mybigadventures.com

As you may have noticed I've been pretty busy updating the site over the last couple of months. Over the past few years it has been linked to when the renewal comes around for the hosting account and I feel like I should make better use if it. This year was no exception - although thus far in terms of updates has been more productive.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the fact that I was moving over to a new hosting account as the yorkshireman in me couldn't bare to pay the ridiculous extra money for renewal. All went well, I was switched over to a new account and was told the exisiting plan was cancelled and would not renew. Imagine my suprise then, when I recieved the confirmation email through today from GoDaddy to confirm the renewal of the account and to find that the money had been taken from my paypal account. At first although annoyed I thought, it will be fine, I'll call GoDaddy explain how their representative had told me the account would not renew and get a refund. And that's what happened . . until it dawned on me that the amount I was being told would be refunded was about $60 less than the amount I had paid. When I queried this, I was told that the extra $60 had been paid in tax and "it's not our policy to refund tax". Despite the fact that I have been charged for something that I do not want, GoDaddy are unable/unwilling to offer me a full refund. I asked about their complaints procedure and was told they do not have one. I am shocked by the poor service offered by such a large company and it seems I'm not alone. As soon as I googled the issue I found lots of other people complaining about the same issue. At present I am attempting to recover the money through the paypal resolution centre, so I guess I'll have to let you know how that turns out, but for anyone else out there buyer beware!

In other news, our ongoing issue with first utility has finally been resolved thanks to the energy ombudsman. We had an issue back in September and it has taken until now to bring it to a close. Now to put it in context after months of phone calls back and forth to First Utility we resorted to the energy ombusman. In 6 short weeks they have made a final judgement in our favour and bring the whole mess to a close - happy days! So a lesson for the future when the energy companies are dragging their feet go to the ombudsman (www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html) - it's a great free service and will see the issue is resolved much more quickly and with much less hassle.

I think that's all for now. If anyone has experienced similar issues with GoDaddy and managed to claim the tax back, let me know in the comments below.

*** UPDATE ***

I can't believe it - PayPal sorted this out on the same day that I raised the issue in their resolution centre. They reversed the transaction and I got a full refund - fantastic! So the lesson - if you're buying from GoDaddy use Paypal or a credit card and then, if for whatever reason you need a refund, go through either PayPal or the credit card company. Great job PayPal! 

So this is just a quick update to tell you all that the sign up page is now up and running so you can create an account and become a member of mybigadventures. Not everything is quite there yet so please bare with me whilst I iron out the remaining bugs. You will however be able to setup a new account, complete with profile image that you can change until you find one you're happy with. Please register using your email and choose a name (this will be displayed whenever you add a comment so keep them sensible please. 

Please feel free to go through and add a few comments to some of the photos and blogs and let us know what you like and would like to see more of. Enjoy!

Now that the photo functionality is up and running I thought it was about time I added some of our photos. For now I've added a selection from 2012, 2013 and 2014 to join the recent additions to 2015. 

Whilst I'm talking about updates, I've also been working on the member side of the website as I want to re-enable the signup page so that you can comment on photos and blogs in addition to subscribing to updates. I've also added another photo to the banner slideshow of a Canada Goose taken at Roundhay Park in Leeds.

Hopefully there should be some progress over the next week or so. Until then enjoy the new photos.

So it's a little late, but over Easter I went on a jaunt to Florence with my mum and dad, to celebrate their 65th birthdays. And we packed a lot in! Besides the usual visits to the Uffizi and the Duomo, we explored as many of the little steets and vast plazas as we could, finally venturing across the river to the beautiful Giardino di Boboli, a place Ben and I didn't get to on our previous visit.

We stayed in the NH Anglo-American hotel, set a little outside the main tourist area of Florence. Although it is a 15 minute walk into the central areas of Florence, it's an easy walk and you can either ramble through the streets, or take the path by the river. 

Dad and I also braved the heights of the Duomo cupola, climbing 400-odd steps to reach the top - but it was worth it! The views across Florence are quite breathtaking!

I'll add more details later, but for now, have a look at the rest of the photos linked below. Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday.