There is nothing worse than trying to contact a site without an email. It gets even worse when trying to contact a Ford main dealershit, I mean dealership.This explains why not to trust Fords and their dealershits any longer (obviously I mean Ford dealerships).
I purchased a newer car recently from Chariots, London Road, Romford. What a great car, reasonable price, diesel, and reasonable mileage.
Then we decided to purchase a newer car from Allens of Romford, Allens of Romford are a very well known dealership which was deemed to have a lot of respect (not any longer, they are a bunch of f***** scumbags). In fact they are the biggest bunch of scumbags around (that I currently know). They stitched us up for every last penny in insurance deals, then refused to give us the second key for the car, and conveniently forgot to give us the MOT certificate for the same new car.
Obviously, I am not one in taking this quietly, and several email later to the Trading Standards & other interested parties including the DVLA, and fraud office. Here is a typical email :
Hello, July 2012 Update about BT Infinity: I received an email from BT today suggesting I could upgrade
my BT Infinity service to be even faster. I did not bother trying the link to
clarify this, as I am aware that to upgrade you need to sign up for a new 18
month contract! I have not yet left BT, who are running a service which reminds
me of the 1990's internet (most of you have no idea what I am talking about). DO NOT sign up for BT, they are creating so many offers of
free broadband, and are now offering to double their service speeds from crap to
double crap. I have nothing further to add about BT, apart from their service
levels to the customer are at the end of the queue. Note the cancellation
charges. I did try and cancel BT broadband, but their cancellation
charges are excessive, and every time you get a bill, they remind you that the
excessive charges are increasing! BT must be getting desperate, that the only
way they can keep customers is to continually scare customers about the
cancellation charges; even though the general service is absolutely appalling!
Their after sales service and engineer service is totally zero (and
therefore not measurable except as a pile of poo). The BT Infinity service
regular crashes, and your Infinity service is an open Wi Fi hotspot for all of
the local yobs. To clarify this, every BT Infinity service is one of the
thousands of BT Wi Fi hotspots they regularly advertise on TV - this is your
service. I love the adverts, but the service is endemically bad; and your Wi Fi
is there as a service for all of the passing yobs, or whoever. Do you want the yobs, or whoever, hanging around outside your
house, using your personal wi fi? I do not want these people hanging around
outside my house. This is the BT Infinity Wi Fi hot spot service - it's your BT
internet service shared for all to use. March 2012 Update about BT Infinity: Today, 10th April 2012, I read the
Zdnet updates on broadband in the UK. I get these every Friday. The first
relates to Virgin selling their broadband, but making serious changes to high
usage customers :
Virgin
The second relates to the changes by
Ofcom since the 1st April which states that an ISP (Internet service provider)
has to be truthful about the
actual speed which your internet will work. Again, this appears to be
clarified best by BT; but overall Virgin are the clear winners.
I will be moving back to Virgin when my
18 month contract with BT expires, and I do not have to pay excessive
cancellation charges. These cancellation charges seem to change, as BT change
these, without any idea of strategy. BT are generally the devil
.
Latest update - 19th March 2012:
I have organised a date for Virgin to
install, and transfer my phone line for Saturday. Today I received the
cancellation charges from BT for a months early cancellation. These amounted to
about £45. Interestingly, they increased these cancellation fees recently,
sounds like a report for Ofcom to sort out. In the meantime, I will stay the 18
month contract with the shite BT Infinity service which rarely works anywhere
near the speeds it should be.
A report on Virgin to follow - their
sales team are a bunch of dodgy characters too, as I will clarify. Richard
Branson is almost certainly one of Camerons team, which says a lot for his
credentials - i.e. "steal from the poor and give to the rich".
(I repeat myself a lot about the great
BT service - NOT. )
I have been a BT Infinity cuistomer for
nearly 18 months now - am I impressed, NO! As soon as the 18 month contract
expires I will be moving to the faster Virgin media service.
The BT Infinity service offers a
download speed of up to 40 MB, and an upload speed of 8MB. The latter is
impressive when it works. Recently I have been getting 38MB download and zero
upload - this basically means 'NO BROADBAND' !!
The 'BT Don't care' team do not
really a have clue what they are doing. The engineers in the UK do not appear to
have any contact with the call team in India. This then involves you taking time
from work, and waiting for the non-existent visit. This level of service is not
acceptable, and you never get an apology - just more 'BT care' teams contacting
you for feedback. All they need to do is fix your problem in the first place. BT
service levels are generally bad, as are their management who I am
presuming are a bunch of complete tossers - nothing appears to have changed
since I worked there a long time ago. I am only presuming the management in BT
is bad, as the overall picture is of complete chaos in their customer service -
at the best of times.
Anyway, the
Virgin media package
is a fibre optic service directly into the home as compared to the BT (fibre to
the cabinet) FTTC and then copper wires into the home. Virgin media win hands
down on speeds attainable.
