Author Archives: Kev Atkinson

Make £25+ in Crypto in under 10 mins!

It sounds like a scam, but on logging into Coinbase (click Coinbase to join using my referral link) this morning I found a rewards section where you could watch videos in return for digital currency. Hot cup of tea at hand I set to work clicking away and getting free digital coin.

10 mins later, I had over £30 in Crypto in my account. Once it had all settled I flipped it all into Litecoin. Here’s a screenshot from my iPhone lock screen this morning.

If you’ve got 10 mins to spare, head over via the referral links below to watch a few tiny videos, answer some simple questions and earn some free crypto. (I will also earn some as a referrer)

Stellar Lumens – Click Here

Band Protocol – Click Here

Compound – Click Here

Once you’ve got all the currency, you can keep it as is or convert it into Bitcoin or Litecoin. Once done I recommend you send it off to Bitpanda as their withdrawal process is a lot more efficient.

If you wish to create an account on Bitpanda (click the word to use my referral link) once done head straight to the verification section and complete the steps required to get as far as Verification Silver. It doesnt take long, I was at Silver in a couple of hours. Make sure you enable Two Factor authentication too if you’re going to be sending your digital currency here.

If this guide has helped you, you are welcome to send a thank you to £kevatkinson on CashApp.

Capital One Blocking Cryptocurrency Purchases!

I’m a Capital One customer and when the boom was beginning near the end of last year I attempted to pop a large amount in via one of my unused credit cards with Capital One. The transaction was declined over and over again. I also received lots of 3D secure errors.

Looks like the company has made a decision to not allow Cryptocurrency purchases with their credit.

How to get your cash out of Coinbase!

UPDATED: 01/05/2021: Added CashApp donation address instead of crypto for ease of use.

UPDATED 22/12/2020: As Twitter contains multiple people complaining about being unable to withdraw from Coinbase, this guide was tweaked to reflect the latest Bitpanda withdrawal process. The guide still works.

UPDATED 26/01/2018: See the end of this article for tweets from people confirming this has worked for them.

UPDATED 16/1/2018: This may not work for people in the US & Canada. Confirmed working in UK & EU. Please leave a comment with your location if this worked for you. See end of blog for confirmation from people this has worked.

Quick disclaimer. This is a process I have personally followed and can confirm worked. It has also worked for those at the end of the article who agreed to tweet me their good news. If it works for you – Tweet me and I’ll add you to the blog – @kevatkinson. The decision to follow the instructions below is yours – and yours alone – to make. My article is simply to give you information on how I (and others who have made a decision to follow this guide) have done it. I do not accept any responsibility should anything go wrong as a result of following my experience documented below. This article is provided with the best intentions to help people frustrated with being unable to withdraw from Coinbase.

I have been a user of Coinbase (click Coinbase to join using my referral link) for around 9 months. I like Coinbase because they do a good iOS app – allowing you to deposit cash quickly and easily by card and buy digital currency. You can secure the app with a PIN, or TouchID and keep track on your investments in one easy place. There is also a decent Chrome plugin to track prices with notifications if it hits a high or a low.

However, what good are your financial gains if you can’t get them out? This is where Coinbase is currently failing badly. Coinbase experienced exponential growth at the end of 2017, well documented in the press & on their own website at times of usage. Digital currency boomed and I believe the Coinbase app became of the top 10 apps on the iTunes store. Clearly as a customer their service suffered. The app regularly crashed, wouldn’t load, the website regularly would not load – and even during buys and sells, it would time out or the transaction would fail.

Recently I wanted to sell my digital currency and withdraw the cash to use for Christmas. To do this you need to verify your bank account by sending them a payment – anyone reading this probably knows that process. The money you then send appears in your wallet after around 2-3 days. Technically then you should have verified the bank account is yours and should be able to withdraw. Sadly that is a big fat nope.

