Well, the short answer is I’ve just been busy!

Media Wow

Since I started at Media Wow, I’ve been busy there with a few projects. The biggest of which, our first “proper” web site build, is nearing completion and we’re excited to be launching it next Thursday. It’s one we’ve built from the ground up using WordPress, a custom design, some neat integration and we’re going to be hosting it on our in-house hosting platform we’ve set up with VPS.NET.

As soon as that’s done, we’re starting on eight web site builds for our biggest client. Whilst they’re certainly not sexy brands, they’re going to be fun to build, and it’s going to be nice to bring some brand consistency to the group.

Invision Power Services

Outside of that, I’ve also officially joined the Invision Power Services team, to help out on a part time basis. A lot of you will know that I’ve been working with IPS on and off for several years, with everything ranging from support, to skin design, to SEO. I’m very excited to be helping them in a more official role, and have already been pretty busy. Some of what I have been doing includes:

Search Engine Optimisation

I started out a few months ago helping to improve the search-friendliness of the IP.Board product, and we made some huge improvements for version 3.1, which was released last week.

I’m also now helping with optimising the Invision Power Services company web site. We’re aiming initially and primarily to target the term “forum software” (shameless linking, I know) and it is going remarkably well. In less than two months we’ve gone from not ranking at all in the first 150 positions to, as of the time of this post, position fifteen! We’ve even had brief stints in position five. Obviously this is a work in progress, and we’d naturally love to see ourselves hit position one.

Mobile Skin

Rikki did a great job designing the first iteration of the mobile skin for IP.Board 3.1. It was a vast improvement from previous light skins used for this purpose, but we decided that we wanted to target modern smart phones and give them a truly mobile experience. So Josh set to work on a native iPhone application, and I started to build upon Rikki’s mobile skin.

We’ve made it feel like a more native app, by replacing most of the links with touch-friendly buttons, making entire rows clickable instead of just the links within them, adding a loading indicator to give the impression it’s not simply a web page. These simple things have been very well received by regular users, and when coupled with the iPhone application, it looks and feels great.

Affiliate Banners

I noticed some time ago that a lot of the people in the affiliate pilot program are either using text links, or banners they have designed themselves. We’d never offered affiliates an official set of graphics to use on their sites and as a result, I felt we were missing the mark. So, I set out to create some official ones and they seem to have been very well received.

Support

Whilst this is not part of my role, since the release of IP.Board 3.1, I’ve even been helping out with support whenever I can. The sheer number of queries has been phenomenal, but the support team have been doing a truly amazing job at keeping up!

Outside Work

Guess what? My car broke again! This time, however, it needs an entirely new engine. I went through quite a bit of stress with Evans Halshaw trying to arrange for this work to be done on warranty, but thanks once more go to Ian McCandlish at Pendragon PLC for ensuring that the full cost of a new engine (£2,800~) was covered by my warranty, even if that did mean voiding the warranty going forward.

I also bought a red Rover 220 SDI as a temporary replacement car, which lasted me a week before an oil leak brought it to its knees. That car is now stuck at work until I’m brave enough to try and move it home, or I call the RAC to collect it. I’m going to try and sell it for spares or something, otherwise it’ll be a scrap job. It’s a bit of a shame, because the car itself is in good shape, it just seems a bit pointless trying to repair it now.

So, much to Charles Warner’s amusement, I’m spending a huge amount of time on trains back and forth to Durham, Manchester, and today, Denbigh in Wales. I’m almost starting to enjoy it, as it gives me a chance to think about things, write blog posts, make banners, etc.

My alternator broke, completely, at 6AM one morning driving back from Durham. When I bought the car, I was told it came with breakdown cover which I thought was with the RAC, so I called them, to find they had no record of me or my car. Same result with the AA. So I had to sign up to the RAC at a cost of £130, who came out and got me to a local garage, Fred Henderson Ltd (who were great, by the way!) My car was repaired before lunch time, but it cost me a further £275. As I was assured by the Evans Halshaw salesman that the warranty allowed such claims, I dutifully collected a full invoice with a detailed description of the work done.

I then contacted Evans Halshaw and was told that these kind of claims are not allowed, but that they’d contact the warranty company to “see what they could do.” Some weeks later, I got a definitive “no” response. I requested contact details for the warranty company, but never received a response.

Last week, I got frustrated and sent an email to both the branch manager in Leeds, and to Trevor Finn, the Chief Executive of Pendragon PLC, the company that own Evans Halshaw. I received two very different responses.

The branch manager called me to say that the policies are in place for a reason and that I should have read my documentation properly. As I told him on the phone, that’s all well and good, but when you’re 90 miles away from your warranty documentation in a broken down car in -4 degree cold, at 6am, three hours before Evans Halshaw open, you can’t be expected to follow policies.

