Verbo.se

Negative reviews removed from Menupages.ie

14/10/2008

According to several people on Boards.ie. While I can understand the commercial benefits to Menupages, I can’t understand why I’d want to use the site in any way, shape or form now. Pretty much defeats the purpose imho.

Course I don’t use it anyway, so I guess I won’t have much of an impact. Tried it a couple of months ago when I was looking for a nice restaurant to take the lovely wife too, but the usability was frankly embarassing. I reverted to the old reliable, and they trumped Menupages bigtime. Nicest evening out I’ve had in a long time.

Yay Chapter One, boo Menupages.

Avis: [Less of] A Shower of Shits

08/10/2008

UPDATE: When I pointed both Avis and J&P to this post and the one on Boards, I finally got a response from someone that appears to have a bit of authority. They contacted me on the 9th and promised a response on the 13th, which duly followed with a promise to refund the entire excess amount because of a lack of documentation on the part of Avis Croatia.

I never actually asked for a full refund however I certainly appreciate the gesture as it does take the sting out of the tail. Thank you to Avis’ Business Support Centre Manager for following through as promised, I only hope they’ll teach the rest of the staff how to handle enquiries like this in future.

If you want to learn how not to do business, Avis and Johnson & Perrott are your men. Here’s an email I sent to them about a rental in Croatia, which still hasn’t been resolved two months later.

The main issue aside, their customer service is simply atrocious: they don’t reply to emails, except when they do and send their replies to someone that was CC’d on the email.

It’s lucky I don’t let people get to me any more or they’d have ruined my otherwise wonderful honeymoon.

This would have been a lot easier to explain in person, however if you insist. Copies of the email confirmation from Avis Ireland and rental agreement from Avis Croatia are attached, together with a photo of the car.

The car suffered some minor damage in Dubrovnik, while unattended overnight in the car park in our hotel; we filled out the incident report in the Avis wallet if you need the details. When we returned the car to the Avis office in the airport we expected to pay an excess, however the operator there decided with a glance that the repair cost was going to be €600, because both doors were damaged. Myself and my wife have both had work done on our cars and knew this to be excessive, however this was the last day of our honeymoon and we had no intention of ruining it by starting a dispute with a man that obviously had no interest in saying more than three words to us. He effectively threw the bill at my wife, and when she asked politely how we should pay – we didn’t even attempt to challenge the bill – he gestured at the Visa terminal and muttered something incomprehensible.

I’m not going to waste my time disputing the ridiculous excess I was charged for the minor repair work, as I’m sure Avis has all the bases covered with terms and conditions. However even that wasn’t enough for the Croatian operator, who added another 250 Kuna to the bill for reasons best known only to himself. I would like that returned for a start, and I would like the bill fact-checked by someone competent to check for further errors, in particular the excess and the taxes charged on both the rental and the excess.

I would also like it noted for the record that this sting in the tail of our honeymoon will prevent us from renting from Avis again, in Ireland or abroad. We feel we’ve been taken advantage of and taken for granted, and we won’t allow a repeat occurence. As the only negative thing that happened on our entire honeymoon, you can be sure it will be mentioned when we’re describing it to our family, friends and colleagues.

Tech Bubble 1.0 Stars: Where Are They Now?

02/10/2008

Christ, this brings back some memories…

Silicon Alley Insider: We’re not ready to call the end of the second Internet boom quite yet. But when we do, we’ll be looking for some perspective. For instance, whatever happened to the high-flyers of the last bubble once it deflated?

Good news We tracked down 36 of them — from Turkish romantic Mahir “I KISS YOU” ÇaÄŸrı to a search engine founder-turned-cattle rancher, and found that almost all of them have found interesting second acts.

Many now work as venture capitalists or have founded new startups, while others have gone on to some unexpected fields. Find out who has helped cure more than 15,000 people of blindness, and who went to work for the Gap.

Thanks Justin.

Response from Sean Sherlock (Lab) on Bailout Bill

01/10/2008

Look, a politician with an opinion and something tangible to say in response to my query on the Bailout Bill! Ye gods, will wonders never cease?!

Adam

Just a note in response to your email. I am sure that you can appreciate that we received first sight of this legislation at 9pm approximately last night. I am not in favour of the way in which this is being rushed through. Further, the legisaltion as it is framed presently, is a “dire” piece of legislation, in that there is no clarity as to the powers of the Minister. There is no “parliamentary Oversight”. We have proposed amendments. Please see the following press release which sets out our position.

At time of writing we are presently discussing the 1st amendment. We dont know as we speak how all of this will pan out and whether the Minister will take on board our concerns.The Minister’s response to our amendments will determine our ultimate support, or otherwise, for this Bill and I am not in a position to say whether we are supporting it or not because, frankly, we just don’t know until we have voted on the amendments.

But if you read the amendments and look at the Dail transcripts you will see that we have taken a strong position on protecting the taxpayer and I personally could not support a Bill that will see the taxpayer seriously exposed without any quid pro quo for the Banks. On a daily basis I am dealing with people who are laid off from work with costly mortgages who are not given any such sweet deal. There should be no double standards on this.

Please bear with me on this. The next three or four hours will see a further change in the landscape so drop me a line then and I will let you know the position as it unfurls.

All the best

Sean

Still nothing from Fianna Failers Michael Ahern and Ned O’Keeffe, surprise surprise.

The Irish Bailout Bill

01/10/2008

Sent this email to my TDs in Cork East last night: Sean Sherlock (Lab), Michael Ahern (FF), Ned O’Keeffe (FF) and David Stanton (FG).

Sir,

I’m a contituent from Ladysbridge. Please vote against the bailout bill that will be put before you tomorrow, rushed legislation is ALWAYS bad legislation.

I’ll be watching your voting record with interest, it will affect mine in future.

Yours sincerely,
Adam Beecher

Thus far, the only one to respond has been David Stanton. His email seems to be saying “we know best” but “I may not vote anyway”. Brilliant.

Dear Adam,

Thank you for your email. We are all very concerned at the current banking situation and the need to provide adequate, extensive and robust legislation to protect any measures being taken. If the banking system were to collapse, this would have major repercussions for everyone in the country.
You may be aware that no vote is being called on the Bill today as the debate is ongoing with Committee Stage being taken in the Dail. This procedure gives the opposition parties a chance to put forward amendments to the proposed legislation. I may not, in fact, get an opportunitty to vote on the Bill at all, if a vote is not called.
Finally, Richard Bruton TD, is out Fine Gael spokesperson for Finance and is responsible for tabling our amendments at committee stage. I can assure you that he is very knowledgeable and well briefed on the issue and the legislation put forward.

Best regards,
David Stanton TD

Unemployment numbers not that bad…

22/09/2008

…actually they’re worse…

Irish Examiner: The scale of unemployment is far worse than official figures show because another 38,000 people are stuck in a backlog waiting for their dole claims to be processed, the Irish Examiner has learned.

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