« Weblog: Currently on my mind… »

June 2005

Monday 27th

What the …  

Since I updated the site on the 10th my hits have died! It has gone from around 900 uniques a day and typically 6-10 people on at any time of the day to dropping scores a day, incrementally, to the point where I am now seeing a mere 300 a day (and still falling) and only 1-2 people visiting at a time.

At a guess, I'd say Google took extreme exception to my changes and banned me, which is patently ridiculous as the changes related to removing tables (making it friendlier) and the new menu.

Is it, of course, possible that renaming the pages and moving them is the cause, but the 'Error 404', page not found messages don't seem to reflect that.

The UK is having a bit of sun for once, but I hardly think that's the reason. Also, the changes really kicked in on the 21st, triggering a sharp 45° \ downturn in the graphs.

I am NOT a happy bunny!

Monday 21st

*Blinks*
Well, that week flew by! That's the curse of getting aging, the older you get the faster the years, even the decades go by without you noticing. Cheeky teenagers the world over consider someone of twenty-odd over the hill… Pttt, what do I know, it's not like I was ever a teenager, hmmm.


Social statement of disgust

I have a rule of staying out of politics and such, but this needs saying. A few years ago my son - now 11 - came up with a classic statement:
You can't shout at me, that's child abuse, I'll get you done!

He is still grounded for that one-liner, but it sums up the frankly insane 'socially correct' state of this country. The legal and social system is tied up in red tape revolving around the idea that the guilty have far more rights than the victims. As for the little monsters growing up, come on…

Before the seventies it was a social stigma to have children out of wedlock, now…

Government backed social engineering has created a monster that is frankly unrealistic, unmanageable and grossly immoral…

For those living outside the UK, I can assure the following is 100% true…

In the youth culture of today it is almost a status symbol to be an unmarried, underage mother.
Eh!?

For those of you living in North America and other parts of the globe, here's how it goes, three steps to wealth and independence:

1. You are typically under sixteen, generally under 21
   You go out to get pregnant
2. As an underage mother the government throws money at you…
   You can claim a house with all rent, rates etc paid
   Plus you can claim benefits - a salary - running easily into $20,000+ a year
3. You go on national television, national press saying it's not your fault, the system let you down.
   Instant fame and notoriety in your 'hood.

OK, I'll run this by you again. In what is, in essence, government backed and financed pedophilia, the 'punishment' for underage sex for girls is to be granted a house, sympathy and loads of money!!!

Clearly that is a major deterrent, eh!

For any young mothers thinking of flaming me about how wrong I am and it isn't like, cobblers. It is exactly likely that and if you can't cope, maybe you should thought about it a little longer. Welcome to life.

For anyone even remotely thinking of emailing me in support of these poor, put upon 'victims', don't even bother, it's because of idiots like you the country is in the mess it is in.

Which brings me nicely to the next point.

Bearing in mind that even shouting at the little horrors can be construed as abuse.

Bearing in mind that the 'responsible' British government has neutered the school and college system to the utterly unrealistic point where 100% pass rate for exams is the norm, meaning, for employers, it isn't worth the paper it's printed on. This, in case the 'mentally challenged' (and the lazy) might feel inadequate because they aren't the brightest button in the jar, as it were. Come on, even the thickest of them must, at some point, realise you are patronising them!

Bearing in mind that if the police bother to take their attention off (profitable) easy target motorists long enough to tell off some reprobate the best they can expect is a mouth full of abuse and having to fill in multiple forms - thus deterring them even further from carrying out their duty…

Bearing in mind that the government has deliberately created an entire generation or two that are legally unrestrained, socially retarded and morally bankrupt; where the rights of any person (or their property) that isn't them are a joke and where respect is a street word and not a concept they are familiar with nor have the upbringing necessary to understand.

I reckon the fools at Tango give them the idea from a - rightly criticised - television advert. A bright orange man belts someone from behind to the proclamation You've been Tangoed

Anyway, is it any wonder then the little b's have a new craze called 'Happy Slapping'. I'm not sure if this is local to the UK, or not, but it says it all, for me. The 'game' is to bully, to hit someone smaller, videoing it on their video equipped mobile phones and send copies to all their mates. 'Oh how we laughed when we saw the class geek hurt.'

In their materialistic, I want, me, me, me minds, that is so last week, so it came as no surprise to me when the news reported it had escalated from one person slapping someone to a gang beating the stuffing out of their victim (leaving them hospitalised and traumatised for life) and sharing the video round school. What fun.

