Adam Taylor » Ramblings

Current Geek Reading List

Adam — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:10:27 +0000

I got an Amazon delivery today of some new books to add to my pile I’m working my way through. I am currently reading:

Extreme Programming Explained – I’m project managing a group of 2nd year computer scientists and am using some of the principles from XP in my approach. Mostly just the iterative style of development. Pivitol Tracker is a great help with this – a really simple, light weight agile management tool.

Waltzing with Bears – This came today and is all about risk management, it’s a recommended book for a risk management sub-module I’m taking.

Domain Driven Design – This also came today. I bought it after watching a Windy City Rails video about UI Design where it was highly recommended.

The Web Startup Success Guide – Had this for a little while now but I haven’t read too much of it yet. Hoping it will inspire me to make $$$$$$$ via the internet, we shall see!

I also feel I should try and re-read The Mythical Man Month as it is a collection of classic software engineering essays but I found pretty dry the first time round.

Project Management for Adults – Why bother with Risk Managament?

Name servers updated, 301 redirects in place…

Adam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:43:28 +0000

Just a quick update to say that the conversion-matters.co.uk name servers have been updated to point here and 301 redirects are in place to hopefully redirect content from the old blog to here.

Any wonkyness, leave a comment.

Also, I’ve redirect /feed to the new feedburner feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/adamjctaylor/asdf, so if you subscribed in the last couple of days I may now have broken it for you, sorry!

On with the new blog…!

The Terrible Tale of Tiscali Trauma

Adam — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:13:42 +0000

My girlfriend is at her wits end with Tiscali. They over charged her when she first set up her account with her and have been completely useless in sorting it out. Multiple people have said they would refund her, or she would be credited and she hasn’t been at all. It is completely unacceptable behaviour.

How can such a big company get away with such blatent “not-giving-a-shitness”? It’s a total joke.

They owe her a tiny amount of money compared to how much they must make yet they can’t even keep one customer happy. They also have the worst customer support system. No one seems to keep track at Tiscali’s end of what’s going on. Do they not have a centralised ticketing system?

The following is a copy of the back and forth between my girlfriend and Tiscali to highlight the uselessness of Tiscali:

Original message: Laura -> Tiscali

Hi, On receiving my last bill, in November, I realised there was £30 tv installation fee that I had never been told about charged to my account.
I called the billing advice line and they told me, that since I had paid phone/broadband installation of £30 previously, this was a mistake and would be creditted to my account this month.

I see it has not been as I have another bill, when I would expect there to be enough credit in the account to cover this…

I want this done immediately, not next month as I was told last time.

I have been nothing but messed about by your company, and everytime I have called, it seems like no one is doing what they say they will. My broadband installation was late due to the order aparently not being processed; I spent hours on hold to your customer services only to be passed from one person to another- none of which knew what was going on, only to be billed for the calls; then this £30 bill I had to pay when i was never informed about it- then never refunded when told it would be.
Overall very unhappy, and if you could do this one thing before the bill goes out, it would be appreciated.

Laura

Initial response from Tiscali -> Laura:

Dear deleted,

Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted.

Following our phone conversation regarding the additional TV setup fee of £30, I have escalated a request to our Billing Department to investigate this matter. If they approve, your account will be refunded by £30 which will go towards the direct debit at the start of January. The reference number for this request is deleted.

In the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. If you have a query on this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Derek
Tiscali Customer Relations

Then Laura neither heard anything or received a refund so another email was sent:

Hi,

Was expecting further information by now re progress of this?

The bill is supposed to be going out of my account on the 7th January, and so far show no sign of being creditted.

Could you let me know what is happening asap.

Thanks

Laura

Tiscali then tried to claim they had already refunded her when in fact they hadn’t:

Dear Laura Sleightholme,

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

I apologise for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.

Upon checking your query, I can confirm that we already credited your account £30.00 (inclusive of VAT) on 29 December 2008. Please check your bank to verify this.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team on 0871 222 3311 option 2. Lines are open 8am to midnight 7 days a week. Calls will be charged at 10p a minute from a BT landline. Charges from other telephone providers may vary. Calls from a Tiscali Talk landline will be charged at the lower rate of 5p a minute.

Alternatively, you can contact us through our website at www.tiscali.co.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Anna
General Correspondence Team

They hadn’t refunded so back Laura emailed again:

I can confirm that I definately HAVE NOT received this- neither in my bank account or as credit to my ticscali account (as expected) and have just paid another bill to yourselves.

