey, someone in BT gets a bonus.

Too cynical? Somehow I don't think so.

I wonder how many other people are being scammed this way. If only I didn't need a landline for my broadband, I probably wouldn't bother with one at all.