A few days ago I was on my way to work and on my doorstep was a little parcel. I took a look at it and saw it was from O2 and was addressed to me. I thought bet this is going to be something useless. On the back it said "Just Become"... hmm very curious.

So I open it up and side was a bard of Green & Black Organic milk chocolate. Nice! Pretty cool I thought. Underneth was a little booklet about what O2 customers get. Off the top of my head it was about O2 academy's and priority booking. Below that, on the card below is had written "Because your with O2. Because we wanted to say thanks. Because everyone loves chocolate".

The reason for it as I can see is probably because I've about 5-6months left on my iPhone contract and very recently O2 lost their exclusivity. Whatever the I have to say it's very nice of O2. Not many companies do that. It's a small gesture that makes you remember them, tell your friends and blog about. And when I choose my new phone and network if price and services are equal on 2 or more networks  I'll be going with O2. 

Thanks O2.

P.S. The cost of a beer at the O2 in Birmingham is a bit much!

I got email a few days ago saying that my uncle wanted to send me some trainers that he was sent. I had no idea what they were going to be. Today I got them and they are a new pair of New Vans Mastodon Blood Mountain sk8 shoes.  I think they are pretty cool. Here's a picture.

Like many millions of people around the world I have been eagerly awaiting Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Unfortunately I've been a little broke recently but that's another story and hadn't pre-ordered it. So on the 5th November I was quite happy to see an email with the subject "Play.com: Guaranteed Delivery - Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2". I was wary about ordering online because the release date was the 10th and there was a weekend in between. What the email said as the guarantee was "PLAY will dispatch your order in time to be delivered on release day. Delivery is subject to our delivery partners achieving standard delivery guarantees. PLAY take no responsibility for late delivery due to card failure, incorrect address details or failure on the part of the delivery partner". With the condition that I had to order before midnight on Sunday the 8th it seemed fair and having ordered so many things with Play.com with the only one previous mistake (wrong item - 1 out of 56 orders) I felt I'd get it on time.

Failure 1: Didn't arrive on lunch day - failed on a guarantee

I ordered Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Hardened Edition and on launch day I waited for it to be delivered to my work. It didn't come. I was pretty angry. Checking my email I see that at about 3:30pm that day they had dispatched it. That was NOT in time for delivery on release day. So as you do I rang them. This less than helpful operator answered and I told her my plight. She claimed the conditions were that they would "try" to dispatch in time. She hadn't a clue or any understanding of the word guarantee. I gave up on her and in my frustration went to buy it from Sainsbury's for £26 (btw... BARGIN!). Didn't really want to have two copies so I sold it to my mate.

Failure 2: The wrong edition

2 days after launch I got a parcel. It was Call of Duty Modern Warfare... STANDARD EDITION. Arghhh!

Failure 3: Not answering emails

Knowing how useless their phone support is I sent an email. It wasn't just any email. It was one of those emails where you get down in words EXACTLY what you want to say. As I type it's been 6 days with no reply.

So come Monday evening, it had been 4 days without a reply. I rang them again and once again I got a useless operator who wouldn't/claimed there was no supervisors around. After 20mins I gave up with her, hung up (politely) and rang again in hope getting a more helpful person. I didn't. For 15mins I was asking to speak to a supervisor, to be called back (she said that wasn't possible) and for her to get a supervisor out of a "meeting". I doubt there was a meeting but kinda hope there was. I did finally get someone claiming to be a supervisor who SOUNDED very helpful. We agreed that the Hardened Edition will be dispatched within 24 hours of the phone call and that he would get customercare@play.com to respond to my email.

Failure 4: Didn't dispatch in time, again & no reply to email

Surprise!!! Didn't happen. The "supervisor" had broken another promise. Again I ring then up to complain. This time all the person on the other end of the phone would do is get a supervisor to call my back in the morning. Weird how he said that and the day before I wasn't told it wasn't possible. I did really doubt that but as always all I could do was wait.

Failure 5: Didn't call back.

