&

The ampersand used to be consider the 27th letter of the latin alphabet...

i.e. ex, why, zed, "and - per say - and"... I.e. "and" was a letter after zed (Z).

Then came XML and HTML.

As a company with and ampersand in the official actual company name this has been, shall we say, challenging.

We had serious issues with BT XML order integration for some time.

But more lately.

Nominet say things like this...

    Registrar:

        Andrews & Arnold Limited [Tag = AAISP]

        URL: https://aa.net.uk

Yeah, that is NOT our company name.

Other examples, in that past, with bank payee verification showing ANDREWS ARNOLD LIMITED, so I created ANDREWS ARNOLD LIMITED registered (company 12972728) to complain that a different company was being shown than  us.

Now, for Nominet, I decided why not register ANDREWS & ARNOLD LIMITED. Then complain they are using a different company in whois...

To be honest I should have just renamed 12972728, but have done it now as separate company.

Firstly Companies House did not consider an 05555 phone number valid. Hmmm. But I did a different number, and applied for the company.

Now I get an email. An email to my x@x.xx format email address to tell me that my email address is invalid...

Yes, read that again. It is a kind of SPECIAL!

I called them, and well, the person I spoke to kind of appreciated the irony here. Emailing me to tell me my email is invalid, is, well, special.

She said the system was fine but a person, an examiner, rejected based on the email address. She has sent a memo to not reject that email. We'll see.

Why can people not simple follow standards, for email addresses, for phone numbers, for everything.

I have applied again. Once I have new company I can then complain to Nominet over whois.

And again rejected. Another weird one is when logging in to gov gateway using x@x.xx format address they say they are emailed a code to xx@x.xx !!! They actually email x@x.xx address, but why double the first letter when shown on screen... Hang on, I get the show first...last letter and a one letter address confuses the hell out of that. That makes more sense, but is still stupid.

Oh, there is more! The email from Companies house was wrong. It stripped & to &. Wow. How is this hard in this day and age?!