Category: media/ na meáin

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How not to run an online business or Schoolbooks.ie FAIL

At the end of August I ordered just over €100 worth of schoolbooks from Schoolbooks.ie (I know, I know, I should have ordered them last JANUARY right?!)

The nippers started back in school on 30th August and no sign of the books. I couldn’t tell from the Schoolbooks.ie website whether they were to arrive imminently or not. Around this time I realised that I wasn’t the only customer whose books were missing but I took them at their word (to the media, mind, not me) that the books would arrive shortly. However at this time our (truly wonderful and sorely missed) childminder finished up with us so there was no one at home to receive our parcel. So I emailed them at orders@schoolbooks.ie and asked them could they deliver to my city centre office. 2 working days later I was worried about the lack of confirmation about this action.

Upon investigation online I realised that the situation was far worse than I initially thought. I also realised that I was dealing with people who were being a little loose with the truth claiming, for example, that they had contacted every single customer that was affected by what seems to be some sort of technical issue. Apparently I didn’t count as I have never received a single word of communication in any format from Schoolbooks.ie. as I’m trying to be nice I will refer to this as “not best practice” especially as we are repeat customers.

I continued trying to get through by phone and tweeting about the issue in the extremely vain hope that someone might respond.

At this point I emailed to cancel my order. I still have no idea whether they read or acted upon that email. I thought that the books may still arrive.

By the end of the first full week (9 days of school) we decided we couldn’t possibly send the kids back to school the following Monday without books. I legged it to Reads of Nassau st one lunchtime and despite the assistance of a really helpful staff member Reads didn’t have a single one of the books (please note I was looking for Irish language books only for my Gaelscoláirí).

En route back to the office I rang the National Consumer Agency who made all the right noises in a non-committal sort of way. They sent contact details to me but there was nothing I hadn’t already gleaned from the Schoolbooks.ie website. I asked the NCA whether they would be investigating the issue further but the very nice chap I spoke with couldn’t say at that point. He also reminded me of our rights as online consumers which I was very familiar with thanks to my last job. One point he made was that should the books arrive AFTER I had bought them elsewhere I could refuse delivery and Schoolbooks.ie would be obliged to refund. Good luck with that, Rosie!

Since then I have written to the Visa Chargebacks department in the hope that my money might be refunded. I finally received a complete refund on October 8th.

Bodil Mimi Krogh Schmidt-Nielsen (b. 1918) with her childrenOn September 21st I spoke about this during my usual monthly technology slot on Splanc, Newstalk’s Irish language radio show. Obviously I’m dismayed that I’ve been badly treated, annoyed that I was out of pocket but what bugged me the most is that with the application of a little cop and some cheap or free technology a lot of this could have been fixed. If they wanted to be old fashioned about it a few grand to a half decent PR company could have saved their business. What galls me the most however is that the MD’s attitude to his customers has at the least cost him business and at most cost him his business. While I have as little care for him as he obviously has for me, I think in these recessionary times (sorry) it is practically criminal to play so fast and loose with his staff’s livelihoods and other people’s money. When I got home that evening, lo! the books had arrived and are still sitting on our sideboard in their packaging.

So what you might say? Well I think that Schoolbooks.ie are in fact a perfect anti-case study. I would generally avoid using negative examples but Schoolbooks.ie tick all the boxes.

It’s easier to keep old customers than find new ones (or as the grown ups call it Retention vs Acquisition). We have bought our books from Schoolbooks.ie for the last 4 years, spending at least €50 every year. Schoolbooks.ie have always been poor at maintaining contact, not reminding us at crucial points in the year about themselves in order to ensure our repeated custom.

Join the conversation or they will bitch about you and not even behind your back! I already knew that Schoolbooks.ie were poor communicators, having not received much by way of correspondence from them over the last four years; a blessing you might say in these times of bulging inboxes. It’s possible that Mr. John Cunningham, MD of Schoolbooks.ie, thinks that he is being stoical by refusing to engage with customers on Faceboolk Twitter, Boards.ie and blogs like this. He may be of the mind that it will all blow over but Gawd help the poor sucker who has to manage their SEO in the future. Considering the company is unlikely to exist in the future

Social media is all media. A storm in a tweecup can quickly become national news because you can no longer presume that the busy bodies on social media are not influencing the busy bodies in national media. This story quickly became a running theme for back to school week on Joe Duffy’s phone in radio show. Schoolbooks.ie became synonymous with bad customer service and it will be some time before the market will forget. What a waste of a perfect URL.

 

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It’s never too late

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Photo right owned by Alotor (cc) Pat Kenny robbed me of part of my adulthood. I’m not saying I particularly looked forward to the period in my life when I would prefer to stay home on a Friday night but two kids later you go through phases where a bottle of wine and your feet up is ther perfect Friday night. Sadly there were also two nine month phases where the bottle of wine didn’t even feature. It would have been nice to have had compelling television to watch with that glass of wine but I was robbed by Plastic Pat. To be fair his impact was probably diluted by all the other chat shows that were on and no doubt fists were often shook from the direction of Montrose in the direction of the BBC and Jonathon Ross when all the good guests plumped for Wossy on Friday rather than Pat. How galling it must have been that Wossy is recorded on Thursday so many of them were probably actually available. Is it possible that Pat’s lack of sense of humour and disapproval of the celebrity machine preceded him?

