Everyone who is running some sort of business has a website don't they? Well I don't, but I am not sure you could describe my activities as a 'business'.
Assuming that everyone does, the person who entered me in the directory of services for the magazine in which I placed the advert just made one up for me from their impoverished imagination. All they did was place 'www.' in front of the email address I had already given them. In the unlikely event that anyone actually does go looking for photographs of past work they will be met with a white screen and the words page not found in the top left-hand corner. That should boost their confidence. Thanks a lot.
The next thing was when the phone rang and I uncharacteristically fell for a scam which involved me paying £60 for an identical advert in what I was allowed to believe was 'Beautiful Homes' magazine with 40,000 readers (strangely identical to the real magazine), but turned out (after I had paid) to be the classic scam of an 'online publication' which - if it ever is published - will have a readership of one. Me. I am currently trying to get my money back and get the company closed down. I feel so foolish - and angry.
Just before this we received a notification that we were in arrears on our electricity bill by almost £500. I called a combative worker for the company (British Gas) who was obviously highly trained in fending off any reasonable enquiries as to why the caller's electricity consumption has doubled over a six month period, and got nowhere. I thought it odd at the time that I did not get the usual warning that calls may be recorded for training purposes.
I remember a time when any company which had the prefix 'British' in its title could be trusted with money, no matter how inept their service turned out to be. Incidences of fraud would always be one bad apple in a very big barrel. Now, NOBODY at all can be trusted. This country really and truly is falling apart.
As each day passes I am more inclined to vote for Marxist Corbyn in the next general election. At least you cannot be targeted by internet fraudsters during power-cuts.
Oh dear oh dear.
ReplyDeleteWhat? No hugs?
DeleteIt’s not just this country .... it’s everywhere. I still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and it’s funny how everyone wants to come and live here...... we must be doing something right ...... positive mental attitude will see us through..... it will all come out in the wash. I’m probably fooling myself but I’m happy. . XXXX
ReplyDeleteIt has never been so rife in the UK. It's all to do with the internet, of course. It is as easy to hide things as it is to find things.
DeleteI receive about 10 scam calls a day. So many in fact that I now rarely answer the phone. Just two days ago I shouted 'F*ck the hell off' when I answered one such call; it was a very good friend of Lady M's.
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish I had been there to witness that.
DeleteI still love Blighty warts n all.
ReplyDeleteSo do I. I just don't like what is being done to it. I thought my life would become a little easier in old age. What a mug I am. We are being shafted at every turn.
DeleteSometimes I wish I could live in a darkened cave Tom - I rarely answer the telephone and then only if my screen tells me who is ringing.
ReplyDeleteI would like to live in a light and airy cave Weave.
DeleteYes, I could hardly believe it when you told us of that the magazine made up a webpage for you. Ray Charles can see that this could raise questions with a potential client. Yet, they don’t seem to have that much common sense and, possibly, even think that they did you a favor.
ReplyDeleteOn a positive note: you did not wire £5000 to a Nigerian prince who is going to swoop you up in his arms as soon as your money helps him out of whatever tiny spot of trouble he is in. At least I don’t think you did.
No, I am not doing business with Nigerians at the moment.
DeleteWhy is there an H on the top of that barrel?
ReplyDeleteI really don't know. I have about a hundred of these high quality images which date from the 1600s and most of them mean something arcane which I do not understand.
DeleteYou know what that barrel made me think of? George Plantaganet and the legend that he chose to be executed by being drowned in a barrel of malmsey wine. What a way to go, huh?
ReplyDelete(I've been on a Plantaganet/York/Tudor reading binge lately).
Did he actually choose that? Maybe it was the best out of a lot of other methods.
DeleteSo, they say that he was spared a public execution and allowed to chose because he was brother to the king. (He was charged with treason against the king). And he chose that method out of spite....first because his brother would have to pay for his last drink (!!) and also because he hated his brother's wife, the queen, and he wanted to put her off her favorite wine. It was all one last "fuck you" to them all. I like it.
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DeleteI like it too. Stylish.
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