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Listed below are comments made by stoatwblr between Tuesday, 5th May 2009 and Sunday, 1st November 2009.

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BT customers paying their bills and more 9:46pm on 01 Nov 2009 The really appalling thing is that BT is far from the worst telco for customer service and bogus charges, but the British consumer seems apathetic enough to lay down and take the "service".

Stronger, more proactive enforcement of regulations is required. Given the current mess in that department I don't hold out much hope of such issues becoming as rare as they should be.
BT customers paying their bills and more 9:37pm on 01 Nov 2009 I second Chriscardiff's comment. Ofcom seem to be doing their best to avoid dealing with a number of issues (not just this one).
Supermarkets update - what's the deal? 9:34pm on 01 Nov 2009 If people bothered to do simple math then this wouldn't be an issue.

As for WHY larger packs are more expensive than smaller ones, the issue usually comes down to volume - if a supermarket sells 100 times more 1kg packs than 2kg packs they're going to get bigger price breaks on the 1kg item.

Tesco normally put the price per 100g or kg or each on the shelves with the pricetag, it's not difficult to scan along and work things out.

(My usual brand of catfood is currently 3 pounds/kg in 1kg bags or 4.50/kg in 3kg bags. Which one do you think I bought and why?)

Of more interest are 2 items of shopping psychology:

1: Actual placement of items on shelves is usually indicative of the profit margin. High profit items and the items they wish to shift most of at are middle height. Bargains are usually on the bottom shelf or the very top shelf.

2: Food smells - the smell of baking bread in particular is a well-known way of inducing shoppers to spend more wihtout realising it. (For the same reason - NEVER go grocery shopping while hungry!)
Renault gets lost on the Scenic route 9:26pm on 01 Nov 2009 This is clearly an inherent fault in 1 or 2 components of the dash unit. The questions are why?, how?, what is the repair?, has it been fixed in new units? and are reconditioned units being fitted or new ones with the same inherent fault?

I had a similar problem in my car (not a Renault, but full of Renault components) and was quoted 800 pounds to fix. 15 minutes with a soldering iron fixing dry joints solved the issue for me. There are similar stories with other renault-sourced mechanical and electronic components

(eg, power steering losing fluid in 5 year old car, Dealership quoted 1600 quid to replace the entire unit. A specialist charged 600 to replace the single O-ring that had popped out and do some minor mechanical work to prevent a recurrance (it's a design fault but is easily remedied). Unfortunately he had to remove the entire steering rack to get to the O-ring and he says he sees 3 of these incidents per month - specialist waranteed the repair for 20,000 miles/24 months too! (dealership would only offer 6 months on a brand new rack))
Is your Wifi secure? 8:54pm on 01 Nov 2009 Story comment:

Brings up the point about using unencrypted sessions on wireless, but offered VERY POOR advice on operating in a safe manner.

If you're going to show a scare story then you can at least explain about secure websites and using encrypted mail sessions. VPNs aren't widely available and they have their own sets of problems - which may compromise the network at the other end of the VPN.

WRT sending mail as the "snooped" user. What was shown was far too complex. There are far simpler ways of spoofing any address on the Internet. Why would an attacker use the long-winded method?
Is your Wifi secure? 8:50pm on 01 Nov 2009 @Clare

> I've a few questions about using WiFi in public places:
>
> 1. I download email to Outlook rather than leaving everything in webmail. Can hackers get into my laptop and read mail previously downloaded into Outlook?

Not via wifi password snooping

> 2. Am I vulnerable while Outlook logs in and collects and sends email and is there anything I can do to protect this using public WiFi?

Yes, but if you use encrypted connections (imaps, pop3s, smtps or imap-SSL, pop3-ssl, smtp-ssl) then the session is virtually unsniffable (see previous comments about breaching 128bit encryption)

> 3. Can hackers get into anything else on my laptop?

Not via wifi snooping.

> 4. How about using a broadband mobile account instead of free public WiFi? Is this safe from hackers?

That entirely depends on whether the GSM session is encrypted or not, and if the login session itself is encrypted or not. Personally I'd err on the side of caution and only use passwords on secure website sessions, etc (look for URLs starting "https://" in your browser)
Are some BMW wheels all they're cracked up to be? 9:50pm on 22 Oct 2009 Living in Surrey I can fully understand the BMW dealer's comments. Surrey has some of the worst condition roads in the UK.
What was HBOS doing? 7:26pm on 06 Aug 2009
I find it interesting that there are all these stories about HBOS and non (so far) have even started to mention its illegal behaviour in efforts to chase debtors

There include but aren't limited to:

1: Breaching the Telecommunications act limitations on the number of calls made using predictive diallers - at 500 pounds compensation per pop that's a few hundred million pounds liability for starters.

