Info and forum posts by 'NoelE'

RE: Chinese GP

Well if you thought Murray was a good commentator, I can understand why you would appreciate Edwards.

I accept that Murray "all he has to do is get round the last bend" was extremely enthusiastic. However this did not make up for his lack of ability.  In the end he became a sort of comic cult personality and I was not not alone pleased when he was finally given the push.  I`m OK with his occasional appearance, but to discover that we have a Murray clone presenting F1 on the beeb has made me seriously reconsider if I should shell out another £10.25 a month to Murdoch, till the end of the season.

I cannot believe that you could possibly think what we have now is better than the Brundle/Coulthard commentary team.

All we have to do now is get through Saturday and Sunday till 5 pm,without some inconsiderate news reader telling us the results of the Bahrain race.

Ho Hum Noel

This item was edited on Friday, 20th April 2012, 10:26

RE: Chinese GP

Thought it was a good race, due mainly to how close the teams are in terms of performance.  Who would have bet on Rosberg winning?

One aspect of the new BBC line up I`m not sure about, is Ben Edwards commentary, mainly the continual nature of it and the style, it sounds more like the climax of the Grand National horse race that the calm and detailed commentary we had last year.  Coulthard has difficulty saying more than a few words, of informed wisdom, before Edwards butts in again, and when he does he`s either repeating what he or Coulthard has already said or injecting more irelevance.

I would vote for a return of Brundel, had he not been pinched by Sky, along with half of the races.

Cheers Noel

This item was edited on Monday, 16th April 2012, 10:39

RE: How long does a bank transfer take from Santander?

Faster Payments have been around since 2008, Santander was a founder member of the scheme. The only difference is that they call it Quick Transfer, perhaps that`s just to make it difficult to be sure exactly what their scheme provides.

I recently used this method to transfer a sum to a Lloyds account holder. The transfer was accepted, but not made, due to it being `a large sum`, however no one was able to tell me exactly what a `large sum` was.

When the money did not arrive in the recipients account, I was told that the money would be credited back into my account and that if I wished to proceed with the transfer, I would have to go to my nearest branch and make a CHAPS transfer and pay a fee of £25.

I later discovered that the Faster Payment limit the Co-op imposes is £60,000, Lloyds is £25,000 and the rest of the banks around £10,000. Santander`s limit, at that time, was £300. I think after my complaint, they have raised this to £1,000. I honestly believe this was, and still is, a cynical way of tricking anyone transferring more than, in my case £300, to have to pay a £25 fee to use the CHAPS system.

The CHAPS transfer was made, but the original amount was not credited back to my account, as promised.  Instead it was transferred to the recipient. Then the fun really began, brick walls were built and I was left trying to get the origional transfer back, which believe me turned out to be extremely difficult.

In the end I wrote to the Anna Botin, the UK CEO and asked for her help. Of course she didn`t respond, but a very helpful member of her executive complaints team did and eventually sorted it out., although I still don`t know if they ever got the second payment back from the recipient.

As a general comment, Santander is fine, providing that is nothing goes wrong. If it does you left are at the mercy of the worst customer support department in the UK. A recent `Which` survey found that 61% of Santander`s customers are extremely dissatisfied with the service they receive, compare this to 11% who are dissatisfied with the service they receive from 1st Direct.

If you need confirmation of just how bad Santander is, just put `poor santander customer service` into Google and read Anna`s apology and the reports from Which, Moneywise, Totalmoney, Moneysaving expert, Thisismoney, The Guardian, BBC Watchdog etc.

During her grilling by the Government`s Treasury Select Committee earlier this year, Anna Botin admitted there was much do do and promised that improvements will be made, However I`m certain that most, who have tried to resolve a problem by contacting customer services, will agree that there doesn`t appear to be any improvement.

In fact rather than improve, they have now imposed a 10p/min 0844 number, no doubt to extract even more money from their customers, while they negotiate the repeated `choose an option` and `music on hold`, for what seems like an eternity nightmare

Sorry if the frustration`s peeking through.

Noel

Philips DVDR70 regional hack

8)
Hi all. Having read the Philips DVDR70 threads, and the Philips 750 hack page I decided to have a go. I must admit to not finding the information as straightforward as it could have been, but in the end I succeeded in accomplishing the task, and thought that perhaps others might benefit from what I learnt.

There are two ways of doing this; one is to use the supplied remote, but as it is well reported that this only allows 25 changes therefore I decided to use the One-For-All remote method. The steps I used are listed below:

1. Switch on the unit using the supplied remote, and with no disk installed open the Systems menu, go to the bottom of the 'User Preferences bar to 'Remote control Settings' (it is not visible you have to scroll down), switch the remote setting from the default Record Mode to Player Mode.
2. First a word about AIO remotes, not all remotes will have the code installed to enable them to control the DVDR70. For £10 OFA will upgrade some older controllers, but as you can get a suitable controller from Argos (item 535/1974) at the moment for £14.75 it's not really worth it.
3. Using the One-For-All remote first set it to control the DVD. To do this press the DVD button, the light will flash, press the 'Magic' button and hold until the light flashes twice, enter 0539 and the light will flash twice. You can check to see if the remote is correctly set by putting the DVDR into standby, and then on again.
4. If this is ok pres 'magic' and then 085 (don't hold down the 'magic' button until the light flashes twice)
5. Enter 121-212-005-255 (you will not be able to see all of the numbers on the display but that's ok) then press the 'Play' button the display will show 'No disk'
6. Using the remote, switch of the DVDR wait a few seconds and then power it up again.
7. Using the supplied remote reset the Remote Setting back to the default record mode, as in (1)
8. Insert a region 1 disk (that's all I had) and hey presto the region warning message is gone and the disk plays perfectly.
9. Take the OFA back to Argos (I didn't say that)

Incidentally as far as I can see the only need for the OFA is to be able to press the 'Magic' button before '085' everything else can be done using the supplied remote.

Good luck Noel

This item was edited on Wednesday, 10th December 2003, 14:34