Category: Observations

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Observations

G4S unveiled as official whipping boy of The 2012 Olympic Games

That’s a tongue in cheek headline, I should point out, for any of the Olympic or G4S legal teams reading.

I had to shake my head this afternoon when I flipped my iPhone over to The Telegraph and saw the lead headline: “I don’t know if [our] guards [will] speak English”, says G4S Chief Executive.

It’s laughable, it really is.

Have you been following this story across the week?

It’s been reading like a carefully orchestrated series of PR leaks intended to make everyone feel fantastic about the upcoming Olympics. Fantastic, because, frankly, if this is the only problem we’re having with The Olympics then I think we’re in a pretty good position — because this one is swiftly fixable.

There’s nothing the British public likes better than a highly paid CEO and reasonably profitable big company getting raked across the coals.

G4S — formally known as Group 4 — is a private security contractor. They’ve got a very big contract managing portions of the Olympic games security. This week, newspapers reported that the company hadn’t managed to hire it’s full quota of staff. All sorts of catastrophically embarrassing stories subsequently emerged. Silly ones, but nothing too drastic. The press reckoned that the British Army would have to step in to fill the 3,000 short-fall of guards required because of the G4S blunder.

Meanwhile, in glorious style, the British press pointed out that instead of being paid less, G4S was apparently upping its fees.

Yup: Time to bring in the crisis PR team.

Here’s what G4S says, right now, on it’s website:

We have recently encountered significant difficulties in processing applicants in sufficient numbers through the necessary training, vetting and accreditation procedures. As a result, we will be unable to deliver all of the necessary workforce numbers.

We have worked very closely with LOCOG throughout the build up. At the point we felt that we could no longer assure the scale of the security workforce we had committed to, we advised them of the situation. The Government has therefore decided to increase the number of military personnel who will work at the Games.

That’s not ideal.

The statement goes on to point out that the screw-up is going to cost G4S about £35-50 million pounds. Not ideal that. But. And there is a but: Somebody at G4S signed the contract saying they could deliver this. So it’s right and proper that they take responsibility for fixing it as best they can.

One of the key issues raised this week as the shock and horror expressed that our good old chaps and ladies from the Army were going to have to be drafted in to do menial security work — some of whom will have recently returned from tours in Afghanistan.

I can imagine that standing searching bags is probably the last thing that you’d want to be doing when, 3 weeks prior, you were literally dodging snipers thousands of miles away.

There is another viewpoint here though and I think it’s a valid one. Given there’s been a screw up by the private contractor and given that a solution is needed — I can’t think of a better fix. If I were heading off to see some of The Games, I’d feel a heck of a lot safer knowing I was being protected by the finest. Indeed, it would give me an opportunity to wait patiently whilst the chap or lady searched my bag, before thanking them warmly.

Surely an extra 3,000 troops on hand would help encourage any idiots thinking of disrupting The Games to think twice as well?

I also react positively to ensuring that every soldier’s family and friends are allocated with plenty of Games tickets. G4S should also do something for each of the 3,000 soliders.

Fundamentally I think the only answer for G4S is to dig deep. Get stuck into their wallets and flash the cash. Answer every question raised with authority and confidence. Setup a microsite with a frequently asked questions page. Over communicate. Over deliver. Make it clear you’re fixing it — and, er, obviously — actually fix it. But demonstrate what you’re doing openly and as comprehensively as possible. Anything else will enable the UK media to continue to dig the already massive hole for them. Where the media treads, the politicians follow — so it looks like  many MPs will spend the next week kicking G4S.

Which as I said before, highlights that everything is alright really.

Yes this is a bit of a dropped ball by G4S. We’re lucky to have the ability to call upon the Army (and/or the Police as necessary). We’re further lucky that these 3,000 serving men and women don’t effectively have a choice. And we’re further lucky that since they’re serving in one of the best Armed Forces on the planet, they’re actually rather good. Professionals. We’re lucky to be able to call upon professionals to plug the gap.

But actually, this isn’t a big problem in the scheme of things.

