This isn’t as high a number as I was expecting, however many people may be doing the same as us, seeing it through to the end of the summer term. It will be interesting to see the figures again in the autumn term.

From the council’s Agenda for the Executive meeting on 7th December 2010, fees, charges and other activities provided funding of £1,105,000. If we said 3,000 people having tuition at £100 a term, that raises £900,000 leaving the ‘charges and other activites’ with the remaining £205,000.

The fees went up 69% and the numbers dropped 40%, so that would be 1,800 people paying £169, raising £912,000, not a massive change from the original amount raised. Does this mean the fees have to go up again to cover the shortfall. I guess not, as the number of staff hours needed to teach would have dropped by 40% in line with the cancellations. Maybe the 40% staffing costs is enough to provide a cost neutral service, but at what cost.

Intentional or otherwise, the impact of these reductions in numbers of users of the service cannot be good for the future of music in Bedfordshire schools.

From the minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services provided the Committee with the following information:-

…

A meeting had been held on Tuesday 22 March 2001 at Dunstable Fire Station, to which all stakeholders associated with the music service were invited.  It was reported that only 18 people attended which was very disappointing.  In response to this, several Members of the Committee raised concern that they did now know that the meeting had taken place and that they did not receive an invite and therefore questioned the method of communication taken to inform stakeholders of the meeting.  Following a detailed conversation about these concerns, Councillor Mrs A M Lewis clarified that a letter had been issued to all stakeholders and that schools had been asked to cascade the invite to all parents.

…

Now either Councillor Mrs A M Lewis is wrong about the date of the meeting, the one that Jo and attended was held on Tuesday 15th March, or even worse another meeting was held a week later. Either way, I have to agree with the comments made by the members, the communication regarding this meeting was very poor. We only knew about it because our names were put forward by Dunstable Music Centre. We received our invitation on the Saturday for the meeting on the Tuesday. We did not receive any communication through the schools, and given how much is at stake here, I cannot believe that schools simply did not pass this information on. I am also a parent governor at Watling Lower School and have subject links with music, so I cannot believe that the school decided it wasn’t important enough to bother me with.

As parents of children taking tuition and using Dunstable Music Centre, I would have though we were stakeholders and that we and all other parents in the same situation should have automatically been invited to attend. In the days leading up to the 15th March meeting, I checked all the websites for details of this meeting to see if it was a public meeting or who could attend and could find no details of the meeting, so concluded that, as we had been told, it was open to a small group of invited people. No small wonder if it was not advertised, there weren’t as many people attend as they would have liked. That said, the room was only set out to cater for about another 20 people, so they didn’t have high hopes.

It really annoys me to find this swept under the carpet in the minutes of a council meeting, when the the reality was so different. Knowing how passionate people are about this, I know the attendance would have been higher if people had sufficient notice to arrange to be at a 17:30 meeting and had been given the opportunity to attend.

It just re-enforces my view that any input was irrelevant, the decisions regarding the music service had been long made and it is now just playing out to the bitter end. I wonder when we will find out the results of the consultation and how that will be communicated to the stakeholders.

The 20 working days for my request under the Freedom of Information Act for the number of people dropping instrument lessons due to the massive fees rises is up on Wednesday, I wonder if that information will be forthcoming.

Within a few days, they contacted me to arrange the initial inspection and today was the day agreed.

The engineer turned up and I showed him into the living room. He looked at the fire and said, ‘there’s the fire, where’s the boiler?’. I told him it was a back boiler. ‘Oh’ he says, ‘we don’t service back boilers with that type of fire’ indicating the gas fire on the front.

So, that had to be the shortest boiler service in history. He check the air vent wasn’t blocked and the chimney and that was it.

He filled in on their system to have my contract cancelled and my money refunded.

I’ve just been looking again at the T&C for the contract and and section 7.3 under the elegibilty section is a gem:

• 7.3 We may not accept on to a Product some Boiler makes and models. We will notify You of this either when You request the Product or when We are required to carry out Work under this Agreement.

So basically I took a day off work for absolutely nothing! If they had asked me for the boiler model, surely they could have told me up front they cannot service it.

