Craig Online

d'Arry's: Excellent Food and Service
Lunch today at d'Arry's (King Street). As usual, the service was excellent and the food superb. Easily the best value for money place in Cambridge in my opinion. Staff are always fantastic- even in busy times.

Only gripe being mint in the potatoes - why not actually tell people that ? I never order Lamb in the UK as I know that it's pretty much impossible to have it without being coated in Mint, but I though Potatoes+Mint was something that went out in the 1970's ? However, I had an alternative.

iPhone Blues
Went into the O2 shop in Cambridge today to buy the latest iPhone. As I walked in I realised the shop was mainly staffed by the Clearasil brigade so didn't think I was onto a good thing. Of course I wasn't wrong....

To the young guy who served me today... Thanks for making the experience so unbelievably bad and p****** me off. When I asked if you had iPhone's in stock why did you give a negative response like "we only have the 32GB models left" ?, why not try and sell me the benefits of the more expensive model ? When I asked you about the business tariff, rather than take the trouble to go through things, you couldn't even be a**** and simply handed me a poorly photocopied sheet with random tariffs on it. When I made my mind up on the tariff, why then tell me that you couldn't sign me up today and that I'd have to call customer services ?, then not even bother to even take the trouble to give me the number to call.

Thanks for making the whole experience so unbelievably bad. I really really wish the iPhone was available on other carriers - then you *might* have to make an effort (though you probably still wouldn't).

Apple Genius Service
I've never used the Genius Bar in the Apple store in Cambridge, today was the first (and last time).

Simple issue- hinge on my MacBook Air loose and starting to make a strange noise (sounds like it's going to break). Quick search on Internet suggests this is a common problem. Of course my first mistake was to think that anyone in a service industry would be in any way pro-active in their desire to fix something that was going wrong. It reminds me of years ago when I worked at a company and my desk 'phone wasn't working properly (intermittent fault), the guy who came to fix it said "can't find a fault sorry", I was so annoyed I took the headset, smashed it on the desk and said "right it's broken now can it be fixed", he fixed it.

To the guy on the Genius Bar... Rather than look at all interested, I showed you the fault and then you sat and surfed some internal site to check the problem. You then suggested to me that it was my incorrect use of the screen that was the problem. Do I look like some total retard who doesn't know how to use a computer and hasn't been using laptop computers for nearly 20 years ? You were completely useless, easily replaceable by a robot (like 2 Ronnies doctors sketch). If I had known the service I was going to get I wouldn't have even bothered making an appointment (and therefore wouldn't have had to wait for the late appointment). When I asked how I could escalate, you said 'Call AppleCare', not even bothering to give me the number.

I'll go to the London Store over the next few weeks to get it sorted.

Virgin Media
Broadband still not working properly, let's summarise how the process to get it 'sorted' works:

REPEAT
* Call 151, option 2, option 3;
* Speak to someone in India Call Centre, who does line test and agrees there is a fault, need to send Engineer out;
* Service Engineer Arrives, tests the SNR level and tell me that everything is okay and that's all he can do;
* I'll get irritated, Service Engineer will say he'll escalate (but never will);
UNTIL I MOVE OVER TO BT (who can't give me a high speed connection though)

So far we've gone round the cycle 4 times...