The grumpy thread

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Their producer actually started listening to the shit they have to produce rather than sitting on the toilet regretting their life choices, that's what.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Their producer listening to the station made their adverts chop and change on almost every ad break for months?

 

 

No, their producer not listening to the show because he couldn't bring himself to listen to the shit they put out.

 

Then he decided to listen one day and noticed the adverts.

 

I'm joking - but there are times when the people that should be paying attention, aren't.  I refer you to lighting operators on long stage show runs...

[DodgeRover]

Rather like the roofers that could never be bothered to turn up to replace the odd slate or two from my parent’s house. None of them got the £10000 re roofing job.

But to be fair if that's half a day gone for 2 guys you are looking at maybe £200? At which point people go all Dominic whatever from rogue traders. Little jobs are fine but you either need to be able to hit several together or charge enough to cover the time you have lost not doing a full day on another job.

 

A note to the "that's not worth me getting out the van for" brigade...that suggests to me there's something far bloody wrong with your pricing structure!

See previous comment re not wanting to be as seen on rogue traders, BUT where are you? I know plenty of people who like a challenge/ design & build.

[DodgeRover]

Have either me or Kiltox mentioned estate agents today. I'm now taking names and considering starting a revolution, firstly comrades I shall be needing quite a large wall and maybe some pigs.

Seriously if we get fucked around much more then I shall be deploying the power of the evil eye* on several of them.

 

*not a threat to be taken lightly it runs in my mums side of the family.

[Zelandeth]

But to be fair if that's half a day gone for 2 guys you are looking at maybe £200? At which point people go all Dominic whatever from rogue traders. Little jobs are fine but you either need to be able to hit several together or charge enough to cover the time you have lost not doing a full day on another job.

 

 

See previous comment re not wanting to be as seen on rogue traders, BUT where are you? I know plenty of people who like a challenge/ design & build.

Milton Keynes.

 

Which is part of my headache...I know plenty of folks in Aberdeenshire who could either do the work or at least point me to someone who can... haven't got a contact network down here yet.

[paulplom]

Bloody fscking stupid modern concealed cistern crap installed by the cheapest contractor employed by the former owner of this house (an interior designer...).

 

Toilet was some bloody daft thing for which we couldn't get a generic seat to replace the cracked one. Only from the manufacturer, and they wanted £140 for a really cheap and flimsy looking piece of crap. There are four versions of the pan we had, and they couldn't tell us which one we had...only way is to try the seat and see if it fits apparently. At £140 plus postage, non returnable a shot...no thanks.

 

So have picked up a replacement pan, Atmitage Shanks, normal seat fitting etc...should be fine for years to come.

 

I then discover that the pipe between the cistern and the pan is about 3/4" too low. Fine says I...just pull it out and trim it...at which point I discover that the whole assembly of waste and flush pipe are attached to a frame, along with the cistern. So to raise the pipe I need to...the whole cistern needs to be lifted.

 

Not the end of the world...except for the fact that all of the fixings in question were out in place before they built a bloody wall and tiled over it...so I've got to now demolish half the bloody bathroom to move a pipe three quarters of a bloody inch.

 

No, there are no dodges to get around this that I can see. There's not enough space between the elbow below the cistern and the back of the pan to fit an elbow or flex joint.

 

Should have just called in a bloody professional to do this. Oh...wait...I tried. Nobody wanted to do it. Like getting the boiler serviced...nobody wanted to do that either.

Can you not cut the flush pipe and re join it?

[bub2006]

Have either me or Kiltox mentioned estate agents today. I'm now taking names and considering starting a revolution, firstly comrades I shall be needing quite a large wall and maybe some pigs.

Seriously if we get fucked around much more then I shall be deploying the power of the evil eye* on several of them.

 

*not a threat to be taken lightly it runs in my mums side of the family.

Our lass does the evil eye. Scares the beejesus out if me

[New POD]

Our lass does the evil eye. Scares the beejesus out if me

Yeah. I haven't got it.

 

I do the angry dad look and my kids burst into ........ laughter.

