Well, a fun start to the weekend, being confronted with a £300 online bill by Virgin Media is always a wake up call. Let me explain…

A couple of months back, I needed to transfer the name on my Virgin Media account and the Direct Debit details, nothing else. I’ve always been pretty happy with the VIP package that I have, including 20MB broadband with no limits, V+ with Sky Sports and Sky Movies and ESPN (and previously Setanta), an extra digibox, plus the landline phone. The V+ service by itself is far better than Sky + and generally, the Virgin customer services and service availability have always been pretty agreeable.

So where did it all go wrong? Well, when phoning to transfer name and DD details, I was told they would need to post a pack out for me to complete, they couldn’t do it over the phone. Fair enough I thought, signatures would be needed, so it seemed fair.

When the pack arrived it mentioned that there was a £20 service charge for the transfer. Now, I’m not tight, but £20 to change two things? Hmmm, could that be because if you don’t pay by DD you get charged £5 a month to pay over the phone or online, so they need to recoup the money somehow?

Anyway, I completed all the relevant forms and sent them off. Pretty quickly, I received back a letter saying thanks, received, everything sorted, but also mentioned that on the day that the transfer actually went through, there may be a short cut out of my services. I phoned Virgin Media to check what this meant exactly and they said it wouldn’t be noticeable.

So, I came home from work one day, tried watching a recording on the V+ box, only to find a message saying I wasn’t subscribed to V+. Why should any of this have changed?!?!? I phoned again, went through the usual drill of pulling out the V+ card, re-inserting, etc etc, eventually it was sorted. I then got onto my laptop to find no broadband. Okay, so I didn’t need to call again but I did have to re-install my broadband service.

I then thought it was all sorted. My first bill came in and was slightly higher than normal, but mainly because it is billed in advance so I expected it. The payment was due out by DD last week, according to Virgin Media “on or after” a particular date. I checked my bank account a few times but it hadn’t appeared which I thought was odd but presumed it was just more of the “after” than the “on.”

Then yesterday, I received another email saying my new bill was ready, and that I owed over £300!!!

When I checked my online bill I had been charged a £10 late payment fee, £5 per month non-DD charge plus none of my VIP package discounts had been applied.

I phoned again and, to give them credit, I was connected straight away. I explained that the supposedly simple transfer for which I had paid £20, obviously hadn’t worked. The guy apologised but basically said he couldn’t do anything as I was late in my payment. After arguing the toss, he advised me to speak to customer care and threaten to leave – he said he shouldn’t really tell me to do this but there was no option. Does this mean that frontline Virgin Media advisers are often put into this position by processing issues beyond their control?

Anyway, he put me through to Jim in the Sheffield office who looked at the account, admitted straight away that it was a mess and asked if he could phone me back in three minutes.

He did just that and advised that no Direct Debit was set up, none of my VIP discounts had been applied and so he re-worked it all to reduce the cost considerably.

Upon asking if the transfer fee had also been refunded, he said it wasn’t possible, until I pressed harder and eventually got it taken off. How could they even think about charging for a mess of a service?!?!?

I have now paid half of what was outstanding and will pay the other half later this week. Only once the balance is zero can they set up the DD ready for January’s bill.

Total mess, and I expect this happens more times than they would care to admit to. Luckily I class myself as suitably tech savvy that I would notice all these errors, but how many people would not and so Virgin Media could get away with all of this.

I think that Virgin Media are really dropping the ball. Their service, generally is superior to Sky’s and their UK advisers have always been helpful and efficient. I don’t hold it personally against these frontline guys but surely Virgin need to look at serious issues in their processing if they are ever to consider themselves a real challenge to Sky’s dominance?

Well, it’s long overdue and by not-at-all popular demand, I thought I would update my views on the console wars circa 2009.

You may remember that nearly two years ago, I posted that Microsoft hit the ground running with some great exclusives, a great online facility and a real drive to corner the hardcore gamer market with their Xbox 360. On the flip side, Sony seemed to be too pre-occupied with the HD wars, weren’t really focused on a particular demographic, and the price point of PS3 was putting people off in droves.

So what’s new? The Wii seems to have had its five minutes of fame and been slightly exposed for the underpowered gimmick that it is. Conversely, both Microsoft and Sony have recently unveiled motion senor-based controlling mechanisms. There are far fewer console exclusives out there these days, even Metal Gear Solid has gone multi-format. HD-DVD is dead and gone. And Gran Turismo 5 STILL isn’t out.

