A Curious Problem With My Credit Cards
A few months ago, I tried to order some goods from IKEA for my kitchen. They weren’t delivered and my credit card wasn’t debited, so the only harm done was I waited in for a whole day for a non-delivery.
Over the next couple of months, I tried several times to repeat the order, but in no cases was it ever completed. Immediately, When I entered the details of either of my credit cards, the order disappeared.
To solve the problem, I took a bus to IKEA in Tottenham and placed the order personally, paying with my American Express card at the check-out. I also got the direct e-mail address of the Kitchen Department and sent them a couple of e-mails to assure them, that if they didn’t deliver, they’d be deep in the doodah.
The goods were eventually delivered on the day, but the driver’s sat-nav got him lost in the mews at the back of my house.
I put it down to some form of problem with the delivery system, that checks the credit rating of the purchaser. But as Experian have confirmed, my credit rating is good and the only problem, is that I’m not correctly on the Electoral Roll. And that’s not for dint of trying, but for some reason they seem incapable to get it right!
However, today I needed to buy a coach ticket from National Express for the Ipswich-QPR match on Boxing Day.
So I entered my details to buy the ticket and tried to pay by credit czrds. Both were rejected.
I phoned both credit card suppliers and there was no problem with either card.
As a last resort, I phoned National Express direct and bought the ticket traditionally from the Call Centre at the cost of a long phone call and a booking fee.
But it wasn’t without trouble.
Both my credit cards were rejected by the system used by the very patient Colin in the Call Centre, as was my debit card.
Their system knew about me from my previous four failed attempts to buy tickets on-line and I wondered if it was rejecting them because of my address, which was on some sort of blacklist.
I’ve often thought this, as my house was tenanted for several years before I bought it and the tenants did runners leaving piles of debts to several companies.
In the end, Colin and I felt this was all rather silly, so I thought about trying an alternative e-mail address, as this was probably the key used to access my address on their computer.
It worked and I got my ticket.
Intriguingly in both cases, I got my goods or tickets, when I broke the link between debit/credit card address and the address for the card.
In IKEA, this was by putting the AMEX card through a till and with National Express, it was by giving them an e-mail address for which they had no physical address details.
I am drawn to the inevitable conclusion, that software checks my address against County Court Judgements. And I think there could be a lot of them, due to the history of the property!
Surely, if I can’t purchase on-line, because of the debts of previous owners or their tenants, who lived here, before I bought the house, then that is illegal!
The only way to lose them, would be the same way to get rid of bindweed from your garden. Move!
Unless of course, someone reading this knows better?
Finding An Errant Parcel!
I ordered something on-line for Christmas and realised this morning that it had not arrived.
So I got on to the company and they replied in an hour or so, that Parcelforce had tried to deliver it on the eighth and that they had left a card and taken it to the Post Office.
I searched my hall and I could find no red Parcelforce card amongst the masses of junk mail, that I get. But then I’ve had a couple of incidents like this, where a parcel has not been delivered and no card has been left, from different couriers. I should say that I’ve also had delivery drivers and couriers get lost and end up in the mews at the back of the house.
I think the problem, is that there are several banned right turns and because of this sat-navs send drivers on a roundabout route. If a driver knows the area, it might encourage them to take a short cut and the mews is one that looks a good one. But unfortunately, the far end is blocked.
So as they can’t find my house, they just card one with a similar number and get off out of it.
I then went over to Camden, as I suspected the parcel was at their main depot.
It wasn’t!
But they said, if I could get the Tracking Number, they would find it.
So when I got the Tracking Number, I found it was in a Post Office about a mile away.
It took me about thirty minutes and two buses to get it.
I think there are various lessons to be learned from this.
- The system of the cards needs to be improved.
- Sat-nav systems must get better.
- Purchasers should have easy access to the Tracking Numbers.
But at least no harm was done!
What’s Got Twenty-Eight Legs and An IQ Of Fourteen?
As there are fourteen of them at the moment, it’s Republican Party presidential candidates, 2016.
This is a joke that might get bigger!
Trump Forgot The Ace Of Clubs
This article on the BBC web site, is entitled Donald Trump loses wind farm legal challenge. This is said.
Donald Trump’s legal challenge to a planned offshore wind farm has been rejected by the UK’s Supreme Court.
The UK Supreme Court is probably the end of an expensive road.
My late friend; Brian, would have said that an old accountancy phrase would apply – Screwed, Glued and Tattooed.
Seeing as it’s Scotland, perhaps it should be the Scottish version – Screwed, Glued and Bagpiped. I’m certain, there are a large number of Scots, who have innovative uses of a set of bagpipes as an instrument of torture.
There is this article on the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, entitled EOWDC partners welcome Supreme Court decision. This is said.
Vattenfall and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), partners of Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Ltd, the company behind the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), welcomed today’s Supreme Court decision.
Andy Paine, Project Director for AOWFL, said: “This is another significant step forward for the EOWDC. It affirms the scheme’s potential to position Scotland, and particularly the North-east, as a centre of innovative offshore wind power. The project partners remain committed to seeing the EOWDC come to fruition and delivering long-term economic benefits to the region.”
