As of last week, you can even register your credit and debit cards on the site so that you also receive cash-back on in-store purchases that you make at any of their participating stores.

I signed up back in 2007 after I was introduced to it by a colleague at a former workplace, and since then I’ve received over £400 cash-back.

What else is there to say? Sign up and start earning money on your purchases.

A few days after posting it out, the buyer got in touch and said he wanted to return the item because some 3rd party angel-eye bulbs that he had bought elsewhere didn’t work with it. Now, angel-eyes didn’t come out for the 3 Series until the E46 and were never part of the E36 range, and today they are sold as an after-market 3rd party item. The headlight I sold was a genuine BMW replacement unit. I was pretty confident that if these two units were incompatible that the problem was with the bulbs and not with the headlamp, and as I had clearly stated in my listing that returns would not be accepted the only grounds by which I would be obliged to accept a return was if either a) the headlamp was damaged or b) the headlamp was not as described – and neither case applied here. I respectfully declined to accept a return and explained why.

The following day I received an email from eBay telling me that the buyer had opened a dispute with me by claiming that an item was not as described. You can see what he did here. I logged into the resolution centre and posted a number of replies (although eBay asks for as much information as possible, they only give you a tiny little window in which to post it), detailing why the item was actually exactly as described, why the buyer was claiming that it wasn’t and an account of our previous discussion. I also reminded eBay that I was only obliged to accept a return for one of the above conditions; neither of which were met, and that I was looking forward to them finding in my favour. I also called eBay to discuss the case and was assured by the representative that whoever would deal with the case would thoroughly read through the notes and all correspondence before making a decision. I was also thanked for being such a good eBayer and for having 100% positive feedback.

A week later I received an email from eBay stating that they had found in the buyer’s favour and that the buyer would be requested to send the headlamp back to me. I was also informed that I would have to refund the buyer as soon as the headlamp arrived, and the full amount was automatically deducted from my PayPal account in anticipation. In order to use my PayPal account again for any purchases, I would be forced to deposit the refund amount first.

Naturally, I called eBay to ask just what the hell was going on and why they had found in the buyer’s favour when he was clearly lying. I was informed by a representative with poor English that in all cases, eBay had to find in the buyer’s favour and that if it later turned out that the seller was right then they would issue a refund to the seller themselves. This seems totally bizarre.

1. Why bother having a “no returns accepted” option on the item listing if in reality eBay insists that all items are returned regardless of any facts?
2. Why automatically find in the buyer’s favour so that they have to cover the cost of the refund themselves in cases where the buyer is obviously lying? Surely it makes more sense to just properly investigate the claim first and only find in the buyer’s favour when there’s a genuine claim? Isn’t the aim of any business to make money rather than deliberately give it away?

Bewildered by what I was hearing, I asked what was going to happen next. The representative told me that I could appeal the decision and it would be looked into again more thoroughly within 48 hours. So, I appealed the decision and waited. The automated email stated that while most cases were dealt with within 48 hours, that I should allow up to 72 for cases that were especially complex in nature. I was pretty sure that my case was straightforward enough, but having already witnessed the stupidity that was eBay’s customer service I decided to wait the 72 hours before chasing them up. The deadline came and went with no reply from eBay so I got on the phone – again.

This time I spoke to a representative called “Ken Ainsley” (his accent and broken English would suggest otherwise), and after reciting the entire story to him he told me that eBay had been unable to make a decision on this case because I had not supplied them with any photographic evidence that the item was as described. At this point I got pretty angry, because at no time had eBay asked for any such evidence nor had they even given me an email address to which to send it. For over 72 hours eBay had simply sat on the case and done nothing – so much for the “thorough investigation” that was promised. I asked “Ken” for an email address to which I should send a photograph and he sent me the below email in response. I sent a photograph three days later when the item arrived back here.

Hello Gareth,

Please attach the documents confirming that your item is as described.

For better assistance, you can call eBay customer support at 8003586551.

eBay Hours of Service:
8am – 10pm Mondays – Fridays
11am – 6pm Saturdays and Sundays

I trust that this information helps and I wish you all the best in the
future.

Kind regards,

Ken Ainsley
eBay Customer Support

Three days later I received a response from a “Charlotte Boylan” telling me that my appeal had been denied. Naturally this must mean that they decided that the item was in fact not as described, right? Actually no, the reason that my appeal had been denied was, bizarrely, because the item had been returned to me:

Hello Gareth,

Thanks for getting in touch about the headlamp (XXXXXXXXXXXX) you sold
to “xxxxxxx”.

