Category: Uncategorized

The recent collapse of Flyglobespan (with some 4,500 passengers stranded and 550 staff with no job just before Xmas) has thrown up a few interesting coincidences.

As with many companies these days, Flyglobespan chose to outsource it e-payments (Credit Card)  business with a third party – eclear – taking away any worry and of course the costs of running that type of operation itself.

It seems pretty straight forward, you offer your products for sale on your web site and when someone buys something, they pay the e-commerce  company who takes a commission and then passes on the balance to you.

Easy? You would think so, but it seems in the case of Flyglobespan, it was owed £35,000,000, yes that’s £35,000,000 by eclear when it went bust!

I now seems that another travel company that used eclear for its e-business outsourcing has gone bust – Allbury Travel Group. Some concerns are now being voiced that they have gone bust as a result of problems in not receiving transaction funds supposedly from… Yes you’ve guessed it eclear.

A common name seems to be at the centre of all this, a one Elias Elia.

Although eclear have now said that they want to cooperate with investigations proposed by various people, there is still no explanation as to why they held on to the £35 million before Flyglobespan collapsed.

By the way, Allbury Travel Group is owned by a British Virgins Isles based company, owned by… Yes, you’ve guessed it! Mr. Elias Elia!

I wonder when there will be proper legislation created to better protect travellers from failures like Flyglobespan  and Allbury.

More on this in the news tomorrow I am sure.

I wonder how many more times the News of the World (NOTW) will get away with what they say are their sting operations as they now claim to have ensnared Chelsea’s John Terry.

I thought that it was both illegal to offer and/or receive a  bribe  – though Chelsea have backed Terry and his side strenuously deny any wrong doing.

Will the Police be investigating this?

Must have been a very poor news day at the NOTW for them to go out of their way to sink to bribery for a news story!

Sometime ago I had a chance to visit this Museum, it has some very interesting exhibits and is very much worth a visit.

Amongst the snow in my back garden this morning, I saw a Robin rushing around looking for the food and seed that I had put out a few days ago. Then the first email I saw in my in box was was from an ex-Navy friend of mine and made me laugh.

As I awoke last Sunday, a bright and sunny morn
A robin perched upon my sill, to greet the coming dawn.

I listened quiet for a while, so cheerful he did sing
Sweet thoughts of love and happiness, to my mind did spring.

I listened quiet for a while, then creeping from my bed,
I gently shut the window, and crushed his bloomin’ head.

My friend assures me that no Robins were hurt in the writing of this poem!

Ever wondered what the earth would look like if it had the ring of Saturn around it. Check out this You Tube video to find out. Fantastic!

“Hello is that Mr. X, this is Talk Talk, we’re offering Free Broadband if you move your BT line over to a Talk Talk line.”

It’s a phone call that I had for most of 2009 and having heard much of the buzz about bad customer services for some years I declined their kind offer until in October 2009 in a desperate attempt to win me over ,they offered to wave the £29.99 connection charge.

I’ve been a domestic Talk Talk call customer for about 6 years on a rate that gave me a monthly cost of around £7.50 a month no matter how many UK and local calls I seemed to make!!! But I had left my line rental with BT, for whatever reason!!! Perhaps I should have continued to leave it there!

Anyway after doing the math and realising that I could save over £6.20 a month by combining the calls and line costs to Talk Talk over what I was previously paying and getting free Broadband as well and ensuring that my 1571 and Caller ID would be included for no extra cost, I bit the bullet and finally said Deal.

Are your guessing where this is going yet? The events to date:

• 30th October – order given to Talk Talk

• 3rd November – confirmation of order received, with change over date of 22nd November, with Broadband to be working as of 7th December

• 5th November – I tell BT to cancel my line – no charge as out of contract, arranged for 22nd November – no going back now!

• 22nd November – Talk Talk line taken over, no Caller ID  or 1571!

• 30th November after some 5 phone calls, 1571 finally working

• 4th December – after a further 6 phone calls, Caller ID is finally working

• 7th December – No Broadband modem/router, so no Broadband!