But that is so last week.
The latest one, which already has it's own name, has degenerated into gang rape of girls as young as 11 (so far) and sharing that round the school. What a laugh, seeing your school friend held down, screaming, while two boys rape her and a third films it on his mobile phone for the benefit of the school.
I'm quite sure that's what their parents bought it for them for, hmmm.

Other news has a kid abducted and quite literally hung by teenagers 'for a laugh'

In a country where victims have few rights, where the children have it drummed into them almost from birth that they are untouchable…

How long, I ask you, before the latest 'game' is Happy Snuffing ?

Oh how we laughed as we videoed his legs twitching in death.
Laughing as they 'txt' and send the follow on:
m8, I got his mum wailing at the news. It's a riot. Wanna see?

How much is too much?   How far is too far?

You have to wonder, will we accept it when it inevitably happens and accept the next, and the next ever worse atrocity?

Well, how much is too much?   Just how far is too far?

Girl's rape 'filmed by teenagers on mobile'

…

A teenager was shot in the leg by two teenagers who photographed her injuries with a mobile phone.

…

In May two teenagers were jailed by Bolton Crown Court for setting fire to a stranger sleeping in a bus shelter. The pair laughed and joked as they filmed the attack. Their victim almost died from his burns.

The Times [ The Times Online, June 18th, 2005

Apparently, a few weeks ago, a Professor associated with Blair's government said that we should not pour scorn on the hoodie wearing generation of 'Chavs' (as they like to be known), because we might hurt their feelings.

How much is too much, how far is too far in a world where the government's advisors apparently put the negligent emotions of psychotic teenagers over those the potential murder victims!?

Monday 13th

Trying to catch up with all my email before translating FrenchApartment into French (then German and Dutch), I went off on one of my tangents and ended up with a number of links of interest to anyone in marketing, web design and search engine optimisation. Largely to do with keywords, these are a selection of resources I'll be using myself when I get to the next stage of improving Ackadia…

Specifically, I aim to (legitimately) get over a million visitors a month to Ackadia and one of the ways I can do this, besides continually improving the content, is to tightly integrate the headers on a page by page basis. Sure it will take a few more years, but I'll get there in the end.

Anyway, here's the links, before I forget. I will add more another day, moving or at least copying this to the web design pages.

• Ask Jeeve's IQ - Interesting Queries
• DMOZ: Keyword related websites
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
  Get ideas for new keywords that can help you improve your ad relevance.
• Google Web Help
• Site Reference: Forums
• Yahoo's Buzz index

If you are interested, I tried out Snipe Gallery v.3.1.3 for the Photo Gallery for the holiday apartment site. The template still needs work and better integration for languages, but it does show around a hundred photographs of the beach front, house, towns and activities in and around the Mediterranean resort of Canet Sud, Pyrénées Orientales, Languedoc-Roussillon, in the south of France.

Little extra plug for my friends there, but the pictures are actually quite good. If you are interested in the camera specifics, I lent them a Nikon D70 with an apochromatic Sigma 28-300mm (f3.5-f6.3) and the relatively new Sigma 18-50mm f3.5-f5.6. Given he'd never used a digital SLR and only had a few minutes introduction on settings and changing the lens (before leaving for the airport) I think he has taken some amazing shots.

Needless to say he loved it and is thinking of getting the new Nikon D50 with a couple of lenses for his own use instead of the Nikon Coolpix compact he has now.


You may have noticed, but I've decided to add the blog to all the left menu's on the basis blogs seem to be popular and on the vain assumption that if you are interested enough to visit Ackadia, you are likely to wonder what my blog is like - which is the rest on the site with a day by day focus. Helps me stay vaguely sane, I guess.


I've also added a feed for 'On this day in History', 'Quote of the Day' etc. There are probably better ones around and when I find them I'll look at integrating them instead, but it is something I've though about for years, so, in it went.

I've a few other things to sort out, not least of all a new scanner, but what I will do is sort out my own gallery and add a 'Picture of the Day', especially while I've taken to carrying my camera when I venture away from the keyboard.

Saturday 11th

Eventually got the money back from Pipex, but we are still really unhappy with them about the whole event

On a brighter note, the changes I needed to do to fix up this place are done, and the kids go back to school on Monday so I can get some typing done it peace without the stress of my pair, and all the other monsters parents have turfed out the houses.

Tuesday 7th

10.30am: Still nothing refunded from Pipex. On Friday I will begin legal action against Pipex to recover the money they owe us, plus are associated costs of course. I have reported the matter to Trading Standards today as this is clearly ridiculous. Other than maliciousness or gross incompetence I can see absolutely no reason for the delay.

My complaint to Trading Standards included the following:

Yet another email filed off to Pipex accounts:

Monday 6th

Finished and uploaded the Games section preliminary updates and working through the general knowledge section.
*Flex*
Getting there slowly.