Personally I continue to buy games across both console formats, but mainly on 360 for the still-better-than-Sony’s controller, especially for First Person Shooters, the online service they offer via Xbox Live, and the strangely competitive nature of the achievements system.

But, my patience with Microsoft has been stretched to breaking point at times. I, like many others got the dreaded Red Ring Of Death on my 360, originally after only having had it for about 18 months. To be fair though, MS managed to pick it up, repair it and admit that the faults were more widespread than first thought, having their hand forced into offering everyone an extended warranty on their console “just in case.” It wasn’t the first time I had to send a console off to get fixed either, my old PS2 once gave up the ghost and I had to send it off to Sony for repair, which ended up costing about £60 (from memory). Not the best customer experience when it was me that was the one out of pocket.

Unfortunately, despite updated chip-sets and increased storage capacity, the newer 360s on the market still sound like aircraft taking off, making them unusable for movie watching. The ability to install games to the hard drive quietens things down a bit, but this relies on you having available disk space, and actually wanting to wait for the thing to install rather than just plugging in and playing away. It was never a possibility on my Xbox 360 Premium edition as the 20GB harddrive soon got full with game saves and downloadable extra content for various games. So much so that I couldn’t even download demos anymore, so I was kind of relieved when I got my second Red Ring (!) and found myself with a good reason to upgrade to the black Xbox 360 Elite, complete with 120GB harddrive. This beast is a bit quieter than its predecessor, but compared to the PS3 it’s still a roaring lion next to a little squeaky mouse. Having said that, it is easy to set up, the new £199 price point is more than agreeable, and the free data transfer kit made getting all my old stuff off the Premium a doddle.

Microsoft’s relatively recent NXE (New Xbox Experience) has also made the menu system even simpler to use, although the use of avatars which the player can dress up and buy additional clothes/jewellery etc for seemed shoe-horned in for the younger market. Nevertheless, it’s mildly amusing playing around with the look of these little on-screen personas and they are being used in a more mainstream way now in games such as Guitar Hero 5 where your avatar will appear on stage as you play.

And what have Sony been up to? Well, they initially chucked a slew of differently memory-ed consoles at the consumer (sneakily removing PS2 backwards compatability without telling anyone at the same time). They then managed to release PlayStation Home for free, tart up their menu system and online store and introduce their trophies (their version of Microsoft’s achievements). Then, recently, they released the PS3 Slim, shaving some size off their behemoth of a machine.

The larger disk space consoles didn’t really do much to increase sales for Sony, but gradually, as the ridiculous £425 launch price came down, and rumble-enhanced controllers began to be included as standard, a few gamers started to take a punt. Helped hugely by Blu-ray winning the war over HD-DVD, tech-savvy consumers then saw the opportunity to pick up a relatively inexpensive media hub in the shape of a PS3 and sales grew.

Trophies seem to have made it easier for developers to use the same reward systems on both 360 and PS3 versions of all new releases, giving gamers something to compete over which in turn encourages people to replay games.

What continues to be an oddity though is the PlayStation Home game/facility/whatever the hell it is. Again, it features an avatar for you to dress up and you can trek around various zones which only seem to serve the purpose of advertising recent or upcoming games. There are a few very simple free games in there that you can have a crack at, but why buy a top of the range console and proceed to play oddities that you’d usually only consider if you had five minutes to kill and fancied an uninvolving flash-based game? It also seems that whenever you are bored enough to go and peek into Home, it forces you to download and install new areas or updates so frequently that you don’t end up spending much time actually DOING anything. And why is it that downloads from both Home and the PlayStation Store itself still take so long compared to the speed of Xbox Live content?

The base PS3 XMB (Cross Media Bar) menu system has benefitted from numerous updates however. There’s VidZone for those who fancy catching up on recent music videos. Even BBC iPlayer is there in all its glory. The Internet browser isn’t great but it’s functional. 360 has yet to even have one, the nearest they’ve come being the forthcoming Facebook and Twitter functionality. And let’s not forget that the PS3 online service is still free so gamers are more likely to accept that it isn’t as advanced yet as the 360’s flashy £40 a year interface.