• 9th December – Broadband modem/router arrives, plug it in and run set-up, no Broadband service!

• 10th December – After 5 phone calls, told that, error with Broadband set up, new date will be 15th December!

• 15th December – Plug Broadband modem/router in, run set-up, no Broadband service!

• 17th December –  after 7/8 more calls, told that Broadband will be working on 22nd December!

So the saga continues, with still no clear understanding as to when I will get my Free Broadband.

• From a sales point of view, Talk Talk seemed to be a very slick organisation

• From a delivery point of view, one of the worst I have ever experienced

• From a service point of view, the worst I have ever had, with support agents lying, very unclear on what was wrong and with no clear understanding of what my issue was and in at least three case simply hanging up the phone in the middle of my call!!

What’s the lesson here? It seems that Talk Talk is as bad at delivery and service as I had heard. More fool me for falling for the offer and to cap it all , it now seems that the Free connection charge offer has also disappeared!

However, thanks goodness I have always had as second line at home with BT that I have only used for my business calls & broadband. Perhaps there is something that Talk Talk could learn from BT about better customer service and delivery!

The saga sadly continues!!!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, this country continues to move towards a much more authoritarian society.  One aspect of this is with what you can photograph or not, which seems to suffer from a very wide interpretation of  the rules by the authorities.

Although I understand the need for vigilance in this current climate, certain members of the  security services seem to go out of their way to antagonise member of the public with their own ‘brand’ of policing.

The most recent case of this was reported yesterday in the Guardian yesterday when an Italian Art student filming for her art project after discussions with a seemingly stereo-typical power attitude PCSO was finally arrested by six real policemen and thrown in a police cell! It appears she also cycled down a one way street the wrong way!

Granted, she did not help her case by not being able to prove her ID or her photographic aims, but it appears that there seemed to a lack of common sense by the PCSO’s and Police in another example of their heavy handedness towards members of the public about photography.

Of course with the Met releasing their latest video of a successful surveillance operation when tracking of a terrorist cell carrying out a reconnaissance of potential targets, it seems that we will still be subject to local interpretation of photography in public places.

However, it was interesting that also yesterday John Yates, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner reissued instructions to London district Police Commanders about members of the public taking photograph.

Restating that whilst there were no laws to stop people photographing buildings and also confirmed that there was no legal ban on photographing police officers, it was important that a “commonsense” approach by police officers.

Some background articles relating to this post:

• Is it a crime to take pictures?
• Innocent photographer or terrorist?
• AP’s campaign
• UK Photographers Rights Guide v2

Some further examples of a lack of common senses can be found here:

• Arrested photographer: Court case too expensive
• The picture that could land you in jail
• Amateur photographer arrested and de-arrested

I’m sure that this will not be the last example we see of police over reaction to photography in public.

I wonder when we will get the chance to say what we think of the new speaker – John Bercow. With the unearthing of his agenda for picking up women showing some pretty crude elements to his character, I wonder if he will survive the upcoming election.

Of course Nigel Farage is not everyone’s cup-of-tea, but perhaps this time the masses will be able to pick someone on merit and not have another club member foisted on us.

With regards to his wife, Sally Bercow; it now seems that she did not have the Degree that she claimed according to recent press coverage. I also saw an extensive piece in the Standard on the 3rd December. I don’t think I would want her for my MP. Too much information!

It seems when Transport for London to decide to extend the Underground Circle to Hammersmith and when you now have to change circle trains at Edgware road.

It seems that more people want to come to Paddington from Hammersmith hence the change. However, I wonder how Edgware Road station will cope, from my recent experience over the last three weeks not very well before the change.

Lets see if that changes tomorrow?

It seems that we are slowing getting a picture of just how close Tony Blair was becoming to George Bush in the period before the Iraq invasion.

Although it will take time and it may seems to be a slow process; in the end the Iraq Inquiry will show how Tony Blair really did become Bush’s poodle as many cartoonists portrayed him at the time and  really was more interested in supporting the USA than being concerned with his main charge, the UK.

The truth will out!