Cymru Marketing Journal - (CMJUK) - Online Business Journal & Digital Marketing Agency. Business News, Directory, SEO, Social Media Management, Advertising, Reviews, Forum, Market Research, Content Writing & Website Design. Thinking Local, Acting Global.
What Appliance Retailers Do Not Tell You (Part 4 Ongoing Saga).
The Effects Of Mental Health When You Have to Raise a Complaint With a Company.
As many of you may or may not know I am an Entrepreneur a owns several sites, blogs, or social media pages, my default virtual business card is www.renataentrepreneur.com
Primarily I advise Businesses on how to generate more leads and consult them to make their business more successful. I also offer other services, such as website design and marketing.
Now I would also like to say I suffer from Mental Health and have a blog dedicated to Mental Health and Disabilities among Entrepreneurs. That is why I am keeping my chat widget on from 11 am to 11 pm London GMT over the Holidays, just in case anyone wishes to talk over the Christmas Period. If I can help just one person I know I will have done something good. Depression can affect people from all walks of life. Christmas can be extremely challenging and can test our resilience. By trying to help others I am essentially helping myself.
Do watch the full interview with Tyson Fury on Mental Health.
“Christmas is not about receiving it is about giving”.
They offered me a £75 e-voucher and my refund of £100 for installation to be escalated on the 21st of December 2020. My cooker was delivered on the 17th of December 2020 and I was told I had to wait three to five working days to get my refund.
Moving forward to yesterday which would have been the 5th working day I still had not received my refund. I questioned it with customer services and I was told the reason I did not get my refund was due to a system error and guess what I now have to wait for another three to five working days. This did not sit well with me at all. Although the customer service person said today it can take up to seven working days. The last time I transferred money from one account to another took two hours by BACS transfer.
By coincidence, I got an email from head office yesterday saying I will be getting my refund.
“What happened to we are sorry and we will escalate it for you”? No mention of that in the email or anything about the e-voucher either.
So like a dog to a bone, I will not let go until I get answers, and if it means me using my blog to get attention so be it.
You do not give people the run around no matter what business you are in. It does not say anything good about you or your company. Just because you are a blue chip company this does not bother me in the slightest, you should care about your customers. A CEO had to start off somewhere and may have been a startup once. CEOs are humans no different from you and I and they should show empathy and respect.
“No company should be too big for their bootsand everyone is accountable for their actions”.
So my final attempt today I tried phoning them yet again and their answering bot is designed to mentally break you down, It does not recognize order numbers and when it asks what you are ringing up for, it does not understand your reply.
I had visions of me hurling my phone through the air and smashing it against the wall by this stage.
Furthermore when you finally get through it says all calls are recorded. Now the person I spoke to today misunderstood something I said whereby I would continue recording with my blog in a quest to finally get this resolved. Yet he thought I said I was recording the call. Do people not understand English? My English is perfect I have had 57 years to practice it.
“I want a transcript of all the calls I have made and received as that is my legal right.“
Obviously, they can record you without your consent but you cannot record them, not that I had any attention to doing so anyway, one rule for one and another rule for another.
If this was someone with Multiple Sclerosis phoning today, they would be having a relapse due to the run around of this company. I have knowledge of Multiple Sclerosis as my daughter suffers from the disability.
Consider people’s mental health before you start playing mind games. The customer service person today told me someone will phone me back about the e-voucher, which can not be located by coincidence.
“I do not want to be phoned”.
My telephone lines are turned off for a reason because of this little incident and I can only be reached by my chat widget on my websites or via email or social media platforms.
What is the problem have I offended Argos in some way by speaking the truth, they should have mentioned like and hot zones on their site, and perhaps all this could’ve been avoided.
Do not offer a token of apology and then retract it.
To be messed around like this is totally atrocious.
“Show Respect and You Will Earn Respect!”
FINAL THOUGHTS!
“I will give this company one more chance to make amends and perhaps finally will say that after everything they will come out smelling of roses”
Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year.