It’s not like that other Olympics — was it the one in Greece, where the living quarters weren’t actually finished days before the Games were due to begin?

If this is the only ‘big thing’ that’s concerning folk in regard to The Olympics (the security issue being the exception) then I think we should be thankful.

One final point: In this hyper-connected world it’s surprising to see that G4S, a company that employs well over 600,000 folk worldwide, hasn’t got social media yet. They’re being absolutely pummelled on Twitter by the look of it. Witness this tweet from trade union Unite:

 If ‪#G4S‬ can cut corners with the ‪#Olympics‬ then it doesn’t bear thinking about what they’ll do to essential police services like 999 calls

That’s been written by a social media (or PR) team who know precisely what they’re doing. I couldn’t find anything official from G4S. You’d think they would be all over this sort of thing given the amount of damage their image is taking at the moment. I’m sure I’m not the only one who looked at their website today (or this week) to get their side of the story — what a fantastic missed opportunity.

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Observations

The BBC’s coverage of the Jubilee Pageant

I wasn’t in London on Sunday for the Thames Pageant to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Instead I was at home with the family. We were having a challenging day — both children (we’ve got 2 under 2) were a bit under the weather. Not exactly ill, but not in full spirits.

And that’s a difficult situation. You can’t easily take them out to entertain them, you can’t do the normal things you might do.

Which meant I got the opportunity to glance, now and again, at the Jubilee Pageant coverage on both the BBC and Sky News — when our eldest wasn’t insisting on watching the extensive archive of Postman Pat episodes we’ve ‘Skyplussed’. To be fair, when there were soldiers on screen marching about, Archie was pretty impressed. But he didn’t have much time for boats.

If I have to watch live TV, I tend to focus around Sky News or BBC World. I always tend to enjoy Sky News often because they do editorialise a little which I often find mildly entertaining.

I did switch over to the BBC during the day on Sunday to see what they were making of the Thames Pageant. But goodness me, they were having a wretched time. The weather can’t have helped and in fairness, the rain was pouring down in buckets for most of the afternoon. However whenever I arrived at BBC1, I couldn’t help but wonder whose “Hi8” Sony video camera from 1996 they were using to film the whole thing.

The picture quality was abysmal.

I didn’t watch long enough to be wound up by the rest the BBC’s coverage. According to The Telegraph, quite a few folk were not impressed by the actual programming of the coverage. I didn’t watch long enough to give it much consideration.

Sky News on the other hand did a super job. They have a fantastic fellow they use for commentating on Royal occasions — I’m afraid I can’t remember his name — however he was on hand for most of their live coverage to offer up continual Royal and military-related nuggets of information. That comes in very useful when everyone is waiting for something to happen. The rest of the Sky News team were all present, getting soaked along with the crowds.

Poor show BBC. I’m sure they’ll sort it out for the Olympics. Nice work Sky News!

Categories
Observations Technology

Sky hasn’t quite reached the connected age yet

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I’ve been a Sky customer for ages. Now and again when I’ve been living in an apartment that didn’t have a dish attached, I’ve had to put up with Virgin but I’ve always come back to Sky when possible. I like their set-top box approach.

I’m pretty content with the service.

Granted, the set-top box interface is, I feel, looking a little bit dated in today’s connected world. It’s also getting quite a bit of competition from all the integrated features of the new Sony TV I bought a little while ago.

I realised this afternoon that I never bother using the Sky Movies package that I added on a while ago.

I used to sit back and flick to 301 (the start of the movie channels) when I wanted a bit of downtime for a few minutes. It was always useful to be able to jump straight into a reasonably popular movie. Sometimes I might watch 10 minutes. Sometimes I might watch the whole thing. I valued the service.

I can’t remember how much it costs except that it was a bit of a hefty add-on to the existing subscription.

I resolved to spend the cash on iTunes movies and TV episodes rather than on Sky Movies. I have far more use for iTunes — I can watch that content anywhere. I don’t want to be chained to the TV nowadays.

So this evening I visited sky.com and logged in.