The other BT advertising selling point
is the Wi Fi hotspots. These are actually your Wi Fi being offered to thousands
of users. I do not like this idea of making your home a BT Wi Fi hotspot for the
masses, often a bunch of herberts hanging around outside your house running
their engines, and using your Wi FI. Bad idea!!
Anyway, shortly I will be testing out
Virgin 100MB against BT 30 MB - more to follow.
BTcare - I
don't think so
It appears that although BT are
advertising the BT Infinity service heavily on the TV, they do not actually have
any trained staff to deal with any problems or any communication between their
amazing call centre staff (24/7) and the engineers (when they can be bothered to
turn up) . This is a major worry if you are a
customer. I would not recommend BT until this problem is fixed (page
updated - 27th January 2012).
Basically, I believe that Virgin who
offer a fibre optic cable into the house, and up to 50 MB download speeds (as
agreed by Ofcom as being the best service) will be vastly superior to the
service offered by BT Infinity.
I now
personally believe that BT really do not care about their customers. Read more
about this sham calling themselves BTcare.
BT offer a lot of support from their
call centre (24 / 7), but appear to lack engineers to fix the problem and they
do not turn up to appointments. You can spend days waiting for an engineer to
not bother turning up to fix a simple problem.
BTcare - I don't think so.
Including TV Packages and Telephone
costs
I have been testing out the BT
broadband packages for a while, now. Speeds are very good. When it works, the
service is good; and the upload speeds far surpass most other providers. BUT, It
also crashes quite a lot. I am yet to decide whether this is local youths using
illegal 'wireless bandwidths' or just a rubbish service by BT. I am moving
towards the latter idea. My PC's are generally updated with all updates,
anti-virus software etc; and I do 'computer support' for a living at a
leading University; thus I am inclined to think that BT are not offering the
service they should be.
I am thinking of signing up for an
alternative provider to compare results, perhaps BT would like to fund
this?!! Research is always good.
If you are thinking about which Broadband
provider to use in the UK, along with their TV, Phone and Broadband packages;
this is my entirely unbiased opinion. I have previously been a customer of Sky, Virgin and
I am now trying BT. I am happy to pay any reasonable price for a good service.
I spend a vast amount of my own time updating my Pubs History sites which are
hosted with ISP (Internet service providers) in the UK, mostly with eukhost.com. One day I will maybe
host this on my own server. I am a Computer Officer at a leading UK University, and am used to nearly
100MB speeds through JaNET UK. I would like a similar service at home. Here are
some of my results, and here is some quality feedback, as at October 2010. Just
for info, here I get about 90MB upload speed and 80MB download speeds. The
upload speed is the important one. BTcare - I don't think so. Speeds are not everything, but important. If you are getting a high speed but
a bumpy ride; then I often wonder if the providers are cutting other services.
BT technical support tells me that my service changes / improves over the first
ten days - I doubt this. They have seven days to prove they are not conning me,
and YOU. When their service does stop working, you are entirely stuffed. BT
offers a totally 'we don't care service'. In the KW service levels of companies,
it is recorded that BT is the worst provider of customer service to its
customers, and it just does not care. SAD. Broadband speeds - download & upload: The facts: There are two important broadband speeds, the download speed and the upload
speed. Presuming it works at all! Virgin advertise 50 MB, the new BT Infinity
offers speeds up to 40 MB. Test results (MB): Tested using this
speedchecker (Day 1 - 4 ) 28th October 2010 - Virgin (Upload speed - 1.5, download speed 50.0)
; BT (upload speed 0.8 , download speed 5.8 ) I had a letter from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today, stating
they have no control over companies telling lies on the web; and that they
cannot control BT and their advertising. Fair enough. Today I called BT to cancel the service, as it is way below that expected. It
was mentioned that I should be getting at least 9MB download speeds, but unless
I could prove that the line was faulty; I would need to pay well in excess of
£200 in cancellation fees for the seven days of internet I had used! I requested
details of what my specific order was on their system, and apparently I was only
getting their ADSL package which offers speeds up to 20MB, of which I am getting
5.8MB; I queried about the new fibre optic service and it was suggested that I
may wish to sign up for this service rather than pay these ludicrously crooked
cancellation charges. The Infinity package uses fibre optic cable to the green cabinet near to a
home, and then uses copper cable. This speeds up connections incredibly; and it
was stated that I could get up to 33.6MB download speed and an incredible 8MB
upload speed. Then there was a whole list of reasons why I would probably not
achieve these speeds! I telephoned BT today. I have signed up for an 18 month contract (with very
heavy cancellation charges of about £12 a month for 18 months). On offer is the
Infinity package which is purported to be available to me at 33.9 MB download
and an impressive 8.6 MB upload speed. The person I spoke to went through all
the details of this, and confirmed that the minimum would be only 2MB less than
the non-guaranteed top speed! I will use this information if it is a pile of poo, like
the current service. The guy I spoke to today at BT was quite enthused by the service, and
reckoned my life was about to change; particularly the gaming experience of such
a major upload speed of up to 8 MB, minimum 6 MB. I look forward to this being a
reality, and hold my breath in the assumption that BT does in fact supply as
good a service as offered. It will cost them a fortune in getting it right due
to called out engineers charges if it is not working properly. I would not
bother with their ADSL service, though, it is generally rubbish. BT Fibre Optic Broadband is now installed (November 2010). Test speeds are: Download - 37 MB, upload - 8.2 MB; this compares with Virgin at 50 and 1.5MB;
what does it mean? My personal interpretation is that Virgin is actually much slower, and I have
just cancelled this service. The upload speed with BT is over five times faster.