UPDATE 27/01/20
I received my refund of £100 on the 24th of December 2020 I assume just after my phone call to Argos.
Christmas was canceled for me as I could not cook anyone a Christmas Dinner and did not think it was appropriate to offer frozen ready meals heated up in a microwave so no one came to visit me and I was left home alone with the cat. Worst Christmas ever and Worst Year.
As for the offering of the £75 e-voucher that did not materialize either. I should not have to beg to get it.
In all this whole scenario has tested my strength and my mental health ability.
I would have been content with a formal apology from the CEO but obviously, he forgets that once he started out where I am today. You never know one day he maybe brushes shoulders with me, considering the small world we live in and the people I am connected with. With nearly 10,000 followers such as Billionaires, Millionaires, Law Makers, and Royalty on LinkedIn it pays to remember “it’s not what you know but who you know”.
Below I have listed useful links to The UK & Welsh Government Websites aswell as Cardiff Local MP & Law Firm. I have also listed links for anyone struggling with Lockdown, Social Anxiety & Mental Health Issues.
Economic Resilience Fund Phase 3
With economic unrest and the Firebreak Lockdown the Welsh Governement last week announced further financial support to Welsh Buinesses.
The Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) has already supported more than 13,000 businesses in Wales. It has also helped to secure more than 100,000 jobs with a total cost of £300 Million. Applications for Phase 3 of the ERF have been announced last week by the Welsh Government with further support of £300 million for businesses in Wales.
The ERF Phase 3 support comes in two parts:
The first £200 million funding of Lockdown Business Grants to support those directly affected by the shorter term challenges of having to close during the firebreak. 60,000 micro and SME businesses will be able to get them urgent emergency finance to help them with fixed cost thru face during the firebreak and includes discretionary support available at a local authority level. £11 million which has already reached businesses.
Another £100 million funding will be for Business Development Grants to help businesses secure themselves for the longer term challenges they may face. This funding was intended not as day to day, emergency finance but to fund projects that can prepare businesses for a post-Covid and EU exit future.
Nearly 6,000 applications have been received. The fund has since been paused to allow an assessment of applications to be undertaken.
This pause does not affect the first and much larger element of the fund – the £200 million ERF Lockdown Business Fund that remains open.
Funding is delivered collaboratively between the Welsh Government and Local Authorities.
The Professional and Business Services Sector and Enterprise Nation, supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, have teamed up to offer small and medium sized businesses free advice to help them recover from the impact of Coronavirus.
This offer will be available until 31 December 2020.
Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grant Extension.
Self-employed are continuing being supported by the UK Government who have extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
The SEISS Grant Extension provides critical support to the self-employed in the form of two grants, each available for three month periods covering November 2020 to January 2021 and February 2021 to April 2021
Job Retention Bonus and what you need to do to claim it between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021.
If HMRC are still checking your Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claims, you can still claim the Job Retention Bonus but your payment may be delayed until those checks are completed.
HMRC will not pay the bonus if you made an incorrect Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim and your employee was not eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Businesses across the UK are being provided with additional financial support as part of the UK Government’s plan for the next phase of its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) – also known as the Furlough scheme – will remain open until March 2021, with employees receiving 80% of their current salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500.
Under the extended scheme, the cost for employers of retaining workers will be reduced compared to the previous scheme, which ended on 31 October 2020.
Two schemes to help people self-isolate to be introduced in Wales
People told to self-isolate for up to 14 days will be eligible for financial support from the Welsh Government.
People on low incomes can apply to receive a £500 payment if they have tested positive for coronavirus or they are asked to self-isolate by the NHS Wales Test Trace Protect service because they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.
And a new top-up payment is being introduced for the social care workforce in Wales, to increase statutory sick pay to their normal wages if they have to take time off because they have coronavirus or are self-isolating.
The Statutory Sick Pay Enhancement scheme for social care staff working in care homes, domiciliary care and as personal assistants will start on 1 November and will run until 31 March 2021.
