Life-and-customer-service

Stop Moaning about the Weather and Make Some Money !

2010-04-05T14:56:00.001+01:00

Well the weather is atrocious and I can't get much done outside. However instead of spending endless hours just surfing the net with nothing particular to do I have been filling out online surveys on SYNOVATE . Not only do you get paid for completing online surveys but you can voice your opinions on subjects that matter to you !
That has got to be better than watching the rain run down the windows !

Just CLICK HERE to join, it is completely free and there is no obligation. I have over £10 this weekend and have also applied to test a few new products and then get paid for the reviews and keep the products !

Good luck everyone and if you find a good paying survey then email me james@m6jdb.co.uk and I will get it filled in.

Thanks in advance for your help.

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

People Serve Wolverhampton are SHIT !

2010-03-11T16:29:00.002Z

People Serve Wolverhampton waste your tax money on themselves and do not, I repeat do not help people back to work !

They are an awful mess and a fantastic display of how not to run a company or your life in general !

As an example. I set myself in self employment, People Serve Wolverhampton gave me £50 and no advice.

They pocketed over £1,000 from the government for finding me a job.

What the fuck is this all about ?

If anyone out there has any personal experience of people serve Wolverhampton then please get in touch.

People who use my name PISS me off !

2010-03-10T17:06:00.003Z

How to Use 'the Secret' for Weight LossThe Secret is a movie about the Law of Attraction. Its popularity is growing daily, especially after Oprah dedicated two entire shows to talking about the movie and interviewing the stars. Oprah wanted to know if the Law of Attraction applies to weight loss and the answer is yes. According to The Secret, every thought, feeling and action sends an electrical impulse to the brain. For sake of simplicity, I��™m going to call this electrical impulse a message unit. In our society we have the opportunity to absorb thousands of message units daily that will prevent any chance of long-term...
How to Use the Secret for Weight LossThe Secret is a movie about the Law of Attraction. Its popularity is growing daily, especially after Oprah dedicated two entire shows to talking about the movie and interviewing the stars. Oprah wanted to know if the Law of Attraction applies to weight loss and the answer is yes. According to The...
Lose Fat in a Flash: Here's HowYou have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Original URL ------------ http://www.ageforcehgh.com/fat_flash.html Title ----- Lose Fat in a Flash: Here's...
Fidgeting: The Natural Weight Loss DietIt's now official. The simple act of fidgeting can mean the difference between lean and obese. It's the natural weight loss diet. My friend likes to relate a story from time to time about when he was just a lad. His grandfather called him "Worm", because he fidgeted so much. And...
Can Writing Actually Improve Your Health?According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, writing about stressful life events helped reduce symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis in patients with these chronic illnesses. The effects of the writing exercise were still evident four months later and resulted in clinically...
Top 15 Reasons to Avoid Low Carb DietsLow carb (carbohydrate), high protein diets are the latest dieting craze. However, before you jump on the band wagon, you may want to consider a few things: 1. Low carb (ketogenic) diets deplete the healthy glycogen (the storage form of glucose) stores in your muscles and liver. When you deplete...
Pathological Eating Disorders and Poly-Behavioral AddictionWhen considering that pathological eating disorders and their related diseases now afflict more people globally than malnutrition, some experts in the medical field are presently purporting that the world's number one health problem is no longer heart disease or cancer, but obesity. According...
Fidgeting: The Natural Weight Loss DietIt's now official. The simple act of fidgeting can mean the difference between lean and obese. It's the natural weight loss diet. My friend likes to relate a story from time to time about when he was just a lad. His grandfather called him "Worm", because he fidgeted so much. And...
Spoonful of Sugar May Curb Stress, ObesitySweets may decrease production of glucocorticoid, a stress-related hormone that has been linked to obesity and decreased immune response, researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found. "Glucocorticoids are produced when psychological or physical stressors activate a part of...
Weight Loss Tip #3: Moderate Drinking May Help You With Weight LossThe connection between moderate drinking and avoiding heart disease is pretty much old news to most of us at this point. But now, experts are saying that those of us who have 1-2 drinks a few times a week are less likely to become obese than non drinkers. Finally! A Weight Loss "Do and...
Weight Gain in Adulthood - Slowing it DownThe biggest problem we face in America today is not terrorism - it is obesity. This is according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in America. And it seems much of this problem is happening in a slow and creeping way, through gradual young and...
Did You Know there are 3500 Calories in a Pound of Fat? Understand the Math and Lose Weight!Weight loss... There is a diet for this and a diet for that and exercise equipment of every kind, each designed to help you lose weight faster and easier then the next-each advertised as virtually ripping the fat off of you with little sacrifice of pain and suffering on your part. The reality of...