For anyone wondering if they would be in the same situation, I have a Potterton Housewarmer 55 gas fired back boiler and a Potterton Presence 2 Inset Decorative Gas Fire.

The obvious outcome, is that your customers will take their business elsewhere, rather than paying over the market price for your goods.

What has this to do with Central Bedfordshire Music Service? Well, this is the approach they have taken with the music fees. In most businesses, the review would conclude that it is costing too much to produce the widget and cost cutting exercises would be introduced to lower the manufacturing cost. That way, you can still sell at a competitive price and still make a profit. However, Central Bedfordshire have looked at the cost of providing the service and concluded that they had to increase the fees 69% to cover the costs.

Jo and I attended a stakeholder meeting tonight hosted by Central Bedfordshire to discuss the future shape of the music service. It was personally very disappointing to see how ill prepared they are to carry the music service forward. The questions that we, as groups, were asked to answer seemed to focus on what does a music service need to deliver and does anyone have any idea where to get any funds from.

There seemed to be no comprehension that putting up the fees the amount that they have would cause most of the people to stop using the service. The meeting was well attended by many people involved in all aspects of the music service and the consensus was that it was highly likely over 90% of people would stop using the service. Many had already cancelled lessons at their schools.

Other points were raised:

• The disruption to childrens’ instrument lessons the price rises causes will be phenomenal.
• Children in the middle of preparing for exams and then not being able to continue having lessons (or even have an instrument to practice on if it is a music service instrument).
• Schools not able to arrange alternate provision if the music service are still providing lessons in the instrument.
• Peripatetic teachers uncertain about their future.
• What will happen to all the instruments, will they just end up in storage.
• Will there actually be a music service providing the 4 tiers of provision by the time it comes to apply for funding as described in the Henley report.

Because the music service is so important to us, all of this is very frustrating and caused a lot of controlled anger in the discussion at the end of the meeting. Another really frustrating thing, is there are no answers to the obvious questions that had to be asked – they are still being worked out with legal or HR or waiting for further input. Basically the bomb has been dropped, but no-one had considered the implications.

There is an on-line music consultation questionnaire by Central Bedfordshire Council from Tuesday 15th March to Sunday 27th March

http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/surveys/Music/service.htm

Please provide your feedback, I’m not sure what it will achieve as I personally believe the damage has been done, but I hope I’m wrong.

Following the consultation, the council will deliberate on the results and sometime , probably around May, we will find out the future shape of the music service, including whether the music centres will close.

Edit: I have also posted about this on the Dunstable Music Centre website http://www.dunstablemusiccentre.co.uk/2011/03/17/stakeholder-meeting-15th-march-2011

Their Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on 23rd November 2010 and recommended that any decision about the service should be deferred until after the Henley Review had published its report – due in February 2011.

On 7th December 2010, the Executive Committee met and it was reported at the time that the committee had accepted the the recommendations of the Scrutiny Committee. The main recommendations were:
• to await the report of the Henley Review, which was expected in early January, before making any decisions about funding for the Music Service, and
• to disaggregate the Service – i.e. to split it up between Bedford Borough (which is currently not proposing any cuts) and Central Bedfordshire.

After looking at the minutes of that meeting, http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/modgov/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=3370&T=1, there is no mention of waiting for the Henley Review, only the disaggregation.

The Henley Report was published on 7th February and, among other recommendations, suggested that cost savings could be made by developing wider partnerships (Recommendation 15). This could include the merger of senior management and support functions over a number of Local Authority areas, just the opposite of what is being proposed. This was a question asked by Michael Rose at the Extraordinary General Meeting of The Friends of Bedfordshire Youth Music on 8th February http://www.fbym.org.uk/minutes/110208-FBYM-EGM-08-Feb-2011.pdf.

The consequences of the decisions became apparent yesterday when we found that the music service fees will rise by a staggering 69%. Evidently we will soon receive a letter from the music service letting us know about the rises and giving us until 1st April to terminate lessons before the rises come into effect.

