Bedside Entertainment

I took a Netbook and a Mobile Broadband Dongle from 3 down to the hospital in Liverpool.  It worked much better than I had expected it to, at least as far as signal and speed were concerned.  Unfortunately, the Dongle stopped working less than half way through my stay.  I’ve already written about the disappointment this caused but the story got worse!

Customer Service?

After a long call from hospital that emptied the credit on my mobile, 3 said they would need to send me another SIM card.  They sent this out as promised and it arrived at my home address a few days after the call.  Of course, this was useless because I was still down in Liverpool, only a couple of hundred miles away!

When I got home, I found that the replacement SIM did not work either.  This led to a farcical turn of events that very nearly led to me losing my temper!!

Call 1

When I called from the hospital, the chap was polite and friendly.  I explained what I had done already and he had the grace not to ask me to do anything again.  Eventually he said there had been a security fault with my account, so I needed a new SIM.

Call 2

When I found that the new SIM didn’t work, I got one of those extremely polite people that doesn’t listen to a word you say.  She said that “according to her computer” (in India), my Dongle and SIM card were functioning correctly.  She did make me go through all the troubleshooting steps.  She started with “Please remove the SIM card and give it a wipe”!  Of course, I had already done everything she suggested and more but there was no telling her.

Next she told me to swap the SIM in my 3 mobile with the one in the Dongle.  This uncovered a fatal fault with 3.  They expect that you are already a mobile customer.

I don’t have a 3 mobile and no, neither do any of my friends.  “Well in that case sir, can you take it to your nearest 3 store and they will be able to sort out the problem”.  When I pointed out that the nearest store was 35 miles away and asked if she would arrange for the 70 mile Taxi journey to be paid for, she actually said yes!  Of course, she wasn’t listening to me, was she?!

Visit to Store

This is where the sublime turned to the ridiculous.  I took the Dongle back to the store I had bought it from.  One of the staff plugged the Dongle into a laptop and announced that it wasn’t working!!!  Getting somewhere?……No!

Did I have the packaging……No!  When the Dongle had worked, I threw it out (Mistake 1).  Did I have the receipt?……No!  (Mistake 2).  But, I had assumed that Customer Services could pass on details of our calls.  They had not told me that I needed proof of purchase.  After all, the Dongle does have a BIG 3 on the side!

When the assistant pointed out that I needed to prove that I had bought the Dongle from them, I started to feel a little warm.  I explained the whole conversation with Customer Services, told him the time and date that I had been in the store and that I knew he wasn’t working that day but his colleague across the store had been.  None of this was any good because he needed the number on the box!  At this point he even said that Customer Service should not be sending people to the store because they are completely different parts of the company?

He refused to do any more.  All he could suggest was that I went home and looked for the receipt.  Another 140 miles anyone?

I did feel my temper rise a little but made sure I didn’t raise my voice.  Unfortunately he wasn’t able to control himself quite so well.  Despite this, he took the liberty of pointing out that I was shouting at him.  He wasn’t happy when my wife pointed out that it was him that was shouting, not me!!

Call 3

Eventually I persuaded him to call Customer Service and find out what I needed to do now.  Suddenly everyone was very friendly!  He told CS that he had tested the Dongle and they immediately agreed to send out a new one???  However, his computer was down, so could he call me back in half an hour?

I had a premonition!  There is a very feint number on the inside of the cover.  I couldn’t read it, so I asked him if he would need this number before leaving the shop.  “No, that’s fine, I just need to go through the repair details with you.  I’ll call you back”.

Call 4

Guess what?  No!……He did call back but we were in the car (dark) and he asked for the number I couldn’t read!!

Call 5

Sorted (Really?).  They would send out a new Dongle.  When it arrived, it would be with a pre-paid bag that I should use to send back the old one.  OK!

Have You Ever Thought……

…..It’s just not worth it?  I got my new Dongle and (so far) it’s working OK.  I even got £10 of credit from the very first call!

The Dongle cost £40 with 3Gb of data on it.  The first two calls to India cost about £7 each.  Of course, it’s free if you call from your 3 mobile.  The trip to Edinburgh and the hassle in the shop should not have been part of the procedure.  Surly it was obvious that the fault was with the Dongle?!?  BUT, I couldn’t jump through the computers hoop of testing the SIM in my phone.

PLEASE 3……Realise that you are selling two different and unconnected products.  The man in the shop……give him a little training.  You cannot deny that a product comes from a particular company when the company’s name is stamped all over the product.

