Thinking Aloud

[pendy]

Sadly, very few students now want to do science, particularly Physics. I know people who have had to take early retirement from their universities because they can't get students. It's much to hard, and you have to think. Universities are closing departments due to lack of students - no students, no funding. Also, science isn't glamorous enough - the image of "the scientist" is all too often some nerd in bottle bottom glasses and a white coat, muttering happily in a lab - far from the truth!

Perhaps we should make a big effort to change the image - and stop dumbing down all the time to get useless students into universities - I quote from a friend of mine at Glasgow Uni - if they can write their names correctly four times out of five, the Humanities Dept will take them. Is it any wonder we are short on good people when you can get a degree in Aromatherapy - not generally regarded as a solid academic discipline.

[Acrylic-bob]

>>Is it any wonder we are short on good people when you can get a degree in Aromatherapy - not generally regarded as a solid academic discipline.<<

Hmmmm. I'll bet the final year dissertations are a hoot!

[pendy]

Written in rosewater and neroli oil - don't make much sense, but they sure smell good!

[WillowTheWhisp]

Is it time to bring back the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign?

On the subject of call centres being located in foreign parts I've had two dealings with such call centres recently both of which have had a negative outcome.

The first one was an order I attempted to place, by phone with Express Gifts aka Studio Cards for some personalised stationery items. Despite the fact that they are probably produced just down the road in Church my call was taken in foreign parts where the person could not understand a word I was saying. We got as far as the item number with no probnlem but when I began to explain the required personalisation (a service which they offer and advertise in the catalogue) she couldn't understand what I wanted and kept asking totally inappropriate questions (such as "What is the second name?" when what I'd given her was a date! Needless to say I abandoned that order.

The second was a Christmas gift I attempted to buy for my daughter from a brochure which came through the door. They didn't have the item in question but as the brochure offered various similar ones so I attempted to find out which, if any, of the similar ones they had left in stock and all I kept getting in response to that was
"Sorry, madam but we no longer stock the item you require."
"Yes, I realise that but which of the similar items do you have."
"I am sorry, madam but we no longer have the item you require."
"Yes, I know you haven't got that one. But you have several in your catalogue. Do you have any of those others in stock?"
"I'm sorry madam but we no longer stock the item you require"
"Oh forget it!"

[vorlon24]

I had the same problem with Tiscali.

When I first got broadband I couldn't connect for more than a couple of minutes at a time, so I called their technical help desk, which is based in India.

They took me through various things to try to rectify the problem. It didn't work, so I tried to call them back to tell them this, and see if they had any other ideas.

After waiting for about 30 minutes listening to their crap music, I finally got through to them to tell them that it didn't work, but all they did was take me through the same things again to sort the problem.

I put the phone down.

I then took my base unit, the modem they supplied and all my cables to my father in law who also has Tiscali. I connected it all up and it worked first time, every time.

I went back to Tiscali to tell them that there was no problem with my hardware, no problem with their hardware and no problem with any of the cables, so the problem must lie with the external supply, but did they take any notice? Of course not! They tried to take me through the same things that I had been through with them on a number of occasions.

I sent them an email with no response. So I called their customer care centre to find out why, and they told me that they don't deal with email enquiries, so suggested that I send a letter instead! I duly did so and called them again after 2 months without having received a reply.

They had not received the letter (why was I not surprised?), so I told them that I wanted to cancel my contract. They gave me another number to call!

So I called this other number and told them that I was cancelling my contract. They told me that I couldn't do that as I was in a 12 month contract. I told them in no uncertain terms that they were not getting a penny out of me as I had no use of broadband for some 3 months.

Anyway, the long and short of it was that they worked out what the problem was, and sent 2 BT engineers to fix the problem, which is exactly what I told them it was!

I stayed with Tiscali, but 12 months on and they still can't get my bill right! If it didn't cost £50 to go to a different company I would have left already, but I guess that is another ploy of theirs to keep customers...