Incredible Sitemap

[Duncan Rounding]

You'll have everyone down there on the beach looking for it now.

[jont]

Mrs Jont turned over £250 million last year by selling a pair of trousers on Ebay (based on Marks & Spencers figures)

[jont]

I did drop a pound on a beach in Cornwall that I never found, does that class an an offshore account?

Money laundering?

[leehack]

Only if the tide comes in far enough.

Mike

PS. probably better to declare it as an on-shore loss. That way it should be tax deductable.

PMSL, still tickling as I speak.

It was personal money though, not company money, Lester Piggott if I claim for it?

[jont]

Ladbrookes - £75 million turnover

[jont]

How did you do on the Grand National?

[leehack]

I missed it for the first time in 25 years, I completely forgot about it and was at the park with Travis. Bookies must be laffing their asses off though.

[jont]

I found a pound on the beach and had an each way bet on the winner

[Mike Hughes]

It was personal money though, not company money, Lester Piggott if I claim for it?

Surely the loss occured while on important company businesss and was solely being used for business purposes? "On beach to clear head while deciding on critical business option and was tossing said coin to make the final decision".

Many a mickle maks a muckle as they say.

Mike

[chris ashdown]

All the makings of a good Government Minister, did you claim on expenses

[george]

Re cars. more text

[Mike Hughes]

All the makings of a good Government Minister, did you claim on expenses

Of course:

1. Travel to beachx sorry, "Urban environment to experience binge drinking in real life."

2. Holidayx Work study Accomodation £600

3. Unreceipted charity donation £1.00x, sorry now I think about it I'm sure it was a £50 note that I dropped.

Mike

[dogzilla]

Very interesting thread with lots of opinions!

I've actually just ordered a car through Ling and having always leased my cars I found the process to be extremely quick and easy which is a testament to Ling and her passion for business and selling cars!

Yes the site is probably considered ugly to those of us used to the slick web 2.0 (god I hate that term) but it actually works very well if you can see past that.

The typical lease deal goes like this for me.... visit contracthireandleasing.com ... search for my car of choice, find the cheapest listed prices and then go to those sites and fill out a quote form...then it's usually a wait of two weeks whilst the quotes trickle through which almost always turn out to be higher than their advertised prices. Then I get salesmen phoning me night and day following up their quote.

With Ling you visit the site and every car has got a live price, if the car you want isn't there you can fill out a quote form and Ling is extremely fast in getting back to you. I've had quotes come back in 15 minutes which is simply amazing.

Then when you are ready to order you fill out an easy to use order form... you then get signed up to her online customer area which she has styled like an MSN chat... which is very fitting because replies come back within seconds it seems! Everything is clear and easy to understand and it makes leasing a car an absolute joy!

I think Lings success comes from the fact she is obviously very passionate about her business and customer service. It's not about the wacky site and free give aways... it's just an easy to use, fast efficient service.

[dogzilla]

I also think that buying online is always going to be a lonely place but it's right what Lings says... customer interaction is vital and you have to engage your customers right from the start.

Most online websites are faceless.... Try and contact them and using e-mail it might mean a few days wait... use the phone and it's an endless menu driven system followed by long wait times.

One of the company's I worked for used to have an online chat system for all website visitors.... After a certain period a little box would appear saying "Hi, can I help?" which would be connected to a knowledgeable pre-sales person which would chat in an informal way. Guess what, 90% of sales originated from that online chat system... so much so that they had 30+ people dedicated to online chat for the website... more than the number of actual sales people

So customer engagement is key and Ling does that very well!

[george]

After a certain period a little box would appear saying "Hi, can I help?" which would be connected to a knowledgeable pre-sales person which would chat in an informal way.

Thats an interesting prompt. Wonder if it would `interrupt` people who were going to buy anyway but they got confused/annoyed/whatever by the interuption and didnt finish the purchase?

Its not something I've ever experienced on the interweb.

Worth discussing though.