Category Archives: Consumer activism

FedEx couriers gone wild

I posted on November 2 about FedEx attempting three times in a row to deliver a shipment to our house which turned out to be intended for (and addressed to) one of our neighbors, and then when their error was discovered refusing to redeliver the shipment to the correct address. Here’s the end of the… Read More »

National Grid gets 66.666% confused with 99.999%

You’ve probably heard the expression “five nine reliability,” which is shorthand for saying that a product, Web site, service, application, or whatever is fully functional 99.999% of the time, the equivalent of less than six minutes of downtime per year. Most Web sites don’t need to achieve that level of reliability. However, when you’re in… Read More »

Now it’s National Grid’s turn to be incapable of running a Web site

Apparently it’s “big companies that can’t keep their Web sites up in the middle of the day” week. Yesterday, Citizens Bank online banking was down for over two hours. Today, National Grid’s main US Web site and online account management site are both down:

Citizens Bank FAIL

At 9:45am on a weekday:

Virgin Mobile Auto-Topup broken for months

My wife still uses a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone, despite our previous run-in with their rampant stupidity (we stuck with them because they solved our problem in the end). Unfortunately, their stupidity is on parade again. My wife’s account is configured to auto-topup, i.e., every time her balance drops below $5, they’re supposed to automatically… Read More »

Bye Bye, Citizens Bank

Last July, when we were preparing for our trip to Israel, I called Citizens Bank and asked this simple question: “What is the least expensive way for me to get Israeli sheqels out of my Citizens Bank checking account?” In response, the customer service representative told me the following: The fee for withdrawing currency from… Read More »

An open letter to Tony Mitchell

UPDATE [August 30, 2011]: Tony Mitchell has threatened to sue me for criticizing him on my blog. Read all the details here, and please consider chipping in a few bucks to help cover my legal defense. Thanks! Dear Mr. Mitchell, A few months ago, I posted a voicemail message my wife and I received from your… Read More »

FedEx follies

FedEx tried three times over the past week to make a delivery of two packages to our house. Two times, no one was home, and the third, my wife didn’t get to the door fast enough and the courier left. The door tag left after each attempt said someone had to be home to sign… Read More »

“Dyson Airblade” not the fastest or most hygienic

My workplace has installed Dyson Airblade hand dryers in the bathrooms. The Airblade claims to be “the fastest, most hygienic hand dryer.” In fact, the Airblade does a bad job of drying my hands, it isn’t significantly faster than the Xlerator, and it’s not particularly hygienic.