Computer Chat

[SL-Dave]

Latest post of the previous page:

As far as the EU import tariffs are concerned, I don't think there are currently any import duties on computers, laptops or mobile phones from countries outside the EU.

I can confirm they do. I ordered a laptop around 10 years ago from the Far East - trying to buy direct from manufacturer in order to save money. I was rather unhappy to be charged over £40 in import duty!

[boatbuilder]

As far as the EU import tariffs are concerned, I don't think there are currently any import duties on computers, laptops or mobile phones from countries outside the EU.

I can confirm they do. I ordered a laptop around 10 years ago from the Far East - trying to buy direct from manufacturer in order to save money. I was rather unhappy to be charged over £40 in import duty!

It may well have changed since then or what you were charged was the Import VAT of 20%, not duty. There is currently no import duty on computer hardware according to this:

https://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/12952 ... ment-is-0/

[boatbuilder]

I always thought that modern technology was supposed to simplify life. I have had two incidents in the past five days which have been far from simple to resolve.

___________________

The first one, thankfully now resolved, relates to an upgrade on Sky TV where I decided to go for the 'Sky Q' set-up which, after doing the upgrade order online, I received an email advising that they needed to clarify some details before they could proceed with the order. I had also paid my 'in advance' fee which had also gone through the the VISA Verification system and had the confirmation order document 'on-screen' with the install date of 3rd December which I had chosen. Thankfully I had saved all this to the computer as a PDF file.

I telephoned the number given in the email and was passed from person to person as nobody seemed to be able to help - they said they were technical, not sales, but it was the number they had given. I was on that call for over 30 minutes with nothing to show at the end. I then left it for a few hours and phoned back later that day - Saturday evening - and finally spoke to a man who informed me that they had some problems and the order didn't appear to be on the system, but that he would take the order again on the phone. I also had to make the payment again and he assured me it would only be taken from my account once. I had to give him three dates that would suit me for installation so I gave him the date I had used online - 3rd, plus the 10th and 12th of December and he advised me that I would be advised of the confirmed date. I would also be able to track the order on my Sky account.

On Sunday morning I had a look online to see that the installation date was given as Friday 13th January 2017 (FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!). Naturally I wasn't very happy about this considering the date on the original order was the 3rd December. I then had several phone conversations with them over the next 48 hours or so (most of it - probably totaling over an hour - spent waiting to get through to somebody). After one of the calls I was promised a phone-back the next day (Monday) at a given time by a woman I spoke to and she did keep that promise. However, she had nothing of any significance to tell me other that it was being looked into and advised she would call me again this Friday when she was next in.

Then about 10-minutes after that call I received another email (which I only saw about an hour or so later) with almost identical wording as the very first one asking me to call them, on that same number. I made the call and after waiting to be connected for about 20 to 30 minutes I spoke to another woman to whom I had to explain everything again. When she checked she told me the order had been updated and installation had been brought forward to the 10th December. Naturally I was pleased to hear that and when I checked the tracking online that had also been updated accordingly. However, it was interesting to note that the original order number that the online order quoted which I had saved at the outset, was still the same one that appeared in the last email received so it MUST have gone on their system, despite what the person who took my order again over the phone on Saturday evening told me.

___________________

The second is to do with my laptop which is nearing the end of it's initial warranty period. The manufacturer (Toshiba) offers an extended warranty for a further two or three years at a very reasonable rate which can be purchased any time during the initial warranty period. However, when I went online and checked the Toshiba website you have to purchase this from one of numerous places throughout the UK, not directly from Toshiba. The nearest place to Lowestoft listed is in Ipswich so yesterday I went onto their website and could see no place to make such a purchase on the website so sent them an email. I received a reply from a man about an hour later asking if I could advise of the laptop's serial number he would try to help me. I replied immediately. I heard nothing more until tonight when I received an email from the Helpdesk Supervisor which I have copied here but have removed the company name where used:

Thank you for your enquiry. If you have purchased your laptop from ***** please let me know the serial number and the university you belong to so that I can help you. If you have not purchased this from ***** and you are not a student or a member of university staff then I am sorry but would have to direct you to Toshiba for assistance.
Regards

Considering I gave them the serial number in my reply to the first email, it would seem that she was not aware of this, otherwise why did she request it again? Of course I don't fit into any of the criteria she stated in her email so I doubt they will offer me an opportunity to purchase the extension from them, although I have replied to her. If so, then as far as I am concerned they shouldn't be listed as a source by Toshiba. I could end up making contact with any number of the places listed by Toshiba with similar outcomes. I think I will be phoning Toshiba tomorrow about this as their is no other contact method listed on their website.