In spite of its faults, the PS3 also remains more reliable, quieter, and the controller is still slightly more familiar for sports games. Having the weight of Sony behind it, who have been in the game far longer than Microsoft also helps, and the lure of Gran Turismo, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, InFamous, Resistance and Motorstorm exclusivity means that realistically I’m happy to still have both consoles nestled under my TV. Although I must say that I’m more than happy to have an older PS3 that looks far sleeker with touch-sensitive buttons and a glossy finish rather than the recent matt-look slim PS3, but presumably Sony had to cut costs somewhere in order to sell it at the new £250 price so making it LOOK cheaper must have seemed to be the easiest option.

And what of other videogamers and their behaviours? Of the 14 people (all of whom I still know personally) on my Xbox Live friends list, pretty much all of them have had to return their machines to Microsoft for repair at least once. Two of them don’t even have Xboxes anymore, the reason for one – they bought a PS3 instead. Of the other 12, not all of them play all that often at all, and when they do return to their machines, they may well find that their £40 a year Live subscription has expired anyway.

Funnily enough, my PS3 friends list has grown. Again, these are all people I know, not 13 year olds from New Jersey, but I now have a collection of people, some of whom, like me have both Xbox 360 and PS3. Some are converts to the PS3 phenomenon, others are old PS2 fans who have been waiting for the dust and the prices to settle before jumping into the next gen console wars.

One thing’s for sure – both Sony and Microsoft seem happy to co-exist for now, testing out bits and pieces of functionality, software, hardware and add-ons before even thinking about their next gambit. For once, it looks like the big boys are taking a considered approach to new console development, rather than continually rushing out new hardware before we truly need it, and that can only be good news for us consumers.

Following the death a couple of days ago of the great Keith Floyd, I began to realise that we no longer mourn the passing of icons, we mourn the death of institutions. Of legends. Of eccentrics. Of the heart and soul of Britain.

Floyd was an utterly maniacal genius. He was years ahead of his time. From his humble beginnings in Somerset and Bristol, he got one of his first gigs peeling potatoes – his first “cooking” job. But he showed drive and determination to get to where he wanted to be – in front of the camera.

But why does he still get vilified even after his death? Because today’s politically correct society cannot see past the alcohol. And the smoking. And the swearing. And the womanizing. And the flippant attitude to money.

Yes, he was obnoxious, but that’s because he knew how to push people’s buttons. Yes he was offensive, but that was what his appeal was all about. No-one else could set up a field kitchen in an Italian square, despite local protestations and then proceed to rustle up an amazing risotto, even complaining along the way that the locals were making too much noise. Even when local Asian fishermen tried to charge him for cooking on a local quay he carried on regardless with his trademark bottle of wine to hand, barking orders at his cameraman who was probably fearing for his safety. Why did Floyd act like this? Because he could. Empirical attitude or not, he honestly just wanted to do the best that he could with the gifts that were given to him. He was the first of the TV chefs. And possibly still the best.

Sadly, more and more of these great British icons are disappearing from this Earth and in their place is a vacuum of personality and entertainment. Gone are the risk takers. The eccentrics. The old soaks. Why? Who knows. Even when celebrities do self destruct these days, they do it with so little charm that it becomes unsurprising, almost as if it is all an act, just to get the publicity. Look at Kerry Katona’s This Morning slurring. Jack Tweed’s (alleged) rape. Peter Andre and Jordan’s oh so public marriage and inevitable split. These are not world-weary travellers. These are not experienced hell-raisers. These are kids who got a lucky break and threw it back in the face of those who gave it to them.

It makes me sound and indeed feel old, but I can’t help but think back to a sadly bygone age. To those who gave so much to the world but who sadly get so little recognition for the great things they truly achieved.

It’s been a while but I feel I should be blogging again. The laptop has been fired up. Twitter doesn’t give me enough space to bang on about stuff, so here we go again.

Today – taxes on banks. Why does this country consistently punish success? Banks are businesses, not charities. Admittedly, SOME banks go about things in the wrong way but the Government decided rightly or wrongly to bail them out. Now, good old FSA bod Lord Turner has suggested it would be a great wheeze to tax transactions between banks to reduce bonuses. Hang on, bonuses are contractual generally. People choose jobs based on performance related pay as well as the love of the game. We are all here to earn money at the end of the day, so what are these people being punished for? For being successful.

It seems that we can no longer celebrate any form of British success. Instead we pretend the Empire never existed and Capitalism is a dirty word.

Well, thank you, you utter utter clowns for making this once-great country even more of a poorer nation in the rest of the world’s eyes.