A very quick search of the words “coinbase withdraw” on Twitter returns lots and lots of people who are now trying to withdraw their funds and as of the time of writing, it’s simply doesn’t work. If you are doing it on the app, you’ll be fed up of this;

Please verify a bank account message on Coinbase.

So – how do you get your money? Create an account on Bitpanda (click the word to use my referral link). Once done head straight to the verification section and complete the steps required to get as far as Verification Silver. I did this recently and was at Silver in a couple of hours. Also – enable Two Factor authentication as you’re going to be sending your digital currency here.

Once verified, head to wallets at the top left of the site. Get your wallet address for the applicable currency (Bitcoin/Litecoin/Ethereum etc). Then go back to Coinbase and send your digital currency from your Coinbase wallet to your new new Bitpanda wallet address. Personally I did this by re-purchasing Litecoin then sending across as it was completed in around 30 minutes. Fees may be applicable here. Once your digital currency is showing in Bitpanda, simply hit the Sell button, transfer it to the wallet for your local currency and follow the withdraw option where you’ll enter your bank details.

You’ll need your IBAN from your bank account (usually on statements) and make sure the name matches the name on your bank account. Go through the process and your digital currency will sell, with the funds being dispatched to your bank. I had to wait 3 business days but the money arrived this morning.

You may lose (or gain) slightly during this process as the price of crypto changes constantly, however for many it’s better than waiting weeks and months for your money. You just have to read the Trustpilot page for Coinbase to see many dissatisfied customers.

If this guide has helped you, you are welcome to send a thank you to £kevatkinson on CashApp.

The return to radio!

Well, never thought I would write a post about this – but – I’ll be returning to radio on Monday morning – this time securely away from the mic.

I’m going to be a broadcast engineer for a commercial radio group.

I have an extremely intensive and excellently planned induction so after 9 weeks I might be able to keep up with other engineers in tech speak!

Cannot wait.

My poor experience with onlineautomotive.co.uk

Last April during my MOT I was advised I would need to replace my exhaust system in the next year as it was looking near the end of its life. On a 2000 VW Passat TDI the original exhaust had covered over 160,000 miles and 15 years of weather. As it’s due in April I started preparing to replace the system well in advance of April to spread out the cost of small repairs.

Beware it’ll take you around 5-10 minutes to read all of the below. But it’s all worth it.

After searching around online for the exhaust system for my AWX engine, I found onlineautomotive.co.uk. This was the first time I had found their site and a very quick search showed they would sell a complete system, with brackets, mounts and gaskets. It appeared perfect and I did a quick comparison from some other websites finding that onlineautomotive.co.uk was also quite competitive. Below is a ‘snip’ their website as of 21st Jan 2016.

screenshot

Happy with everything I spent my Christmas Bonus at work and ordered on December 23rd. I didn’t expect the exhaust to arrive quickly due to my bad timing of ordering at Christmas so I was happy to wait. After Christmas during that week of limbo I logged in to see how the order was progressing, it was at a status of being picked. So back to the Christmas break I went.

January 4th arrived and I was back at work. I logged in to check progress and it stated items were still being picked. So I thought I would call them up and chase the order. I got through to someone in customer service who apologised and said my items were posted and he would get the tracking number and call me back. Great. With no call back by the time I finished work I called again at 4pm and got through to a member of staff called Jadene. Jadene advised me that the catalytic converter was out of stock so they were waiting for this before they dispatched the system. I questioned why I was told earlier it was already dispatched and was informed that it was nearly ready to be dispatched. Whilst on the phone to Jadene I looked on their website – the catalytic converter was showing as in stock, last few remaining! BUY NOW! 

I didn’t pass that knowledge on, I just began to think here we go again. Jadene would call me tomorrow the second everything was posted out as the catalytic converter was due in tomorrow and would be immediately dispatched.

January 5th. No call by late afternoon. I call and ask for Jadene. Jadene tells me everything has just been dispatched. No tracking number though.

