Clapham Saint

... or am I just being really paraniod? I bought a new Packard Bell machine a few months ago knowing that I would get a "free" upgrade to windows 7 when it was released. Was a bit f***ed off when the "free" upgrade required a £19.90 "shipping charge" but there you go. Packard Bell's Windows 7 upgrades are also being handled by a third party. Anyway when I first registered I thik that I gave them my credit card details and I got the 1st of the e-mails below. Today I got e-mail 2 asking me to resubmit my credit card details but the english in the e-mail isn't that great. If I log in to check my order status it says "pending payment resubmit" but my bank hasn't blocked anything and no payment has yet been taken. As I'm sure I already gave my card details and the english isn;t great I'm worried that this is a phishing excersise of some sort but if it is then they have by name, address, e-mail address and phone number already (as they come up when I click the link). Am I just being way over paranoid? Has anybody else had anything similar? The Packard Bell web forum is currently down for maintenance and their customer support chap's english wasn't good enough to understand the problem (his only suggestion was to give me a number for microsoft). E-mail 1 Dear XXXX, Thank you for your order! Your credit card will be charged GBP 19.90 only when the upgrade kit is shipped. The price shown is inclusive of shipping charges. All orders received will be collected and held for processing until the Windows 7 release date (currently estimated for October 2009 but is subjected to change). Orders will be processed in the order they were received. You will receive another notification when the order is shipped. For questions about your order, tracking information, and your order status, please click here. You will need to enter both Order Number [xxxxxxxx] and email address [xxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com] to obtain status of your order. Order Date : Thursday, September 03, 2009 Order No. : xxxxxxxxxxx etc. -------------------------------------------------------- Today I received e-mail 2: Dear xxxxxxx This is to inform that you can proceed to make payment. Order No. : xxxxxx Total Amount: GBP 19.90 Please click https://ebiz3.mentormediacorp.com/Payment/PB?Email=xxxxxxxxx%40hotmail.com&OrderNo=xxxxxxxx&Lan_Used=en_gb to make payment. A notification email will be sent to you once payment is done. To check on your Order Status, please login here. *** This is a system generated email, please do not reply to this email *** -------------------------------------------------------------------

I took up the offer of a "free" copy of Windows 7 when I bought this machine a few months ago. When the disks finally arrive (probably not for many weeks) do I need to do a complete re-install and then reinstall all of my dirvers etc or can I pop the cd in and just do an upgrade? Anybody know?

Although you are correct that the link isn't working any more I think it unlikely that the guardian printed something like that giving direct quotes with nothing to back it up.

(As I understand it) The money received in August went straight to Standard Chartered. This loan would be secured against the money due to be received in January/August 2010... You and me both.

"Our plan is to stay at the club for a period of not less than six months" :smt046 ""We did not have the £5m but we agreed with three banks to finance the acquisition, and they approved it based on the club financial guarantees we provided, such as annual revenue from TV coverage" :smt046 "Faraj initially felt Portsmouth, £70m in debt, would not be a sound investment" :smt046

Maybe he means that he owns 100% of the company which owns 40% of the company which owns 38% of the company which owns 90% of Portsmouth. The rest is owned by the mafia.

Lol

No he doesn't.

Quite.

From the centre... Left 2 down 3. (just below and to the left og benjii) Wasn't expecting that.

Any particular highlights in comparison to last years effort?

That confused me too... I resorted to downloading it through steam.

Any reviews yet guys? I'm not going to be able to give it a try until I get home tonight.

D'oh. JackanorySFC's The point is the same though

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is the impact of National Insurance. If we take the case of Benjii's friend, for every £1000 he is paid as a bonus he is taxed 50%. He also pays 1% national insuarance. So for every £1000 he earns he gets £490. His employer also pays employers national insurance of 12.8% above the secondary threshold. So for a notional £1000. The employer pays 1128. Benjii's friend receives £490. Mr Darling gets £638. So the spit in % of what is paid out is: Benjii's mate 38% Tax man 62%. I don't earn anywhere near the amounts Benjii's friend does but to me that seems excessive. Could you or I do what he does? No Does he deserve the money he earns? IMO, yes.

What is ususally included in the demo? Is it the full game but limited to 1/2 a season or similar?

I can't remember the details however having the later delivery means that the posties start later, which reduces the "unsocial working hours" payments/bonuses. Or similar.

A bit?

Very good question. Many businesses will lose custom due to not being able to guanrantee timely delivery thruogh the royal mail through having to pay higher charges to other couriers. Although this will (hopefully) be a temporary problem for most I anticipate an uplift in our work loads as a result of the problems this is going to create for some small companies.

Agreed. Although obviously able to make their own decisions many posties (as you would obviously expect) rely upon the unions for information and guidance. They are being ver badly led. Especially given that if they don't finish their job within their ususal hours the following day, they will expect overtime, often demanding to be paid for 4 hours overtime in exchange for working 2 (and before anybody starts I've been told that this happens directly by a RM employee).

A very good question. I have no idea.

The unions will of course blame management

If we had the gold to sell we wouldn't need to sell of the student loans etc... Rock f**king bottom prices. He truely does have the financial knowledge to lead us out of this mess.

Not only did he not put money aside for the inevitable rainy day he continued to borrow during the boom years leaving us even more fooked now. I'm not claiming that this or that person would have prevented the recession but "Iron chancellor", "prudent investment" and "no more boom and bust" my hairy a rse!

Dubai_Bin_Trump!