The thing about useful stuff is

Hey, where's my car? Monday, October 08, 2007

Having posted about Mint, and the notion of giving your financial details and passwords to a new web start-up, I was reminded of the concerns I had regarding the airport meet and greet service I used earlier this year, and which I posted about here.

In short, I was very apprehensive about handing over my credit card information to a web site and my car keys +car to a stranger.

GULP - that company is no longer operating and evidently failed to pay their web designer.

Heaven knows what happened to the people that had already left their cars with the service when it stopped operating. After all, if you left your car with them the day before they ceased trading, then what happened when you returned 2 weeks later?

Labels: Trust

posted by John Wilson @ 10:39 AM Permanent Link ,

newsvine reddit

Lastrounds - more bars please Wednesday, May 09, 2007

In response to a blog comment, I took a look at Last Rounds, which claims to be

"a London pub review site with a difference. The aim of the Last Rounds Project is to promote safe and sensible drinking by encouraging forward planning of your time out. "

Well, that will immediately put off most pub goers these days if the papers are to be believed.

I really like the site features, especially the ability to locate pubs near tube & train stops, and the impressive implementation of the interactive map.

The founder of the site is Luke Agbaimoni, who started the site as a hobby has got it thus far without any funding, albeit with a little help from friends.

Every pub on the site has details of
• Opening & closing times of the venue
• Addresses, maps, websites & phone numbers to check before you visit
• First & last departure times for all known local bus, tube and DLR services
• Local borough taxi numbers
• And the location & opening hours of local borough public toilets

There's only one big issue - the directory of pubs was sparse. I checked a number of my tube and train haunts only to be disappointed with how few results were returned, relative to the number I was expecting. For instance, when I selected Bank tube, I only got the following two results

Pubs & Bars	Walking Distance	Directions
The Hatchet	6 mins

Black Friar	16 mins

Let me assure you that the City would be empty if that were the case. And the idea of walking 16 minutes to a pub from Bank!

If Luke can a) source a more complete directory b) mashup with other review sites to provide fuller coverage e.g. Trusted Places perhaps, then I think this has the making of a great site.

As to whether sites like this will be popular, I'm less sure for several reasons. Firstly, unless you travel around the City like myself, most people tend to frequent familiar places and so their need for a review site is limited. Secondly, it's often when you are mobile that you are prompted to want the information. Finally, the advent of sites like Trusted Places, which allows you to garner recommendations from friends, are likely to be our first stopping point for suggestions.

Labels: Trust, trusted places

posted by John Wilson @ 10:42 PM Permanent Link ,

newsvine reddit

Oh God, am I being duped? Thursday, April 26, 2007

Whenever we fly away on holiday, as we did last week, I book a "meet and greet" for the car at the airport. Aside from the huge convenience of dropping your car off at departures and having it returned to arrivals, it eliminates the hassles of humping my eldest daughter and her wheelchair on and off transit buses.

It's in my nature to hunt for the best price, no matter that the differential is a few pounds and the time cost is normally greater than that - I actually enjoy the hunt and also discovering how these services are marketed and how easy they are to book with.

Anyway, I was delighted to find a service called 1stmeetandgreet who were a staggering £50 for one week versus the general going rate of £78. What a bargain and a find. And then my doubts kicked in.

Why? Well, I was going to
- hand over my details including credit card information to a web site and company I'd never heard of before
- I was going to show up at the airport and hand over the keys to my car without protest to someone I'd never met before
- tell them how long I would be away from home and hence that the house would probably be unoccupied

Furthermore the website only had a telephone number (0800) and a mobile number - no address info or details about the company.

You see where I'm going with this?

Hmmmm. If this was a scam whereby this was simply a device to extract my credit card infomation, steal my car easily and rob my house then it would be a perfect crime. Would a police officer or the insurance people have any sympathy in such a situation. "So Sir, reading back through my notes you voluntarily gave them your information, credit car info and your car
after finding a web site on the internet. And you only realised your car had been stolen, your house ransacked and your credit card maxed out when you arrived back in the country Sir."

GULP

TRUST

That is what matters when conducting commerce online or even offline, albeit to varying degrees. You trust that the in exchange for the money you hand over you will receive some goods. You trust that the thing you buy will work and if it doesn't that the retailer will still be there and willing to refund/exchange.

Yet how does one get a feeling of trustworthiness when dealing with a new service that you've not encountered before, nor had recommended, particularly in circumstances like the one above?

By the way, despite my reservations I went and booked it. Thankfully, as well as being by far the cheapest, 1stmeetandgreet were best service I've used by way of great personal service (timely, polite, friendly) at Gatwick and am happy to recommend them.

Labels: Trust