Sunday 26 September 2010

T.O.B.I. - Tired Of Being Ignored

I’ve had a few bits of correspondence since I posted up my last blog (yesterday). One of them (Paul) suggested I change the name of this blog to RAY FRENCHES 'EM’


And then listening to a radio broadcast this evening about the Tea Party grassroots political movement in the USA, it occurred to me someone should start up a similar people-power activist group in the UK (although not along the political parameters of the Tea Party)….

And remembering one of my favourite all-time movies Network and its mantra: “I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not going to Take it anymore!”…

… the name came to me:

T.O.B.I. - Tired Of Being Ignored……

Let me think about it over the next few days…

Selling on Amazon? FORGET IT! - another Rant

OK, I’ve been holding this one back a couple of weeks, letting it brood and fester.
And seeing as I shall probably be filming in the coming weeks, I thought it best be posted now.

Isn’t it always the way, like London buses, you wait for one for ages and then three come along together?
I’m starting to get the same feeling about life, and the cock-up principle. First there was BT (see my blog of 22nd August inst. http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/bt-part-4-yet-another-broadband-rant.html) - and that is still unresolved…I’m still waiting for your phone call, Mr. Das…

And now it’s amazon.co.uk - something that started a couple of months ago and then started to spiral out of control and travel to another planet. Here’s my latest communication to Amazon, I think it sets out ‘the story so far’!:-
Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?:
3rd June, 2010: I decided to sell a few items on amazon.co.uk. I was led to your complex web of buttons and ended up setting up a Merchant Seller account. However, having the listed the few titles I had for sale, I immediately realised your company were going to charge me about £25 per month for the privilege.

I immediately sent a request (3rd June) to close down my selling account / capacity. But your site is so complex and confusing (rather like the structure of your company, I have come to realise) it took you about five days to respond.

8th June, 2010: I receive a communication from Michael Janowicz ( mjanowi@amazon.com ) telling me he will look into my case.
 
22nd June, 2010: Case No. 9126312 is created.
You also inform me that I have sold an item (for £25 - £2.75 charges) and that I have yet to transfer this money to any of my accounts.

Amazon then make a couple of attempts to extract money from my account - all rejected.

24th July, 2010: Consequently, I discover that my selling account is still open, Against my expressed wishes.

3rd August, 2020: Eventually (!) I am sent an email by Amazon Services Europe that my Pro Merchant account subscription (sic) is cancelled.

18th August, 2010: I receive an e-mail from one Narsing K of Amazon.co.uk Seller Support [quoting Case No. 10111292 - a new number] informing me “I have checked and confirmed that your account has been closed”. I thought that was the end of it.

How wrong I was. (This is, after all, amazon - and it is very evident to me by now that your departments are not co-ordinating or even communicating with each other). Because….

31st August, 2010 (5pm GMT): I receive an e-mail from amazon telling me your company had taken out of my bank account an unspecified sum…(characteristically helpful, amazon) [I later discover, from my Bank, the sum is £11.83] - Unauthorised by me.

When I attempt to raise a query with you, you respond (31st Aug) by telling me that the Ray Frensham selling account was Open (you had already assured me it was closed) and informing me you were Unable to cancel my Merchant Account.

…There was a trace of a silver lining, of course: you invited me (sic) to…(here we go again)…open up a new case! [N.B.: Trouble was, the link they sent me was Not one where I could open up a new case but to a place where I could edit my credit card details].

Well this is it.

I want ALL (and any) selling account/s in my name cancelled immediately; I want an explanation as to what the heck is going on; I want action; I want it done NOW; I want my money/ies refunded into my bank account. A.S.A.P.

But it still doesn’t end there:-

1st September, 2010 (7.13.pm GMT): I receive yet another e-mail from your company (this time from “Joannne” at amazon.co.uk Seller Support), with yet Another new case number [No. 10356622] - the third one to date - assuring me “this matter is being investigated”.

To be honest: I don’t believe you anymore. I don’t think that one part of amazon knows what any other part is doing. What a mess.

The word “compensation” is starting to creep into my vocabulary: not just the amount/s of money you have already taken from my bank account unauthorised, but for the precious time I have wasted in dealing with this matter (repeatedly) and for the stress caused thereby - which is still on-going.

[[For what it’s worth, I am now in discussions with my own publishers (Hodder & Stoughton/Hodder Headline and McGraw-Hill) to have my book titles withdrawn from your distribution database - worldwide (including foreign translations).

You have clearly demonstrated to me that amazon cannot reliably handle customers’ accounts I am starting to wonder whether the sales figures you return to my publishers are accurate in the first place. Please do not force me to send in the Accountants to examine your books.]]

…and don’t even flatter yourselves into thinking I will use amazon again to buy stuff. [I think this story is good enough to post up on my blog].

- And that was where my (new) complaint letter ended. But that didn’t stop Amazon, oh no. Because three days later…

4th September: I received another e-mail from Narsing K of Seller Support (.co.uk) [Ref. Case No.: 10111292 - remember that one?]: “I can now confirm that your account has been closed”. [Although he didn’t specify it, I presume he meant a Seller’s account…which one?]. He added: “The £-11.83 (sic) was the pro merchant subscription fee charged on a pro rated basis [don’t they mean pro rata?] for your account upgrade in June. Warmest regards…”

Warmest Regards? Warmest Nothing! The question remains: why did Amazon charge me £11.83 - without my authorisation and without even informing me until after the event - for an account that should not have been open in June anyway, had Amazon actually listened to their customer and done their job properly?

The case continues…

Postscript:
Oh, and for the casual reader, angry at the way Amazon has treated them, I recommend the following websites / information:

Amazon.co.uk’s well-hidden Customer Service phone number
0800 496 1081

You can also try this number 0207 084 7911 (listed as for ‘International Customers’) The 0800 number is working as of January 10th 2010

[[Where did I get this info? http://www.saynoto0870.com/ . Why did I have to go there? Because it’s deliberately buried on the Amazon website so you can’t find it]].

You can also try:-
http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/i_hate_amazoncom.php

…and if you are in the USA:
http://gethuman.com/Amazon_com-customer-service_44.html
Another Very Useful link:

http://ceoemails.com/
This gives you the personal e-mails of the CEOs and Managing Directors of many major companies. Bombard them with complaints direct and see if you get anywhere. (I was recommended this site by someone in Government, so it should be effective, if a rather hush-hush site).

I shall regularly update this posting and see where it takes is. Are you reading this Amazon.co.uk??? …and if you are, do you CARE?

Thursday 23 September 2010

Filming in London with Off-Beat London site

Another look back to earlier this year (10th April, to be precise) and a day spent filming in London with Murielle Gonzalez Oisel for a new website called OffBeat London: ( http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/  ), specifically:-
http://www.offbeatlondon.co.uk/Issue03/quirks/eccentrics.html

She later posted up the video on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/11324381
…and on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3Ihl7oo8A
[or just put into YouTube’s search box: Ray Frensham Living Victorian].
- it’s only 2’ 16” long so it won’t tax your brain too much and people seem to like it - Ah! my wonderful adoring public…I love you all!.

Basically, we spent a very nice sunny Spring Saturday afternoon together, being interviewed at an outside coffee shop in Jermyn Street and then a stroll through Green Park - from Piccadilly to Buckingham Palace - chatting and filming and snapping away as we went. Listening to the film she made, my voice was terribly gruff and gravely that day - maybe it was the effect of the traffic exhaust fumes from Jermyn Street.

I lost count of the number of times we were stopped by tourists and asked for a photo (see the results below) - you can tell it was sunny, I seem to have with a permanent squint that day.


When I look back on that time of the year, it was a busy time. The sun had started to peek through after a long, hard and cruel winter, it was only a few days after I’d done the film with Russian TV (see this blog: http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/filming-with-russian-tv_06.html
or http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/189725/  )
and just a day after Ian Flitman and I had filmed my section for The People, his interactive video installation (see this blog: http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/and-now-i-am-become-art-installation.html
or http://www.blipstation.com/thepeople/webversion/release/ThePeople.html  )

Wednesday 15 September 2010

The Art of Acting British

A few days ago I came across a recent piece by my chum and fellow dandy Winston Chesterfield. He made such pertinent points and so elegantly expressed I felt compelled to simply re-post as is (which I do with his permission).

He was also photographed by Stephanie Rushton, (http://www.stephanierushton.com/ ), below - whose portraits I recently posted up in three parts - for her English Eccentrics project:
The Art Of Acting British (September 12, 2010)


“On the 4th September Jermyn Street, London’s shoe-and-shirt mecca, was closed to traffic. However, this was no ordinary inconvenience. The entire street had been taken over for the celebration of a particular Art; the Art of Being British. Many of the street’s retailers had set up stalls exhibiting their trade, trumpeting British values of quality….

“…It was a confection as British as an imagination would dare and, acknowledging the special occasion, some of the crowd had taken the opportunity to exhibit their Art of being British. I say ‘being British’, when in fact I mean ‘acting British’; most of the fantastically, elegantly and colourfully dressed gentlemen there were not British at all yet they chose to mark the day in particularly British ensembles; tweed suits, fedoras, bow ties and even bowler hats. I heard Italian, American, Spanish and French visitors enjoying their promenade on this special day, attired in beautiful British classics. My fellow countrymen were largely anonymous.

“You see, the trouble with the British is most of them are trying to be something else. They want to be Italian, or American or French. They’re either not comfortable with their nationality, or they secretly believe the grass is greener. Admittedly, the effect can be repeated elsewhere – Milan is full of men who see British tailoring as the pinnacle of elegance. But despite all the apparent British nationalism, our connection with Britishness, all the stuff that Jermyn Street was celebrating – that oaky, tweedy, burnished state of being - has become a museum in itself. Our citizens wander around in this world with a passive unconcern that suggests it no longer exists. Whereas those looking in on Britain see such things as worthy of protection and celebration, the curious Brits who peer in through the windows seemed to have lost all association with that world.”


- Food for thought indeed. Winston’s own blog can be found at:
http://venividivrai.blogspot.com/

Saturday 4 September 2010

Henry de Winter - At Last: his Website !!!

Since I discovered this man and his music a couple of years ago I have written regularly about Henry de Winter:-

http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/bratislava-hot-serenaders.html ,

http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/07/bratislava-hot-serenaders-henry-de.html
and
http://rayfrenshamworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-who-is-henry-de-winter-quest.html

But there was such scant information about him, I felt helpless when responding to all the enquiries I received from my friends (not just in Europe but from America, where HdeW is now gaining a growing fan base, mostly thanks to his two YouTube recordings with the Bratislava Hot Serenaders - links above). [Again, click on the pics to get larger versions, then click again on That pic to get the full  sized versions].
I knew he had released 3 CDs (see my previous blogs for photos), all of them very difficult to obtain and a trifle expensive [I am still looking for Volume 1 myself], as were the postage costs from Germany via amazon.de . Sometimes the odd item might appear on ebay.de, as I recently bought this card (below) dated December 1997, but these were very rare occasions. And hard information was still proving elusive.


He did have a website presence, but that had been dormant for years (possibly unactivated). All it showed was a photo of Henry gardening with his dog Bobby - Peter, his original dog, and the one who appears in the YouTube videos and on the cover of his 2nd CD - having passed some years ago.
…even when gardening, he still looks immaculate!


Things started to change earlier this year (2010) when my chum Imants, who runs the Eccentric Club (http://www.eccentricclub.co.uk/ ), gave me his home address. In typical fashion, Henry has an e-mail address but is not online himself. [They have a term for “these people” now: Digital Refuseniks… and their numbers are growing!].

And so began our mutual efforts to bring this Legend to the UK. We had to start with the complex negotiations with Pet Passports and forms for Bobby (Henry goes everywhere with his canine companion, you may have realised by now). Unfortunately, at the very last moment, illness intervened and any planned gig had to be postponed.

HOWEVER, now - At Last!, Henry’s Official Website has been launched and here it is:-
http://henry-de-winter.de/

It’s in German (for the present), so here’s a link to Google Translator, which may help you:-
http://translate.google.com/#deen
[[Henry has since been in touch, to tell me that an English version is being worked on]].
                                                                                                    
Sir Henry and the BHS are also now on FaceBook:-
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henry-De-Winter/194716343888147

and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bratislava-Hot-Serenaders/58985520945
…and their FanClub page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53174855459

- And even on MySpace:-
http://www.myspace.com/henry-de-winter

http://www.myspace.com/bratislavahotserenaders

…and here’s the official website for the Bratislava Hot Serenaders (in English):-
http://www.serenaders.sk/?lang=en
 
Here are four pictures from Henry’s website, to give you an idea of the quality...



