Archive for the ‘leisure’ Category.

thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk - DO NOT USE

Customer service skills in this country are pretty hard to find sometimes, especially for online companies where the face of that company could be an email address!

Well, for those who go off recomendations when deciding to use a new company, here’s one to avoid - thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk. This is my story of why.

On the 25th of Feb 08, I placed an order with thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk for a Slik Pro 700 DX and a Manfrotto 676B Monopod. Total cost was £117.89. The online shop didn’t have a live stock system so I had no idea if either of the items were in stock, that wasn’t really and issue as I reaslise that small businesses can’t have the same or similar setups as some of the larger online shops + waiting for a week or two wasn’t really an issue either!

A few days later, a parcel arrived for me :) Prompt delivery I thought. Upon opening the package, I realised that I’d only had sent to me, the Slik tripod. So, the next day I called up to enquire about the Monopod as I hadn’t had any notice that the Monopod was out of stock - or so I thought. The person who took my call was pretty rude and after I’d quoted my reference number ‘kindly’ pointed out to me that it was printed on the bottom of the delivery note that the Manfrotto would be delievered in a few days due to a lack of stock. FIne I thought, I got the main item I was after and as mentioned before, I could wait a few days.

A few days came and passed, no Manfrotto and no contact from thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk, something I later find out not to expect from thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk, no contact that is - oh and no Manfrotto either but more the lack of contact :)

Weeks later and no frotto still, no contact still so I thought, hey, I’ll check on the status of the order so again I gave thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk a quick call only to find out that, surprise surprise, they didn’t have it and still didn’t know when it was going to turn up. At this point I just cancelled the remainder of the order and went into Jessops and bought one.

Some months later I was checking through my bank statements and thought I’d make sure the refund had gone through for the Manfrotto knowing what thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk was like with their lack of contact. Fail, they hadn’t refunded me! So again, I called and this time got voicemail, time, after time during that day. No phone call back and to be honest, I very much doubt I would have got one so I emailed them to ask them what was going on. At this point they were quick to respond - with a basic apology and a promise to refund me the remaining balance of the order. Great, I also asked them to refund me the delivery cost for the order due to the 5 months they’ve now had my money for the order with no contact on what was happening.

22nd July 08, They responded, yipee! They agreed to refund me the cost of the Manfrotto - how could they not but they totally ignored my request for the delivery charge to be refunded so I emailed them again, asking once more, for the delivery cost to be refunded, to this day, they’ve ignored that email as well.

So, in short, avoid buying from thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk, they DO NOT contact you when asked or to give you any updates on orders which don’t get processed immediately, they have no idea about customer service and don’t seem to care one bit.
DO NOT USE thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk!

Manchester 10k - Sponsor me!

As you may or may not know, I’m taking part in the Manchester 10k run later this month. I’ve nominated the Charity Edward’s Trust: http://www.edwardstrust.org.uk/ to run for. Details about what they do can be found on the website.

If you would like to sponsor me then fire a paypal donation my way to paypal@lathwood.co.uk and I will cover the paypal costs.

Thanks,

Warwick Castle

On Monday to finish off my nice long weekend just before xmas, my mum, dad, Kate and I all headed down to Warwick castle for the afternoon, we’d already booked tickets as we wanted to see what the ice trail was like after being made to sound like an enchanted trail :)

For those of you that have never been before then go, it really is a lovely place but the entertainment they have on is really excellent, the staff they have dressed up walking around drumming up support do a damn good job about it and made the day all that much better - one of them even propositioned me :D

After spending an hour walking round to see some of the sites and have lunch, we ended up in the general direction of the ice trail so we headed on over in time for our slot at 2:15pm. The boots that were provided were the same ones as we used at the ice rink in Manchester, Piccadilly and proved to be comfortable enough although my legs were aching after it. The trail itself was a real change from the your usual square or rectangular shaped one, it had a square area where you started from and this is where the staff members ‘hung’ around. Gotta admit, even though they were stood round on the ice all day, they were still willing to help people out and even show them how to try and stop without crash landing in the barriers. From this ’square’ you then head around the trail in a semi circle until you near the centre, at this point you can then skate around a small round-a-bout type circle before heading for the finish/start and doing it all over again - if you wanted to :)

I’ve put some photos online at http://lathwood.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=42

Don’t ever become unfit

Because it’s so much harder to get back into it. That’s me after a 30 minute run last night, in fact that’s me after every run i’ve done for the past month! It’s not like i haven’t been training in the gym for the past year or played quite a lot of Racket sports but i’ve needed to increase my general level of fitness for a while and seeing as i hate doing cv in the gym i decided to take up street running on the days i don’t hit the gym. Question is, when does it get easier :-(

OMFG

I’m getting all wet just thinking about what’s to come in the next 6 days. Jack Bauer rocks the t.v world, sod all the chuck norris would kick jack’s ass, any fool who believes that needs to wake up and tune in next week for the premier of season 6. I’m gonna be waiting for it to air rather impatiently and watching the old ones from start to finish long live jack and kimberly :-D

Guess who

Who is this hot momma?

Choco holic mmmm!

I’ve recently become addicted to the doorstep rarebit and hot chocolate that you get at slattery’s restaurant in whitefield, thanks to my lovely girlfriend. The worst thing about this is i have an intolerance to wheat and chocolate which obviously makes eating the above a cardinal sin :-P. I’ve slackened off on this recently but this week it’s time to get back to it which means that this photo is going to be the last bit of evidence of me letting myself go :-). Anyone who has even slightly heard of slattery’s needs to book themselves in asap.

Butt cheek shaped hole!

Here’s what happens when you have people round, some beer, some leaves and a wanker of a flat mate who decides to make a hole in the wall!

Ryan the tea drinker!

This little man drinks more tea than the queen and considering he’s not even english i find that to be pretty amazing, especially considering i don’t ever touch the stuff. Surely we can’t be related :-P Only joking. Ryan we love you x