Well a new era in light entertainment beckons for the Irish people with Pat’s announcement last Friday that he is retiring. Of course I didn’t watch it. I heard it on Twitter first but nothing would tempt me to watch it. Nothing. The only time I ever watched it since Pat came on board was for the Toy Show.I did it for the kids and the ideas!

Maybe in the future as I settle down with a bottle of wine I’ll look back at the early teens of the 21st century as the golden age of Friday night entertainment on RTÉ. To help us get there I have a wee poll below. I felt that a lot of male presenters’ name were being bandied about so, with a big obvious nod to positive discrimination, my choices are all Irish female television presenters. Have at ye!

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Even God took a rest seven days later apparently*

Brace yourselves I’m about to rant. Probably not the best time considering my earlier accident and the humdinger of a headache I now have.

And who is causing my hackles to rise? Who has attracted my ire this time? Rachida Dati, that’s who. I’m not the only woman in the western world who is spitting tacks in her general direction this week. Rachida Dati, the 43 year old French justice minister, had her first child by caesarean section last week and went back to work 5 days later. This is upsetting me why exactly?

  • There are so many reasons that it is confusing me and I don’t like being confused.
  • Quoting The Guardian article where I read about it thanks to Rosemary “[b]usiness leader Sophie de Menthon said: “By absolutely wanting to play superwoman, Rachida Dati does a disservice to women’s cause … What is more, I, as the head of a business, would go straight to prison if I took back a colleague who returned from maternity leave after five days.” Whatever about her first comment, I’m dying to know which courageous French official in Halde or whichever authority in France looks after their labour legislation is going to tackle Sarkozy. See how he likes being made an example of. I wonder would he be so blasé with his own policies if it was his darlin’ Carla who’d just had an 8 lb baby cut out of her belly.
  • Why the heck do I know all of this information about Rachida Dati? I mean this in two ways:
    • How dignified is it that an individual who has just gone through a life changing event and serious surgery is being discussed hither and yon? Dati, I don’t need to know about your Caesarean – have a bit of decorum apart from anything else.
    • Also so what if she doesn’t want to listen to common medical advice and good sense. Media people (myself included): don’t give her the headlines.

  • I read also in the same article by Angelique Chrisafis the opinion that Dati may have felt pressure to return to work as the French government were bringing in “the biggest reforms in 200 years to the French legal system” and Dati couldn’t miss her moment in the sun. Hello! If that was the case why did she not have the section 3 weeks ago (or if she did have it at the earliest possible 37 weeks 3 weeks later)? And hello! Boss of the Year Sarkozy, could the legislation not have waited a week or two? What’s so bloody important and who the heck cares in week 1 back to work after les célébrations of la nouvelle annee? All anyone wanted to do last week was stay in bed and Dati was really rubbing our noses in it. She was legally obliged to take the week off and she swans into work nonetheless. Aaarrggghhh!!!
  • Further to this, I’m really sorry to break this to you, Rachida dear, but I don’t give a hoot about your precious legislation but I will always remember you as the “young mother” (boss of the year’s words not mine) who went back to work unnecessarily early after having her first child.
  • Having had two children I know that I too could probably have gone back to work 5 days afterwards. It was day 10 – 15 that would have been the real trial. I wonder how Dati is feeling now? Pas trés super, I’d say.

  • However, I know I’m being flip above and anyone who knows me or reads this blog regularly knows that I think that parenthood and especially early motherhood deserve special care from society. I am not the first commentator to say that Dati’s actions make a mockery of every single day of maternity leave for which each preceding generation campaigned. Not only that I think it makes a mockery of women’s right to work at all because I think realistically potential or actual motherhood has to be part of the package. How on earth are women supposed to continue as valid members of the workforce if their biology keeps getting in the way? We have an ageing population here in Ireland as do many developed countries and we need women to reproduce. I mean how the heck can Boss of the Year on the one hand have policies aimed at encouraging larger families (PDF) (which our large family regularly made the most of while travelling in France) and then allow one of his senior staff make an ass of the law?
    In fact I would go so far as to say that Dati’s actions makes a mockery of workers rights and legislation altogether.
  • How will my campaign for paternity leave fare if employers think that women don’t need time off? I firmly believe that maternity leave will only give women “equality” if paternity leave is also mandatory. A month after the birth of a child and two more months at their own discretion. As an interim step, parents should be allowed to choose which parent takes the existing leave especially families that don’t practice breastfeeding. And that’s a whole other upcoming post in the offing.

Okay I think that about covers the rant. Well today’s rant anyway. I’ve a few more up my sleeve that I’ve been mulling over the holidays but Rachida deserved special attention.

*I say apparently because obviously God doesn’t exist and so this theory of her resting is totally unprovable.

