Welcome to Wild Edric

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Wild Edric

Naming, Shaming and generally just Publicising all those folks who get our backs up – from individuals, right through to Huge Multinationals.

Your Boss; Some inept di#k who scraped your car; The anonymous prat in a Call Centre; The Store whose staff can’t seem to find the time to put prices on their goods; The Phone Company who treat you like crap – because they have another few million customers and they think you don’t matter…….

They’re all guaranteed to get you WILD. But, like Edric says, don’t get wild – get even. Let’s have your tales of woe and have a chance to get your own back!

What you can do: Leave a comment on or related to any of the pieces on the site – just click the Leave a Comment link found at the bottom of each article. You will be asked for your email and a username – to help us avoid Spam, Junk and Idiots.  You might also want to create a new article of your own regarding an experience you have had. Check out the Forum – again you will be asked to log in – but its quick easy and painless.

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An apology – I don’t like making Girls cry!

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Wild Edric

This is a public apology – to the nameless youg lady who (by reading from a script supplied to her by her retarded bosses) was only doing her job. It seems that in Spain companies dont actually WANT you to pay your bills – in fact they go to great lengths to make it virtually impossible for you to do so. Having left the UK at a time when cheques were out of fashion and everyone was paying by card I spent a few frustrating years while Spain caught on to this newfangled idea – and many hours were wasted in making face to face visits to pay when it could and should have been done over the phone. Then came the era of instant online payments – well in UK anyway, not Spain. Ive mentioned elsewhere how backward busninesses and banks are in Spain with regard to this. (See below e.g. 3 weeks to get confirmation of an order! Getting to the now ready to pay bit and being asked to make a Bank Transfer!) etc etc.
So, I’ve just been told I must SEND A FAX to confirm my Telephone payment details – unfortunately, as I explained to the young lady, all the museums are shut today so I can’t get hold of the aforementioned antique instrument………………
Its what I said next (I think all these years of putting up with all this BS finally caused me to spew forth everything I think of the entire system) that I apologise for – well not all of it, but anything that she may have taken personally. Surely she can’t be held responsible for the pathetic, antiquated and nonsensical business practises her employers adopt……..?!

See also: Why Spain is Bankrupt

Posted in Annoying Shops & Stores, Bad Service, Edric's Rants, Phone companies that make you WILD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Creationism – time to say goodnight (without the Bedtime Stories)

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Wild Edric

I’m genuinely fearful for mankind that after all this time and all the evidence to the contrary, some members of the human race still believe in the Kiddie Stories that were (a) dreamed up to explain the unexplainable in times when even the simplest observed fact such as the Sun “rising” each morning required the invoking of some god or other, then (b) passed down the generations – with various versions gaining differential support in different regions of the world – such that nowadays proponents of the variously adapted Kiddie Stories and their inherent baggage have no qualms as to go so far as even kill those with sometimes even a very slightly different adopted version of the Kiddie Stories. I’m not sure if anyone ever made a correlation curve between Intelligence (yes in all its various guises) and propensity to believe in Creation, but it’s sad to think that in 2012 in some of the most powerful countries on Earth and amongst some of the most powerful people therein, we still find these views held up as in any way credible. At least Richard Dawkins et al have decided to finally Call Time on pussyfooting around in order not to upset the sensitivities of these Retards!
So, why am I fearful? Well, with Biological Evolution now playing little more than a supporting role to Cultural Evolution, these Retards are NOT being weeded out of the gene pool – hence I fear that with the General Public’s love for a good story and scarily bad Track Record when it comes to sorting out the facts from the BS, these Guys may yet win the day – see you over at my cave for fermented fruit juice and roots – we can stay up and watch the Sun Gods with their chariots towing the Sun across the sky……..

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Why Spain is Bankrupt!

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Wild Edric

That might be useful I thought, downloading the iPhone app from Spanish superstore El Corte Ingles. How wrong can you be!

This “app” is a complete and utter joke. I can think of only one use for it – which is to show businesses how to get left in the 80′s and go bankrupt fast.
Comparing this with say Amazon UK is a demonstration as to what exactly is wrong with Spain:
  • Amazon UK: – search interactively – suggestions come as you type  - find your item in seconds – minutes later it’s purchased and on its way to you.
  • El Corte Ingles – search and fail to find even those items that are in the database – try e.g Canon Camera – no results (but there are quite a few there somewhere) – click to “Request Information” (yes that’s right you can’t actually BUY anything) then you get asked to register your Name and (get this) TELEPHONE NUMBER  - so here you are on the web with a world of info and buying opportunities at your fingertips and these jokers want you to get them to phone you so they can describe the item you wanted to buy. Wait, it gets WORSE, those stupid enough to request the info have someone calling them through a PREMIUM PHONE NUMBER!
Not surprisingly their website is not much better – I tried to buy something online  and after 3 weeks ( yes no typo there – THREE WEEKS! ) I had an email thanking me for the confidence I have placed in them and that my order has “entered the system” - I cancelled and had it sent from Amazon – it arrived in Spain next day ( but then took a further three days to make the last 50km of the journey). Bye bye Corte Ingles – bye bye most of the rest of Spain with your backward business practices!
Strangely, this app has numerous 5 star reviews! I truly feel sorry for those unfortunate enough to think this is an “Excellent App” – they are either paid stooges or employees desperately trying to protect their jobs in the face of overwhelming competition.
Wake up Spain – its 2012!!!

