The grumpy thread

[Tickman]

If you have a BIN and best offer on ebay and when someone (me) submits a reasonable best offer and you come back with a counter offer of exactly the same as the BIN price don't be surprised if the potential purchaser (me again) buys from someone else even if it costs them (still me) 10p more than your price.

Wanker. (not sure if it is me or them)

[Austin-Rover]

Got nabbed by Northern Rail's snakey revenue bods yesterday 'cause I asked a guard for an excess on the train and he just said 'same price mate don't worry'. Bad practice on his part, and I should have asked him for something on paper but who thinks of that in the moment?

The revenue lady decided even though I hadn't really done anything wrong (acting on instruction/authority of a railway employee after all) that she'd still have me make a statement etc. Called her bluff a bit when I managed to get her to understand me properly at last (bought a ticket to Manchester when I wanted one to Salford - they're the same price. At first I think the revenue woman thought I wanted two separate tickets, not sure). She conceded that the tickets could well have been the same price - I questioned then if a zero fare excess was appropriate and she suddenly got very shirty, asking how I knew about that (I'm a member of RailUK forums and have heard quite a bit about it there), and if I'd been fined by Northern before (No, and it's not a fine). After that I was sent on my way rather promptly, hear from them in 4-6 weeks blah blah.

 

Railfourms members have since pointed out that my ticket was actually valid anyway so if it 

 

The system is a racket - the RPIs are just generic bods with minimal ticketing knowledge that don't seem to know the rules properly or recognise slightly weirder tickets . If you make a genuine mistake or get caught out by bad practise as I did, they pull you in, make you make a statement, then if you are in the wrong you have to pay them £80 to make it go away. The policy is nonsense - a zero tolerance policy to not posessing a valid ticket, even if you genuinely didn't have chance to get one. 

 

I should hopefully be OK in this case because of my actually valid ticket, but it's a pisstake nonetheless.

 

As a Guard for this particular company... The System is indeed a racket - and they couldn't give a toss. The revenue staff that float around at the station entrances / ticket barriers are minimum wage agency staff who have no railway specific training and no appreciation of how difficult or impossible the company have made it for you to buy a ticket in the first place (Ticket office closed outside AM peak times / platform ticket vending machine broken / the Guard on the train can't get to you because of overcrowding or no through gangway to the part of the train you're sat in). They just 'know' the 'rules' and enforce them with their limited knowledge of the system. Your Guard has inadvertently landed you in the crap by trying to be nice.

 

As the revenue takings are consistently below what they've forecast, the situation won't be changing any time soon.

[Ghosty]

This doesn't surprise me.

I noticed that one of the bods at the Crescent that seemed to have some slightly higher than normal ranking in job (based on her lanyard) was one that used to work at a different station I used to frequent a few years ago.

When she worked there (as a hi-vis agency droid) I never once saw her doing her job properly, always seemed to be chatting to a colleague, and put little or no effort into checking tickets (back then the quality of the bods was farcical). How and indeed why she seems to have got a step up the ladder I've no idea.

[Bobthebeard]

A bit like my local Barclays bank....

Several people with lanyards but none of them actually really help. Had to laugh at the grumping going on today with the customers. Big queue, two staff, one woman asking the queue if she 'could help'.

She could help by opening another desk, but didn't. The queue got longer and actually people left, as 'On my lunch hour and can't wait any longer'.

[anonymous user]

My cars hate me. Land Rover has failed Mot, it needs two outriggers, not a huge problem apart from failing so far to find anyone prepared to weld new ones on.

 

Decided to use Campervan instead, which has now developed a clonk at the front (sounds like lh driveshaft). This is just after spending loads on it, it really likes me spending on it and then finding something else to fix.

 

Remind me again, how much is a new Dacia?

[AlabamaShrimp]

Got nabbed by Northern Rail's snakey revenue bods yesterday 'cause I asked a guard for an excess on the train and he just said 'same price mate don't worry'. Bad practice on his part, and I should have asked him for something on paper but who thinks of that in the moment?

