Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Making voucher search better
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Today we updated some more search functions to make our voucher search engine return better results. Not only will better results be seen on our voucher search engine (http://www.bview.co.uk/vouchers) but also via our voucher API (http://api.bview.co.uk).
Here is a a quick overview of what we’ve done:
1. We removed a search function which creates matches which sound like the original search term.
2. We switched on a search function which creates matches based upon what a word looks like.
3. Category matches are now more prominant.
Initial testing shows that our results are a lot better.
Tags: search, voucher search
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
Carter Ruck threatens BView with "Damages and Costs" about Interexec review
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
We are committed to supporting good businesses that value their customers and treat them fairly: vouchers from local businesses on BView are good for both businesses and customers– customers save money while supporting local businesses. And good businesses get more customers.
As well as our voucher search engine (local businesses can add vouchers for free here), we give customers the chance to tell others about their experiences with businesses via reviews. Most of these reviews are positive and give many businesses a lot of credibility with potential customers. Companies like Atlantic Trampolines and SSKD Selffit Kitchens are clearly loved by their customers.
Others do not fare as well. In all cases, we offer businesses the opportunity to report abusive reviews as well as the chance to respond publicly to any review.
Sometimes instead of a business responding to a negative review, we receive a letter from their solicitor seeking damages and costs from us unless we make the review disappear from public view. If the review breaks our terms & conditions then we remove it. If it doesn’t then we leave it in place. In the interest of transparency, we recently made the decision to publish such letters if they 1) pertain to a review that is compliant with our terms and conditions, and 2) the reviewer stands by what they wrote and supports our action.
The review in question was for Interexec and the legal firm is Carter Ruck. You can read the review here and make your own decision about whether the review is defamatory or not. The letter we received from their solicitors is shown below.
Tags: carter ruck, interexec, reviews
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
Libraries and what they can offer you
Monday, August 31st, 2009
I’m a huge fan of the library, and it’s often amazed me how few people think to use their services when they offer so much. It’s not just books that they have available, although this is what they’re traditionally known for, in fact libraries offer a pretty wide range of services and most of them are either free or very very cheap.
Most libraries – even small ones, offer to loan people books, dvds and cds as standard these days, and although in most places dvds and cds cost a few pence to borrow, it is a pretty small fee when compared to using other lending services. My own local library lets you borrow a total of up to 10 items at any one time and keep them for up to 1 month for books, and 2 weeks for dvds or cds. Mine is also a great place to find out about local events too, as they have stands of leaflets available so when I go there I often learn about other things I can do as well.
For anyone who has a larger library nearby there’s even more available, as many of these have computers available for people to use to access the internet. Some charge a small fee again, but many allow people to use these for up to a certain amount of time per week for free these days. Then there are reference sections to most libraries where you can access a huge amount of information about a wide variety of subjects. These books have to remain in the library but it’s a great place to find information and the staff in these places are great at helping people to find their way around and seek out what they’re looking for. It’s a great place for kids to go when they need to research a school project, and sadly somewhere that gets forgotten about a lot in this age of computers.
A few of the biggest libraries around the country also have other resources available such as microfiche records of all the births, deaths and marriages in the country. This sort of information is great if you’re researching your family history. Many also have local history and local business sections too where you can find out more about the area you live in, or what businesses are registered in the area.
It’s a wealth of resources at our fingertips, most of it available for free to us all, and yet libraries are highly underused places. So if you’re looking for something to do that won’t cost you much, why not have a trip to your local library and see what they can offer you.
Tags: cheap, free, library
Posted in Findings, General | 1 Comment »
Haggling for Electronics
Monday, August 10th, 2009
It’s long been my practice to not accept the face value of a price tag on electronic and electrical items. I know that probably sounds a little weird to you after all, why would a shop have a price tag if it was negotiable? Well I guess because most people don’t think to haggle!
Once I’ve decided on an item I want to buy – let’s say a Television. I check out the prices in shops locally both big and little, and I also check the prices online as well. Once I’ve established what I think is the best price, I then try my luck – normally in offline stores – to see if I can negotiate a better deal.
Sometimes the deal I go for is purely and simply money off the price tag, sometimes it’s a bit more complicated because I will see if I can get an extra year’s warranty, or some cables thrown in. It’s a rare event though for me to pay full price from somewhere these days.
