It’s that time of year again - car insurance renewal. I’ve been with The Post Office for the last couple of years as they’ve given me a competitive quote each time.

For the last year I’ve been paying about £17 a month with a £200 excess. I had a speeding offence but that has now expired. I was therefore expecting the cost to come down this year. So imagine my surprise to receive a renewal of £27 a month with a £250 excess. This was, according to the letter, the best they could get and was with Fortis Insurance.

So I rang them about this to see if they could explain the huge hike in price. They couldn’t. But they could - miraculously - find me a better price and with the same insurer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much better.

I came across an article which listed a number of online car insurance search sites that you should use as these specific ones ensured you covered the entire market. By the end of it I’d found a deal, via Tesco, with M&S. It works out at under £17 a month and is just £100 excess. In fact, so save more money, I’ve decided to pay for it as a lump sum - this works out at about £190. I also get £5 in Clubcard points from Tesco.

The annoying thing is, the insurance, although via Tesco and M&S, is with…. Fortis.

Always useful to know…

The assertion that “…it is a condition of the manufacturer’s warranty that work must be carried out by an authorised dealer” is a commonly misheld belief, and is absolutely and categorically incorrect. For a dealer or manufacturer to state that work must be carried out by an authorised dealer, or that all replacement parts must be manufacturer authorised, is in breach of basic European (and thus UK) statutory law.

I have researched this issue extensively, and my assertions are backed up by the Competition Commission, Trading Standards (Consumer Direct), and the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). Furthermore, I have personally challenged a manufacturer on this issue (Mercedes) and have been successful in forcing them to honour their warranty; they backed-down before I took them to court.

The relevant law is referred to as the the “European Block Exemption” (BER) and is encompassed within the Competition Act 1998. The law applies to all suppliers of cars within Europe, but as luck would have it, I found a link to a motor trade article referring to Nissan, which was the brand of car specifically mentioned in the original thread. In this case, Nissan were required to ‘back down’ over refusal to honour a warranty after the owner had a non-Nissan part fitted:

http://www.motortrader.com/25215/Nissan-backtracks-over-warr…

For further information:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38070.html (Specifically Q4)

Naturally, if you choose dealership maintenance and servicing for peace of mind, then that is your prerogative, but by my calculations, the additional costs of ‘authorised’ dealerships are not good value for money, even when it comes to considering any value that such servicing may have when selling second-hand.

There is a lot of money to be saved by not using a dealership for servicing and maintenance!

Well, work may still suck but, away from all that, I’m happy.

Our theatre groups next show is Viva Mexico and, for the first time since joining, I won’t be “treading the boards”. After 10 months of Jesus Christ Superstar I needed a rest from it all. Never-the-less I made myself available to help out “behind the scenes”. Except nobody seemed to be interested.

So last week I was chuffed to be asked by the shows Director to be a stagehand.

Last night, that moved up a notch when I was promoted to Stage Manager.

It’s a bit terrifying - you’re responsible for the Health & Safety aspects as well as generally everything that goes on, stage wise, during a show. With a pair of headphones on you have to communicate with lighting and sound engineers, as well as the conductor, and ensure the smooth running of the actual show. The Director has done his job up to this point and can sit down and enjoy the fruits of his labour - for the stage manager the hard work begins, and can make or break the success of a performance.

Well, that’s my take on it anyway. It’s responsibility and I like it.

Tomorrow and Saturday we will be building the set.

As web designer, I got the website updated yesterday with the latest photos, so that’s out of the way.

Meantime, as chief poster designer I’ve got changes to make to the posters for our next show and next years concerts.

It’s suddenly got busy…

(The only thing that does still suck, other than work, are cars - now my hazard warning indicators have stopped working. I think the switch has bust. So another trip to the garage for me…)

…I sat at the dealers. Waiting. For the car to be on the ramp 20 minutes.

The result… nothing. They hooked the car up to their computer and couldn’t find a problem. No shit Sherlock. Of course they couldn’t - it’s running fine now. I just want it to start more reliably.

They did do one thing though - they found the connector to the starter motor to be a little rusty so cleaned it up (precisely what I was attempting the other day). All that and I only had to pay £30+ and take a day off work. Grrrr.

Anyway, whilst I’m angry, today is the Day Against DRM (Digital Restrictions Management).

DRM is used to restrict what you and your family can do with the electronic devices and media purchased. It is an attempt by technology and media companies to take away your rights. DRM Means: No fair use. No purchase and resell. No private copies. No sharing. No backup. No swapping. No mix tapes. No privacy. No commons. No control over our computers. No control over our electronic devices.

Which is why I buy CD’s and copy them to my PC myself. That way I can play the music on what I like when I like. And the reason why I shun certain MP3 players (e.g. the iPod) and all online music sites.

You can learn more about this by clicking on the link above.

The car is now booked in at the garage for tomorrow. It’s an all day job and I’ll be stranded on some industrial estate in the middle of nowhere. So that should be good for a laugh (no, not really).

I hope they find something, rather than play around all day, charge me some stupid amount of money and then for it to break down again the next day. But then again, what are dealers for?

I’ll report back…