Alongside the two schemes, the Welsh Government intends to strengthen coronavirus regulations by imposing a legal requirement for people to self-isolate if told to do so by NHS Wales Test Trace Protect service.
And a duty will be introduced to ensure employers cannot prevent an employee from following NHS Wales Test Trace Protect advice to self-isolate.
Joanna Meriel Stevens is a Member of Parliament, Elected in May 2015 General Election For Cardiff Central and is a Politician for the Welsh Labour Party in the UK House of Commons.
If you are struggling with mental health and need someone to talk to give Samaritans a call on: 116 123 for free of charger or if you want Welsh Support Phone: 0808 164 0123
Very few successful entrepreneurs may succeed on their first business venture. For example did you know Microsoft entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s first business venture was the Traf-O-Data. Traf-O-Data sold just one unit before the business dissolved.
So do not beat yourself up if your business is not going to plan, “if at first you do not succeed, try again”.
You just need to stay focused and if there is a will there is a way.
This also applies to your mental health and everyday scenario’s and it does not always have to be about business per se. You just must find a way to carry on and fight your cause. No one else is going to help you so do not rely on other people and do it yourself. You are the master of your own destiny.
Statistics show whilst most new businesses (80%) survive their first year, only half of them will still exist after five years down the road.
The key to a successful entrepreneurship that has failed previously is that entrepreneurs have seen failure as lessons of how to overcome obstacles.
So, although at first failure may look like doom and gloom, one needs to turn the negative into a positive. Business failures may incur financial hardships, so you must find ways to get around this especially if you bank is not supportive. There are many ways to raise funds including re-inventing yourself and crowd funding. Business failures could also be a breakdown of business relationships with your business partners. You must decide if a person is weighing you down do you continue to have them in your life or do you find a way to move on and leave them behind. After all and this applies to business as well as your personal lives, do not surround yourself with negative people.
Call it tough love and only the toughest survive so that means you must make tough decisions.
Establish what the root of your problem is and then tackle it head on.
Do a deep clean analysis of the failure. Work out the biggest contributing factors that are making your business fail.
Look at factors why you started the business and what you wanted to accomplish from it. Write down a list and also do not forget to say what you ultimately wanted to achieve when you started out. It may be that you may feel you are overwhelmed and have lost the plot of what you wanted then to what is happening now and you can easily start to feel lost.
The following needs to be addressed.
What was your goal at the beginning of your start-up?
What problems are you encountering?
Do you have financial issues and do not know how you will pay your bills?
Do you have staff issues?
Do you have management issues?
Is your product or service not unique or sort after?
Are you have problems generating business?
Is your website not optimised to its full protentional?
Do you have marketing and advertising issues?
Have you got personal (spouse/partner) or mental health issues that are interfering with your business?
There are many factors that can cause a business to fail and you need to find the core to the problem in order to address it in order to avoid the demise to the business.
The sooner you find what is causing your business to spiral out of control, the sooner you can get hold of the reigns again.
Sometimes you need a moderator, mentor or consultant that can sit on the fence and give you a neutral opinion of what you are doing wrong. Find someone you can confined in, whether it is a spouse or partner or a friend. There is always someone that can lend an ear especially if your failing business is causing you mental and psychological health problems. Do not forget you can also speak with your GP if the stress is becoming overwhelming.
There are always solutions to all problems, no matter how big or small.
Once you have established the root to your problem the next thing is to address it and make the changes.
1). If you have ‘FINANCIAL ISSUES’ and have come to a road block either because your customers are paying late or you bank does not want to lend you any more money, consider ‘FACTORING’ where the banks pays you 80% of your invoice upfront and the customer then has 30 days to pay the invoice whereby the bank will pay you the remainder of the invoice. Do speak with you bank manager about this service as it does not come cheap, but at least you have one less thing to worry about when the customer does not pay as the bank will do the chasing for you. Consider ‘CROWDFUNDING’ and ‘PRIVATE EQUITY’ where you raise funds publicly or through Angel Investors who are looking to support small businesses in exchange for a stake of your company.
