Barbies Chocolate Conspiracy

I've noticed something - don't panic, I'm quite astute when I think about it - but listen up - chocolate makers are trying to sucker you into eating more. 

They might argue otherwise but on the majority of bars now they show a portion size...

Looks good right?

Helping you to know how many pieces count as a portion and what the calorie intake is...The problem with this is shown in the following photo....

So, 3 pieces is a portion...but there are 4 pieces in a strip....


WHO THE HELL BREAKS OFF ONE STRIP AND THEN LEAVES A SINGLE PIECE?!?!

No one.

 So to know how much you've eaten you need to either do maths (Hard option!) or eat 3 strips to make a total of 12 pieces (or 4 portions).  (Easy option!)

The chocolate companies are trying to make me fat!

Stolen!

Some of you may have seen a mass of posts on FaceBook recently called 30 day song challenge...for those of you lucky enough not to have your wall filled by people posting random songs, the idea is similar to a meme, but requires sharing a song from Youtube for each answer each day.

I didn't fancy putting mine on Facebook but I thought I'd share here instead.. so here is my song challenge (not over 30 days!)

1. Favourite Song (....of the moment because I can never make my mind up!)



2. Least Favourite Song ...(do I have to choose one?? theres so many!)



3. A song that makes you happy



4. A song that makes you sad



5. A song that reminds you of someone (For some reason this song reminds me of my friend Graeme G, I could swear its him singing it!)



6. A song that reminds you of somewhere (oddly an old workplace!)



7. A song that reminds you of a certain event



8. A song that you know all the words to (probably most of the ones I have/am going to post!!)



9. A song that you can dance to (surely you mean a song that you WILL dance to...? this does guarantee my presence on the dance floor!)



10. A song that make you fall asleep and feel relaxed



11. A song from your favourite band (one of my favourite bands!)



12. A song from a band you hate



13. A song that is a guilty pleasure



14. A song no one would expect you to love (I think after the above selection I couldn't surprise you with anything!)



15. A song that describes you (...because I can laugh at myself too)



I think I'll stop here for a while and let your ears cool down...Part 2 soon!

Someone understands the banks...

The bank next to my workplace received some rather choice graffiti last week.. Obviously someone understands the banks and has an environmental conscience....

Barbie voices an opinion

I don't do political or social statements often but there's one current news subject that I have a very strong opinion on so I just can't not give it a mention.

RBS are still insisting that they will be giving their staff bonuses even though the general public seem to be against it and the government (who bolstered the company with £20billion of taxpayers money) are also against it.

I'm not one to usually agree with the government about much but in this case I really can't believe that performance related pay bonuses could or should still be paid if the company in question has done so badly it needed to be bailed out! I know many staff members from within RBS have stated that they need the bonuses to supplement their income and that its only 10/20/30% of their annual wage but I still have no sympathy (its not as if the average staff member of RBS is that badly paid). I have worked for companies that have had similar bonus systems and if they didn't have a good financial year we got no bonus. That's how these things are supposed to work people!

One of the most recent excuses I have read on the subject is that the bank needs to pay the bonuses in order to keep the best staff in their business. With unemployment figures rapidly rising I hardly think the staff will be jumping ship with ideas of getting another job very quickly. Maybe the government should insist that if bonuses are paid the bailout is immediately due to be paid back?

That my view anyway. I don't care who agrees or disagrees. I am currently an RBS customer but I'm rapidly considering moving bank, especially if this goes though. Maybe its only this kind quiet defiance that will wake them up... loosing a lot of customers?

Not a good start

Following from the post below...Virgin media came and fitted our new line and broadband today.

As you may have guessed the broadband is working...but not quite how we would like...

First thing the engineer does is fit the phone line, simply plugs into the old Telewest line and hey presto! magic.

Next we wanders off to fit the broadband. (He has been asking some odd questions up to this point and seems to not understand the concept of a network with cables...)

Whist he is banging on the wall outside extending the line or something I got proactive and plugged in the phone. On testing the line all I could hear was a terrible connection and constant crackle which I promptly pointed out to him (I'm getting better at complaining it seems) he went away again but came back to inform me that there seems to be a problem with the network and he wouldn't be surprised if the whole street has the same problem as the box is damp, but he will have to report it as a fault and send a service engineer round.

So off he toddles "my work here is done" (or that's what he would have said if he had any form of eloquence or could even string a decent sentence together...) I venture out into the hall where the modem is...and its just a modem...no router. Bugger.

