Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Today's witterings...

Just a couple of things that happened today that aren't worthy of a full blown rant but were irritating all the same.

A couple of weeks before I was due to move into the bungalow, I signed up for a deal for my phone, tv and broadband which at the time I considered quite reasonable. I ignored the fact that just after Christmas they reduced the package price to "new" customers (which clearly didn't include me by this time) and I let that go.

I accept that it's my own fault for not scrutinising my bill more closely before, but I spotted tonight that they've been charging me extra each month for a "Non DD Handling Charge" despite the fact that I have paid by direct debit since day one. I highlighted their error with a quick call this evening, (or rather a quick conversation after 15 minutes alledgedly on hold listening to their adverts) and they agreed to credit my account for the 5 months worth of charges. Except they couldn't adjust this month's payment as it has already been taken - 7 days before it was due. What the hell, we're only talking about a tenner and at least I am going to get it back.


In a completely unrelated incident, I was sat this evening enjoying a caffeine & fresh bread free supper and I thought I'd catch up with some local news seeing as I was home in time to watch it for a change. I've posted before about the diminishing quality of news reporting on the BBC and I'm afraid it doesn't appear to be showing signs of any improvement.

Our local media "hero" often struggles along quite embarassingly and often fails to recognise the difference between Paxman-esque direct questioning and just being downright rude. On a good day, he can very nearly win a battle of wits with the 7 year old child he's interviewing in such a patronising manner. However, this evening's poll result displayed a complete new depth of poor quality journalism. The question was whether the merger of regional police forces was likely to improve their performance. Apparently,

"26% thought yes, 74% thought no and rather surprisingly, nobody said they were not interested"

Fancy that, not one of the local viewers was so lacking in interest that they felt compelled to pick up the phone to formally register their complete apathy...

5 comments:

Cherrypie said...

I think it must be the tightness of the corset he (allegedly) wears. Constricts the blood flow to the brain.

Anonymous said...

I have a theory about BBC newsreaders. Look carefully and you'll see that many of them have body parts that don't quite seem to fit. I like to call it the Mr Potato Head news. There was a woman on the other day and they definitely weren't her eyebrows, and that's just the national news. I imagine the budget for regional news is much lower. The corset must be to prevent the borrowed internal organs from spilling out. Take away the restrictive under garments and the licence fee would be worth paying.

The Quacks of Life said...

Local new presenters aren't too bad down in London - Emily Maitlis - drool - sorry where was I.

ITV are much much worse especially in Anglia.

Now BBC local radio? Now that is sad!!

Seany said...

Em - perhaps the eyebrows were real and the rest of her was fake?

I just Googled Emily Maitlis (that sounded more sordid thanI intended) and I see what you mean Pete!

As for local radio, our topical phone-in programs are dreadfully embarrassing but I have to be careful as I will be on our local BBC radio station Sunday morning...

Anonymous said...

emily maitlis, well you would wouldn't you.