January 6th. My post room at work receive a rear silencer, a catalytic converter and the box of ‘bits’ – delivered by Tuffnels. The delivery man says the centre silencer is on its way and will be there later today. I go up and collect them, putting them in our IT cupboard as I was busy. At lunch time I go and look at the new stuff I received and check what has been received against the list of items I purchased. I notice I have been billed for 4 clamps, only 2  are in the box and I only need 2. I look online and the image confirms I only need 2. These clamps with the same code also have two different prices. Time to email onlineautomotive.co.uk

Hi,

I’ve part received order OAO178***, I’m advised the centre silencer will arrive seperately. On checking the parts sent I appear to have been billed for 4x 60mm clamps. I only have 2, and the online image (http://www.onlineautomotive.co.uk/Image.aspx?ID=1995048) only shows I need 2. In addition the order form shows 2x line entries for 60mm clamps, with the same code ONC060S – although one pair was £8.06 and the other pair was £8.76. Please can you arrange the appropriate refund.
Thanks,
Kev

Jadene replies within a couple of hours.

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your email. I do apologise the clamps seem to have duplicated on the order. I have sent your details to accounts for two clamps to be refunded the total amount including vat is £10.52. Apologies again for this error, we will get this error resolved for you.

Kind Regards

Jadene

Now, look at the snip on the very first image of this post. It hasn’t duplicated in error as it is still there. Look at the bottom middle and bottom right items at the very bottom of the image. One has a (1) beside it. So it hasn’t been resolved at all. By this point I’ve also had a chance to look at what I’ve received up close and I’m not very happy. So I send another email to Jadene.

Hi Jadene,

Thank you for the reply about the clamps. 
I’ve now had time to inspect the parts delivered (the centre silencer has still not been delivered) and I am not happy upon inspection of the catalytic converter. Please see the images attached. A section of the down pipe is flat and is showing some damage as if something flat and heavy has been dropped on it, this would heavily restrict flow after the catalytic converter – it almost halfs the size of the pipe. On the underside there is also a large gouge. It would appear it has been damaged in transit and I did expect these items to have some protection, not just the dispatch label stuck on the bare metal. The rear silencer also has a number of dents on it. 
I look forward to your advice.
Thanks,
Kev
Time for some pictures.
cat1 cat2 cat3 cat4 cat5 rear1 rear2 rear3 rear4 rear5
Jadene doesn’t reply.
January 7th. My centre silencer arrives. You already know what is going to happen. Time to email Jadene and show you more pictures.
Morning Jadene,
In addition to my complaint about the catalytic converter and rear silencer last night, the centre silencer has just arrived. It is also damaged with bends in the pipe end, and the actual box is all dented. It looks like it’s been jumped on. It’s a very disappointing first experience with Online Automotive. Therefore can you please advise the process for me rejecting this whole system and returning everything for a refund. 
Thanks,
Kev
centre1 centre2 centre3 centre4
 Jadene replies;

Hello Kev,

Thank you for your email, I am sorry to see the damage you have received your parts in, I have forwarded the images to the Manufacturer to advise on why you have received the parts in such poor condition. We use a courier called Tufnell’s as they get large exhaust pieces next day delivery to customers, as we used to use Parcel Force but they placed all the exhausts on a 48 hour delivery, to which a lot of customers were not happy with, I hope this explains why you have received the parts bare metal. I will get this issue resolved for you, as soon as I have a response from the manufacture I will email you.

Kind Regards

Jadene

I reply;

Thank you for your reply Jadene, I’m not confident that any replacement parts I would receive via courier would arrive in a good condition if they are not packaged and protected. I’d like to return this full system for a refund and I will source the parts locally where I can collect in person.
Thank you,

Kev

Myself and Jadene speak on the phone later that afternoon. She wants the opportunity to put this right for me and advises this is not the standard quality of system posted out and something must’ve gone wrong during transit. She seems genuinely apologetic so I allow her to arrange a new system to be delivered to the same address the next day. Jadene tells me the manufacturer will send it direct, it will be boxed and all items will be individually bubble wrapped.  The manufacturer will take pictures of the items prior to packaging so they can be compared against ones delivered in the event of an issue.

