HxBro's Blog » Rants

Companies that don’t encode their emails properly

HxBro — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:29:25 +0000

One thing that I’ve noticed recently is the number of emails I get from companies that don’t get to me due to email headers not been encoded correctly. So I’ve decided to start a name and shame section for me to post the ones that do send emails that are broken. I expect a lot of spam/virus filters out there will block these emails so companies are losing out on potential business by not doing something which should be straight forward to fix.

Ebuyer – Has for some really unknown reason has 3/4 in their X-Mailer: header, this really is a strange one, for most emails from other companies it’s something in the subject but in the X-Mailer header?!?!??!

Aria – Subjects not encoded, they always have Â£ in their subject

ebookers – Subjects not encoded, another Â£ in the subject

Petsupermarket – Subjects not encoded, another Â£ in the subject and a ; randomly in the text – surely someone proof reads before sending the emails out ?

CCL Online – Subjects not encoded, another Â£ in the subject

Advanced mp3 players – subjects not encoded, another Â£ in the subject

I’ve contacted some of the above companies, and will do the rest if I can find technical contacts that would deal with this sort of thing on their website.

Feel free to post any companies that fail to follow proper email encoding.

ebay rant

HxBro — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:08:25 +0000

Well after several emails I finally find out that it’s bleem that’s causing the problem with my dreamcast listing. What f*cks me off is that they don’t tell you this, and each time I asked them what the exact problem was they came back with the same standard reply slightly modified from the last reply, if someone takes the time to check the listing then they could take the time to say exactly what the problem is instead of saying your “listing contains unauthorised copies,” (yes there was a comma at the end of the sentance), which I took to suggest I was selling copied games which I’m not. I did point out that maybe they should say exactly what the problem is for users in the future, I’m sure some people will have been in the same situation and got annoyed with ebay.

Anyway I’ll be relisting it shortly minus the mention of emulators or bleem, but I’ll still list gran turismo 2 and I’ll post up the new link to the auction.

New York hopes to ban ipods/mobiles/etc from been used on streets

HxBro — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:05:32 +0000

Madness? Clever?

A New York state senator has announced his plan to introduce legislation that would ban the use of electronic devices such as iPods, BlackBerrys and cell phones while crossing streets in major cities.

If you are caught doing it then you can get a fine for $100.

Personally I’d find it annoying taking my headphones off when crossing roads, I suppose you could just wear a hat that hid the earphones, obviously mobile phones could be a problem as you are easily distracted, but what about talking to a friend who is walking with you, it’s just the same thing although I’d hope your friend would pull you back if they saw a bus coming towards you

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6157109.html

Amazon Super Saver Delivery

HxBro — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:50:30 +0000

Way back in the depths of last year on the 10th Oct 2006, I ordered a book The Curry Secret (supposed to be a really good book on indian cooking, I’ll post more info when I’ve had a go at cooking some of the recipes) from amazon with free super saver delivery, which is supposed to be 2-5 days longer than 1st class would take, which I was happy to wait. Well after several thousand million days the book finally arrived today on the 16th Jan 2007, is this a record for 2-5 days, amazon seem to have a different idea to 2-5 days to the rest of us. Maybe I should send them a calendar

Froogle Prices Ex-Vat Rant

HxBro — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:10:32 +0000

Froogle is excellent for finding cheap prices on thousands of products but what annoys me is you search for an item, you then list in price order lowest to highest, you then click on the item to find it’s the price ex-vat. Now why can’t google work this out, surely it can’t be that difficult to parse the information out or maybe even ask shops to include something to allow this price to be found. Instead you get a list of prices from froogle some with vat some without vat so you don’t know which the price is the cheapest without having to go through all the items in the list.

Come on google sort it out!