I hastily plug my network cable into the modem and hit the net to check that we were supposed to get a free router...yup. Ok not a good start then eh? faulty line and no router on day one, so I phoned Virgin media and explain the problems. I have a service engineer coming over Tuesday (almost another week) and I am informed that the router doesn't get fitted by the engineer, but has been posted out to us today...well at least its on its way, but its really no use that its not already here.

I thought this was ok...but I called BMan up to tell him how its all gone and he promptly called Virgin again to get it sorted. That was about 4:30. its now 6:30 and I've just had a text to tell me that he is still on the phone. I can't wait to find out what on earth has been going on but so far its BT -1, Virgin -1.

Sounds like its going to be an ongoing saga...

BT = Bloody Terrible or "Why I have had no internet for a week"

Oh dear here I go again....Another regretful business deal with a "service provider" When myself and B Man moved into our flat he already had a contract for Sky broadband so to keep it going we had to have a BT line. Neither of us were very happy about this as we had both had previous bad experiences with the notorious BT, but it had to be done (Its the only way you can have sky broadband for those who are blissfully unaware) So we had the line fitted and from day one have had constant hassles and problems, including a fault that took about a month to fix and again ended with us having no net connection for a week.

This time however the problem was dire, BMan got a call from his sister who had tried to call the home line but couldn't connect to it. This lead to us testing the phone and finding out that whilst we had a dialling tone we couldn't call out. So on the mobile I hop to BT "Customer services" I am initially told by the first advisor that I had a type of account that she couldn't deal with so I was transferred. A nice man in the billing department looked at my account and informed me that my line has been terminated..."Oh? I haven't had a bill" "hmm well the system is showing that you did not pay your last bill and you have been cut off. " Oddly he asked me when I noticed and was surprised when I said "about a day ago" so it sounds like it was cut off a good while before.
He checked the account and agreed that there was no outstanding amount (I had just made a payment for the month after the apparent "fault" prompted BMan to check the account online)
The nice man in billing then says - "well I can put you through to services and they will be able to reconnect you, just explain our conversation to them." Ok cool...easy to sort.

No.

I was then transferred to another man who instantly said "I'm sorry but I can't help you right now, our system is down so I cannot see your account." ok...but the last guy could...why can't you? "Its a different system, I can't see your account please call back tomorrow."

ok.. I'm baffled but I'll do that.

They were unfortunate, I didn't call them back...BMan did.... the end result was that they had disconnected our line for non payment (even though the bill was paid before it was actually due) the problem arose from a credit that was put onto our account that the highly sophisticated computer system had listed as unpaid (even though that amount had been credited...) and in order to reconnect us they wanted to credit check BMan again and sign us into another 12 month contract. He told them in no short order where they could stick that plan. They then had the audacity to inform him that a final bill with a disconnection charge would be heading our way, they were also told where to stick that and exactly how far... We should now be expecting a credit for the bill paid.

But this left us with no BT line...oddly the broadband was still working however so neither of us were very fussed.

The next day BMan gets home to find out that the broadband has also ceased to exist. So as an act of desperation we are now Virginmedia customers...

Opodo no no

Oh Dear... How does this start?...

Well it starts with a holiday of sorts... DaBMan and myself are heading dahhn saaff (note the very dodgy London overspill accent) to visit my friends and what little family I still have there. As I no longer have custody of a car I cleverly worked out that hiring a rental car and driving down for two people worked out financially better than flying or talking the train and less mind numbingly sickening than the 14 hour coach journey, and on top of that it means we have transport when in Norwich (Buses there are few and far between at best and costly, as are Taxis once you need to go out of the centre of town) so off I plod through the wonderful internet to find the cheapest car rental offer I could. A quick search came across Opodo, Online travel agenty booking third party people who offer me a car for 5 days for the wondrous price of £88.24. Too good to be true! well we all now what that means...

During the booking process the Opodo site states very clearly that all costs including taxes and additions etc will be displayed in total before payment. (Great Clear and Open! what more can a girl want??!) I finish booking and on the final page the price is shown - still £88.24 - there is also a note about a deposit amount that will be blocked from a credit card at the collection desk of excess+vat+fee. Now, I am very good at algebra, but even the best can't work that one out without being given a figure... Anyway work arrives so I toddle off, asking DaBMan to give them a quick call to find out this mystery sum. I get a text halfway through the day to tell me that the call is on a charged line (10p per minute) and he keeps getting through, getting put on hold for 5 minutes without speaking to anyone and then mysteriously cut off so He has found a contact us page and sent in an enquiry.