Saturday 4^th

Don't take it lying down, tell it like it is!
On a separate note, my ISP - Pipex - has REALLY dropped me in it with my wife. She is absolutely furious with me and especially with them and with good reason… No, this is not juicy gossip about me, it's a frankly disgraceful list of failures and, in our feeling, malicious delays by Pipex's accounts management who have triple billed us and are taking their time about refunding a relatively large amount of money, all the time trying to pin the blame elsewhere.

I'm not sure where we are on legal grounds, but we am going to take action against them soon if the funds aren't returned shortly - as promised, and failed, promised and failed and promised in writing after I started getting antsy…

Starting to see a picture here? As it is, I am strongly considering telling considering Pipex to get stuffed and cancelling our hosting in favour of a better deal elsewhere. At the moment the only thing stopping me is they actually have a great support team.

Anyway, telling it like it is:

Monday, May 16th
Ackadia vanished from the net. A quick call to the support team confirmed the account had been closed because we hadn't paid. I was transferred to accounts who explained I'd ignored the last three email reminders after our (outdated) credit card declined so they disconnected me. Not a problem I transferred again to sales and got the (newer) credit card out.

OK, so far, simple misunderstanding. I forget to change my email when Pipex took over Webfusion. Had they emailed from Webfusion it would been fine. From a business relations point of view, when the details they held on our card were declined (despite emails ignored), I would have thought it made more sense to make a follow up letter or telephone call to a customer than discard them for the sake of making the effort.

Anyway, transferred to sales, renewed, website was back minutes later. Brownie points to Pipex.

Now - literally minutes later - as I was browsing their website I noticed they had a good offer on, allowing me a reseller account for just another £70 a year (ex vat)*. Naturally, I called to check if I could cancel the first order and upgrade instead to a reseller account, which was fine. Part way through I was told, hang on, don't do it though us in sales, use the upgrade option on the control panel - which I did.
*(Reseller accounts are normally £50 a month ex vat).

Emailed 2 account activation notices and one invoice for the reseller account.

Tuesday, May 17th
Pipex emailed two confirmations - I shouldn't have had - for a reseller account and a business account
I was also emailed (presumably belatedly) this:

Dear Paul Ackerley,
We have today tried to process a payment for your account using the card, last 4 digits nnnn, securely held on file. Unfortunately we have been unable to complete the transaction due to the following reason:-

Card has already expired

…
This payment request was towards clearing the following invoices:-
Invoice Date: 06/05/05 …

**Please note:-You will normally receive a seperate email containing your invoice within 24hrs, if no invoices are stated above please contact our Credit Control Department.

(Yes, it is their spelling mistake).


Wednesday, May 19th
Right about now, everything is smelling of roses, until my wife checked the bank account and found they had billed us for:

• the initial order which hadn't - as promised - been cancelled.
• for the reseller option, which should NOT have been processed as THEY told me to use the control panel instead.
• and for the upgrade via the control panel, which is right.

About now our bank is haemorrhaging, but that's tolerable, obviously a bizarre set of mistakes on their part, caused by me deciding to upgrade. Not a problem, I'll call accounts and get it refunded . I didn't get a name, but I was told, sure, it will take 4 working days. I did ask for a confirmation email, but never got one.

Thursday, May 20th
Sent an email to accounts requesting refunds

Monday, May 23th
No sign of the money and the girl I spoke to was seemed rather rude, to me. It was MY fault and I'd get the money back when it was processed. Like a lot of my generation, haven't a lot of time for cheeky kids, so I'm getting a bit grumpy now and, again, asked for an email confirming that the refund was being processed.

Wednesday, May 26th
STILL no sign of the money, nor any confirmation that it was being processed. Began calling accounts to speak directly to a manager, speaking to David, to Kerry, and another girl over the next day or so. All refused to let me speak to the supervisor and gave me the feeling it wasn't their fault, and they were rather busy processing orders, thank you very much. I was given the impression they were doing us a favour passing this as a priority to a manager to deal with.

Now, surprisingly, I kept my temper as I pointed out that we are down over £500 because of their mistakes, no-one is returning phone calls, no-one is returning emails and now I'm told they are too busy to refund us because they want to process the paying orders coming in…

Nice to know where you fit in the scheme of things at least. We're alright Jack, we have your money, eh.

Friday, May 29th
Still nothing, I'm firmly in the doghouse and Kerry from accounts was claiming they couldn't refund the money because they didn't have the correct card number. About now even I'm starting to get rattled and pointed out it never stopped them debiting the money THREE times. She pointed out it was for security reasons and they didn't keep them. Anyway, needed to call back later as my wife was out with the card. A little later is about when I exploded down the phone at someone in accounts. I explained I was calling back to speak to Kerry and was told she wasn't in today. This was changed to, well she was in but went home at 2pm.