Clicking about it looked like it would be impossible to change my account package online. I clicked some more and found that it was only possible to add to my package. Arses. Failure point #1. But a little obvious. Of COURSE they will make it difficult. They live for the subscription revenue.

A little pop-up window then appeared asking if I’d like to chat.

Yes I would, I thought. I clicked.

The chap who greeted me asked for my name. That was annoying. Failure point #2. If I’ve logged into your secure account system, I expect you to know who I am. And yes, Sky, I mean building a little bit of code to pass my details to your LivePerson instance.

I got straight into it with the chap:

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I found it fascinating that the chap characterised my motivation as ‘thinking of downgrading’.

I didn’t think of it that way.

I certainly recognise that this is how it will seem from Sky’s point of view. I think this was a canned response.

It tells you something though.

I thought I was making a change on my account. The chap tells me I’m downgrading. Twice, actually. Failure point #3 — there’s no need to go negative. You’re reinforcing the action in my mind. I’m being told that I’m downgrading. I’m being asked to call ‘to downgrade’. You’re helping me continue my course of action.

I was actually a customer ready to buy. I know that’s not what I wrote at the start of the post but if you think about it, there could have been an opportunity for a bit of negotiation. An engaged sales person could have run rings around me.

“So you want to remove the movies? Ok. Well sir I’ve just noticed that for an extra £2 you could actually have movies, sports and blah-blah-blah on our special deal.”

Before you know it, I’ve actually paid more (and perhaps got a bit of a discount or a deal).

However I was moved into the ‘downgrade’ mindset this way.

I was already cooking though. I was already annoyed.

That’s because despite reaching ‘someone at Sky’ didn’t help. I doubt the chap worked in the Sky UK call centre) — the experience felt like a someone was operating canned responses from a call centre somewhere in the world, I could be wrong.

As far as I’m concerned, Sky, I talked to you this evening at 11pm. It was great to get some interaction, but it was almost pointless.

I talked to you today by ‘chat’ and you told me to phone you.

Ridiculous. That’s Failure Point #4 — making me PHONE you.

Failure Point #5 is answering my second question (“So I’ve got to phone someone to downgrade?”) with another stupid canned response that didn’t even have a “Yes” or “I’m afraid you’ll have to call our team..”

Failure Point #6 was asking me to type in my home phone number when I called customer services. As IF I remember that. Yes, I know all Sky customers are meant to have a home phone number but goodness me, how arcane. I wouldn’t have minded typing in my stupidly long customer number.

I pressed hash and star a load of times and eventually managed to skip that bit. All I wanted to know was whether a human was available at 11pm to handle my ‘downgrade’.

I waited 3 minutes paying stupid amounts via my Three phone and then hung up. The 0844 number that Sky uses costs me £0.20 per minute. I wonder how many people phone Sky from a mobile? When most people either have unlimited landline calls from their home phone (and similar on their mobile) why bother using 0844 numbers?

Anyway.

I hung up and then thought I’d check the right address was on my account. It turns out it’s the old address. I thought my wife had changed it. Apparently not.

I clicked the link to change the address. Gahh. Failure point #7: I have to PHONE them to change my address.

Come on!

If I can *ADD* packages online (you can, I added the movies online about a year ago) then you obviously accept legal instructions via the web. Upgrading my package is a legal instruction. Changing my address is the same flipping thing.

But then it’s probably something that the team want to ‘control’ (read: Make a bit more complicated) because there’s a lot of work involved in moving house and ensuring you have a Sky dish at the other end. Blah blah blah.

I think my key point here is that I have limited amounts of time to deal with this kind of life admin. Or, to be clear, I wish to ensure I have limited amounts of time wasted, in my view. (I am happy to spend a few minutes writing a blog post — but that’s different!)

I just want it done, Sky. I want to click a few buttons and be done.

Why not show me a few special offers when I click ‘downgrade’? I was totally susceptible at that point. But putting me through the ringer and forcing me to have to fit to your business models was rather frustrating. It’s also ensured I’ll be a lot cooler on the phone tomorrow.