So this where we currently stand. I didn't get a call back from a supervisor to sort this out. I did however get 2 emails. First saying I had returned Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Hard Editions... obviously impossible as I hadn't received it. The second was a new gift voucher for the one I had used in the order. So they refunded me when I just wanted the correct item and had agreed over the phone that would happen. So tonight I made sure it was canceled and tomorrow morning I'll be ordering the Prestige Edition from HMV. I deserve those night vision goggles for all this rubbish treatment from Play.com.

This hasn't ended. I'm very pissed off with Play and I'm waiting for them to reply to my email.

Update 20th November: HMV rock! I get the prestige edition within 24 hours of ordering it. Nice job HMV!

Update 25th November: Still no word from customercare@play.com so I'm forwarding my original email and a link to this post.

Update 2nd December: On Friday, 27th November I received a call from some guy at Play. He was trying to explain what happened and how the game was send in time for delivery (still doubting that).  He admitted the service I have received was very bad. Anyway, after a long conversation he said I could keep the wrong version. He also said he'd email me his email address so that I can help him track down the previous phone conversations to help improve their servers, detail any expenses (there was none because of freecalls to 0845 number on BT but a nice offer) and so that I can email him direct if I had any other problems. I didn't get that email!

I put the spare copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on Play Trade. I only used them because I had some Play Trade funds left I wanted to use up. Anyway I got about £29 for it after fees and postage. Funnily enough that's more than Sainsbury's were selling it for (£26) on release day. So £29 for all the trouble? I think that's alright really but what would have happened if I had sent it back? That's not the case so never mind. Well the problem has almost paid for two Christmas presents. I also ordered a My Name is Earl t-shirt for myself  with some of the other Play Trade funds I had previously. Let's see if they deliver.

I will keep this post updated...

On Friday night I finished work early and got the train to Birmingham to see Funeral for a Friend and Fightstar at the O2 Academy as part of the Vans Off The Wall night. It was back in April I was last at the Birmingham Academy when I saw Papa Roach and since it as moved to a new location. It looks good on the outside and the inside is pretty nice too. There's 3 stages. The main stage which  is larger than the average venue (not including the big areanas), 2nd stage and the 3rd stage which is about size of a stage you find in a pub. The venue as a whole was ok but the sound in the main room didn't fill the room enough and having seen Fighstar 4 times and Funeral for a Friend 3 times it wasn't them! Oh and the price of a pint of Carling was a lot! £3.60! That's more than at Download and Sonisphere and they are festivals! The worset thing about the price is Carling tastes like piss.

Anyway there were load of bands playing but I can't remember the ones on the 2nd and 3rd stages. On the main stage was Attack! Attack!, Kids in Glass Houses, Fightstar and Funeral for a Friend. Didn't seem much of Attack! Attack! but they sounded alright. Kids in Glass Houses didn't do anything for me. The only reason I went was for Fightstar and Funeral for a Friend.

Fightstar are one of my favourite bands and I've seen them 5 times now. Unfortunately, the lead singer Charlie Simpson had a throat infection and so really couldn't perform at his best. Which is a real shame because his voice is awesome. He solidered on. Because of his throat the set was a little softer than the usual (they didn't play Deathcar) and he missed out quite a few lines but we, the crowd did what we could. I say Fighstar do have great fans. The music was, as always, bang on. Omar Abidi was playing his ass off on the drums. The bassist, Dan Haigh, seemed to take a bigger roll interacting with the crowd than normal. Alex Westaway was also doing a fine job. So to sum up Fightstar there were great if not slightly disppointing but rest assured I will be seeing them again. My Fightstar videos are on YouTube.

The task of closing the gig was upto Funeral for a Friend and they did it nicely. They were on top form. The start was a bit stupid as they had some guy in a banana suit come out singing a song... can't think what it was. After that it was great start to finish. They didn't play anything from Memory and Humanity which is a good thing as it wasn't their best. I think they played only 2 songs that weren't on their first 2 albums or early EPs. Into Oblivion is always great live, it's so up beat and just has such a great feeling to it. Others songs they played included my favourite Rose for the Dead. Can't really say any else than they were quality and here are my Funeral for a Friend videos. 

Overall a great night. Which ended at MacDonald's with a drive-through orchestra (about 10 cars randomly pressing their car horns), was pretty fun.