what differentiates one online shop from another? The marquee tent experience

When you've found your product and your price what is left to differentiate one online outfit from another? At the top of my list the firms track record counts for lots: our orders to John Lewis, Maplin and B&Q for examples consistently worked out well or if ever their was a snag it was rectified in a jiffy. This for starters sorts these guys from the rest. They have to be good since the online mall allows lesser traders to offer exceptional choice - a ladder in ten sizes; a switch in n variations; a wall light with hundreds of options.
While the lesser traders don't have to be good, many prove to be amazing. However the sad occasion of a funeral was made yet more sad still by the ineptitude of one. AJP shopping sell the Gala Tent - a marquee for the British summer. Next day delivery is offered across the site - and where not the tagline 'next day delivery may be available' is a euphemism for something being out of stock. Placing the order I phoned days ahead rather than risk anything not arriving. I really should have asked them to read the order back; however I faxed it so there was at least confirmation of the date when it was needed. Phoning to check the day before I was lied to about the delivery date. "Oh I meant Thursday next week" said the sales person. Since the tent would be less useful next week I canceled the order. "That's alright" said the sales person. It wasn't alright at all.

tiger prawns as big as a 2 pence coin

Restaurant: The Plough, High Street, Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, SG8 6PP

Were any tourist a discriminating eater there's a high chance of starving in the greater Cambridge area. People who lived here before me say that if anything was good it's closed. A good few miles from Cambridge you could almost feel that a visit to the Plough was worth the trip given a dearth of presentatable places. That staff have been trained to serve tables is refreshing. That the food is fresh and original tasting immediately says thank goodness you took your VIP guest somewhere decent. But three courses later, with a starter of tiger prawns as tiny as a 2p piece you learn that it's food. It's not a meal. Starve is what we do here.

Verdict: it's a place to impress. never again unless if i have to.

Booking with Expedia - when a hotel price means anything

You booked a two-night stay in a hotel a few weeks ago. Right now you're checking in to hear that they want an extra $100. That's a not inconsiderable $50 a night extra. Had you seen this at the time you booked you'd probably have found a hotel more within your means. Think that's exceptional, it happens lots at travel site Expedia and they appear not to know it.

Let's say you book a series of hotels on a holiday itinery you've arranged yourself. Hotel 1 works as expected: Expedia charges your card immediately and the hotel are happy and want not a penny more. Hotel 2 booked through hotel.com is different because here your card hasn't been charged and what's more there's 10% tax to pay on the booked rate. Hotel 3 is part of the same group, but Expedia this time charged upfront for the full amount, tax and extra bed included. Hotel 4 booked through Asiarooms.com also charges the full amount, bundles in breakfast and adds no surprises. Hotel 5, booked through Expedia, is when we started and the trigger for all this.

See the pattern? Quite right, there isn't one. Expedia say the hotel voucher clearly states that the hotel may charge for extra beds and add local taxes. And yes they do, but then the vouchers all say this. So where do you stand, what do you pay and how will you know before you go? Answer: if you care not for surprises on holiday, check out the travel sites with the all-inclusive policies. Avoid the ones with the all exclusive small print.

Malaysia - tremors

We were in Malaysia during Easter 2005 when the second earthquake hit Indonesia - it's weird how unfair is this planet.
On a lighter, sarky note I'd like to say "thanks for the warning fellow scientists"! Seismology really smells and I can't see the point of it. The lack of ability to prevent loss of life is further good reason to reclassify the subject of seismology alongside astrology or as far as you can get from anything called reliable.

Footnote:
Actually we did get several SMS warnings from friends in the UK. I partuclarly liked the one that said "Did you feel any tremours?" particularly because it arrived in a batch of three messages - the phone was on the bedside side table and everything within a few inches of it shook.

House buying - technology assists

We are moving. After a lifetime in the capital, and more exactly the east end of London, we must move on. No longer have I the need to go shopping, see shows, and frequent bars so the bleak countryside has appeal.

Since a move some 15 years ago, the Internet has arrived to make searching for houses into a remarkable experience. In a word you can find. You can check databases of house prices; or see maps showing flood zones. You can get instant quotes, you can work out rebuilding costs, insurance costs and compare the insurance risk of different postcodes.

As well as find the empheral house, I half think that the net pushes up house prices. Before you'd need to be keen or live nearby to keep up with what is new on the market. The Internet helps to create the impression of demand and with more demand you get higher prices.

But what surprises is that in this time nothing else has moved on - solicitors still run the same procedures, the local authority search is still a paper exercise and you still hang on tenterhooks, risking time & money as the proffesionals slug along using paper and fax. It's a way of protecting the professions against the rich pool of knowledge emerging on the net. And it's part of the professions arrogance too.

For Tracy Spilsbury of Irena Spence and Co in Comberton (Cambridge - I'd not recommend this one) understanding a clients needs is not her best feature. Upon receipt of a notification, it takes a week to send a letter to kick the house buying process into action. It takes two weeks to get a reply to that. And it takes one phone call to experience the 'it-takes-what-it-takes' attitude to service. Why use technology to go faster when you can take your time and pretend you are earning your £1000.
Maybe that's why we're still called clients - the customer experience is as bleak as the area. .

 

Malaysia - Photo album

Click the title above 'Malaysia - Photo album'

Malaysia - view on day one

After leaving the UK in October, the heat is most relaxing. Sure, not everyone likes a climate where outside feels like the exhaust from a tumble drier but this suits me fine.

That the streets and pavement here in Cyberjaya, 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur, are empty may have something to do with it. Cyberjaya is a newly built zone called the Multimedia Super corridor, a silicon valley.

You’d think you were in Docklands - smart cafes, smart shops plus offices and building sites. But without palm trees and the sun.

My flat is smart (though round here that means that it's run by a computer - pics in the photo album above). You've heard about not-so-great working conditions in the far east, but this view, taken when I was working from home makes a point.

Local warming

After two months in sunny Malaysia, I can confirm it is pretty warm here. Global warming isn’t ever going to touch this place. As a guy who's written hundreds of school science experiments called 'how can we keep warm', I'm stumped to find a need to monitor beakers of hot water cool down. Stay here any longer and I'm going to have to rewrite a life's work.
But here we do have questions about heat. Just off the equator, Malaysia does not have 'seasons' like autumn and winter. They aren’t part of the language. We have the 'monsoon' which means that it rains for an hour at 2pm each day. The regularity is weird.
Office life is strange. The boss has a jacket on their seat back but it doesn’t mean that they are briefly away from their desk and they’ve not gone home yet. It’s there to cope with the air conditioning which really chills and gets to you. Last week I shivered through a 3-day meeting. We closed the office door to stop the cold from the air conditioning in the corridor. We opened the outside windows to warm up. The way to understand this world is to read thermometers upside down. Then, when it's cold inside the temperature goes up and it's time to open the window.

Dataloggerama home page