LOTS OF LINKS AND SELF PROMOTION!

Since Trouble With Swords was published as an eBook two weeks ago it's done very well in the Amazon rankings, though like every schoolboy's report says "it could do better!".

The book has had some great publicity (some unintentional) from friends and my thanks to those who joined on the Facebook launch party last Saturday.

So, the links:

The wonderful Carol Hedges (author and fighter of good fights against local authorities!) interviewed me for her well-known blog, the Pink Sofa. Very comfortable it was too and the sweets were lovely and chewy.
http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk/

Authorsden have around a million books and short stories on their very complete site, with author biogs and book write-ups. Under the heading of Young Adult they have over 1,200 books and this week Trouble With Swords has been featured along with 17 other YA titles as their main headline books.
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/cat.asp?catID=59

If you search on Google for Trouble With Swords Google tells you there are 16,500,000 results. I looked and expected my book to be around 3,000,000 or so and impossible to find. Not a bit of it. My boo was number one search result with the lin to Amazon. Top of the page! I was impressed! In fact it was also result number two with the link to the FB launch party!
https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=trouble+with+swords&oq=trouble+with+swords&gs_l=hp.3...2314.7186.0.8438.19.12.0.7.7.0.172.940.10j2.12.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.40yB9dm1sPg&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355325884,d.d2k&fp=e6e6c8241fc0fe8&bpcl=39967673&biw=1280&bih=699

Talking of Amazon..... The most important link of all is the Amazon link so you can buy Trouble With Swords!!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Swords-Temporal-Detective-ebook/dp/B00AFEKVE6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355511685&sr=8-2
Or if you're outside the UK:
http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Swords-Temporal-Detective-ebook/dp/B00AFEKVE6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355511685&sr=8-2

Don't forget to buy and review!

Blog on, Dudes!

TROUBLE WITH SWORDS
Launch Update

I'm not one much for personal publicity (ahem!), but after the official launch yesterday at the Facebook party event I feel I need to make a few comments.

1. Without the help of some great friends I couldn't have even attempted to hold the launch party. In no particular order, not even alphabetical!
   - Marit Meredith has helped from Day 1 when I wanted to publish Leap of Faith, my first Temporal Detective Agency book. She wrote me up on her blog and has been a tower of strength in convincing me to get things finished. She's a multi-talented lady and I love having her as a friend. In the not too distant future, when the Agency series is established, she and I will be collaborating on a very special cook book. Yesterday Marit helped keep the drinks running and the foodies plates full.
   - Carol Hedges has become a good friend over the past few weeks and as well as helping me host the event yesterday, she wrote up a wonderful interview with me about my books. You can read it at http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk/
   - Caleb Mason is both my agent in the States and my eBook publisher. He's also the CEO of Publerati Publisher. He was in the party for 8 hours yesterday helping to meet and greet. He also asked some devilishly hard quiz questions and gave away excellent eBook prizes..... copies of Trouble With Swords!

2. Amazon's rankings are both weird and delayed. By the end of the party Trouble With Swords hadn't moved on the Amazon UK ranking and if anything has slipped. I looked this morning and it had climbed nearly 20,000 places. I just looked again tonight and it's climbed another 4,000 places!

3. The chance of being the first result presnted on a Google search when there are 16,500,00 results is... well, 16,500,000 or thereabouts. And yet if you Google Trouble With Swords it tells you there are 16,500,000 results and the very first one presented is my book showing the Amazon link. It's the most incredible thing that money couldn't buy. Well, it almost certainly could, but not the sort of money I have! The power of Google.

4. I now have a fair bit of work to do in loading Trouble With Swords onto Goodreads and Authorsden.

5. I can now carry on writing the third book in the series, loosely titled A bigger Bang Theory.

6. Did I hear someone say "Where can I get the book?". Silly me, of course you want the link. You can get it at Amazon.both in the UK and Internationally. The UK link is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Swords-Temporal-Detective-ebook/dp/B00AFEKVE6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355062818&sr=8-2
I'd get o copy quickly while it's still in ctock!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the party, even greater thanks to those people who bought a copy of the book and gretest thans to those who bought the book and are going to write a review. Above all, thanks to Marit, Carol and Caleb.

Blog on, Dudes!

