If ever you are in need of an exemplary misnomer or a perfect example of unintentional irony then you need look no further than the first word of Budget Car Rental in Ireland. European law is currently clamping down on the way budget airlines display prices on their website - it wouldn’t be bad thing to move straight on to their partners in crime, the airport based car rental companies, especially Budget.

In June, I visited the Budget site for Ireland to arrange a car for 2 and half days. Pick up 11:30 on Thursday night and drop off Sunday morning at 7 am. I declined CDW as I always do knowing full well that I would be pressured into taking it at pick up desk (I normally succumb and agree) and my full quote for an economy car came back at 31 euros. Bargain - but for a frequent traveller like myself every little helps.

At this point it is useful to state the following, verbatim from the Budget site:

Includes compulsory Insurances (excluding CDW), Gov. Tax, Unlimited Mileage and 24hr Breakdown cover. Please take a moment to read the Terms & Conditions of rental before making your booking.

Ok, I can deal with that. I knew I would end up taking the CDW at the airport, but it’s never that bad.

Now move on to midnight June 26th after a delayed flight, tired and ready to pick up my hire car.

After the usual spiel about CDW from the very unfriendly, burly Budget desk operative I ask the price of CDW. 18 euros per day, I decide this time I am not taking the pressure sell. I am told the only way I get the car is if I put a returnable 2000 euro deposit down. I argue this point for a while and then give him my credit card. Unfortunately the magnetic strip won’t swipe through his machine and for some reason he can’t key in the number whilst I am present. Convenient that his only option to let me have the car is to take more non-returnable money from me on a different card that doesn’t have 2000 euros available.

So I opt for 3 days extra at 18 euros a day more. That’s 54 euros plus my 31 quote. 85 euros. Ok, I just want to get to my room and sleep. So he passes me the papers to sign.

Swindle 1: 205 euros will be deducted from my card. Permit me to say “what the fuck”.

After demanding an explanation I am told: airport taxes are added on - I never saw mention of this on the website. There is an 85 euro fuel deposit that I will get back when I hand the car back with a full tank. The latter is fair enough, but I am not ready to let this asshole get my money with out a fight.

“Can I speak to the manager?”

“You’re not getting past me.”

“Fine, so how come the petrol is 85 euros?”

“It’s over 1.30 euros a litre at the pump these days.”

So after comfirming that I will definitely get back my deposit for the fuel I sign and pay 120 euros for a car that I was originally quoted 31 for. My daily rate is now more than the original quote for all three days.

But is doesn’t end there.

Swindle 2: I filled the car before I returned it. Half a tank at 25 Euros. Budget would have charged me an extra 35 euros above the pump rate to fill the car.

The car was checked and in perfect order. I stood at the desk and watched the young polish lady do a refund for the petrol of 85 euros on my card.

Swindle 3: over 5 weeks later and the “returnable” money has still not been returned to my card.

Yesterday I called Budget. I waited 4 minutes for an answer. Explained my situation and was told “I’ll have to put you through to customer services”. I waited 1 more minute and explained my answer to the next person and was told I’ll have to put you through to customer services”. I waited 3 more minutes and was told the lines were busy, my number was taken and I was assured I would be be called back.

Did they call me back? Budget Car Rentals’ assurances are about as valid as the quotes you will get from their web site. Stay clear.

Much of the Ajax / PHP technical content has moved since I put the redesign in place. Things are also too busy in the WGO camp for me to find them and put back where they came from. Thanks Adam for the nudge.

However, it will be done soon.

I am still unable to report on the Zune device as my eBay purchase has not arrived. Or should I say it has arrived and dutifully returned by the splendid Spanish postal service who, for reasons only known to them, got it as far as my office building in 2 days, and then spent 2 weeks returning it to from whence it came.

Finally, I’ll have an exciting, new, client project to rave about here soon. Launch should be next week and I will be sharing some of the new web development ideas and techiques I have developed in its wake. Drag and drop will never be the same.

This is beautiful, funny and worrying at the same time. Giles Coren’s letter to the Times sub-editors about the removal of the indefinite article “a” from a sentence and the subsequent response.

Be warned - contains copious profanities, bad grammar and a glimpse into the tense realtionship between writers and sub-editors.

Update: I bought an 80GB Zune on eBay this morning, so when it arrives I will be publishing a post comparing the two.

Is it time to try the Zune?

My 4th iPod in 3 years has given up the ghost. I am stuck in a continuous loop of “Connect your computer. Use iTunes to Restore”. Of course, connecting to my computer and using iTunes to restore does nothing.

My first iPod was the original. It lasted a year before dying. By the time it did the video version was on the market. Naturally I upgraded and after 11 months the battery on my new necessity died. I got a new iPod on guarantee with - get this - a 3 month warranty. After 9 months this one died in the continuous restore loop mentioned above.

Now I am considering why I should hand over money to Apple for a new iPod when there are cheaper models on the market. I am wondering why I should not give the Zune a chance that costs exactly the same and gives the similar specs storage wise and is not locked to a piece of software (iTunes).

I need 30GB for my music collection. Unfortunately when you hit this niche of the market you are stuck with the iPod, Zune or one of Creative’s offerings. I don’t like Creative’s bulky style - I need something light and durable. So that leaves me juggling the Zune or the iPod. Is it better the devil you know, or do I give the Zune a chance? Either way I have to fork out 220 euros so I’ll get back to you on that one.

Southern Spain. An internet kiosk in the lobby of a residential block. A portly woman with two young children pulls up a chair and gazes at the screen.

“How come this is not in English?”

This tutorial supercedes my previous turtorial on autocompletion by adding further tips and tricks to make your autocompletion a much better experience for your site users The tutorial is structured in the following way:

1. Introduction: What is autocompletion and why use it?
2. How it works.
3. Getting scriptaculous and building the form.
4. Building the autocomplete server.
5. Passing back an id to our form.

|Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…