Belatedly getting it down, I also had this following email (dated the 27th) from accounts administrator, Helen Henshaw. This was actually in response to my email of the 20th and not, I think to all the other calls I'd made.

Hi Paul,

We are currently in the process of refunding the amount of £316.08, but are awaiting the correct expiry date for your card in order to pay back this amount, please advise. I have also requested a credit and refund for the previous account renewal amount of £234.94. This should result in a total refunded amount of £551.02. Please allow up to 14 days for this amount to show in your account.

Thank you for your patience whilst this is processed on your behalf.

Kind regards,

…

So here's where we are at now:

• I was told by sales the first value would be refunded immediately - it wasn't
• I cancelled the first reseller account application before it went through - they processed it anyway
• I verbally requested confirmations several times - and was ignored every time
• I emailed a request and it took them a week to reply
• I was verbally told a few times it would be refunded within 4 working days - it wasn't

Now, I'm told by email it will take a staggering 14 days - on top of the existing delays - to refund two charges, one of which should have been cancelled instantly, the other of which should never have been processed and thus was taken out of our account without permission.

I'm told - in writing - on the 17th that they tried to automatically renew my account using our credit card details on file. Yet I'm told they couldn't refund the money because they don't keep credit card details…

While acknowledging that the initial error(s) may have been caused in part by my decision to upgrade, either maliciously and/or through ignorance and/or bad training on the behalf of various Pipex staff we feel we have been, at one point or another, rude too, lied too, certainly misled and, at the end of the day have no confidence in them at all. Come Monday it will having been going on for three weeks.

You have to laugh at one line of the email from accounts:
Also, did you know we offer variable direct debit to our monthly and yearly customers. This a great hassle free way of ensuring that your account is always up to date.

I've never trusted Direct Debits since I was defrauded a few years ago* and Pipex, having tripled charged us (by mistake) and seem incredibly tardy about refunding the balance, want us to trust them with open access to our bank account. Riiiight!

*(The bank in question reluctantly refunded the car insurance debits - on account of me never having owned a car in this country and them having absolutely no record of the authorisation.)

Note to Pipex management and to Helen Henshaw and the team at Pipex accounts:
Yes, a 'series of unfortunate events', nonetheless, honestly, we are REALLY annoyed over how lackadaisical you are at refunding the money, so you can imagine how we feel about being 'misinformed' too as well, eh. Nice job at public relations, hmm.
~ Paul.


As a footnote…
It is not the amount, it is not even the billing errors, it's the stream of misinformation and - especially - the fact no-one got back to us. Over the past decade or so I've had three main ISP's. U-NET priced themselves out of the market after before taken over by Via-net, but I actually left after their accounts department messed me around. The second ISP I left for exactly the same reason. Now WebFusion, having been taken over by Pipex, seem determined to make it strike three!

Thursday 2^nd

Despite being in a particularly grumpy mood and distracted with my children, I managed to finished most of the sub menu linking for the computer section. I really must invest in a decent content management system one day soon, this is taking forever.

Also took the time to put a photo library on the French Apartment website. Ugly for now, but I need to do a lot of under the hood work to remove the tables and make it multilingual.

Oh aye, added a rank checker and 'folk on line' script to the bottom of the pages. Whether I'll leave it there remains to be seen.

Wednesday 1^st

Joined the Yahoo Flickr online photo management and sharing site. Describes itself as the best of its type in the world. Seems OK.

Also joined the Ozzu Webmaster Forum. Looks well populated.

I rarely get out, but it spreads the word about Ackadia, so what they, hey, I've added myself to FaceParty.com. I actually thought it was a site about face painting kits for the kids, but it turns out it's more of a social, meet folk place. Ah well.

I was joining a few more forums and such (see above) and realised I keep getting asked for the same demographic information. *Shrugs* I don't mind sharing. Besides, I'm so burnt out from information overload I can't remember what I like anymore . Having the kids off school for a fortnight really doesn't help.

Took the family to see 'The Pacifier' with Van Diesel, and the new Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe. I thought the first was great, even my wife did, which it unusual, but everyone gave HHGTTU a big thumbs down. I liked it enough, and it stayed close to the book and original, but still, it could have been better. Ford Prefect was wrong, and Marvin was definitely wrong - especially given the original Marvin robot had a bit part!

Found this handy tool on my travels. I'll move it to the SEO pages soon:

They also have a Search Engine Term suggester, based on the Overture search engine.