Laughing in the face of danger!
Rants and Raves
What are Google thinking??
Jun 10th
Seriously, what are Google thinking? My idea of a Google search page is a clean white background, with blue text, and a great big Google logo at the top of the page. That’s not what I see today, I see a plethora of eyesores, making my “Google Time” somewhat dis-pleasurable. I want my Google back, I don’t want some crackpot images from National Geographic every time I go to the search page, I want my white background, and blue text back. ITS HOW I LIKE GOOGLE…
The worst image possible, is when you click “Remove background image“, and you get this.. It’s disgusting.
I mean look at the image first of all. Its silver and a dull brass on a black background, which is okay, but the image is not flat. It has a 3rd dimension added to it which makes text hard to read. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the images work with the rather generic text, such as the image of the sand-dunes, you can still see the text. But when you’ve got white backgrounds with white images, and then white text with a bit of a shadow, it doesn’t work Google…
Secondly, the Google logo is somewhat ugly. What happened to the blue, red, yellow and green we’ve all grown to love? Why do they have to bastardize our beloved ones?
Thirdly, what happened to the text, we all know white text on a black and white background makes the text hard to read?
Next, when you do select a background image, you have this bright-white atrocity stuck at the top of the page, which is the navigation bar. Its ugly when you have your own background. If you’re going to have a background image, at least change the image at the top as well, so that it all blends in.
All I am asking for, is for you to give me back the Google I remember from the very first time I went onto your Search Engine. Mesmerized by the colours and the simplicity, it became the ONLY search Engine I used. And yes, that’s how much I like Google! But I think I may stray away from using the home page to search from now on, and just stick to using the URL bar in Chrome to search, at least my eyes won’t implode when they try to read the text!
If you’d like to read more information about these homepage changes, view: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/art-of-homepage.html
Carphone Warehouse
Jan 8th
This company is a shambles. It is run by people who know nothing about phones, they employ staff who know nothing about the industry, they sell crap as a “good deal”.
My Experience
I first got my contract with CPW back in October 2008, thinking it was a cracking contract. It consisted of the Nokia 6300 (an extremely reliable phone, though very basic), a Nintendo DS Lite (with nothing but the console, a manual and the charger), 14 days wait, £150 “up front confirmation fee”, and some snotty cow on the phone.
Basically, I applied for the contract in August when I just got paid. Happy as Larry, I completed all the forms on the screen and clicked submit. It then asked me for payment details, so I filled them in and submitted. It then asked me to confirm my order, which I did, and then submitted. On the order confirmation form, it said that the credit checks are instant, and they will email me regardless of the situation. 2 or 3 days passed, and still no email about my credit check or dispatch. 7 days passed, and still nothing. I went into one of their stores near where I live, and queried why my application for a contract phone is “stale”. They took my details, got me to confirm, and looked at me. The customer service agent called over his colleague and they both stood looking at the screen for about 5 minutes. Amongst themselves, one said to the other, “Have you seen anything like that before?”, the other replied, “No”. The guy then turned to me and said, “You’ll have to phone them up and speak to someone”. I stormed out the store, angry as hell.
Getting pretty wound up and phoned the number they give me. Stupid fucking robots. Press 1, Press 2, Press 3. I’d rather not press any fucking buttons at all and just speak to someone. When I finally got through to someone, lets just say they had difficulty speaking the Queen’s English. I couldn’t understand a blood word they were saying. After finally getting through to him what it was I wanted, he turned around to me and said, “Oh, that’s right, you need to transfer £150 as credit insurance”. I was livid. I can understand the credit insurance, but why nobody could contact me and tell me, I don’t know.
So I sent the money and finalized some details. When the phone arrived, it was thrown out of the van by the courier, then slammed onto the desk, and some grubby piece of wood with a bulldog clip on it was handed to me. I told him to hang on while I opened the bag and checked all the boxes inside were visually sound. He looked pissed off and asked me to hurry up because it was nearly his dinner time. I chuckled and checked them once more.
From that day onwards, I’ve never had contact from CPW, nor have they written to me about my expiring contract. One thing they have done is sold my mobile number onto other companies so they can try and buy my contract from me.
So if this is anything to go by, take my advice, and NEVER USE CARPHONE WAREHOUSE. They are a waste of time, they wait for you to contact them, and they use the worst couriers in the country.
Other Experiences
Other people have also had bad experiences with CPW when it comes towards the end of their contractual period. Most of them state that if you end your contract without 30 days written notice, they charge you. Of course this could be debatable, but quite a few telecoms forums have said the same thing.
