Category Archives: WBIAGW

Be my Valentine

Opinion, WBIAGW, , , ,

Light Hearted

The cynic in me would love to hate valentines day, the over commercialised sales pitch for love, but the romantic in me loves to love it, flowers and romance and chocolates and smiles, what’s there not to like…

…but if all the people in my facebook feed, the strangers on twitter, the friends I’ve seen today in person, or those who I can fully predict are sitting at home bemoaning the significant others in your life expecting something nice on Valentines day. To all of you who have said “I don’t need someone to tell me what day of the year to say I love you” here’s a thought, Maybe if we produced just one romantic gesture unprompted on any one of the remaining 364 days of the year your lovely partners wouldn’t put so much onus on this one day, This one day when it seems most of the nation need reminding it’s ok to do something nice for the one you love!

It doesn’t have to cost, an unasked for cup of tea in bed, a love letter pinned to the bathroom mirror, a walk in the park on blustery afternoon or having the forethought to cook the dinner for when your other half gets home from what you know is a particularly stressful day.

Maybe if we all tried to be a, little more romantic throughout the year come February 14th florists and card companies wouldn’t be laughing all the way to the bank!

Seasonal Craziness

Facts About Me, Family, Friends, Health, Home, WBIAGW, , , ,

I have issues!! Seriously Christmas brings out the crazy in me in the form of OCD and boy have I got it bad!!

For years the Christmas season starts for me in a flurry of decorating, the tree, the windows, the fire place….  but do I share a tender moment with my devoted son while we choose whether to have the angel or the star atop of the tree this year?

NO BECAUSE HE’D DO IT ALL WRONG!!

I have to decorate in certain way, in a certain order, lights, then ribbon (NOT TINSEL) the fir cones, then the baubles. If anything, in my mind, is out of place it drives me insane, It has in previous years taken me a a whole day just to put up a tree, but even better THEN and only then can the star or angel be put on top  – and this has to be chosen last of all and sometimes not until the day AFTER putting the tree and the rest of the decorations up because once chosen it has to stay there – no swapping and changing AT ALL so this is an important choice!

The colours have to be evenly spread and JUST SO and the fireplace swag has to match the tree and be decorated in the same order at the same  no compromise – as an example of how bad this is when we unpacked and erected the tree this year I couldn’t decorate it!! We’d managed to leave the swag in the loft and I just couldn’t put anything on the tree until this was down too!!  Luckily for me James is very understanding of the crazy and went back up to hunt for it as I could feel myself become quite silly about it!!

Last year was the first year I introduced colour to my tree in the form of bronze and red to go with the well established gold and ivory theme I’ve had going for years in an attempt for make myself loosen up a bit – I’m insane!

All this causes much mirth and derision particularly from my not so understanding sister and much exasperation and frustration from myself.

BUT IF You think that’s bad I used to be worse, much worse, for instance (and  I’ve worked hard at getting over this one because it was ridiculous as I would hunt for days to get this right), the gifts used to have to colour coordinated – the adult presents would be gold or ivory paper with red ribbon and the children’s red with gold or ivory ribbon and wrapped just so….

Notable insane moments:

  • The year I unwrapped ALL the presents and started again because they didn’t look right (unwrapping one or two to start again isn’t a rare occurrence in my house BUT all of them is a stretch by even by standards)
  • Taking down the tree and starting from scratch TWICE!
  • Letting TBK and James hang baubles only to go ahead and move them when I thought they wouldn’t notice because they were in the “wrong” place.
  • Point blank refusing to let James bring any of his decorations with him when he moved in with us as they wouldn’t match mine, and then buying him decorations that matched my colour scheme and still refusing to let him hang them on the tree because they’re just not right!
  • Finally succumbing to my OCD and buying TBK a tree & decorations for in his room as I didn’t want him to miss out on decorating his own tree and he can have as much tinsel as he likes!

So with all this in mind imagine how I’m coping this year with two very mischievous cats who are spending their first Christmas with us!!

I took the decision early on not to put out my nativity scene and I’m glad I didn’t because they keep knocking things over and pulling things down. They keep climbing my tree and flattening the branches and knocking off baubles  and chewing my ribbon, and yesterday they discovered if they pull hard enough they can pull my fireplace swag clean off the surround thus clearing any obstacles for them to sit on there – somewhere THEY NEVER CHOOSE TO SIT AT ANY OTHER TIME OF THE YEAR.