Breakfast Revisited: Why It Really Is The Most Important Meal of the DayI read a great article posted on WebMD (http://www.webmd.com/content/article/116/112300.htm) by Jeanie Lerche Davis about the importance of breakfast in fighting the battle of the bulge. Today we're going to share some of the practical points emphasized in that article that can be implemented by...
Before You Buy Hoodia Cactus SeedsHoodia gordonii is an increasingly popular appetite suppressant and has received lots of media attention. Hoodia plants, hoodia products and even hoodia seeds are being sold on e-bay and all over the internet. If you are considering buying hoodia cactus seeds, there are some things that you should...
How You Can Overcome the Age of FatnessUnfortunately, the second half of my title rings true for many people across the world. We are truly in the "Age of Fatness." How many people do you see day after day after day, overweight, out of shape, looking like they can hardly walk (much less run)? What are we to do? Why...
Did You Inherit Fat Genes: The Truth About Biology And Body Fat"Battle Your Biology? Fat Chance," proclaimed a headline recently in the health section of the New York Post newspaper. Quoting new research and citing psychologists, dietitians and physicians, the article says that more and more evidence proves that your weight is genetically determined,...
Are You Ready To Change?Are you ready to change? Simple question right? Maybe not. So you say you want to lose weight and start living a fit and healthy lifestyle, but are you willing to commit to the changes in your diet and exercise program that will be necessary for you to succeed? If the answer is no and you try...
The Skinny MirrorA few days after moving into our new home, I noticed the mirror in the hallway made me look as if I had lost twenty pounds. While I have dropped twenty five pounds this year, I knew I couldn't possibly be as thin as I looked in the mirror. However, I liked the image that was reflected back at me...
Obesity: An International Scourge!The world is in the grip of a fat pandemic that threatens to overwhelm every country's health system with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and shorten the life span of future generations, experts at an international conference warned. 'Obesity is an international scourge', said Prof....
Centers for Obesity Related IllnessesThere is a rapid upsurge of obesity in America today, with an alarming 20 percent of the adult population struggling with serious weight problems. This poses some grave health implications and complications that should be given immediate remedies. In response to this health crisis, there are a...
Enjoy the Holidays and Lose Weight Too!"Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart." - Erma Bombeck You know the drill. Every year, you overeat from Thanksgiving to New Year's and you gain weight. How would you like to change all that this holiday season? How would you like...
Eat These Specific Foods To Raise Your Metabolism and Help Burn Body FatHere's a list of specific foods that raise your metabolism and help burn body fat. Cayenne Pepper - Oxford Polytechnic Institute proved that cayenne pepper stimulates the metabolism approximately 20%. It not only stimulates the body's metabolic rate, but also cleans fat out of the arteries....
Good Ab Workouts Aren't Good Enough!Everyone who is trying to lose weight is on the look out for good ab workouts to complement their fat loss training program. Nevertheless, many people often focus solely on getting rid of that stubborn belly fat, and exercises that target that area. The simple truth is that however good ab workouts...
Re-Thinking Farming - The Solution To ObesityWorld leaders need to force an end to 'crazy' agricultural policies that fuel the global obesity epidemic by keeping unhealthy food cheap. This is what International Obesity Taskforce chairman, Philip James, told a gathering of experts in the field, that existing farm policies, particularly...
Dieting and Weight Loss ResolutionsFor many of us, the New Year is a time of reflection. Reflecting on what has happened in the past and on dreams and desires for the future. These dreams and desires often become New Years resolutions. I admit that for many years each time a New Year rolled around I would make a resolution to lose...
Hoodia The Magic CactusPlant Hoodia is a plant that is indigenous to the desert region of Southern Africa. It is grown in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa, Hoodia Gordonii is an all-natural appetite suppressant, derived from a cactus-like plant with prickly spikes. Scientists have been researching the Hoodia...
A lot of Kids Who Have Weight Problems Are into SurgeryThere is just little number of children who ever tried the weight loss surgery. Since the operation is quit dangerous, with a death rate of over 1 is to 50. According to the federal statistics, only about 350 kids who had tried to go into operation in the year 2004. A group of four hospitals, led...
Phentermine Alternative - How to Lose Weight Without Really TryingTwo-fifty in the morning. On a work night. Awake. That's nothing new to Phentermine users. Fast and furious up-to-no-good kids would call it late. Even some Vegas clubbers would be calling it a night. Naturally, there are consequences for staying up that late. But when you're losing weight, who...
Hoodia Gordonii - Magic CactusHoodia Gordonii is grown and located in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa. The San peoples knew hoodia gordonii by different names; xshoba, ikhoba, xhooba, etc. Hoodia Gordonii is as appetite suppressant which was taken from the extract of a cactus-like plant with prickly spikes.

