Bad weather.

What a joke a bit of snow and the country go’s up the creek without a padel. Why? The first point is that health and safety is running a muck to the point where it is making life difficult for those who would do their job as normal no matter what.

The total lack of gritting on side roads and walks making it impossible for people to get to the main routes without taking their lives into their own hands. News reports about A and E having an over load of broken bones and an increase in the numbers  of deaths all travel related.

The lack of help and coöperation between people  and business. Casing point: I had to take the van out to get some supplies. Now it is rear wheel drive which means that icy roads make it difficult  to get moving once stopped. This happen twice causing a tail back in both cases. The first time while trying to get onto a gritted road I had to get the shovel out and chip the ice away from in front of the drive wheels. The people behind just sat there and watched or tried to drive round, no milk of human kindness there. The second time was trying to get to a well-known supermarket car park the road was pure ice, again out with the shovel only this time all I got was angry looks that anger would have been better spent giving the van a shove so we could all get on our way. Society now a days is all about me, if we spent more time helping each other we would all be better off. 

Related Articles

• Top tips for driving on snow and ice (mirror.co.uk)
• My alternative winter driving tips (telegraph.co.uk)
• Weather wise Storm savvy (commercialappeal.com)
• Britain braced for big freeze again as temperatures set to plummet -10C tonight (dailymail.co.uk)
• Why did Britain slide into snow chaos again? (telegraph.co.uk)
• Weather a huge blow to economy (mirror.co.uk)
• Truckers to work longer to clear food and fuel backlog (guardian.co.uk)
• UK snow: Transport chiefs under fire for gritters and rail failure (dailymail.co.uk)
• Driving in snow and ice (tcfpodcast.wordpress.com)

Hat trick.

Over the last few months we have looked for someone to produce some baseball hats with our logo on.

 You would have thought this would have been easy! No,  not a bit of it! We have contacted a number of companies that have failed to get back in touch. Why have email if you are going to ignore it?  Better still, tell people  phoning is the best way to contact you and stop wasting our time!

 I went to a local business in person,  leaving my card and what I was looking for; they said ” We will ring you tomorrow.” Still waiting!   If you say your going to do something then keep your word! If you don’t want to phone then email,  it could not be simpler. Personally I think it is better to say you do not want to do it. Silence shows a lack of respect for a potential customer it also means that customer  is lost to you for any future orders!

Terms and conditions

This is a follow on from my bit about privacy policies.

In an article I read recently it makes it clear that a lot of you forget to look at the small print and I can understand why; it goes on for ever. Life is too short to spend hours running through terms,  conditions, privacy but by not doing so you are letting companies play god with your complacency. 

Game, a large retailer of gaming products, made  changes to its term and conditions to see how many of you read what you were signing up to when using their site. They added a paragraph that stated:

” you would grant them the right to your immortal soul in this life and the next”

 or words to that effect. While this paragraph was part of the conditions  over 7,500 of  you signed up to it. As part of the research they added an opt out that gave a £5 discount on your purchases, there were no takers, no surprise there then!

Most companies are fair-minded traders, but they are not helping themselves or their customers. They need to  change to make things more transparent for both sides. I would suggest that both terms, conditions and privacy should do what insurance companies have applied to their polices. The key facts stated in the first few ( I mean few!) paragraphs of these statements with links to further explanation if needed for the customer.  They need to be transparent stating the good and the bad.

 I get fed up with wasting my time  reading  terms and conditions to find hidden near the end the bad bits, when that appears I log off and go somewhere else. Companies need to understand that is lost revenue, I for one will not be back!

It is time we the customer took control of our web experience! Will this ever happen though, because not enough of us think we have the power to do so! The fact is we do, but while we stay complacent companies will take advantage.

Privacy policy?

What a joke!

It is only when you set up  a web site for yourself that privacy becomes an important  issue. I am probably right in thinking that some of you never look at the small print and those that do must think ” what am I letting myself  in for?”

 I’m talking about when you come to a privacy policy  that runs to more than a page you know your in trouble with that company. Basically they say we will protect your data but send it all round the world for other companies to look after but if your identity gets cloned, it’s not their fault! Where do these companies get the moral right to tell everybody your information? They don’t, but they think they do! because you have used their product/web site etc. It is time these companies started offering their customers a proper service and not lip service to your data with long-winded policies. They should all say we do not share your info and honour that!