Thursday 31 July 2008

Beware, Amazon have spies everywhere..

Uh. OK. About 30 seconds after making that last post, Amazon dispatched Mario Kart.

They're watching me.

Argh.

AdSense and Links

I've stuck AdSense on here (more as an excuse to play with it, really). I've also added a link to SLoB.

So. My stuff from Amazon/IndigoStarFish is here. Including my spare Wii Wheel. Shame Amazon haven't sent Mario Kart Wii, which I ordered at the same time, yet.

Makes the spare wheel a bit useless, and a lot annoying. Bum.

Amazon: The wii fit saga (episode 2)

Yeah. OK. First, let me say that this actually wasn't Amazon's fault, in my view. It's a further testament to the appalling service offered by Royal Mail.

A few days after the GAME incident, I managed to secure another Wii Fit. This time, from Amazon - thank you OneClick(tm)!

Woo. Well. Thats sorted. Amazon are cool, and stuff almost always arrives quickly.

Almost. Not always. In this case, it never arrived at all. Not even after a couple of weeks.

Amazon were great as usual - they apologised and refunded me the total immediately - saying that they would normally send a replacement gratis, but of course, Wii Fit is out of stock, so that option is nixed.

On the plus side, I found out through this process that Amazon's checkout process automatically subtracts VAT if you are in the C.I, which is (to my mind) correct - which is another plus point for them, in my book. I wasn't sure if this was the case or not, as their help is a bit confusing on this issue.

Ordered some stuff from them more recently, and it was sent from IndigoStarFish - their Jersey merchant, and arrived the day after being ordered (at 4pm), despite the fact that I picked "Super Saver". Yay.

Still need a damn Wii Fit though.. Back to the stock checker!

GAME: The wii fit saga begins..

So. For her birthday (end of June), I got the other half "Wii Fit". Or rather, I tried to - incase you have been living in a well sheltered cave, it is quite totally out of stock, unless you want to pay over-the-odds to one of the evil swine who bought loads when it was briefly available.

Thusly, I made a little voucher. Sad, I know. Then I sat on one of the real-time stock watching sites (check out this one, its really good - http://www.wii-consoles.co.uk/wii_fit_realtime.asp ). Eventually, I managed to procure one from GAME.

It was bundled with some piece of crap cover I didn't really want, but what the heck - it was £84.98 including the cover, which seemed a reasonable idea anyway. Sadly GAME do not subtract VAT when shipping to the Channel Islands (we now live in Jersey) - I decided to take the hit on that too.

Knowing that companies can be a little special about the C.I, I checked their terms and conditions carefully before ordering - risking my valuable opportunity by doing so. They define the C.I as part of the UK (incorrect, but never mind), and also state "We do not ship any item over 1kg outside of the UK". Um. OK. Well you say we are in the UK, so lets do it!

Yeah. Good plan. Shame it didn't turn up. They did post it (or at least, give it to parcel force), but sadly only with the documentation and postage paid for delivery in England. So it went back to the depot. One furious argument later, I was told to check the T&Cs. Uh. Yeah. They imply that it shouldn't be a problem..

Got a refund. But only for the Wii Fit itself. The cover turned up, and they won't refund it. Great. Now I have a flippin' useless cover thing I didn't want, for a console accessory which they decided they couldn't send me. Nobbers.

Lesson 1: Don't bother with GAME, unless you really go into the shop, they're a bunch of idiots, and their customer support, by the way, sucks. I only got a reply after threatening to report the whole transaction as fraudulent..

Long time, no blog..

Wow, long time without posting.

Never fear, this is not because I have run out of things to complain about - I've just been busy, moving house, etc.

I'm going to put up a few posts soon, detailing all the things which have f.. errr.. TICKED me off recently..