At the moment, my son and daughter both have violin lessons (10 per term); my son has an individual lesson of 20 minutes, costing £103.95 a term and my daughter a group lesson costing £69.30 a term. These costs would rise to £175.68 and £117.12 respectively. Before my son had music service violin lessons, he was having private lessons; the private lessons were costing us £20 for 45 minutes. Looking at the maths, a private lesson for £20 or a music service lesson costing £17.57 for half the time, it doesn’t look like Bedfordshire Music is planning to remain ‘the principal provider of instrumental education and musical enrichment opportunities in the county of Bedfordshire’. What this will mean, is that the demand for peripatetic music lessons will drop to the point that Central Bedfordshire will no longer need to employ the teachers, leaving them to find their own employment and opportunities for children to learn a music instrument in Central Bedfordshire will be seriously curtailed.

Once we add in the rise in cost for the Saturday morning sessions at Dunstable Music Centre, our termly costs would rise by £224, which I don’t see as sustainable. If a large number of people decide these rises are too much and either reduce or cancel their use of the provision, then Central Bedfordshire Council will be able to say the message is that ‘no-one wants the music service’ and be able to start closing down, rather than just running down aspects of it.

If they had said that they were closing the music centres, then the friends of the individual centres would have an opportunity to put together a plan to keep them running. Just putting up the fees means that by the time they finally close, they will have been run down to the point that there is no chance of re-opening them.

So that, in my view, is Central Bedfordshire Council’s plan for the destruction of the Bedfordshire Music Service, ending its long established national reputation for excellence.

For the first time I had contacted my MP Andrew Selous, via www.theyworkforyou.com, at the end of April and asked if he could support the vote in Parliament calling for a fair deal for Gurkhas and had an email back that evening to say that he would be voting in support of the Gurkhas. Following the government’s defeat in the Commons over the issue, it was only a matter of time before they had to bow to public opinion.

The government had originally denied the automatic right to settle here to any Gurkha who had retired before 1997, but this was overturned in the High Court last year. The judge, Mr Justice Blake, said the Gurkhas’ long service, conspicuous acts of bravery and loyalty to the Crown all pointed to a “moral debt of honour” and gratitude felt by British people. He ruled that instructions given by the Home Office to immigration officials were unlawful and needed urgent revision.

The Gurkhas have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.

The governments new rules mean that permission to settle in the United Kingdom for those who retired before 1997 may be granted if they meet one of the following:

• Have spent at least three years continuous lawful residence in the United Kingdom during or after service;
• Have close family settled in the United Kingdom with whom you enjoy family life within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR);
• Received a Level 1-3 Award for gallantry, leadership or bravery for service in the Brigade; (Level 1: Victoria Cross; Level 2: DSO/DCM, DSO/DCM Bar, IDSM (India Distinguished Service Medal); Level 3: Military Cross, Military Cross Bar Military Medal, Military Medal Bar, Jangi Inam)
• Completed 20 or more years’ service in the Brigade;
• Have a chronic/long term medical condition which is attributable to, or was aggravated by, service in the Brigade.

If they do not qualify under any of the above, permission to settle in the United Kingdom may also be granted if they meet any two of the following:

• Were previously awarded a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence disability pension, but no longer have a chronic/long term medical condition attributable to, or aggravated by, service in the Brigade;
• Received a Mention in Dispatches (Level 4 Award) for service in the Brigade;
• Completed 10 years service in the Brigade or served less than 10 years but received a campaign medal for active service in the Brigade.

Now, I don’t quite know to express my anger over this. When these Gurkhas were recruited, they didn’t have to jump through hoops to prove their loyalty to this country in order to serve. No, that’s not correct, they do have to jump through hoops, the small number of places each year are hotly contested, so they have to go through a recruitment contest to get the right to join up. The vast majority will have signed up for the standard army term of 15 years, so that discounts one of the new criteria. This just doesn’t seem right for people who have loyally fought for this country.

Looking at some questions asked of the Secretary of State for Defence in 2002, the average length of service makes interesting reading:

In 2002, for British nationals, an army officer served 11.36 years and a Gurkha officer served for 22.40 years. For a British national soldier the average length of service is 8.26 years and a Gurkha is 9.10 years. So, by setting 20 years as a criteria, it looks like the Gurkhas are being held to a higher level of ‘loyalty’ than British nationals even achieve.