I spoke to Virgin, and mentioned this, and there was no response. I also
mentioned they ought to listen to their customers when they complain, again no
response. My verdict: If you want decent broadband, and are prepared to sign up for an
18 month contract with very high cancellation charges, select BT Infinity (if it
is available). If the BT Infinity package is NOT available, I would definitely
not use their ADSL service as it can be painfully slow. Just for an update, BT broadband is slowing down a lot tonight - it is the
weekend and I have been asked to monitor over seven days; and therefore I am not
entirely concerned, as of yet. Virgin supply their service through cable services. They do not promise a
perfect service any longer, and I have to say that I was upset with their
service and the support available. The 50MB download speed does exist, but if
you are doing anything other than surfing the web, their service is very
sub-standard. I should point out that this page is from my own personal tests on BT and
Virgin. It is not biased by any advertising, just plain facts. The other plain
fact is that SKY offer similar services and are generally a scum company to deal
with. Do not touch SKY. BTcare - I don't think so. [Just to clarify why I am NOT including SKY in this comparison is the fact
that their broadband and Telephone uses BT lines; whilst their TV transmission
is totally corrupted by air turbulence and trees. I would never use SKY unless
you want an inferior service - there are a host of other reasons I would never
use SKY, mainly related to their selling practises, which are also particularly
scummy] I have had major problems with BT internet tonight. The speed was down to 300
kb per second. This is reminiscent of the old days before broadband, when you
ran a download overnight - shame. BT needs to work out of hours, as I believe
they do not have an out of hours support service. In the old days, I also had a service with AOL, and
also freeserve. These are no longer in contention. Technical pages, including apache2 setup Apache setup on centOS
I have just completed purchase of a 4 year old vehicle from Allen
Ford of Romford. The purchase price was about £9000, and also I
purchased three separate additional insurances, i.e. a warranty to
ensure that the car was finance–free, safe and in a valid condition.
A second insurance was a three year warranty against breakdown. A
third warrant was a gap insurance in case the car is ever stolen,
this insurance would increase the amount to the cost of the car
purchase.
Firstly, the company refused to give my wife the MOT certificate and
the spare key for the car at collection time as we had lost the MOT
for our own vehicle. This was explained and the alleged dealer was
not sure if this was a problem – idiot. There was no haggling over
the price offered and therefore totally unreasonable.
Secondly, the costs of the car, including the three insurances, and
the credit agreement were scribbled on the back of an envelope; and
I am unclear what I have been charged for. This is not good practise
or legal considering the amounts spent. There is no clear
documentation on the cost of credit either, just a lot of scribbles.
I am not particularly happy with this level of trade as it was as we
entered into this agreement through good faith, and I would not
expect a main dealership to deal with their customers in such a
shoddy manner. The paperwork is also appalling. This is especially
so, considering all of the various extra costs incurred which appear
to have little effect on the final outcome.
Can you advise whether I am entitled to a full refund for this
vehicle if they continue to be unreasonable.
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Best Broadband Providers in the UK - BT or Virgin
As an example, Virgin Media advertise and sell 50MB broadband, this is a total
con and not always relevant. The upload speeds can be as little as 1.5 MB for this
same service (absolute maximum).
If the broadband speed test suggests that you are getting 50MB, which is really
very fast – and something is wrong with their service, it is normally caused by
their upload speeds
being virtually zero, and their total lack of interest in their
customers views
.
Search the London & Southern England Pub History site and Street directory by historical Pub name, surname or street address.
The Pub history site is a major historical street directory which lists mainly Pubs and street name changes between about 1840 and 1940. The site is updated every day.
Contact: Kevan with any updates and additions.
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All transcriptions and imagery is copyright, and excepting personal usage (which is fine); it is NOT available for commercial usage or copying onto other websites without explicit permission.
Many of the images, and all of the transcriptions are the work of myself and other contributors - please do not steal this work.
And Last updated on: Thursday, 05-Jul-2012 16:42:20 MDT
The historical trade directory and census listing of all of London, Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire
Oxfordshire, and Dorset. If you are searching for a historical address, try the census and street directory database. This is a Victorian view on the streets of london and the south of England.