Choosing A Broadband Provider
August 6, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Soon to be moving to Clontarf and need to sort broadband and phone. I thought I’d share with you the reason I’ve chosen Magnet.
Digiweb
I’m currently with Digiweb on 5MB download with a cap of 30G and no free calls. Imagine my surprise to discover that all their packages now have free calls built in, or higher download, or more capacity – and not once in the last 4 years of being a customer have they told me about it! I have been paying an average of €63 a month when I could have been getting what I was getting for €54.99. The package I’m on isn’t advertised anymore and the company hasn’t communicated to me that I could be on something new and save money. It’s not as if I haven’t been in contact with them – around July 2009 when I started Simple Assembly Me Hole, I experienced a good deal of telephone problems. Another negative is that they don’t have call forwarding.
So Digiweb aren’t getting my business because they have shown more interest in hooking new customers than in keeping loyal existing ones happy.
Eircom
I’m inherently against the Big Telco and its market controlling ways, but all those ads of speeding cars over bridges are doing their trick so I gave eircom a whirl. They’re not that competitive and their customer service still sucks. I telephoned because I had specific questions not addressed on the website and it took the Indian sales person 24 minutes to deal with my queries. He kept getting interrupted by colleagues, put me on hold 3 times and found it difficult to deal with someone who didn’t fall into the category of being asked whether they were a small, medium or large user. I’d be wary of the fact that they cap your usage at 50G because I’ve heard they hit you with big charges if you go over that. Plus I don’t support the way they are being reporting users of certain sites for being bad!
Wimax
I got a bit excited when I found out I could have unlimited usage, 7MB and unlimited landline calls not just to Ireland, but to UK landlines as well! Yes I can port my number, yes they do call forwarding which Digiweb can’t, and my new home is located not far from their station. I didn’t like the €50 activation fee, but I could live with that… but then I hit Boards and came across pages and pages of people bitching about their Wimax service. So that’s a no.
Magnet
Last but not least I telephoned Magnet to see if I could get that service in my area. Great news to hear that there’s someone else on my road using the service. And what a service! A whopping 24mb, no sharing, free offpeak landline calls and 100mins of international ones (which I probably won’t even use because I’m a heavy skype user), and free tv on pc. It’s slightly more expensive at €54.99 but the hard to please Boards people have nothing but good things to say about it. Phew! Even though the price is a little more than the other contenders, it’s still less than I’ve been spending with Digiweb, so I’m saving. Find out more.
I hope this summary is helpful to you if you are considering which broadband provider to use in Clontarf Dublin 3.
Tags: broadband clontarf dublin 3
I’m With Gary
August 4, 2010 at 9:21 am
Tags: return on investment social media
No I’m Not Dead….
July 29, 2010 at 1:25 pm
You may well have been wondering where I’ve been? I’ve been existing in a world where time is divided into blocks of 2 hours. Night and day merge into one another. A tiny person who weighs only a few kgs consumes my attention and affection. A mere flick of his eyelash lifts my heart. And now that he’s started smiling, it’s like the sun coming out on a grey day… 
I have been reading though and am interested to see how Facebook is coming to terms with policies for dealing with members who die.
It will be interesting to see what Twitter does with Ivy’s page, she was the oldest Twitter user and died the other day aged 104. RIP.
Normal service will resume on this blog in September. Hope you’re all having a good summer. In the meantime, here’s a shot of my beautiful smiling boy! What? On a business blog? Yes because I’m now a Business Mummy Blogger!
Tags: facebook death policies
Festival of World Cultures Needs You
July 5, 2010 at 8:34 pm
I came across this on The Wheel – am happy to see the Jobs section we created on that site being used (also happy to see the Twitter-like “Sector Connector” in hot use):
Festival of World Cultures looking for volunteers
Festival of World Cultures is one of my favourite things about summer in Dublin. It’s always good, is family friendly and most of it is free.
Tags: festival of world cultures, wheel volunteer
A Very Special Request
June 18, 2010 at 7:19 am
The Laroo Vocational School in Uganda works with ex-child soldiers, training them with practical and marketable skills to help them re-integrate with society. Many in Uganda look down on or are afraid of these poor kids because of the atrocities they’ve been forced to commit and without a way to support themselves in the city they are often left ostracized by their villages and communities. The Laroo school plays an essential role in helping these kids heal from their past.
The school has sent an urgent request for funding the education of these children. Like everyone these days they’re finding it hard to survive. Read on to see the numbers, and you’ll get a little perspective on how things really are:
- For their sewing school, they need €370 to purchase thread, mirrors, stools, yamato rolls, tape measures and scissors for the semester.
- For their carpentry school they need €365 to purchase chess cram, triangular files, saw frames, saw blades, arc saws, and smoothing planes
- For their construction school they need €120 to purchase t-squares, overalls, wooden floats, and straight edges.
That’s €855 all up to keep the entire operation going. When you think of all the little lives that will be influenced by that, it’s nothing really…
This is a great chance to partner with a school that is working hard to not simply see these kids survive but to see them thrive. If you contribute through Zest4Kidz you can be sure all your money is going straight to the Laroo school and not into administration. Donate now
Thanks.
