Croydon Worst Borough In London

It's official, Croydon is the worst borough in London.

I seem to recall awarding Croydon Council the Worse Than Worthless award two years running.

Now it seems that others agree with me.

The Croydon Guardian note:

"Figures published this week show Croydon Council is the second-worst authority in England and the worst in London for collecting unpaid council tax.

A comparison analysis compiled by the public services union GMB shows Croydon is second in a league table of 351 English councils which have failed to collect a total of £589,538,530 for the 2004/05 financial year.

It is owed £9.2million and is beaten only by the city of Birmingham which has £11.8million uncollected. It also moved up from last year's second place to become the worst authority in London for collecting unpaid council tax..."

The council have brought the borough to the brink of bankruptcy, and have allowed the infrastructure and environment to continue to decay.

Council elections are coming next year, their remaining days in office are numbered.

Barclaycard's Explanation for Stopping Issuing Nectar Points

Barclaycard have decided that, as from 31 August 2005, they will no longer issue Nectar points on purchases made with a Barclaycard.

They have sent out a very "helpful" leaflet explaining, in a series of questions and answers, the rationale and effect of this policy change.

Unfortunately their answer to their own self imposed question:

"Why has Barclaycard decided to stop issuing Nectar points?"

does not answer the question.

Their answer says:

"We want to provide as many of our customers as possible with the benefits and services which they most value. Customers have told us that they value the reassurance and peace of mind provided by Barclaycard, especially when they are travelling. So we've reviewed our Barclaycard benefits to make sure they reflect our customers' wishes and preferences".

As you can see that lengthy answer bears no relation to the questions asked.

Come on Barclaycard, don't treat your customers as idiots; tell the truth.

You stopped issuing Nectar points in order to save money, and to make more profits.

Maybe if you had the guts to say that in the first place, your customers might respect you a little more.

Update 17 June 2005

I wrote to Barclaycard telling them that they had won a "Worse Than Worthless" award, and directed them to this site.

Here is their reply:

"..Dear Sir/Madam,


Thank you for your e-mail.

I am sorry that you have been disappointed by our decision to stop
awarding Nectar points.

The decision was made after careful consideration, and by listening to
many customers. As a result of their feedback, we are making some
changes to the services we offer. We're striving to develop a range of
benefits that will be useful and valuable to the vast majority of our
cardholders, allowing us to offer the best value in an increasingly
competitive market.

I am sorry that you are unhappy with our decision. I hope I have been
able to assure you that this decision was taken after listening to our
customers, and in an effort to improve the services we provide...."

Clearly they did not read what I had sent them.

They don't get this customer sastifaction thing do they?

The Computer at Lastminute.com

As you can see from this article, I had a little "trouble" with lastminute.com's computer system on 2nd April 2005.