Luckily, I was also called by Ian McCandlish, Pendragon PLC’s Divisional Managing Director of Group Finance and Insurance – the man in charge of the warranty division. Ian took a far more sensible and customer friendly approach to dealing with my complaint. Firstly, he read my email – which I’m not convinced the branch manager really did. Secondly, he set the policies aside and dealt with the problem using his own logic and a bit of empathy. Ian explained that there are policies in place, but that the priority is clearly the customer and sometimes you have to think outside of the box when dealing with it.

It’s a real shame I had to take the steps I did, to get the service I should have received in the first place, but Ian has now offered to reimburse the full cost of repair, plus the RAC sign up cost as a good faith gesture, for which I am very appreciative. His attitude may well be enough to convince me to at least consider using Evans Halshaw again in the future.

Pre-Sales Service

When I was looking to buy the car, Jim, my salesman, was incredibly helpful and responsive. He let me test drive a similar model when the one I wanted was in the workshop, and subsequently let me re-test the actual model when it was ready. He answered all the questions I had and we agreed I’d collect it on the Tuesday.

Tuesday came, and I received a call from them, saying that the car wasn’t going to be ready for collection, as they’d forgotten to take the registration document from the previous owner. Not to worry, they said, the documents were in the post and I could collect the car on Thursday. Disgruntled, I called the garage to complain. At this point, they told me that actually, Jim was taking part of his afternoon off to collect the documents instead – so obviously, they were not in the post. Several phone calls asking for updates later, I was told that Jim had collected the documents, but as he wanted to deal with me himself, I’d have to wait until he was back in on Thursday to collect my car.  Note to Evans Halshaw: You’ve already sold me the car, I really don’t care who signs the paperwork with me!

When I arrived at the garage on Thursday, Jim was busy serving another client. As he wanted to help me himself, I waited at an empty sales desk for him. I waited 45 minutes, on my lunch break.

Of course, when I got the car, I was too excited to post a rant about that, so it was merely mentioned as a note in my ‘New car!‘ blog entry.

Post-Sales Service

This is what actually sparked today’s post. About a month ago, my car developed a fairly strong vibration through both the steering wheel and the floor when driving on the motorway, as well as general unusual lightness on the steering. Something I considered to be both fairly serious, and potentially dangerous.

When you buy a car from Evans Halshaw, they sell in a fairly expensive warranty, added as standard to the price. I took this out, as this is the biggest buy I’ve ever made, and their garage is staffed by Vauxhall trained technicians. So I took the Astra in, explained the fault, and left it with them. Two hours later I got a call back to tell me that they’d taken the car out and couldn’t reproduce the problem. They suggested that I should get a four-wheel balance done, but they can’t do them, and they can’t suggest anyone who can. Hardly expert level service.

I’ve just got the car back from Kwik Fit, who within half an hour this morning had diagnosed the problem as being a worn rear tyre, and incorrect balancing on the remaining three. They’ve replaced the tyre and fixed the balancing this morning, and the drive back to work was already showing a massive improvement. The mechanic at Kwik Fit told me that the problem was glaringly obvious, and that in his opinion, Evans Halshaw probably hadn’t even looked at the car. Worrying when you consider the potential risks of a faulty wheel or tyre.

Obviously, none of these things on their own are particularly dire, or particularly offensive. However, when you combine them, it shows an irritating lack of interest in customer satisfaction on the part of Evans Halshaw Vauxhall. Luckily, Kwik-Fit, being totally independent, have a vested interest in making sure I’m back on the road, and that I’ll come back to them next time. I certainly will. Take this post as you will, but I’d be wary of buying another car from Evans Halshaw Leeds, or using their Vauxhall service centre.

After a year and a half driving an eight year old, 1.25ltr, 3-Door Fiesta, the Astra is a huge upgrade… as well as feeling like a huge car. Everything’s just so much more polished, and a lot more modern. I’m going on my first long-distance run in it tomorrow, to Macclesfield, to see Em. Hoping to see what kind of mileage I get from a full tank of diesel, and give the engine a bit of a power test!

• The two front tires are just below the legal limit
• Advisory that the two rear tires are nearing the legal limit
• The front-left wheel is damaged/bent
• Advisory that one of the rear tires has a nail in it
• The left hand rear brake pipe (whatever that is) is corroded
• and, most worryingly, the windscreen wash is EMPTY.

I’m going to get it repaired, of course… I have little choice… but I was wondering, does anyone have any experience with car leasing? Is it cost efficient? Are there always mileage limits?

I do about 20-25,000 miles a year, and would like to rent either something like the new Fiesta, or an Astra Hatchback. If I can do that for the same, or close to the same price I’m paying for my car loan (£144 a month), then I’m almost certainly going to do so.

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