January 8th. I receive the new system and immediately email Jadene. You know where this is going.

Morning Jadene,

The new exhaust arrived this morning. It was in a box but that was it, no wrapping or bubble wrap so all the bare metal parts were just resting against each other. It would be interesting to compare the pictures they sent you before dispatch to the ones attached. The back box is all scored and dented again. The cat flex pipe is damaged and there is another dent in the pipe. The centre box is all dented and there is a huge deep score along one of the pipes.
Thank you for trying to resolve this but I’m not happy with it so wish to return everything for a full refund. You can include the box of clamps and paste so it’s a clean refund. I must make the assumption this is the standard quality of these exhausts so will source one locally in person. The courier did not collect the first system this morning so I now have two systems needing collection – I would appreciate it if you could get them collected today as they are taking up a large part of our cupboard now.
Happy for you to give me a call.
Best regards,
Kev
Time for some pictures of the 2nd system.
IMG_0751 IMG_0752 IMG_0753 IMG_0754 IMG_0755 IMG_0756 IMG_0757
 These exhausts are made by EuroFlo. “The Professionals’ Choice”. Here’s a ‘snip’ of their website as of 21st January 2016. They are all about quality. I like the bit that says “The quality and finish of our exhausts really is second-to-none..”
euroflo
Jadene calls me. She doesn’t know what a .zip file is (I sent all the second system images in small folders in a ZIP file) and her PC won’t open. I send them seperately and she advises she’ll go back to the manufacturer.I ask her to send me the images they sent her prior to dispatch as I wanted to know if EuroFlo sent these out as damaged, or if Tuffnels trash them. The manufacturer apparently took a picture of the huge cardboard box – not the actual exhaust system.

Now I’m thinking this is all a load of garbage.

January 11th. Tuffnels arrive and collect 2x catalytic converters, 2x centre silencers, 2x rear silencers and the box of bits. I get two collection notes.

January 13th. Me and Jadene chat on the phone and I ask when I’ll get my refund. I should get it sent back to my card by the end of the week but it could be sped up if I send a scan of the collection notes. I do. Jadene calls me later. There’s a problem. Tuffnels have only delivered 1x catalytic converter. They’ve delivered everything else but a catalytic converter is missing. She cannot refund me until they have everything back. I tell her everything was collected and she states that the quantity is 7 items. She tells me to review the Tuffnels collection note. I do. It shows they were only supposed to collect 6 items. I tell Jadene on the phone it is hardly my fault if someone cannot arrange a return correctly. The post room worker Paul let in the Tuffnels courier and he helping the Tuffnels guy load everything on to the truck. 6 bits of metal and a box of bits.

Jadene changes a bit on the phone now, and this is when I start thinking “FML here we go“. Tuffnels have told her they haven’t got the catalytic converter. They sent their driver with 6 stickers, and 6 tracked items were delivered. I suggest I could perhaps get our building CCTV checked to show everything was taken and Jadene suggests this is the only real way to prove I have not kept the catalytic converter. So now I’m technically being made to be guilty and this will be absolved once I prove my innocence.
I speak to our building management company on the 14th of January. I cannot get the CCTV for data protection and they would not allow me to have a copy to send to onlineautomotive.co.uk

January 15th. I email Jadene.

