One of our clients called a couple of days ago to say there was a problem on on of the workstations. In summary the workstation kept crashing on the user and was generally unstable. After looking I found a number of errors on the workstation and the main one which caused me concern was the errors below:
When we look closer at one of the entries we see the following:
Quite clearly this is a problem. Now the “D” drive is actually a CD/DVD drive and after checking with the client the drive was empty. The errors were occurring throughout the day as well as overnight when clearly no-one was using it. So I recommended that he call Dell support as the unit was under warranty and it was most likely going to be a hardware fault probably a controller issue. I spoke with him again later to check how things went and he told me the guy on the phone, in a strong Indian accent, has got him to run the diagnostics and everything checked out fine. He was told that the error he was being shown was “normal” and was caused because there was not a CD in the drive!!! I really wish someone would have told me about this…all these years I was under the illusion that this symbol combined with the word “Error” was a problem. I’m so glad that a “quality” support service was able to clarify this clear mis-conception of mine, cheers Dell
This week has been an interesting week for UK business. We have discovered, surprise surprise, that as a country we are totally unable to cope with any kind of weather outside of the standard drizzle of rain or a sparkle of sunshine. As a Brit I am truly embarrassed to call myself a UK citizen this week. I mean there are countries that have 5-6 times more snow in a day than we saw over the last three days and the wheels of commerce continue to turn. But the good old UK can’t even keep the Underground running..that’s right the underground I mean what the hell does the underground have to do with snow I ask. All buses services in London were ceased which meant most people were left with three choices; a) either make their way in cars, which for London folk is just impossible due to costs etc; b) they walk but that is too far for some; c) phone in sick/work from home. The Federation of Small Businesses have estimated that 20% of the UK workforce, that’s around 6.4 million people did not make it in to work and as of early Tuesday morning they estimated that it had cost the British economy £1.2bn which is probably much higher.
It was not just the public transport system that failed miserably it was also the hi-tech systems that run the UK. Mobile networks creaked heavily under the extra load of trying to call friends and colleagues, it’s reported that some of the networks experienced up to 73% more calls that usual and a steep increase in the number of picture messages being sent as snowmen make rare appearances in gardens.
There was also politicians that venture into the fray making bold statements about how sadly unprepared the country was despite having plenty of warning from the Met Office. Liberal Democrat shadow transport secretary, Norman Baker said it was "an absolute disgrace" the country’s transport networks were unable to cope with bad weather. He went on to say "The lack of preparedness is astounding and damaging for the economy. I have travelled from Stockholm to the Arctic Circle on a train that arrived five minutes early, yet Britain lapses into chaos at the first hint of snow,".
So why was this country so unprepared? I don’t have the answer just an opinion; that is that we are just British, no matter what type of “extreme” weather we experience we just panic with hosepipe bans in summer while pipes lay leaking gallons of water per hour. The economy stops when snow falls because a lot of people see it as a great way to get out of work. Either way we need to sort ourselves out and get prepared as the country cannot afford too many of these “snow” days..
This was the scene in Nottingham today. Not too bad considering how bad the weather gets in other countries but as true Brits we were totally ill-equipped to cope with the snow. Still it was fun and apparently there’s more snow on the way, lets hope so then the media can blame the recession on Snow!!!!
I believe that the current economic climate helps us all to appreciate that we need to nurture the client base we have much more than we have previously. As businesses start to hunker down to weather the oncoming storm they need to know that their trusted advisors, whether this be IT or other services, are there to huddle up to them to help weather the storm. Part of the process is to interact with our clients on a much more proactive way than previously, getting involved in there business and seeing where you can help them to save money. Sadly some people just are not getting it.
Here is an example of how NOT to perform customer service:
We recently had to make a claim on our insurance due to a leak in our central heating system, this resulted in a number of our carpets being ruined. While that other areas are still being sorted the carpets have been ordered and I was contacted by Carpet Right over at Derby yesterday to inform me that they were in and to sort out fitting. The conversation went like this:
Me: Hello can I help?
Man: Hi this is Carpet Right at Derby we’ve got your carpet in, can we sort out fitting it?
Me: Yeah that’d be great, but I am just with someone now would it be possible to give me a call back this afternoon to arrange a time?
Man: What me call you?
Me: Errr yes please.
Man: Errr Ok I guess I will if I remember
Me: Oh..O K … thanks
I have done a course in customer service in that past and while I do not profess to be an idol to look up to on this subject I know what is poor customer service and clearly this man should not be in any job which requires him interacting with a paying customer. Needless to say that when I do want carpets in the future, which I am paying for myself, I will NOT be going to see this company and as we are always taught “If someone has a good experience with your company they may tell 1-2 people, if they have a bad experience they will tell 20+”. Guess which category I fall into! Oh and just for the record, he never rang back so clearly he didn’t remember.