This year it’s going to be kill or cure for my OCD as I’m either going to have to deal with it – or go not so quietly insane battling with those damn cats – I’m hoping for the first option but as I left for work nearly in tears this morning as I again found my beautiful fire place destroyed I think odds are I’m currently leaning towards the latter!

Hoarfrost

Photography, WBIAGW, , , ,

n. a deposit of needle-like ice crystals formed on the ground and objects by direct condensation at temperatures below freezing point Also called white frost

Hoar Frost


The beginning of this week was so very cold, with freezing fog every night and temperatures staying below freezing throughout the day, with everything covered in frost and ice – a real winter wonderland. I can not remember a time it stayed so cold for so long!
Temperatures have risen now so everything has thawed but with the cold weather set to return I wonder if we’ll have a repeat visit from Jack frost to turn the world white.

Hoar FrostHoar FrostHoar Frost

Good Deed December

Facts About Me, Family, Friends, Health, Home, WBIAGW, , , , , , ,

December means  Christmas, which to most means presents and food and drink and parties…and to be fair it does to an extent to me too but I’ve been thinking lately about the spirit of Christmas, the good will to all men and peace on earth sentiment possibly the romantic view but I thought why can’t it be like that? At least a little bit anyway, All it would take is a little effort to put a smile on peoples faces…

…So this December has been decreed Good Deed December, my own advent of good deeds.

Between now and Christmas day I plan on trying to complete a good deed each day and hopefully update here and my twitter feed (@essitam) using the tag #gooddeedfortheday, (when I get around to it, I suck at keeping blogs up to date maybe this is the impetus I need).

I’m sure some deeds will be more worthy than others but it’s important to remember the little things also count……

1st December Carried a ladies bags up a flight of stairs.

2nd December Dispatched James to an elderly neighbours to get her shopping list and went to the super market after work just for her (I needed nothing myself)

3rd December took the lovely lady in the post office a Lemsip, she was suffering when she dealt with my parcels and I thought she could do with it.

Continue reading Good Deed December →

Today the snow came

Opinion, Photography, WBIAGW, , , ,

A splash of Colour

Everyone has been speculating for week over when the snow would come, Finally it did I woke up this morning and it was white over and it’s snowed on and off all day!

It is most amusing following peoples reactions on Facebook and Twitter – anyone would think the end was nigh! Personally I think it’s silly worrying too much about it  if it comes it comes, if it doesn’t it doesn’t there’s not much you can do to change it, but if/when it does PHOTO OPPORTUNITY!


A Complaint to Virgin

Opinion, WBIAGW, , , , , ,

UPDATE 09:30 12th October:

15 hours after sending this email and I’ve just received a call from Virgin Media’s Chief Executive Office apologising for their appalling service! – Sometimes firing an email off to the right person does yield results!

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

An email sent to the complaints address I was provided and cc’d to the CEO of Virgin Media

I have been provided with this email address from the people who run your twitter profile as a way of directing my complaint to you.

In the last week I have NEVER received such diabolical service from a company as I have yourselves!

I have been a customer with Virgin for 5 years and have consistently upgraded my account to include more and better services and would have considered myself a loyal customer. However if something is not done to rectify the experience I have had in the last 7 days I will not only be taking my business elsewhere but I will be shouting from the roof tops to anyone who will listen as why they should never use Virgin Media either!

Last Monday (4th October) I called your service centre from my fairly newly installed land line to enquire about upgrading my TV service to a HD service. I wanted some clarification on prices as on your website there are two options, one for a standard HD box and one for V+ HD – which I understood – I was however intrigued as to why on the Standard HD price the installation fee is listed as optional.

I spoke to a lady called Sarah who I explained this to and she said the option was for a “HD or V+HD” – I again explained I knew the difference in options for the services but wanted to know why the installation price on the option for the standard HD was listed as optional and V+ HD it wasn’t – Her response….

“You’re not listening to me” – to which I responded “How rude are you being?” to which she responded ” WELL YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO ME” – I asked to be put through to cancellations immediately to which she responded “Fine” and I was put on hold. I was furious and ready to leave you company there and then and it was only through speaking to a lovely lady in your cancellations department, who’s name I unfortunately can’t remember, who apologised profusely and agreed that her colleagues behaviour was unacceptable that I decided to stay.