If you are starting up and this applies to the UK as other countries may differ, you can apply for tax credits and housing benefit and council tax reductions to help you. Phone your Local Council about Housing Benefit and Council Tax and HMRC about Tax Credits. You can also find information online.
2). Do you have staff issues, consider outsourcing the work to virtual assistants and freelancers if it is office related? If it is manual work, consider hiring school leavers you may even be eligible for grants or sub contractors, these are self employed businesses and you just pay them for the job on a contract basis.
3) Do you have management issues where people are getting too big for their boots. Remember you are the Boss and you say what goes. If you feel that your staff are not pulling their weight, offer incentives to make them work harder.
4) If you have debt issues there are companies that can consolidate all your debts to one manageable monthly payment plan. Never brush your debts under the carpet, they will never go away on their own, instead take the bull by its horns write out all your debts and work out your monthly overheads and contact these companies that can resolve your problems.
5) Is the product or service that you are selling the problem. Reinvent yourself if you must and address pricing, competition and why the product or service is not selling. It could be your online presence is not optimised and you are not generating enough traffic. With this said speak with the web developers, whom are also internet marketers to see why you are not generating enough traffic. Consider PPC advertising this will get you on the first page of Search Engines for the exact match search terms your users are looking for. Also consider offline advertising like Newspaper, Magazine Ads as well as Leaflets.
6) Have you got problems at home such as marital, speak with a counsellor. Or do you feel lonely and come home to an empty home? Whatever the problem is what ever happens at home should stay at home but often we bring it to work with us as we are constantly fretting and thinking about the other person and not concentrating on the work put before us. I am not a marriage councillor but there are many ways you can address these issues. Do some research there are plenty of organisations that can help.
7) MENTAL HEALTH and PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. Sometimes the stress is too much to bear and you can barely find enough energy to get out of bed, sometimes only wanting to cocoon yourself under the blankets and wait for the world to pass you by. I’m the world’s worst when it comes to this as I have suffered with mental health issues (Depression and OCD) most of my adult life, but somehow I find the courage to face another day. So, from my own personal experience and perspective I have planted a seed in my head. This seed is my goal to achieving what I want in life and I try to stay focused. If on days where the stress is too much to bear, I take time out and do something that I enjoy doing such as writing and reading or watching movies and a takeout. I know I will not be defeated, and I know eventually I will get where I am going.
Consider a dream board that you hang in your office which will be a daily reminder why you are where you are and where you want to be. A dream board (vision board) is a montage of images of all the things you want out of life, call it a bucket list if you will. Every morning take some time to think about your goals before starting work.
So do try to take leaf out of my book and remember there is no success without failure. Rejoice your failure. The failure is a lesson and you can learn from. People who take risks are prone to failure but without risks there are no opportunities. Your self-confidence should not be diminished by your failures, your failure should be embraced as achievements. You have to take risks in order to succeed.
Never be ashamed of your failures in fact teach others and mentor them that failure helps us to learn and to succeed. We have all failed at something in or lives, if its not exams at school or Uni, to driving tests, to personal relationships. Don’t tell me you have never been heartbroken or come close to loosing your life partner, or not achieved careers goals you had hoped for. Life gives us choices and life is what you make it. You either fail and give up or fail and move on, I prefer to fail and learn not to do the same mistake twice and teach others about my mistakes and pay it forward.
Finally if you found this post useful, do comment, share, like, subscribe and pay it forward.
The lesson I have learnt today is regardless if you are doing business for $1, £1 or $1,000,000.00, £1,000,000.00 alway and I mean ALWAYS perform Due Diligence with a person you have never met and is not local to you, whereby you cannot check them out through Companies House if you are in the UK or physically pay them a visit. Each country has their own Company House Database.
What I mean by this regardless if they pass Companies House Verification they still may be scammers, as I have just got off the phone from a person claiming to be a New York Attorney that said his client wanted to sue me for selling artwork that belonged to him.
