I’ve been having a bit of a tinker over the past few days re: the links you’ll find at the side of the blog, partially inspired by a fellow escort blogger, an inspiring woman. I thought, what a great idea, to list sites I’ve used in the past that I’ve had good service from. Like her I will only use sites that I’ve actually used and have found satisfactory and could honestly recommend. Same ethos I used for the links on SAAFE.

I actually had Pandora’s Choice in “My Favourite Shops”, but I removed it after the recent debacle and have instead inserted Stockings Direct, following on from their swift service and their quick delivery.

For books and CDs, may I recommend Play.com. Again their service is swift and postage is free, unlike Amazon where you’re charged up to a certain amount. I also get my Family Guy calender from them every year and it costs a fiver. I’ve seen the same in the shops for around £8.

I’ve recently ordered a couple of books from a site new to me, The Book Depository. Their deliveries are also free but the slight difference is is that they also use Paypal for another form of payment. I ordered the books on Saturday and they arrived the next Friday. A bit slower than Play.com, but hey, I can’t complain, it’s free delivery.

For going to Manchester I’ve used Rail Easy, way cheaper than Trainline.com.  A ticket to Manchester used to cost me around £70 on there. That was for their sooper dooper advanced non-refundable ticket – basically the cheapest. Rail Easy sells the same ticket for around £22. I’ve been using them for a couple of years now.

If you have a sweet tooth like me (and some of you know that I do), then there’s the Bakewell Tart Shop where I ordered myself a tart for my birthday and put a birthday message to myself. Yes, I know. Sad.

The Hummingbird Bakery I swiped off of above-mentioned blogger’s site, damn her. Before I went to meet SJ for lunch back on my birthday I made a stop in one of their branches in South Kensington. Gawjuss, just gawww-jus. I know I’m in trouble as the shop is only two stops away from Victoria on the District and Circle lines on the Underground. I’m just more suprised I haven’t been back there since. If any gents should find themselves getting off at the wrong stop on their way to see me and they mistakenly find themselves at South Kensington, it’s…um….on the Old Brompton Road, opposite side of the tube station to the museums….cough!

For hotels, I’ve been using Trip Advisor for years, personally and professionally. If you want to book a room and you want to know a bit about the hotel before-hand, this is the place gents. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t book a room until I’ve read the reviews on there first. Us ladies need to find out if the hotel we’re working from is discreet for our clients, doesn’t use those infernal keycards that you can’t get in without, or if there’s a burly security guard with a clip board barking at you if you’re a late night client trying to get in to see his favourite lady. Not good for work.

Laterooms is also handy for us working girls too. You don’t always have to pay in advance, they’re invariably cheaper than the hotel’s own website and you can cancel the day before your arrival date (subject to the hotel’s policy). And the staff are nice too. I got caught out when I tried to cancel the hotel room that I booked for my birthday. I thought that I could cancel on the day, it turned out I had to cancel the night before. Gulp! Which meant I was still liable for the first night’s stay. So I called Laterooms and begged and pleaded, they in turn called the hotel I had booked and between them they let me off. I’m wondering if it helped that I was a previous guest in one of their hotels in Edinburgh and was on their mailing list. Anyways, with that I’m now liking Laterooms a lot more.

Whew! This was a long one wasn’t it? I actually started to write this entry last week but I ran out of steam. So I’ve put the final touches on it today. I do hope whoever reads this finds the info useful.

Tell you what. If anybody finds any sites that they may think I might find useful, do tell. It’s good to arm yourself with knowledge.

Ordered from Stockings Direct yesterday morning, came in the post first thing this morning, just in time for my 3pm this afternoon. Now that’s what I call professional service, I’ll be using them again.

The saga with my suspender belt is, would you believe it, still ongoing. After two weeks they still haven’t been delivered to me.

When they hadn’t arrived in time to see Thursday’s client last week, I wrote them a polite email asking when I might expect them. No response.

When they still hadn’t arrived this past Saturday I called their sales line. The call goes straight to voicemail, not even a personal one, an automated one generated by the service provider BT. Remember, this is the number on their website, this is their sales line. I left a message.

When I got in from my volunteer job yesterday I thought at least there’d be some response to either my email or phone call, it being the start of the business week and all that. There was no response to either.

By this time I’m seeing red. I called them again yesterday, again reaching the BT automated voicemail. I left a message letting them know of my displeasure at not only at the suspenders not being delivered within 3-5 working days as I paid for, but that nobody had the time or decency to get back to me.

I then backed it up with an email – I’ve learnt to put everything in writing where I can. I mentioned that as a consumer I wasn’t very happy at their lack of response to a customer query and that if my goods cannot be delivered then I would like my money back. I even bluffed and blustered a bit and said that I was proficient in consumer law and that I was well aware of my rights. Not totally untrue; in my other job I have learnt a little bit about consumer law. For starters they broke their end of our agreement by not being able to deliver goods within the time they promised.

Guess what? Within an hour of my phone call and email I received both a phone call and an email from Pandora’s Choice, telling me that the suspender belt in my size and colour isn’t actually in stock and won’t be for another two weeks!!

To say I was annoyed is putting it mildly. No where on the site did it say they were out of stock. They took the money out of my paypal account and made no mention that they didn’t actually have what I’d just bought.

I’ve written back to them and told them that what they should’ve done was initially notify me that they were out of stock, not charge me until the sussies were actually back in stock like some other websites do and also give me the choice of whether or not I would like to wait a month for them, or go elsewhere. I’ve also told them that I would like my money back in full, including the postage and that if it doesn’t appear in my paypal account within the next 24-48hrs, then I will have no choice but to take things further. I have no problem doing that, as those long time readers of my blog will remember the saga with PC World.

It’s a good thing the weather is hot at the moment and clients don’t mind my not wearing my stockings and sussies. My feet are always pedicured and toes immaculately polished. I do have my pvc ones, but they have a couple of small buckles on the front with a zip, and they aren’t the most comfortable when lying on top of a client (or vice versa) and I’ve had to take them off during a booking.

I’ve seen the same suspenders on a few other sites so I’m off to order some now. Hopefully they’ll be here by the end of the week.

But what a way to run a business!!

(Edit – I’ve found a site called Stockings Direct and ordered my sussies. When I click on my size – 24 and colour – black, it says they have one in stock for immediate dispatch. Watch this space.)