Morning Jadene,
The CCTV from my work office is proving difficult. We lease the building from a company who lease from a management company. This means the management company operate the CCTV. For data protection they cannot allow me to view it, and will not give me a copy of it. They have advised they can view it and advise what they see but that’s hardly going to be accepted by Tuffnells that they have lost an item and collected more than they should.
So, a few issues now exist.
1. I requested to reject the full system for a refund. This meant 2x cats, 2x centres, 2x rears and the box of misc. items. Whoever booked this collection only specified 6x things, not 7. The Tuffnels driver took 7 items. Based on my collection note it should not be hard for the company to locate the collection driver and take appropriate action. 
2. A catalytic converter is missing. It was taken by Tuffnels and a member of staff in our post room is happy to go on the record as witnessing and assisting the Tuffnels driver taking everything.
3. My refund of over £200 is currently in delay due to no fault of my own. 
So far as options, I can only think of the following;
1. You speak independently to Paul  from our Post room on (number given) to get his input into the Tuffnels collection. 
2. You speak to Tuffnels and ask a) why their driver collected more than he was supposed to b) If their company is “People who care” – what are they doing to locate the missing part. The driver would have had a spare piece of exhaust on his truck which he could not account for if he only had 6 tracking stickers. This should be at the depot awaiting someone to claim it (you).
3. I report this to the Police as a theft. They can view the CCTV and investigate, they will see that everything was collected from our offices but then the blame lies between Tuffnels and onwards to your company.
4. I do the above and contact my credit card company and initiate a Section 75 refund. However this is a last resort, I do wish to help as best as I can to get my refund and ensure you have everything back but my patience is starting to tire.
Feel free to give me a call.
Thanks,
Kev

I never hear from Jadene again. I do hear from Sarah though a few hours later;

Good Morning Kevin,

Thank you for your email, unfortunately Jadene is no longer with the company so I will be taking over your order so I can get this rectified for you.

We should have the missing cat converter being delivered back today as they have confirmed they have the item I will keep you posted as i am looking to get this refunded asap for you.

Please accept my sincere apologies on how long this has taken to get rectified for you.

Kind Regards

Sarah

Forgive my sarcasm but isn’t it convenient that they now have the catalytic converter once I threaten to involve the authorities?  I reply saying I hope their management team take this up with Tuffnels as no business should make a customer prove their innocence. Sarah agrees.

Hi Kev,

Thank you for your reply.

I completely agree this case has been handled incorrectly you are 100% not to blame ad is definitely down to the courier you should not have had to try and prove this was collected.

The item has been located so from now on I will make sure the service you receive is accurate.

Kind Regards

Sarah

I start wondering if this is why Jadene is no longer with the business. Or if Jadene ever existed.

January 18th. I email Sarah and ask when I am getting my £252.62 back. I’m advised it will be back on the refund run that evening.

January 21st. The refund arrives (I allowed them 3-5 working days) and honestly never thought I would get it without involving my credit card company. I can finally press post on this story safe in the knowledge I will never ever use onlineautomotive.co.uk again, and that I have my money back.

During all of this saga, I purchased a system locally and got it fitted. I didn’t need a catalytic converter either!

For the purposes of the ‘snip’ screenshots used above, reproduction for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research is not copyright infringement.

No listings available…

My Sky+HD 2TB box constantly says no listings available when viewing the planner. The fix is to do a planner rebuild, but when it happens every dew days it gets annoying.

Sky are looking into it, and need the following information;

  • Version Number and Model Number.
    You can find this by pressing services 0,3 Number of Feeds (1 or 2) If 1 Feed – Is single feed more on? You can find this by pressing, Services 0, 0, 1, select and under setup
  • Can you set up future series links? Yes/No
  • Can you see listings for the next 7 days? Yes/No If No – What do you see? Is a specific Series Affected? When was the last episode recorded?
  • Remaining Planner Space (%)?
  • When was the box last on standby?

Send all that to @SkyHelpTeam on Twitter.

How to download #iOS8

So you’re ready to go and you’re frantically hitting update on your iPhone, iPad or iPod. You may find you’re getting the following error;

Unable to Check for Update

An error occurred while checking for a software update.

This is sadly because of the demand being placed on the Apple update servers. You can keep hitting Try Again, or plug your phone in to the latest version of iTunes and update via that. Make sure you have a backup before you get started!

