Monthly Archives: February 2010

TicketMaster Sending Promotional Emails when I’ve Opted Out

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Don’t you hate companies that disobey your opt-out request not to be sent any promotional material after you’ve made a purchase? Man it pisses me off, I think it’s completely disrespectful of your wishes and terrible customer service. Anyway, I bought a couple of tickets through Ticketmaster to see a show at the Oxford theatre in September, the transaction was duly completed quite easily, however, there was a box that I unchecked which opted me out of receiving any further unnecessary emails.  Low and behold: Within 36 hours they are emailing me telling me what the benefits of my membership are or whatever.

Also, they sent me an email telling me about my “insurance” which I have bought to cover me in-case I don’t see the show for £5 odd – now what the hell is that all about? I didn’t want any insurance and I certainly didn’t knowingly ask for any, so why have the billed me for it or was it included? More investigation required here.

I hope your weekend was good my dear readers :)

4 of a kind Queens On Full Tilt Poker

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For the first time in my life in a real poker game I had four of a kind of anything! What an amazing feeling, to top it off they were Queens so I wasn’t going to lose, no matter what. It happened very early in a Sit and Go Tournament and I crushed the guy who dared to challenge my raise and re-raise. You get this huge buzz, almost like nothing you’ve ever felt before, it’s like an energy or an excitement that’s almost uncontrollable that rises from your stomach and into your mouth, you want to scream but you watch the rest of the hand instead with utter glee knowing the guy that just put all his chips is laughing at his most unfortunate luck.

Here is a picture from the screenshot I took as it happened, It’s the game at the bottom. If you;’re wondering why I have more than one game on at a time it’s because Poker can be really slow so if you multi-table there is usually always action and you can make money faster that way.

Four of a Kind Queens on Full Tilt Poker (FTP)

Santander (Abbey) Possibly The Worst Bank In Europe?

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I bank with Santander – the re-branded Abbey, let’s just say the systems and level of service leave much to be desired. My biggest gripe is that their security system is completely over-zealous and blocks my card every week on average. This is a business account and each time it happens it has a significant knock on effect and costs me money and time. I’ve tried repeatedly to get Santander to loosen the security on my account so that I don’t have to keep their number on speed-dial, however, it’s a gargantuan organisation with thousands of people and nobody knows where to direct you, I’d be surprised if you visited their offices in Glasgow and they knew where the toilet was.

Occasionally, I’ll speak to someone in security who will go through ten transactions of the last six months and I’ll have to verify each company. Sometimes, they will ask me about transactions that haven’t hit my account yet for really random amounts for example £31.57 – I mean, how on earth I am supposed to know who that was for? I can’t see it on my bank statement and the business has dozens of automated transactions a day. If you can’t verify, you can’t unlock your account. Nice.

Other problems have included:

1. “Forgetting” to send a CHAPS payment
2. Sending amounts of money abroad in the wrong currency – this was a huge error and the difference was massive – Then taking four weeks to claw it back.
3. Not setting up Direct Debits
4. Duplicating Payments
5. Not cancelling Duplicate payments.
6. Terrible customer Service.
7. Questions go unanswered and no less than five follow-ups are usually required.

The list goes on, I’ve only been with them for a year and it’s been rather exciting. I guess I should thank them for keeping me on my toes each time I need to pay for something as it’s a bit of a game as to whether I’m actually going to be-able to complete the transaction or not.

If you are considering a move to Santander because of the free banking or some other reason, I suggest you re-think the move as it probably isn’t worth the hassle and heartache you’ll go through.

Fantasy Housewife Shoppers Ruining Your Conversion Data?

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If you own a retail store you may ask yourself why you get so many shoppers abandoning their goods purchases at the checkout. You may think you have a bug in the shopping cart system or a problem with the gateway or merchant. However, have you considered that many people shop and then abandon their purchases just before making payment?

These people are called fantasy shoppers and the ruin your conversion data. They have no intention of buying, rather just to experience the thrill of shopping without actually following through with the entire transaction. These people actually enjoy the thrill of “shopping” rather than the actual ownership of the goods, if they can afford to buy and they do, the goods lose their perceived value to them and probably won’t even get used. You can classify these people in the same category as alcoholics or drug addicts, it’s associated with OCD and needs therapy to break the repetitive, compulsive behaviour.

If you have an amount of abandoned shopping baskets and you have tried every angle possible, consider putting a percentage down to people that never actually intended to buy anything in the first place.

Spammers Ruined my Stumble Upon Experience

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Well Stumble is dead for me, sadly. I had a particular incessant spammer whom, each day would spam my StumbleUpon inbox to death. Each time I would want to Stumble, I would see the dry, boring “package tours to India” website. God, I hate it. The website in question is amustic.com and the spammers name is “romeoman”. You might ask why I didn’t clear my inbox? Well, I did, but Stumble is slooooooow and it takes 15 seconds or so to Stumble through each message multiply that by hundreds of messages and it becomes a chore which I can’t be bothered with. I’ve tried blocking Romeoman but that hasn’t worked either and I’ve tried clearing my inbox from the user admin system, but it’s not what you’d call intuitive and I’ve given up.

So thanks to you Romeoman and your nasty little website, you’ve spammed me so hard that I’ve given up something which I really used to enjoy. I can’t believe some twit constantly filling the same peoples in-boxes over and over thinks that it might actually change peoples perspective to encourage them to eagerly rush and logon to the website and with anxious fingers book their tours to India.

If you read this Romeoman from www.amustic.com, please go and fuck yourself for ruining StumbleUpon for me.