Buylowest.com update

I have just spent the morning on the phone Federal Express, who refuse to accept that delivering parcels and giving no indication that there may be duty charges levied weeks later is wrong. Apparently the call centre crew have a distorted view of the law when it comes to things like this, because the guy on the end of the phone was basically calling me an idiot, when all I was trying to get them to do was recognise the flaw in the system and fix it. Ah well, I guess that’s what you can expect of large companies – people at the bottom who just don’t care.

Buylowest have dropped off the face of the earth. No surprises there. I am now initiating a dispute with PayPal, because the terms are hidden and they claim Royal Mail as their courier. I’ve paid FedEx the £50, and I don’t expect that to be seen again. It’s such a massive flaw that I can’t claim that £50 from PayPal because it didn’t go through their system, but I can hardly blame them.

In hindsight this is a clever exploitation of a delivery company’s import policy. The customer service rep for FedEx refused to believe it, so I’ll try the head office. It would be so easy for them to stamp parcels coming for outside the EU as having potential extra charges, or to include a little leaflet. At least then the consumer wouldn’t end up caught between a rock and a hard place. I for one certainly don’t relish the idea of chasing my refund from the United States. I’m just not that good at law (and not bothered enough for £50).

This post is an update for an earlier post: BuyLowest.com

Cave Rescue Scenario

North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation carried out a cave rescue scenario at Ogof Hesp Alyn on Sunday (20th April). For anyone who has yet to visit Ogof Hesp Alyn, don’t! The scenario comprised of a casualty with a fractured tibia who had fallen down a short pitch on the left-hand option after a series of crawls. The cave is very muddy and cramped, and was partially flooded due to heavy rainfall and winter, and the crawls were particularly wet.

The scenario was mostly a success, although the team decided not to perform a rescue through the crawls because of the time required. The notes I took from the exercise are as follows:

• The first team underground moves quickly to find and assess the casualty. In my opinion the cas-bag should be taken by the first team, as the impact of cold and shock are a primary factor. In this scenario we anticipated the casualty would have been injured for around 4 hours before cave rescue arrive at the surface, because of the time taken for the party to escape, call for help and for the team to be arranged. By this point hypothermia is a serious issue, even for members of the team who were not injured but have stayed with the casualty.
• The second team includes the underground controller, heyphones and vacuum mattress, and their target is the deepest site a radio link can be established. The second team also carries a belay kit and all the gear required to carry out a pitch rescue (if required).
• The third team provides the stretcher and extra kit requested by the first team through the heyphone.
• Communications need to be practised and pre-agreed. Several minor problems arose when testing the underground heyphone because or inconsistent use of callsigns (“surface control receiving” was used to tell the underground controller they were ready to receive a message, when we took it to mean they were receiving our message (which they weren’t). Heyphone communications are notoriously weak, so operators should have experience of both underground and surface control to better understand the constraints in rescue situations.
• Manoeuvring the casualty in a stretcher requires tight co-ordination between the stretcher carriers, and the haul team. Effective communication systems need to be practised to reduce time spent moving the casualty. Some system should also be devised to allow continuous movement of the casualty, either by passing the stretcher along a chain of rescuers (although we found the difficulties in leapfrogging members in front of the stretcher to be severe in cases) or by predicting the terrain and having small groups waiting to receive the stretcher at each constriction.

The scenario provided a chance for many team members to meet for the first time, following a recent resurgence in membership, and I look forward to more regular meetings in the future to increase our efficiency!