Like most people I spend almost every working day racing around seeing people, speaking with them on the phone, rushing home at night to see the wife and kids. This I have done for many years so much so that it has become the normal speed of things and I am always in a rush. More recently though I have started to look at things a little more deeply and found that I don’t like all the rushing but what can you do to stop this? The single thing that made me realise that I needed to stop rushing was when I was taking my little boy to bed, as I do most nights, and he was doing what most 5 year olds do and that was mess about. Now Tom has not had a really normal bedtime routine since he was two before his little brother was born. This is because little Danny was born with problems which meant we have spent the last 2 1/2 years in hospital see www.potter-tate.co.uk for more info. Anyway, it was around 8pm and he was messing and rushing as usual I said to him “come on Tom, I’ve got work to do if you don’t stop messing then no story”. It wasn’t till I got downstairs and sat down at my computer that in dawned on me that in actual fact what I was rushing down to do was neither that important or in fact a “real” job that needed doing.
So I am resolved that while I cannot slow down the work pace while doing on-demand work what I can do is slow down outside of work. I am also resolved to doing things different to the way I have before. So earlier today I decided to walk to our local shop, something which I have NEVER done in the whole time that we have lived at this house which is almost 7 years. The local shop is only about 3/4 mile away and while I going running three times a week and pass it then I have never walked to the shop. You should try it sometime, it’s a surefire way to completely spin out your partner/wife. I said to Julie “I think I’ll walk to the shop”, you should have seen the look on her face. It couldn’t have been more stunned if I had said that I was catching a flight to the other side of the world! So leaving behind a rather confused Julie I walked to the shops, the thing was I ended up looking round with almost schoolboy fascination at houses that I had seen before but never really looked at.
So if you are looking for a New Years Resolution try this, “Do something once a week different to the way you have always done it”.
As you will see things have been extreemly quiet of late. Due to some personal stuff that was happening throughout May/June I had to focus my attention elsewhere for a while, then of course we have had the kids summer holidays which is always great. You get to see the kids more but then after about……2 hours you wish they were back at school and you can clearly remember why you hate the summer holidays!
We have also just returned from a weeks holiday in France which I have to say was an enlightening experience. It is some years now since I travelled abroad so I was a little green about these things but I knew all the normal stuff that was required (passport, GB plates etc). However, being a devout techy I had to take some essentials to ensure that I didn’t loose connection with the world. First stop was with T-Mobile to see what it was going to cost me in terms of mobile phone calls, should clients need me then I want to know how much it will cost me and also to ensure that it was enabled for "roaming". I was told that it was indeed enabled for "roaming" and to make a call back to the UK would cost me "38p per minute" and to receive a call would cost "19p per minute", not too bad however I was then told that I would also be charged "19p per minute" for someone to leave a message and then "38p per minute" to collect them!! Not too much of a piss take. I then asked what the rates were for data usage while abroad…this just go better again. I was told that it was much cheaper than it used to be as previously it cost £7.00 per MB but now it was only £1.60 per MB. Now obviously the young lady that I was speaking to but I am afraid that I do not agree I mean come on, on one hand we are told that we are part of the EU, the European Union, but all that goes out then window when the mobile companies have the opportunity at a pound of flesh. Needless to say I decided to see how much the Wi-Fi would cost on site. During the ferry crossing my mobile picked up a network called "On-waves" which is the maritime network between then English and Franch coast, what a fantastic service. However, when my mobile joined the network I was greeted with the following message:
Welcome to Maritime.It will cost you /min to make and /min to receive calls here. You can send a text for 40p a message and a picture message for 20p. To speak to T-Mobile Customer Services call +44XXXXXXXXXX from your mobile.
Now this was a nice message to get however it failed to provide a clue as to the cost of calls on this network. However, on my HTC TyTn which has a T-Mobile 3G data only sim inserted I received the following message:
You have latched onto a maritime network. Please note making and receiving calls are charged at £1.80/min from this network.
Slightly more dramatic costs for calling, I mean come on £1.80 per minute to make or receive a call you might as well just butter me up and stick it to me!!! Once in france another SMS was received confirming that call costs that I had already been notified of prior to leaving. Once we were at the site it transpired that Wi-Fi usage is charged at 8€ per hour which I just wasn’t prepared to pay, I mean it just doesn’t cost that much to buy it so I ended up spending the week with no Internet access whatsoever which was really quite surreal but oddly pleasant. Some would call me a tight git but I refuse to pay unreasonable rates for services such as this, what do you think?
I was round to see my dad recently and he showed me a video he’d found on youtube and it had me rolling. The video is of Jeff Dunham with "Achmed the dead terrorist", below is the video for your enjoyment !!!
combined with the word “Error” was a problem. I’m so glad that a “quality” support service was able to clarify this clear mis-conception of mine, cheers Dell
This week has been an interesting week for UK business. We have discovered, surprise surprise, that as a country we are totally unable to cope with any kind of weather outside of the standard drizzle of rain or a sparkle of sunshine. As a Brit I am truly embarrassed to call myself a UK citizen this week. I mean there are countries that have 5-6 times more snow in a day than we saw over the last three days and the wheels of commerce continue to turn. But the good old UK can’t even keep the Underground running..that’s right the underground I mean what the hell does the underground have to do with snow I ask. All buses services in London were ceased which meant most people were left with three choices; a) either make their way in cars, which for London folk is just impossible due to costs etc; b) they walk but that is too far for some; c) phone in sick/work from home. The Federation of Small Businesses have estimated that 20% of the UK workforce, that’s around 6.4 million people did not make it in to work and as of early Tuesday morning they estimated that it had cost the British economy £1.2bn which is probably much higher.