We’ve reviewed this case thoroughly, and found in favor of the buyer. I
understand that you appealed on the case, so I’d like to explain our
decision.

The buyer was able to provide us tracking information showing that the
item was delivered with your signature confirmation to the address
registered on the buyer’s eBay account. We’ve also reviewed your appeal.
Again, because the buyer provided valid tracking information as proof of
delivery, we’re not able to change the case decision.

We appreciate your understanding.

Kind regards,

Charlotte Boylan
eBay Customer Support

Just how eBay expected me to take a photograph of a returned item without actually receiving it first is sadly beyond my understanding. On the contrary, to satisfy their requirement for a photograph as requested by “Ken” 6 days prior, surely I had to get the item back first?!

I got on the phone again. Bear in mind that it’s not actually possible to just call eBay like you can call virtually every other company on earth – you need to jump through hoops on their site first to get a PIN number; without this PIN number you get no further than an automated message telling you that you need to go and get one.

Once again I got through to someone who seemed to have English as a second or third language, and I was told that what I needed to do was send in a photograph. Now I really exploded. I actually shouted down the phone at this guy, asking him if anyone there knew what they were doing. I explained how I had already been asked for a photograph and had already supplied one. I explained how I had made an appeal against their decision because an item that was sent back to me was actually exactly as described and how this appeal had, for some totally bizarre reason that was beyond me, been refused because of the fact that the item had been returned to me. Having realised that I was not interested in any more BS, this representative told me that he would forward the case to their appeals team and that I would get a full refund “within 4 days”.

Seven days passed and no refund. No communications from eBay either – nothing. I got on the phone again. This time I spoke to a guy who was adamant that I was not eligible for a refund as eBay did not issue refunds for such things. Clearly having got through to an idiot who couldn’t even read his colleagues’ case notes, I hung up and dialled again.

This time I got a woman who kept insisting that she couldn’t hear me. She kept calling “Hello? Hello?” down the line despite the fact that I could hear her fine. Eventually she left me on hold while she went to check the records. She came back and said that normally she could have given me a refund (so much for the previous guy’s claims), but that she couldn’t in this particular case because there was no record of them ever taking the refund out of my PayPal account. This was ludicrous. I suggested that she wait on the line while I log into PayPal and get the date for her (since she wasn’t capable of doing this herself), yet as I was logging into my account to get the exact date of the transaction, she terminated the call without warning.

Now I was really pissed off. I called again, desperately trying not to throw the receiver. This time I got through to a woman called “Jane Maddock”, and after reciting the entire story to her she recited back her understanding. To my amazement, Jane knew the difference between the headlight of an E36 and an E46. She also knew that angel-eye bulbs were never part of the original E36 specification. She put me on hold for a short time while she read the case notes which by now were quite lengthy. She came back and told me that far from getting a refund within 4 days as previously promised, the best that she could do was escalate the case which some additional information that she would add herself. In around 6 days I will be informed whether or not I’m getting a refund, though obviously, unless Jane follows this particular case through to completion I won’t be holding my breath. I asked for a direct line to her because litterally everyone else that I had spoken to had been incompetent, but unfortunately she couldn’t give me one and could only apologise for my experience.

In all honesty, I have never been impressed with eBay’s customer support. Throughout the 6 years of my eBay membership, every time I’ve contacted them for whatever reason I’ve been left unimpressed and wondering how these people manage to dress themselves in the morning without a carer. There are exceptions – or more accurately, an exception in the form of Jane – but on the whole I’d rank eBay’s customer support team below chimpanzees in terms of intelligence. This latest example just takes things to a whole new level of incompetence, and after 6 years and over 1272 transactions, I’m seriously looking for an alternative to eBay.

As if it isn’t bad enough that someone who is brand new to eBay can make an “item not as described” claim with nothing more than a pack of blatant and obvious lies (the buyer contradicted himself on at least four major points in the resolution centre and anyone who read what he said would have seen that), the fact that a seller with 100% positive feedback over 1272 transactions has to supply photographic evidence to the contrary (in itself an indication that, in eBay’s eyes, the burden of proof is on the accused and not the accuser which is the exact opposite of the requirements of the legal system of every developed country in the world) is beyond a joke. That such evidence can then be set aside in a sea of incompetence as each representative contradicts the last is beyond comprehension.