TROUBLE WITH SWORDS
Launch

Hi everyone. I'm immensely proud to say that my second book in the Temporal Detective Agency series was published last Friday and has its official launch today with a Facebook party and many other events to celebrate.

Trouble With Swords has already sold as many copies as the first book Leap of Faith, which is also selling fast this week. Exciting times!

Please help me celebrate by visiting the Amazon site:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Swords-Temporal-Detective-ebook/dp/B00AFEKVE6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1354958592&sr=8-5&keywords=richard+hardie
Ther book is available on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

You can also Google Trouble With Swords and the first item to appear will be my book and the Amazon link. Spooky, so well done Mr Google.

Thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy reading it.... waht am I saying! Of course you will!

Blog on, Dudes!

A BATTLE WITH BT.... THE SAGA CONTINUES!

And I thought the saga was over!

Those who have followed my battle with BT will kknow that I have two BT phone lines. One is for home use and has Sky on it, the other is a home business line and also has the famous high-speed Infity broadband facility. As the advert says... Simples!
Unfortunately, not only do I have two phone lines, but I also have two accounts with BT and therefore two bills, and that's where things got complicated.

I made a payment to one account instead of the other, with the result that the payment to the account it should have gone to was overdue. BT in its infinite wisdom chose to suspend my outgoing service to encourage payment. The whole thing was resolved in a matter of a couple of hours and normal service was resumed. Or so we thought.

I received the next bill a few days ago for both lines and even before it was due received a recorded message from BT telling me that on one of the bills I owed an amount almost twice what the bill said and had to pay it now. In  fact I'd paid slightly more than the bill's amount a couple of days earlier. I phoned BT, prepared for another hour long argument and after ten minutes had apparently got it sorted. I still owed around £20. I paid that today and thought we were now ahead of the game. I don't think we are.

The money that was originally allocated to the wrong account is still allocated to the wrong account according to the new bill, even though it was transferred some time ago. However in reality it has gone to the other account so the bill for that one is significantly overpriced. So both account are now right, but both bills are wrong.... or maybe it's the other way round. Who knows?

I'll pay and BT will keep phoning, but one thing does still amuse me. BT keep sending me letters asking me why I don't use their broadband facility as a valued BT user of many years standing. I keep telling them I have broadband on the other line and they say OH YES. Then I ask them for one account and we go round in circles.

The saga maybe over, but the Empire Is About To Strike Back!

Blog on, Dudes!

"A BATTLE WITH BT.....AN UPDATE!"

Yesterday, I posted on my blog the saga of my battle with BT in Manila about a sum of money I deposited in the Post Office in payment of a BT bill. Today I had a phone call (what else!) from a lady called Judith who is part of the famous "offline" BT team in the UK. She works on a Saturday and had good news!

After only 5 minutes of investigations she had isolated the missing sum of money and confirmed it was actually with BT. However I have two BT phone lines and for some reason I have two accounts and the missing sum had been allocated to the wrong account. She spotted it straight away, and yet the Manila lady took up an hour of my life without resolving anything.

The money has now been allocated to the correct account and the "offline" lady has put measures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again. In total I talked to her for 10 minutes, some of which was to chat about the view over Winchester I was enjoying at the time.

It just goes to show that UK companies like BT are so keen to put their call centers anywhere in the Asia Pacific region for reasons of low cost, and certainly not for the benefit of their customers. Whether it's language, dialect, culture, or just time zone difference, talking to call centers in India, or Manila is far from a joy and definitely not a good experience for the vast majority of people. And yet a ten minute call with a lady in the UK resolved everything and still left time for us to chat happily.

UK call centers may be a thing of the past, but if UK companies (Telcos, banks and financial services operations) don't rethink their tactic of moving overseas they're is severe danger of losing customers and money.

How nice it will be to hear a Liverpool, a Manchester, a Birmingham, or Scottish accent.
Dream on!

Blog on, Dudes!

A BATTLE WITH BT!

About a month ago British Telecom wanted some money from me. They do this periodically and always have the opportunity of cutting off my phone which I avoid at all costs. I went round to the Post Office and paid  BT a large sum in cash and received a receipt from BT in return. So far so good.

That evening I cleared the account again by debit card. Everyone was happy and I was a couple of months ahead of the game. Again.... so far so good.

Then the next bill arrived.