Update on 8th June: I managed to get through to Sky. The chap I spoke to in “disconnections” was not happy at the prospect of my downgrade. He eventually offered me a 10% discount on my whole package for 6 months, unprompted. I thanked him but declined. Is that it, Sky? Goodness me.

“So you’re wanting to save money?” the chap said.

“No, I’m just choosing not to spend it with you,” I clarified, “I’m spending far more with iTunes.”

Cheeky!

Eventually after the chap realised I wasn’t to be swayed with a 10% short-term discount (A whopping £22 across 6 months) he processed the downgrade. Job done.

Categories
Hotels Observations

I’ve added The Royal Berkshire Hotel to my ‘proper hotels’ list

I popped into The Royal Berkshire Hotel on the outskirts of Ascot recently. I was only there for a meeting, so I didn’t get a chance to check out the rooms, however from what I saw, the place looked immaculate and utterly luxurious. There was no standard reception desk. I reckon that’s the mark of a true, quality boutique hotel. There’s no need for a ‘shopping counter’. Instead there’s just a helpful lady at a nice big oak desk.

What really ticked the boxes for me was the restrooms. I have a barometer that, so far, has never failed in determining the quality of a hotel. It’s all about hand towels in the loos. Proper hotels — the best — have real cloth towels, you see.

Many big supposedly 5-star luxury hotels in London don’t even offer this, preferring instead to range whizzy and really noisy hand drier machines. Or paper towels. Or worse, those revolving towel things that require you to pull down a fresh bit. They’re rubbish.

It’s wonderful to use a proper hand towel. Your hands get dry immediately. No messing around.

The gents at the Royal Berkshire (by the meeting rooms) had an array of little pigeon holes below the taps, each filled with a cloth towel ready for you to use.

Pure luxury.

There’s an environmental question, of course. I trust that The Royal Berkshire has taken adequate steps to ensure basic reduction of carbon footprints in order to offset and offer this facility.

I did try and take a photo but there were lots of people around and I didn’t want to scare anybody.

The Royal Berkshire is now the second hotel in recent memory (after the Chancery Court, Holborn) that I’ve come across offering proper towels in the bathrooms.

If you know of any others, please let me know!

Categories
Clothing Observations Services

Moss Bros Hire: Shocked and then delighted by terrific service!

[Note, I start off negative, but that soon changes…]

There is perhaps nothing more embarrassing on a Monday morning commute than being seen carrying a Moss Bros Hire suit carrier.

I can’t stand it.

It’s so…

Well I just don’t like it.

I think it goes against my exclusive, quality viewpoint.

Perhaps I’ve witnessed too many weddings in downmarket hotels featuring chimps dressed to the nines in Moss Bros Hire attire (which, if you can ignore the contents — i.e., the chimp — does look pretty good.)

Now and again I have to resort to Moss Bros Hire because I haven’t got my arse in gear and bought a jacket for my kilt. I’ve got the whole shebang — everything — except the jacket. I can’t remember why this is the case. So whenever I have the opportunity to get stuck into the proper Highland gear, I need to hire the jacket that goes with it.

There’s a wedding coming up this weekend. Arrrrgh!

I’ve been all over the place with work. I haven’t had time to get it sorted.

I need the jacket for tomorrow.

It’s a potentially big ask.

So I walked into the Richmond branch of Moss Bros Hire at lunchtime today and asked if I could hire the ‘morning dress’ jacket for a kilt.

The chap behind the counter smiled blandly.

“That has to come from Scotland,” he tells me, delighted — I feel — that he doesn’t have to do any work. I get the impression that he’s about to deflect my invitation to take some cash from me by pulling a ‘computer-says-no’.

That’s precisely what he does.

“It takes a week to get it from Scotland… so…”

“I need it for tomorrow or at the very latest, Saturday morning,” I explain.

I’m not sure why I bothered explaining. I think it was in the vain — stupid — hope that the chap might want to actually help me out.

He flashed me another limited, bland smile, “You could try Covent Garden…”

Right.

I could.

‘What about you?’ I thought. ‘You could phone them now for me.’

I didn’t voice that. Obviously. I wanted to get out of the store as soon as possible. The can’t-be-bothered atmosphere was crushing.