All told I must have spent at least 3 hours on the phone talking to these idiots and for what? I’m still no better off today than I was a month ago. This is how eBay treats its loyal customers. This is how eBay thanks you for being a “good eBayer” and for maintaining 100% positive feedback over 6 years.

I’ve searched for an alternative to eBay as I desperately want to take my business – and my money – elsewhere, but all I’ve found are tiny sites with no more than a few hundred listings – if that. If anyone does know of an alternative that has competent staff, please feel free to leave the relevant information in the comments section below.

As far as eBay is concerned, I’ll post a link to this article to their customer support and maybe call their head office with a link tomorrow, but I don’t expect that anyone will actually resolve the issue for me.

UPDATE: At 6:11pm on Tuesday the 28th of September – just 2 days after posting this article – I received a full refund from eBay. There was no message and no apology – literally just a refund – but at least it’s here. The only uncertainty now is whether it’s here because Jane did as she promised, or because eBay takes complaints a lot more seriously when they’re pasted all over an SEO’d blog. Hmm.

The portal isn’t yet taking subscribers as there’s still some work to do on the resources themselves, but with the portal now completed it made sense to unveil it for three important reasons:

1. It gives people who are interested in what we’re doing (and Google Analytics shows there’s a fair few of you out there!) an opportunity to take a look and to get excited about what’s coming.
2. It allows people to register for the newsletter and be kept up to date with resource progress and more importantly, the portal’s launch.
3. Finally, it allows the search engines to start indexing the site so that when we do launch, potential users will be able to find us.

Registrations on the forums are welcome to all those who are interested in the portal or who wish to ask questions or provide feedback. Naturally, the portal will also serve as a support forum when we launch.

Nokia’s site confirmed the claims and went on to describe the necessary steps – the first of which was that I’d need firmware version 31.0.0.8 or later. My phone was sporting version 21.*, and since I had checked for a new firmware not long ago I came to the conclusion that 31.0.0.8 must be brand new. Immediately I connected my phone to my computer and ran Nokia’s software update program. “No updates available”. What? I ran it again only to be greeted by the same message. I did some research and found that many people had had the same problem – months before! It turns out that version 31.0.0.8 has been available for a long time but my phone has always insisted that 21.* was the latest version.

Further research suggested that I needed to change the product code with NSS to a code that had the update available, and that my phone must currently be using one that had not had the update yet. This would make sense as I actually changed it from the factory setting about a year ago in order to get the 21.* firmware. I found a code that was reported to work, applied it to the phone and ran Nokia’s Update software again – still nothing.

I restarted my phone, thinking maybe it needed to restart for the product code to take effect. Nope. I closed all of Nokia’s software and ran it again, thinking maybe it had cached the product code. Nope.

Finally I ran a factory reset on the handset to force it to apply the installed firmware again (with code *#7780#), thinking maybe something hadn’t completed properly the first time round, and ran the Update software again – it worked* and the software informed me that version 40.0.0.5 was available to install! I installed it and then completed the rest of the installation steps for Nokia’s latest Maps software; the end result of which is that I now have free satellite navigation on my phone.

Ovi Maps as it’s known is, in my opinion, much better than Google’s solution as the maps can be downloaded and installed to the phone, which means it doesn’t need a continuous connection to the internet to provide me with navigation. This will save battery of course, but it also means that it will work where there’s no network service. There aren’t many places in the UK where there’s no network service at all, but there are plenty of places that aren’t covered by HSDPA or 3G networks and in these areas downloading map imagery from Google is a slow and painful process.

* I got it working in the end on a Windows Vista 32-bit laptop; Nokia’s desktop software continues to be slow, bloated and unhelpful crap and the Update application kept crashing/freezing on my Windows 7 64-bit machine with irrelevant and useless error messages. Research suggests that Nokia’s 64-bit support is currently lacking, so I’d advise running the Update on a 32-bit machine (or from the phone directly if you’re feeling particularly brave with *#0000#) until Nokia sort themselves out.

The cables were pretty expensive to be honest – pretty much double what we could have got them for online – but they were available there and then and we didn’t have to pay any postage, plus if there was a problem there wouldn’t be any faff in returning them to the store.

On attempting to connect the cables to the monitors, I found to my horror that the only connection the monitors had (22 inch Dell widescreens) were VGA! What the hell? 1-month-old monitors don’t have anything better than VGA?! Fair enough no HDMI, but no DVI either?!

