osasa’s blog

On 23rd June 2007 I went to Whole Food Market in Kensington London, a big new store, for lunch. I purchased 0.655kg of the self serve "food bar" for  GBP 11.72 or @ GBP £17.90 a kilo...about US35 a kilo. You might think "organic" food bar for that price?? But no!

If you want mostly organic lunch better go to Planet Organic , 22 Torrington Place, London WC1 7JE.

Because food bar is sold loose and open there is no strong label package law, trust is everything, and so Whole Food Market can take advantage? As they say "we seek out and promote organically grown foods" - it is not the same as clearly labelling the food bar and other products! WFM are out to make money.

Allnaturalchicken

So for example, on the day of my visit, one ingredient was "natural chicken"!! Isn't all "chicken" natural? Would we label it "chemical"? I finally found someone who could tell me it was an "error" - but of course the chicken is not "organic" at all. Who knows what it is? What are you paying for in this store?

Downstairs they confuse even more by selling "free range chicken" - so isn't all the chicken sold AT LEAST free range??

Freerange

This was near to the approx US120 a kilo for "dark chocolate strawberries"...organic strawberries? organic chocolate? Again not properly labelled. Not far away on promotion was some tinned salmon under the "Fresh & Wild" brand: the salmon is certainly not "fresh" and who knows how "wild" it was.

I asked the smoothie juice bar upstairs what fruit in the smoothies was organic - the young man did not know. The older guy thought the bananas might be. Again - using the labelling to sell regular fruit at inflated price? Look carefully around this shop. You'll find a bakery with cakes not clearly labelled - why? Simply, many are not organic cakes - they are just cakes

The store was a mess, chaotic, mad queue system. Plates and food debris on tables.

Wholefd

In short I now avoid this place...

John Lewis will open again in Kensington.

SOUTHWARK PARK LONDON

Koenmiki3

FREE CONCERTS

Bermondsey Beat 2007 Pics

Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band Songs include Knock on Wood & Midnight-hour

Washington

Washingtonband

CHAZ & DAVE

Rabbit Rabbit Bunny Bunny...

Chaz

Buying tickets in the ,  Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers have a code of practice for selling tickets: http://www.s-t-a-r.org.uk/index.html

"Clearly identify the face value of any tickets purchased and any additional booking fees"

"Highlight any terms and conditions, including transferability, cancellation and viewing restrictions"

"Handle bookings in a polite and courteous manner, giving the highest standards of professional service"

The Society of London Theatre's New Guide to Buying Tickets for Shows in the   (PDF 239kb)

http://www.s-t-a-r.org.uk/1530_THEATRE_pg1_corr_p1.pdf

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Bbeat

Timberlakeme

I went to the Dome! Justin gave a FANTASTIC show. But I did not throw my bra at him - but if you do throw your bra you'll get his attention! (Just take an extra bra and chuck it at him). Dome was great but restaurants had long queues.

Finally I picked up my tickets shortly before the event for Block 111 Row F which were very good seats! Thank you to David and Siy, who sorted it for me at 5pm! I've also been offered a full refund too!  It does not compensate me for hours and hours spent with the agent but at least its something.

The twists till the end: one employee told me that tickets were posted to me on Sat 30th by, can you believe it, ROYAL MAIL FIRST CLASS the day after a POSTAL STRIKE (errrrr), they have not arrived! (No suprise!), BUT on Monday 2nd July I am told by another employee that the tickets have not arrived from the promoter! Learning point: call centres can talk nonsense and computer records can be wrong - the customer is often RIGHT, listen to them!! And liars - beware - fans are not all stupid.

All these directors and executives don't put a direct email address on their websites! Foolish. Hide behind your call centres.

Justin2

Here's pic of justin taken on Sony 750i cellphone at zoom x4 from Row F, Level 1.

Why me? I was sitting in my seat just starting to relax when a large man and two young girls came. He suggested I was sitting in his seat! 20,000 people - why me? Anyway, turns out his tickets were the WRONG DAY! The day BEFORE. His two young girls looked so upset. They left. And yet, the three seats next to me were EMPTY ALL EVENING!!! Q. How come he got in at all!? He got great seats for Wednesday though - how? He said he got them from Dome box office on Tuesday.  

ALWAYS INSPECT TICKETS CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCEPTING THEM! Beware the box office who hand out pre pay tickets in envelope without always checking to verify they are correct. You may be deemed to have "accepted" them. Get them to open the envelope, verify so you can inspect. If anything does not match it's description REJECT IT and ask for the returns procedure.

Dome

There's a big difference between Level 1 seats and Level 4 seats! The corporate boxes push the Level 4 seats up so high! Pay extra and go Level 1. Standing was packed - no space to dance in there. Better to be seated and dance there. You CANT see that on 2D seating plans...!!!

