IanVisits…

I am currently feeling somewhat ill (big aww!) and whenever I am ill, I tend to consume fairly large quantities of Heinz Mulligatawny soup. It is the only time I ever eat tinned soup - and I will only ever have that spicy beef curry soup.

So you can imagine my horror when stumbling out over the past few days to get provisions that none of my local supermarkets seem to stock it anymore - or somehow all ran out of it at the same time.

Being ill is bad enough - without my staple foods being unavailable as well.

I am not sure quite why it is that I seem to have this hunger for beef curry soup when ill, although when I was in hospital a few years ago and talked about this very issue with some nurses they pointed out that it is quite a common thing for people to prefer much spicier foods - something to do with the tastebuds going on strike during fevers etc.

Maybe I can get some soup on the NHS if that is the case?

In the meantime - would my local supermarkets kindly get some soup back in stock please.

Time for a bit of a rant, so are you sitting comfortably?

Following the demise of my last less than trustworthy model, I find myself in need of a new printer. I was going to order one online, but as I am going out on an event/tour tomorrow I thought it would be nice to print off some documents, so ran over to the shopping centre to quickly buy a replacement from a shop.

Where I live, I have the choice of a Dixons Currys Digital or a Waitrose which also sells a small range of computer stuff. Waitrose were out of stock of the basic model I wanted, so - alas, it was off to Currys to see what they have.

I tend to avoid the shop as they play thump, thump, thump music in there and just walking past is usually enough to make me cringe. Today, the music was still there, but at a tolerable level. What is it with most domestic appliance retailers and their passion for loud heavy bass music?

Saw a basic printer, but also spied a reasonable priced wireless model and thinking this would be a useful addition picked up that one and took it to the till (yes, it’s self service for printers).

Everything was fine, put my credit card in the swipe thingy and then the salesperson asked me for my home address.

What?

It’s for the warranty - they need it.

No they don’t - I’ll be perfectly happy with just a normal till receipt.

A pained look of confusion and a conversation with a colleague.

Yes - my address details are mandatory and they can’t carry on the transaction without them.

Sorry, I reply (being generous as I was less than sorry at this point), but there is no need for my address details for a mere warranty and I have no intention of handing over personal information to them.

We hit an impasse and after another pained attempt to extract my address from me, I said I was refusing to buy the printer, took back my credit card and walked out.

So, I still can’t print off the details for tomorrow.

You might think I was being difficult - but I have my reasons for not handing out my personal details at a mere whim of a retail shop.

Now, I actually used to work for Dixons Group about a decade ago, and periodically write for a living about consumer electronics, so have a moderately decent idea of is and is not needed for warranties.

Had I been buying a TV or DVD player, then my details are indeed required - by law - for the TV license authority to check I have a license. However, for any other item there is absolutely no need for my home address to be handed over for the warranty as the till receipt (or suitable proof of purchase) is enough.

If a customer did hand over their details and also hadn’t brought an extended warranty you knew they would get a letter a month later trying to sell one to them, and a series of reminders when the manufacturers warranty expired.

I had already said that I was happy to have just an ordinary till receipt, and when I worked at the company we could tab past the address details on the computer/till if a customer didn’t want to hand them over. Now - apparently it seems that is not possible, and the company would rather lose a sale than lose a chance to collect my home address details.

That itself raises suspicions.

The two till boys assured me that my details wouldn’t be used for any marketing purposes - so why is it that the company would prefer to lose the sale if faced with a customer who didn’t want to hand over their address details? Something doesn’t quite add up.

In an age where we are exhorted by government bodies to protect our personal details - where companies like Dixons Group sell paper shredders so we can protect ourselves from ID thieves, we have a company demanding to collect my personal details for no apparent reason.

When retailers are being routinely (it seems) hacked into and governments are losing CDs left right and centre - should I hand over my personal details to a retailer without considering the implications?

I think not.

Had I walked into that store, and been approached by a top quality salesperson who guided me through the product choice and won my trust in their expert product knowledge - then just maybe I would have been more comfortable with the idea of handing over my address details.

As it was, I spent a good 5 minutes looking at the products and trying to make out the tiny tickets with product specs and work out what I wanted. I then had to help myself to a box and take it to a till.

No - the retailer had not put in any effort to win my trust, and as a result I refuse to hand over my private home address details to them.

I get very little junk mail at home - simply because I refuse to hand over my home address details without a damn good reason, and buying a cheap printer is not even close.

Following on from my “where am I posting” a few weeks ago, this morning I notice a very weird reaction to the Geo-IP issues of tracking people’s location. I use Google Reader for my RSS feed tracking, and this morning it has decided to put all the Google supplied text into German.

Now that is just plain daft.

Even if I am actually in Germany, does it mean I then want my computer to switch to German? Of course not!

Quite why Google would switch my RSS reader over to the German language completely defies understanding.

Here I am sat at home trying to do some work. The balcony door is open and there is a cool breeze in the flat.

There is also an almighty racket outside from the seagulls. Quite staggering amount frankly. So, thinking that one of the neighbours is probably throwing chunks of bread from their balcony to attract the local birds (its quite a fun thing to do), I wandered out to watch the commotion.

All I saw were two seagulls on the riverside.

That’s it - just two birds making enough noise for a couple of dozen of their brethren.

I hope they get a sore throat from all that screeching!

Three teenagers are being sought by the police after a cat was drowned in the Thames. The cat was a rescue puss from the Battersea Dog and Cats Home and was just starting to settle down as the “cat in residence” on HMS Belfast when he was simply thrown overboard by this sick bastards.

I feel really upset about this - as I used to have a cat from the same shelter who had been previously abandoned (and they think, hit by a car) and he was the most wonderful cat I have ever known. It was devastating when he eventually died after a couple of years with me - as he had a long term illness. I know he got a better home for those couple of years than he most certainly had in the past, and judging by how he would always trot out to greet me when I came home from work, I think he rather liked my company as well.

The staff of HMS Belfast were doing the same and offering a loving retirement to a cat who had probably had a bit of a rough time earlier - only for that to be cruelly snatched away by a trio of idiots.