O h, there are some days that make you want to spit, scream and say inappropriate words at a very loud volume. Days when bureacracy, red tape and non-sensical stuff seems designed to slow you down and raise your temperature. Witness my dealings this week with Ebay and Opodo.


At a time when you'd presume that Ebay would be doing all it can to hold onto its members (if you'll pardon that expression), they seem to be instigating a series of rules and regulations designed to piss off a lot of its customers. A while back they put in place a rule that said while buyers could criticise sellers if they felt they hadn't got the service/goods required, that sellers would no longer have the same right. They said this was to avoid the tit-for-tat feuds that sometimes arose. Of course, that logic is a little like saying that a court should get rid of the prosecution because it was irritating to the defence. Idiotic. NOW, ebay have said that certain categories must only include items where the seller cannot charge any postage. Nil. Zip. Nada. Again, this is deemed 'fair'. The categories 'media/memorabilia etc fall under the new remit and so basically EVERYTHING I want to sell now would have to be posted for free. My only choices are to up the cost of the item to cover this or to not use ebay at all.  Given I need some profit but need to remain viable, it won't work. So, ta-ta ebay, don't let the fucking opportunistic door hit you on the way out. I'm done.

Yesterday I decided I'd better check if my two bag allowance for my upcoming flights was actually 20KG or 23KG per bag (this could be important, one needs to know how many socks to pack for -10 weather etc). I printed out my electronic ticket for my flights next week and noted that on one of the three-legs of my journey out to Sioux Falls (*probably* no problem on the way back), one of the planes only allowed one piece of baggage, rather than the 'two bag allowance' allowed on every other part - as per my normal travel). Now, normally, if flights are all on one booking/ticket the 'two' is honoured, especially as this is only a 1/6 of the journey, but I thought I'd better check this as well.

I phoned Opodo and was directed to KLM who directed me back to Opodo (You see where this is not/going, right?). At this moment people seem to think that I'll only be allowed to take ONE bag on the whole trip (for a month to the States?) UNLESS I pay what could be $50 extra  for that short final leg (possibly in both directions given NorthWest's internal changes).  Opodo don't seem to be in any hurry to sort out or clarify ('We need to check with KLM/NorthWest again and that office isn't open today and I won't be in tomorrow myself, could I maybe call you back Tuesday?'  Answer: 'NO. You can't. I want this sorted!'). But I probably won't know either way until later tomorrow.  I tend to think significant additional costs should be pointed out at the time of booking, how about you?

So basically, this last week I've lost a potential £50-£100 worth of ebaying potential and may be charged $50-$100 extra for existing flightage. Good job I'm hugely wealthy and there's not a recession, right?

In other news, my laptop's working okay.  Good job, really. Can you imagine how I'd be venting at PC World about now if it wasn't?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.