[Lacquer Peel]

Nota clue,will know more after diagnosis. It's running horrible and just generally being a tit. The chap at nissan said it's firing fault codes everywhere

Bring back the P10 Primera.

[stephen01]

I think it’s indicative of modern society, this is not aimed at anyone in this thread of course, because we are all fine upstanding members of society, but there is a definite culture of people who expect everything for nothing, to come with a lifetime warranty and who are poised to trash your reputation on social media at the very first whiff of not liking the cut of your jib.

 

I can totally understand why tradesman are reticent to take on, what they perceive to be, low value jobs

 

When I was self employed I'd get this all the time, about 10 years ago I charged a landlord about £70 to supply and fit a new toilet, only a cheap white one so there was probably about £35 in it for me, take into consideration that I went to look at the job, collected the toilet from trade place, removed old toilet, fitted new one and tipped the old toilet. Not a great wage was it. Okay it only took me about an hour to physically change the toilet but the additional faffing about realistically was probably 3 hours total. 

 

With regards to your toilet problem, can yo not get a flexi pan connector to do the job?

[Snipes]

So my broadband has been down for just about a week now. BT missed their fix deadline of Tuesday (it literally worked for a couple of hours, then dropped out again), didn't call back last night as they said they would and now my insistance it be treated as a complaint has achieved literally nothing. Their next deadline is tonight. My expectations are suitably low.

[Zelandeth]

With regards to your toilet problem, can yo not get a flexi pan connector to do the job?

Sadly not. The cistern is some stupid proprietary thing and doesn't have the normal outlet on the base - the elbow is actually part of the cistern - so any up/down adjustment requires the cistern itself to be raised or lowered. Normally that would be annoying - but it's the fact that the fixings are totally inaccessible without significant demolition of the wall that's the headache.

 

Flexible connector isn't viable in this instance as the front of the cistern is hard up against the wall of the box it's concealed in, so the flush pipe between the pan and the fixed elbow needs to be about an inch long, there just isn't enough space to fit anything in there.

 

Going to have to play the same game with the one in the main bathroom soon too, as the seat on that has a crack spreading on it as well and the setup is identical...oh what fun.

[AMC Rebel]

BT Suck

[alcyonecorporation]

Tired of being tired!

[Kiltox]

Something something solicitors something something bastards

 

So tired of this shit I can’t even be arsed writing a proper grump post any more

[BorniteIdentity]

Regarding adverts, and seeming how we seem to have some people on here who know how radio works....

 

I phoned the area's commercial radio station a few months back, to express "your adverts do my head in how they cut in and out like they're being mixed in a a DJ, please sort it out", but more polite. Essentially, almost every advert break would consist of:

 

- The first 10 seconds of an advert.... which would then cut out

- The first 10 seconds of a different advert..... which would then cut out

- The final 5 seconds of the first advert

- Usually the final 5 seconds of the second advert, thought sometimes a completely different advert

 

They replied "U WOT M8" and blamed my radio. Yeah, my boggo standard FM receiving radio is doing something nuts allegedly. Only thing I could think of was maybe I was picking up one commercial station, then midway through cutting over to another, then back..... but it used to happen no matter where I was in the area - and the radio never showed a different station ID.

Then after about 4 months it stopped happening. So what was all that about then?

If it was Heart - then what was likely happening was

 

Your Radio AF’ing. Alternate frequency is part of the RDS (Radio data system). Each station has a unique PI (programme identification) code and if the radio can get a stronger signal from another frequency with the same PI, off it goes. Whilst there can be say three frequencies for the Reading area for Heart, they all run different commercials in a different order. When the jock hits PLAY ADS it plays the appropriate ads for that transmitter. They’re rarely the same ones in the same order, but every break has to be balanced in duration so they end at the same time.

 

That’s a confusing thing to explain, and I’ve done a terrible job of it.

 

What’s supposed to happen is the radio station STOPS transmitting the AF during any ‘split output’ so that your radio only swaps to identical content. It’s probably broken.