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

Michael Foot R.I.P. Quote

2010-03-05T23:41:00.001Z

While trawling the internet I picked up this fantastic quote.
If it doesn't make you stop and think of others then you rreally need to stop and look at yoursrelf.

"We are here to provide for those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer, To hell with them...The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves."

Michael Foot

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

Fantastic Customer Service !

2010-02-19T19:49:00.002Z

What a fantastic result. After the initial first contact with head office customer service i felt very deflated. I phoned the store in Wolverhampton and they were a lot more courteous, they invited me to return to the store and return the mackerel that I had bought.
I did so this morning at half 10 and was welcomed by Bev Brown. She had already been briefed about the problem via a note left on the desk from the customer service advisor who took my phone call last night. Very efficient.
Bev took my details and called for the assistant manager, Chris O'Shea who arrived promptly and inspected the mackerel fillets. I am very sorry but these are commonly known as cod worm and do appear in sea fish eg, cod and mackerel from time to time. He assured me that all fish in the store is inspected and thoroughly cleaned before being packaged and placed on display. However very occasionally due to the high volume of turnover a piece of contaminated fish does make it to the shelf.
A very honest, informative and concise answer I thought.
Happy with his explanation I returned to the fish counter where I selected 2 very nice Sea Bass Fillets. After a thorough inspection they were bagged up and given to me free of charge, that is good customer service. I made my way to the store exit and passed the customer service desk where I was again stopped by Bev Brown who presented me with a £5 gift voucher for the inconvenience and a slip from the customer complaint form which is to be forwarded to head office.
I left the store with 2 great looking Sea Bass Fillets, a £5 gift voucher and a real feeling of satisfaction that comes from fantastic customer service.

Congratulations Morrisons Pendeford.

You have retained my custom and reassured my faith in customer service. Well done.

James Broadhouse

Worms in fresh fish from supermarket

2010-02-18T22:38:00.000Z

As I said I purchased 2 mackerel fillets from the fresh fish counter of a local supermarket. The one fillet was for me and the other for my 8 month old daughter, she loves fish and mackerel mashes easily with vegetables and potatoes. However after unwrapping the mackerel I discovered it was covered in thin almost translucent, live wriggling worms ! Oh dear ! What is the fat man and the baby supposed to eat now ? I can have the king scallops but judging by the quality of the mackerel I wouldn't trust them enough to let the baby eat them. I took a standby pot of frozen vegetable mash I had made previously out of the freezer and started to warm it through for the baby. This delayed the meal for everyone, the chips were in and so was the wife's vegetable lasagne. I had been looking forward to this meal for ages, as regular readers now we only have homemade chips once a month so this and the fresh fish were a real treat that I had been looking forward to.
After being quite put off my evening meal I telephoned the supermarket head office customer service, I didn't get the response I expected. Worms in the fish eh ? Take it back to where you bought it.
No apology, no empathy not even a general "how do you do ?" or "where in the country are you ?"
How rude !
I telephoned the store where the fish was purchased and got a better response, straight away an apology and an invitation to return the mackerel to the store.
Fingers crossed we reach a satisfactory conclusion, If not I will have to name and shame the said supermarket and give a full and detailed account of the whole saga.
This may not mean much to all my readers in the United States and those via The New York Times but it will to all the supermarket shoppers in the UK.
Fingers Crossed for tomorrow,
James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

Thompson and Morgan Bad Customer Service

2010-01-28T16:19:00.000Z

This was kindly passed to me today. Has anyone else received customer service from Thompson and Morgan like this ?

Am I right to be upset with the service I have received?

Twelve days ago I ordered several packets of seeds online from one of the major seed companies (Thompson and Morgan ), I received an email acknowledging my order

I noted in the terms and conditions that "Most seed orders are shipped within 5 working days of receipt of order"

Yesterday (day 11) as I had not heard from them I decided to email there customer care department to find out what was the problem, within hours of the email I received a standard template email telling me that my seeds have indeed been dispatched and that they should arrive within the next 2 -4 days, this email seemed to ignore the fact that the order had already passed twice the normal shopping time but I thought its ok they are on the way

Today (day 12) I receive a letter from the customer care team saying thay are experiencing authorisation problems with my card number and they won't be able to dispatch my order until I return my card detail by post

I'm not upset that about the authorisation issue as sometimes payments and systems go wrong, it doesn't need to take so long to resolve a payment issue does it? but my main gripe though is the template email sent telling me my order had already been dispatched when infact it hadn't, to me this either means the customer care team just send out emails without actually checking, or they really can't tell and are just guessing

I just sent an email asking them to answer me why it took so long after an order has been acknowledged to actually contact a customer bearing in mind they had my address email and phone number on the order form and why they told me my order had been sent when it hadn't.