We have set numbers of immigrants that are allowed into the country from other parts of Europe and outside of Europe. These people haven’t already served this country before they come here and they may never do.

I have visited the Gurkha Justice Campaign website http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk and signed their petition. If you are a UK resident, please consider doing the same.

Before Christmas, I ordered 2 books from the Aikido Journal website, Traditional Aikido Volumes 1 & 2 by Morihiro Saito. These were books that Jo and I used to clarify our techniques many years ago; we never owned them, but were looking after someone’s library for them. The originals were printed in the 1970s and had been out of print for many years. Occasionally, you would see one or more of the 5 volumes on Ebay, but they would go for in excess of £100, usually a lot more. In early November, Aikido Journal announced that Volume 1 was available immediately. This was a brand-new edition done in the exact style and format of the original books by Saito Sensei. These are hardcover volumes made for durability featuring a semi-gloss paper like the originally published volumes. Anyway, back to the problem, after completing the order for volume 1 and confirming my credit card details, instead of a confirmation, I got a series of database errors displayed. I left a message detailing the problem on the contact form and within a few hours I had received an email back from Stanley Pranin, the editor-in-chief of Aikido Journal, confirming that they had received my order and that it should be shipping on the Monday. I had the same problem when pre-ordering volume 2 and had the same swift response and confirmation.

For Christmas, I bought Jo a wooden treble recorder. About 2.5 years ago, when we were at Joust 2006, Jo bought a wooden descant (soprano) recorder. It was a Mollenhauer Adri’s Dream in pearwood and has a lovely tone. She has been playing the treble (alto) for a couple of years now and decided that she wanted to get a nice one; the Adri’s Dream one would be just right. I checked our normal source of musical instruments, Hobgoblin, but they didn’t have it listed. So I turned to Google and that turned up Elida Trading in Hudderfield. This is run by husband and wife, Elizabeth and David Ward. I had already come across Liz’s name on recorder/music forums when I had checked out an Ebay seller ‘elizabethward’ a few years ago. I dropped them an email and had a response within ten minutes suggesting a convenient time to ring that afternoon. Within a few minutes that afternoon, the recorder was ordered and credit card details were left. A couple of weeks later, the recorder arrived and it was exactly as expected. The little problem was noticing an extra charge on my credit card bill a week later. It turns out that someone with a similar order added an item to their order, but it got charged to our card – an honest mistake. Within about 3/4 of an hour of being notified of the problem, it had been refunded. Great service, both for the original order and the customer support.

Then there is how not to do it!

I replaced the Manfrotto 115 head on my photographic tripod with a better Manfrotto 488RC2 ball head before Christmas and decided to treat myself to a new monopod and head so that I could use the same quick release plate on the camera. After much research into the different options, I decided on the Manfrotto 681B monopod with 234RC tilt head. Being 6’1″, I needed a monopod that provided at least the same height as my existing Velbon monopod, 165cm, and the 681 fitted the bill at 161cm plus the head. I looked around to find the best price and found that although most places were about £70, Bristol Cameras were £10 cheaper. The site looked professional and I got an automated confirmation of my order that evening. On the Monday morning, I received another email confirming that my order had been printed off and that I would be updated if there was any delay or when the parcel shipped. In the details for the monopod is the following Q&A:

Question: Is the Manfrotto 681 Monopod in stock?

Bristol Cameras Answer: As per most accessories listed on this website we do not have the resources to maintain stock info on several thousand smaller items. We keep many of the accessories on our site in stock and even if we don’t have the Manfrotto 681 Monopod in stock, it is likely that it will be available from suppliers within 48 hours. However, If there is a problem obtaining this product, we will inform you of the delay within 48 hours.

So this was looking good, it should be shipping on Wednesday unless I hear otherwise.

Friday 12th December

Having had no confirmation of delay or shipment, I replied to the confirmation email asking for an update on my order. At the same time I started googling Bristol Cameras to see if there were any posts about them. I wish I had done so before placing my order. The posts on about Bristol Cameras on Review Centre seem to fall into two camps, those who had a great experience (the item was in stock and they got a quick delivery) and those who had a bad experience (the item was out of stock, they were told nothing and kept waiting for their goods).  There are other posts on forums about people being let down by Bristol Cameras, so I should have done my research first from the look of it. Oh well, maybe mine will be fine.