“Oh, ok, thanks…” I said, walking out.

Rubbish.

However I had to admit that my expectations were completely and totally met, if not exceeded. This is precisely what I’d expected.

Ultimately it was my fault for leaving it all so late. But you know, that’s a super opportunity to make a good amount of cash out of me.

Anyway.

I thought I’d see if the Bracknell store could help out.

The last time I needed to hire a jacket, my wife and I happened to be in Bracknell and happened to be walking by Moss Bros Hire. I really didn’t want to go in — I wanted to arrange a time with a tailor and get a sodding jacket made. But.. I ran out of time. So we popped into the shop there and — well, I have to say, we were served efficiently.

So I flipped out the BlackBerry, searched for “Moss Bros Bracknell” and hit the call button.

A chap called Dan answered. He was unusually bright, caring and professional. Unusual in the context of my general view of Moss Bros.

“Oh that might be a stretch,” he said, listening to my enquiry. (I’m paraphrasing but words to that effect)

“Let me make a few calls,” he said, before he took my number, “I’ll call you back in a moment.”

I walked back to the office and a minute later, Dan was back on the phone.

“Ok we can get something for you, but it’ll cost an extra £10. Is that ok?”

I practically screamed with delight.

Yes, fine.

In the intervening time I’d looked out my old hire details and quoted the contract number back to him. He looked up the details and bam… job done. I didn’t even have to bother giving him my size.

“Right that’s all sorted,” he said, “Ready for collection tomorrow.”

Get in.

I told him he’d delivered excellent service. I briefly narrated the ‘computer says no’ horror at the Richmond store and then thanked him again.

Thank you to Dan in the Bracknell store for helping me out. Excellent, excellent work.

My perspective of Moss Bros Hire has thus changed rather dramatically — for the positive. I really must update my perspective of the company’s brand. Looking around their main corporate site I see they’re offering quite a wide range of quality services — including recently launching a bespoke suit service from their flagship London store. I rather like the keen, clear pricing strategy too.

Categories
Observations

It’s been too long: I’m back!

Thanks for your patience, dear reader. It’s been too long, I know. Way too long.

Eagle-eyed readers might have guessed at the cause — we’ve had a baby. Not just any baby, no. This is Baby Number Two (“BNT” as it’s apparently referred to by knowing mothers).

It was a good birth — more on that in another post — and I’m delighted to say that both mother and baby are fine. We now have two boys: Archie and Freddie.

Baby Number Two is a bit of a challenge though.

You see, we’d just got into a pretty good routine with Archie. We could go out for lunch, I could take him out for the afternoon then do dinner at Zizzi, bring him back, bath, bed, job done. He loved it. I loved it. My wife really enjoyed the break. Things were going swimmingly. We knew how to do this parenting thing.

When you throw another baby into the mix, things get seriously complicated. First off, the baby needs feeding regularly. Every 3-4 hours at a minimum. That’s around-the-clock. And feeding isn’t a simple process, especially in the initial stages. The baby doesn’t have that much energy or ability to take in a lot of milk to begin with so that’s quite a bit of work. Trying to manage the requirements of the toddler simultaneously can be seriously challenging, especially when he’s getting frustrated that no one will play with him.

It’s a lot of work, especially when you’re working to a service level of sorts. My wife thinks it’s ridiculous that I apply business terminology to home life — I’m not that bad — but you know, we’re working to deliver a good experience for both children. That involves giving the requisite attention, stimulation and so on.

BNT would be easy if you simply left the other one to cry. My wife wouldn’t need any help from me or our family.

But that’s not the way we’re operating so it’s been quite full-on.

The baby’s almost 7 weeks now and things are a little bit more predictable. My wife and I are able to get a bit more sleep. The baby is sleeping longer. Archie has been through another bout of teething (shocking) and we’re out the other end.

Which is why I have time to write this text!

So thank you for your patience. Let’s get started once again.

Categories
Observations

The continuing saga: I found my shirts & suit…

Remember I lost a large amount of suits and a suit on the train the other week?