The revenue lady decided even though I hadn't really done anything wrong (acting on instruction/authority of a railway employee after all) that she'd still have me make a statement etc. Called her bluff a bit when I managed to get her to understand me properly at last (bought a ticket to Manchester when I wanted one to Salford - they're the same price. At first I think the revenue woman thought I wanted two separate tickets, not sure). She conceded that the tickets could well have been the same price - I questioned then if a zero fare excess was appropriate and she suddenly got very shirty, asking how I knew about that (I'm a member of RailUK forums and have heard quite a bit about it there), and if I'd been fined by Northern before (No, and it's not a fine). After that I was sent on my way rather promptly, hear from them in 4-6 weeks blah blah.

 

Railfourms members have since pointed out that my ticket was actually valid anyway...

 

The system is a racket - the RPIs are just generic bods with minimal ticketing knowledge that don't seem to know the rules properly or recognise slightly weirder tickets . If you make a genuine mistake or get caught out by bad practise as I did, they pull you in, make you make a statement, then if you are in the wrong you have to pay them £80 to make it go away. The policy is nonsense - a zero tolerance policy to not posessing a valid ticket, even if you genuinely didn't have chance to get one.

 

I should hopefully be OK in this case because of my actually valid ticket, but it's a pisstake nonetheless.

This sounds like gibberish to me. What's and excess?

 

If your going somewhere and have a ticket that goes there or further is that a problem?

 

If it is can't you just pay the difference anymore?

[dollywobbler]

Remind me again, how much is a new Dacia?

 

Are those the cars that have no brake fluid in them?

[Cavcraft]

If you have a BIN and best offer on ebay and when someone (me) submits a reasonable best offer and you come back with a counter offer of exactly the same as the BIN price don't be surprised if the potential purchaser (me again) buys from someone else even if it costs them (still me) 10p more than your price.

Wanker. (not sure if it is me or them)

 

You'd think they'd respond with a better offer than the asking price, but in fairness to them quite often a (potential) buyer's 'reasonable' offer is anything but to the vendor.

[Sir Snipes]

I really hate it when people take babies to shows. I mean really young babies who can't fathom whats happening and usually get scared or bored and make sure everybody in the building knows their displeasure. 

 

Why take a baby to Glastonbury?

[cobblers]

I really hate it when people take babies to shows. I mean really young babies who can't fathom whats happening and usually get scared or bored and make sure everybody in the building knows their displeasure. 

 

Why take a baby to Glastonbury?

I deleted my post when you were typing your reply, sorry!

 

I've no idea why they took it, they have free and willing grandparents who'd love to babysit for a few days. I suppose it's all part of being a "Glastofamily"

[Richard]

.

[Lankytim]

Norwich/Norfolk etc...

 

I rejected a job to Norwich earlier in the week because I knew they'd keep me overnight on Norwich which price-wise would embarrass central London. Yet they still manage to trick me up here (me being too trusting and needing to get paid) so I had to fight work to get them to pay for half my board at Travelodge in Norwich centre. Now, thankfully I'm on my way out of here but without it costing me nigh-on £20. Somehow everywhere else I seem to go is still fairly reasonable but bloody hell, Norwich....

 

Mind you, the last time I was in this area (Kings Lynn) I forced work to get me a hire car as I'd run out of money.

 

I'll be rejecting all jobs to that area of the country from now on.

 

 

"Dead ended"? I used to get that. Reject a job to Scotland or somewhere because there ins't a return car to get back. 5 mins later I get a call back "we've got a return job! Drive up and we'll text you the details" Of course, this return job never existed and I get the "sorry, job cancelled" text when i'm half way there.

[anonymous user]

Are those the cars that have no brake fluid in them?

That's OK, I'm not stopping

[Guest Hooli]

Are those the cars that have no brake fluid in them?

 

no brakes no brakedowns...

[Ghosty]

This sounds like gibberish to me. What's and excess?

 

If your going somewhere and have a ticket that goes there or further is that a problem?

 

If it is can't you just pay the difference anymore?