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Facebook owns your boobs

I hate to admit it but I first read about Facebook bannning breastfeeding on Paul Walsh’s blog and considering he has never breastfed in his life to my knowledge and he doesn’t reveal whether he has supported the breastfeeding of his own children, he is certainly as he calls himself the Irish Opportunist. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon. This is apparently a common tactic among bloggers of which innocent little me was unaware. Blogging about trending topics will pull traffic towards your site. You can find out about trending topics on the likes of Twitscoop for example.

Anyhoo, as anyone who has been reading this blog since day one will know, I breastfed both of my children for the WHO recommended period of six months. However I wasn’t trying to live up to any international standard: I went back to work after six months. I did try to continue with Nipper 1.0 after going back to work but it was just too weird and hard with the stress and the cycling and being away from him so I stopped. Unfortunately it took the ol’ milk machines a while to catch up but I learnt my lesson well.

I am lucky in that most of the women in my family breastfed and I can actually remember one of my aunts breastfeeding. According to a study published in the IMJ women’s previous experience of breastfeeding, their education level and their early decision to breastfeed are significant indicators in the length of time women would breastfeed so I consider myself lucky. It also had a generally positive experience although I did experience some problems especially with Nipper 2.0. I partly blame myself because I had a lot going on at the time as well with the house being renovated. A great help for me in continuing was the Breastfeeding Support Group in Rathgar run by the Public Health Nurses in the area.

However not all women are as lucky to be able to fulfill their biological destiny and use their bodies to their full potential. Similarly not all of us are Olympic athletes or can even jog around the block. All of us have different physical and mental thresholds and this goes for breastfeeding as it does for all activities that require not just physical perseverance and mental perseverance too. Top athletes always thank their support team when they win a prize and similarly a modern woman choosing to breastfeed needs the support of family and friends to do this. Top athletes will also talk about how their mental well-being was an essential part of their winning formula. Similarly I think feeling good about oneself and being confident about you body is essential to being able to continue breastfeeding.

Sadly I am in a minority and by the time I had reached even month two of breastfeeding the minority was getting even smaller:

Currently approximately 47% of mothers in Ireland are breastfeeding at discharge from maternity care (NPRS, 2008). Breastfeeding duration rate figures are not currently collected at national level, however, research studies indicate the fall-off in breastfeeding following discharge is worryingly high with less than 10% of infants still breastfeeding at 6 months of age.
From Breastfeeding.ie

What has all of this got to do with Facebook’s ban on pictures of breastfeeding women? As far as I’m concerned the central issue is not Facebook banning pictures of breastfeeding women: Facebook is not a democracy, they can ban pics of whatever they damn well please. What is at issue is the fact that somewhere once upon a time breasts, boobs, tits, hooters, jugs, jabs, knockers, puppies, bazoobas, (and Himself just added kajungas…) and whatever you’re calling them yourself stopped belonging to the women they were attached to and became the property of the people looking at them. The problem is not that breasts are sexual objects as well as the point of delivery for food, nurturing and comforting for babies. The problem is that they are rarely positively represented in the latter role and far too often represented in the former role but in a hyper, unreal, impossible manner to which it is difficult for many women to even dream of comparing themselves. If you feel your boobs don’t measure up to the Baywatch boobs it’s very hard to get ’em out in public. If you think that people only see them as sexual it’s discomfiting to get ’em out in public.

The irony of the whole Facebook campaign is the fact that once you upload pictures to Facebook, according to their terms and conditions, Facebook then owns those pictures. As one guy I was talking to about this last week said, “Expect the world’s largest stock photo site to be launched by Facebook in a few years…” Well, it looks like all those campaigns to encourage breastfeeding (which campaigns? Exactly!) will have to use real stock photo sites for their tasteful imagery of breastfeeding women.

To finish up here’s two points from someone who’s been there done that (breastfed, not appeared on Baywatch or sold my boobs to Facebook.)

  1. The best thing about breastfeeding is that it gives you total freedom. As a former colleague of mine said once, “All you’ll need is a nappy in your back pocket and off you can go!”. This is so true. I also really think that once you get the hang of it you will sleep better too because you can do it in your sleep. All you have to do is wake up to latch the baby on and even then it’s not as disturbing as some of the carry on you get from then when they are older. I actually found it quite relaxing when I got the hang of it with Nipper 2.0. I was too nervous to have Nipper 1.0 in the bed with me but I generally dozed through all the feeds anyway. You can also go on holidays without having to worry about bringing or finding suitable formula. You can feed the baby indoor and out, on the beach, in the car (not while driving though!), anywhere that you can sit down with a glass of water and relax.
  2. The beauty of breastfeeding is that with all the modern nursing bras you can be very discreet when feeding. You’ll need to wear loose clothing or bring a large scarf. When you get really good at it (and you will!) a Happy Baby Sling is a great help if you want to feed on the move (although it seems that they are no longer making them). I fed Nipper 2.0 while browsing for door handles in B&Q. Y’see I wasn’t messing when I said I overdid it!

If you’re expecting a baby and considering breastfeeding I say go for it. You’ll have to have a supportive family and your partner should be willing to take on ALL other responsibilities certainly for the first two weeks and even up to six while both of you get the hang of it. It will stand to the whole family in the long run.