Review: CeX Online (Webuy.com)

CeX are known for their stores around the country for buying and selling CDs, DVDs, and console games. What you might not know is that they also sell a large amount of their stock online, on their website at webuy.com.

However, before you consider buying something there, let me tell you about my experience with the company.

Earlier this month, I ordered an old Xbox 360 game off their site, for £3. It's quite an old title, Xbox Live Arcade Compilation - a multipack of games including Bejeweled 2. I ordered it, paid on my card, and waited. About 10 days later, a package arrived, but with the wrong game. It was close, they'd sent a different Xbox Live Arcade Compliation - a volume containing different games, so probably an honest mistake.

Noticing the mistake, I emailed their support address, asking for a replacement. I recieved a reply within about 48 hours, saying this...

"I apologise for this fault.

If you can return the item, we will be happy to issue a replacement or a refund. You must include a copy of the confirmation email and an explanation with the return. If you can provide proof of postage, we will reimburse any postage fees you may incur, by way of cheque.

We suggest that you send any packages to us via Royal Mail Recorded or Special Delivery, as Cex cannot take responsibility for goods that cannot be accounted for."

So,  CeX are suggesting that I pack it up, trek to the post office, queue for half an hour, mail it, send them a receipt for payment of postage, wait for a cheque, visit the bank, queue again, bank the cheque, and wait for a week for it to clear. All that ontop of the extra fortnight or so waiting for the right game to arrive, and all because of their screw-up.

I've emailed them back on January 24th, (6 days ago at time of writing), offering to mail back the incorrect item once they ship me the correct one if they send me a prepaid envelope, but so far have not had a response.

No reply to the email so far, and I've been looking for a phone number to talk to someone from CeX directly about the problem - but their site doesn't list one. Nowhere seems to have a phone number for CeX, and I fear I may have lost £3.

On the bright side, it's only £3, but they sell more "big-ticket" items like consoles and mobile phones too, so heed this warning - don't buy from CeX.

EDIT: For the sale of editorial completeness, I should point out that as of June 2011, CeX have read this blog - not surprising, seeing as it comes up in the first page of search results for "CeX Review" and for "Webuy.com" too - and contacted me from their US offices by email. They have offered to refund the £3 I originally paid, plus a goodwill gesture of 32p towards the postage I paid to return the game to them. They still failed to provide the correct game. It's also worth noting that fellow blogger Sam Dawkins has had a similarly frustrating experience with the company.

News: Taunton Man Gets Run Over By Bus

Last night, in Taunton, a man walked out in front of a bus and got mowed down, eyewitnesses say. Police cordoned off the scene outside the Peacocks store on East Street at around midnight.

Officers at the scene refused to comment to BillGBennett.com, but were seen examining the front of the double-decker bus, presumably for debris.

We presume, given that it was a Saturday night, that the man was drunk beyond belief. The lesson here, kids, is that getting drunk off your tits isn't cool. Don't do it.

T-Mobile UK Mobile Broadband - A Review

First off, let me say that even though I work for Everything Everywhere (who runs T-Mobile in the UK), that has no bearing on this review, which I'm writing on my own and not on behalf of the company in any way.

I've just moved house, and our home broadband (DSL) service isn't being installed for another 2 weeks, so we've had to "make do" with a dongle for a little while. Except it isn't "making do". Our BT line will support up to 1.5Mbps download speed. However, T-Mobile are managing to pull 2.39Mbps. Seriously. Click the screenshot on the right to have a look.


Installation was easy. Start up PC, plug in dongle, follow instructions. Done. That said, it's pretty much the same installation routine for any Huawei dongle supplied by any network (for reference, this one's a Huawei E1750). The co-branded Mobile Partner software works well, doesn't chug and minimises down to the system tray with ease.

Overall, a great piece of kit, and one I'd definately recommend. I picked mine up on special offer at Argos, for £27.99 with 3 months' unlimited usage included, but obviously your mileage may vary.

Chugger Frustration

There was a day when you could decide if you gave to charity, without it being rammed in your face. Then, TV adverts arrived, invading your living room with a picture of some starving orphan, dying animal, or distressed child, goading you into phoning up and donating a certain amount each month to "sponsor" said person/animal/cause/thing.