The most obvious step is to ask if there’s any chance of a discount. Feels a bit of a cheeky thing to do, but if you wait till you’re sat down and they’re ready to do the deal with you, and then smile sweetly and ask if there’s any chance of a discount you may be surprised at how often the answer is yes – specially at a time like now when shops are desperate for people to buy things from them. What I’ve commonly encountered when I do this, is the sales person vanishing to ask their manager about it. Sometimes the sales person will come back, and sometimes it’s the manager who does. Either way, stay polite and if it’s the manager and they ask you what the problem is just tell them there’s no problem, but you were wondering if they could offer you a discount on x product.
Sometimes it can be worth reminding them that you’re a loyal customer (only if you have bought things from them before obviously!), sometimes it’s worth mentioning that x product is slightly cheaper elsewhere, but that you’d prefer to give this store your custom. If a cash discount seems to be something they can’t manage, you can always switch to asking if they can throw in something else (a case, set of batteries, lead etc.) instead.
It is always – without fail – worth doing this if the item you’re looking to buy is the display model! The last time I did this was for a television & dvd player. I found the item (TV) I wanted, sat down ready to discuss it and found that they were out of stock and all they had was the show room model. In the end, despite the TV being on sale already, I got an extra 10% off it, the dvd player at a special knock down price as I was buying it at the same time as the TV and some leads to connect the two thrown in for free which should have cost me another £20. Incidentally this was from Comet – a national store, not a local independent place!
Give it a go next time you buy something and then come tell us how you get on!
Contributed by Vialdana
Tags: comet, currys, discount, electronics, hifi, tv
Posted in General, Savings | Comments Off
Car Boot Sales – The Sellers Guide
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
How often do you clean out a cupboard and find something you don’t need or want anymore? I find I do it quite a lot these days, and I’ve taken to storing all my odd bits that I no longer want and taking them to a car boot sale to sell on. There are a few tricks to getting the most out of doing a boot sale, and I thought I’d share what I’ve learnt with you.
First of all visit the boot sale you’re thinking of doing a few times first – get to know what time it really starts and ends because the advertised time isn’t always the time it actually starts! There’s one near me which advertises to start at 1pm but as a seller you want to be there by 10am and as a buyer 11am generally.
Be prepared! There are a few essentials I always take with me – partly for comfort and partly because I don’t want to have to spend money when I’m there to make it, and partly just to make things look good.
Here’s my list of essentials:
- A bottle of juice and a plastic mug.
- Something to eat (apple, crisps – nothing too messy).
- Toilet paper – well no one wants to get caught short when they’re caught short!
- Hand sanitiser – porta loo’s don’t have very good sanitary facilities I find.
- A table cover (old sheet will do).
- Sun cream and a cardigan in case it gets too hot or cold.
- A good size float.
- A money belt or container to keep the money in.
When you pack your car, keep your bag of essentials at your feet, and put your tables and chairs in LAST. This way you can get them out first and you don’t have boxes everywhere while you’re setting your table up.
Open a window of the car, and place your money container on the seat in the car where you can reach it but no one else can, and then lock the car!
Smile a lot! - Chat to people and be friendly, takes a bit of getting used to sometimes, but you’ll find people generally prefer to buy from someone they like rather than someone who ignores them or frowns at them.
Be ready to negotiate with people – if you’re clearing your house of junk it’s generally better to get 50p for something and sell it than to hold out for £2 and take it home again.
If you’re doing a boot sale as a one off, and you really don’t want to take much home with you, at the end try talking to another stall holder and seeing if they’d offer you something for what you’ve got left – if they do boot sale’s regularly then they may be interested in this and that way you get a few pounds more and an empty car!
Contributed by Vialdana
Tags: car boot, car boot sale, sellers guide, selling
Posted in General | Comments Off
Vouchers Revisited
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
You might remember back in March BView made it possible for businesses to add vouchers and promotions to their listings. Our voucher directory has been growing ever since and now includes tens of thousands of vouchers, making us the largest single source of vouchers in the UK.
If you’re business isn’t displaying a voucher, you might be missing out.
Why should I add a voucher?
By adding a voucher your business will be included in the BView voucher directory. Businesses from our voucher directory are seen more across the BView site. Businesses with vouchers will have the edge over those without as everyone likes a bargain – it gives the customer one more reason to choose you over a competitor. You’ll also be included in our fortnightly newsletter that gets sent to tens of thousands of BView members
We’ve also been working hard to build distribution partners to get your offers seen by the widest audience possible. Just last month we partnered with Google so that vouchers from BView businesses are displayed as part of the listings on Google Maps. We’re putting the finishing touches to other exciting partnerships too!
