A colleague at work purchased a Sony Ericsson S500i from The Carphone Warehouse on contract and it worked fine for a few months. The keys then started to crack and the internal speaker stopped working along with the navigation button failing to work as well. She duly returned it to The Carphone Warehouse who sent if off for repair.

A week or so later it was returned, but the internal speaker failed again after one day, so she took it back to her branch and they sent it off for repair again. She then received a card advising that the phone was ready so she drove to the branch and… it wasn’t there.

A few days later she picked up her newly repaired phone and after two more days of use the screen went blank and would not display anything at all. Guess what? They wanted to send the phone off for repair again, and offered her a £10 voucher to spend in store for her trouble.

She has been without the phone since March 24th and still has not received a working phone. We need to remember that this is only worth about £70 on Pay As You Go so it seems bizarre that a company would not just replace it. The Carphone Warehouse manager in her local branch almost always does not phone her when he promises to and once even hid in the back office while she argued with a member of his staff. The most shocking part of this is when she advised him that she works in Telecoms and that this would not be acceptable in her company. He responded with “Well, that’s like when I phone your company and have to speak to someone in Pakistan!” Firstly, her company does not have people in Pakistan and secondly, that is an example of how not to deal with any customer, no matter what the situation.

This lady is not a shrinking violet and will argue when she needs to, but The Carphone Warehouse (notice how I keep mentioning their name:)) have offered some of the worst customer service I have heard about for a long time.

mobile-review has managed to publish a first impressions look at the HTC Diamond and produced a fairly complete piece. It is not a full review, but more a preview of a pre-production model.

"Many felt that HTC was supposed to roll out a milestone device towards mid 2008 – the thing is, they have already established the trend for releasing the hottest offerings in the middle of the year, just like it was the case with the HTC Touch (introduced in mid 2007).

I think most of those who are into the Windows Mobile market have been keeping a close eye on all announcements and reports (after the Diamond got outted) and have already made up their minds about it. For everyone else we have this write-up that will get you familiarized with the HTC Touch Diamond and why it is such a revelation for the Windows Mobile market."

Piel Frama has released a new leather case for the HTC P3470 / Pharos-

High quality cowskin leather.
Snap closure system.
Sync through travel cable.
Rotable and completely removable belt clip (the knob is also removable).
Money Pocket.
Soft leather lining.
ABS inserted protection. 

This article at The Register highlights a company offering a service for a low price that is free elsewhere. Strangely, I quite like the idea...

A new service from WDSGlobal will send your mobile all the configuration settings it needs, and the company reckons you'll pay a quid for it too, despite network operators offering the same thing for free.

Configuremyphone is a website where UK punters can select their mobile phone and network to receive settings for browsing, e-mail, MMS and Java, charged at £1 each. Of course, you could just get them from your network operator for nothing, but people seem surprisingly reluctant to do that.

The service is really aimed at companies selling mobile applications, who think they're losing a fortune 'cos punters can't download their applications or use them once downloaded (if the application needs connectivity). Configuremyphone offers APIs for those content providers so they can tie into the service from within their application. WDSGlobal reckons that only 20 per cent of customers will try the official support lines when they have problems, the rest of them will just (figuratively) walk away.

WDSGlobal certainly knows the business; it runs the configuration services used by many mobile operators and reckons it configures around 250 million handsets a year.

In the UK around 30 per cent of handsets are operator variants: they've been pre-loaded with all the right settings and often some branding applications and bits of paper in the box. The remaining 70 per cent are 'vanilla' handsets provided direct from the manufacturer and come without settings.

The TomTom GO 910 may not be the newest TomTom model, but it is certainly well priced at Total PDA and has the vast majority of features the newest models have.

The TomTom GO 910 provides award-winning portable navigation for exceptional value. Including maps of the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, the TomTom GO 910 also features handsfree calling via bluetooth, a 4" Wide Touchscreen, 20GB Hard disc space, speed camera locations, plus much more.

Seamless Door-to-Door Navigation

The TomTom GO 910 Features TeleAtlas maps pre-installed on a 20GB Hard Drive, you can find your way to any address in the UK, Western Europe, Canada or the USA.

Map Coverage: Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal and all of the USA and Canada (incl. Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico).

TomTom GO 910 Bluetooth Handsfree Calling

With Bluetooth® technology, you can connect your TomTom GO 910 to your Bluetooth compatible mobile phone for full handsfree functionality. Make and receive phone calls simply by touching the screen of your TomTom for the safest, driving experience.

TomTom Go 910 Speed Camera Warnings and Speeding Alerts

Reach your desination safely and stay one step ahead with advance notice of upcoming speed camera locations and safety blackspots. Your TomTom GO 910 will also warn you when you are speeding, even when it is not in navigation mode.

The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine will be a must read for about 1% of you:)

"Life is short, and the Art so long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals, cooperate."--attributed to Hippocrates, c. 400 B.C.E. The award-winning author of How We Die and The Art of Aging, venerated physician Sherwin B. Nuland has now written his most thoughtful and engaging book. The Uncertain Art is a superb collection of essays about the vital mix of expertise, intuition, sound judgment, and pure chance that plays a part in a doctor's practice and life. Drawing from history, the recent past, and his own life, Nuland weaves a tapestry of compelling stories in which doctors have had to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Topics include the primitive (and sometimes illegal) procedures doctors once practiced with good intentions, such as grave robbing and prescribing cocaine as an anesthetic (which resulted in a physician becoming America's first cocaine addict); the curious "cures" for irregularity touted by people from the ancient Egyptians to the cereal titan John Harvey Kellogg and bodybuilder Charles Atlas; and healers grappling with today's complex moral and ethical quandaries, from cloning to gene therapy to the adoption of Eastern practices like acupuncture. Nuland also recounts his most dramatic experiences in a forty-year medical career: the time he was called out of the audience of a Broadway play to help a man having a heart attack (when no other doctor there would respond), and how he formed a profound friendship with an unforgettable--and doomed--heart patient. Behind these inspiring accounts always lie the mysteries of the human body and human nature, the manner in which the ill can will themselves back to health and the odd and essential interactions between a body's own healing mechanisms and a doctor's prescriptions. Riveting and wise, amusing and heartrending, The Uncertain Art is Sherwin Nuland's best work, gems from a man who has spent his professional life acting in the face of ambiguity and sharing what he has learned."