The amount was correct for the quarterly payment, but nowhere was there any mention of the amount I'd paid in cash at the Post Office that would have taken care of around half of the bill. In my innocence I phoned BT and after going through multiple options and sub-options where BT were trying sell me products, get me to move from Sky and use their direct debit facility, I eventually got through to a human being in a call center. Guess where....the Philippines!

After managing to convince the woman in Manila I didn't want to pay my bill immediately over the phone two weeks before it was due, she eventually understood that I wanted to know why my cash payment to BT via the Post Office hadn't been recorded and allowed for in the bill. This was the start of an hour-long conversation which resulted in the following:-
 - The woman told me I had to go to the Post Office and chase the payment and meanwhile pay my BT bill in full (my reply is censored)
 - The woman eventually agreed that BT had to chase the cash payment as I had proof the Post Office had legally taken the money on BT's behalf. (Progress). She went away for 5 minutes.
 - She came back and told me the system said she had to raise a report which would go to the BT offline group. I asked if I could talk to the offline group and she told me (yes you've guessed it!" No, because they're offline! (my reply is censored again)
 - She then told me I had to fax the receipt to the offline group. The following ensued:
                           - I told her the receipt was 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" and too small for a fax
                           - I told her I had a fax (she'd just presumed I had one) but hadn't used it for years
                           - I told her I would read out the details. I did. She still wanted a fax.
                           - I told her I could scan the receipt and email it to her, or anyone else in BT.
                           - She told me that neither she, nor anyone in the offline team has email (my reply is again censored, because BT is the company that supplies my telephone line, my Broadband and who desperately wants to supply my TV and my email account. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE EMAIL THEMSELVES.
                           - In the end I agreed to scan the receipt, print it out and try to fax it on my rather old fax machine. This, I did.
                           - I asked the woman to contact the offline team and get them to confirm they had received my fax. I suggested she send them a fax (I wasn't joking), but she said she didn't have a fax.... let alone email. It's a wonder she was allowed to have a phone!

We ended up with me trying to get her to agree that we had a plan of action, to which she reluctantly agreed. I also pointed out I wouldn't be paying the bill until BT acknowledge the fact they had my not insignificant sum of money already, but had somehow managed to lose it. After a lot of Umming and Arring she agreed.

I'm now waiting therefore to here from BT:
 - Did they receive my fax?
 - Have they found my missing payment?
 - Are they going to cut me off?

Watch this space!!!!

This is yet another of our major corporate institutions making the only point of contact for its UK customers in some far flung country like the Philippines. The result is it has divorced itself from its users in an industry which is far from a monopoly. Very silly!

Blog on, Dudes!

ASIAN CALL CENTERS!

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about my feelings and experiences of Indian call centers. I think it's time for an update.

Some seem to be quite professional and capable of coherent thought without too much access to a script, but they are the exception, rather than the rule. The rule seems to be "keep rigidly to the script, don't allow the client to deviate from the call intention one iota, never listen to what's being said unless the answer is on the script, and never ever offer to put the client through to someone in the UK".

Over the past few days an Indian call center has called me at least once a day and twice on two occasions. Firstly they are calling me when the shouldn't be and secondly they made the following cardinal errors:-

 - On the first call I explained why they were calling in error, but the guy just ploughed on with his call.

 - When I asked to speak to someone in the UK he offered to put me through to his supervisor in Bombay.

 - On the second call he started off by saying "Hello, Richard." I replied I didn't know him and rang off.

 - He phoned back and started with "Mr Hardie" I replied in the affirmative, "I need to ask you some security questions". I told him he needed to firstly tell me who he was and then to ask me if it was convenient to talk. His reply was "What?". Said it all really.

 - On the last occasion the whole thing started from scratch with a new voice but the same script.

I'm now writing a letter. That's one of of those old fashioned things that people used to use to communicate, especially businesses with their customers, before they started using call centers on the other side of the world, that have a different language, different ethics, but a much lower price tag than their UK equivalent.

The plot has been lost, big time!

The foreign phone call is a menacing threat. Not only are most anonymous, soulless call centers overseas, but as a result of cold calls being banned from the UK, companies now bombard us from the Philippines and India about Accident Claims and PPI Claims. They should be closed down once and for all.

Blog on, Dudes!