Having real trouble thinking of a birthday present for a fellow VFC member, I thought I’d turn to Amazon. He’s not the type to have a wish list, so I thought I’d be clever. I set-up a new user account on my PC – so no cookies – went into Amazon found a few films he likes, rated them and hit recommendations. Hey presto, up came a list of VFC films – clever Amazon robot – and a couple we hadn’t seen. So I took flyer and went with one we hadn’t seen.

Still pleased I thought I’d e-mail Amazon and suggest they create this as a proper new feature. You know; tell us what your friend likes and we’ll recommend something.

You’d think they’d thank me for taking the time, but no. Instead I got a standard response on how to set-up a wish list to tell people what I want. The thing is, they’ve no scripted responses for when people suggest new features – how could they? – so if you do suggest something they can only reply in gobbledygook.

For more recent comment on the horrors of call centres see Space Hardware, but don’t forget they’re not all robots.

Many businesses offer payment to those who link to them and paid-for links are often used here in preference to free links. While such links are not as obvious as other forms of pay-per-click advertising, they still don’t influence views expressed. Entries labelled ‘Reader Offer’ are advertising promotions. Current offers include:
Philips Sonicare Toothbrush you won't go back. Bet on the Oscars online and for FREE. Vernons football pools the old skool lottery Sports Spread betting & free bet. Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name and pleases the kids. Tanita body fat monitor & scales discover the awful truth. uSwitch: cheap gas & electricity green energy. InterRail travel Europe by train. Sports & leisure shop by Amazon.co.uk Texas Calculatem poker odds calculator not cheating... honest!