Please sort this problem out asap.

Thank you

Laura

They then told her the credit would be applied:

Dear Miss Laura Sleightholme

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

Your concern regarding your refund request has already been forwarded to the Finance Department. A credit memo of £30 will be applied on your account. We are unable at this stage to advise you of the time frame involved. Please bear with us until then.

If you have any further queries, please contact us.

Alternatively you can visit our comprehensive online Broadband Knowledge Base at http://www.tiscali.co.uk/help

Yours Sincerely,

Sanje
General Correspondence Team

Surprise, surprise they didn’t refund her:

Thank you for getting this somewhere- but in terms of timescale, I was promised that this would be creditted to my account before the bill went out on the 7th January. This didn’t happen, and I have no idea when I may be getting the refund. This is not satisfactory, and I am very unhappy with this.

If you could let me know asap when the money will be creditted.

Thank You

Laura

They then changed tone slightly and decided they would refund her minus the VAT, which seemed rather odd:

Dear Laura Sleightholme,

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

As per our records, the refund of £26.09, inclusive of VAT, has been applied on your account today.

We trust this now clarifies the matter. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team on 0871 222 3311 option 2. Lines are open 8am to midnight 7 days a week. Calls will be charged at 10p a minute from a BT landline. Charges from other telephone providers may vary. Calls from a Tiscali Talk landline will be charged at the lower rate of 5p a minute.

Alternatively you can contact us through our website at www.tiscali.co.uk.

Yours Sincerely,

Joy
General Correspondence Team

They didn’t refund her, they still haven’t refunded her, and frankly she has no idea what to do to make them refund her. This was the last email sent:

This is ridiculous. I have replied to this email twice; the first time I never received a reply at all, and the second, got a generic response saying check the website. This is completely unacceptable.

I want to know why I am not receieving the full £30 refund- I understand it is a VAT charge, but as you are returning the money, this should be refunded too. I was told previously I would be creditted by £30, now I’m being told I will only receive £26.09. I don’t see why when I paid £30, I shouldn’t get that back.

Also, where is this money being creditted to?? I assumed my tiscali account, but I have just looked and I have another bill to pay in Feb- therefore it has definately not been creditted.

Please could this be forwarded to management. I am very unhappy with this service. I have been messed around, told I have been refunded when I haven’t, then told I will be by £30, now only by £26.09, yet I can’t see any money from you anywhere.

I could not be more angry about this, the service with you from start to finish has been terrible. Not one thing has been done right, and every person I speak to/email says something completely different to the one before. I want a contact name, and want this sorted. I have wasted a huge amount of time and money emailing and phoning you, and this is especially not appreciated over the christmas period. If I could cancel the contract, I would do. Immediately.

Please sort this out asap.

Laura

Even before this particular problem Tiscali took a couple of weeks longer than they had said they would to install everything which left her house internetless, which is pretty traumatic for facebook-addicted students!

Moral of the story: if you sign up with Tiscali, which admittedly is pretty cheap, and the TV package is quite cool, pray to god you don’t have any problems or have to get in touch with customer support because they are truly useless.

I doubt this post will help speed up any refund but it may just help other potential customers make a more informed decision before wasting their time and money with Tiscali.

No related posts.

Who Is Justine Ezarek?

Adam — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:20:10 +0000

Disclaimer: Regular readers (do I have any?) may ignore this; I think you know what I’m doing..

Actually she’s no one.. Sorry to dissapoint.

You have just misspelt Justine Ezarik.

Who is Justine Ezarik?

She is often known as iJustine I believe?Â She is a life blogger/vlogger or something..

I don’t really know.. She’s someone for geeks to drool over as far as I can tell.

She’s is pretty hot I guess, so drool away..

I hope this was more useful than my twitter rant (I actually really like Twitter now by the way).

No related posts.

Stop Fucking Comment Spamming Me!

Adam — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:34:21 +0000

Please.Â I’m trying to travel around Europe not moderate comments!

No related posts.

Do not try and edit a post as Google Bot..

Adam — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:52:43 +0000

It really fucks up the writing editor.Â I wondered what was going on just now…

No related posts.