Luckily, Sky+ came along and eradicated the need to watch adverts if you didn't want to, with a simple press of the "fast-forward" button.

"I'm an annoying little shite
and I want your money"

However, over the last couple of years, a new trend has evolved on the country's shopping streets and in your local town centre. Yes, the age of the Chugger (or "Charity Mugger") is upon us. Imagine the situation. You're strolling through your local town, indulging in a quick spot of shopping, or maybe visiting the bank. Suddenly, you're approached by some n'aer-do-well in a raincoat with a clipboard, asking if you can spare two minutes.

You tell them you're busy, and they just won't listen. They'll tell you that you can spare the time, and maybe follow you up the street, trying to get you to sign up to a direct debit for a charity. You've learnt your lesson.

The next day, another charity is in town, and you'll spy one of their scummy operatives at twenty paces. You walk to the side, trying to avoid them, and maybe looking in the opposite direction. You've successfully evaded this one, but there are three more ahead - and one of them will skip and jump to the side and practically block you in the street until you stop and talk to them. Bad luck. You've been Chugged.

Now, I understand that charities need to raise funds, and it can be an effective way of doing it. However, I strongly believe that the current situation is balanced too much against you and I, the innocents trying to go about our daily business. So, I have a proposition.

It should be made legal for anyone on the street to assault a Chugger. I'm not talking about strong abuse - but there should be no recourse for one of these scumbags if they approach someone and are told to "eff off", or if they jump into your path and you simply smack them out of the way.

Ultimately, of course, I'd like to see them banned from the town centres of Britain, or at least confined to a cage outside Greggs, where they can be visited if one so desires, but if they will have free reign to assault my state of serenity, I should have free reign to beat the crap out of them in return.

Rant over.

Chav Hotel

Just saw this advert on Google...

...huh?

Cat In Bag

Allow me to present Mel's cat, Narla, in a bag.

Because I can.

British Gas - A Warning

There was a time when I sung the praises of British Gas. You'd phone them up, and get through very quickly. Helpful staff were there to sort any queries with courtesy.

Then one day, it all went terribly wrong.

It turned out that they'd been reading our Economy 7 meter the wrong way around - charging cheaper rates for our daytime usage, but at the same time charging a hefty premium more for our nighttime usage. I called up, for what should have been a simple recalculation. The problem was that, due to British Gas's big drive to switch everyone to online paperless billing, I had no way to see my meter reads - only how much I owed - and so the problem had been going on for over a year. It turned out that their systems will only let them go back 9 months to recalculate - so that was a dead end.

Next, they tried cancelling all of my previous bills, and rebilling me. An odd strategy, but all the best ideas are, and so I gave it a shot. A week later, no response, so I chased them up and was told that nobody had left any notes on the account, so we'd have to start from scratch.

Getting frustrated, I asked to speak to a manager, who agreed that there was a problem, and tried rebilling further back. In the meantime, I was beginning to lose faith in British Gas's competency, so I emailed an official complaint to put a "yardstick" in the ground, for after 8 weeks without a resolution you can complain to the Ombudsman for an independant, and binding, ruling on a dispute. An automated reply came back, assuring me of a response within 7 days.

This week came and went with no response, so I was sufficiently ticked off. Another call to customer services, and a young lass managed to rebill the whole account in 10 minutes flat - making me wonder why nobody beforehand could. Even after I informed her that I would definately not be staying with their shambolic company when moving house in a few weeks, she even offered me £30 account credit as a goodwill gesture, which I willingly accepted.

You would think this was the end of the matter, and it would be, if it weren't for the letter I recieved this morning. Firstly, it was addressed to me at someone else's address - a bit of a data security breach there. Secondly, it detailed the terms I had apparently "agreed to" for the "offer" of the £30 credit - namely that it would be credited in 3 months' time so long as I stay with them. If this had been specified when I was offered it, I'd have declined as it would have been useless to me.

Time to call again, and I speak to a guy who informs me that he's scheduled to go on his lunch break in a minute, and asks if it would be alright to call me back later. I stupidly agree, and haven't heard from him since.

So, the moral of the story is a simple one. Don't fall into the trap of British Gas.

You have been warned.