The Londona

2009-03-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Tips For Hiring A Car

I've travelled around almost all of Europe and many states in the USA...and I hire a car everywhere I go...here are some of my recomendations and thoughts.

I've decided to compile a Top 10 Tips For Hiring A Car (from my experience):

Always Make Sure The Price is INCLUSIVE
- I don't know why, but car-rental companies always try and 'add-on' additional costly items...like damage waiver, tyre protection, additional insurances, etc.... This can easily double the cost of hiring a car. Make sure the price is fully inclusive of damage protection and local taxes.

Make Sure There Are No Mileage Limits
- This really annoys me! Some companies tell you the vehicle has unlimited mileage, when in fact in the terms and conditions there is a maximum of 300 miles per week!! If you're like me a travel a fairly big distance when you're taking a break, then 300 miles per week is just too little.

Always Hunt For The Best Price
- Car rental is very competitive, check out the best prices at all the local companies. Some good online websites are http://www.holiday-rentals.com/, http://www.budget4u.co.uk/(if you're in London) - I have found Budget good for my London rentals, and I use Holiday Rentals when I'm going abroad. I now use Budget as 1car1 aren't around any more.

Damage!!
- Have you ever been stung for damage you didn't do? In Italy, they stung me badly! When you take the car out, always go round the car with a representative from the hire company. Some companies just give you a sheet of paper, and then you have to go round the car yourself - that's fine too... - but always make sure you check the car properly. Also - When I'm renting, I always take the Damage Excess option, meaning that if the car does get damaged, I don't pay anything towards the repair costs...It only costs a little bit more per day, and potentially saves hundreds/thousands.

Fuel - Check The Fuel Return Policy
- When you pickup the car, make sure you understand how the fuel should be on return of the vehicle. Sometimes the companies say bring it back at the same level, and if so, take down the level before you set off. Some companies offer you a full tank when you pickup the car - I ALWAYS TAKE THIS OPTION, especially if I'm at an airport! I don't want to worry about filling up the car when I'm rushing for a flight! Often if you return the car with less fuel than you took it out with, they will charge a big premium to fill it up!

Rent Reputable!
- Renting with a reputable company like Budget, Avis, National, Sixt and Enterprise means that you can be *relatively* confident that the car you get will be good, and they'll act in a professional manor - i.e. no nasty hidden charges. Having said that, Sixt in Portugal once tried to overcharge me for a car...Generally the more reputable the better. There are some good independents, but be careful.

What Size Of Car?
- Check carefully on what size of car you are getting - I had an incident in December where I booked a 7-seater. They gave me a Toyota Corolla Verso - yes, it was a 7 seater, but the 2 seats at the back were for toddlers, not fully-grown adults! If you're an American renting in London, or in fact anywhere in Europe then make sure you get an Automatic (unless you are OK to drive a manual, or stick-shift). In Europe most rental cars are manual transmission.

The Deposit
- Ask the car rental company what the deposit is on the vehicle - very often they hide the deposit until you come to pay, and then they'll ask for 2000 Euros! Yes, I've rented in Spain where they've asked for a 2000 Euro deposit for a large car!!

The Excess
- Always ask the car rental company what the excess is - You should always take the 'damage excess' option to make sure that you have a small or non-existent excess. The excess is what you pay if you damage the vehicle. Also remember, if the car is damaged whilst you are renting it, but you didn't do the damage (perhaps it was hit whilst parked), then you are still liable for the damage costs.

When Renting In Icy Countries...
- About a year ago I hired an Audi A3 from National in Sweden. I was heading down the ramp onto the motorway at about 30mph when the car started to go sideways (yes, I was getting excited...but more importantly, I was getting very close the crash-barrier...and I wasn't looking to get intimate with any other metal!!) About 5 minutes later, I stopped at a service station to see what was wrong with the car, because although Sweden is cold in the winter, on this day it was very warm. The tyres had metal ball-bearings in them to give better grip in the snow. Nobody told me!! Moral of the story: Check the tyres when driving in a country that has very cold weather.

Hope you found this useful!

2009-03-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

Going on from the 1CAR1 post...

...the biggest problem with finding a new car hire company is that before I started using 1CAR1 I got a massive damage bill for damage I never did!

Can anyone recommend a good car hire company in London?

Leave a comment...

Thanks..x.

2009-03-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

1CAR1 Have Gone Bust...

The recession is taking a lot of big names out - Woolworths and Chelsea Coffee to name a few... but as a regular 'renter-of-cars' I use 1CAR1 almost every week. Living in London means that I travel to and from work by train, and I use public transport to get almost everywhere. I rent a car at least 2 or 3 times a month, at weekends so that I can go and see my parents in Essex.