500 Ways To Find Adam Taylor

Adam — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:05:55 +0000

Inspired by a post over here I present 500 keywords people have used to find this site for your general amusement and amazement!

adam taylor
setting up a blog
conversation matters
harry potter porn
adding google analytics tracking to 1shoppingcart
the big social media marketing myth
1shoppingcart google analytics
google analytics tutorial
conversion matters
google ecommerce

setting up google analytics
facebook dying
google analytics 1shoppingcart
google analytics ecommerce tracking
tesco compare
checkout conversion rates
google ecommerce tracking
seo trends
tesco compare advert
google analytics utm:t
harrypotterxxx
harrypotterxxx.com
adam taylor facebook
beginners guide to making money online
facebook is dying
google analytics howto

http://www.shepetivka.org.ua

is facebook dying
setting up blog
starting a search engine
harry potter porn”"
analytics _udn site
exclude social media filter
google analytics e-commerce tutorial
google analytics ecommerce
google analytics ecommerce tutorial
google e-commerce tracking
relative vs absolute links
tesco price comparison advert
adam taylor”"
checkout conversion rate
google analytics filter domain
google analytics filter tutorial
google analytics filters tutorial
make money online beginners
make money online guide
the hottest seo trends
what kind of lingerie are you?
comparison adverts
ecommerce tracking
ecommerce tracking google analytics
ecommerce tutorial
google analytics and 1shoppingcart
google analytics ecommerce conversion
google analytics ecommerce tracking tutorial
google analytics ip filter
tesco adverts
google analytics”" 1shoppingcart
social media marketing”"
1shoppingcart analytics
captology
conversion rate checkout
e-commerce tracking
ecommerce conversion rate
exclude all traffic from a domain
facebook dying?
facebook status updates
filter ip in google analytics
google analytics conversion code
google analytics conversion tutorial
google analytics e-commerce tracking
google analytics funnel_g1
google analytics track conversion
google analytics tutorial ecommerce
how to compare adverts
improve checkout
online checkout process
optimising blogger
people getting bored and dying
potter porn
setting up a blog to improve seo
setting up a blogspot
social media marketing
tesco price compare advert
urchin analytics tutorial
using google analytics with 1shoppingcart
what kind of lingerie are you
the hottest seo trends”"
three layers of so what”"
three layers of so what”" test
what kind of lingerie are you”"
what kind of lingerie are you?”"
10 killer tips for search engine optimization
12 week marketing plan
1shopping google analytics
1shoppingcart google
1shoppingcart thank you page variables
1shoppingcart utm
26 week plan
absolute links
advanced google analytics tagging
advantage of relative links
analytics “”exclude all traffic from a domain”"
analytics e-commerce howto
analytics e-commerce tracking
analytics e-commerce tutorial
analytics filters
beginners guide to affiliate marketing
beginners guide to making money
benefit of relative link
blogspot optimising
can’t get google analytics to work
check google analytics filter domains
checkout processes
compare adverts
comparison advert
conversion analytics website 1shoppingcart
custom domain blogger 123reg
data analytics tutorial
david vielmetter
ebook domaining
ecommerce google anayltics
ecommerce tracking code on google
ecommerce tracking not working
example google analytics e-commerce tracking
exclude domain google analytics
facebook dying out
filter ip analytics
filter ip google analytics
filter out ip google analytics
filtering in marketing analytics
filtering ips from google analytics
get the conversion script in analytics
google add ons
google analytic tutorial
google analytics – ecommerce tracking
google analytics _udn=”"none”";
google analytics campaign howto
google analytics conversion
google analytics e-commerce value
google analytics ecommerce conversions
google analytics ecommerce not working
google analytics ecommerce variables
google analytics exclude all traffic from a domain
google analytics exclude all traffic from domain
google analytics exclude domain filter
google analytics exclude subdomain
google analytics filter
google analytics filter domains
google analytics filter example
google analytics filter ip
google analytics filters
google analytics on 1shoppingcart
google analytics paypal conversion
google analytics security risk
google analytics tracking code tutorials
google analytics tutorial conversion
google block you website
google conversion tutorial
google old ecommerce tracking
guide to making money
harry potter nude porn
how do i set up ecommerce tracking in google analytics
how to filter google
how to filtering out ip addresses in google analytics
how to make money online guide
how to track conversion

http://thestreetbuzz.com

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1000390-13-year-old-steals-dads-credit-card-to-buy-hookers.htm

