BBC News reported on a Which? report today which shows that most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are using premium rate numbers for their tech support.

Why would anyone want to pay premium rates for a call to India and have to wait (while paying) for their call to be answered? Why not contact me? My time is cheaper than some premium rate tech support calls, and I’ll help you in person. Most of the calls I get are from people who have called their ISP, spent around an hour on the phone, and still haven’t got a solution. Most of the time, it’s not a problem the ISP can fix directly anyway.

Take a recent case as an example. A couple, both computer novices, had been on the phone to BT for ages because they couldn’t get their PC connected to their internet service. BT tech support had asked them to do lots of stuff on the PC to try to fix the problem, but as novice’s this was slow and frustrating. They even told them to buy an unusual type of USB cable to connect the modem/router to the PC. They did, but that didn’t work either.

I went round and started my diagnostics. I found that my laptop easily connected to their internet service, so it wasn’t a problem with the BT end of things. Their PC couldn’t ’see’ the modem using the USB cable; the reason is that the USB socket on their BT modem is for attaching an external hard disk, not a computer, so that was never going to work. This just illustrates that the BT helpline doesn’t even know how its own equipment works.

The solution was easy. I fitted an Ethernet card to the PC (having cleaned out the dust from the inside of the PC first) and we got a connection immediately. They’ll have a good, reliable internet connection now. It’s something a novice couldn’t do on his own, and a helpdesk can’t do over the phone.

It took 90 minutes from start to finish, including cleaning out the PC, explaining everything in terms they understood, and a good chat (I know them personally). 90 minutes of personal service, compared to long phone calls, trips to PC World for unnecessary purchases, and still no solution.

I offer:

• In-you-home PC and IT services for residential clients in Essex, UK
• In-your-office PC and IT services for business clients nationally (if it’s cost effective for you and me)
• Online tech support at www.crossloop.com/ColinBowen (requires broadband connection)
• Payment by cash, cheque, credit card, or PayPal
• Work us guaranteed for 48 hours

Whatever you need, if it involves computers or IT then please contact me by:

• Click here to email me
• By leaving a comment on this website (see immediately below). Requests for IT support will not show up on this website, so leave some contact information please.
• By sending me a Direct Message on twitter (www.twitter.com/ColinBowen)
• By by online chat (if I’m available) at www.crossloop.com/ColinBowen. Just click ‘Chat With Me’ (free Crossloop registration required; takes about 60 seconds to register with your name, email, a password and ‘Accept Terms & Conditions’).

Argh!!!  I want to subscribe to all the Darwin programmes as podcasts, not just one of them.  Why do you insist on trying to force me to use the stupid iPlayer?  I don’t want to listen at my computer, I want to listen when it suits me, on whatever device I choose.

iPlayer looks nice, but it doesn’t function in a 2.0 way.  Maybe I’ll call you Broadcaster 1.1 (instead of 1.0) because you are trying, but iPlayer is just like a TV on a PC; it doesn’t give people the on-demand watch-anywhere experience that people now want.  We want to download when it’s convenient, and watch when it’s convenient; on our PCs or mobile devices (without using proprietry software), whether or not we have access to the internet at the time, on the train, in the car; whenever, wherever, however.  Only when we can do that will you be Broadcaster 2.0.  Come on!  It’s not the future, it’s now!

For my previous post, I was going to embed a link to a YouTube video of BBC’s Top Gear where Clarkson reviewed the Tesla.  Unfortunately, BBC removed the video because it violates their copyright.  Rant starts:

WHEN ARE YOU CONTENT MAKERS GOING TO REALISE THAT YOUTUBE IS FREE ADVERTISING?!!!!!  Sorry to shout, but this makes me mad.  The programme is not for sale, and it has been broadcast free over the air.  What possible loss could the BBC face by having it on YouTube?  Indeed, the clip ended with a teaser stating that James was going to explain “later” why battery cars would soon be killed off.  Seeing this made me think “Oh, I’ll have to go and watch that when I have time”. 

I usually record Top Gear anyway, but I delete most of them un-watched because I don’t get much time for TV.  I tend to record more than I can watch so that when I do want to watch something I have a choice of viewing.  Those that I watch get deleted, together with anything old that is unwatched.

SEEING THE YOUTUBE CLIP MADE ME WANT TO WATCH THE WHOLE PROGRAMME, BBC!  DON’T YOU GET IT?!!!

Oh my god, these people are so stupid!  They get the clip taken down, but I bet that if you go to www.youtube.com and search for “top gear telsa” as I just did, there’ll be another clip of it. 

BBC!  You can’t beat them, join them!  I really don’t see the point in trying to get these clips taken down.  It’s futile.  Taking them down doesn’t increase your viewers, but leaving them up might.

I still feel mad about this but you get the point, don’t you, dear reader.  I’ll stop typing now so we can both get on with something more productive.  Thanks for letting me ‘vent’.

Two posts in one day!

Not many posts about F1 lately, but I wanted to share this old news I’ve just seen.  Martin Brundle will be commentating and David Coulthard will ‘a pundit’ with Eddie Jordan and the anchorman Jake Humphrey (who?).

I must say, I don’t like the ITV-football-style sound of an anchorman and two pundits, but I’m absolutely delighted that Martin will still be commentating and that David will be involved.  David Coulthard has so much good stuff to say, and the more former drivers involved, the better.

I’m so pleased we’ve got rid of the adverts; I’ve been doing my bladder exercises already.  And talking of bladders, I’m glad we won’t have to listen to James Allen’s constant stream of irrelevant analogies.

Shame though that we’ll lose Louise Goodman.  She got off to a shaky start but was later able to get great access and(sometimes flirty) interviews with some of my favourite drivers.  Some people won’t be happy, but I’m pleased to see Ted Kravitz joining the Beeb’s line-up.  More of a worry for me is Lee McKenzie (female) who I don’t think I’ve seen, but she comes from ITV and Sky (oh oh) and is daughter of an F1 newspaper reported (oh oh again).  Hope we’re not dumbing down.

I haven’t been keeping up with the news, so I wonder if they’ll bring back the music from the old BBC Grand Prix programme, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.  Listen to it now, and if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face, make your heart race and give you goose pimples at the end, then you’re either too young, or not an F1 fan.