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Richy's Random Ramblings

Very impressed at O2

Yesterday, at the end of a 2 hour driving lesson, I think I left my mobile phone in my driving instructors car. Unfortently, it hasn’t yet “turned up” so I’ve had to report it lost to my mobile phone network – o2. And I was very impressed with their service:

  • Only two menus deep with their automated system (press “0” for anything else or lost phone, press 1 to report a phone lost/stolen)
  • UK call center with very fast answering
  • Simple authentication steps (well, if I could remember when I last topped up my phone)

But the most impressive thing? They are willing to send out FREE of charge, and within 48 hours, a brand new SIM card with the same mobile number AND my credit transferred over. This is a on a “pay as you go” service.

This compares with around 4 menus deep, slow answering Orange (I think I was “on hold” for over 30 minutes) who I had a contracted phone with – plus they wanted to charge me £25 for a new Sim card that would take 14 days to be sent out.

So in summary:
O2 – I had no commitment to them. They were willing to send out quick and for free a new SIM card. My monthly spend with them is £15.
Orange – I had a rolling contract with them (for nearly 3 years). I had a monthly spend of around £25. They were going to charge me for a new SIM card.

So if you ever think of losing your phone (including the number of your driving instructor who /may/ actually have the phone!) – then go with o2!

News: Lufthansa Adopts Traditional Dress

Lufthansa Cabin Crew In Drindl DressesLufthansa, the airline I used to fly to Japan and Portgual (both via Germany – so in the case of Birmingham, UK to Portugal, I went a very long way round), is adopting traditional dress: the Dirndl dress as used at Oktoberfest.

The thing that confuses me is that my experience of Lufthansa staff is that they are polite, understanding, and multi-lingual (on my Germany to Japan flight they recognised me as English and spoken in fluent English to my, in German to the gentleman sitting next to me, Japanese to some other passengers and I even heard French – the Portugese flight had German, English and Portugese speakers) – and I also believe there is some sort of Global Airline regulation that specifies that cabin crew need to be able to speak English.

So why does the BBC have an interview with the cabin crew who are going to be on flights from Munich to North America and Asia (so English will be needed to be known by the staff) – so why interview them in German and have to dub them into English 🙁

Net: Good timing (sick!)

From BBC News:

Maria Esther de Capovilla – officially the world’s oldest woman – has died in Ecuador aged 116, relatives said.
Capovilla died at dawn on Sunday in the coastal city of Guayaquil after succumbing to pneumonia. Her funeral was planned for Monday.

That’s what I call good timing – if she hadn’t died on Sunday, she would have been buried alive!

How did I get from A to K?

Can somebody please explain to me how, over two hours ago, I checked Wikipedia to see if the Vicar in the latest episode of “My Hero” (Michael Fenton Stevens) the actor I remember from KYTV – and then make my way through the history of BSkyB (and consequently Sky Broadcasting, British Satellite Boardcasting), then through NTL and Telewest, then via UK Gold, via Have I Got News For You, via Ian Hislop, via Private Eye, via something else (including, but not limited to, the History of the BBC, White City, Television House, Top Up TV, Xtraview, Richard “Dirty” Desmond, Mohammed Al-Fayed), then to the Mary Whitehouse Experience, then to Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, then to Fantasy Football League, and then to Chris Morris, then to Chris Langham, then to Armino Iccananeou (no, I can’t spell his name – the Scottish actor/comedian with an Italian father), then back to Chris Morris, then to “The IT Crowd” and Autism’s Syndrom finally finishing up on the wikipedia entry on “goatse” (I’ve still got Firefox tabs on Spitting Image, Retts Syndrom and Autism to read).

I wanted to go to sleep 1.5 hours ago, but damn wikipedia…..