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 Good stuff from Justin Basini.

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McKinsey tell us that 70% of Chinese leisure time is spent on the web.

This confirms my increasing paranoia that anything that’s not

1 About China

2 Online

is increasingly irrelevant.

Someone get me a copy of Lao-Tze. Or a bottle of Tsing-Tao. Or something.

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8 March 2010

Hello Aviva.

I’m writing this while on hold. 37 minutes and counting.

1 You’ve sent me a renewal pack for home insurance.

2 The payment instructions are wrong: the wrong name, bank, account number. Your representative has let it slip that you’ve been taking money from this account. It turns out someone else has been paying my premiums. Thank you, Ms Stella Nicholson.

3 I contacted you online last week about this. (Monday 1 March) but no-one has responded.

4 I’m now on the phone to you. I’ve been through three different units – from India to Scotland and back.

43 minutes and counting. Luckily, I’m calling an 01603 number on Skype, or I’d be paying you 3p a minute for the privilege of listening to that bloody inane couple talking about leaflets and toast.

51 minutes and counting.

5 57 minutes. It’s sort of sorted. Hallelujah. Except your agent tells me that they have ‘no way of contacting’ Stella Nicholson to tell her she’s been paying for my insurance. (Perhaps this is what Twitter is for.)

I’m left wondering how many other Aviva customers are inadvertently paying someone else’s insurance premiums.

Iain Carruthers

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