Kevin Muldoon

An interesting video about a guy who spent 2 years to travel 5,000 Kilometres from Beijing to Germany

It’s no surprise to many of you that companies are incredibly sneaky with what they put in their terms and conditions. They commonly advertise something for free and then put a small asterisk (*) at the end. The asterisk refers to a note at the bottom of the page which is almost always unreadable and usually explains that the offer isn’t technically free and that to get the product to free you need to sign over the deeds of your house!

Last week I got my own back though. Orange mobile decided to increase the rate of their 087 call prices and internet browsing rates. However, by doing so they were changing the terms and conditions which meant that I was within my rights to cancel the contract, which I obviously did because I had 4-5 months left on it.

After a day or so looking at phones, I decided on the HTC Hero, which is being sold in the UK via T-Mobile as the G2 Touch (Orange actually have it as well but their deal sucks).

I was checking the terms and conditions today about the contract and the cost of calls etc. And it hit home how sneaky companies are with their terms and conditions are. They always quote terms and conditions when something is wrong and you want a refund, better service or improved contract but they do their utmost to make sure that people don’t read their terms and conditions.

Have a look at the sales page for the G2 :

Notice how clear everything is. The colourful image, the large font, the use of lists to present information simply and clearly to the potential customer. As a blogger, I have read lots of articles about this. It allows the reader to digest the information more easily and presents the facts in a way which which is easier for the brain to remember.

Compare this to their terms and conditions page below. The font is incredibly small and there are no paragraph breaks whatsoever. This makes it not only incredibly difficult to read, it also makes it very difficult for the human brain to digest the information because the text is not broken down into different segments.

The problem in the UK is that these techniques are perfectly legal. It’s not lying to the customer but these methods hardly present all the information they must know in an honest way.

The comments left on the orange cancellation article highlight that customer service reps are happy to lie to customers anyways. Many people reported Orange reps saying that they must send their phone back if they cancel their contract, even though their own terms and conditions state that the phone is not part of the contract (it is in effect, a gift to entice you to sign the contract).

Word of warning to all of you : Take the time to read the terms and conditions when you sign up to any monthly contract. I know it’s a real pain in the ass but it could save you a lot of hassle in the future.

I was reading today about the plane crash at Koh Samui airport in thailand. It was a Bangkok Airways flight and the pilot was unfortunately killed whilst several others were injured.

I flew with Bangkok Airways in and out of Koh Samui earlier this year. Infact, I found out about the crash after receiving this email from them:

Dear MR. Kevin Muldoon,
Subject Letter of condolence

Due to the recent accident on Bangkok Airways’ flight PG 266 at Samui Airport on August 4th,
I, on behalf of Bangkok Airways, would like to express my sympathy towards our passengers
and crew members who have been affected from this accident. We have put all our efforts
to assist all our passengers during this unfortunate event.

Please be informed that today, Samui Airport reopened for flight operation with the first departure
on PG 100 leaving Samui at 14.00 hrs and arriving at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 15.00 hrs.
The first departure from Suvarnabhumi Airport is PG 153 at 14.00 hrs with an arrival in Samui at
15.00 hrs. For more flight information, please visit our website (www.bangkokair.com).

Lastly, Bangkok Airways’ management would like to reassure that we continue to take safety
as priority in all aspects of our operations for your confidence every time you fly with us.

Sincerely yours,

Captain Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth
President
Bangkok Airways

Although I was shocked to hear the news today, to be honest, I wasn’t surprised. Bangkok Airways are a great airline. Their very cheap yet their service would put most UK Airlines to shame (Ryanair/Easyjet etc). However, the weather there can be very turbulent.

I flew between Phuket and Koh Samui on a similar flight in 2007 with my friends Dave and Michael. Before then I would have considered myself a good flyer, having flew over a hundred times over the last 5 or 6 years, but that flight really shook me up. The flight was only about 40-45 minutes long but it was violently turbulent the whole time as we were going through a thunderstorm. It kept bumping up and down and more than once I grabbed onto the side of my chair.

I remember talking about afterwards and my mate Dave said that he didn’t enjoy it either but felt a bit better when he saw me!! I had a flight to Singapore about a week later and another to Melbourne a few days after that so I just had to grin and bear it. I’m not so bad with flying again and the aftershock of that flight seems to have worn off a bit though I still hate turbulence now (but it would never stop me travelling). So I can only imagine what it would be like for the people on that flight.

Anyone else had a really bad flight which made them uneasy with flying or put them off from flying again altogether?

Kevin

Olny srmat poelpe can raed this.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the r ghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

There really is nothing like sweet justice. I have to admit that I had a smile on my face when I read about this story yesterday about a knife wielding burglar who broke into a 72 year old pensioners home.

What he didn’t know was that Frank Corti, 72 years of age, was a former junior boxing champion. And he duly knocked the idiot out.

The pensioner then restrained him until police arrived. He was jailed for four and a half years yesterday after a judge told him he had ‘got what he deserved’.

I really do love reading stories like this. So often in the UK the criminal gets away with it, or even worst, the victim gets charged for defending themselves. So it was good to hear the judge saying that ‘he got what he deserved’. As far as I’m concerned, you leave any rights you have at the door when you break into someones home with a knife.