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Had to make a video conference call the other day and I needed a gadget to make it all work. So thought I'd pop into Maplins our resident local techie and gadget shop on the way to work.

Parked outside at 08.50 and the store opened at 09.00. Not a problem, so I hung around the store entrance at one with my thoughts

At 08.55, the stores doors opened and gangly youth in company attire came out.

Me: "Are you open now?"

Youth: "Erm dunno, don't think so...  <after some thought> no it opens at 9"

The youth then stands next to me and sparks up a fag 

Bearing in mind we are standing in the door way of Maplins. I just turn, look at him and start coughing. He then scuffles about 6 feet to his right and blows out a cloud of smoke. I cough again and he slouches off behind the building.

As thoughts of "I wonder what the  store manager would think if he saw that" cross my mind, I realise a second youngster, but attired in a shirt and tie is actually also standing outside the front pushing adjusting a display.

As it turns 9 oclock, I ask the shirt wearing and obviously the senior of the pair if I can set foot in their establishment. I'm told the store is now open.

30 seconds later, I've got my gadget, paid and walking out the door bemused. Maybe next time I'll order it online!

Just goes to show with these larger chains, customer service and retail experience is only as good as the last member of staff you interacted with.

Somehow though I doubt very much you would find any employees smoking outside the main doors of any Tescos, Sainsburys, WH Smith, MacDonalds branches, or in fact any other major retail group?

Maybe it's more relaxed, cool and funky at Maplins Stratford?

Can you not subby out the surplus leads, skim and have longer in bed?

Xmas is an odd time for us. Like you, people tend to switch off advertising wise so we see a drop in listings, fewer upgrades and forum activity goes a little quiet over December.

But we do see a surge in Post Office searches, and noticed our Royal Mail blog post is doing well, so we do quite well monetizing that traffic, which helps with xmas slump.

But I tend to use November - January for project planning and tackling outstanding issues which have been on the back burner all year. This year is no different and we are waiting for a major site to go live who is utilising our search database to display their members, and we are half way through a local government project to provide a trader search facility. Quite exciting (well for us), but a reminder that local authority and private business run in different timezones 

Hello ask2infinity thanks for the feedback

I'm glad you have found the service useful and it has been beneficial.

Other than Anne Summers and Strip a gram type listings (which are monitored for decency), we certainly don't allow any adult or scam type business listings and filter those out on a daily and continual basis, both automatically and manually.

But with 1.5 million businesses listed there is always the chance of unscrupulous businesses slipping through, and we get all sorts of bizarre attempts to try and get round our spam filters.

If you think you have been scammed by a business listed on our site, please let us know because we will investigate.

In the past we have referred rogue businesses to both Trading Standards and the Police.

Feel free to either Private Message me with more details or use our contact form and give as much detail as you can.

Any problems let me know.

As boys toys go, they don't get much better 

The Russian currency crisis isn't far from the headlines in recent history, especially with the incredible interest rates rise from 10.5% to 17%! 

Imagine that here? Be no shortage of repossessed homes on the market! Be great for savings though

The crisis has been brought about by economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis as well as the falling price in crud oil.

But an interesting story on the Beeb is that Apple are suspending sales while the currency plummets in value, more than 20% this week! Apple raised it's prices by 20% last month, but has now decided it can't sell it's products under the current market conditions.

BBC News: Apple halting online sales in Russia

I wonder how many more businesses are having the same problem and imagine being a business based in Russia?

So sanctions combined with oil prices are certainly working as the government pumps billions of rouples into the economy trying to keep it afloat, but it makes you wonder if the Putin administration will manage to hold onto power?

It can't be a nice time to be living or working in Russia at the moment, and crisis like this tends to make the world a little more dangerous (if that's possible), as discontent and desperation take hold.

What does anyone think, will it be a return to the late 1990's when the Russian economy nearly collapsed? Could there be any repercussions for the rest of Europe or global markets?

It's a conspiracy created by 21 year old system administrators and HP employees.

All of a sudden I can now print from the interweb again, the universal all in one driver has re-appeared as a download on the HP site. I've just installed it on Clives PC who is now printing to big Bessie again and calling me a technical clown 

Honestly it wasn't there.. I'm not making it up....

Or I've got Alzheimer's...   bloody computers