Disqus - Latest Comments for jamesbody

Re: Spotify and Hero on 3UK

jamesbody — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:13:00 -0000

Just think - if Nokia OVI decided to have a Customer Service Centre - you know where it would be located........

Re: Spotify and Hero on 3UK

jamesbody — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:10:29 -0000

Yeah - if only...

And - I forgot the sting in the tail at the close of the fruitless exchange with the floor manager.

3FM: "Ah Mr B - I see that you are a very special customer - you have had your account a long time and have always paid on time - I can offer you a very special offer"

JB: "Oh yes" (Faint glimmer of something good)

3FM: "I can cancel your PAC and put you on a new monthly contract for 10 pounds a month - with UNLIMITED SMS"

JB: "With data?"

3FM: "Oh no - but it is such a good offer - what have you got to lose?'

JB: "A chance to own a brand new HTC Hero?"

3FM: "We don't do the HTC Hero...." {back onto previous script again}

It might help if the 3 operatives realise that telling UK customers the same thing 10 times just makes them ANGRY !

I WANT A HTC HERO !

JB

Re: Spotify and Hero on 3UK

jamesbody — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:58:04 -0000

I have just wasted a lump of time engaged in fruitless discussion the the Three Indian Call Centre (Retentions Desk).

Compressed version:

JB: "I have come to the end of my X-Series Gold agreement and would like to upgrade to a new HTC Hero with Spotify"

3CS: "We don't do that - have a (....crap cheap...) handset instead.....

JB: 'I accept that you may not have it in stock right now, but can you tell me when it will be arriving?'

3CS: "You are wrong - we don't do that handset"

JB: 'OK - it is coming though - I read about it on your website'

3CS: "The HTC Hero is not on our website"

JB: "It is - at http://www.three.co.uk/Internet_Services/Spotify "

3CS: "That is not our website"

JB: 'Where is your website?'

3CS: "http://www.three.co.uk"

JB: 'OK - if you go to that address and look over on the right hand side you see a BLUE heading entitled 'Notices' - can you read the second bullet point out to me please?' (The one that starts 'Spotify everywhere on the HTC Hero)

3CS: "That is not our website"

At this point I asked to escalate to a supervisor - got the floor manager - and then went through a re-run of the script above! By this point I was reasonably ready to do damage to someone or something and so resorted to Googling 'Three Complaints' - which lead me to a site entitled 'Complain to Three' ( http://www.threecomplaints.com/ ). This contained a telephone number for the 'Executive Office' - which actually terminates not in Maidenhead, but up in Glasgow, where a very sympathetic lady took all my details and managed to placate me successfully with her soothing and very pleasant Scottish accent.

We await to see whether this will result in anything - I'll report back. In the meantime, whilst I am all for supporting industries in developing countries, I would very much like to see Three switch their Customer Services from the shockingly bad Indian Call Centre (Arrrrgh - it makes me angry just to think about the User Experience!) to those lovely people in Glasgow.

JB

Re: Spotify and Hero on 3UK

jamesbody — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:07:47 -0000

Hmm - but I want an HTC Hero on 3 *WITHOUT* 24 months of Spotify

It is not clear whether I can have this.

Re: Spotify Mobile: 3UK bundles with HTC Hero

jamesbody — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:30:11 -0000

HTC Hero + Spotify + BBC iPlayer + A2DP Bluetooth Carkit playing back through car speakers - solves my mobile entertainment requirements nicely!

Re: Facebook Voice Chat App Now Live in Beta

jamesbody — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:04:26 -0000

In order to be successful any voice app will have to be very simple to setup, intuitive in use, offer good quality audio and above all be reliable.

Sadly, the Vivox powered solution wold apear not to score too highly in these criteria (at present) and so is unlikely to be a success.

Re: 3UK Confirm Android and INQ Mini ‘in weeks’

jamesbody — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:32:57 -0000

I was under the impression that it is the HTC Tattoo that 3 are testing - not the Hero....

Though I would dearly love 3 to have the Hero - with 2 weeks to renewal time on my X-Series Gold account I am in the market fr some Android....!

Re: 3UK Confirm Android and INQ Mini ‘in weeks’

jamesbody — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:39:05 -0000

INQ Mini arrived in the '3' High Street stores yesterday - on PAYG at GBP 59.99

Re: Samsung Galaxy i7500: First look & unboxing

jamesbody — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:40:01 -0000

I am definately in the market for a new Android device - but battery life is so important that I would not even consider the Galaxy.

At present I have seen nothing to trump the Hero - yet.....

Keep posted to find out which Android handset appears in my hand......

Re: Testing Spotify on the 3UK MiFi hotspot device

jamesbody — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:16:22 -0000

Nice review Ewan - using Spotify clearly demonstrates that the H3G MiFi can shift relatively large amounts of data with seemigly little latency.

I am impressed!

JB

Re: Testing Spotify on the 3UK MiFi hotspot device

jamesbody — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:54:49 -0000

Yup - you just about convinced me Ewan - I will be out to the 3 Store on Thursday to pick up one!

