It’s a common senario to signup to a website and then unsubscribe after your purchase or when you don’t require the service any longer…What’s less common is when companies completely ignore unsubscribe requests. Especially large ones like Prizes.org which belongs to Google inc.

In a nutshell — I signed up to prizes, paid $200 and played around with a contest. I subsequently received  several emails from prizes.org and unsubscribed each time I received one. However, it’s not stopped them from sending me more emails and then more and more and more and more.

One starts to question their own sanity and so I took a screenshot to verify that I wasn’t losing my marbles:

And I’ve received several more of these after that particular unsubscribe request above – even though I’ve unsubscribed to every email since.

Please sort your shit out Prizes.org or Google or whoever runs the email marketing and stop spamming me – thanks.

GoDaddy “supported” SOPA until they started to lose customers; It will come as no surprise that GoDaddy.com have stopped supporting the bill in order to stem the hemorrhage of  domain transfers to other registrars.

What makes GoDaddy look even worse is how they have turned on a dime in terms of what they were standing for. While one may not like the enemy, one respect them for the principals they are willing to go to war over. However, nobody likes a spineless bully that changes their tune when a fight comes their way.

Boycott GoDaddy to demonstrate to other corporations that they will lose customers if they support a bill of censorship and oppression.

Losing a deluge of customers seems like fair justice to the arrogant butt kissing executives at GoDaddy.com that have a reputation of doing and saying as they please. They can’t.

Now all repeat in unison:

Boycott GoDaddy
Boycott GoDaddy
Boycott GoDaddy

I read a powerful article on Aaron Wall’s blog today, definitely worth a read, especially if you work in marketing.

The article : http://www.seobook.com/forget-seo

Silly little quiz put out by MI5 – I wouldn’t bother wasting 30 mins solving the puzzle, the results are disappointing as it simply links you through to another page where you can apply for a job that’s in the public domain anyway.

Here is answer:

Pr0t3ct!on#cyber_security@12*12.2011+

http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/ <—- Quiz Link

From destroying the market five years ago and basically putting everyone else out of business, Google has now put a value on premium web-analytics programmes.

I see this as a great opportunity for some new Web Analytics start-ups to form and challenge Google, there are too many privacy issues with Google for them to own the whole market.
Thank you Google for creating a new market, I’m sure in doing this, it will spin off a few more entrepreneurs that will go from rags to riches within a couple of years.

Once upon a time there was an example of a hidden email address to teach researchers that taking hidden email addresses is probably a bad idea. Mostly because they are spam traps.

Here is an example of a hidden email address:

spam@hidden.com (Can you see it with your own eyes?)

The End.

26 October – 1:30pm  - FINAL UPDATE

The 7th BT engineer came over this morning, a decent chap indeed. He managed to trace the fault to the building lift - every-time it’s activated, the line drops.  Everyone that called out a REIN issue was right – congratulations to all of you that can diagnose a problem without visiting the site.

I’d like to thank everyone that’s helped me reach a point where we can move forward – the attitude of the staff at BT is tremendous (bar Wholesale that were never interested) but every single engineer  that I’ve met has been lovely and tried their best to help.

I look fondly upon everyone at BT – you all care deeply and it shows.

I’m sorry I had to take such extreme action to get someones attention but it reached a point where I was just being ignored which was pretty dreadful. After hundreds of telephone calls, emails and a few Tweets without any prospect of a resolution; I eventually “lost it” and did what I needed to do in order to get some attention.

The advertising costs have run into the thousands for this alone, but I’m not complaining - I guess it would’ve been cheaper to just pay out my contract, however, I wanted to resolve the issue and not run away from it.

Thank You again to everyone that’s commented on this blog and and helped out, you’re all stars.

==========

Dear BT Broadband – Please Can you Fix my Internet – It’s only been 3 Months

My BT Broadband is terribly unreliable, it drops the connection all too frequently, sometimes up to twenty times a day. It’s the most infuriating problem as BT cannot seem to resolve the issue. Thus far I’ve had:

5 x Engineering Home Visits (Work time lost waiting for the engineers on every occasion.)

150 odd emails back and forth

100+ Telephone calls.

They have changed my whole network from the router to the cabinet and then the wiring to the exchange. They have also done a “lift and shift”, and a “port reset”. There is nothing left to do, on my side of the exchange.

BT WHOLESALE WAKE UP – THIS ISN’T AN OPEN REACH PROBLEM.

I know you see yourself as two different companies and don’t like helping Open-Reach but there is nothing more they can do.

Please help – this is outrageous – not only have I had unreliable Broadband for several months, I’ve lost £20,000 of work as a direct result of having a line that seems to know exactly when to drop so I lose the most amount of money when I’m trading online.In addition, I’ve looked like a Muppet to my customers abroad who can’t seem to understand why I don’t have a decent internet line in a first world country.

HELP ME BT BROADBAND WHOLESALE. PLEASE! (DON’T KNOCK IT BACK TO OPENREACH AGAIN – SO I GET CALLS FROM INDIA ASKING WHAT THE PROBLEM IS)

BT won’t even let me cancel my contract without paying the full contract out in full.

My phone number is 01865 556 408 – please look at the notes on the system. Extensive notes – I just get ignored now.  The BT openReach guys are a bloody good bunch that have done their utmost to help – but Wholesale – someone needs to kick their arses. It’s a joke.

