Then suddenly, on a Sunday (during the European football Championships no less) our television and broadband service packed up. Completely stopped. So naturally we went thought the long winded process of re-starting the box, then the modem, and the router, and the computer etc. After 3 time consuming attempts at this, it was time to start the calls to Tiscali customer service. Then the real fun began. I called Tiscali, reluctantly, and waited on hold for about 50 minutes before getting through. My conversations with customer service went something like this:

Call 1:
Me: Hello, I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

Tiscali Customer Service (In an extremely thick Irish accent that I can barely understand): Can I take your telephone number?

Me: (After giving number, postcode, name, birthday, urine sample etc) I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

TCS: What is the problem?

Me: It doesn’t work.

TCS: Did you try re-starting it.

Me: Yes.

TCS: Is it plugged in?

Me: Yes

TCS: Ok let me check.
(10 more minutes of holding)
TCS: You are on the Depford exchange, which is down at the moment. You just have to wait.

Me: Do you know how long it might be down?

TCS: No. Thank you for calling Tiscali. Goodbye.

Call 2: (30 hours and about 20 minutes of hold time later)

Me: Hello, I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

Tiscali Customer Service (In an extremely thick Irish accent that I can barely understand): Can I take your telephone number?

Me: (After giving number, postcode, name, birthday, urine sample etc) I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

TCS: What is the problem?

Me: It doesn’t work.

TCS: Did you try re-starting it.

Me: Yes.

TCS: Is it plugged in?

Me: Yes

TCS: Ok let me check.
(10 more minutes of holding)
TCS: You are on the Depford exchange, which is down at the moment. You just have to wait.

Me: It has been down since yesterday, do you know how long it might be down?

TCS: No. Thank you for calling Tiscali. Goodbye.

Me: Wait, can I speak to your supervisor?

TCS: He would only say the exact same thing as I said.

Me: Still I would like to speak to him.

TCS: There’s no supervisor available.

Me: I’ll hold.

TCS: But they will only tell you the same thing. There is nothing we can do.

Me: I’ll hold for a supervisor please.

TCS: Fine.
(10 minutes of holding)
TCS: There is no supervisor available.

Me: So not only do you not know anything about how long this will take, but you will not let me speak to a supervisor?

TCS: No, we don’t have one available and he would only say the same thing.

Me: Ok goodbye.

Call 3 (24 more hours later):

Me: Hello, I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

Tiscali Customer Service (In an extremely thick Irish accent that I can barely understand): Can I take your telephone number?

Me: (After giving number, postcode, name, birthday, urine sample etc) I am having trouble with my broadband and television service.

TCS: What is the problem?

Me: It doesn’t work.

TCS: Did you try re-starting it.

Me: Yes.

TCS: Is it plugged in?

Me: Yes

TCS: Ok let me check.
(10 more minutes of holding)
TCS: You are still technically on Homechoice service, and so you need to be moved over to Tiscali.

Me: But I already have a Tiscali Box…

TCS: But you have not been migrated.

Me: So migrate me.

TCS: You need to do it online. Go to www.xxxx .com

Me: Ok I have gone there, and it says that it is “Too busy to serve me, so come back in 10 days” 10 days?? Are you serious?

TCS: Ok, well I guess I’ll migrate you manually.

Me: gee thanks.

TCS: Please hold.
(10 minutes later)
TCS: OK I am almost finished the migration, but I need to know if you want to upgrade your service.

Me: Pay more? No thanks.

TCS: Ok well everything is taken care of here. Have a good evening, and your service will be back in 10-15 days.

Me: WHAT????

So after some further time with me questioning how this could be conceivable for them to do to me during the Euro 2008, and the French Grandprix, Wimbledon, etc etc etc… then I gave up realising that Tiscali Customer Service do not really care how the customer is serviced at all.

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LOTUS FORD 79 ANDRETTI, MARIO 1978 (100780005) - July. This model will be made in 1/18 scale for the first time!

BENETTON FORD B186 BERGER, GERHARD 1986 GP USA (100860020) - August

BENETTON FORD B191B BRUNDLE, MARTIN 1992 (100920120) - September

HONDA RA106 HONDA RACING F1 TEAM BUTTON, JENSON 2006 1ST WIN GP HUNGARY (100060112) - August

MCLAREN FORD M23 ‘TEXACO’ FITTIPALDI, EMERSON 1975 MCLAREN COLLECTION (530751801) - August

MCLAREN MERCEDES MP4/98T TEAM MCLAREN HAEKKINEN/COULTHARD 2-SEATER 1998 (530981878) - August

BMW F1.08 BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM KUBICA, ROBERT 2008 (100080004) - December

