Orange Broadband problems

Friday night, 8:45pm, I fire up my trusty laptop and hit the connect icon. And... nothing happens. All I get is a message that 'remote computer not responding'. I repeat for 2 hours, with no better results. Same all day Saturday, so I look to ring them.

One problem with Orange is that they hide their contact details. You can look on their web site for quite a while without finding a number, and, if you have no internet access, a number is what you need. In fact the status of their service can be found at 0845-330-7124. Customer services is 0870-010-2462.

I call them up, and end up on the phone for 22 minutes while they get me to create a new internet connection, reboot, etc, which of course fails. Then they tell me to keep my PC on for 4 hours (!) while they do a line test. But *I* have to ring them again -- on their national rate number, naturally -- to find out the results.

I don't use my PC on Sunday, so power the PC up at 8:15am on Monday. Still no connection. Turn off and draw curtains, etc. I then go for the phone, at 8:40, and restart my PC. To my amazement it connects. Evidently someone came into work at 8:30, saw that something was down and flipped a switch.

I'm not sure how I feel about Orange. Their service is very reliable, and outages are few. But they do not deal with them very well when they occur.

Certainly their customer service has improved from what it was last time, when they pretended never to have heard of my modem -- a Speedtouch 330 USB, which every single one of the customers they bought from Wanadoo would be using -- and simply tried to get me to sign up to a new contract. But... they still have some way to go. We wouldn't tolerate a telephone outage of 48 hours, without apology. Why should we expect one for the internet?

Wheel clamps

Great news today that the government has issued new guidelines (although, when did we stop having laws subject to parliament and start having guidelines issued by anonymous civil servants?) to stop the menace of wheel-clamping. Let us all raise a glass to Ruth Kelly, who has put a stop to it.

This evil was always hated by everyone. It's worth remembering that all things pass. The government does dumb things, which we must endure. But once the civil servant who made it happen has been promoted and rewarded and passes on, his successor feels no obligation to continue it and gets rewarded etc for dumping it. Thus there is a natural term to these things.

When we see some bit of evident madness, let us remember that this too will pass.

GP: Collins &c again

I'm off to sunny Libya! So I need to make sure I'm jabbed up. I went last year as well, so should be OK! But I need to check.

I ring the surgery. They tell me I must physically come in and see the nurse. I'm at home this week so reluctantly agree. Then they tell me I must do so next week some time, when I will be on the road. I politely ask whether I will be forced to take a chance and go without jabs? The receptionist takes my details, not all that graciously, and says that she will leave a message for the nurse who may ring me.

Rather to my surprise the phone goes 10 minutes later, and it is the nurse. I don't need any jabs: great news! So that's all fine. And she'll pop the travel advice sheet in the post -- better yet. Good service -- excellent.

But... why the difficulty in the first place. Something seems unsatisfactory in the management of this practice.

GP: Dr Collins & Partners, 235 Felixstowe Road

I don't go to the doctor very often. When I do, I have mixed feelings about the experience. This practice is one of the better NHS practices, but something is going wrong with it. Like most, they no longer bother to open outside office hours, which is very awkward if you work away from home.

Last month I went there and saw Dr McCarthy. I felt fobbed off. I was led to suppose that my ailment would never get better and that it would always come back, which can't be true. But he also asked me to leave a urine sampe to test for diabetes.

When I rang back for the results some days later, they had no record of the sample. It had been lost, it seemed. I was asked to drop another in. Such things happen; they did send me a container in the post -- full marks for being helpful --, and I returned it.

When I rang for the result on this, it too had been lost! But this time the receptionist was a bit more clued up; apparently the sample from the first time had not been sent off, but analysed in-house, and the results were on the screen (and negative, thankfully).

Naturally I was concerned. But I could find no-one who cared, although one member of staff seemed eager to have a fight with me (ah, the joy of public sector 'services'!)