However upon trying to do my detective work this person is not on LinkedIn and his telephones do not match nor does his website work (times out).
Even with passports and other forms of ID one cannot know for certain if the person one is dealing with on the other end is a fraudster or not. Even if their Company is Verified does not stop them being unscrupulous. I had one person that had his passport cloned and was visible online. So there is no way for certain to know you are dealing with the actual person unless you phone the head office and perform detective work online.
I thought by checking with companies house that the said individual was kosha and it seemed that he was until all the inventory he was selling at the beginning part of the year mysteriously disappeared off his site where by he failed to update me. This in turn has put egg on my face as I told the Attorney that the artwork could be found on my client’s site and it is no longer there. The emails I have which I never deleted will prove he was selling the artwork….
So on the safe side I have taken the website down and will not be doing anything in future with this site other than selling the domain.
With this in mind I had to pulled the whole website down and all the inventory that belonged to the two muppets that I have been dealing with, with one of them still in my LinkedIn connections.
But then again if something does not sit right you should leave it out, as my gut feeling was like many months ago when I worked tirelessly to get leads for one of the muppets only to be told the leads I had given him were not good enough and did I get a penny for my trouble?, of course I did not. I even had his organ grinder telling me I was over thinking. If something does not sit well with me I will air my grieviences. This is also another lesson when someone asks you to find leads which are bon-a-fide leads and you find them, invoice the person for your time finding the leads as they could say the leads were no good even though they were, just to get out of paying you. Get the money upfront for finding marketing leads.
I have to say I must be soft in the head as I let someone else this month take advantage of me, by me designing a logo with about 20 changes, I also built him a website but made the mistake of giving him a cooling off period where after he had agreed on the amount of pages he then decided to move the goal posts and increase the pages for the same price. So when I mentioned there would be a price increase he decided to use the get out clause. So from now on I am never going to do that again. Do not use a get out clause for web design. Take a set up fee upfront instead and then invoice once the client is happy with the site.
I have since looked at the muppet’s site and it has been changed only to show bitcoin and cryotocurrency by coincidence, yet I have all the emails that he sent that I can forward to the owner of the artwork to prove the muppet was selling the artwork and not me per se. I was merely marketing what he told me to market. These pieces of art one could not ask for proof of receipt if you get my meaning if you know what pieces of art I was marketing.
This now shows me in bad light even though I did not know that the inventory was not legit, like why would I know or how would I know as these were high ticket assets and I trusted both muppets.
My reputation is on the line because two idiots whom seem to think it is ok to take advantage of people. “You have had your fun if you are reading this now so it’s now my turn and I will no longer be associated with you”…
I am a mere web designer and internet marketer but at least it shows my marketing skills reached the people that needed to be reached even though the inventory was debatable. So what has this taught me other than avoid all idiots at all costs? and that is I am good at my job even though I could do better by doing more to protect myself in future from people who can cause no end of problems.
Trust no one !
My lesson today is perform Due Dilligence with people regardless if the are selling £1 or £1M especially if you do not know them and if it means you loose the lead in the process, you would have saved yourself trouble in the future. Also do due dilengence on the inventory (especiall high ticket assets) as it could have legal implications.
I am sick and tired of the scammers out there and I will name these people if push comes to shove.
“I am fuming and wordsfail me today regarding this”.
Good job I never performed SEO on this particular website, imagine the digital footprint I would have had to delete and merely used it as an online business card/tool which I have now taken down and all associated links.
To the person whom contacted me today you will see the website is now taken down and to the muppets that got me into hot water, karma has a way of paying you back !!
Regardless who was trying to scam whom, I have knocked the nail on the head and severed all ties with everyone assoicated with this inventory.
This site has affiliate links and the publisher (us) may get a commission on clicks per action when purchases and registrations are made by the user. (CPA). This site is owned by UK Website Designers part of a group of sites and domains in an SEO Link Wheel, which can be viewed here!
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