Am I expecting too much? or do I just have too much time on my hands?

perhaps being nearly 40 means I no longer have any patience I did when I was younger

Well Done Fothergills seeds

2010-01-22T22:23:00.002Z

This was passed to me today and it is always worth praising a company that does its best to rectify customers problems;

Hi all,Just wanted to share a positive experience I had with Mr Fothergills recently (oo-errr missus....).I placed an order with them recently for various bit and pieces and these are being delivered over the next few weeks or so (Shallots, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Garlic, etc).Anyhoo the Garlic (Lautrec Wight) arrived yesterday and I noticed that one of the bulbs has been damaged rendering about 2 of the cloves unusable.I contacted Fothergills via the website form as the office had closed and I was sceptical about receiving a response but I was pleasantly surprised to get an email this morning telling me that I was getting a replacement sent FOC.So now I have another two bulbs coming for the cost of a loss of two cloves!Gotta say, in a day and age when customer service, in general, is poor at best, I am pretty impressed by the service received here.Just thought I'd share.
Ade

Do not use internet explorer

2010-01-16T23:03:00.003Z

« Danger! Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability - no patch yet »

German Government: Don't use Internet Explorer

The German government has advised computer users not to run Internet Explorer and run an alternative browser instead, because of a critical zero-day security flaw.

The advice, which came in the form of an official statement from the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (known as the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik or BSI) says that the as yet unpatched vulnerability is likely to be the same one blamed for hacker attacks on Google and other US companies last week.

The BSI advisory claims that although Microsoft's advice to run Internet Explorer in 'protected mode' and disable Active Scripting makes it more difficult for hackers to attack, it does not completely prevent them.

ASDA response, Is this good enough ?

2010-01-15T09:48:00.000Z

Thank you for your message.

Hello James

Thanks for contacting us.

I was sorry to read that the dvd box set you bought from ASDA did not contain the discs. I can imagine how you must have felt when you opened it and I am sorry.

I understand that you contacted the store about it and you were given a number to ring but when you rang it it turned out to be a small retailer. Please accept my apologies for the distress and inconvenience caused.

Please take the set back to the Wolverhampton store with your receipt and our customer service colleagues will change the set for you.

Once again, thanks for contacting us and please accept my apologies again for the service you have received.

If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards

Claire Brant
ASDA Service Team

Your views and comments are once again invited.

ASDA customer service !

2010-01-13T13:06:00.000Z

I purchased a Tudor's season 2 DVD box set before Christmas. When we opened the set on Monday 11/01/10 it did not contain any disks or booklets!
It was after hours so I telephoned ASDA customer services the next day Tuesday 12/01/10. I was informed by someone at their call centre that my problem was not with ASDA but with SHOWTIME the company that distributes the box sets. I was given the telephone number of Showtime and told to take it up with them. I am pretty sure that my contract is with ASDA but I had reached a dead end in the call centre so thought it best to contact SHOWTIME on the number I had been given by ASDA. The telephone call to SHOWTIME seemed a little confused but I was assured the manager himself would call me back asap to rectify the problem. Good customer service. 10 minutes later I was called by the manager of SHOWTIME who was very friendly and polite, he asked about my problem and I explained that I had purchased a Tudor's season 2 DVD box set before Christmas. When we opened the set on Monday 11/01/10 it did not contain any disks or booklets! The gentleman then asked where I purchased the box set and I informed him that it was ASDA Wolverhampton he apologised and stated that because he was just a small independent Video and DVD shop based in Wigan and had nothing to do with ASDA that he wouldn't be able to help me. However he wished me luck against the big corporation and stated that “ If the box set was purchased from his shop then a full refund or exchange would have been offered”. Good customer service. Thanks Showtime.
Back to the ASDA call centre where I am now advised that I need to get in contact with the store in which it was purchased. I called ASDA Wolverhampton and was informed that the manager of that department was having to work on the till but if they could take my details then they would ring me back asap. That was Tuesday 12/01/10 6pm. I left my details and had them read back to me to double check they were correct. It is now lunchtime on Wednesday 13/01/10 and I still haven’t received a call back. I have telephoned the main customer service number again and this time cannot get through because the automated system is stuck in a loop of option 1 & 2 if you have reported this complaint before etc...etc...
I have now resorted to email to get a response, I have kindly been informed by a banner at the top of the page that this could take up to 48 hours !

Come on ASDA is this really good customer service ?
I hope to get a reply soon
Regards
Mr J. Broadhouse