I returned my car to the Kings Cross branch of 1CAR1 on Monday and found out that they had gone into administration. I later read in the newspaper that 1CAR1 has over 800 employees and 18,000 vehicles!! I guess with the financial services battered, they can't get finance on all those cars!!

RIP 1CAR1

To read about their demise, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/18/1car1-in-administration

2006-08-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

Who says "Keyword Stuffing" doesn't work?

Lately, Google's search results seem to be getting a bid dodge - i.e., they aren't too good.

I was trying to find a houseboat for rental in Portugal, and above is what I got!

2006-07-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 7 - Beta 3

So far so good...

Big Screen Fade In / Fade Out

2006-06-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

A while back I saw this website that when I clicked a picture, the whole screen dimmed, and in the middle of the screen, what I clicked was enlarged and bright.

I never had the time to figure out what this was, recently, I stumbled across ThickBox which does just what I'm looking for - It's in DHTML/JavaScript. Take a look:

Thickbox - One box to rule them all.

technorati tags:dhtml, javascript, fade, thickbox

HANNS G 17" TFT Monitor

2006-06-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

I was ordering some stock for a client, and I saw a special offer for a 17" TFT monitor. I saw it was £90+VAT. I thought, well, thats not a bad deal, so I added one to my order. I was thinking to myself - How good can a £90 17" TFT monitor be? I found out when it arrived - Not too good. It's okay and does the job fine, if you're just typing letters or reading documents.

BUT, if your in IT, or web-design and need colors to look really good and correct - then this monitor is not for you. The colors are well-out, not even near my CRT monitor. The CRT screen broke, thats also the reason I decided to get the TFT. I'll re-sell this TFT to a client, and buy a Flat-Glass CRT monitor - the picture quality is beautiful on the good 'ol CRT's!

There's a link here, to the monitor that I am referring to:

Misco.co.uk - HANNSG 17 MULTIMEDIA, DVI, 12MS TFT

technorati tags:hannsg, 17, tft, monitor

HP Laptop - My NC8230

2006-06-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

In December last year, I need to get a new laptop (as my previous Acer died, as my colleague said, I probably gave it 5-7 years of use in 2 years, after-all this is my job!). I look around, as I wanted to get a powerful machine that was lightweight. The worst thing I did was look at reviews of laptops, because someone will always find a fault of some-kind. The HP NC8230 had its faults, but nothing in comparison with some of the other computers I looked into.

I called my trade supplier, and asked what they thought about the different laptops. They thought that the NC8230 was a good choice - So I thought about it for a few days, then bought one. When it arrived I noticed one immediate problem - The resoultion was so high that I couldn't easily read the screen - "No problem, just lower the resoultion" your thinking.... well, you can do that, but the screen goes a little blurry. Well - I use the machine plugged into an external monitor, mouse and keyboard most of the time - so I'm not too worried.

Recently, what has not made me happy, is that I can no longer get hold of a Docking Station for the laptop. I bought one when I get the laptop, however, I dropped it yesterday, and as a results, it doesn't work anymore! My suppliers tell me that have not got any, and can't get any!! I am waiting for HP to get back to me.

See a review of the laptop here: HP NC8230 Review (pics, specs) - NotebookReview.com Forums

technorati tags:nc8230, hp, laptop, docking, computer

Samsung D500 Mobile Phone - And the SPV C500

2006-06-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

I only ask for two things out of my phone:

Ease of use
Speed (The meuns/contact book have got to be fast)

The SPV is very nice, with it's big color LCD screen and it's fancy features (like the ability to have my Outlook contacts and emails on the phone).

The Samsung has one major advantage, it's fast, very fast! When I'm going through the menus on the SPV it hesitates, and this irritates me, especially when I'm trying to do something fast.

The Samsung is the better phone for me.

technorati tags:samsung, mobile, phone

2006-06-16T00:27:00.000-07:00

Wireless Internet Access - Trick; If using more than one computer

I wrote an article a while back, explaining how to get internet access on mulitple computers if your using a hotel provider, that only allows one computer to use the internet - It's here
http://in-london.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_in-london_archive.html

Well - The second way to do it is: Get a network crossover cable (only about £5) and plug it into the network card on your computer, and the other end into the other computer. Set the network card to 'Share' the connection - and voila! Both computer will have internet access, being shared through your computer. It's not the most comprehensive guide, but I'm short on time.

2006-06-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

England 2 - Trinidad 0, World Cup 2006

Yes - England, have won their second World Cup match again Trinidad & Tobago.

