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The day my vacuum exploded
Mar. 5th, 2008 11:15 amSo, I arrived home last night to see a note from the cleaner.
"Hi Peter. Sorry, I couldn't hoover floor 2 because the vacuum exploded. I did what I can!"
Well, I guess that's what happens when you have someone using a vacuum cleaner properly, rather than my occasional half-hour dilettanteish forays.
It's a trip to Comet at the weekend. I quite fancied the Vax 1118 which has a macho-ish look to it -- kind of as if, if it wasn't a vacuum cleaner, it would be a baddie in a Doctor Who episode.
++++++++
Mitch Garber will be leaving Party Gaming in 2009, another CEO who can't wait to get away, but who cloaked is statement with comments about wanting to get back to Canada.
It's hard not to hold everything to do with Party Gaming with total contempt, as a customer, as an investor, as anyone who has anything to do with the company in any way, shape or form. I mean, you have to struggle to fall lower than Absolute Poker in terms of disgust at what is going on, but Party seems to manage it.
The company's latest coup is to strip you of 10% of your Party Points if you don't play there at least once a fortnight. Yep, forget about going on holiday; that will cost you 10% of your 100,000 Party Points, or roughly $100.
This kind of underhand shittiness has been going on for years now at Party. Their deposit bonus was so bad last time that I gave up after a single day. It amounted to less than even a stingy rakeback scheme. Clearly they are trying desperately to edge profits up by slivering away any benefits.
When I say 'profits', what I actually mean is, er, losses. Twenty million dollars of them. Party tried to dress this up (because, of course, they have a history of Internet-related statements that use such useless measurements at EBITDA) but the fact remains that they ballsed it up in the wake of UIGEA. The previous owners ripped off the institutional investors at flotation, with the only justification being that the institutional investors should have known better ('charge what you can get away with' is a well-justified principle when floating a stock). The administration of the poker site is plain hopeless -- cloaked in obfuscation, bad English and poor design. All the signs are of a PLC trying to make money in a business sector where unlisted is best.
Party's share price is down to 26p today. My only joy at the whole affair is that the incompetent non-poker-players they employ in customer service in India will go back to their poverty-stricken misery in the semi-urban slums of Mumbai when the company pulls out.
_________
"Hi Peter. Sorry, I couldn't hoover floor 2 because the vacuum exploded. I did what I can!"
Well, I guess that's what happens when you have someone using a vacuum cleaner properly, rather than my occasional half-hour dilettanteish forays.
It's a trip to Comet at the weekend. I quite fancied the Vax 1118 which has a macho-ish look to it -- kind of as if, if it wasn't a vacuum cleaner, it would be a baddie in a Doctor Who episode.
++++++++
Mitch Garber will be leaving Party Gaming in 2009, another CEO who can't wait to get away, but who cloaked is statement with comments about wanting to get back to Canada.
It's hard not to hold everything to do with Party Gaming with total contempt, as a customer, as an investor, as anyone who has anything to do with the company in any way, shape or form. I mean, you have to struggle to fall lower than Absolute Poker in terms of disgust at what is going on, but Party seems to manage it.
The company's latest coup is to strip you of 10% of your Party Points if you don't play there at least once a fortnight. Yep, forget about going on holiday; that will cost you 10% of your 100,000 Party Points, or roughly $100.
This kind of underhand shittiness has been going on for years now at Party. Their deposit bonus was so bad last time that I gave up after a single day. It amounted to less than even a stingy rakeback scheme. Clearly they are trying desperately to edge profits up by slivering away any benefits.
When I say 'profits', what I actually mean is, er, losses. Twenty million dollars of them. Party tried to dress this up (because, of course, they have a history of Internet-related statements that use such useless measurements at EBITDA) but the fact remains that they ballsed it up in the wake of UIGEA. The previous owners ripped off the institutional investors at flotation, with the only justification being that the institutional investors should have known better ('charge what you can get away with' is a well-justified principle when floating a stock). The administration of the poker site is plain hopeless -- cloaked in obfuscation, bad English and poor design. All the signs are of a PLC trying to make money in a business sector where unlisted is best.
Party's share price is down to 26p today. My only joy at the whole affair is that the incompetent non-poker-players they employ in customer service in India will go back to their poverty-stricken misery in the semi-urban slums of Mumbai when the company pulls out.
_________