 

You can complain to OFCOM about poor technical standards if you so wish.

 

What I can absolutely tell you, is it wouldn’t be human error. When we fire an ad break, it plays in sequence with no intervention at all. We see a countdown timer and that’s it. We can’t change the order, the length or drop adverts from the studio.

 

If it was a smaller station like Jack or whatever, they’re just being shit.

[BorniteIdentity]

Nah you're right, it was heart.

 

"They're rarely the same ones in the same order" also explains why I'd sometimes hear the same advert 2 or 3 times in one break.

 

"Its probably broken" - is that in reference to their kit, or my radio? Because either way it stopped happening as abruptly as it started happening after a few months.... I still drive round the same areas with the same radio.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

Unfortunately, most people you speak to in a radio station have no idea how it all works. Not properly.

 

AF was supposed to be used by people like the BBC national networks to make sure you had coverage across the UK without having to retune. It wasn’t designed with commercial operators in mind who share some content but not all. It was also never designed to have three good powered transmitters in such close proximity; usually one starts to fade before the other takes over.

 

Global, who own Heart, designed a system where the AF would stop being transmitted as soon as it knew split content was being broadcast. ie so this doesn’t happen. It probably got its knickers in a twist, but has been remedied.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Am I right in thinking it’s similar to the way automated switching for traffic updates work? Your radio filters to the most powerful signal currently broadcasting with that carrier ‘header’ and plays you that?

[BorniteIdentity]

Am I right in thinking it’s similar to the way automated switching for traffic updates work? Your radio filters to the most powerful signal currently broadcasting with that carrier ‘header’ and plays you that?

It works in the same way, yes. All of the information for RDS is carried on a 58kHz subcarrier - so your radio hears it but you don’t.

 

However, the Traffic Announcement doesn’t just take you to the strongest transmitter. If it can hear it, and it’s broadcasting TP and TA, and your radio is looking for it (you have TA on) it’ll retune regardless of whether it’s the strongest signal on the dial or not.

[iainrcz]

I absolutely fucking detest buying presents for people.

 

Especially my Mrs the shit.

 

Why she just can't say "buy that" and be pissing done with it I do not know.

She'd rather say "put some effort in, be romantic"

How's about sod off. I can't be bothered with that crap.

 

I couldn't give a toss what people buy me!

 

In fact no presents and just being left alone would do.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[AMC Rebel]

I had a very interesting (not) conversation with customer services at Virgin Trains in the early part of the century when they had introduced entertainment sockets on trains to make it seem more like a plane.

 

One channel was Radio 4.  I duly plugged in and sat down to enjoy The Today Programme, only for it to be continually interrupted by some cheery Partridge-alike with the Traffic and Travel from BBC radio Toytown.  I was fairly sure I knew what was causing this - but trying to get anyone to listen let alone do anything about it was pointless. 

[AMC Rebel]

I absolutely fucking detest buying presents for people.

 

Especially my Mrs the shit.

 

Why she just can't say "buy that" and be pissing done with it I do not know.

She'd rather say "put some effort in, be romantic"

How's about sod off. I can't be bothered with that crap.

 

I couldn't give a toss what people buy me!

 

In fact no presents and just being left alone would do.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

 

Agreed - and when I try to put in some effort I find usually years later that my present was shit anyway.

[Guest Hooli]

In fact no presents and just being left alone would do.

 

 

It's taken me about 35 years to train my family to do that, but it was worth it.

[LightBulbFun]

I absolutely fucking detest buying presents for people.

 

Especially my Mrs the shit.

 

Why she just can't say "buy that" and be pissing done with it I do not know.

She'd rather say "put some effort in, be romantic"

How's about sod off. I can't be bothered with that crap.

 

I couldn't give a toss what people buy me!

