Only in the Irish Times

"its the Schrodinger's cat of mobster drama" - a description of the last episode of The Sopranos.

Of course the Times used the Umlaut but I can't find it on the blackberry.

Let your email find you with BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Sony Sony Sony

I had a few calls with Sony Ireland today. One of the folk I was talking to earlier flat-out contradicted me when I said that my repair docket had down that the deposit was non-refundable. I had to email off s to prove it !

Found a SONY (US) Site which gave an excellent description of the CD fault and its symptoms including photos and I'm happy to say that my TRV19e is showing the exact same symptoms - they are clear and unmistakeable (to this layman). I also took the precaution yesterday of recording a few image-less snippets before the battery conked out.

The folk in Sony just don't seem to get my point that it's unfair that Irish people have to pay a deposit and return the camera at their own expense whilst in the US & UK (at least) it's a free service - if the fault is CCD related they'll fix it and if it's not they'll send it back. I don't want some repair crowd telling me that the fault isn't CCD related, fixing it (or pretending to fix it), taking my 79.45euro and asking for more. If it's not fixable for free I want it back unfixed...seems simple to me. After all new improved models are available for quite reasonable prices.

Sony Ireland - you stink bigtime !

I also posted this on I will not hold

My camcorder (DCR-TRV19e) gave up the ghost the other night - when recording instead of the normal image of what was being recorded a distorted image was displayed. A google showed that this was due to a faulty CCD chip which Sony had eventually owned up to : Sony Announcement/

So I rang the relevant support number which turned out to be MF Services in Cork. Drop in the camera I was told. Oh and leave us 79euro as well please and thank you. I suggested that seeing as this was a recall I shouldn’t have to part with cash as well as the camera and was told that it was normal practice.

So I rang Sony UK. If you live in the UK (And US - if not other countries) and have a camera covered by that recall Sony will give you a Freepost address and there’s no question of having to pay a deposit and they'll ship it back free as well.

There we have it - the Irish consumer has to make their own arrangements to return the recalled product and pay a deposit to help keep the cash flow of the service agents. Another case of Rip-Off Ireland - I think so.

Nice work Sony. And MF Services in Doughcloyne.

edit: The deposit turned out to be 79.45 ! What a strange amount. Even stranger was that their posted notices said that the deposit was only 50euro for camcorders….

Snail on light

Snail on light
Originally uploaded by despod

Not on the ferry

Not on the ferry
Originally uploaded by despod

The Shaky Bridge

The Shaky Bridge
Originally uploaded by despod

Garretstown litter left by pigs

Garretstown litter left by pigs
Originally uploaded by despod

Tesco Mahon Point no razors

Tesco Mahon Point no razors
Originally uploaded by despod

Irishrail.ie is crap !

Last year before we went to France we booked a family rail ticket. No problem. Got the tickets posted to us for nothing by SNCF( http://www.sncf-voyages.com ).

So we're thinking of heading to Dublin by train. The oneline timetable doesn't give any options to book a family ticket. Grand. So a search (no actual link for ticket types) on the site shows the family fares _from_ Dublin. Grand. So we fill out the online enquiry form. Select Cork (Kent) as origin and scroll to find the destination. Scroll past C and onto D . Hello. No Dublin. Hmm... oh look there it is under H - Heuston. Not Heuston-dublin just Heuston. So in order to get a fare quote you have to know the exact name of the Station in Dublin. Must be so easy for foreigners....

Did they go out of their way to make the site awkward ? It's even worse on a Blackberry ... May I call them muppets ?