 

Posted in Annoying Shops & Stores, Bad Service, Edric's Rants, World Wide Wot? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Top Ten Computer OS Annoyances

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Wild Edric

Whatever your views on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux etc. one thing’s for sure: Unless you’re a total fanboy with the accompanying Blinkered Glasses, you will certainly have those times when you wonder what the hell the guys behind the scenes were thinking when they programmed in some of the more annoying aspects of your Operating System of choice.

Here’s my countdown:

10: Useless Help Files: My theory is that the OS developers are so far up Geek Creek they are simply incapable of seeing the world as a mere mortal. Hence we have 500 word sections of help files telling us how to do such obvious things as start up an application, tiny entries in geek speak regarding difficult and not at all obvious procedures yet nothing at all regarding those tasks that surely everyone is trying to accomplish yet are not at all intuitive and the geeky guys seem totally oblivious to.

9: Meaningless Error Codes. Even the great MS is not immune to this. OK so you get a crash and then what at first glance looks like a lifeline in the form of an error code – wait, don’t get your hopes up – you may well find the code applies to any one of two dozen situations and all over the net are fellow sufferers trying to track down the real cause.

8: Meaningless Error Messages (note the difference from the above) – this time you get not a code number but the ubiquitous “Windows has encountered an error and will now close” – Wow!

7: Network connection status messages. You are connected to Network X, Y, Z - but you’re not really connected – well you can’t do anything. Actually this is now getting to be a bit of a rarity – Windows 7 has gone forward in leaps and bounds compared to previous versions of the OS – remember the contortionate efforts required to make a simple wireless connection in XP?

6: Updates that wreck your setup. While many of us have this one under control, there are a good many folks who rely on the OS to do what’s best and have Auto Updates configured. Better make sure you have a good backup strategy or the next Update that Windows – or MAC – throws you could be your last before a major reinstallation excercise.

5: Simple Networking? So, you have a home network and you want to share your files and printer between your MAC and your PC – simple surely? You have the passwords – you have IP addresses, you have all the settings you need to know and more – but BLANK – they refuse to play. Blame Windows? Blame OSX? Problem is they both say: “Why should we make OUR OS compatible with theirs?” – loser = us. Yes, I know this can be done but do a quick websearch: there’s a tonne of people out there having big problems and having to compromise on their network security or engage in crazy work-arounds.

Continue reading →

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Website Localization / Geo Location

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Wild Edric

This has to be one of the most annoying practices on the net. What’s the problem? say those of you who rarely leave your COO – well, to those of us who spend large chunks of time in various locations around the globe – or maybe are expatriots in “foreign” lands – or perhaps are Swallows (those who fly south for Winter) – this is a real PITA.

Why do some web entities, including Google, PayPal, YouTube, Apple, etc etc, assume by my IP address alone that I’m French; Spanish, Japanese, whatever…..? Thus serving me up with material that (a) I’d prefer to see in my native language or (b) I don’t understand in the slightest! Crazy!

OK, my web Browser is in English - which can be detected by any properly designed script – and that should be the end of the matter. But no; some folks in their infinite wisdom have deemed that because my Internet Connection (or ISP) eminates from Swaziland that I must be a Pure Born & Bred fully paid up member of Swazi Society – how suppositious! Are those responsible for these decisions so insular in their outlook that they really believe that everyone in country X speaks X-ish? Or maybe they’re so buried in the Virtual World that they just don’t get out and about to experience this problem, or even be aware of its existence. Well in the latter case they certainly should be – as even a perfunctory web search will reveal: There are literally hordes of folks who are sick of this arrogant attempt to force a language upon us!

Never experienced the problem? try this:

Have to admit I cheated with that one – I don’t speak Korean at all, so I’m not looking forward to trying to decipher that lot if & when I visit that part of the world. :)

Its not just language either – my young niece wants to visit iCarly.com (we see it on TV fine after a few contortious adjustments in the TV settings) – but is forced to see a dumbed down version in Spanish as the website auto redirects to iCarly.es - cheers guys! Workaround – go to iCarly.co.uk (we do the same with google search), but why not let folks go where they want to go – without the nannying assumptions. I fear that advertising plays a big part in this – but again – if someone arrives on your site using a browser configured in Swahili – is it not very rude to do anything other than to assume that its Swahili they want to view your content in, after all – surely you want them to understand the ads you’re feeding them?

iSwahili.com? Sorry redirecting you to iSwahili.ke

 

Posted in World Wide Wot? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Is YOUR business the wrong side of the new Digital Divide?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Wild Edric

We’ve all seen and heard of the Digital Divide concept being applied between countries; socio economic groups; age groups and even the sexes – but how about this: The Digital Divide between those businesses and organisations who are up to date with what’s happening in the digital world and those who are still firmly rooted in the 90′s – when The Internet was little more than an Entertainment Toy and having an Internet Presence involved putting up your company logo or a few pictures and a contact number.