What a lot of messing about for two things that should have been straightforward.

[Mel]

I always thought that modern technology was supposed to simplify life......

....and all offices would be paperless. I blame the 'Tomorrow's World' programme for our disappointment

[frankiesays]

I always thought that modern technology was supposed to simplify life......

....and all offices would be paperless. I blame the 'Tomorrow's World' programme for our disappointment

They also told us the newly invented compact discs could be used as a dinner plate or as a clutch plate for your Cortina and would never jump - yeah right.

[frankiesays]

I always thought that modern technology was supposed to simplify life. I have had two incidents in the past five days which have been far from simple to resolve.

___________________

The first one, thankfully now resolved, relates to an upgrade on Sky TV where I decided to go for the 'Sky Q' set-up which, after doing the upgrade order online, I received an email advising that they needed to clarify some details before they could proceed with the order. I had also paid my 'in advance' fee which had also gone through the the VISA Verification system and had the confirmation order document 'on-screen' with the install date of 3rd December which I had chosen. Thankfully I had saved all this to the computer as a PDF file.

I telephoned the number given in the email and was passed from person to person as nobody seemed to be able to help - they said they were technical, not sales, but it was the number they had given. I was on that call for over 30 minutes with nothing to show at the end. I then left it for a few hours and phoned back later that day - Saturday evening - and finally spoke to a man who informed me that they had some problems and the order didn't appear to be on the system, but that he would take the order again on the phone. I also had to make the payment again and he assured me it would only be taken from my account once. I had to give him three dates that would suit me for installation so I gave him the date I had used online - 3rd, plus the 10th and 12th of December and he advised me that I would be advised of the confirmed date. I would also be able to track the order on my Sky account.

On Sunday morning I had a look online to see that the installation date was given as Friday 13th January 2017 (FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!). Naturally I wasn't very happy about this considering the date on the original order was the 3rd December. I then had several phone conversations with them over the next 48 hours or so (most of it - probably totaling over an hour - spent waiting to get through to somebody). After one of the calls I was promised a phone-back the next day (Monday) at a given time by a woman I spoke to and she did keep that promise. However, she had nothing of any significance to tell me other that it was being looked into and advised she would call me again this Friday when she was next in.

Then about 10-minutes after that call I received another email (which I only saw about an hour or so later) with almost identical wording as the very first one asking me to call them, on that same number. I made the call and after waiting to be connected for about 20 to 30 minutes I spoke to another woman to whom I had to explain everything again. When she checked she told me the order had been updated and installation had been brought forward to the 10th December. Naturally I was pleased to hear that and when I checked the tracking online that had also been updated accordingly. However, it was interesting to note that the original order number that the online order quoted which I had saved at the outset, was still the same one that appeared in the last email received so it MUST have gone on their system, despite what the person who took my order again over the phone on Saturday evening told me.

___________________

The second is to do with my laptop which is nearing the end of it's initial warranty period. The manufacturer (Toshiba) offers an extended warranty for a further two or three years at a very reasonable rate which can be purchased any time during the initial warranty period. However, when I went online and checked the Toshiba website you have to purchase this from one of numerous places throughout the UK, not directly from Toshiba. The nearest place to Lowestoft listed is in Ipswich so yesterday I went onto their website and could see no place to make such a purchase on the website so sent them an email. I received a reply from a man about an hour later asking if I could advise of the laptop's serial number he would try to help me. I replied immediately. I heard nothing more until tonight when I received an email from the Helpdesk Supervisor which I have copied here but have removed the company name where used:

Thank you for your enquiry. If you have purchased your laptop from ***** please let me know the serial number and the university you belong to so that I can help you. If you have not purchased this from ***** and you are not a student or a member of university staff then I am sorry but would have to direct you to Toshiba for assistance.
Regards

Considering I gave them the serial number in my reply to the first email, it would seem that she was not aware of this, otherwise why did she request it again? Of course I don't fit into any of the criteria she stated in her email so I doubt they will offer me an opportunity to purchase the extension from them, although I have replied to her. If so, then as far as I am concerned they shouldn't be listed as a source by Toshiba. I could end up making contact with any number of the places listed by Toshiba with similar outcomes. I think I will be phoning Toshiba tomorrow about this as their is no other contact method listed on their website.

What a lot of messing about for two things that should have been straightforward.

One thing that bugs me about calling the taxman is when they ask for all your details via speech recognition e.g. address, date of birth, full name, NI number, etc. and then when the call is eventually answered by a human you have to tell them exactly the same thing all over again.

[kerch]

Slowly finding my way around my new computer,got E-Mail sorted .Now the difficult bit loading and treating photo's.Window's10 doesn't seem to difficult to use for basic stuff.

[boatbuilder]

You shouldn't find much difference in the day to day things such as the filing system kerch, once you have opened 'File Explorer'. It is useful to 'pin' your regularly used folders to the 'Quick Access' panel on the left hand side of it. You can do this by right-clicking on any folder and choosing 'Pin to Quick Access' in the menu that opens.

As far as photos are concerned if you are still using 'Irfanview', as I still do, then there's no real difference once you have it installed.

[kerch]

Thank-you BB thinking about "Irfanview" earlier,will defeintly do that tomorrow ,feel a bit tried this evening spent the afternoon dancing at a local old peoples home,was n't the danceing that wore us out it was the heat.Know it's necessary to keep every one warm,must have been a least 25°c in their hall.At least they enjoyed our presention.

[boatbuilder]

When you said 'it was the heat' I thought you were starting to get the summer temperatures already, kerch.
A good night's sleep and you'll feel as right as rain tomorrow.

[kerch]

Slept like a log.No such luck cold windy and raining hard this morning.

[boatbuilder]

Shortly after midnight my broadband went down and I did all the checks that my hub requested on my computer screen to no avail. I then rebooted the router again to no avail and tried it again by turning of the power to it and still nothing.
Telephoned BT on the 151 number and was eventually informed that there was a planned outage in the area which could go on until 7-30pm today. Not very good and I made my feelings known to the girl I was speaking to. I am now using my computer connected through my mobile phone's hot-spot facility of which I have 4 Gigabytes a month included for this purpose.
Hopefully the BT issue will be resolved before the time they stated.
If BT are planning an outage on a specific day, I see no reason why we cannot be informed by email in advance.

Edit: Broadband returned at about 1:45 am.

[nikkai]

Shortly after midnight my broadband went down and I did all the checks that my hub requested on my computer screen to no avail. I then rebooted the router again to no avail and tried it again by turning of the power to it and still nothing.
Telephoned BT on the 151 number and was eventually informed that there was a planned outage in the area which could go on until 7-30pm today. Not very good and I made my feelings known to the girl I was speaking to. I am now using my computer connected through my mobile phone's hot-spot facility of which I have 4 Gigabytes a month included for this purpose.
Hopefully the BT issue will be resolved before the time they stated.
If BT are planning an outage on a specific day, I see no reason why we cannot be informed by email in advance.

Edit: Broadband returned at about 1:45 am.

Talk Talk would do the very same thing and even when you asked for information about "planned outage's" they could not give out this information ???? one of the many reasons we are not T T customers anymore

[Meryl]

My friend has a Youview box not one that is connected to wifi. When she goes to the guide to make a recording , she selects the programme and then the screen goes blank and a message comes up with "timer schedule " sometimes it will go when she presses OK but sometimes it doesn't. Has any one got any solutions or explanations. I haven't been able to help her. Thanks if you can help.

[boatbuilder]

I can't help on that Meryl as no experience of that system. There may be some dedicated online forums for it that may throw up some answers.

[Meryl]

thank you for taking the time BB.