 

In fact no presents and just being left alone would do.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

 

 

the perks of collecting lightbulbs (and more recently old computer stuff) number 71:

 

come birthday/Christmas no one has any idea what I want so I almost always just get a card+cash for me to splash on whatever I want to spend it on  (which IS what I prefer and i let them know this fact incase they feel bad for handing me "cold hard cash")

 

and if someone insists they get me something, asking for a Bayonet capped 5ft 80W/8ft 125W fluorescent tube or a vintage GLS shaped Mercury vapour lamp, generally gets them to just hand over the cash

[Lord Sterling]

I absolutely fucking detest buying presents for people.

Especially my Mrs the shit.

Why she just can't say "buy that" and be pissing done with it I do not know.

She'd rather say "put some effort in, be romantic"

SYMPATHEEZ here.

 

This one of the many reasons my last trip to Turkey wasn't as nice as I'd have liked it to be.

[panhard65]

My other half managed to get me back on the "significant" birthday pressie this year. For her 40th I took her to venice (where I wanted to go) and for her 50th I took her to Rome and Florence (again where I wanted to go.) So she got me back for my 50th last week by taking me to Spain for an all inclusive week on a beach (where she wanted to go and my idea of hell !) I did manage to get a day trip out into France for dinner in Narbonne on the Wednesday night though so that was a little win. I must admit some of the Brits in Spain on all inclusive tend not to set the best example of British behaviour. The daft thing was they couldn't understand why the waitresses had the hump about being shouted at in English. The poor girls worked 7 days a week and most of the time without even a thank you in English let alone anyone trying to speak Spanish. I must admit I was pretty useless myself with the amount of times I said Bonjour and Merci (I only ever seem to go to France)

[wuvvum]

On the subject of radios cutting out, the Rover 75 keeps interrupting broadcasts to tell me there's a speed camera ahead.  Which is GR9 in theory, except that it doesn't seem to take any notice of whether you're on the same road as the camera or not - it does the warning if you're driving directly towards a camera less than 1/4 mile away as the crow flies, even if you're on a completely different road.  So if you're driving through a housing estate with lots of twists and turns you can get half a dozen warnings about the same camera.  Which is quite annoying, especially when I'm trying to sing along to the radio.  There might be something buried deep in the menus to turn the warning off, but I haven't found it yet.

[willswitchengage]

Queueing at Esso earlier I was a bit suspect at the two children at the pump in front of me filling up numerous canisters in the boot with fuel. When the boot was closed I noticed it had no numberplate, and the two, well - there is no word, made off with £100 of juice. What am I supposed to do in this scenario?

 

Makes me want to join other uncivilised countries that use pre-pay.

[Tamworthbay]

Queueing at Esso earlier I was a bit suspect at the two children at the pump in front of me filling up numerous canisters in the boot with fuel. When the boot was closed I noticed it had no numberplate, and the two, well - there is no word, made off with £100 of juice. What am I supposed to do in this scenario?

Makes me want to join other uncivilised countries that use pre-pay.

I worked in a petrol station when I was student, being on a fast road bilking was quite common. The boss would try and dock our wages if we didn’t get the registration plate. He then got cctv and we used to get the same number, they just covered the plate or removed it. Weirdest one was an old couple who were local, they drove off at a leasurely pace but when the police went round to them they flatly denied being in the petrol station and I ended up as witness, they were fined about £300 for £30 of petrol. If they had just coughed up the money they could have claimed each one had though the other had paid and they would have been ok. From seeing them in court I don’t think both were senile to the point they genuinely didn’t remember and they made a cock and bull story up about being in Nottingham which the prosecution then ripped apart as the copper had recorded the time he spoke to them and they would have had to go at 120mph all the way back for it to stand up.

[xtriple]

Was taking das mutts to Ilsham park this afternoon, as I turned into the (very busy) road that leads that way and right outside the posh shops in Wellswood, a childrens bus thing had tried to park in front of the school and hit a Micra illegally parked there (side of bus to front wing of Micra). Now, I have no idea what exactly happened but the police were there and the road was blocked completely as the two vehicles were stationary with the arse end of the bus sticking right out across the road. No injuries, obviously slow speed but the woman owner of the Micra was going ballistic at the cops, the bus driver, passers by and the world at large.

 

All very odd but to let the road be blocked for an hour at least seemed odd....