Watch Apple Launch Event in VLC Player

If you want to watch the launch event in VLC Player, here’s what you need to do.

1. Open VLC.
2. Press Ctrl + N to open Network stream.
3. Paste in http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpvkjnfvpijhabdfvpijbadfv09/m3u8/atv_mvp.m3u8
4. Hit enter.
5. Enjoy

Download your Facebook ‘Look Back’ video.

To celebrate 10 years of Facebook you can look back on the 20 most significant moments on your account, to do this visit https://www.facebook.com/lookback

I’ve no idea if it will disappear overnight, or be there forever, but if you want to download the video to add to YouTube etc here’s the instructions.

Using Google Chrome, do the following.

  1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/lookback in Google Chrome
  2. With the video in the background press Ctrl+Shift+J to open the console.
  3. Copy the code from the following link and paste into console then press enter.
    http://kevatkinson.co.uk/blog/getvideo.txt
  4. Then in the console you’ll be given a link for your video.
  5. Click the link and Press Ctrl+S to download it.
  6. Upload it wherever you want to share it.

Enjoy!

 

Job Advertisements

What they really mean.

  • Competitive salary
    (We remain competitive by paying you less than our competition.)
  • Join our fast-paced company!
    (We have no time to train you.)
  • Casual work atmosphere
    (We don’t pay enough to expect that you will dress up; a couple of the real daring guys wear earrings.)
  • Some overtime required
    (Some every night and some every weekend.)
  • Duties will vary
    (Anyone in the office can boss you around.)
  • Must have an eye for detail
    (We have no quality assurance.)
  • Career-minded
    (Female applicants must be childless (and remain that way).)
  • Apply in person
    (If you’re old, fat or ugly you’ll be told that the position has been filled.)
  • Seeking candidates with a wide variety of experience
    (You’ll need it to replace the three people who just quit.)
  • Problem-solving skills a must
    (You’re walking into perpetual chaos.)
  • Requires team leadership skills
    (You’ll have the responsibilities of a manager, without the pay or respect.)
  • Good communication skills
    (Management communicates, you listen, figure out what they want and do it.)

You know it’s all true!

I’ve Saved the World

Somehow, I saved the world this week. Yes that is all bollocks but in a roundabout way I’m claiming that. If you don’t make claims like that you’ll get nowhere.

The just of it? A virus was discovered at work this week and I had the wonderful job of looking into it and trying to get rid of it. I don’t rate Symantec at all, and as that’s what my workplace use it was no surprise to me that scanning the infected file showed no results at all. Despite online ‘upload to scan’ stuff detecting it.

So I got in touch with Symantec and told them I wanted to send them the file. Cue one of the longest ‘submit a virus’ processes known to the current world. Eventually though the file was submitted and the next day I was told it had been detected as an Infostealer and would be added to the latest definitions.

I’d saved the world. So I decided to make some egotistical tweet about it, and Symantec replied.

I felt like a superhero.

 

My Film Idea

Turns out some versions of it have already been done, my Twitter friends were kind enough to keep me in check!

I guess it’s back to the drawing board.

A Film Idea

I had a film idea last week. It’s only had a few minutes thought but I think it has potential.

Imagine if humans stopped being able to reproduce tomorrow… literally the ability ‘to’ just stopped.

Some things I considered.

  • What could cause that.
    A virus? Bacteria? Solar event? Alien attack?
  • What type of film.
    Sci-Fi? Horror? Action? All?
  • Eventualities.
    Do scientists find a solution? Or are humans wiped out?
  • Who do you follow?
    Who are the leading characters, how are they selected.

There’s lots to think about. But there’s an idea there. Have stuff to add? Comment below and in 10 years when the movie is commissioned I’ll pay you some monies.

And for formalities the main idea is © me (Kev Atkinson 17/7/2013). So don’t go stealing it.