It certainly looks like Trump didn’t have the heaviest club; the Ace, in his bag.
I’ll leave the last word to the Professional Golfers Association, as detailed in this report on the BBC entitled Donald Trump controversy bad for golf – PGA chief Sandy Jones. This is said.
The chief executive of the Professional Golfers’ Association says the ongoing controversy generated by Donald Trump is “not a positive thing for golf.”
Trump, who owns two Scottish courses, has been criticised for comments made during his bid to become the Republican Party’s US presidential candidate.
And Sandy Jones says the negative publicity around Trump is bad for golf.
“Sadly his political campaign in America seems to be getting in the way of all the great things golf offers.”
Tìoraidh!
Exploring Tilbury Riverside
The idea was simple. I would walk from Tilbury Town station to the site of the former Tilbury Riverside station and have a look at the London Cruise Terminal and Tilbury Fort, before taking a ferry to Gravesend to come home.
But things didn’t quite work out as planned, as although I had a good walk in the wind to river, that wind was so bad the ferries had got themselves cancelled.
But I did find a nice place with a welcoming pub to go to in better weather!
The area does need a bit of improvement.
- The London Cruise Terminal looks as welcoming as a prison from the outside.
- Connections to Tilbury Town station are simple and spasmodic.
- Tilbury Fort certainly needed some more information.
- The chimneys behind the Fort are those of the Tilbury B power station, which burns biomass.
- The Ferry Terminal to Gravesend was also short of information. Especially, something like an electronic Next Ferry Indicator.
- There needs to be extension of the pedestrian routes.
- It would also help, if the trucks kept to the speed limit.
But most importantly, the area would get more visitors if Tilbury Riverside station was still being used.
Failing that a decent cycle route, with bicycle hire stations at either end.
An Alternative Source Of Celias
It would appear that Waitrose are no longer stocking Celia gluten-free lager.
As I can’t live without them, I went to the Celia web site and searched for an alternative supplier near me.
I found Harvest E8, just up the road from Dalston Kingsland station.
It certainly is a well-stocked organic shop.
Narrow Pavements In Dalston
I’m not a lover of this development in Kingsland High Street, but now that it is nearing completion, one problem stands out!
The pavements are so very narrow.
Will two double-buggy pushers be able to pass?
Islamic Scumbags
I watched Andrew Neil’s carefully-crafted monologue on the BBC last night, in which he referred to Islamic State as Islamic Scumbags.
It was a brave and very right thing to do and I hope there are no repercussions.
But his monologue was in the great tradition of the BBC, that started in the 1960s, with That Was The Week That Was or TW3.
It was on late and as I needed to get up early to deliver newspapers, I usually went to bed and my father would wake me and call me down to watch the program.
Perhaps the most moving program was the one they did after the assassination of President Kennedy, which contained none of the usual copious amounts of satire.
We should treat the so-called Islamic State with the contempt they deserve and strong words and biting humour are the weapons we should use!
Good Riddance To Coal-Fired Power Stations
This article on the BBC is entitled UK’s coal plants to be phased out within 10 years. This is said.
The UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations will be shut by 2025 with their use restricted by 2023, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has proposed.
Ms Rudd wants more gas-fired stations to be built since relying on “polluting” coal is “perverse”.
Because coal is pure carbon, when it burns, if produces carbon dioxide.
On the other hand, natural gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and methane, which is a compound of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atons. So when it burns, it produces a lot of the combustion product of hydrogen, which is water.
I think to get the same amount of heat or produce a given amount of electricity, natural gas creates about half the amount of carbon dioxide, than coal does.
There is another advantage of using gas to generate electricity. You can have small power stations generating electricity, where it is needed.
An interesting small gas-powered power station is the Bunhill Energy Centre in Islington, which is used to generate electricity and heat for some of the Council’s buildings. Phase 2 of this project will capture waste heat from the London Underground and a large electricity sub-station, that will be used to heat more buildings.
These cogeneration systems will become more numerous. For instance, if you had say a large detached house in the country, you might use solar panels or a wind turbine, backed by a microCHP system for dark or still days.
We shouldn’t underestimate, the skill of engineers to design electricity combined heat and power systems matched to all the different markets.
There will come a time, where many of us will generate the electricity we need, either by ourselves or perhaps in a local co-operative. We could even sell the surplus back to the grid.
I will not predict what a system will look like, but it will heat your house and provide you with the electricity you need.
The one thing, I will predict that coal will not have any use for the generation of electricity.
My Useless John Lewis Credit Card Statement
I recently bought a winter coat in Marks and Spencer. The zip has gone, so I want to find the store, where I bought it, as I use several of the large ones in London regularly. I probably bought it with my John Lewis credit card, so all I need to find is a transaction at over a £100 for Marks and Spencer to get a date and store.
But I can only get the last statement as a spreadsheet, which just gives dates, values and not the store. It’s not even formatted to the sort of level, that a child of six could program.
Quite frankly it’s utter crap!
Unlike with Amex, which gives you everything you need to trace purchases, in an easy-to-read clickable format.
Do John Lewis expect me to keep paper copies of all my purchases?
Paper is so Nineteenth Century!
The Anonymous Widower 