I’d heard good things about the HTC Hero for some time, and interested in the Android platform I decided to switch from Vodafone and avail of the HTC hero with Meteor.

My first impressions were that I loved the phone. I loved the ease of use, I loved the logical layouts, the ability to get into the settings and easily customise.  The ability to set different ‘desktops’ was a huge bonus.  I could hide away my work-related apps at the weekend.  I thought that this phone and myself were going to get along famously.

The day after I bought it, I woke up to find that I had no service and it was operating on emergency only calls.  After turning it on and off a couple of times didn’t resolve the issue, I phoned customer service.  They informed me that the sale hadn’t being ‘closed properly in the system’ and that I should turn it off and on again, after they had ‘closed’ the sale on their system.  This worked, issue resolved.

Or so I thought.  A week later, the same thing happened.  A few days in a row.  So I gathered the bits and pieces and headed into the Meteor store in the Crescent Shopping Centre in Limerick and spoke to the manager, Laura.  Laura herself owns a HTC Hero and told me that it had happened to her phone at the start but the issue had been caused by the SIM card being slightly loose.  Once she had reinserted her SIM card she hadn’t had the problem again.  So Laura removed my SIM card and reinserted it.  She also told me that if that didn’t resolve the issue to come back in and they would exchange the phone.   If she wasn’t there at the time, I was to mention that I had spoken to her and that it was a flagged issue and I was to get the phone exchanged.

So far so good in terms of customer service.  Unfortunately a couple of weeks later the same issue started happening again.  So, today I took my HTC Hero back to Meteor in the Crescent.  Where I was told I was outside the 28 days and the phone couldn’t be exchanged.  I duly explained that it was a flagged issue and that I had spoken to Laura.  I was again told that I was outside the 28 days, and I explained that I had initially come back within 28 days of buying it and that the ‘fix’ that time had not resolved the issue.  I asked them to phone Laura who was working in another store at the time.  Laura agreed that I was outside the 28 days and therefore the only thing they could do was send the phone off to be fixed.

I refused.  The phone hasn’t worked properly from the start.  So another Manager called Kate was phoned.  Kate couldn’t do anything for me either.  So apparently an area manager has to get involved, Ellen.  Ellen is on leave at the moment and won’t be back until “Tuesday or Wednesday”. At which point I will have to make my 3rd visit to the Meteor store in the Crescent.

And in the meantime, I find myself falling out of love with the HTC Hero.  With it’s sluggish start up (my PC loads faster) with it’s poor opening times for apps, with it’s loose SIM issue.  I am beginning to wonder if this was all a mid-life crisis.  Perhaps I should abandon my fling and return chastened to Vodafone and the iPhone.

I will suffer no guilt issues cancelling my direct debit with Meteor, and letting them loose time and money chasing me for a change.

*** UPDATE:  Apparently this is a known dropped service issue with the HTC Hero on the Meteor network.  It is not a handset issue, despite what Meteor tell customers.  I suggest you do not touch this phone on Meteor until the issue is fully resolved.  See this boards thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055851942

Having a browse for a Gaggia Classic Espresso Machine this morning I wanted to see if I could beat the price I found on Amazon.co.uk.  A quick look in Google showed me that Bewleys were advertising in Google Adwords “Gaggia Espresso Machine”.  However, clicking on the advert brings users to a page where they can sign up to the Bewleys online club.  No sign of Gaggia or any other coffee makers for sale.  So I navigated to the Bewleys shop at buy4now.ie and found that there were indeed coffee makers, but nothing by Gaggia.

So I am annoyed after a pointless diversion and Bewleys have paid for an irrelevant visitor who is not going to make a purchase.  Who is running Bewley’s Adwords campaign?

On Saturday morning I decided to head into the city centre with my daughter to do a few bits and pieces and sit down and have a coffee / hot chocolate together.  We had a lovely morning, enjoyed the atmosphere, looked at the Christmas display in Brown Thomas and had our few treats in the coffee shop.  We had arrived at 9.40am and were leaving just before 1pm.  I had parked in one of my ‘regular’ car parks – Q Parking at Harvey’s Quay, the one over Dunnes.

I put my parking ticket in the machine and had a fiver in my hand, which is roughly what I usually pay for a few hours parking.  I thought I may have to dig out a couple of coins on top of the fiver, but was not expecting to be asked for €9.20.   So I buzzed down to reception and told them there seemed to be a problem with the ticket machine.  He told me to come down to him and he would sort it out.  When I got there however he explained that that was the price.  That they have introduced a new pricing system.

ME: “You have increased your prices by a large margin in the middle of a recession?”

HIM: “It’s actually cheaper now for short periods.  Our reseach has shown that lots of business users use this carpark and would like the ability to pay by the quarter hour.”

ME: “I don’t know who conducts their business in 15 minutes. It takes 5 mins to get out of this place.  The price has shot up for me and I’m really not happy about it.”

HIM: “Did you not see the prices?”

ME: “No.  They are not displayed at the entrance of the carpark.  They are only displayed at the parking meter.  It’s too late then.”

HIM: “Lots of people are happy with the new pricing.”

ME:  “I find that very hard to believe.”

At this stage a woman gets out of her car at the barrier, waving her ticket and shrieking at him.

WOMAN:  “I’m only here two hours!!”

So just a little warning.  Q Parking now charge per €0.60 per 15 minutes for the first 3 hours, supposedly to accommodated their many business users who are apparently able to conduct their business in a much more timely manner than I can!  Pricing reverts to €2 hourly after the first 3 hours.  Cornmarket Square charges a more reasonable €1.50 per hour.

In April, Limerick City Council orchestrated a major push to encourage people back into the city centre shops.  This was widely supported by the local radio and print media. It is a well known fact that Limerick City parking prices and availability are strangling city retail at the moment.  When the price that car parks charge affects footfall in the city it is time for Limerick City Council to intervene on a more longterm and meaningful basis.