In my opinion, England played badly, they got the last goal in the last minute - Trinidad stopped them from making any goals for the first 50-60 minutes.

2006-06-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

Flock - Web Browser - Give credit, where credit is due!!

One of my oldest friends is an excellent businessman, one thing he taught me is never show anybody that you are happy with what they have done, for him, this seems to of proven good as he is doing very well for himself! For example, if a graphics designer sends you back some graphics, and he says what do you think - you just say 'There OK', or 'It's fine'. Even if you think they are excellent, never tell anybody - Thats his philospohy.

I always thought this was a bit backward - I always believe in giving credit, where credit is due! Flock is an excellent example - I heard Dave Naylor talking about it and decided to download it from www.flock.com . It's excellent - much better than firefox and better than IE7 Beta 2(even though I am a Microsoft supporter!)

Flock is fast, very, very fast. It opens fast, opens websites fast - it does everything seriously fast. This is nice - Flock is slick... In a word "fantastic".

2006-06-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

SsangYong Motors - The Kyron

Suffice to say that I only drove it for 20 minutes earlier today, so I can't give you a complete review - but my first impression was 'impressive'...

The Kyron is very comfortable, you have a good ride position and the clutch is nice and soft. The controls are nice and comfortable, the steering is very smooth and easy. It was manual, and the gear-change was *relitavely* smooth, and very easy - no pushing, it's was nice and soft.

Power-wise, it was okay - nothing special, I think the one we had was a 2.7Turbo Diesel (but I'm not sure, I'll have to double check). It had the feel of a good, well-built vehicle, but the engine sounded and felt like the Kia's, i.e. foreign and *ok* but not like the diesel of a Ford or VW.

I'll admit, I was actually quite impressed - I do like to have a feel of the road when I'm driving, and even though the steering/gearchange where completely num - I still *kind-of* enjoyed the drive.

The one main, really, really bad thing, was that the vehicle has no proper cup holders!!! I wouldn't even consider buying a car that didn't have proper cup holders. Where am I going to put my coffee?

I'll write more once I have got a proper feel for the vehicle.

First thoughts: Impressed (except about the cup holder).

2006-06-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

GN Netcom - Wireless (Cordless) Headset

I've got a GN Netcom 9120 Wireless Headset - It's fantastic, the one main problem is that you have to leave the phone off the hook while you are speaking, and when you finish your talk, you have put physically put the phone down - This isn't a problem if your sitting at your desk, but it's a pain if you walking around the office, etc... Aparantly, you can get a wireless handset remover (i.e. when you open the headset, it pushed the telephone off the base, i.e. opening the line). The headset isn't cheap, but you are paying for a good quality device - I'd definately recomend one.

Why did I write this?
Well, I'm wondering if anyone has tried one of the wireless handset removers, are they good? Let me know.

2006-06-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

Google Spreadsheets

spreadsheets.google.com

I've registered for a test account, but they've not given me access yet.

It seems very interesting, you can read a review here: http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002213.html

Later...

2006-06-07T01:29:00.000-07:00

UPS's - Recently, one of my clients has been having power cuts, more often than I would like...

It's been a while since I've had to buy UPS's - So, I decided to check whats new and whats good.

I found the APC UPS 1000VA to be a good one, I've not ordered it yet, but will do today or
tommorow. IT comes with good software, it'll last 20 minutes on half-load and 6 minutes on full load. It'll also take the network cable, which is good as it would be terrible if a surge came through the NIC and cooked the motherboard.

The UPS will certainly never be on 'full-load', so around 15-20 mins is enough time for the server to safely shut down.

I'll let you know...

2006-06-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Technical Problems & Experts-Exchange.com Starts Charging...

When a major technical issue arrises, and Microsoft haven't documented the problem on their knowledge base, we do a search on Google to find out if anyone else has had a similar problem.

Regularly you'll see a search listing with www.experts-exchange.com. Experts Exchange has been a very good resource in the past, even though it is packed with advertising!! Evidently, the revenues Experts-Exchange has been making from the advertising isn't enough (or they want to make more money).... ....as recently they have introduced a 'View Solution' button, and you have to register and pay them some money... ...it not expensive, but a good way of bringing in some extra cash.

Well, I was thinking to myself - If Experts-Exchange remove content to make it a 'pay-for-answers site' they will lose alot of rankings, as a lot of the valuable content is in the Answers.

Just as I thought, when Google spiders the site they see all the Q&A's, but when we look at the site, we just see the initial question.