is facebook dying?
link:http://www.seductiontuition.com/david-deangelo/ -site:seductiontuition.com
live messenger addons
make money blog
make money online beginner
make money online for beginners
money making tips
optimise blogger page rank
optimising blogspot blog for seo
pagetracker._additem not working
pagetracker._addtrans pagetracker._trackpageview()
perl
query-cache-type
relative vs. absolute links
search engine optimization social media marketing job
seo absolute links
set up google analytics
setting up blogger
tesco advert
tesco comparison advert
the complete guide to making money online
toolbar add ons
track domains for different websites in google analytics
tracking ecommerce in analytics
tutorial analytics ecommerce
tutoriel google analytics ecommerce
unwanted data
using google analytics with 1shopping cart
utm:t
123-reg”" +ftp +blogger
absolute links”" html dokument
adam taylor”" itunes
adam taylor”" site:co.uk
adam taylor”" uk
add a contact page”" to my blogger blog
bj wright”" seo
checkout conversion”" rate
david vielmetter”"
designed by adii. sitemap”"
down them all”" directories
down them all”" regexp
down them all”" repository
easypizza”" compare dominos
easypizza”" sucks
filter by domain”" google
google analytics”" “”e-commerce tracking”"
google analytics”" “”e-commerce”"
google analytics”" “”unique user”"
google analytics”" +”"how to”" +utm
google analytics”" and “”how to”"
google analytics”" commerce third
google analytics”" domain filter
google analytics”" domain tutorial
google analytics”" ecommerce 1shoppingcart
google analytics”" ecommerce https
google analytics”" exclude traffic from domain
google analytics”" tutorial
google analytics”"+”"1shopping cart”"
guide to making money online”"
harry potter porn
haven’t posted in a while”"
link baiters”"
mail”" application add-ons
rate for shopping carts”"
relative link”" +benefit
ryota masaki”"
sarah graveling”"
tesco compare”" advert
university of durham”" -duke
want to know more about ppc”"
% who abandon checkout
.net absolute link
11 guide to makeing money
123 reg blogger host
1shopping cart and google analytics
1shopping cart google analytics
1shopping cart script
1shopping cart tutorials
1shopping cart web analytics
1shoppingcart “”google analytics”" ecommerce
1shoppingcart ad ons
1shoppingcart blocked
1shoppingcart conversion
1shoppingcart digital downloads
1shoppingcart form passing variable
1shoppingcart google analytics ecommerce
1shoppingcart google anylitics
1shoppingcart is being blocked
1shoppingcart pass variables
1shoppingcart pass variables through cart
1shoppingcart passing values
1shoppingcart passing variables to your thank you page
1shoppingcart quantity price
1shoppingcart ripoff
1shoppingcart security issue
1shoppingcart sku variable
1shoppingcart thank you url variables
1shoppingcart tracking
1shoppingcart update
1shoppingcart variables
1shoppingcart varibles on thank you page
1shoppingcart with google analytics
1shoppingcart with google tracking
26 week marketing plan reviews
26-week internet marketing
5 top tips for starting your own business
:.co.uk seo & sem

Pimping Myself Out

Adam — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:12:32 +0000

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, feel like saving myself until I have something unique to say, anyway I need a job in July so I thought I’d pimp myself out on my blog for a start.

So briefly:

I spent a year as a ‘Junior Web Developer’ at a UK search conversion agency in London, where I was taught Perl, MySQL, Linux etc.

I’m currently a first year undergraduate student at the University of Durham studying Computer Science where we’re being taught Java, SQL, computer systems and lots of maths.

I’m also interested in analytics, blogging, social media and search engine optimisation.

I can work in either London, Newcaslte/Durham or around the Bath area.

I’m not hugely hopefully about getting a decent job just for a month (especially just through my blog) but we’ll see. It can only be for July because I’m at university until the end of June and then I’m going to go interrailing around Europe in August.

If anyone wants anymore information just drop me an email using the contact form.

Plugins, Addons, Applications, Toolbars That I Couldn’t Live Without!

Adam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:40:01 +0000

Photo Credit.

Every other day there is a post about the top 10 webmaster/SEO/webdeveloper [insert person here] toolbars/addons etc. that people use and it does, admittedly, get a bit boring. However, I thought I’d quickly share with you what I have and why because I actually find them rather useful.

Firefox Addons I couldn’t live without!