Thanks for all the comments and ideas so far, I do appreciate that most of you guys and girls are going out of your way to help a customer. It’s really appreciated.

Update:

10/11/2011 - Facebook Campaign is started out of sheer desperation for a decent internet connection

11/10/2011 – I had a few calls from the team in Northern Ireland and the Newcastle team (3 or 4 in total)  promising some action. Line is still dropping – what felt like the worst day ever.

12/10/2011 – An “update” call from the Newcastle team saying they are waiting for a “Frame Relay Engineer” to call back so to book an appointment with me.  Line is still dropping badly.

13/10/2011 – 11:00am –  The NewCastle Team called this morning saying they have  ”upped the Hertz from 6 – 12″.

13/10/2011 –  1:16pm – BroadBand Line Dropped for 5 minutes

13/10/2011 – 1:30pm – Call from Gavin at the executive level complaints department saying they had taken over and are investigating.

14/10/2011 – 3:37pm – Broadband still dropping. I have a 6th engineering visit booked for Tuesday – 18/10/2011

17/10/2011 – 1:35pm –  Broadband still dropping and did so throughout the weekend. I noticed that at one point when the Broadband went down it said “check phone line” on my cordless phone. 6th engineering visit tomorrow; here’s hoping.

18 – 20 October 2011 – 1:38   – Broadband still dropping; BT is aware. Steps to resolving a Rein issue have been implemented they have re-installed a big ass faceplate to isolate the house bar the main point. Also, installed a Rein filter. However, as mentioned the broadband is still dropping – an engineering follow-up is scheduled for the 21st of October.

 20 – 24 October – 1:30pm – Broadband Still dropping! 7th Engineer scheduled to visit on Wednesday the 26th, this is to resolve a Rein issue or see if it uncovers any other issues that maybe causing the problem.  It’s been two weeks since BT has really jumped into action and I’m not really any closer to having reliable broadband.

As per the manifesto, here is what point #2 would look like if seen on a website or blog: Zena & Zeke are cool

This is a hidden email address hidden@HIDDEN.com (example)

Recently, I’ve almost not had a day go by where a taxi driver doesn’t attempt to rip me off in my home town of Oxford, here in the UK. Just a couple of days ago during a short shopping trip to Oxford city I stopped a black Hackney cab and asked him to take me home which is about a six miles journey. On route, I noticed he had turned the meter to fare #3 which is the most expensive and is illegal. Taxi drivers are obligated to not overcharge their customers illegally and use the correct fare numbers at the correct times.

Most of the time, taxi drivers should have their meters set to fare #1, unless it’s after 10pm or all day Sunday which is fare #2. The most expensive and rarely used, (legally) is fare #3, fare #3 is for Christmas day and long trips beyond the city limits. A typical taxi driver would virtually never have to use fare #3.  It nearly doubles the cost of any reasonably long journey (10 miles or more) and adds approximately 30% to the cost of a 5 mile journey.

I challenged the driver and he blew me off with, “well, I’ve just got off the motorway” (yeah right) and then he didn’t change it! He said it would add something like 30 Pence to my 6 mile journey when in fact it added £3. When I got home, he expected me to pay full rate which of course I didn’t as I knew what it should have cost – he then argued further saying the figure I had worked out was much too low. Pure and utter dishonesty. I didn’t pay what he wanted.

My second encounter with a dishonest taxi driver of the week occurred today; I had a guy start the meter within my 5 minute grace period – so the meter was running as I got in the car off my train from London!

I’m really sick and tired of these taxi drivers ripping people off in Oxford. I’m writing this post to encourage people to make public the names and details of the criminal taxi drivers, here around Oxford.

If you’ve been ripped off, please leave the details in the comments and I’ll publish them, details like taxi numbers, type of car, the offence caused, name of taxi firm and any other details will be most helpful in actually figuring out who these people are so the council can investigate these peoples nefarious activities.

Please do not use bad language or emotional language in the comments, however hard it maybe, I will not publish the comments if they contain language as such. Just the facts. Also, do not comment if you only suspect you’ve been ripped off, you need to know beyond reasonable doubt that some guy took a chance and tried to rip you off.

Please cut and paste the layout directly underneath this sentence so the comments will follow a logical format:

a) Three number license for taxi as issued by the council for their taxi license:

b) Date & time of offence:

c) Journey – From & Too:

d) Name of taxi company that provides the radios or cars

e) What Happened? – How did the taxi driver try to illegally overcharge you:

f) Type of car, Make- Model – Colour:

g)  Any other details which may be helpful.

Here are the names and numbers of taxi firms in Oxford, should you ever need to call one. I do not know which of the companies is the best or the worst, it seems like pot luck as to whether you get a lying, dishonest toe-rag or not.

ABC Taxis: 01865 770077 / 01865 775577
Botley Taxis: 01865 423264 / 07866 423264
001 Taxis: 01865 240000
RadioTaxis: 01865 242424 / 01865 249743
Royal Cars: 01865 777333
Oxford Cars: 01865 406070 / 01865 406080
Elite Cars: 01865 250500
Star Cars: 01865 777695

I may have opted in as I tried the site, but the amount of text messages and emails I get from these people is ridiculous, one night I got fifteen emails. Yesterday, I got six text messages in three hours.

This is after I logged in and changed my settings, maybe it took a few hours to take effect, however, whatever the circumstances, Madbid.com have really annoyed me with their very aggressive marketing.

I for one, will never use them again because if it.