Tuesday 16th December

I received the following generic reply to my email:

We are experiencing a very high amount of orders during this very busy period of the year, there “are” delays with both goods being sent to our customers as well as suppliers sending goods to us. We will inform you of any “major” delays” e.g. if you will receive your order for Christmas. If you have not heard from us within 1 week of placing your order, please phone direct to query. Online and mail order is not open on weekends.

Yes there are delays but the majority of our orders will be sent in the quickest time possible.

Please call us to query further…the lines are very busy we are aware of this, but as it stands this is the best way to get in contact with us

So that didn’t really answer my question then.

Wednesday 17th December

I rang them, they weren’t joking about the lines being busy, it took over an hour to get through. I was told that they were expecting a delivery from their supplier that day and that my order would be shipped within a couple of days, so OK, not brilliant communication, but at least I knew it was imminent.

Thursday 18th December

Then I got the following email:

Apologies we have run out of this item and have been informed by our supplier that this item is out of stock and is on back order with no E.T.A, we will keep your order live unless you wish to cancel sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Great, so I’ll have to find another source.

Friday 19th December

I rang them and cancelled the order. By 11:00 I had confirmation that the order was cancelled:

Your order has been cancelled and no funds have been charged to your card. Sorry that we could not help you on this occasion.

I placed a new order with Digital Depot, who had confirmed by 12:30 that my order would be shipped that day. Finally, it’s all sorted.

WRONG! At 16:50, ten minutes before they closed, Bristol Cameras sent an email saying that the items had already been sent that morning and that it was too late to cancel.

Saturday 20th December

The order from Digital Depot arrived in the morning, so at least I finally had my monopod and head. It was well packaged and complete, good communication and service. Thanks.

Sunday 21st December

The order from Bristol Cameras arrived. On investigation, the printout of the credit card transaction enclosed with the order showed that it hadn’t been shipped in the morning, the transaction didn’t take place until 12:31, over 1.5 hours after it was confirmed cancelled. Not happy again!

Monday 22nd December

I rang them again to get it resolved. They agreed that an error had occurred and that they would give me a full refund including return postage. I was to ship the package back by Recorded Delivery, so that there was tracking on the package. Fortunately, it was the week before Christmas, so Jo had already finished work and would be able to get it posted on the Tuesday. I enclosed a letter detailing the issues and what had been agreed.

Tuesday 23rd December

Jo took the parcel to the Post Office for me. In the end it was too long to go Recorded and so had to go Parcel 48. I sent an email that evening confirming the letter and letting them know the cost and tracking number.

Friday 2nd January

I checked the Parcelforce website and confirmed that it had been delivered back to Bristol Cameras on 29th December. I checked my credit card on-line and confirmed that I hadn’t received the refund. I rang them and eventually got through (…beginning to see a pattern here) and was told that it was a busy time of year and that they had a large pile of returned and exchange goods to be dealt with (with their customer service, I’m not surprised) and that I would get my refund by the end of the following week. I wasn’t happy, but accepted that it would occur.

Tuesday 20th January

I checked my credit card on-line again to find that the refund still hadn’t occurred. I sent an email that night requesting an update, but decided that I needed to also ring up and speak to someone.

Wednesday 21st January

I rang them only to be told that the pile of returns had been cleared, but that the person dealing with them was out for the day. If I gave it a couple more days I’d see my refund.

Friday 23rd January

I rang again, they must have had the phone off the hook as I tried continuously from 2pm to 3pm and it was permanently engaged. When I got back from picking the kids up from school I tried several more times before finally getting through at 4:30pm. I was told that it takes a few days for a refund to show up on the card and that I should give it a couple more days.

I know by now that I am being given the run around, but will give them the benefit of the doubt, one last time. If my credit card is not showing a refund by Tuesday evening, I will contact the credit card company to dispute the transaction.

Monday 26th January

This afternoon, I got the read receipt showing that they had read the email I sent last Tuesday. About par for the course. I checked the credit card, but no refund yet, the only pending transaction was the service for my car that afternoon.

