Monday, December 10, 2007

I am proud to announce the birth of new website.

HMRC Is Shite

Anyone with any stories about HMRC, or who know people with stories about HMRC, please send them in.

Thanks.

Ken

Friday, November 16, 2007

Cool New Mobile

A bunch of scumbags by anyone's standards, see what their customers think of them also see here.

They have now gone bust, see www.coolnewmobile.com

Why did the network operators, such as 3, add the veneer of respectability to this company?

Why did the network operators allow their names to be associated with this company?

How much money have the network operators made out of sales made on the basis of false promises by Cool New Mobile?

At what stage did the directors of CNM become aware that their business model had failed?

Were the directors still trading after they became aware of the fact that the company was insolvent?

The following email was sent to 3:

"I bought into your service via Cool New Mobile, who have gone into administration leaving thousands of people (myself included) out of pocket wrt the cash back deals.

It has been clear for months that CNM were nothing more than a scam operation, see
Worse Than Worthless

Why did you allow yourselves to be associated with a company set up to defraud the public?

Why did you add the veneer of respectability to this company by associating your name with theirs?

What will you do for the thousands of customers with 3 contracts sold by CNM?

regards

Ken Frost
"

Update

16 November 2007 19:57


Call received from 3 regarding the above email.

3 stated that their records show that my phone came from Mobile Affiliates, not CNM.

I noted that they were the same company, and had gone bust as well.

3 stated that their records show that Mobile Affiliates are still an active account.

A brief exchange, repeating each other's stand point, then took place; 3 seemed to have difficulty understanding/accepting what I was telling them.

I directed them to the announcement on the CNM website.

3 stated that at they did not have net access at that time, and would need to look into it.

They will contact me again.

Update 17 November 2007

Sent to the Mazars LLP (the administrators of CNM etc)

"re the administration of Cool New Mobile, and related companies.

I am a customer of CNM, and am owed money by them. I would like to ask you the following questions:

-At what stage did the directors of CNM become aware that their business model had failed?

-Were the directors still trading after they became aware of the fact that the company was insolvent?

FYI, I run a network of websites under www.kenfrost.com and am covering this story on this site:

http://kenfrostwtw.blogspot.com/2007/11/cool-new-mobile-bunch-of-scumbags-by.html

Thank you for your help.

Kind regards

Ken Frost MA FCA FIPFM

www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand
"

Update 19 November 2007

3 called me again today, they advised me that they were pursuing the cash back issue with the distributor. I asked who that was, 3 advised me that the details were not to hand.

They asked how much money was involved with my cash back arrangement with Cool New Mobile, and how much was left to be reimbursed.

I was advised that 3 will get back to me within 4 weeks.

Update 21 November 2007

Mazars flipped me off today:

"Dear Mr Frost,

The Joint Administrators are unable to answer individual questions. All updates in respect of the administrations of Mobile Media Systems Limited t/a Phoneboxdirect and Mobile Affiliates Limited t/a Coolnewmobile and Phones2yourdoor will be posted direct to the websites www.phoneboxdirect.com and www.coolnewmobile.co.uk. Please refer to them for information.

Thank you
"

Update 20 December 2007

3 rang me this evening to advise me that they are still trying to get my money back for me.

Quite how they intend to do that is not at all clear.

They also have offered me a significantly reduced network rate for the coming year, plus the first 4 months free.

In addition to the reduced rate they are sending me a new Nokia handset.

I had to agree to accept this on the phone, they were not prepared to send me the details in writing first. However, I have 14 days to cancel.

They assure me that it in no way affects my rights to claim the money still owed by CNM, and that 3 are still trying to get my money back for me.

We shall see how this goes.

Update 16 January 2008

The following was sent to 3 today:

"Allan McLuckie
Director of Customer Services 3
Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd
PO Box 333
Glasgow
G2 9AG
16 January 2008

Dear Mr McLuckie,

I sent the following message to 3 on 16 November 2007:

'I bought into your service via Cool New Mobile, who have gone into administration leaving thousands of people (myself included) out of pocket wrt the cash back deals.

It has been clear for months that CNM were nothing more than a scam operation, see
Worse Than Worthless

Why did you allow yourselves to be associated with a company set up to defraud the public?

Why did you add the veneer of respectability to this company by associating your name with theirs?

What will you do for the thousands of customers with 3 contracts sold by CNM?'

I was told that 3 was contacting the retailer, and promised an answer within 4 weeks.