If an alien visited planet Earth today and took a snapshot on his space-Nokia of this once great country, he would probably send it back to the mothership with “Danger – keep off” attached. Where once this rich and powerful nation could tell the world what to do, through abysmal government and a growing population-wide “don’t care” attitude, England has become an absolute joke.

Buses, roads and trains are awash with litter and dirt – this isn’t because of a lack of cleaners working for public transport companies, this is because the adult general public are no better than vermin at the best of times. They have a holier than thou attitude that someone will always clear up their mess for them. WRONG. They should be taking responsibility for their actions. Is it really that hard to take your free paper with you where you can chuck it in a recycling bin? Could you not take your apple core with you rather than lobbing it from your car window, claiming it is biodegradable so it doesn’t matter? Can you not hang onto your bus ticket for a few more minutes rather than just littering the floor with it?

Being able to drive is no longer a respected privilege, people simply think it is a God-given right. The standard of driving in this country becomes worse and worse by the day, and the roads on a Friday when everyone is rushing to get home whilst simultaneously hollering down their mobiles to arrange their weekend social life are a deathtrap at best.

Footballers are prima donnas. Rugby players are rapists. Cricketers are alcoholics. Athletes are drug addicts.

Tourists are getting stabbed to death and torched. Kids are being shot and stabbed on the streets daily. What does the government do? Create ridiculous laws saying that you can pick someone for a job because they are female – hang on, if I am recruiting, I will pick someone based on (and here’s the clever bit) THEIR ABILITY TO DO THE JOB. I wouldn’t care if they were male, female, pink, blue, red or green, if they can do a job they are all just human beings at the end of the day.

The police do a fantastic job in fighting all sorts of crime committed by all sorts of people. They have to deal with all sorts of scum, putting their lives on the line day in, day out and they should be treated with respect. But when these criminals go to court, the Crown Prosecution Service ridicule the police’s job time and time again, dishing out pathetic sentences because the government cannot afford to keep that many people in jail. Even if people do go to prison, it isn’t a form of punishment, it’s a summer camp where good behaviour is rewarded with Sky Plus and a shiny new car. To me, good behaviour in prison should be rewarded with slightly less of a daily thrashing. Nothing more, nothing less. No wonder people re-offend, the threat of prison is so pathetic there is nothing putting these people off.

Then of course we look at the media. Vilifying fat and thin celebrities. Criticising the very government that they were partly responsible for bringing to power. Scaring people with stories about the so-called credit crunch, so that they are so scared to spend that they make matters even worse.

Papers even criticise TV for being full of violence and unsuitable content, then the papers themselves make their money by publishing pictures of war, crime and sex. This blame culture is pathetic. Even Noel Gallagher is blaming video games for the rise of crime amongst teenagers – it comes to something when even the token controversial rock star of the day is entirely out of touch with reality.

The great English summer no longer exists – ruined by persistent rain and yobs at Wimbledon shouting out and cheering double faults. You cannot get a pint for less than £3. You cannot go to the corner shop for a paper because it’s either been demolished or boarded up and daubed with graffiti. Post Offices are being closed down, the high street is dead and nobody cares.

Where did it all go wrong? Just because those who fought for this country’s freedom are mostly no longer with us, does not mean we should forget what they did and why they did it. Those brave souls who gave their lives for this country are essentially having their memories urinated on by those who would rather spit on the pavement than help a blind person across the road.

This is England – and frankly it’s embarrassing.

In recent years we have seen the banning of tobacco advertising, junk food ads condemned to late night TV like some dirty old man and the constant refunding of contractual bank charges. All of which is why I have been astounded to read a case of Jessops, the camera people, falsely advertising a product via pay per click marketing on Google and thus far failing to honour the deal.

The case in point can be seen right here on WordPress and also over here on Money Saving Expert and involves Jessops advertising a Panasonic TZ5 camera for £229.99. The normal RRP for this camera is £299, so quite rightly, the chap who spotted the ad contacted Jessops in order to buy the camera (the clickthrough from the advert said the product was still £299).

 Of course Jessops claimed that they had no control over the advert etc etc etc and could not offer the product at that price. It just amazes me that in today’s “not fair” culture, they can simply refuse to do so and that there is seemingly little comeback on them from a regulatory body for doing so.

Imagine if a young single mum with 14 children saw an ad outside McDonalds that said “feed your family for £1.50.” Said mum then goes into the eating establishment only to be told that in reality, a Mcfamily feast costs £150. Would The Sun not have a field day with such a tale and force McDonalds into an apology and some form of compensation.