They’ve turned up. Very strange. But utterly good news. Here’s the podcast on that topic:

Categories
Observations

I’ve now lost two suits on the train, in two weeks!

I really don’t know what I was doing. Perhaps it was a subconscious desire to buy a lot more suits that caused me to leave two perfectly good bespoke suits on the train.

You can hear all about this in the inaugural Pursuit of Quality podcast:

Yes, that’s me speaking. I tried to keep it as clean as I could, given the raw frustration I was experiencing!

Categories
Observations

Where are my shirts? I ordered them on Saturday!

I ordered 10 shirts from Hawes & Curtis, the shirtmakers, on Saturday afternoon. They were off-the-peg ones — and what’s more, they were in stock. I know this, because the stupid Hawes & Curtis website made me click through reams of pages like a performing dog, searching for 16.5″ x 36″ shirts that were actually in stock.

WHAT, by the way, IS THE FLIPPING POINT OF DISPLAYING PRODUCTS THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY IN STOCK WHEN I’M TRYING TO BUY FROM YOU? GET A DECENT E-COMMERCE ENGINE.

Or better yet, stop messing around with your own clearly sub-standard back-end order processing system and just get Amazon to do it?

Here’s my problem: I ordered the shirts on Saturday, right? I expected them to arrive on Tuesday morning.

I gave Hawes & Curtis the benefit of the doubt — no, actually, I thought there’d be no-way they’d be able to get the shirts to me on Monday morning. That would entail them running an operation on Sunday night and, you know, being good at logistics. Like Amazon.

Instead I assumed the shirts would arrive on Tuesday. That’s bearable. But really, in 2012, if Amazon can get almost anything to me next day guaranteed by 10am, why can’t you?

There’s really no excuse.

If you can’t figure out a way to deliver the shirts to me this way, Hawes & Curtis, then seriously — dump your existing processes — and get Amazon to handle it all for you.

I spent £110 on shirts — a good deal, if you ask me — and then I saw the silly £9.95 (or thereabouts) postage fee.

I did my very best fake smile when I saw that.

Thanks for nothing, I thought to myself.

Then I remembered there was a special offer displayed on the frontage of the website. Use the coupon code ‘postage’ and your postage fee is reduced to £4.95. Woop. I thought I might as well do that, given the fact it would save me five pounds and produce no other benefit. I’d rather have paid £9.95 to have had the shirts ON MONDAY.

It’s not especially important to me. I wasn’t depending on Hawes & Curtis for the delivery, because I know I can’t.

Online shops like these are really no better than an eBay equivalent. You HOPE they got the order on time. You HOPE they, you know, could be bothered to get out of bed and process it. You HOPE they actually made it to the post office on time before the last post and you HOPE you might even get the product by the end of the week. If you’re lucky.

I really do wonder how long the market will tolerate the likes of these services simply limping along, delivering middle of the road ‘whatever’ service?

Let’s be clear: I haven’t been wronged by Hawes & Curtis. My expectations have been entirely met — I expected this. If anything, I think I’m surprised by how dependent I have become on Amazon.

I now actively shop according to the Amazon Prime listings (I’m a “Prime” customer — which means delivery is ‘free’ and in most cases, next day — or just a wee bit extra to have it guaranteed by 10am etc). I will favour one supplier above another if Amazon fulfils the order. That is, if Amazon has the product sitting in their own warehouse ready to ship to me. Because I know that Amazon doesn’t screw it up. They’ve got the flow. They’re shipping millions of products a week. The Post Office knows them very, very well. So do the courier firms they work with. The whole thing is a beautifully oiled machine as far as I’m concerned.

Unfortunately Amazon is making everyone else look really, really bad — for me, anyway.

Forget the dumbing down and the disappearing High Street thread we’re all being fed by the mainstream media. What about the disappearing e-commerce world? 😉 I don’t intend ever bothering with Hawes & Curtis online ordering again. It was almost a novel shopping and check-out experience — it was, in a funny way, quite nice to be exposed to the ridiculous next-next-give-us-your-life-story process.