Some eight weeks on I have yet to receive one. Please provide me with a written answer by return.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Frost
"

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Contact4

There are finance companies and call centres that happily cold call thousands of people a day trying to foist unwanted, unnecessary and unwise financial products onto them. They use times of financial uncertainty to their advantage.

Whilst those of us who are financially literate can easily dismiss these calls/offers, as one would swat an annoying fly, there are many in the UK who are not financially literate and who are easy prey for these odious people.

Over the past four weeks or so I have been swamped with cold calls from one particular call centre operating in Scotland, called Contact4.

Suffice to say, I am not happy with this.

To read the full story click here Contact4

Thursday, October 04, 2007

I am proud to announce the birth of new website.

British Airways Is Shite

Anyone with any stories about British Airways, or who know people with stories about British Airways, please send them in.

Thanks.

Ken

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Yahoo Mail

Congratulations to Yahoo Mail for proving themselves to be "Worse Than Worthless"

As can bee seen from the correspondence that I have had with Yahoo Customer Care, over the past few weeks, their email system appears to be in a state of collapse.

Their slogan "Yahoo just keeps getting better"...maybe should be rephrased to "Yahoo just keeps getting worse"

Here is a selection of the mails that I have sent/received to/from Yahoo "customer care" over the past few weeks.

"23 July 2007

Your company has been saying that your engineers "are working around the clock" on this issue for the last four weeks ever since I, and others, have raised this service failure with Yahoo.

However, instead of improving the situation, the problem is now worse; all my mails sent to Yahoo addresses are being bounced, not just delayed.

1 What is the point of an email system that doesn't deliver emails?

2 When do you intend to fix this problem?

3 How will this affect your share price, when it is revealed that your system is failing?

I will be featuring this failure on one of my sites this week.

Regards

Ken Frost

www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:27:30 +0100
To: kenfrost
Subject: RE: Errors - Not receiving email - Other Web Email Site (KMM70295567V65223L0KM)
From: uk-mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com

Hello,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

I understand your frustration regarding this issue. Please note that our engineers are working around the clock to try and resolve this issue.

We appreciate your patience in this regard.

Please let me know if you still need assistance so I can help you further.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo! UK & Ireland

> Original Message Follows:
> -------------------------
>
> It is now 17 July, and Yahoo is still delaying/bouncing mails.
>
> You say that you hope to fix it promptly.
>
> This is patently nonsense, as weeks have elapsed since the problem was
> first reported.
>
> When will this be fixed???
>
> regards
>
Ken Frost
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 08:11:39 +0100
To: kenfrost
Subject: RE: Errors - Not receiving email -

Other Web Email Site (KMM70054359V5880L0KM)> From:
uk-mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com> >
Hello,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UKIE Customer Care.

I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you.

Please be assured that we are aware of this problem and hope to have it fixed promptly. I have added your details to our investigation - your ticket number is: 1238162

We appreciate you reporting it to us and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Please let me know if you still need help.

Regards,

Customer Care - Yahoo!


One week after the problem seems to have started, it seems no better.

All Yahoo addresses that I send mail to are now bouncing the mails.

This is unsatisfactory, suffice to say I and the "non recipients" are fed up and are looking to change supplier.

regards Ken Frost

Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2007
13:23:34 +0100>

To: kenfrost

Subject: RE: Errors - Not receiving email - Other Web Email Site (KMM69999477V65359L0KM)> From:
uk-mail@cc.yahoo-inc.com

Hello Ken,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo!

UKIE Customer Care.

I understand you are experiencing delays in receiving Hotmail e-mails to your Yahoo! Mail account. I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you.

Please be assured that we are aware of this problem and hope to have it fixed promptly.

We appreciate you reporting it to us and thank you for your patience and understanding.

Please let me know if you still need help
...."

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

I am proud to announce the birth of new website.

Thames Water Is Shite

Anyone with any stories about Thames Water, or who know people with stories about Thames water, please send them in.

Thanks.

Ken

Monday, February 26, 2007

BA Reservations

Well done BA for further damaging their already badly soiled brand value.

I made a bold and futile attempt to contact their reservations line this morning, on 0870 850 9 850 (the number specified on their website).

Having pressed the various option buttons, and listened to the "tinny" music, I was informed that I had dialed the wrong number and was given a new number to dial.

Can you guess what that was?

Yes, that's right 0870 850 9 850!

I rang the Executive Club, and was told that in fact the number should be 0870 850 4 850 and that the BA website was wrong.

I rang the new number...

Guess what?

I had the very same experience.

Well done lads!

BA truly deserves the "Worse Than Worthless" award.