I have also been surprised by the reaction on the so-called “Consumer Revenge” website Money Saving Expert. Over there, people constantly scratch around for loopholes which exploit big companies but on this occasion many simply say “tough luck, you have no chance of getting anything.”

Double standards throughout!

NB – A quick update, it seems that Jessops are paying attention to what is happening in this case, as they have contacted the customer in question and promised they are looking into it. Still no word on an outcome but goes to show the power of the consumer is not dead!

It seems that this once glorious nation of ours has been rather inundated with utterly ridiculous “not fair” news this week.

First we have the obsessive gambler who is suing William Hill for £2 million because he blames them for not stopping his addiction. The fact of the matter is, he was a very rich man but couldn’t help being greedy and wanting more. He asked William Hill to close his account which they did. He then proceeded to open a new one with them, all of his own accord. How on Earth can William Hill be responsible for that?

 Lets clear this up – gambling is NOT an illness. Neither is drug addiction or alcoholism. All of these things are brought about through a lack of will power, and a lack of self respect. Why give people help to stop damaging themselves? It is a complete waste of money. Let them simply use their will power. If they step out of line and act illegally, arrest them and imprison them. Spend taxpayers money on something more worthwhile.

Next up is the non-paying mortgagee who decided to not pay anything on his mortgage for 15 years. The courts have ruled that because his Bank took so long to do anything about the arrears, he can now claim squatters rights and the house is now his. For God’s sake, can nothing be done to stop these idiots getting away with murder? I wish that I could obtain a £200,000 house for nothing but unfortunately it is people like myself who toe the line who get the wrong end of the deal.

 Yet another bit of ridiculousness is happening down in the South West where the “Bristol No Borders” group of idiots are protesting at dawn deportation raids. Let us get this straight – these raids are removing people from this country who are living here illegally. Personally I do not care how humane or inhumane these raids are that remove them from these shores as they are costing me and my fellow tax payer a huge amount so that they can live somewhere for free. I have to pay my way. Why should they not do the same?

 Lastly, I cannot believe that one of the killers of Peter Newlove is thinking about appealing his sentence as life with a recommended minimum of 17 years imprisonment is apparently not fair for killing someone? He is right, he should have been shot instead. Much fairer to the family of the deceased to never see this disgusting runts’ face ever again. Mr Newlove’s widow sums it up perfectly by saying: “I am not surprised. He knows how to play the system, he has no respect and will just try whatever and I hope to God they don’t give him leave to appeal, because this is just disgraceful. How many times are they going to give this lad [a chance] – he was out on bail, the charges he had were assault, harassment, these weren’t little shoplifting charges.”

 When will the government act to right all these wrongs and put some money behind tackling those who “play the system” in order that they get an easy life? Let’s hope it is sooner rather than later or the once Great Britain will soon become a much poorer relation.

So, after national cliche weekend, 16 clubs remain in the FA Cup. But how many people are sick of hearing about the supposed “magic” of “the world’s greatest club competition?” We had Les and Lee on Match of the Day banging on about “minnows” “major cup shocks” – the works. But what really happened?

Both the Beeb and Sky cocked it all up. Yes, for all their focus on the minnows of Havant & Waterlooville vs. “The Most Successful Club in England, Ever(TM)” Liverpool which matches did they pick to show live? The all Prem borefests of Man Utd v Tottenham and  Wigan v Chelsea plus perennial underachievers Middlesbrough v the mighty Stags of Mansfield. Oh and the balloon-pitched Sheff Utd v Man City match was over on Sky.

So come on telly companies, admit that you don’t give two hoots about showing a real “magical” cup match and that you would rather go for the predictable cash-ins. Hypocrites!

I am getting rather annoyed by the abundance of fruit at the moment. There is a diet going on everywhere around me and all it seems to consist of is dead, rotting apple cores, leaky banana skins and smelly orange peel everywhere.

I never have been one for fruit, I have an innate distrust of things that grow on trees where flies and bumblebees can eat them. Don’t get me wrong, I eat my greens, but vegetables are a whole different kettle of, er, fish. You (usually) cook a vegetable. A lot of them grow underground where it is safer.

So why do people have to chomp on fruit? I mean, imagine if I started chowing down on a cauliflower at my desk. I would get sectioned. No, fruit is the devil’s work.