Tag: payment

Categories
End User fun stuff

Facebook promoted posts – uh?

Facebook promoted posts screenshotI linked to that last post on why I want my Samsung Galaxy S3 back from Facebook. I wanted to make sure that none of my friends missed the post otherwise no-one might read it:).

For the first time ever I got this popup/toast/whatever they call it suggesting I might want to pay to promote my post.  I could “move my important news, links and photos higher in the news feed” and the post “will be marked as sponsored”.

payment options for Facebook Promoted postsI’ve never seen this before and certainly wouldn’t dream of giving money to Facebook for the “privilege” of them promoting my post. What’s more there is no mention of how long the promotion will last, what position it will have in the feed, basically nothing that specifies what I get for the cash.

I clicked through as if I was going to buy and found that they wanted £3.47 for this privilege. It was almost tempting to pay theFacebook promoted posts cause a bit of a stir - on Facebook money to find out what happens but I’m sure that most of my friends would think I was off my trolley if I did this.

In an attempt to find out what I would get for my money I searched Facebook for “promoted posts” but it only came up with a few user groups protesting about the fact that Facebook was now offering promoted posts.

Frankly who cares? I guess some businesses might want to sign up but Facebook haven’t exactly done a good job of selling it – at least not to me.

Ciao…

Categories
End User security

Payment Protection Insurance – are you eligible for £7,500 compensation?

Just had a phone call from an Indian sounding gent called Harry Connor. Actually he wasn’t totally sure what his name was because when I asked him again at the end of the call he said it was Sean Connor (not sure how he spells Sean – could be Shaun or Shawn – sorry). Perhaps he flips between both names without thinking – kind of split personality.

He was calling me about my Payment Protection Insurance and said I was eligible for £7,500 compensation.  It was all above board because he said the Ministry of Justice was behind it.

I like to make sure I’m dealing with reputable folk when being asked about financial stuff so I asked for the name of his company (ukfinancial.com) and their phone number (020 881 907 01). He said they were headquartered in London but had an office in Manchester.

Unfortunately I must have mistyped both the name of the company and the phone number and now not only can I not ring him back but I can’t even track down his website.

Ah well – another opportunity to make a fast buck lost. Never mind. I dare say he or one of his colleagues will call back. They have already called about 6 times.

I realise that the Telephone Preference Service doesn’t work overseas but someone needs to come up with a solution for this problem.

Listen to the phone call by clicking on the image of the phone below:

Image in the video is courtesy of Wikipedia

Categories
Engineer mobile connectivity

3G back up for retail credit card processing and Cadbury Creme Eggs

Creme Egg photos courtesy of Cadbury - yum yumJust had a pot of tea at the St Pancras Renaissance 5star hotel – as you do. It’s my home from home in St Pancras. When it came to paying their credit card machines weren’t working – internet was down. They had to resort to the old fashioned paper imprint machine. I think retailers pay more commission for manual transactions because they are more prone to fraud. Not ideal but at least they were able to take my payment I guess.

They need a 3G back up service for their credit car processing system. Would save a lot of hassle and probably pay for itself in reduced fees – have you seen the price of a cuppa there?

Last weekend I was turned away from the Shell Garage on Burton Road in Lincoln. They were only doing cash sales as guess what – their credit card system wasn’t working. They didn’t actually turn me away – I took that decision myself. Sometimes these decisions are easy.

Credit card swipe systems these days either use ISDN or broadband connectivity. Had the Shell garage had a 3G backup it would have saved them a lot of cash. I don’t know the sums but if for the sake of argument the average tankful was £80, 10 lanes and 5 minutes per fill-up then that works out at nearly ten grand an hour plus all the Cadbury Creme Egg sales that generate the real gross margin.

Watch this space.

See ya.

PS I like Cadbury Creme Eggs – just sayin’