 

Excess is the railway term for paying the difference. In this case the difference to go two stops further was £0.00, or a zero fare excess. The revenue people were caught off guard by the fact I knew this existed (not many people know about excesses let alone zero fare ones). When I asked, the guard should have issued me with a £0 excess or, failing that, written something in the 'endorsements' box on the back of the ticket permitting my actions, for whatever reason though he saw that the price difference from my existing ticket was £0 and decided no further action was necessary. Trying to be helpful of course, but this doesn't gel with the revenue droids and their elastic rulebook.

 

In my case, there is no issue, I was done wrong and the error is entirely on Northern's part, both for negligence and a lack of ticketing knowledge.

[Tickman]

You'd think they'd respond with a better offer than the asking price, but in fairness to them quite often a (potential) buyer's 'reasonable' offer is anything but to the vendor.

From £5.89 to an OCD friendly £5.50. No piss taken I feel.

[320touring]

From £5.89 to an OCD friendly £5.50. No piss taken I feel.

£5.55 is the OCD price

[Negative Creep]

Job agencies - at about 5pm today I get a call out of the blue asking me to do a midnight to 9am shift in a warehouse. For some reason they didn't see the explanation that a previous back injury makes heavy lifting difficult, I've never done a night or warehouse shift in my life and that I'd been up since 7am so it would be utterly impossible to stay awake that long, let alone work and drive home afterwards as valid, just getting shirty about how they'll find someone else instead. Good luck with that.  

[Supernaut]

Job agencies - at about 5pm today I get a call out of the blue asking me to do a midnight to 9am shift in a warehouse. For some reason they didn't see the explanation that a previous back injury makes heavy lifting difficult, I've never done a night or warehouse shift in my life and that I'd been up since 7am so it would be utterly impossible to stay awake that long, let alone work and drive home afterwards as valid, just getting shirty about how they'll find someone else instead. Good luck with that.

I once got a call from a job agency asking me if I could do a nightshift that night, driving a forklift.

 

I was on the train back from Glasgow after a day spent down there, and 3 pints, so I had to explain that to them and decline.

[alcyonecorporation]

That's OK, I'm not stopping

 

[robinmasters]

£5.55 is the OCD price

 

The decimal point isn't in the middle. I'd have offered 05.50.

[Lord Sterling]

"Dead ended"? I used to get that. Reject a job to Scotland or somewhere because there ins't a return car to get back. 5 mins later I get a call back "we've got a return job! Drive up and we'll text you the details" Of course, this return job never existed and I get the "sorry, job cancelled" text when i'm half way there.

Well, the way my company seem to work is, they like to keep you away from home as much as possible because of "mileage" and the "the nature of the job" is there is excuse. Of course it's complete horseshit as other outfits seem to be able to direct thier drivers homeward at the end of the day, yet this lot don't. However, we do get paid a whats called a "night out fee" on top of the job pay which is around £42 which is probably why we get paid more than your average BCA/IT Fleet plater/driver and do a bit less than they do.

 

We usually know what job we've got before we deliver a car otherwise a driver will hold a car until he gets another job so the office need to provide us with a job. We used to get a whole days worth of jobs to our PDAs so we could sit and work out roughly how long it'll take to get to the next job etc... but somehow since an office reorganisation, jobs have been coming in dribs and drabs, we still usually know what we have before we finish our current job,

 

The problem I'm finding is its becoming ever more difficult to keep up with this job in having free money to spend on hotels/hostels, plus keeping up with own bills and keeping Mrs_Sterling where she is until I can bring her over. I did try another plating outfit but they turned out to be a buch of lying cunts, paying pittance and keeping you out sometimes until gone 11pm.

 

I think the office like to try and play you sometimes. I rejected a job to Norwich on Monday and explained I didn't want to go there because of high prices for accommodation, but I still ended up there hoping for a car outwards which didn't happen because the last job they got me wasn't ready until this morning at Saxmundham.

 

I usually "smudge" the pictures for the mileage, add on a 100 or so miles and go home because it's cheaper to stick an extra £5/£10 in the vehicle (as you only get an allocated fuel allowance) do a bit of extra mileage, go home and sleep in your own bed, eat your own food, check bills and out rubbish out rather than spending £30 to £40 on a room, spending another £5/£10 on food on top of spending out on bus/train fares to travel to another job.