Why do you need my address? Why do you need my sodding CCV2 card number? Why do you need me to make a username and password? Amazon already have all of this. I can order in ONE CLICK! Come on!

So dear, dear me. The seamless Amazon experience has made me wholly intolerant to any other service that doesn’t either exactly equal the basic Amazon service (e.g. dispatched next day — and I mean NEXT DAY) or involves a chap getting on a bike and hand delivering the product.

I wonder how many Hawes & Curtis customers would pay to have someone bike the shirts to them for a fixed fee of, I dunno, £45? I’d have done it. I just want it done, you see. I don’t want to have to THINK about stuff that isn’t important.

Waiting for my shirts to arrive is an exception that — I’m sorry to admit — niggles at me. It’s the inefficiency of it all that seriously irks me.

Consider this: I placed the order on Saturday afternoon at about 1.30pm. The payment was immediately verified and charged to my card. And then nothing happened, right?

I am willing to bet that NOTHING happened at the Hawes & Curtis end until Monday morning. At some point on Monday morning, somebody will have checked the orders — or whatever — and realised they’d got a request from me. They’ll have messed around checking email and staring at the wall and resetting their desktop screensavers until midday. Then they’ll have picked the shirts and packed them. Then they’ll have either left my package alone or they’ll have dumped it into the postal system that evening, probably at last post, right?

I know I’m making huge, huge assumptions and probably causing a few folk at Hawes & Curtis to seriously question my sanity at this point, but run with me. If my package didn’t arrive TODAY — Tuesday — that means they clearly didn’t ship it yesterday. OR it means they’re sending it via second class post. Which means… well that’s anyone’s guess. Or they’re sending it via some cheapo manner. Or it didn’t make the post on Monday.

Whatever. The point is, if *I* had been fulfilling the order from my home — personally — I’d have got it to the Post Office for 10am on Monday so they could have to my customer on Tuesday morning.

It’s worth pointing out again, for the sake of the team at H&K — I’m a fan. That’s why I bought the shirts in the first place. I own about 20 other H&K shirts (most of which I lost by forgetting my dry cleaning on the train last week, hence the bulk purchase — but that’s another story).

I write this post to highlight the changing nature of the consumer. I’m not a typical consumer. I’m far too geeky for that. But the rest of society will catch up at some point in the next few years — and when they do, they’ll have absolutely no tolerance for anything that doesn’t deliver precisely like Amazon.

Categories
Observations

Pointy work shoes: The abomination fit only for the junior account executive

I’ve long held the view that proper work shoes — those that go nicely with a smart suit — do not turn up off the floor at the front, nor should they be pointy.

If they’re pointy then your feet will only fit into the main forward section, leaving the rest of the front to turn upwards. It looks shocking.

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see somebody wearing these kind of shoes.

There’s nothing wrong with doing so. It just doesn’t strike me as professional. Using the traditional footwear of Court Jesters and Santa’s elves is not professional.

It really does wind me up to see them.

I’m guilty of this though. I hate to admit it. A while ago my wife made me buy some utterly shit £300 pair of “smart shoes” (to wear at the weekends). I ended up with this shocker of a pair that she thought looked cool. Me? Well I felt like a fraud, even at weekends. And I was slipping all over the place in them. I was wound up even more given the fact these shoes were piss-poor quality. Made for a tenner and branded at £300. They started to come apart after a few months.

I shouldn’t argue. I hadn’t been organised enough to go to Trickers and sort out some better casual ones so I ended up in Selfridges browsing these abominations.

Casual footwear is, I suppose, ok, when it comes to Court Jester pointy-turn-up-at-the-front shoes. But in a business context? It’s the equivalent of arriving at a meeting in a £75,000 sooped-up 1987 Ford Fiesta: Certainly expensive but fundamentally at the bottom of the rung in quality terms.

My preferred choice for footwear is Trickers — but I’ve had reasonable experiences with stuff from Churchs (is it Churches? Church’s?).

Where do you get your shoes from? And please, dear reader, tell me you don’t own a pair of pointy-lift-off-the-front shoes?

[Photo from Office.co.uk]