Posts Tagged ‘fail’

One out of ten for effort for The Guardian

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

More Guardian-bashing now. No one knows more about those days when you just can’t be arsed, but is there really any need for this…?

76055977 500x498 One out of ten for effort for The Guardian (via @badjournalism)

Market stall unveil fail…

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Avid Bitterwallet reader Steve Mordey was recently looking forward to the opening of a brand new stall on an unused pitch at Leeds Market. But when he turned up on the big day…

leeds stall

Paint colour chart fail

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Rape yellow? Small problem with the spelling of ‘melon’ too…

series 5000 colour chart 500x221 Paint colour chart fail

[Dark Beige Twitter]

Pioneering paywall paper a spectacular flop

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
XChiTimesPreFire18703 300x211 Pioneering paywall paper a spectacular flop

A newspaper yesterday

Over in the antiquated world of print media, the doddery old puffins who run things have spent the last few months trumpeting away about their erections. To elaborate, the erections in question are paywalls – mysterious barriers that separate readers from content with the magic battering ram being hard cash.

Naturally Rupert Murdoch is a keen advocate of paywalls and we can expect him to start erecting his all over the place in 2010. But the early signs are not good, at least if the trailblazing paywallers at the Long Island daily Newsday are anything to go by.

With new owners and a restructuring and relaunching budget of $4 million, hopes were high that readers would stump up the five dollars a week (about £3) to read the paper in its online form.

But at the end of the first three months, Newsday have admitted that they have the grand total of just 35 subscribers – the relaunch outlay of $4 million recouping a mere $9,000.

Could this be a sign that news junkies will refuse to cough up cash for their fix if there are free goods elsewhere? It remains to be seen but the news could well have made Rupert Murdoch a tad twitchy.

Needless to say, your caring, sharing Bitterwallet will remain free to use – until we can guarantee a surefire way of raking the coin in of course!

Only joking – or are we?

Newspaper layout fail…

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Taken from today’s Metro newspaper. Paul McKenna is not suspected of any crimes…

tfp1 375x500 Newspaper layout fail...

Thanks to avid Bitterwallet reader Nerys Evans

Too much sherry? Careful this doesn’t happen to you

Friday, December 25th, 2009

This is probably fake but a sizable part of my soul hopes it isn’t. To be the friend that discovered Steve left himself logged onto Facebook and saw the potential – that’s the sort of guy who’s thinking the big picture. If it is real, then Steve is not only out the family will, but probably not allowed within a 200 metre radius of his best friend. Had too much booze this afternoon? Leave the computer alone.

Bitterwallet - Facebook FAIL

[The Luxury Spot] via [Buzzfeed]

In the shops now! Baby product display fail

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Thanks to Bitterwallet reader Emma for spotting this over on Failblog – baby goods that will guarantee to help them sleep… possibly forever!

Below that is a clip from The Antiques Roadshow which proves beyond doubt that you can’t give a baby booze…

fail owned baby good fail In the shops now! Baby product display fail

Vodafone struggles amidst Moneygeddon

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

crash4314218783 Vodafone struggles amidst MoneygeddonVodafone UK has announced a 45% belly-flop in adjusted operating profit as worried citizens curl up into impenetrable balls of frugality. The figures included a 7.3% drop in UK call revenue which went unmatched by a 4% increase in (presumably replacement) messaging revenue and roaming charges have declined along with our affinity for lush hols to exotic locations. The firm has also lost 450,000 customers during Q1 2009 (down to 18.7m), a worrying statistic compared with iPhone-harbingers O2 who have (allegedly) gained 250,000 in the same period. The fact Voda had to dissolve 500 jobs as a mid-quarter cost-cutting spree can’t have helped…

:-(

However this all does seem to answer the question embedded in Paul Smith’s earlier post on Vodafone scrapping their roaming charges for the Summer. With roaming charges evidently in decline perhaps the mobile giant is trying to recoup or bind in what customers it can in the savviest way possible… In any case, if you’d like to take advantage of a giant toppling over, just grab a free SIM card and register for the free roaming deal regardless.

[Vodafone Group PLC Results y/e 31-Mar-2009]

Anne Frank and the world’s smallest cat erased from history

Monday, May 11th, 2009

what the fictiona Anne Frank and the worlds smallest cat erased from history

[Consumerist]

Best Buy just as bad as the rest?

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

camerafuntime Best Buy just as bad as the rest?

We’ve mentioned Best Buy’s impending entrance into the electrical retail arena with some relish – not because we want to see the current leading names fail, but rather because we want an improvement in customer service standards and value for money.

Don’t think for a moment that Best Buy will be some kind of white knight coming to the rescue of the UK consumer – like everyone else, they’ve got their critics and are regularly caught with their pants down when it comes to looking after the punters.

American blogger Michael T. Barrett has written of the shocking service his mother-in-law received when she tried to return a camera she had bought at Best Buy that had already had its seal broken and was filled with someone else’s photos (above). The store manager stonewalled her and refused to replace it, claiming the camera had clearly been dropped (???).

However, there was some serious backtrackage once Michael ferreted around in the camera some more and found some pics taken instore featuring a hairy member of Best Buy’s own ‘Geek Squad’ repair team. Hmmm. So Best Buy Store #519 in Douglasville, Georgia sells used cameras as new.

Maybe it was a one-off, a genuine error or maybe there’s a culture among Best Buy’s hierarchy to try and pull fast ones against the consumer wherever possible. All we know is that the phrase “Best Buy sucks” brings up almost 25,000 results in Google. Maybe it’s like The Who sang: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” We’ll see…

[Consumerist]