She opened up the website I was looking at http://shop.virginmedia.com/digital-tv/set-top-boxes.html (screen print attached) and agreed that there is confusion as she couldn’t understand why the installation fee was listed as optional either.

She apologised again and again and offered to waive the fees on, and supply a V+HD box free of charge. I explained this was unnecessary as I unlikely to have any real use of the V+ package at this time and instead accepted to take delivery of a standard HD box as way of an apology as well as requesting that a formal complaint be made.

Delivery was due Thursday 7th. My partner took the day off work and waited in all day….at 17:30 when I returned from work and there had still been no delivery I again called your customer service team where I was informed that delivery could be anywhere up until 18:00 and to call back then if there had still been no delivery

18:00 came and went and still no delivery, so I called back a second time, this time a different member of staff informs me that delivery could be any time up until 20:00 but as they have no tracking number on my account they can’t say for sure and supply me with a number to the home delivery service to call myself to track the order YOU had placed with them.

I called the 0871 number supplied to be greeted with a recorded message telling me delivery could be any time up until 19:00 (the third different time I had been given) and if I wanted specific details on a parcel to enter the 8 digit tracking number – which of course I don’t have!

Luckily having had some experience with automated services I repeatedly keyed in 8 zeros until it overrode the computer and put me through to one of their advisers.

I explained who I was and why I was calling and they took my address details and looked into it for me…..They had NO record of a delivery being made to my address on their system. The Gentleman was very apologetic and explained that some of their drivers were still out and maybe I should call back after 21:15 in case there was a fault with there system and my parcel was still with one of them…

21:15 Still no delivery so I call HDN on the 0871 number again, once again working my way through thier automated system to speak to the same man as earlier who confirmed they have no delivery due to my address!

I subsequently call your customer services again where the individual I spoke to was less than helpful! “there’s and order on your account” – yes I know there is an order on my account but why haven’t I received it? “hmmmm”

I don’t know where your advisers were trained but I’m sure “HMM” is never an acceptable answer to a customers question. I had to push and push and push to get her to make another order for a box – none of my questions as to why as YOUR customer I was having to call home delivery network to chase YOUR order with them – I am your customer, you are theirs – I should have never have had to call them myself in the first place and finally when I convinced to do her job and actually help me I wanted to know if I placed another order what guarantees I would have it would turn up as it meant either my partner or I staying home from work again to wait for it.

I was told the earliest delivery date that was available was today (Monday 11th) but I would be able to choose my delivery slot – I wasn’t impressed that after an administration error with yourselves or with the courier YOU had tasked with delivering my box I hadn’t received it on the due date and was going to have to wait longer still but I accepted this as being my only option and chose the 09:30 to 14:30 delivery slot…..

My partner again opted to stay home and wait….

9:30 the post man arrives with a letter from yourselves with our new “contract” in it that started on 7th October ( the original delivery date) and includes a £49 charge for set up – which I had been told would waived as an apology for the behaviour and attitude of your staff in my initial dealing with yourself back on the 4th October- A subsequant phone call to “Kimberly” has at least confirmed to me for the time being that I will not be charged this.

14:30 comes and goes and still nothing!, 15:30 nothing. 16:30 nothing FINALLY at 17:00 a delivery driver knocks our door and we take delivery of our now LONG overdue HD box! – My partner questioned the driver as to why it was late only to be informed he’d only been given the package at 14:00 and there was nothing in his notes pertaining to the bar code about a timed delivery despite there being a clearly visable sticker which reads “Avoid school runs deliver between 09:30 and 14:29” on the box – the driver has supplied us with a number to call Home Delivery Network to complain about this but quite frankly I don’t see why I should after all I am YOUR customer and YOU are THEIRS.

After being a customer for years and having defended you business to others citing my own experiences with yourself as a case to allay their complaints I find it absolutely outrageous that I was completely unfounded in my belief that virgin media knew how to deliver customer satisfaction.

My partner has had to take 2 days off work, I have had to make countless telephone calls not only to yourselves but to YOUR service providers to try and rectify what should have been a pretty simple upgrade and I would like to know what exactly can now be done to compensate me and make up for all of this as this was supposed to be an apology for the original poor service and attitude I received.
A copy of this email has also been posted on my blog which which can be viewed here:

A Complaint to Virgin

I trust I will be hearing from you soon.

Miss Stephenie.Jennings
Account number: *********