Like anyone who has a issue with an order, I accept that sometimes mistakes are made or things go wrong. It’s how this is dealt with that makes the difference. If someone takes ownership of the problem and provides good feedback, it gives you confidence in their abilities and understanding of the situation. Swift resolution gives you the confidence that if there are issues, you won’t be the one doing all the running around. Although I had minor issues with my purchases from Aikido Journal and Elida Trading, their professional approach to dealing with these issues inspires confidence and I would use them both again in the future without any doubts. On the other hand the total ‘ignore the customer’ approach of Bristol Cameras is inexcusable in any company trying to maintain a customer base. I know my order was small, only £60, but any customer should be important, not just the ones spending hundreds of pounds. My experiences with them have been communicated at work with all those into photography. Some of the people had seen the prices and considered using them, but no longer. Although the hassle dealing with them was immense, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have prevented some other people from befalling my fate.

Sorry about any weird changes of tense, this post has been written retrospectively and over several days as the lack of resolution progressed. I didn’t want to spoil any chance of a successful resolution by posting before the end. Any updates past this point will be added as they occur.

Tuesday 27th January

The refund is not showing on my credit card, so I will need to contact my credit card company to get this resolved. Their department for dealing with unrecognised transactions closed at 17:00, so I will probably have to wait until Friday afternoon to call them. I’ll try ringing Bristol Cameras tomorrow.

Wednesday 28th January

The number was engaged when I tried calling them and I didn’t get another chance.

Friday 30th January

I checked one last time to see if the refund had occurred, no surprise to find it hadn’t. I then tried for 30 minutes to call them one last time; it was permanently engaged. I then rang my credit card to dispute the transaction. I got through to a very helpful person who took the details of my problem and tried to ring Bristol Cameras herself. They have to give it 30 days before they get involved, but as that has passed they are able to help. She had no more luck than I did, so in the end she is sending me a claim form that I have to complete and return with copies of any documentation that I have. They will only be able to refund the £59.99, the £10.99 postage will be what I end up paying for trying to save £10 by shopping with a dis-organised and unprofessional outfit.

Wednesday 4th February

The claim paperwork arrived from MBNA. Looking at the declaration I have to sign, it indicates that I have a refund voucher from Bristol Cameras. I am therefore unable to sign this as it is incorrect. The form says that I must not change the wording, so I will have to ring MBNA on Friday to clarify what I have to do.

Friday 6th February

I tried ring Bristol Cameras again in the afternoon to see if I could get resolution, you have to give me points for persistence. As usual they were permanently engaged. I rang MBNA and explained my problem with the declaration. I was told to explain the situation on the back of the form and sign that instead. I did this and posted the form back recorded delivery with printouts of all the letters and emails that I had related to this.

Thursday 12th February

I had a phone call from MBNA to say that need a refund voucher to credit the card, it’s Mastercard rules. They had spoken to Bristol Cameras and Simon was investigating what had happened. She would call him back and conference me in so that if he had any questions we would be able to resolve them. Needless to say, they never answered the phone, so we had to give up.

Friday 13th February

MBNA rang again and reconfirmed that without a refund voucher from Bristol Cameras they would not be able to refund. She had been trying to get through to Bristol Cameras before she called me and was unable. As I had placed the order and then cancelled it, the refund is in Bristol Cameras hands. So if they carry on ignoring me, there is nothing MBNA can do. She would put the dispute on hold for another 14 days while I have to try to get a refund voucher from Bristol Cameras.

With nothing to loose, I tried ringing Bristol Cameras until I got through after about 10 minutes. I spoke to Richard who took ownership of the problem. He took all my details from the original order number, to the ParcelForce tracking number and the cost of return postage. He apologised for the problems with the mail order department; evidently they have now employed more staff. He went away to investigate, and true to his word he rang me back about an hour later. He confirmed that the goods had been received back and was most apologetic as somehow the paperwork had been overlooked. He confirmed that the refund was being processed that day. He could not confirm if the return postage would be covered as the cancellation was on the same day the order was shipped. Apparently the way Bristol Cameras work is at 4pm they enter all the shipment details for the day on their computer system. This of course makes a mockery of my confirmed cancellation as no-one checked this before the end of the day. I am sort of hopeful that this time the refund will actually happen.

