Another Annoying and Totally Pointless Phone call

I have now got a new mobile. We bought a Samsung Galaxy just over a year ago. A smart phone. I have never had one before, always having a fairly basic model, but it seemed a reasonably good idea to 'upgrade' to a mobile which meant you can have 'apps' on it, are able to get onto the internet etc etc. So we got a fairly basic model from Sainsbury's and went with a 'sim' card which you put into the mobile yourself, which is great, it means you can change your provider when you want and aren't tied to one particular company. It is an 02 sim and you have a 'bundle' of minutes and data for £10 a month (I'm not exactly sure what amount of data it has or the number of minutes for 'talking.' It's strange that it's referred to as a telephone, but most people seem to use these devices more for texting, going on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc than using the thing to actually speak to someone. But the Samsung Galaxy wasn't up to much, unfortunately. It didn't have nearly enough memory (0r whatever.) to allow you to have a whole selection of downloadable 'apps' on it. When we joined the A.A. a year or two back, after we broke down on the M1 when we came back from visiting Calke Abbey, we found that you could have an insurance policy, through the A.A., which meant, if you broke down you would not only get rescued by the A.A. (which they have always done since time immemorial; what the organisation was set up to do.) but also, with a reasonable monthly payment, you could have your car repaired, free, up to the value of £500. Which seemed reasonable. Considering the cost of car repairs and the fact that we broke down when we were up in Newcastle-On-Tyne around two years ago, when we went to move Daniel from one flat to another when he was at university there. And it was around a week later that we broke down- again- this time, as I mentioned earlier- on the return journey from visiting Calke Abbey. It was somewhat traumatic, to say the least. Standing and waiting to be rescued, within the area where there were roadworks going on. We had a free rescue and were then deposited in a layby just off the  Motorway, somewhere near Daventry, or was it Northampton? We were with Swinton Insurance and had additional breakdown cover with them, so they came and took us the rest of the way home. (All this mentioned in an earlier blog post on here.) What I am attempting to say, in a very long-winded and roundabout way, is, that, with the A.A. you can have an 'app' on your phone, which you use when necessary, if you break down, as it will show the service where you are exactly. No doubt using some sort of G.P.S. technology, which is good, because when you breakdown (which, in around 45 years of driving has only happened i think, perhaps twice.) you never always know exactly where you are, in order to let the rescue service find you.

Taking an age to get to the point of this post, but it's coming up in the next bit. I needed to explain the 'how's and why's of things before I got to the main point. A sort of Ronnie Corbett, monologue-moment. If you don't know what I'm on about, just Google 'Two Ronnies' comedy monologue or something.

So, we decided to upgrade the mobile again, this time with an iPhone. Not the latest, an iPhone 5. It has a good deal more reliable and has a good deal more memory than the Samsung has.

I have removed the sim card from the Samsung and put it in the iPhone. I notice that it's easier to get at the sim card as Apple see fit to make this simpler by having a little drawer at the side of the phone which you gain access to by the use of a little metal device, little more than a glorified paper clip. But if you have to remove the sim card from the Samsung you have to remove the back of the phone and then it's not that easy to find where the sim is. I discovered this by going on Google and finding a handy video on YouTube.

Well, no sooner had I got the thing up-and-running (not managing to get the passwords for various apps to work, but that's a completely other story.) I had several phone calls during the afternoon. One just rang and rang and I didn't bother to answer because they're usually just for P.P.I. or at least they don't sound too genuine. Telling me my computer needs up-grading and they're from the Microsoft office or something. Which is crazy, as this is a Macintosh and doesn't use Microsoft software. So they are more than likely just a scam, eager to get into my computer and all manner of nasty things. I saw that I had two calls from Liverpool, I don't know from whom, but they didn't ring for long enough to allow me to reach the phone to answer. Crazy, as it takes long enough if I don't have the mobile within arms length in order to pick the thing up before it rang off. But this afternoon I decided to ring back. I got a bit of music, the Minute Waltz, the music they use on the Radio 4 show 'Just A Minute.' I eventually got an answer, and it was about the accident we had a couple of years ago, when we went to Ascott, the National Trust property outside Leighton Buzzard, and when we drove home we bumped the car into a pot-hole which set the alarm off, something to do with keeping the car on track, I don't know how it worked exactly. But these insurance people think I was injured as a passenger, which I wasn't. I think it's just a crafty way to get people to claim thousands of pounds of compensation so that they can get commission out of it. I was not injured and just wish they'd stop ringing about this incident. 

