Failure is the Key to Success

It’s a while since I have had a rant about car dealerships. I had my Volvo MOT’d a couple of weeks ago. It went so smoothly, that I forget to even put a post up about it.

Jo’s Toyota Avensis had an engine management warning light come on, so she contacted Steven Eagell Toyota in Luton to get them to check it out and resolve it. Although the next service wasn’t due until October, she asked them to do the service now, as being school holidays it is easier to have them collect the car and return it when finished. Otherwise, it would mean me taking it to work and having the fun with the Milton Keynes branch of Steven Eagell Toyota that I have previously had with MOTs and garages , Car Window 2 and Car Window 3. She also asked them to get a replacement drivers side sunvisor as the plastic hinge/mounting bracket had broken.

So, anyway they evidently collected it this morning without any issues and called her this afternoon to say that all the work was done and to get her to pay for it. When she asked what the story with the engine management light was, she was told that it was the oxygen sensor. After the car had been returned, she was looking at the paperwork and noticed that she hadn’t been charged for the oxygen sensor. This was the first she knew that the fault hadn’t been repaired. She rang the garage and spoke to the deputy service manager who explained that the car is safe to drive and that they will get the part in, but it will be the other side of the Bank holiday. Jo has impressed upon them the need to get this resolved before the end of the school holidays. They did confirm that the sunvisor was broken, and I thought it was supposed to separate into two parts and fall off the car , that is also on order. They seem to have grasped the concept of investigate fault, but the final part of communicate the findings to customer is lacking.

Jo did agree tonight that when it comes time to replace the Avensis, it is unlikely to be another Toyota; not because the car is bad, she loves the car, but because the dealer network is appalling.

Tags:poor communication,toyota dealer

OK, I’m sat at our desktop typing this, so here goes panning from left to right:

• 2 drive mounting rails from an old server
• 2 dvd cases with home movies of the kids
• 17″ monitor for desktop computer
• stack of CDs in rack (some computer and some music)
• Jo’s digital camera in it’s case
• left speaker for desktop
• port replicator for laptop
• autoloader tape drive for backups with right speaker for desktop on top
• mouse mat with wireless mouse
• surgemaster under monitor power distribution unit with 2nd 17″ monitor for desktop
• 2 stacks of CDs balanced on the corner of the desk

I know I must be the exception and that everyone else’s desk must be less cluttered than mine.

So, what’s on your desk?

10 days ago Carol at My View of IT invited me to join her at cre8buzz which is a new blog community. It is currently in beta, so you need an invite to join, but there are about 200 members at the moment.

Once you join, you select a community to create your profile under. Mine is under Technology > P.C.

On your profile page, you can add links to existing websites and blogs, add photos to your gallery and make posts on your blog on the cre8buzz site. You can to a degree customise your profile page in terms of section location and theme by modifing the html for the left_sidebar,
main and right_sidebar sections and adding your own CSS style to the theme. I have adjusted mine so that it is a similar theme to my blog.

From the cre8buzz website:

We built Cre8buzz with one question in mind: How do we get EVERYONE more…

* More exposure
* More visitors
* More views
* More friends
* More followers
* More comments
* More feedback

How do we help people cre8 a buzz of their own?

Our answer; Cre8buzz, the place where everyone in the world has a chance to be seen, heard, and found!

Everything you post on the cre8buzz site has the opportunity to be rated by the other members, the higher rated items get higher visibility.

The disadvantage I see to this site over a normal blog, is that it encourages feedback and comment in the cre8buzz community rather than on your blog itself. Also, to be seen as blog posts that could be rated, you would have to be double posting everything, once on your blog and again on the site.

I am currently rated No. 1 in the PC community, but then I am the only member.

If any of my readers want to try this out, let me know through my contact me page.

Tags:cre8buzz

When I was checking out the comments on Vijays blog for his My Life, Rated! post, I followed a link to meeyauw‘s blog. I found the Feline Laws of Physics post listing some of the Feline Laws of Physics from Moggycat.

For anyone with a cat, these are all too true. Here’s some more from Moggycat:

• First Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 1) Cats know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and will therefore use as little energy as possible.
• Second Law of Energy Conservation (Feline Thermodynamics Law 2) Cats know that energy can only be stored by a lot of napping.
• Kirk’s Law of Cat Magnetism Dark coloured clothing attracts light coloured cat hair in direct proportion to the darkness of the fabric. The converse is also true.
• Cheung’s Law of Random Comfort Seeking A cat will always seek, and usually take over, the most comfortable spot in any given room.
• Newton’s First Law of Pill Rejection Any pill given to a cat has the potential energy to reach escape velocity.
• Newton’s Second Law of Pill Rejection Any cat restrained for the purposes of administering a pill has the potential to reach escape velocity.

Dan at Dan’s Blah Blah Blog posted a brilliant piece on 2nd August titled Taking the Cat to the Vet. You have to read the comments as well (293 of them at the moment).

Tags:cats

While checking out Vijay‘s blog yesterday, I came across his My Life, Rated! post.

So with no more ado, here’s mine:

69.3/100Rate My LifeRateMyLife.net – Find out if you suck at life

I came across this online game, Bloxorz at http://www.albinoblacksheep.com yesterday and have found it really good for killing a lot of time. The idea is to get the block through the hole using the arrow keys to move it. If the block rests on one of the round pads then sections of the floor disappear or reappear. There are also pads that only activate when the block rests on them while on its end and orange floor sections that collapse if the block rests on them while on its end. I have got up to stage 28 at the moment, but keep forgetting to note the passcode for the current level down so I can restart from that point.

Tags:bloxorz,online game