I have a few addons which I don’t really use but here are the ones that are actually useful:

Web Development
- Web Developer Toolbar – this has soooo many features that it is an essential toolbar for any webmaster or geek interested in web development. Think it was one of the first firefox addons I installed.
- Firebug – similar to the web developer toolbar this is another one that is really useful for web developers/designers, especially if you do a lot of JavaScript. It is a really powerful tool if you learn to use it properly.
- Cookie Editor – again probably more useful for the web developers out there but never-the-less worthy of a mention. It allows you to quickly edit/delete cookies.
- IE Tab – this is pretty simple. Allows you to render a page as internet explorer would without needing to leave firefox. Really, really useful.
- Live HTTP Headers – allows you to see all the individual header requests, status codes etc. as you load a page. Very useful.
- Colorzilla – so you’ve just setup a new template and are heading off to set up some blended adsense units but have no idea what the colour codes are on the site? Well this handy plugin has an eyedrop whatsit thing that allows you to get the code for any colour on a web page. Great time saver!
SEO
- Search Status – this is quite handy, shows PageRank, Alexa rank and Compete rank as well as allowing you to check a load of things about a page.
- SEO Quake – turn this on to see lots of useful information about a domain/page when searching in Google etc.
- User Agent Switcher – want to see what Googlebot sees? Then use this plugin to easily change your user agent.
Social Media
- Stumpleupon – a social site that’s fun, interesting and a great time waster!
- Del.ico.us – don’t lose that interesting page; tag it with del.icio.us instead.
- Social Media For Firefox – the concept behind this is great: shows you how many times a page has been dugg/stumbled/redd/del.icio.us’d. From my experience, doesn’t appear to be entirely accurate but it should still help with working out what to submit where.
- Twitterfox – this makes keeping up and replying to tweets dead easy, they just popup while your browsing.
Misc.
- Down Them All – ever wanted to download all the .jpgs/.mp3s etc on a page quickly? This addon allows you to do just that. I think it supports regex too!

Web apps/sites I can’t live without!

Facebook – yes some people don’t like it but it’s undoubtedly my most visited website (probably because I’m a student..)
Google Reader – couldn’t live without this, it’s how I keep up to date on all blogs I read.
Twitter – ok so I used to not see the point in Twitter but it’s actually really good for having short conversations, sharing links etc. You’re definitely missing out if you don’t use it.
Stumbleupon and del.icio.us – you may have guessed from the addons above that I really like Stumbleupon and del.icio.us. I use Stumbleupon because I find it interesting and fun and I’m trying to build up more of a power user account there because I feel it’s the social sharing/bookmarking website I enjoy the most and one I actually waste an hour or so a day on! I use del.icio.us because it’s useful to have a central repository of all my bookmarks. I mostly just tag interesting blog posts that I’ve read but will probably forget about.

Applications I couldn’t live without!

There is only really one application I would say I can’t live without and that is: Launchy. What is it? Well it’s a free launcher application so basically you hit Alt-Space and a little box pops up and you start typing iTun.. and then you can load iTunes. Much quicker than the start menu/desktop etc. Massive time saver.

Actually that is a lie, I couldn’t live without MSN Messenger either. Everyone I know (pretty much) uses MSN Messenger. With a mix of messenger/facebook it pretty much negates the need for e-mail amongst my close friends.

Dear Facebook, please tell me what kind of lingerie I am!

Adam — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:45:39 +0000

So anyone who uses Facebook must be aware of the multitude of applications that you get ‘invited’ to try and most people find it a bit annoying.

One of the reasons a lot of people don’t like them is because by default they completely clutter up your profile page. However, often the applications are intriguing. And it’s possible to add an application without actually adding it to your profile or really letting anyone know you’ve added it.

The following has happened to me twice now. I can’t remember what the first application was but the second was ‘What kind of lingerie are you’. I thought to myself, hey I’m bored, this will waste two minutes. However, it wasn’t something I really wanted other people to know I was looking at ;] so I unticked all the boxes that would place it on my profile. I went through and answered all the questions and was ready to find out if I was a thong or a pair of boxers when I came to a page that says I must invite 20 people before I can view the results.

Hold on a minute.. is this allowed? It’s a very sneaky marketing trick. It’s a sure fire way to increase application exposure. I felt quite angered by this yesterday when I started writing this, though now most of that emotion has faded away but I still think it’s wrong of the application developers to force people into inviting people. There was literally no other way of seeing the results so I just deleted the application.

I think facebook need to look into this, application developers shouldn’t be allowed to force people into inviting their friends to use the application. I still don’t know what type of lingerie I am :[…