I remember in the noughties demonstrating to a friend the utter uselessness of the website of Spanish National Airline, Iberia. A few silly graphics and even an animated pilot getting aboard an aeroplane and flying it off into the sunset – and that’s what nearly happened to Iberia! While they were busy messing about “entertaining” would-be customers with schoolboy graphics, the competition was digital light years ahead.

Watch your potential customers don't fly off................... to your competitors

Basically, Iberia’s website was nothing but a Store Front or Advertising Poster – completely irrelevant as everyone knew they existed and what they did – they had after all presumably just landed (pun intended) on the Airline’s site after searching for them! The furthest you could get was a page inviting you to phone this number - or wait (it gets better) even write to them! Wow – that’s foresight!

Skip forward a few years and Iberia’s nearly got it – you could actually book and pay for your flight online (there were various intermediate stages before this, where you could book but had to then go and manually pay or send a fax or pay by card over the phone, or do a bank transfer - but it makes me cry to even think that anyone was so stupid to create such a system, so I’m not going into what – in many ways – is worse than the Shop Front idea – at least that doesn’t pretend to be any use to anyone). AOK now then you think? No Continue reading →

Posted in World Wide Wot? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Illegible / undecipherable captcha’s – 5ILLY 845T4RD5

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Wild Edric

So – you’ve spent the best part of half an hour filling in every personal detail into some dumb web form to be greeted with………the CAPTCHA – or is that C4PTCH4? Worse still, on some sites if you get it wrong you have to start all over!

I hate these stupid things with a vengeance. If their primary purpose really is to ensure its a Human filling in the form and not a BOT, then why the hell do they need to be so bloody difficult to decipher? Jeez, even the simplest of these things are so hard to tell, that any bot that can read them can automatically claim to have passed the Turing Test http://bit.ly/zXpAi and others are complete gibberish – is that an s, a capital S maybe, or a 5 – do I count that streak of blobs across the text as a series of characters or punctuation marks, or is it just to confuse the bots? – oh 5hi7 – time out, need to start filling in the form all over again……….

I like this – from Geek & Poke: http://bit.ly/znYDO

Why you should NEVER use Captchas: http://bit.ly/fFEitE

Posted in World Wide Wot? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bankers in Need

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Wild Edric

You’ve just got to see this. What makes it so funny is its all 100% TRUE!

The banks and their ilk have F%#ked up half the world – and we are expected to pay for their greed and incompetence. Are you a miner? If you mess up in your job you’ll be given a special little document called a P45 and sent on your way – lucky if you get your holiday pay they owe you.

Maybe you’re a Nurse? Despite being overworked and underpaid, you best be careful not to relax for one minute, or last month’s wages may well be your last.

Or perhaps you’re self-employed? Working your butt off to make ends meet in the current economic “climate” …….. Stay in bed when you’re ill if you dare; you can’t afford to give anything less than 100% or you’ll be back down the Job Centre…..

But wait, there’s hope – if you’re a banker (have to keep watchin the keyboard on that one) – you’re fine. You can oversee the biggest loss in your Bank’s History and – no don’t believe all that nonsense about jumping of the 55th floor – you can still get a huge bonus! Its true! Google the following terms: Bank +bonus +loss - you’ll find tonnes of stuff! Spanish Bank Caja Madrid directors who watched their bank’s value plumett to all time lows (it was probably worth more in the first few days of opening, round about the time of the Armada….) are about to share 26 million Euros in bonuses – while the customers unfortunate enough to have mortgages with them see rising rates and increasing reposessions! Amazing!

For a lighter hearted look at how dumb we all are to put up with these greedy incompetent gits take a look at Allan Carr’s new take on Children in Need – i.e. Bankers in Need. 

Posted in Banks & *ankers | 1 Comment

Movistar (Telefonica) Complaints

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Wild Edric

So, the infamous Telefonica think they can shed their demonical image by simply changing their name? They were one of – if not the most complained about service company in Spain last year (quite some achievement – there’s a lot of competition) and racked up millions of euros in fines and penalty payments, yet they continue with their disgraceful actions unabated.

A quick Google of the search terms telefonica and complaints will notch you up enough material to keep you – I was going to say amused, but a better choice of words would be disgusted – for hours.

Basically their motto seems to be The Customer is always wrong, the customer doesn’t matter and we will do absolutely anything to squeeze whatever we can out of them and stuff them and the consequences. Add to this their amazing level of incompetence and lack of any organizational skills (just check out their website for a taster) and one wonders how do they continue in business and get away with all this?

Simples – They had / have no real competition – in the proper sense of the world as in a free market situation.

I’m sure we could easily fill this site with tales of Telefonica (oops Movistar) woe – but I’ll just get the ball rolling with one of many hundreds I could divulge:

“Prepare for your move”- said their website; Like a fool I clicked – I was after all moving home 6 months later, Continue reading →

Posted in Phone companies that make you WILD | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments