Of web sites, computer gremlins and a dud Acer laptop

Towards the end of a couple of weeks in which I finally obtained a refund on the failed Acer computer bought from “At your Fingertips in Leigh Park, I had problems connecting to my web sites to update them after something of a lull in activity.

Obtaining the refund was a relief, though had taken several weeks, several E-mails and a letter, a few consultations with trading Standards, plus Jo having her say, in no uncertain terms, while we were in the shop. Oddly, not much more than a minute after we got there, Cecilia Harding took a ‘phone call that turned out to be, apparently, from Anthony, her supplier, it being, for some reason, crucial that he agreed to supply a replacement computer to sell, as new, so that she would not lose out financially, not up to her to settle with me, a customer, and take it up with her supplier afterwards; completely at odds with Trading Standards interpretation of the Law in which they specialise; odd. Even odder was Anthony phoning a minute or two after Jo and I arrived, unannounced at het shop. My comment at the time was
“Your computer supplier must be more psychic than I am!”

After a further exchange of E-mails I was able to recover my £485 a few days later, on the following Wednesday, travelling over there with Fedor, to return the loan computer, which I had long before stopped using for fear that would give out as well.

The Hewlett Packard laptop I had already purchased from Currys, in Havant, was, at £400, cheaper, of a higher specification than the Acer computer, plus being a new one, compared suspicions on the vintage of the Acer computer after we looked it up online.

Over the weekend and early this week I went back to updating my web sites then came across a linking problem, again. The home version of the FTP programme I had used for many months refused to set up and link, as did my backup one, initially. Finally I managed to update several diary pages as well as the ones on the Second Hayling Island Bridge following an article a couple of weeks ago by Elise Brewerton in “The News” (Portsmouth), “Campaigners are hoping to get funding for a second Hayling bridge to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians to cross to the island”.

On top of that I had “borrowed” a photo of the Aberfeldy bridge, with an acknowledgement of the source, which the Haying Island one would have followed on from if Havant Borough Council had been co-operative, only to realise that it would not appear on the Hayling Island Second Bridge page of my RLK Associates web site because it was a GIF image rather than JPEG image. That is something I have to sort out quickly in order to have it ready before sending a large circulation E-mail about the bridge that could have been had Havant Borough Council not ignored, obstructed.