The trousersnakes are leaving me dangling last minute -  it's noon on the day of the O2 Dome concert and diddly squat - not a word from anyone - I am furious at being denied the chance to be spat at! Have you all gone over to the Ged's dark side?

My Justin Timberlake O2 Dome concert farce...Beware of Suited Trousersnakes...

It's nearly 17.00GMT 4th July and I am waiting for 2 tickets for Justin Timberlake  concert TOMORROW 5th JULY to be delivered. I'm happy to read that Ged gets his tickets for shows OK! (Justin is a SONYBMG RCA artist and CEO  is Ged) Maybe Ged is lucky - or just well connected? Hmmm... I paid for my tickets on Friday 3 Nov 2006 and waiting now 8 months!! And guess what -  diddly squat!  I know its partly my fault for choosing this ticket agent and not using a proper agent like Ticketmaster. But it seems it the PROMOTER who is behind the trouble...

I work hard everyday to give a high quality service to people and then have to put up with the worst kind of business behaviour :-(

How can fans book hotels and travel when companies behave like this! The ticket might be $80 but the consequential losses can be 3 or 4 times that, and the damage from emotional distress and suffering - in the words of the UK Daily Mirror newspaper I have my own "spat" with THE SUITED TROUSERSNAKES, using Ged's words from his profile, - the "dark side of the force" who, I think, are 'avin a larf!

Have I been ripped off  by a smart media mob of "trousersnake s" moguls?

Suited trousersnakes who take peoples cash, and interest on the cash for 8 months, and then stuff their trousers with it??

Manifesto: Artists, managers and record companies must stop promoters (by contract condition) supplying tickets to ticket agents and touts who try to deny fan-customers their rights.

Manifesto: Artists, managers and record companies should avoid working with a promoter (by contract condition) who try to deny the fan-customers their rights or damage the artist reputation by negative association. 

Timberlake Forum http://www.rcalabelgroup.co.uk/justin/forum taken OFFLINE! Why?? 

It was one good free of charge place where fans in the  could exchange information about Justin and the tour - including giving info about wrong seating plans and terrible ticket agents! Lots of threads are still in Google cache.

My Timberlake fantasy is well over!!

Anyone else who purchased tickets and got the wrong seats or no tickets delivered in a reasonable time, or you badly messed about or ripped off by a ticket agent, promoter etc. please report it to

 www.oft.gov.uk (send an email to them - quick and easy, they have a file on it)

www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog (fill in online form - quick and easy, they are collecting info)

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/ UseTrading Standards Office for the postcode of the business registered address you want to complain about - they often have an existing record on bad companies. 

 ( www.companieshouse.gov.uk input postcode for registered address)

Small Claims Court http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/

Don't be ripped off by Ticket agents - touts

For info about and advice about Ticket Agents, and avoid being ripped off by touts pretending to be something else, even an PLC, go to http://www.oft.gov.uk/

Download Ticket agents in the UK report (pdf 447 kb)
Download Questions for consumers to consider when buying tickets (pdf 60 kb)

"The study (Ticket agents in the report) also highlighted that some ticket agents' consumer contracts may contain terms we would consider potentially unfair."

In the know “Your rights

Ticket sellers are legally required to:

• provide price information in advertising that does not, or is

  not likely to, mislead

• provide clear, honest and unambiguous price information at

  the point of purchase

• confirm seat location

• despatch tickets in time to attend an event

• refund all monies paid or provide a substitute for indoor

  events cancelled by an events promoter or producer where

  tickets have been bought by phone or via the internet”

Download Questions for consumers to consider when buying tickets (pdf 60 kb)

In my specific case...the agent blames the promoter. The whole thing is a farce and all companies (people) involved should be ashamed of themselves- and it has been a nightmare. I have already complained about them to the UK Department of Fair Trading www.oft.gov.uk in Autumn 2006 (you can complain directly to the OFT is its likely others have been / will be harmed);

1) they were using the wrong seating plan early on in the seat sale, so fans thought they were buying seats in a good position were actually buying them in a very poor location!

2) terms and conditions were unfair and they had two different sets!

3) the company repeatedly were unable to offer seats of equivalent quality - it tooks many many emails to finally get the promoter to provide appropriate tickets.

Now, with a complete record of evidence, I intend to complain about them again to the OFT, Watchdog and Trading Standards.

The promoter did not reply to my emails, and after paying about $160 in GBP and a lot of hassle and still I have received nothing! How you say, diddly squat.

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PRINT YOUR OWN TICKETS AT HOME!! Next time I will use www.ticketmaster.co.uk who have always been OK with me and now for some concerts I can print my own ticket at home! So all you other agents - what is going to keep you in business now? 

And site like http://www.theatremonkey.com/ is useful for seat plan info and restricted view tickets often sold "cheap".