Need to prove it? Just do a search for "windows xp hang error event log experts exchange". Click the first item in the Search Results and scroll down to the bottom. See the answer? Probably not. Click the back button, and then when your back on the Google results page, click the 'Cached' button under the first listing. Voila! Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will see all the Q&A's.

This brings me to the next topic, Google's Quality Guidelines say "...[don't] present different content to search engines than you display to users...." - Clearly, this is the complete oposite to what Experts-Exchange is doing - HOWEVER, Experts-Exchange content is of extremely high-quality, and what they are doing isn't really that 'sneaky' or 'bad'. What would Google's stance on this be? At the end of the day, Experts-Exchange are displaying different content to the search engines to get better rankings - similar to what BMW did, but they aren't using sneaky spam to achieve the rankings.

2006-06-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

Google - Click Fraud - Are they realistic?

One of my clients has recently setup a new web site, he recruited us to sort-out his search marketing.

It was all going well, until the account was maxed-out by mid-morning. This led me to think that a competitor was clicking the ads intentionally. I examined the Web Logs and found a specific IP address that had clicked the Ad at 0230AM, he clicked the Ad about 30 times. Was was even more unusual is that this happened almost every morning at the same time.

We emailed Google with our complaint, however, after spending many days 'investigating' then denied that the clicks had come through the Adwords account. I assumed we may have difficulty with them, but that excuse hadn't come to mind.

I'll keep you updated.... [ I've gotta run to a meeting ]

2006-06-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

Language - Search Results

I've deleted one of my posts and it had some of the f*** words in it - It's strange that the search rankings went down after my 'foul-language' post. Anyway, I wasn't in a good frame of mind when I wrote that!

Okay - So, today I saw some advert for this vehicle, the G-Wiz, its a battery car with no engine.

Rubbish......no proper engine - it's a golf cart with a roof.....and indicators.

2006-05-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

Bin-Laden? A lieing bastard and thicko!

Bin-Laden is one of those seriously thick, twats. Yes it's true. When the 9/11 attacks happened he denied have anything to do with it. However, now that some block has been put in jail because he was a fundamently part of the attacks, Bin-Laden has decided that Moussaoui had nothing to do with the attacks....

Let me get this straight, Bin-Laden had nothing to do with the attacks - but at the same time, he knows that Moussaoui had nothing to do with the attacks - how does he know Moussaoui had nothing to do with the attacks if was had nothing to do with the attachs....do you see where I'm coming from... Bin-Laden is a liar.

2006-04-29T00:35:00.000-07:00

The Mercedes M-Class or ML320

I've just read a letter which makes me laugh - this bloke bought a ML320 in '98 and it's been riddled with faults - this guy has a great sense of humor!

http://www.nagele.co.uk/ml320/ - Once your on the website, click the link to read his letter!!

2006-04-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) - Beta 2

Short & Sweet Review

Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft - Thank god you released beta 2.

To cut a long story short, Beta 1 was a waste of time - it had more bugs than 'A' reg Lada. (If you don't know what a Lada is, don't worry...).

I'm more happy with Beta 2, I've had a day to play with it and it's got lots of cool features, it's better than Firefox - I don't want to go into too much detail... You can open and close tabs on the fly using lots of different keyboard shortcuts. It's quicker than Beta 1, but probably a little slower than Firefox.

Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

2006-04-28T06:03:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 7 - Beta 2

It works with Blogger!! I've only just installed it, so I don't want to speak to early, however, it seems to be much slicker.

I'll report back later.

2006-04-27T02:21:00.000-07:00

I'm self-employed, so I have to earn a living, right?

Well, you'd think that one day people would stop knocking me down on price... Something that really bugs me is that people what everything for nothing.

I went to see an old client of mine yesterday, and he wants to start a new business; Due to the success of his previous website, he wants me to start a new one for him - There one major difference - His old website had been started in 1996, so it was already in search engines, and it has lots of good incoming links, etc, etc....

If you start a website now, it's much more difficult to get #1 rankings quickly (unless you use PPC). You've got to wait at least 6-12 months before you strart seeing organic results. I've lost alot of business, because I am realistic, I won't tell you that it's possbile to do £1M of sales in the first 6 months, unless I think that it is possible.

Till next time...

2006-04-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

The Wandering Scribe...

...If you're for real - all the best to you.

I read that this could be a marketing stunt.......well, WanderingScribe, you certainly sound like that. You have a PayPal account (you need a credit card for this), you have a BTinternet email address - you need a BTinternet account for this, this is going to be charged to your credit card....I've got loads more questions for ya if your out there....keyboard50@gmail.com