MCLAREN TAG-TURBO MP4/2 WITH ENGINE TEAM MCLAREN LAUDA, NIKI 1984 WORLD CHAMPION (530841808) - August

BENETTON FORD B191 PIQUET, NELSON 1991 (100910020) - August

MCLAREN MP4/2B WITH ENGINE PROST, ALAIN 1985 MCLAREN COLLECTION (530851802) - August

MCLAREN COSWORTH M23 YARDLEY SCHECKTER, JODY 1973 BRITISH GP (530731830) - August

JORDAN FORD 191 WITHOUT FIGURINE TEAM JORDAN SCHUMACHER, MICHAEL 1991 (100910032) - August

MCLAREN HONDA MP4/5B TEAM MCLAREN SENNA, AYRTON 1990 WORLD CHAMPION SENNA COLLECTION (540901827) - August

Recently I found myself in the unbelievable situation of celebrating my 2nd wedding anniversary last weekend. Cant believe I am married much less 2 years married. And what is more is that I even agreed to a trip to Paris for our wedding anniversary. I am a little soft I admit, but I actually had a good time in Paris. Some parts were touristy and annoying of course. For example the Louvre.
Some advice while traveling to Paris: go to the Louvre on like a random Tuesday morning and never go during the weekend, or the summer, and especially do not do what we did and go on the fist Sunday of the month when the museum is free. This is a terrible time to go to the Louvre. The museum is packed with people of course, and you can hardly move. The crowd drawn in by the free day in the museum are mostly free loaders who came to see the Mona Lisa. It was a very frustrating, tiring, and crazy situation.
While the Louvre can tire you out and should be taken in smaller doses… I could not get enough of the Eiffel Tower. What an amazing piece of steel. We had a very amazing meal at the restaurant on the Eiffel Tower with a table right against the glass. The food was decent, overpriced of course, but the view was worth the money. This scores lots of points with the wife, and is cool as far as a view over the city goes.
While in Paris, I really wanted to go to the catacombs, but could not because the who thing is being refurbished. It should be open soon, but of course I was unlucky enough to miss it… But I was glad we got to go up to Sacre Coeur to see the cathedral there, but mostly the view, which is cool. But the best part of Paris of course is walking around enjoying the atmosphere and the food. You cant believe how good it tastes to have a chocolate crepe after walking around all day in the cold… amazing.

One of the elements that could be easily incorporated in the growth strategy is the website takeover. The big online household names in e-commerce or services providers are always on the lookout for good established websites with some share in a niche market. Especially now, at times of uncertainty in the economy, many websites’ owners may decide to call it a day and put their business for sale.

In the last week I was looking for some of these potential ‘gems’ in my niche. I simply ran through the Dmoz and Yahoo! directory listings in my niche and sifted through the SERPs for some generic terms related to my activity. Did I find anything? You bet. There are a few well-established websites, with great content, strong visibility in search engines and domains registered in 1998, 99. Most of the folks are hobbyists who have been running their sites for almost 10 years now, and have come to the point where their enthusiasm has vanished, or they are struggling with the growing number of competitors, or simply decided it’s a good time to cash in. Finding them might be time consuming, I would recommend emailing webmasters rather than going to straight to auctions. A personal touch can give you some room for negotiation.

Traffic was the main factor in my research. I would be happy to take over some websites with a good number of targeted visitors and page views and a good amount of quality content. How am I going to incorporate the newly purchased website into my strategy? Well, any changes need to be well planned. I would keep the exiting content, slightly refresh the layout (many of pre 2000 websites still have an archaic look), and would keep the existing number of pages.Now, the toughest part is how do I capitalize on the new buy. The key to this question is relevancy. Having thousands of visitors landing on the website does not necessarily give you any opportunity to sell or promote whatever you are offering. Buying a website about car parts and trying to promote your e-commerce bookshop may not give you much return. But taking over a website about book reviews run by an amateur book-blogger would be a good move and it will naturally support your main e-commerce site. If a website has a lot of loyal visitors, or subscribers you want to be extra careful and avoid any revolutionary changes in particular.

Cost. We all know that small business budgets are limited, however investing in buying a website can reward you and your business greatly. Not only are you gaining an extra base of potential costumers, but you’re adding an important asset to your business, which will increase in value over time. Don’t go over the top. Research a lot then buy the best option and wait to see any return before you move on to the next take over. Prices vary depending on the type of website and niche obviously. But it’s possible to get a good deal on a domain and its content for much less than $10k.

Is this ethical? Well if you are buying a relevant website to your primary business and you are going to keep the existing level of quality it seems to be the natural economic order. The strong business takes over the weaker one.

Other points regarding buying an existing website:

• Carefully check the history of the website (whois data, archive.org etc.)

• Get a strong idea of the volume of traffic the website attracts (use free tools like compete.com, quantcast.com, ask the existing webmaster to provide you with traffic numbers)

• Check the incoming link structure of the website (are the links from trusted places, how old are the links?)

• Try not to change much on the domain registration data

• Check the general publicity about your potential buy (any reputation issues etc)

Buying domains can be exciting and addictive. But be careful and try not to loose your main focus: adding value to your online small business and facilitating a health growth.

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for the 2008 F1 season to start. It’s a great sport, and fun to watch on TV or live. Anyway, this season (starting with GP Australia on March the 16th) there are a few good reasons to start following it regularly:

• Alonso’s Renault comeback. Spaniard says he is very happy with the new Renault R28 and feels strong again. Looks like after a miserable year with McLaren his confidence is back.

• After a scandalous 2007 Ferrari and McLaren will be trying to prove who actually has a better car, especially Ferrari, which will be trying to re-build its reputation.

• BMW is working very hard on its new car - BMW Sauber F1.08. It’s looks good but both drivers (Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica) seem not to be 100% satisfied.

• 2007 was the year of Lewis Hamilton. Many are predicting his domination for the next decade or so. However I think in 2008 we will see more from other young drivers as well such as Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen and ‘Baby Schumacher’ Sebastain Vettel.

• FIA banned use of traction control * in 2008 season. All team will be using the same electronic management system, which should make it easy to detect illegal systems. Some drivers like the idea (F. Massa) others fear more accidents (D. Coulthard)

David Coulthard said:

The big issue is when we have standing water on the track without traction control. There hasn’t been a big incident - touch wood - for a long time, but it’s just a question of when that happens.

Anyway 41 days left to the Australian GP. Plenty time to prepare yourself for the racing feast!

* Traction control - systems which prevent the rear wheels spinning if a driver applies too much power