Topic: To be or not to be on Facebook........that is the question !

[Najemikon]

Achim, you have an accountant?

apparently now the word I was looking for? What I meant is simply the person at my bank who is in charge of my account. Rather than speaking with different persons every time I can always contact the same woman and she'll be quickly up to speed about my money.

They used to be like that here. Everyone knew exactly who their bank manager was, but now you can barely even call your own branch. Some are trying to go back to the old method, but the other day I had an argument with Barclaycard and had to speak to a foreign call centre whose powers were little more than mine from an Internet terminal. Useless.

Don't worry about the right word. They all use bullshit titles. All our banks have Business Managers, etc. They're just Tellers!

Actually, out of interest, how many of you have to deal with foreign call centres when contacting local organisations? In the UK it's very common now because they use cheap foreign staff. At one point, even British Gas did. The funniest has to be water authorities; each area is controlled by a different company, but you have to speak to people in Mumbai who've never even heard of "Nottingham"!

[Jimmy]

Actually, out of interest, how many of you have to deal with foreign call centres when contacting local organisations?

Never, but the fact that we are a french speaking nation help with this (I always call the french help center, I can write in english but I'm not confortable enough to speak it). Better most of the time I speak to someone I know in person and I can talk with the manager of my bank since I know her. But this isn't that special : my bank is in a little town (less than 1000 citizens), my account is there since 30 years (I keep my account there even if I'm gone a long time ago) and the manager was my neighbour when I was living there (in fact, we have almost the same age).

[Najemikon]

Actually, out of interest, how many of you have to deal with foreign call centres when contacting local organisations?

Never, but the fact that we are a french speaking nation help with this (I always call the french help center, I can write in english but I'm not confortable enough to speak it). Better most of the time I speak to someone I know in person and I can talk with the manager of my bank since I know her. But this isn't that special : my bank is in a little town (less than 1000 citizens), my account is there since 30 years (I keep my account there even if I'm gone a long time ago) and the manager was my neighbour when I was living there (in fact, we have almost the same age).

That's how my grandparents and even my parents would have expected to do their banking. We have small towns and villages of comparable size and all local services are being pushed out. Local shops get swallowed by the nearest supermarket, which renders older people trapped. Any bank branches that are left are barely capable of issuing cash, everything else has to be done on the phone. There used to be a Post Office in every village, but most are being closed now. It's very sad, but it's nice to know there are some places in the world that aren't going down the bloody river.

[Touti]

Facebook changes terms of service to control more user data

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

I head on the radio this morning that Facebook decided to back off on this because of the very strong negative response from users.

[Touti]

After about a month and a half I still don't understand what's the big fuss about facebook and I don't see any use of it so I decided to flush myself.  Account should be permanently hidden deleted in 14 days.

[m.cellophane]

After about a month and a half I still don't understand what's the big fuss about facebook and I don't see any use of it so I decided to flush myself.  Account should be permanently hidden deleted in 14 days.

I'm sad to see you go. I always enjoyed trying to use my rudimentary high school French to translate your status updates. 

[Najemikon]

After about a month and a half I still don't understand what's the big fuss about facebook and I don't see any use of it so I decided to flush myself.  Account should be permanently hidden deleted in 14 days.

Maybe you just needed some friends... Seriously, when I think about it, I don't "use" it at all. For me it's a glorified address book that helps me catch up with people very easily.

[Touti]

James you wouldn't be able to decipher much with the french that is taught at school.  My sister and I love love to play with words and we make a point of making up words and playing with tense when we write.

[Achim]

I won't be removing my data/account, but I use it very rarely. Heck, if I hadn't the App on my iPhone I'd probably already forgotten about it on occasion

I agree though, it's nice to see what others are up to...

[MEJHarrison]

iPhone app or not, if it wasn't for this thread, I wouldn't have even thought to update my status. 

[Achim]

I said the iPhone app helps, not that I use it daily, or even weekly...