Also posted up on the site are his two YouTube recordings with the BHS + details of his CDs. There are lots of photos in the Medien section (no, you can’t ‘grab’ them, but you can on the FaceBook page), including a particularly splendid shot of Henry and the BHS on the Orient Express.

I am now in contact with his [new?] agent (Diana Enders) and have asked whether we can buy his CDs direct from the site (it’s not specified).

Over the recent months I have been sent a selection of random photos of Herr de Winter from various sources, which follow. Firstly, a couple of shots of Henry and the BHS on their 2002 debut in the Netherlands … and of the Morning After (Henry still impossibly immaculate! - how does he do it?):-

The Trocadero Ball in Wuppertal, Germany, 2003:


Dancing at Berlin’s Club Sauvage in 2007:

A candid photo at the Berliner Kunsthall (November 2009):

A shot from an Art Gallery, unknown date, but probably 2009/2010:



Two shots with a German Vogue magazine link (from 2010?): a shot from the magazine itself and one taken a few months later at that issue’s launch party:


And perhaps the two most recent photos of the man (?): one taken a few months ago, with Bobby again, when he played a Benefit for a young Leukaemia patient named Lisa:

And one taken on 29th August, 2010, out for a pleasant Stroll in Berlin [look at the faces on the people passing-by…hilarious! They just don’t ‘get’ it]

So, the website is active. Henry is active and performing: he’s currently working on a new show (which will be touring 2010 and 2011) and a new album of recordings is promised. His next immediate live show is part of the Berlin Story Salon (which, it seems, is also a TV series) on October 6th. Here’s the link + details:-
http://www.berlinstory.de/salon/programm-salon/henry-de-winter.html

I will finish this blog entry with what, I think, is my favourite shot of Henry (and just look at those trousers: Double-braided seams!!…fantastic). It epitomises everything about the man and his music...

[[ For those interested in this type of music, Henry is at the forefront of a whole new wave of German performers (mostly based in Berlin) like the Trio Ohrenschmalz, Daniel Malheur, Max Raabe & his Palast Orchester, Robert Kreis etc. (I shall no doubt get round to covering them at some point) - but I discovered Henry de Winter first and in This household, the man is a Legend!]]

From Berlin… to the World!

Thursday 2 September 2010

Stephanie Rushton photo shoot - Part 3 (of 3)

Back to last August 25th and the final selection from the photo shoot I did with Stephanie Rushton at Valentines Mansion, just down the road at Gants Hill.

We left out intrepid explorers out in the gardens of the Mansion, happily snapping away, when suddenly it started to get overcast (and, latterly, with “a few spits and spots of rain“, as the BBC Weathermen are wont to say).

So we moved inside of the Mansion itself. The full history of the mansion and it’s restoration can be found by following the links in Part 1 of this trilogy of postings.

With so many rooms and wings and extensions to the building the photographs were done all over the place. The fireplace /with the birds wallpaper was on the ground floor, as was the room with the chair and the plain green painted walls. The fireplace with the flowers wallpaper was upstairs.

The curators did ask us kindly Not to touch or sit on the furniture - not because they were over-precious about things, but because all the pieces were on loan from the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and naturally subject to all manner of Insurance Policy restrictions.

Still we managed to have a little bit of fun upstairs courtesy of Steph’s “post-production”, as you can see.


As we were getting towards the end of the day’s shoot, the weather started brightening up again outside - so we decided to venture out for a few last shots.

And that was it really. Stephanie and I went off for a coffee in the gardens whole the sun still shone. Later she sent me the results (it’s hard Not to be pleased with this collection of photographs).

A few months after these were done, Stephanie is well under-way with her book / exhibition / project English Eccentrics, and is even in discussion with Getty Images, who are interested in adding some of her work to their photo library (if that comes off, we all stand to get a nice little earner from this splendid day).

http://www.stephanierushton.com/eccentrics.html

To repeat, you can find the whole photo-shoot on this ’secret’ link!:
http://gallery.me.com/stephrushton/100522