New Phone

Apologies now for more repetition but I do like this spot. In the early evening there is a remarkably short period of time between getting a long shutter speed and the light going completely. Its getting a bit silly when 30 seconds at a moderate aperture is under exposing.
In scrambling down the greasy river bank I had hoped I would find this wee water fall doing something spectacular after the rain. It was bigger than last time and I suppose still looks pretty.
I got some cad work finished off this morning. Mrs Cakes phone contract is at the stage where there is a renewal option and I battled the phone queue and two sales people to finally get a decent deal.
The advertised packages on the web site can be very persuasive but are extremely bad value. There are sim only deals where you supply your own phone. Better again is a discounted package with a really low spec phone (like mine) and stlil use a phone sourced by yourself if the Samsung Ginger Bread isn't to your liking.

The guy at vodafone couldn't get where I was steering him until I got him to write all the figures down. He insisted the cheapest path in to ownership of a particular phone was via an expensive 24 month contract which still demanded a lump sum towards the phone.

I had to say "Doing it your way after 24 months the phone deal will have cost X; doing it my way it will cost Y" He did the maths with me and I had to point out that in addition to the huge saving there was also a spare phone to either trade in or just keep as a spare if one breaks.

His words were along the lines that he thought it was a smart way to do it as though it had never occurred to him. Whether they are aware of the ways to get around the system but not encouraged to direct customers in that direction (what is best value) I don't know.

I think they rely on people taking the path of least resistance and being reluctant to haggle. I think I heard the EDF guy (or one of the other big energy chiefs) on the news defending his company's obscene profit by saying that vodafone make even more than him in percentage terms.

Anyway, Saturday night and Mrs Cakes and I are meeting up with friends we haven't seen in ages for a meal in the town. I'm really looking forward to it.