What does it cost?
Nothing.
It’s completely free.
Any business on BView can add a voucher as part of their standard profile. Once you’ve claimed your listing just click on the “Add a voucher” link from the menu on the right.
What sort of special offer should I make?
This really depends on your business. Percentage discounts are always popular, but you might prefer to offer a free gift, or 2 for 1 deal. Mail order companies find that free delivery is always a winner, and if none if these suit you, then you could try a free quote or initial consultation.
How do I add a voucher?
If you haven’t already, then start by claiming your business on BView.
Once you’ve done this just login and follow the “Add a voucher” link displayed in the green box on the right hand side of your profile. It should be straight forward from there!
If you’ve got any suggestions, feedback or voucher success stories then please share them below in the comments.
Tags: Business, discount, google, maps, promotion, special offers, vouchers
Posted in Business, General | Comments Off
Out and about for nowt (as we say in Yorkshire)!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
I decided to make a short notice break away from the norm and galloped off to the coast for a few days of relative peace, naturally, for the purposes of research I had to do that on a budget.
So, having already spent a couple of days sharing a caravan at a Park Resorts site I decided to maximise the savings to be had. Park offer a saving for any repeat bookings in one season and since I was mentioned on the occupancy list last time, I’m entitled to the saving this time. The best savings are to be made when booking again before you leave and that applies to any of the sites around the country.
I managed to book a pretty big caravan for four on the East Coast for a long weekend and from there the plan was to explore.
En route we travelled through Hull, hardly a fine example of tourism but with it’s own appeal in the form of The Deep a large sea life centre just off the main roads. We got in for the family ticket price of £28.50 and there’s the option to upgrade that ticket at no extra cost to a year long pass, all they ask is for a donation next time but it isn’t compulsory. So, that’s a years entry into The Deep for around £7 each. You can even make use of the local tourist information board who often provide online printable vouchers or key phrases to quote and make even greater savings at attractions around the country.
We even managed to find some places of interest with free entry, like Wold’s Way Lavender Farm and we picked our own fruit at a farm down the road before driving home via Wentworth Garden Centre.
Park even assist with savings, for example you can buy entry for The Sea Life Centre in Scarborough at great reductions instead of the ticket sales at the venue. Alternately look at the internet site and find vouchers on site or sign up for Bview’s local listings to get an up to date link to the latest offers in the area.
No matter what type of holiday you want or even if you just want a day out or two, it’s worth searching around the internet for reduced price entry to visitor attractions and events all over the UK and really making the most of the sunshine.
Tags: attractions, caravans, days ut, holidays, Savings, tourism, visitors
Posted in Features, Findings, General, offers, Savings | Comments Off
Making the most of the scrappage allowance
Monday, June 29th, 2009
It’s been a great temptation for many car buyers to take advantage of the scrappage allowance scheme introduced by the government this year. The Scrappage Allowance / Vehicle Discount Scheme is a £300 million scheme which has been introduced by the UK government during the 2009 budget which involves the scrapping of a car or small van which is over 10 years old. The government is offering a £1000 incentive which will be matched by participating manufacturer’s dealers . The discount is deducted from the price you pay for the new vehicle.
Tempted and willing to research I had a look at the offers from Ford and found some interesting figures, they’re offering a £2K government scrappage amount and they’re going to match it, which sounds amazing, but that’s for a Style at £12,295 after reductions, then another £1,892 as a fee for the credit which stands at a whopping 7.9 APR. Suddenly the offer isn’t quite so tempting.
And there are caveats: The vehicle must only be first registered on or prior to 31 August 1999 and the owner must have owned the vehicle continuously for at least one year prior to the order date of the new vehicle.
The scrapped vehicle should have a UK address on the registration certificate (V5C) and has either a current tax disc and current MOT certificate, or has a current tax disc and a current Hackney Carriage Licence, or has an MOT certificate which expired no earlier than 14 days before the date of the contract for a new vehicle.
Neither vehicle (scrappage or new) should exceed 3.5 tonnes.
The purchased vehicle must be first registered in the UK on or after 18 May 2009 and have no former keepers.
The registered keeper of the new vehicle must be identical to the registered keeper of the vehicle to be scrapped. The Scrappage Allowance will be payable in relation to the first 300,000 new vehicles purchased nationwide or until 28 February 2010, whichever is sooner.