Sunday 15th February

I checked on-line to find that I have really had a refund from Bristol Cameras. Unfortunately only for £54.99, the cost of the goods. So as it stands I am down the cost of outgoing and return postage, £15.99. If I hadn’t been told to return the goods for a full refund including return postage, I would have been better off selling them on Ebay. However, I was originally told by Bristol Cameras that I would get all my money back, so I’ll have to ring them again.

Monday 16th February

I rang Bristol Cameras again today and explained my issue with the refund of postage. My details were taken so that he could investigate and get back to me. That was at ten past 11. As I’m now at home writing this up, it’s safe to say that it didn’t happen before the end of the day.

Wednesday 18th February

After giving them another day to get back to me, I rang Bristol Cameras again this morning. I spoke to the same person as Monday (and several previous calls) and asked for the update he was going to provide me with on Monday. He explained how busy he had been and that he would investigate and get back to me later in the day. I pressed him for a shorter time-scale and he said that he would investigate and get back to me within the next 30 minutes. I was quite surprised when he rang back after about 10 minutes. I was told that ‘I didn’t get a refund on the postage as according to the letter I had enclosed with the goods I had returned them because I no longer required them’. When I read out the letter I had send to him over the phone, he admitted that the wrong details had been entered on their computer system. They would have to find their copy of the letter to confirm and then sort the refund. I asked if this would include my postage cost for returning the goods and was told that they would need to see proof of the costs. At this point I offered to email them a copy of the letter that I had enclosed as well as a scan of the proof of posting (with the postage cost on it). This was agreed as a good suggestion and I was provided with an email address and told what to include in the email. I sent this off this morning and hadn’t heard anything by the time I left work this evening.

Thursday 19th February

I had an email from Bristol Cameras to say that this was being discussed with management today as he had been out yesterday.

Monday 23rd February

I emailed Bristol Cameras for an update.

Tuesday 24th February

I had an email saying that my refund was being done today and apologising for the way it had been handled. I was assured that if I ever chose to order from them again, it wouldn’t be the case in the future.

Saturday 28th February

I had a sales receipt today from Bristol Cameras for the refund of my postage. It was for £13.94, not quite the £15.99 that I was due, but close enough that I can’t be bothered to pursue this any more. After checking on-line, this has also appeared on my credit card, so it’s finally over.

I’ve been shopping online for over 10 years now and can safely say that this has been my worst online shopping experiance ever. I did eventually get most of my money back, but all in all it took 10 weeks and numerous telephone calls and emails to resolve this. I pity anyone else who buys from Bristol Cameras expecting more than cheap box shifting of in-stock items.

The first thing that struck was how cramped the village felt compared to Elveden. We eventually found Huckleberry’s, (I thought it was supposed to be refurbished and re-opened as Huck’s Diner in June,) and were shown to a table. Huckleberry’s at Sherwood is about half the size of Hucks at Elveden. After waiting for about 10 minutes, someone finally came to ask us if we were ready to order – ready to order, I was nearly ready to leave. Jo and I had ‘Hogging it’, a bun with roast pork, apple sauce, onions and chips. It was fine, the kids had chicken nuggets and chips. After our table had been cleared, we were left the bill. Again, I spent the next 5 minutes or so tring to catch our waitresses eye to pay. Eventually one of the other waitresses while passing asked if she could deal with it for me. First impressions were not starting out well.

After we had eaten we collected the bikes and went exploring until it was time to get into the villa at 3pm. I left Jo and the kids at the villa, while I rode back to the car park to collect the car. This was a much better approach than previous years when I had to walk back to the car. We were able to unload the car very quickly, which meant when I got back to the car park, it wasn’t as difficult to find somewhere to park; other people were still unloading at their villas.

The villa was fine, the standard layout for a comfort plus villa, with the usual features. We were quickly unpacked and settled in. I was able to wander around for a while with my camera.