A couple of days later Nicola went to take the cables back to CTWorld to return them, but despite the fact that she had the original receipt and was returning them mere days after buying, CTWorld refused to give her a full refund and instead offered 85% of the price because there was nothing wrong with them. Now, I accept that there was nothing wrong with the cables and that it was my fault for not checking the monitors first and just assuming they’d have DVI connections, but the vast majority of shops on the high street will take back goods bought in error and issue a full refund – even if just for a credit note – simply because they value that customer’s custom and want to demonstrate good will. All CTWorld did was point out that there was no legal requirement for them to take them back.

Later that night after calming down a little, Nicola sent the store an email highlighting her disappointment with them. They never replied.

Ormskirk is a small town, and while that means there aren’t many places to buy IT equipment it also means that there aren’t that many customers for the shops that do exist.

Last year alone I spent around £3,000 on IT equipment and although most of that was spent online (I’d be happy to return to stores if they can start competing a little more on price) it would have been great for me to have a friendly, reliable and convenient local source for my IT needs for when I want something there and then. CTWorld unfortunately won’t be that store, and I’d urge anyone who walks into that store to consider what they would do if, for whatever reason, they needed to return their item for a refund. There’s plenty to be said about supporting local independents, but when it means paying over the odds for sub-standard after-sales service, I think next time I need something in a hurry I’ll drive down to PC World in Aintree.

For more information either check out the launch post at Quak Multimedia or check the Mercury website directly, where there is even a demo of the software showcasing some of its capabilities.

Mercury is viewed as a live product that will evolve and adapt over time with the needs of our clients, so this won’t be the last time I mention Mercury on this blog I’m afraid!

As well as the software itself, we’ll also be offering a development service where we will either help clients develop their eLearning or develop it all ourselves for an extremely competitive rate.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Dropbox

Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too). Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using their website.

I use the software to sync files between home and work, and if I want to show someone what I’m currently working on then I can send them a link to that file from within Dropbox too. I can also invite specific people to share files and folders like in Google Docs.

You get 2GB of storage free initially, but there are payable options if you want more space. This limit also increase by 250mb for every successful referral, so if you do sign up then please use the above link!

Harrison and Company offer accounting services at very competitive rates with a friendly and approachable manner, and they’re very flexible and happy to work in whatever way suits your business.

Nicola is very experienced. She joined her previous employer in August 2002 as a Trainee Accountant and successfully qualified in February 2006 with first time passes in all papers. She was made an Associate of the firm in April 2008 following her valued contribution and effort within the Practice and continued as Practice Manager until leaving the Practice last week.

She’s currently running an introductory discount that makes her pricing even more attractive than usual, but you’d best be quick if you want to take advantage of it as places are limited!

Around a year ago now I was working at my computer one night. Suddenly it made a few clicking sounds and immediately I knew that this was bad news. Unfortunately, while I considered my immediate backup options and tried to decide how best to save all of my files before my computer finally died, it blue-screened on me and refused to start up again. Yep, catastrophic disk failure. It hadn’t even given me enough time to make some essential last-minute backups.

I spent the next hour or so researching the best way to get my data off a broken hard drive and found a forum where one guy had frozen his drive in the freezer, arguing that the extreme cold would slightly shrink the parts inside and bring any contacts closer together. Why not try that? The disk had already refused to yield anything to the six different bootable recovery disks that I had tried so I felt that I had nothing to lose.

I wrapped the drive in a plastic bag to prevent moisture from getting inside it and placed it in the freezer. The next morning I removed the drive and found it to be so cold that my fingers stuck to the metal. I connected the drive to my computer and turned it on, not really knowing what to expect. Amazingly, it booted into Windows. I managed to move everything of any importance off the drive onto a second drive before the disk finally warmed back up to room temperature and failed again.

After buying a new drive and re-installing Windows and all of my other software, the first thing I did was look for a backup solution. I found one in Carbonite. Carbonite automatically and securely backs up the contents of your hard drives for roughly £30/year and offers unlimited storage. It’s continuous and automatic, secure and encrypted. It’s also available for Mac. The peace of mind that I get from knowing that even if my flat was to burn down to the ground, all of my music, my photos, my work – everything – is all backed up off-site on secure servers.

As a happy customer I’d recommend it to anyone.