Dead car, dead car three times..

Driving to work this morning was a bit of a drama. I was driving along my regular route, came to a round about and the car stalls. I get it re-started, it stalls again….btw did I mention it’s an automatic? Start the car again, pump the gas and manage to get it moving, I could feel it was about to stall again so I drove it around the round about and back down the hill so that I could get out of the traffic and find somewhere to pull over.

Once I managed to pull off the main road and came to a stop I dug around in the car’s manual to work out which service light was blinking at me. Lucky me, it was the Engine Management system light. I tried starting the car again, still no luck.

Being that the car was less than 7 days old, yes that is correct….7 days old!, I rang the dealer I bought it from, John Patrick Prestige Cars in Port Macquarie, to find out what was going on. They immediately suggested I ring Peugeot’s ‘Roadside Assistance’ team to get it taken care of “quickly”.

Peugeot Australia’s roadside assistance, like many other brands, is operated by a 3rd party company named Mondial Assistance who couldn’t find my car in the system at all. Not by the registration number, the VIN, business name, dealer name, my name, nothing….. Fortunately they believed me enough to log some details and from their they booked a tow truck to come and pick the car up.

About an hour later the towie arrives, he’s a pretty nice guy and goes through a bunch of little ‘tricks’ he said sometimes work’s on the Peugeots. They didn’t help at all, so off to Regal Motors in Newcastle which is the nearest Peugeot repair centre to me.

A little later in the morning I ring Regal Motors in Newcastle, and after being transferred to the service department find out that they’ve definitely received my car in but they don’t know when they’ll be able to look at it as they have a few mechanics off sick.

By now I’m pretty peeved as I’m getting nowhere fast. I decided to give the dealer, John Patrick Prestige Cars, a call and speak to their service manager. He tells me that I should ring Peugeot’s ‘Roadside Assistance’ as they should be able to organise the service for me, he also said they should be able to sort out a loan car.

The girl I spoke to at Peugeot ‘Roadside Assistance’ tells me that it’s the dealers issue to sort out and that they only provide loan cars when you break down outside 100km from your home. She suggested I get back on to the dealer and give them a bit of a serve.

Back to the dealer I go… The service guy from the dealership I bought the Peugeot from wants to know who I was talking to at Peugeot ‘Roadside Assistance’, as I think he wanted to finally get to the bottom of the “whose responsibility is it” issue….but I couldn’t remember her name so he was left trying to sort something out with Regal Motors because by now I was very peeved and told them that I really needed this sorted out.

And that’s where I’m up to now… Still no closer to a loan car, still no closer to knowing what’s wrong with my car, still no closer to any damn answers.

Update: just heard back from John Patrick Prestige Cars service manager that Regal Motors is working on my car today. They don’t know what’s wrong with it but they reckon it’ll be fixed this afternoon. I love their confidence!

Update: apparently the ‘fuel sender’ has failed. Should be replaced first thing in the morning, along with the fuel filter, so hopefully I should have the Pug back around lunch time tomorrow.

Posted originally on Mathew Packer's blog.

Dead car, dead car three times..

(via Mathew Packer)

My awesome Melbourne Cup tips

Today is Melbourne Cup day, the race that stops the nation…..well almost the whole nation. We’re expecting a pretty quiet day in the office today, and from the sound of the phones this morning (or lack of) I think it’s definitely going to be quiet.

Anyway I just had a quick look through the form guide this morning so that I was at least partially informed when it comes time to place a bet. And so I figured I’d publish my tips here just cause I feel like putting them out there.

Anyway, this is who I’m having a little punt on today.

1st – Viewed, Alcopop, Leica Ding

2nd – Viewed, Alcopop, Leica Ding, Basaltico

3rd – Viewed, Master O’reilly, Mourilyan, Roman Emperer, Zavite, Alcopop, Kibbutz, Newport, Warringah, Basaltico, Lecia Ding

Oh, and this is a boxed Trifecta. Bit too hard to pick a single winner, I’d maybe be leaning toward Alcopop just slightly. A $1 investment will cost about $50 or so.

Disclaimer – Use these tips at your own discretion. I’m no expert, and if you use these tips and lose, it’s your own fault.

Posted originally on Mathew Packer's blog.

My awesome Melbourne Cup tips

(via Mathew Packer)

Some things I want to do…

I always like to have a little project on the go, and since I’ve started simplifying my life I’ve found that I have a lot of time on my hands so I figured I might try and get one of these little projects happening.

Listed below are a few little creative things that I’ve wanted to do for a while now, ie. write a book, record a regular podcast, and giveaway desktop backgrounds, and I figured it might be a good motivator to actually write them down and try and motivate myself to get started on one of them..

So here goes……

I want to write a book

I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always wanted to write a book. Most likely it’ll be non-fiction, and probably about beginning web design, or maybe something photography related. I’ll probably give it away on my blog here, as a pdf ebook, and maybe even as a Kindle book too.

I think I’ll try and get it done and ready to release some time early in 2010.

I want to do a weekly podcast

I love podcasts, I listen to 10-12 different podcasts each week, and I think I’d like to record one myself. I think I would do a podcast about music, that seems like it would be the easiest one for me to do as I would be able to release it under the I’m With The Band brand, and I still get sent a large number of press releases and music for review.

Hrmm, I might do a play / test podcast at the end of this month.

I want to give away desktop images

I have a boatload of photos that I think would make pretty cool desktop backgrounds. So I think I’m going to start cropping, resizing, and uploading some of them over the next week or two. I’ll release them under a Creative Commons license, or maybe even remove the copyright altogether.

I think once I get the workflows sorted out in Aperture I’ll end up releasing a few new desktops every week or so.

So the challenge has been set, I’ve posted this on my blog and there’s not much I can do to take it back.

Hrmm, not sure where I’ll start. Maybe the desktop backgrounds would be a good place as I can do some quick resizing and workflow things in Aperture, after that it’s just exporting and uploading. Easy peasy!

Posted originally on Mathew Packer's blog.

Some things I want to do…

(via Mathew Packer)