Re: Battle of the MiFis… Round 1

jamesbody — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:47:49 -0000

Ben - did you test that the SIM-lock was in place with another network SIM card?

I have heard conflicting reports about the status of the SIM lock.....

James

Re: Nokia World 2009: Really Rapid Round-up

jamesbody — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:32:23 -0000

Ha! Worth the wait!

Re: Novatel MiFi 2352 Portable WiFi Hotspot: First Look

jamesbody — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:08:13 -0000

I concur fully with Kip - battery consumption was a major factor in my decision to invest in portable WiFi AP. The Novatel MiFi will gve of the order of 4 hours of continuous use (depending on 3G signal quality in your location), whereas I would not like to run Joikuspot for more than 30 minutes in 'handwarmer' mode on my E71.

JoikuSpot is a brilliant backup/standby, but for serious mobile use a portable MiFi type unit is required.

Re: Video Diary: Vikki and her unsung hero

jamesbody — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:09:53 -0000

Vikki - I am totally with you on the E71 - it is my workhorse phone that does just about everything - if I had to select one general purpose phone to travel with, the E71 would be it (should I not be travelling with my normal equipment selection of at least 7 handsets).

The N79 *IS* a very useul device, fufilling all the promises made by the hastily rushed into service N78 and possessing much of the usefullness of the wonderful N95, yet at considerably less cost.

This, together with the OLED screen equipped N85 are IMHO the two best overall 'N' series devices available at present. The N97 just doesn't tick enough boxes to warrant the high price.

Yet, both are stil trumped by the wonderfully feature rich, stable and remarkably competitively priced drop dead gorgeous E71!

Re: Nokia N97: The Definitive Verdict (maybe)

jamesbody — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:58:48 -0000

Ben - you re so wonderfully objective in your own grumpy way. You did not mention the fact that the N97 does not support SIP VoIP natively - mission critical FAIL!

On balance I think that I shall be resisting the temptation to commit to a N97. I shall stick with my wonderfully reliable (and feature rich) E71 - which is now available for a FRACTION of the price of a N97!

Re: Video Diary: Ben on the future of ‘The Really Mobile Project’

jamesbody — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:07:48 -0000

Comment from Sebastian (almost 10):

"What happened to Whatleydude coming down to the country to test waterproof phones in my boat?"

Re: Mobile Industry Review 3.0 is here

jamesbody — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:52:55 -0000

Ewan - it is really good to see you back with us. Your presence (and blue Pin Striped Suit) have been sorely missed in London over the past couple of months!

JB

Re: 3 to launch ‘£0 per month’ SIM-only contract

jamesbody — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:55:54 -0000

Alex - what are your sources? This is the first time that I have seen this reported!

James

Re: Video Diary: James and Ben on Vodafone’s Summer Roaming

jamesbody — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:09:19 -0000

You really ought to do a piece on the new H3G pre-paid rates (that went live on 1st June).

Free internet (up to 150 MB) + free Skype + bundle of free SMS + free voicemail + free on-net voice

All valid fro 90 days per top-up! (Minimum topup = GBP 5)

Absolutely amazing!

Re: Roaming with SIM4travel

jamesbody — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:26:00 -0000

Clearly - just about every serious international traveller would like to see affordable mobile data. However, until we see a viable commercial path for the specialised Travel SIM proveders to offer this at an affordable price, then it is just not going to happen!

MarRoam *DOES* offer roaming data - but at EUR 1.92 per 100k this is not exactly what I would describe as affordable! I would be willing to pay something like GBP 0.01 per 100k!!

Re: Special Report: Sony Ericsson Summer Announcement

jamesbody — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:16:38 -0000

If you have more tan one Aino - what do you call them?

Sad to see yet again that Sony Ericsson chose a noisy, darkened venue which is underground (and therefore has neglible mobile coverage). Presumeably SE are paying them money to organize these events?

The Saito looks interesting - did anyone notice whether it had a SIP stack/VoIP client onboard?

James

Re: T-Mobile’s Content Block System: Broken

jamesbody — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:26:00 -0000

What is it with T-Mobile that makes them want to BLOCK stuff!

I will be pleased to stick wit my H3G/Voda combo for the time being!

Re: Video Diary: James Whatley from LA

jamesbody — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:23:31 -0000

Turning into me? I hope not (for his sake).

Whatleydude has infinitely more hair than I do!

BTW - I realy do rate the N79 - it is a VERY nice little phone - which does all the really good stuff that the venerable N95 did plus more!

JB

Re: Video Diary: Vikki Chowney talks about the Nokia E75 and Samsung NC10 on O2

jamesbody — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:37:56 -0000

The BT Shop have the NC10 in a variety of colours at GBP 307 inc. VAT!

These and news of the other new Samsung Netbooks is at http://tr.im/k7ru

(Including the model with inbuilt HSDPA modem)