Broadband, Landline telephone and television Switched to Sky

We have today transferred our broadband, television and landline telephone contract to Sky. It has been a relatively painless operation. I have to say, all things considered, they have been extremely efficient. It is barely two weeks since we rang to order our package. We have had the multi-channel package for around a week and the engineer who installed the dish and set up the Sky Plus box was very efficient and swift with the instillation, arriving more or less exactly as predicted, although we didn't get a phone call early in the morning to tell us what time he was expected to arrive. As I've mentioned in an earlier post here, we were with TalkTalk, which has probably the WORST customer service of any company I can think of, who really seem to have NO IDEA what they are doing, so I can't recommend this company. It seems to be a case of 'the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.'

TalkTalk Trouble

We have been customers of Talk Talk for around 3-4 years. We have broadband and landline telephone with them. It is easier to have both as it means you only have one bill. We have been considering changing providers for some time and had learned that our contract with TalkTalk would come to an end in either January-February next year. We have Freeview as our television provider, but we don't have an outdoor aerial and have to resort to using a somewhat poor-quality indoor one which means our picture quality is poor. It has a tendency to freeze up and at times goes pixelated, which can make watching television really impossible. We would like to have a multi-channel provider such as Sky or Virgin. But we weren't sure which provider to go for and accepted that we couldn't change either our broadband/telephone landline provider until early2014 when the TalkTalk contract came to an end or take on the extra multi-channel service until then. We then got a letter from TalkTalk, which came out of the blue last Saturday, informing us that their service costs would soon increase, and if we did not decide to continue using them as a phone/broadband provider we had 30 days to change to a new provider without incurring any early-contract ending fee. So, as a response to this letter we began to look around for a new provider. At first we had considered Virgin, with a broadband, multi-channel and landline telephone package a possibility. We then discovered that we couldn't have a Virgin Media package for the simple fact that there is no cable installed in the Milton Keynes area, as their service comes through cable. This is something of a shock as I had imagined that a modern city such as Milton Keynes would have been covered by cable, possibly being one of the first cities in Britain to be cabled. But no. We then decided to try Sky (we were with them at our other house in Crownhill, but cancelled the contract due to financial problems which I don't intend discussing here.) We rang their number and have now got a contract organised and they are coming to install the dish and set up the Sky Plus box tomorrow (Friday).
Then yesterday we got a call from Talk Talk. Apparently Sky have got in contact with them to tell them we are changing our provider to them. I was asked, by a surprisingly very rude call-centre agent, why we were changing, who our new provider was and what were they charging? We said we wanted to include multi-channel television in the package, and we were told by the TalkTalk agent that they could provide a package, but we were unaware of this. I have to say their customer service is really poor, they don't seem to know anything about the letter we got telling us we don't need to pay the cancellation fee. So, it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. 
We have had a couple of  further letters from TalkTalk, which virtually contradict the earlier on telling us we don't need to pay a cancellation charge if we change providers within 30 days. One says we'll have to pay around £15 for every month left of the contract. The TalkTalk agent we spoke to yesterday seemed to suggest we would have to pay the cancellation fee. So, why did they send the first letter?And today another letter came from them saying we needed a code to transfer the phone/broadband. On phoning I was asked why we were moving our account. I refused to say. And we now don't need the code to transfer accounts to Sky. Why do they need to know. And I got an email this morning with a survey to rate the TalkTalk agent's performance. I gave a very low score, as you may have guessed. So, you can see why I would never recommend TalkTalk as an internet/broadband/telephone provider.
There was one other issue with TalkTalk. When the account was originally set up we paid by Direct Debit, as with most services. It's the easiest way to pay most regular bills. You aren't likely to forget and it's generally cheaper than paying by cash or card.
The only problem was the time of the month it goes out of your account. It would have been better at the beginning of the month, as that's when we are paid, so, logically, there will be cash there to pay bills, such as Council Tax, water, etc, etc. But, no, for some unaccountable reason, best known only to themselves,it had to come out on or around the 20th of each month, by which time there probably isn't sufficient funds in the account to cover the Direct Debit payment. This happened a couple of times and as  result meant we incurred an unauthorised overdraft payment.  I then had to ring TalkTalk and attempted to get them to move the date the D.D. was taken to the beginning of the month, but no amount of trying would get them move it. So I had no alternative each month to either pay using my debit card on line or ring up, which meant we had to pay a good deal more than if we'd paid by Direct Debit, which, over a year, was around £35.