RE: WATCHA DUIN TODAY. - 13

Mornin John
The weather here is unseasonably rubbish too. But the lawns on Sheldonboy Estate will be well glad of a drink. Got a busy day again today, but then thankfully they all seem to be. I am on the bus at the moment, everyone (else) looks as though they are going to a funeral. SB

Morning everyone,
Got a mad rush job on, and only 2 days to do it before I head off to Brum, hence the early start and my disappearance for a couple of days.
Dull and dismal here at the moment,rain imminent by the look of it, have a nice day ya'll.

Morning John from rainy Brum.I look forward to meeting yu next week hopefully. I will liase with Dave. SB

Morning,
A dull morning here, just off to finish a job, then haircut, and nothing for the rest of the day.

Hi John
You must be looking forward to getting away. Did you know that Brum is one of the country's top hoiday Destinations. It's a bit dismal here, we had a hell of a storm last night.
SB

After such a wonderful week we have had rain all this week.The dog walk was a wet one yesterday morning.Overcast this morning but the weather man reckons we may be in for a good weekend.A good break from watering my veg patch and potsa though and the gardens look much better after a well needed drink.

Hi Den who had the well needed drink you or the gardens ?

We've had a months rain overnight and it's still tipping it down, just doing some packing and then going to pick car up and on my way..

Today I will be mostly trying to get my ADSL back up and running.
My new modem has arrived but I still think it is Virgin's fault.
That means two hours on the phone talking to a call centre person in India, who does't know a modem from his elbow.
Wish me luck.
VM

Just speak Punjabi, it's easy, you get by in town.

When I signed on for my internet it was before Virgins and Telewest's time. It was Birmingham Cable. If anything went wrong I just picked up the phone and rang a local number. I was always answered with a reassuring Brummie twang. Though admittedly it sometimes had the hint of an Asian accent.

Now I have to admit that I am biased against foreign based call centres. Not because they are manned by foreigners but because I believe they should be in this country. This is where they are making the money so why not return some of it to the local economy. Richard Branson should be ashamed of himself.

It's not as if they train them well for the job, I was speaking to one a couple of weeks back and I had to stop him and ask for somebody who could speak English. The chap said "I am speaking English" and I had to reply "Not any dialect of English that I can understand".

Phil

Bang on Phil. All companies we know are there to make a profit. I know they pay taxes, but they must carry some kind of social conscience. Most large companies could carry a few extra staff, it wouldnt break them and it would help the country, it would also be very good PR and more people would probably use their services.
Instead they trim their staff to the bare minimum. They get away with this because the remaining people know that if they don't cover the extra work with extra hours etc they will be in big trouble. An awful lot of people also work through their lunch breaks. It is still cheaper to have these call centres abroad, but we don't get the level of service that we are paying for. Who cares, Certainly the share holders don't. SB

SB

Trouble is these companies do not earn any loyalty. If a new company comes along offering the same service and quality of service at a cheaper rate then the customer is off.

Years ago we remained with the same milkman, breadman, grocer, butcher and even window cleaner for years. Because we knew them and we were assured of good service. I sometimes long for those days back.

Phil

Loyalty is very low in many spheres Phil

Beautiful weather here so far, going on a tractor tour of the village and surrounding area, then off to Throckmorton airfield for the Help for Heroes show.