Is an NHS GP actually any use? For some time I have felt that very few of the minor ailments that I take to my doctor ever get sorted out. I get fobbed off, I get 5 minutes at most, and somehow I have lost hours of earnings for very little result. It simply isn't worth going there, most of the time.

Perhaps the answer is a private GP; restore the link between money paid and performance? Are any of these any good?

Royal Mail -- robbing the public?

I've just come across a new scam! It's a beauty.

Remember when the Royal Mail was established, set up by Rowland Hill? There was a single stamp, at one penny, for a letter to go anywhere, for next day, with weight categories. In the 1960's they introduced 'first class' and 'second class'. This of course made it more complicated.

This year they introduced tariffs by size as well. I've just been caught by it.

You see, all businesses tend to send out mail in A4 envelopes. That the standard size of printer paper; the standard size of photocopier paper.

I just did my trading accounts for the year, and posted them to Companies House, to the taxman, to the accountant, and so on; in A4 envelopes with a nice first class stamp on it.

Today I was in the post office, looking at their complicated letter-size measuring template, and realised with a sick feeling that all those letters would not arrive. Instead the recipient would have to go and collect them from some dingy mail office, and pay some huge sum to do so. I have some doubts that anyone from government offices bothers to do this. So I have been forced to send the items again, again in A4. So the Royal Mail gets two lots of payment for each item!

Nice scam, eh? Does anyone believe that this isn't intentional?

But there is more. No-one has any idea what the new rate for these might be, except that it is more than a first-class stamp, and less than two. No-one keeps stamps of varied denominations, anyway; and no-one is going to queue in some smelly post-office behind people trying to register their car. So most of us will just put TWO first-class stamps on the letter, and get on with our lives. Thus the post office can overcharge us for our mail again. Again, does anyone believe that this isn't intentional and foreseen?

In post offices around the country undelivered mail must be piling up. Items sent, paid for, and never arrived, diverted silently so that the Royal Mail can make just a bit more money in fines. The loss to everyone, the nuisance, the interference with the postal service -- there must be a huge cost in time and money to the community. All this, just to squeeze out a bit more short-term profit.

I don't know who runs the Post Office. I don't wish him very well, somehow. The post should be simple and easy to use. To make it complex so as to fine people for failing to follow the rules is the quintessence of third-world officialdom.

LowCostSpex.com again

Just a note to say that I have worn their £15 prescription spectacles ever since I got them, and they have been fine. Indeed I am wearing them now. Everyone comments how nice they look. So I may not bother to get the lenses changed in my old ones, titanium or not.

I have recommended them to my parents, and my mother has placed an order herself. Let's see what happens!

LowCostSpex (online opticians)

After my experiences with SpecSavers of Harlow, I was interested to see what this firm could do for me, over the internet. I had my prescription.

I didn't have the "pupil distance". This is the distance from the centre of one pupil to the other, but it's best to get the optician to measure it. However LowCostSpex website shows you how to measure it.

The form was a little confusing, but thankfully there was a box in which I could clarify things. For ordinary glasses you just specify "distance glasses". I chose a frame, hit the button, and ordered some glasses. Price for frames with prescription lenses was £15, plus ca. £2 postage. Well, at that price, I can afford to throw them away if they're no good!

The following day I get a call. It's LowCostSpex, who want to make sure they understand my order. I'm astonished, but pleased.

A week later a jiffy bag drops onto the mat. Inside is a hard-case -- the normal kind -- containing a gleaming new pair of spectacles. They're easy enough to bend with my fingers, so I quickly get them to fit.

Five days later, I'm still wearing them. They seem excellent. The frames are a little flimsy, but at £15 more than adequate. If you just want a pair for a few weeks, they are excellent. They look smart. Frankly they are worth every penny.

In short I am delighted. Excellent service, excellent value.

Now all I need is an online firm to 'reglaze' (technical term) my old frames, at a good price. The Ipswich Co-op quoted me £150 to reglaze. I wonder what the lowest price I can get online is?!