 

I need to find something that pays about as much as I'm getting without spending out what I'm spending. A taxi driving mate of mine suggested working for Uber, another mate suggested another plating firm, but I'll be checking out both of these with a fine tooth comb before I make a decision. I'll also take a sabbatical to try out these jobs so in case they don't work out, I've got something to walk back into.

[M'coli]

More to the point Ghosty, why on earth are you paying to use a train when you could be cruising to your destination in comfort in a motor car?!

Drink?

[Eddie Honda]

Feck

[Mr A Lawrence]

Ah go on go on go on go on go on

[captain_70s]

I once got a call from a job agency asking me if I could do a nightshift that night, driving a forklift.

 

I was on the train back from Glasgow after a day spent down there, and 3 pints, so I had to explain that to them and decline.

I once got a call asking me to come in to work the back shift while I was on site having already been phoned in to work the early shift...

 

I'm on a 0 hour contract so never turn down a shift as you can never tell how much work you'll get, but a 17 hour shift would have been a bit much!

[Cavcraft]

Well, the way my company seem to work is, they like to keep you away from home as much as possible because of "mileage" and the "the nature of the job" is there is excuse. Of course it's complete horseshit as other outfits seem to be able to direct thier drivers homeward at the end of the day, yet this lot don't. However, we do get paid a whats called a "night out fee" on top of the job pay which is around £42 which is probably why we get paid more than your average BCA/IT Fleet plater/driver and do a bit less than they do.

 

We usually know what job we've got before we deliver a car otherwise a driver will hold a car until he gets another job so the office need to provide us with a job. We used to get a whole days worth of jobs to our PDAs so we could sit and work out roughly how long it'll take to get to the next job etc... but somehow since an office reorganisation, jobs have been coming in dribs and drabs, we still usually know what we have before we finish our current job,

 

The problem I'm finding is its becoming ever more difficult to keep up with this job in having free money to spend on hotels/hostels, plus keeping up with own bills and keeping Mrs_Sterling where she is until I can bring her over. I did try another plating outfit but they turned out to be a buch of lying cunts, paying pittance and keeping you out sometimes until gone 11pm.

 

I think the office like to try and play you sometimes. I rejected a job to Norwich on Monday and explained I didn't want to go there because of high prices for accommodation, but I still ended up there hoping for a car outwards which didn't happen because the last job they got me wasn't ready until this morning at Saxmundham.

 

I usually "smudge" the pictures for the mileage, add on a 100 or so miles and go home because it's cheaper to stick an extra £5/£10 in the vehicle (as you only get an allocated fuel allowance) do a bit of extra mileage, go home and sleep in your own bed, eat your own food, check bills and out rubbish out rather than spending £30 to £40 on a room, spending another £5/£10 on food on top of spending out on bus/train fares to travel to another job.

 

I need to find something that pays about as much as I'm getting without spending out what I'm spending. A taxi driving mate of mine suggested working for Uber, another mate suggested another plating firm, but I'll be checking out both of these with a fine tooth comb before I make a decision. I'll also take a sabbatical to try out these jobs so in case they don't work out, I've got something to walk back into.

 

It's a crying shame you have to put up with all this crap, Mo. Sadly, there's sod all doing at my place or I'd try and get you in there.

[Lord Sterling]

Cheers Billy! It's all good fun but hey ho, I just take it on the chin and get on with it. My long term plan is to either qualify to teach English as a foreign language or failing that try and get in to being a driving instructor. For now because of the Mrs_Sterling situation I've just got to take what pays well. My plating job wasn't doing too badly but recently wages have dropped to the floor and I'm seriously struggling so looking out for something else to pay me well that doesn't force me to spend half of what I earn on trains/busses/hotels and other stuff.

[The Moog]

LS if you want to do TEFL you can do the courses online often they are mega cheap through Groupon.

[Captain Furious]

When did talking into your phone like a normal human being get replaced by the apprentice method?  (Incase you're not an apprentice viewer its where you have it on loudspeaker and hold it perpendicular to your mouth speaking into the bottom of it)

 

Everyone I see is doing it, why?  Stop it.