I will NEVER have a 3 mobile.  I’m stuck with the Dongle!

One, Two, erm……3?

As I think I mentioned already, I was lucky enough to get a Netbook for Christmas.  Of course, to get the full benefit of my new machine, I really needed a Mobile Broadband connection to go with it.  Since I would want to take the machine to hospital in Liverpool with me, I was looking for a “Pay As You Go” Broadband Dongle that had coverage here at home and in Liverpool.  This narrowed the choice somewhat. 

The selection process was a little tricky.  Basically, my requirements were:

1. PAYG.  No Contract (I don’t need the dongle at home but would like to take it away in the Motorhome.  So I only need credit when away from home rather than all the time).
2. Coverage at home and in Liverpool but also good nationwide (Our Motorhome could take us anywhere).
3. Price.  This proved to be more confusing than I expected!

The short version of this tale is that only 3 fitted the bill.  So I didn’t really get a choice in the end!

PAYG

Mobile Broadband is available with a long contract (similar to a Mobile Phone), a short contract (one or two months) or Pay As You Go (PAYG).  Since I only need Mobile Broadband when I’m away from the house, I was looking for PAYG.

Not all operators offer PAYG, so I found I had a limited choice.  Both Vodaphone and O2 dongles were available from ASDA along the road and 3 have a shop not too far from home.  The other big operators (Virgin and Orange) only offer one/two month contracts.  I ruled these out for being too complicated!

Price

Here it got really complicated and care needs to be taken to get value for money.

I came across two different pricing models for Broadband Data.  You can either pay for a specific Time and get unlimited access during this period or you pay for the actual Data used.

You have to remember that any Unlimited package usually has a Fair Use Policy to go with it.  I found that these Fair Use Policies were actually quite restrictive.  O2 lets you buy a day, week or month with unlimited access.  However, according to their Fair Use Policy a month of unlimited access is actually capped at 1GB and the shorter periods are proportionately less.

To me, paying for the data makes more sense and is more transparent.  The more data you buy at a time, the cheaper it gets.  The downside?  The data allowance will expire after a fixed time period.

3 will let you buy data in blocks (1GB is the most popular).  If I bought 1GB today I can start using it straight away.  If I run out, I can buy more.  If I don’t use it all within 30 days, it expires and I lose the balance.  The trick is, to work out exactly how much data you are going to need!  The more you buy, the cheaper it gets but if you buy too much and lose the balance, it’s false economy.

Coverage

Of the providers that met my needs above, only 3 had coverage both at home and in Liverpool.  This pretty made the decision for me but I also prefer the pricing structure used by 3.

Result?

For some reason the 3 website wouldn’t play ball with my Credit Card so I popped in to one of their shops.  The dongle I bought came pre-loaded with 3GB of data which would last for 3 months.

The device is Plug and Play, it just needs to be connected to a USB port.  All the software needed is already on the Dongle, so it sorts itself out and lets you know when it is connected.

Coverage both at home and in Liverpool was excellent.

Perfect!

Domain Shortening

With all the fuss about Social Networking only getting bigger, I did a little research into the whole idea of Domain Shortening.  The idea is far from new now but there are lots of new thoughts about the best way to manage the process for your website.

I have never liked the idea of using a “faceless” URL shortening service like bit.ly and the rest.  What it the point of working at building your brand and then displaying all your links on someone else’s domain?  So when I came across YoURLS.org (quite by accident), I really liked the idea of trying to set up the…… Read the rest

Introduction

Two years ago I had a Spinal Cord Stimulator implanted in the hope that it would help me cope with my chronic pain.  It worked very well…..For the first year.  During the second year it gradually got less and less effective and my pain rose to the level it had been before the implant was fitted.

During the summer I realised that the situation was only going to get worse, so I called the Walton Centre in Liverpool for help.  They arranged a clinic appointment for me and then a follow up appointment with my new consultant.

He was honest and told me that he feared the loss of efficacy…… Read the rest

I Had Hoped

I knew when I went into hospital that I was going to have a wait until my Warfarin levels were back to normal. That’s why I had put so much thought into keeping myself busy before I set off for Liverpool.

The set up was perfect, a nice compact Eee PC and a Wireless Broadband Dongle from 3. I was prepared for problems with the Dongle, there are complaints about coverage etc, but everything was perfect. It worked a charm and was actually fasterthat I expected.

So, before the Op was fine. Lots of surfing done. I was a happy boy.

After the Op, the plan went skywards.…… Read the rest