2: Breaching the laws on unfair behaviour - such as farming out debts to collection agencies and STILL chasing debtors (This is EXPLICITLY illegal)

3: Using excessive contact as a form of harrassment (see part 1).

Under the justice act persons participating in such behaviour are jointly liable with their employer, so call centre staff should be thinking about the possibilities iof finding themselves with criminal records.

HBOS appear to have a bunch of different collections groups all operating independently and in competition with each other along with a bunch of trading identities. Unfortunately for them the laws, Ofcom, OFT and the banking ombudsman see all these as part of the one business.

Why has no journalist broken this story? Not brave enough?
Advice lines that exploit callers 7:56pm on 11 May 2009 PLEASE NOTE: PhonePayPlus (Formerly ICSTIS) is not a regulator. It is a Trade Association.

I have several letters from ICSTIS confirming this position.

PhonePayPlus have NO statutory powers whatsoever, including a total legal inability to collect fines they publish (Until 2003 they almost never collected)

Since 2004 there has been a tiny amount of authority delegated to them from Ofcom over premuium rate lines, however any outfit which refuses to cooperate or which ignores their orders can only be referred to Ofcom for action.

I find it disturbing that private organisations are allowed to advertise themselves as regulators when they are not. PhonePayPlus is not the only outfit which has been pulling the wool over the public's eyes.

[Note from Watchdog: The PhonePayPlus' website says: "Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom has responsibility for the regulation of premium rate services. In December 2007 it was confirmed that PhonepayPlus will act as the agency which carries out the day-to-day regulation of the PRS market on Ofcom's behalf." Best regards, web team]
Customer service questionnaire results 3:44pm on 05 May 2009
Abysmal call centres:

The very best call centres I have dealt with are in India. They're also in the UK, Netherlands, South Africa and various other places.

The worst call centres I have dealt with are in the UK, closely followed by ones located in India and the Philippines.

The _absolute_ worst call centres I have dealt with are UK government departments - in particular the Home Office, councils(*) and the DVLA. This appears to be because call centre staff in such organisations have _zero_ accountability and apparently seem to be being ordered to flat out lie to cover departmental failings. (Eg: DVLA staff stating "we are never wrong")

(*)SOME councils have extremely good, highly efficient call centres. It is a pity that the majority do not.

Excessive hold times:

As a result of widespread abuse, Ofcom finally introduced regulations about 2 years ago which prohibit exccessive hold times on premium rate, 084* and 087* numbers (the wording covers any form of call where the caller pays fees over and above contracted telco charges for a local call)

Such regulations are widely flouted by many companies and it is clear many outfits still see these types of call as a way of supplementing income.

(0845 is not "local rate", it is "Low-call rate")

Intimidatory tactics by poorly performing companies:

Ironically, while the very worst outfits make a great play out of informing callers that they are being recorded, staff take great offence to being told that one is returning the favour and making one's own recording.

Many call centre staff attempt to claim that making a recording is illegal and that they will refuse to deal with a customer who is making his/her own recording. In my opinion, this is a clear sign of not wanting to be held accountable for malfeasance.

If making a recording of telephone calls was illegal, The BBC would have been prosecuted many times over airing of "secret recordings". Regulations covering making such recordings are very clear about what is or isn't allowed and any recording where one or other party is aware of the recording taking place is allowed. There is no requirement to inform the other party that it's happening. (This is also the USA federal/interstate case, but some USA states and less enlightened countries require both parties are aware of recordings taking place.)

(UK law: A recording which has been made without the knowledge of both parties has some limitations for publication or use in court, but a transcript of such a recording is both publishable plus legally admissable and a court can then issue an order for the original tape to be produced for verification.)

Under UK law, the only type of illegal recording is where neither party is aware of the recording taking place and no court order has been obtained allowing that to happen (ie, security services.police are allowed to make such recordings _with a court order_ otherwise it's illegal.)

NOTE: All kinds of recordings are legally admissable in all cases where documentation of criminal activity _in progress_ is being made - such as breaches of the TPA or vandals on the street, etc (and the recordings are allowed to be continued in such a way as to clearly identify the people involved.) The DPA has explicit exemptions for videoing criminal actvities as a f'instance, even if the Met Police would like to think otherwise.

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