About 5.45 we headed off to the village to get something to eat. As we had always done at Elveden, we headed for Huckleberry’s, but when we got there, the first available table was at 8pm in 2 hours time. We left there and headed off to the Pancake House; in the Forest News paper left in our villa, it invited us to ‘join us on Saturday, Wednesday and Monday between 6pm and 8:30pm for a traditional Fish and Chip evening Available as eat in or take away!’ Imagine how impressed we were to arrive there at 6:15pm and find the place locked and in darkness with no sign of staff. I guess either the times or days printed were wrong, either that or its lucky dip if they open. Walking back to the village, we passed another family going the opposite direction, as they were passing we overheard their daughter saying that it wasn’t as well laid out as Elveden Forest. Jo and I burst out laughting; just what we had been saying earlier.

We popped into the ParcMarket to get some essentials like breakfast cerials and milk. The ParcMarket is a well stocked little supermarket, I know I keep comparing to Elveden, but it didn’t seem as big. We packed up with the intention of heading to the Foresters Inn at the Country Club, but we ended up ordering pizzas at the new ‘Dining In’, this allows you to order Chinese, Indian or Italian food, although to be honest, Italian is just pizzas. While we were waiting for the pizzas, Jo popped into Huckleberry’s to book a table for tomorrow night. You can’t actually book a table in person, you have to use their booking system. There was a booking point in Dining In, so Jo started to book this before she found that we had to pay a £1 per person reservation fee. We decided this was a taking the pi$$, so we would make sure we got there when they opened tommorrow night. The pizza didn’t take too long to cook and then we struggled to get the pizzas on Jo’s bike rack without squashing them too much, but managed to get them back to the villa in edible state.

The beds in the villas are Sealy Forest Dreams beds that Center Parcs commissioned Sealy to design for them and are very comfortable.

Looking at the Sherwood Village Plan Your Break guide, it appears that the Fish Night at the Pancake House is on Tuesday and Friday. I think they need to correct the information that they leave in the villas to actually reflect what is available; it will save a lot of people getting frustrated.

It is obvious with the timing of the strike, just as children are about to start their annual tests and exams, that the union do not care about the education of our children, they are only interested in lining their members’ pockets and causing the maximum disruption. The strike was called following a ballot of members, in which a majority of those who voted agreed with the strike, however this majority was less than one quarter of NUT members, so it is apparent most teachers didn’t want to strike.

To put this in perspective, the average earnings for a full time male employee was £498 a week (£25,896 per annum) in April 2007 (National Statistics Online – Earnings) and £394 (£20,480) for a full time female employee. From the NUT website you can find the teachers payscales and find the following:

A qualified teacher will start on point 1 on the main pay scale which at September 2007 is £20,133, the following year they will under normal performance conditions progress to point 2 which is proposed to be £22,259, the following year point 3 at £24,601, the following year point 4 at £27,103, the following year point 5 at £29,239(+next pay rise) and the following year £31,551(+the next 2 pay rises).

So, to recap, after 4 years of teaching, a qualified teacher is already earning above the national average, with 2 more years of points gain on the main pay scale and a guaranteed rise each year.

When you look around an average school staff car park, you will see an abundance of new cars, so I must be missing something. What makes teachers think that they are the only people who work hard for a living and are hard done by? Other people also work hard to provide the money through our taxes to pay for teachers guaranteed rises. Many people in the private sector go for years with below inflation or no pay rises, with increasing responsibilities (without bonuses for taking them on). We are the ones who have to find additional childcare costs or use our holiday time to look after our children who should be in school (of course we don’t have as much holiday time to start with).

Am I bitter, yes of course I am. It’s impossible not to to be when the disruption this causes has such a personal impact. Do teachers work hard, again yes, I don’t dispute that. Do they work efficiently, I’m not so certain; from observation, time management that you would see at all levels in a private company seems to have bypassed many teachers, increasing their levels of stress as they struggle to manage their day.

The big question is what do the unions expect to achieve with this strike? Blackmail the government into giving them their demanded 10% pay rise by disrupting our children’s education just as they prepare to take exams? Gain public support by causing millions of parents financial cost to look after their children while earning more than many of them?

I’d love to work for a company where each year’s pay rise was guaranteed, but I work in the real world.