HotPhil

If it helps, I've got no real opinion on your post and no need to post a reply.

The Australian TV coverage of the t'games is quite an experience. They started off so chirpy, but disappointment is clearly starting to show :-(

Does the classic allow you to select a Genius playlist? That might give you more variety?

You might get more offers if you could explain more about what you want help with. For instance: which signage? what wording? from what to what? for who? why? you could suggest one or two

It's been a year since I was there, but unless they've managed to work out that 3 or 4 ticket machines isn't enough for a city the size of Sheffield, get there VERY early. I missed a couple of important journeys by only allowing 20 minutes to pick up my tickets. The facility was so inadequate last time I went, they'd had to erect queuing barriers to keep the line in check. It may have changed since last year though.

I'd be a little bit cautious. And some more nervous users may be more put off than you might think. In a few years though when the mental association of gTLD's and geographic areas has become a thing of the past, it'll likely not bother the majority of users.

I remember when the ranks were full of Peugeots... but these days, Toyota is the way to go. A Prius is exempt from Congestion Charge if you head into London. Thing is, each licensing authority will have different rules on size, type, age of vehicle etc so you need to check the regulations.

Surely only the manufacturer will have the correct list of serial numbers? So I guess if their site is saying the serial number is invalid then the likely explanations are either it is indeed invalid, or it's been entered incorrectly, or there's an error in their system.

There was references to planning applications and stuff in this (admittedly old) thread http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=405849 - assuming I'm remembering the correct site.

iPhones don't like being connected to different PC's so he's kind of correct. But, what would he want to be doing connecting to another PC? The only reason to connect them to a PC is really just to put more music from that PC on to the phone. If he's got enough music on there for the duration of his stay at his mum's, then I'd suggest he doesn't need to connect it to a PC so doesn't need his own laptop.

They sound like a right set of incompetents. They've had more than enough time to satisfactorily and speedily deal with your issue and it sounds like they're just trying to fob you off now. The issue is their's not yours so don't waste any more time trying to sort it with them - get the bank to put the money back in your account now.

I wouldn't settle for that. Ring them back and speak to someone else. Tell them someone's debited your account and you have no idea why and that it wasn't authorised. I wouldn't go into all the back story - they (rightly) shouldn't care about that. But they should care that they've allowed someone to debit one of their customers with no authorisation. If they refuse to sort it out, move bank to one that is actually bothered.

I'd not be waiting around for them to sort their admin out. Call the bank back and don't get fobbed off. They don't need to know the whole background story, just tell them there's a charge on your statement you didn't authorise and you want to dispute it, they can and should put the money straight back in your account and then sort it out with the merchant. As the merchant never saw your card, they'll have used a "cardholder not present"-type option and the bank should be even more willing to put the money straight back in your account. You've been more than fair in allowing the merchant time to correct their mistake - get the money back in your account and have done.

How many Scottish notes does the average person get/try to spend in a year? In most cases they could refuse to be given them in the first place. They can change them for free at their bank to totally rule out any problem of passing them on. Some shops wouldn't question accepting them. And most people would have an alternative form of payment if there was an issue. Or use a self-serve till. Or take their business elsewhere. It's such a non-issue, it's hardly worth thinking about.

Being rude isn't acceptable. Maybe I just have more realistic expectations these days but I wouldn't expect to go into a shop and attempt to pay with another country's bank notes. I'd have thought presenting another country's bank notes as a means of payment was a good reason. That would be a constructive thing to do. A self-serve till is as familiar with one of type of note as it is with another that it has data for, so no difference in risk. So the customer could have just used a self-serve till. Or paid by card. Everyone's happy. I wonder what happened to the totally cashless stores Tesco was piloting. I might check up on that.

How? How can staff being trained to do something (not accept a particular type of payment more likely to be fraudulent than another) and the staff then putting that training into practice be "bad training"? You may not think that policies designed to help protecting a business from potential fraud are correct, but the increasing number of businesses with similar policies would suggest that those whose bottom lines are directly affected do believe it's worth doing.

Hope the new job goes well. If you are parking around there, don't leave anything on show at all in your car. A lot of people park around there for the whole day and walk into town or the station for a commute. The piles of broken glass in the road will indicate which streets are the worst for the scumbags who think they can take what's not theirs. And they do round there. Often.

It would be good training if the company's policy is not to accept non BOE notes as the risk of loss is increased. Many shops that have a lot of low-value cash transactions won't touch 50 pound notes for the same reason. And they're far more likely to encounter a 50 note than one of the many different Scots' notes.

Actually, his post is nonsense. No one "voted" for or against a scheme. There were "consultations" which the council did the wording for, collected and "analysed" the results and then made a decision. The schemes are not "resident's" schemes (that would imply some benefit for residents, so you'll not find them called that in any council documents). And some people lived in those areas and had the scheme imposed upon them. I moved to avoid one once and narrowly avoided a second implementation. Any cost increase is unwelcome. Especially when having to start paying for a worse situation (reduced number of spaces) than were there to begin with.

I've just had the opposite experience with Shefflets. They couldn't have been better - the house was let within 4 hours of us moving out and throughout the tenancy they were excellent. The first we got to hear of any issues e.g. maintenance that had to be done, was when they told us they'd sorted it out. I'd recommend them heartily. I wonder why we had such differing experiences, maybe they've upped their game in the last few years.

Use old 5p's till the machine's are updated? Or wait until the more likely change of the price goes up to be a multiple of 20p per hour. To be fair, to avoid overpaying you just need to carry the exact change. Do Sheffield's ones take cards yet or are they still 20 years behind?

Problem is that what's a "good" pub to you is someone else's idea of a bad one. Kelham Island Tavern is good in CAMRA's opinion - winning pub of the year for 2008 and 2009.

There's a 16GB version too. Still not a huge amount of storage - I'm sure they'll be pushing online storage as the way forward.

I think they saw the silliness of their own actions. An email to one of the company directors helped - all fees waived :-) I'm happy again now.

I was quite happy with the Tramways medical centre, but they're only any good for something non-urgent. If you're actually ill, then the walk-in centre in town is still the best bet. If you do make an appointment with them make it early in the morning - I've sat there ill and shivering for over 90 minutes for a late-running afternoon surgery - they're always very behind.