Deliveries N E V E R Arrive Earlier- Word Games

You remember, (previous post) I was told that a delivery I was waiting for would arrive on Monday next, also, that deliveries never arrive earlier than stated, well, guess what happened............... 


I was out all afternoon. On my way home I felt a bit jaded, so, I stopped off at the local supermarket café, bought a drink and munched a moist blueberry muffin, (naughty but nice).  

A grotty [news]-paper for café customers had an interesting word game, the kind where you are given a number of letters, you make words found in a dictionary and each word must have  a minimum of three letters from those given plus  the given centre letter.  Adverbs are not usually allowed.  There's always one eight letter word to find. This word game allowed adverbs, just as well, the centre letter was a 'Y' . Generally, average ability is given as fifteen words. My brain sizzled while I scribbled. 

 Half an hour later, with two eight letter words and fifteen words in total - Yay! at least average - I decided I had better pick up my bags wander on up the hill to home.  My brain was still actively composing words as I walked. 

My key turned in the lock of the front door about 5pm. I felt the need for a wee rest, all the brain work with word creation must have used up some energy. I sat in the armchair and dozed off. Half an hour later, I was startled awake with the doorbell.  I found our local friendly courier at the door with my parcel.  

The courier commented that he was always doing deliveries for certain companies earlier than customers expected.  He had to wait for me to set in motion various things which, if, I had been better informed, I would have completed in advance of the delivery.  While I did those things, the courier sat patiently waiting in my kitchen. 

I signed his electronic machine.  Oh bother, I did not get the man's signature, obscurely, in a booklet he gave me, which I discovered was part of the delivery process, only after he had gone.  I'll try get it done, if I see the guy around town. I often do, but, you can bet on it, that because I now need to see him, it won't happen.

Apart  from a blip or two, Lady luck smiled, thus far.

MEMORABLE GOLDEN MOMENTS

I was not much interested in the pre-Olympic hype.  It switched me off.  Once the Games started, I switched on the T.V.  in the evenings and settled down to be a happy spectator.  I was at my most content when athletic feats of all kinds were being shown.  There were many events that I did not see, but what there was shown, was beyond any superlatives in our language I can add to those that have already been used.

As a rule, I don't give much heed to pugilism.  This week, I have watched a women's boxing semi -final, which I thought was very agile and faster moving than the men's boxing bouts. The most recent semi-final boxing match I saw between two men did not change my mind.  Never having seen Taekwondo, I was overtaken by curiosity. The leg kicks and turns were fluid and I reckon a ballet dancer would have been delighted with those moves.  Even more curious was the excited trainer's comments, when his protegee, Jade Jones, (GB) won her gold Olympic medal. "She fought like a man in the female department. "

As the temperatures were staying low prior to the Olympic beach games set up in London, the women volley ball teams were given permission to wear shorts and sweat shirts instead of their bikinis, if the weather did not warm up.  Having returned from seeing the Beach Volley Ball, a relative was asked, (not by me) if the players had worn bikinis. "It would have been worrying if they had, " she replied,  "We had tickets for two of the men's games."

OLYMPIC GAMES PRIVATE SECURITY DEBACLE- WIN WIN!

The security of the Olympic venues should have been totally managed from the centre, by that, I mean by the Government. What a cavalier attitude this Government has demonstrated to State Security. Lop it off, sub-contract it,abnegate the responsibility for it, by selling it at the cheapest price. There is a convenient whipping boy now, G4S, whose main error was accepting and signing an impossible contract. Their corporate vanity has been their undoing.

The silver lining for the State, is that they can now be seen to be rescuing the security of the Olympic Games at a series of major events, in a number of spread out venues. The Government avoids a public slating for using the Armed Forces, by letting a private company create a wholesale security cock up. The Armed Forces and civilian police, many of whom are working towards unemployment, are to be thanked, we are to be grateful to them for stepping in to the breach, (not for being used). These people, who have appropriate experience and expertise, will be paid proper salaries. They will either have homes travelling distance from the venues, or temporary housing will be provided. None of them will be sheltering under bridges. 

Conscripts have to turn up for work, and they are provided for. People who are trained on a Just In Time basis, who are unpaid and held on standby till they start a job have no incentive to be loyal to a company; they can go elsewhere, take part time jobs,start earning, nearer where they live. The pool of retired ex-service and police personnel will also walk away. They can find jobs through other agencies who will not leave them in employment limbo 

And last, but by no means least, there is a further big bonus for the Government. GS4's penalty clauses mean the company will pay the Government and, presumably the police, for the security work undertaken. It's win, win for the Government.

TESCO YO YO PRICING .....MOSTLY UP

I'm not surprised that Tesco's Christmas period and end of year sales figures significantly dropped, if my experience doing business with my local and not so local Tesco stores is anything to go by. All major shopping chains play price games. Customers have become price aware, while at the same time their budgets have become tighter. 

A re-engagement with the customer is needed. There has developed a distinct lack of respect for the food shopping public. The senior management, wherever they are based, do not seem to be of this world and so have taken their eye off the ball. The yo-yo pricing games have been crude and offend our basic intelligence.

Autumn 2011, my Tesco shopping basket was radically effected. For example the dairy items I buy, suddenly were offered at two items for exactly double the price, but, an individual pack of the same thing was more expensive. I did not want to double up on dairy produce shopping in order to get the previous equivalent price paid. The same pricing mechanism was initiated with many other products in store, I would not have doubled up my shopping on them either.

Next, while massively advertising there were to be prices drops throughout the store, my single unit items increased from late Autumn 2011 prices by 25% - 35%. I now buy the same type of dairy products elsewhere, weight for weight, no obvious quality difference, at or close to the prices I paid prior to Tesco's Autumn hikes in 2011. 

The latest Tesco wheeze is to increase the cost of the 'budget ranges' of foods, pricing them at or close to the main range items. The more expensive foods now advertise a price reduction bringing them closer to the new higher prices of the budget foods! Surely shopping habits of customers must tell the retailer something more constructive than how to alienate their customer base.

UNHOLY HICCUPS

You would think that I signed up for paperless billing, because so far, I have had to chase my bill every month of this year. Why bother to send a customer a text message giving the choice to opt in or out, answer by a certain date in 2009, then the choice to stay opted in, is totally ignored? I have kept the text message and my reply. I also have the company's confirmation that they would adhere to my wishes.

The only benefit, so far, of keeping the company's text communications, is that it stops the operators in their menu tracks when they start to tell me I can't have what I have always had. Out of four operators, I had the misfortune to get one who could not keep her politics to herself and was very threatening. She did nothing to deal with my request. The other three have been lovely people, they've all done the same data form-filling online and got me one bill delivered. The system, as understood by the operators, should have set me up for monthly paper bills ad infinitum. I should have received two this month (March was missing) I received one bill. March is still missing. I swear the system is out to frustrate customers till they give up. Not this one!

The staff indicate they are weary of upset customers who, like me, wished to stay opted in for monthly standard billing by post. We aren't all going to die out in a hurry. It is no surprise that if I agreed to an itemised bill, which incurs an extra charge, I would get it; though with the unholy hiccups in the data instructions, there's no guarantee the customer would get what they might pay for.