Archive for 'Purchasing'
Casio UK Service dreadful
Posted on February 9, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Gadgets, Purchasing, Technology.
I bought a nice Casio Waveceptor watch about 18 months ago from a great discount online store in Wales called The Time Zone. It’s a combined analogue/digital job and syncs the time using those big transmitters scattered around Europe.
The watch worked fine for a few months and then the analogue bit started losing hours and hours. I returned it to Casio UK who replaced the battery and sent it back. In no time at all the problem returned. I sent it back again and they replaced much of the innards. All was well for another few months and then it started losing time again!
I sent it back last week with a statement that I wanted a replacement watch since it was either flawed by design or by manufacture. It was returned this morning with a note saying they could find nothing wrong. Here we are 2 hours later and it has already lost an hour!!
Maybe as part of their “extensive testing” they should put it on someone’s wrist for half an hour.
What the hell do I have to do to get this bloody watch fixed? And yes, it is still under warranty.
It’s probably cost me as much again in postage every time I return it. For the moment, all I can say is avoid Casio Waveceptor watches like the plague. Catherine got a cheap digital Casio at the same time as me and apart from a battery change has worked perfectly since.
Technorati Tags: watch, casio, waveceptor, casio+uk, customer+service, design+flaw, customer+rights, warranty
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AllFreeCalls.ie - Free international calls from Ireland
Posted on February 9, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Purchasing, Technology.
Some of you may have heard about AllFreeCalls which allows people in the US to call internationally for the price of a call to Iowa (often free). This is a service run by a great guy called Pat Phelan in Cork.
Well they’ve just gone and extended it to Ireland. If you have one of those free national calls packages that most of the telcos like Eircom and BT here provide, then you can call international numbers for zero cost using AllFreeCalls. Yup, big fat zero. Even if you don’t have such a package, you’ll just pay the price of a local or national call to ring many countries around the world. Very simple instructions on how to do it over at AllFreeCalls.ie
For once it’s great to report on Non-Ripoff-Ireland.
Technorati Tags: AllFreeCalls, AllFreeCalls.net, AllFreeCalls.ie, Roam4Free, Pat+Phelan
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Thank You Dave
Posted on January 6, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Personal, Purchasing, Restaurants.
We discovered over Christmas that you can in fact put 5 children, 2 adults and all their stuff in a Zafira+Roofbox and go from Cork to Kilkenny to Cavan to Cork. Hurrah.
On our trip back from Cavan on the joke’s of national routes known as the N55 and N62, we got to Roscrea and Oscar decided to puke. We caught most of it in a nappy bag and then I dropped the bag as I exited it from the car. We pulled into the McDonald’s carpark at the roundabout and proceeded to change both Oscar and Fionn.
A McDonald’s employee appeared and asked if we needed any help, we did. He headed off and got black sacks and a roll of kitchen paper. He introduced himself as Dave and stuck his card in my pocket. He then apologised for heading off but his shift was over. Two minutes later he reappeared with a cup of water for Oscar to wash out his mouth and another one of 7-Up which he told us to shake flat so it would settle Oscar’s stomach (a trick we’ve used many times in the past).
Dave then left with the message to give any of the bits to staff and to just say that he had said so. I was so impressed with this guy. All of this help was unprompted and was deeply appreciated by us. I thought he was just one of the new-style Helper’s in McDonald’s which are a fantastic addition but when I checked his card later, I found he was the manager.
Anyone who thinks McD’s are going away any time soon had better wake up and smell the lattes they now serve. McD’s are finally realising that customer service is just as important as the burgers to retain customers. It’ll be employees like Dave who make that seachange happen.
Promote this man fast - he’s capable of far more than Roscrea!
Thanks again Dave.
Technorati Tags: McDonalds, Roscrea, Ireland, Dave+Green, Customer+Service
19 Comments
Trunki - Flippin brill idea
Posted on July 20, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Purchasing.
Catherine spotted these today:
They are called Trunkis and I just love the idea - a travel case that doubles as a ride-on toy. I stood in Gatwick yesterday watching kids going stir crazy in the check-in queue. These would definitely help. Might even be fun for bored adults too.
[tags]trunki, The Natural Baby Resource[/tags]
3 Comments
Meet your individual seeking
Posted on May 25, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Purchasing, Technology.
Oscar the little sod broke the hinge on his DS again. Definitely a design flaw. The guy who provided the last replacement case no longer ships out of the US.
Luckily some knock-off merchants on e-bay are selling clone cases in a variety of colours. Got a replacement funky dark grey one for him for £8.88 incl postage from Hong Kong. Not only is their Englsih a joy to read, check out their spelling on Nintendo. Up there with Sonny, JUV and Panasunic! I’m not complaining, it worked like a charm and he’ll be a very happy new 7-year old when he gets up in the morning.
[tags]Nintendo, DS, Ninteudo[/tags]
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Vendors I would recommend
Posted on July 18, 2005, by Conor, under Gadgets, Purchasing, Technology.
I’ve bought a few bits n pieces on eBay and the web recently and all of the vedors were top-notch and I’d recommend them.
First off I got an FM Transmitter for my car which takes a line-out from an iPod or a USB key. It has taken a bit of fiddling to get a frequency that is not used in either Bandon or Ovens but I’m very happy with it and it only cost �27.94 including P&P. To be found here on eBay:
USB/MP3/iPod/DvD/Cd Player & Car Stereo FM transmitter
Vendor looks like he is in UK but item shipped from USA. Got it in a week.
To go with that I got a very nice Memorex 1GB thumb-drive. A bit of an odd shape but good value at �42.49 including P&P. To be found here on eBay:
1GB Memorex USB 2.0 Travel Drive
Vendor took a while to ship it (ordered June 23rd, shipped July 6th) but it arrived a few days after shipment. Based in Singapore.
But the prize for the most unexpected excellence in online retailing goes to Discount Watches in the UK. I had spent weeks trying to find a good online seller of both Casio Baby-G GMS and Waveceptor watches. Thought I had found the perfect one in Germany but on ordering, it turned out they had no GMS in stock, so I cancelled.
Then I found discount-watches.co.uk. I emailed them to check in advance that they shipped to Ireland and that they had the watches in stock. No reply. Bum. Decided to try that old fashioned means of communication, the phone. No reply. Double bum. Rang the next day and got through to a lovely woman from Llantwit in the Vale of Glamorgan. Nearly said “I’ll have a bacardi and coke please Myfannwy” but asked about the watches instead.
Not only were both in stock but they only charge a fiver delivery to Ireland. The real clincher tho is their prices - less than half RRP in many cases! I ordered on the phone with the semi-expectation that I was about to be diddled. Three days later the watches arrived and are perfect. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
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