My reservations were repealed by the more promising offers with Kia, a subsidiary of Hyundai , where you can get a Picanto for a mere £4,495 on the road with a £2,000 combined saving with the new incentive. As a cash purchaser with no ridiculous APR to pay on a credit agreement, you’d actually be making a reasonable purchase for a new car, though it should be borne in mind that a car decreases in value rapidly for those first days of ownership and then drops to it’s usual steadier decline, but with a sensible road tax bracket, great fuel economy, low insurance grouping of 2, 3 or 4 and all around nippy features, perhaps many of the savings are to be made later. You could also look at the Fiat Eco at £5,995 and Peugeot 107 Urban Lite from £6,945.
It’s only a true saving if you don’t pay the hiked credit/ finance fees and interest rates.
Tags: car, dealerships, government incentive, Savings, scrappage allowance, vehicle
Posted in Features, Findings, General, News, offers, Savings | 1 Comment »
£ shops – are they worth it?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
There seem to be more and more pound shops and other similar cheap shops appearing on the high street in recent years, and its tempting to either dismiss them as selling tat, or assume that everything they sell is cheap, but what’s the truth really?
I’ve personally found that sometimes these shops appear to offer excellent value for the odd occasionally bought item, a vase, a set of mugs or a cake tin – for example I recently bought 100 wooden pegs in my local pound shop, and 100 pegs for £1 is crazy cheap – I mean that’s 1p per peg! It’s got to be a bargain at that price hasn’t it? But the items that they sell which I do buy regularly I’ve never really found them to be much cheaper for. Toothpaste for example – well yes, £1 is not a bad price for a tube of branded toothpaste, but most of the supermarkets sell it at a similar price on a fairly frequent basis, so I normally just buy it from there when it’s on special. Soft drinks look good when you compare them to the RRP prices– For example I spotted Pepsi Max and Fanta 2 litre bottles in there at £1 each, but when I popped across the road to Farm foods I found that they sell the same 2 litre bottles cheaper – Pepsi Max at 79p and Fanta at 59p, so we’re not talking a couple of pence cheaper either, we’re talking more than 20% and 40% cheaper. They do however do some excellent deals on coffee and sweets in my local store, so it does seem to be a little bit hit and miss really and the rule seems to be to keep checking other stores to make sure you are getting a bargain.
The other part of the question is whether these sorts of shops are good for the high street, do they make the supermarkets and other shops have to put their prices down, or do they just encourage us to spend money on things because they’re cheap when in fact maybe we don’t need them. Might I have been better buying fewer pegs for the a slightly higher price somewhere else, but getting decent quality ones that would last longer? There’s a good possibility that I would be to be honest, but like everyone else, I couldn’t resist the feeling of getting a bargain, so you tell me, do you think I got one? I’m not sure I know.
Tags: cheap shopping, discount centres, pound store, Savings, smart shopping
Posted in General | Comments Off
Buying Independent V Buying from Big Chains – The Big question
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
I personally find it quite hard to decide whether I should buy from the big supermarket who sells things cheaply because they have huge buying power so can get the best deals, or whether I should pay a penny or two more per item but support my local small sellers who would go under without the support of the local people.
On the one hand I have to think of my own pocket don’t I? I mean, if I can save a few pence here and there buying from the supermarkets, I can afford to treat my family to a few extras along the way, and that’s a good thing for us.
The conflict for me is that if we all think like that, then the little shops go out of business just leaving the big chains who then have a hold over us because there’s no one to challenge them. Add to that, the choice issue – with a small seller, if you want something specific they can often get it for you, but a big chain can’t do so because the people working in the shop have nothing to do with the buying process.
The same problem occurs for me when I think about other products too – buying a TV or a Washing machine for example, do I go to the big chain store where they have loads of tellys on display but that’s all they have. Or do I go visit the independent dealer who can’t afford to have them all there on display because it costs too much and he doesn’t have the space, but he can actually offer you a much wider choice range because he can choose to deal with any manufacturer and can get any of their range of products even if he doesn’t normally carry it.
Personally I generally try to choose the smaller independent dealer for the big items like Stereos, Fridges and computers because I think that I get much closer to what I actually want that way as well as supporting the local economy. When it comes to supermarkets however, I’m afraid I tend to go the other way I go for cheaper and all under one roof – mostly for ease to be honest. It’s much harder to have to go to 20 different small stores than to go to one large one each week. Do you have something different that influences your thoughts? I’d love to hear if you think differently to me!
Tags: independant, shopping, supermarket
Posted in General | 1 Comment »