Today after 2 days I get a response...The amount to be blocked on a credit card is £700. Uh huh...because I have a spare £700 sitting unspent on a credit card don't I? Luckily there emailer from Opodo has put a telephone number for the local branch of the hire company(Auto Europe) on the email so I get on the phone to the directly to find out if this is correct and if so what I can do to get this price down?!

The first phone call got me the information of "Ah well you need to go to our website direct and take out the extra insurance cover"

This confuses me a little as the website given is for National car hire not Auto Europe but I try this anyway. the confusion hits even harder when I put my order number into the site and it tells me they have no such booking.

OK...Phone call number 2... This time I get the most helpful man on the planet! Great! He explains that to get the deposit down from £700 I do need to take out this extra cover - but that no one has yet told me that it costs £14 per day and should be taken and paid at the desk upon collection. I moaned at him about the service received so far from Opodo and he confirmed that this is a common story and people often have problems with them. I suggest that I am totally fed up and confused and want t o cancel my contract with Opodo because of the problems. Nice man offers to hire me the car directly with them to save on hassle and instantly offers me a lower price than Opodo (including the cover) I agree and he "pencils me in" for it. Woohoo! things are looking up! I'm still paying twice as much as I thought for the car but at least I know the score now!

Gathering my strength I call back the 10p per minute number for Opodo. working my way through the automated talking lady (press 1 for rectal exams etc.) I select the option to cancel my booking and at last a bored sounding man answers immediately.

I moan at him (nicely) and explain the problems I have had and that I want to cancel. He tells me that for the pleasure of being kept on hold, hang up on and generally ignored for 3 days he is going to charge me £15. He wanders away for a bit, leaving me on hold again (probably picking his nose or something)

I protest and receive the very stock answer of "But madam, the Terms on our website say that if you cancel within 7 days of making the booking we charge you £15, after 7 days it goes up to £40, and if you are a no show on the day of collection you loose your entire fee."

I protest some more but finally give in. "Ok, ok, you can have the £15 for doing nothing, just refund me the rest."

Bored man replies "Ok well I will also point out that the rest of your fee will be put into a refund request queue and will take 14-21 days to be processed."

WHAT??? you want to keep my money for another 3 weeks? (I am going away in 1 1/2) At this point I am in my office almost ready to eat my handset desperately trying to keep my voice down and slowly loosing the will to live. "Ok, so what are these damn extra costs that you re on about that I can pay to get this deposit down? if it means I dont have to cancel my booking?"

"Well I'm not entirely sure of the figures but if you would like to hold I can call the hire company and find out for you."

"Um no. I am paying 10p per minute to call you, I dont want to be on hold while you do that, could you maybe call me back with an answer?"

"Oh No madam, we are an incoming call centre only, If you would like to hold I'll give them a call..."

" NO, I'm not paying for that. "

"Ok, well um maybe I could send you an email with the information."

"Fine!" (I'm bored now, hes obviously rubbed off on me)

About 30 mins later I sneak up and check my emails, Bored man has answered. The prices he quotes are different again to 1, the originals from Opodo, and 2, the figures I got from the hire company direct. Gah! I have too much work for this so get back to shuffling emails for the afternoon (Its important... Honest!)

On the bus on the way home I again ring the hire company direct, cancel the pencilled in booking with them (no charge and no fuss) and another nice lady tells me that it seems every customer they get who books through an external internet company has these problems...

I come home and close to tears relate the whole sorry story to DaBMan who sits rubbing his hands together as he listens. (He loves a fight!) Obviously from here on in I can only really hear half the conversation...but it ends with Mr B thoroughly chewing the first "customer service rep" until he gets put on hold at least twice and finally gets through to a 'maybe' manager who makes him go through the whole story again, repeats the same standard replies again, and finally gives in with a "Oh well I wasn't told that you'd had all these problems, I was only told that you were disputing the £15 charge"

The 'maybe' manager finally agrees to refund the whole amount with no charge and dutifully passes the phone back to the "service rep" (of course managers couldn't possibly push a button to refund anything and its a good excuse for more holding!) The money gets refunded almost instantly (as if by magic, the refund queue has disappeared!)

The whole thing is finally sorted, (except of course I dont have a car booked still) I have vowed never to even think of booking anything through Opodo and making sure I let as many people as possible know about the most abysmal service they give. I'm even half tempted to contact those watchdog people and see if I can really stir up some trouble, but I'll see how vicious I feel tomorrow.

So the moral of today's lesson... DO NOT EVER, EVER USE OPODO!!