The Waverley Lane Blog

Just finished reading “It’s Not What You Think” by Chris Evans.

The disclaimer – I would never have read it except that I came across a reference somewhere to his “surprisingly honest autobiography” and I knew I’d seen it going cheap in a remainder bookshop. It’s worth the fiver it cost – though probably not the £20 asking price for the hardback.

Some quite revealing sections bring out his absolute conviction that being on the radio is what he was put on this earth to do. The self-confidence that drives him to just go for it becomes very apparent – but it’s a self-confidence born of years of hard graft learning his trade, analysing what works and what doesn’t, and planning and preparing every link he presents on-air. A lesson for us all there.

There’s more to be told in the next volume – the book stops when Evans buys Virgin Radio from Sir Richard himself and he alludes to losing a spectacular amount of money later on – and even though he’s fairly candid I think there must have been more going on in his tabloid-paparazzi-target years. Read “A Bit of a Blur” by Alex James for a more revealing inside line on the champagne and cocaine-fuelled showbiz lifestyle.

I’m not a raving Evans fan – his current Radio 2 Breakfast show is great but it’s too up-beat for a time of day when I want to focus on what I’ll be doing myself – but the boy has a talent, works hard at it, and I think you can only admire him for that. The book’s a recommendation I’m surprised to be making.

Yay!

The schools are about to break up, and it’s nearly time to head off for more reliable sunshine than Scotland offers.

We reckon it’s got to be good for body and soul to forget all about business once in a while – but if you really want to keep in touch from the beach, can we ask you to let us know your plans two weeks before you go rather than two days?

Delivering your email fully synchronised to whatever you gadget you use and wherever you want to go is not too difficult these days but to set it up we need to deal with phone companies who move at their own speed and no-one can make things happen any more quickly.

The more notice the better please – and remember to send us a postcard!

Got an interesting situation with a client who have just moved office.

All of their phone and internet services have been ordered through business-class providers who are not part of the BT group, and all the services were installed and working in the new office long before our client moved in.

In the course of refurbishing the building – or perhaps even before, no-one knows – a telephone cable and distribution box belonging to BT have been removed by persons unknown. Even though it wasn’t in use then, is not required now, and was perhaps 20 years old I think everyone agrees it shouldn’t have been removed; the cost of cable and the distribution box might be £50 for new equipment; second-hand it’s worthless.

We would therefore love to hear from BT Openreach why they think they can try to charge £960 plus VAT to a company who have neither agreement nor contract with them to reinstate equipment which is not needed, and which would not be used even if it were to be reinstated.

The politest descriptions we’ve heard have been “chancers” and “jobsworths”. When will they learn that this sort of nonsense, including threatening legal action to a business which has no contract with them, does not do them any favours with anyone?

We in the business know they will tell lies to our clients to try to boost sales and do unnecessary work – we almost expect that behaviour from any part of BT – but it’s the unsuspecting business owner who believes their nonsense and pays up for whom we feel sorry.

Ultimately, the telephone system in this country means that BT will have a technical involvement in getting almost every telephone or internet service into your business. However, it is quite easy to get the services you need without having to deal with their slippery business practices; call us if you would like help.