Tuesday, June 20, 2006

A tale of 2 companies

I've got a lot of things to think about when I move. Two of them are my mobile phone, and my SodaStream. I've got a tri-band phone with Virgin, which works in the USA - it's a Nokia 6310i, and it's great. It's a phone, you can talk to people with it (oh, and text them). It plays Snake. And the battery lasts forever, which is all I want in a phone. (Well, not forever, but about 10 days).

So, I wondered if I could take my mobile, stick a new Virgin mobile SIM in it, and use it. So I emailed Virgin Mobile, and heard, well, nothing. At all. Ever.

I've also got a SodaStream, which is a great invention. It's a mystery to me why they don't still sell like they used to. They still market them as a way of making crap fizzy drinks by adding sticky concentrates to fizzy water. But I never use it for that, I just make fizzy water. (It seems an extraordinary waste that lorries are used to take water to Sainsbury's, and then I carry it home in my car, when lovely water comes out of our taps, and my SodaStream puts fizz in it. Anyway, I've got a Fizz Online sodastream machine, and a few years ago SodaStream were taken over by SodaClub, who are an American company. I wondered if I could take my sodastream with me, and get refills there. I emailed Sodaclub customer support, and they sent me an email back, which said:

You mention you have a Soda Stream...I wanted to provide you with some valuable information regarding Soda Stream product availability in the US. If you still have your old machine...not all machines are compatible with the Soda Club products currently available in the US and Canada. The only models compatible with the US products are the Soda Club/Soda Stream Design, Jet, Centenary or Edition as these machines are capable of accepting a 110 liter carbonator that is approximately 3-1/2 inches in diameter. We do not carry the smaller carbonators in the US...we only carry the 110 liter carbonators.

Because parts and products are not available for the Soda Stream line in the US or Canada we do offer a trade in program that would entail you purchasing a new Soda Club package from our website or a local retailer. After you receive the order for the new package you would then contact our Customer Support Center to learn how to return your old Soda Stream machine for which you will receive a $40 merchandise credit upon receipt of the old machine at our warehouse. We are only able to honor one credit per new machine package ordered.

If you do not have a compatible machine, when ordering your new starter kit we highly recommend one of the Value Packages as this will provide you with an extra carbonator to have in use while future refill orders are being processed and shipped to you.

Ordering online is fast and easy! Simply go to our website and click on "order a soda maker or check pricing" which is located in light blue along the left hand side of our homepage. Once you have placed your order, delivery will be made within 7-10 business days.

Alternatively, a complete listing of trade shows we will be attending as well as authorized dealers and retailers can be found at the following link: www.sodaclubusa.com/wheretobuy.htm. We are always looking for new dealers and retailers to carry our products if you know of anyone interested in this please do not hesitate to have them contact us.

For any further questions, feel free to contact our Customer Support Center at 800-763-2258. Our representatives are in the office Monday - Friday 9am- 5pm EST at the number above.

Thank you

Soda Club Customer Support


Now, how fantastic is that? In my humble experience, most companies never reply to an email to a support type email address (like, for example, Virgin Mobile), or when they do, you get a stock answer from a robot (possibly a real robot, possibly a person acting like a robot), which doesn't answer the question.

(Incidentally, that's not the first time I've been impressed by my dealings with SodaStream/Club - another time my SodaStream stopped working, so I rang them, on a freephone number, and they sent me a bit to fix it, with a spare.)

Sodastream - good for the environment, lovely and fizzy, and nice people too.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Houses: Ratings and sizes

First, I have been very excited about all the lovely looking apartments I found on www.rent.com - however then I found another site apartmentratings.com which has reviews of the various apartment complexes I've been looking at, and they are very gloomy reading. Paper thin walls, poorly functioning appliances, unfriendly management and staff, no parking, etc, etc, etc.
There's always the issue that people who are pissed off are the ones that talk, but they did sound pretty grim.

Second, and better news, I've been measuring our house. All of the apartments seem to be measured in square feet, but I have no reference to compare that with. So I measured all the rooms in the house (downstairs in the house actually, and then multiplied by 2 - it's got to be about the same upstairs as it is downstairs) and it came to (very about) 1200 square feet. Given that the larger 3 bedroom apartments we've been looking at are in the region of 1500 square feet, that looks pretty good.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

US Embassy

I've completed my (20 page) H-1b (or maybe that's H1-b) form, and sent it off, with all the accompanying blurb (photocopy of passport, publications, degree certificates, etc) . Then I phone the US Embassy in London, on their extraordinarily expensive phone line (£1.20 / minute). The call cost £12 (although I had to phone twice, because the first time you get an answering service that tells you that you have to have your passport number).

So, I'm off to the US embassy in London in August to have my fingerprints taken (they said that I have to ensure I don't have any cuts or blisters on my index fingers on the day - hmmm... shall I cut my fingers today? No, I'll wait until tomorrow) and my retinas scanned and my tongue printed and my DNA sampled. Or some combination of those. S has to come too, but A & D don't - we just have to take pictures of them.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Buying antiques

Someone suggested that I buy a lot of antiques. Given that Corporation of Future Employment are going to pay for me to move my furniture, they suggested that I should buy a lot of expensive antiques, put them into my house, and claim them as my own, then CFE will pay for them to be moved to the US, and I sell them to gullible Americans who are impressed by their European charm.

It could all go horribly wrong in so many ways though - I can just imagine "Oh, Chippendale is so 2000".

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Earthquakes!

I came across a page with information on earthquakes that had happened in the last 24 hours or week, including RSS feeds, so that when there's an earthquake, it appears in my email program. I started off with everything above magnitude 2.5, but there were too many of them happening in Southern California, and that made me nervous. So I changed my RSS feed to M5 or above, and that was much better.