Tags: laroo school uganda, Zest4Kidz
This Should Have Been Yesterday
June 17, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Brightspark was 7 years old yesterday. I was busy getting out the door with my new baby boy to catch some rays and have the usual celebratory lunch (this time sans alcohol!). I really intended to get something up here to mark the cycle of 7, here is something I found that is kind of nice:
Spinning, laughing, dancing to her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong Is all aloneEyes wide open, always hoping for the sun
And she’ll sing her song to anyone that comes along
I won’t sing my song to anyone these days; 7 years of being in business has made me more discerning than that. But definitely dancing to my own tune these last 7 years of self employment has made my heart sing.
Enjoy the music, even if it is a bit high on the cheese quotient:
Tags: 7 years internet marketing business, brightspark birthday
Flashmob Friday
June 4, 2010 at 9:09 am
Cheese-tastic Cardiff does do, re, me… it’s a bit Billy Barry, but hey it’s not as bad the New York Stock Exchange one:
Tags: flashmob friday cardiff do re me
Measuring Social Media ROI
June 1, 2010 at 11:08 am
A hot topic all round and one I’m going to do my thesis on … but the problem I’m finding is that it’s SO cutting edge, there aren’t really a lot of academic peer reviewed articles to include in a lit review. If you find any – please let me know.
There are lots of blogs and Youtube videos available – this one is pretty good for starters. We’re doing pretty much all of these for our clients. Are you?
Tags: measuring return on investment, return on influence, social media roi
Verified by Visa FAIL
May 21, 2010 at 8:49 am
I take umbrage at being forced to use sites that fail. Take for example, Verified by Visa. You’d think a large financial giant like Visa would have the cop on to put some basic functionality – like a ‘login’ button on its login page, but no.
For anyone who’s not on Visa, Verified by Visa is this additional level of security that is put in to protect the banks. The way it works is this – you’re buying something online, you’ve done all the steps, put in all the details, you’re at the very last step, then up pops this verified by Visa box that requires additional user name and password. This can be very frustrating when you’re trying to do things in a hurry – like when I was trying to buy tickets to The Specials earlier this year, the time it took me to complete the verified by Visa thing saw most of the tickets sell out and I only got to buy one in the Gods instead of two in the front like I wanted.
This morning Gorillaz tix go on sale. They are my favourite band of the moment so I’m definitely getting tickets. I got on to AIB to ensure that my verified by Visa details are all in order – they have an irritating habit of resetting your password if you haven’t used it in a couple of months…
- AIB Phone Banking weren’t able to help
- AIB Credit Card centre were able to point me to the screen I needed to go to, this one. Apart from the dodgy CSS around offers in the navigation bar, does it immediately leap out at you how to access verified by visa here?
Go to the bottom right. Click on ‘go to’ – a sure sign that this page was constructed by developers with no wish whatsoever to take users into account.- Next up you are presented with this screen. If you’re already registered and you are lucky enough to know your user name and password, what do you press? There’s no sign of a login button. Take a punt – click on the unintuitive option, ‘Account Manager’.
Now you’re presented with a screen in which opaque language instructs you to choose a personal message – but it doesn’t tell you what the personal message is for!! Nor does it set down any rules on what form your message might take. I had to try twice before I hit their desired message length and format.- Now I’m in and free to use my own credit card to buy things I would like …
Verified by Visa is like adding a disability to customers who shop online. I do not wish to use it. I don’t understand how Mastercard customers are allowed to shop without it. And even with Verified by Visa, the bank still stops your card if you’re in Brazil or other areas they deem dodgy territory and you’re on a bit of a spending spree.
I’m all in favour of banks protecting me, but please – invest a little in usability and make the whole process a bit more intuitive.
Tags: AIB FAIL, Verified by Visa
Is Facebook Going The Way Of Westbourne Park Grove?
May 20, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I used to live in Notting Hill, London – back in the day before ‘that movie’ was made… when you’d easily see Rastafarians and 4 wheel drive merchants living side by side. It was a great place and I really enjoyed my time there. I left in 1997 and only came back in 2001 on my way back through Europe. I was dying to see Westbourne Park Grove again, all the little funky boutiques and art shops, organic food places and local kitschy cafes. I was so disappointed because in the time that I had left, that magical little area had changed. The big stores had moved in, rents had gone up, and the small shop and cafe owners who had made the place what it was were pushed out. If you walk down Westbourne Park Grove today you’ll see the Guess Jeans shop, Pepe, Starbucks… which sucks.
Now I’m afraid that the latest change in Facebook-land will see the same thing happen.
On Monday, Facebook changed it so that page owners can no longer default landing tabs to anything other than wall or info tabs… well you can… but you’ve got to have more than 10,000 fans or an account manager (ie. you’re spending more than $10,000 on ads). This effectively blocks the little guys from promoting their competitions or apps. Read more detail on the change here.
Whatever about the changes made late last year that blocked little guys from running competitions without use of an app – I can see the logic in that from a legal point of view. Now this latest change will hit smaller brands and businesses hard… you’ve invested in an app that you’re hoping will drive substantial likes, and now you can’t directly promote it. You can refer people to it on your wall, but it’s 1 more click away and we all know about the attention span of the good citizens of Facebookland. I do hope this doesn’t push out the funky boutiques of Facebook and leave us with a generic environment with the usual suspects: Pepsi, Coke, Levis, etc. {yawn}
