"The existence of an appeal system is no safeguard of justice in the absence of adequate advocacy."Donald Boyd It is commonly assumed that the right of appeal corrects injustice in a system. This is not true. It is adequate advocacy that begins the process of justice. If one does not have access to adequate advocacy …
Category: Consumer affairs
More BBC nonsense
It appears that the BBC thinks its audience wants to watch the side of the head of its reporters. Tonight, BBC news showed its reporters in various poses. A prominent new pose is the reporter speaking well to the side of the camera so that viewers are looking at the side of their head. Why? …
Google is catching up with Facebook
Facebook’s reputation has been tarnished with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and now Google has been caught out by still tracking devices even when location history is turned off. Google is catching up with Facebook in this unwelcome competition. However, not many people know that they are still logged in to Facebook on all devices on …
Invoices, emails and warranties
I have a three-year warranty for my laptop computer with Hewlett-Packard. The start date of the warranty is wrong. When I emailed HP customer care to correct it, forwarding the original email response confirming my purchase, they wanted ‘a scan of the hardware invoice’, which I sent. This begs two questions: 1. what use is …
Unbelief and victim abuse
Victim abuse occurs when a victim's account of their abuse is not believed. It has surfaced in recent times because historically rape victims were not believed. It is slowly being applied to domestic abuse where abused persons have been forced to leave their domestic home because they are not believed to be victims. However, it …
Taking complaints seriously
Too late, Jeremy Corbyn is discovering the effects of not taking seriously the complaints about antisemitism in the Labour Party. He is now on the back foot and trying to salvage the situation with as much damage limitation as he can muster. Russia and Vladimir Putin are discovering the same. After thinking they could ignore …
Built-in obsolence
Not enough consumers know about built-in obsolescence, which would inform their shopping habits. Built-in obsolescence is the deliberate limiting and shortening the useful life of products. The latest example is Apple's confirmation that it deliberately slows down some models of its iPhone as they age. It explains and justifies doing so in order to match …
Do PDFs save paper?
PDF files are excellent, but do they save paper? How many emails do you receive that ask you to consider whether you need to print it out? Our environmentally conscious age is trying to save paper. PDFs are excellent as one can highlight them, annotate them, remove the annotation, change them, add to them, etc. …
The risk in disposing of electronic devices
When you buy a new electronic device, do you consider how you will dispose of it? When your computer dies there are implications for identity theft if you do not dispose of it properly. You may have heard about hard drives from disposed computers being examined in distant countries to discover the identity of the …
Continue reading The risk in disposing of electronic devices
Fighting for consumers
My long battle on behalf of consumers continues. Consumers are receiving a raw deal nowadays. Whereas the internet and online shopping is excellent, there is a down side to which retailers and consumers are not giving enough attention. This downside is experienced by many consumers, too many of whom simply accept it and move on. …
