The grumpy thread

[Lankytim]

*Puts wallet away*

[dollywobbler]

The annoying thing is, I could have just kept that lovely, leather-trimmed Renault 21 Monaco and not had all this bother! I was getting a bit bored with it, but at least boring worked!

[Lankytim]

Who bought it Dolly? I cried for a week solid when I heard you'd flogged it!

 

Have you got a link to the ad for the big Cit? Just out of morbid curiosity.

[dollywobbler]

A chap on Retro Rides. Hope he's looking after it better than the CX...

 

CX is on Carandclassic if you want to look at some lovely pics of it. It might just be that the fuel pump relay has gone, but I'm running out of time to look at it as we've got to get this house in order before Saturday. Which means tomorrow really doesn't it?

[myglaren]

In case it hasn't been mentioned elsewhere, Roger Bradford died at the weekend, his funeral will be at Cambridge Crematorium on Thursday September 30th, 15:45.

There will be a gathering at

The Black Bull Public House

89 High Street,

Somersham,

Huntingdon,

Cambridgeshire,

PE28 3EE

The procession will be leaving at 3pm (for those who want to drink prior or cannot drive from there, Dews Coaches have very kindly given a free 52 seat bus for transportation).

 

Makes me very sad rather than grumpy. Roger was one of a kind.

[Negative Creep]

Turns out the room I rented is actually above a nightclub and is not "the quiet one" at all, so had to go to sleep being vibrated by bass. Only supposed to be there until the 9th but don't think I can last that long, and then there's the fact it's in the red light district Also it was my birthday yesterday and not one person I've met in my 11 months here bothered to even make a facebook post. I wonder why I bother sometimes

[Des]

[Alexg]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEGATIVE CREEP !!!

 

Chin-up son

[hennabm]

Fucking ebay morons again.

Selling something that sold for 1/4 of what I paid for it, I say in the advert 'Do not bid if you can't collect, if you want it delivered, CONTACT ME BEFORE AUCTION ENDS SO YOU CAN ARRANGE DELIVERY AS PART OF FINAL SALE PRICE'. What happens? Someone wins the auction, and pays paypal straight away. So I now have to refund the tit (with me having to pay a refund charge), and relist the item as I refuse to sell items to bell-ends like this. Why do these people not read the fucking text in the auction?

 

I recently had a guy pay me by paypal even though my advert said NO PAYPAL . Anyway I found if I didn't claim the money, after a month it is returned to the person. That saved me having to sign up to the rip off which I'm not prepared to do as Paypal is owned by egay or vice versa.

[Station]

Had my car seized today. I think I got caught on the ANPR.

The computer came up as me having no driver's license. So, getting the bus home, I phoned the DVLA and they said I hadn't returned my driver's license in 2005 to have the endorsement on, so have to send a D1 form to apply for a new one (which doesn't cost anything - even if it's lost). So I have to get my dad up to the yard (as he's on the insurance) to pay the £150 release fee, and then drive it home, and then I get my driver's license back (in maybe three weeks), and then I can drive again. I have to do all this in seven days, or my car is crushed, and it's £30 everyday it's in the festering yard. Is this the most harsh punishment for smallest, most insignificant crime? I even have less points on my license than I thought I had. Sadists.

This ties in with swapping the car this weekend! Talk about timing!

[warren t claim]

Had my car seized today. I think I got caught on the ANPR.

The computer came up as me having no driver's license. So, getting the bus home, I phoned the DVLA and they said I hadn't returned my driver's license in 2005 to have the endorsement on, so have to send a D1 form to apply for a new one (which doesn't cost anything - even if it's lost). So I have to get my dad up to the yard (as he's on the insurance) to pay the £150 release fee, and then drive it home, and then I get my driver's license back (in maybe three weeks), and then I can drive again. I have to do all this in seven days, or my car is crushed, and it's £30 everyday it's in the festering yard. Is this the most harsh punishment for smallest, most insignificant crime? I even have less points on my license than I thought I had. Sadists.

This ties in with swapping the car this weekend! Talk about timing!

 

Why were you stopped in the first place and where did it happen?

[Lankytim]

I have heard of this before. If you don't send your licence off to have points added then after a while your licence gets revoked. Its a mechanism thats used by the DVLA to ensure people they want to get hold of can be found.. eventually. Usually it means their car gets seized by the rozzers. Unfortunately the most common cause of all of this is letters being sent out by the DVLA getting lost (or not being sent in the first place). The first thing you know is you get a court summons for doing 33 in a 30- if for whatever reason you don't get that you have your licence revoked until they can find you and put the points on your licence.

 

Its an unfortunate state of affairs- you don't get the chance to argue your case in court, you get your wheels seized through no fault of your own and theres the square root of fuck all you can do about it... but you know... all motorists are SCUM WHO MUST BE PUNISHED .

[Guest]

Mistaking a real person for a spambot on NSJC.

 

Apparently, he is that dull........

[Station]

Why were you stopped in the first place and where did it happen?

 

Have no idea why I was stopped, it was by Green Lane station (I actually pulled into Esso garage - I think the rozzer wanted the seizure on full show of the dual carriageway, but I hid round the back). It was a silver/gun metal BMW estate. I was given no option even if it wasn't my fault, my car was getting seized - all this while one of them was texting his mate about his golf clubs - ffs have some professionalism in your job, please! They seemed quite pleased about that, it's probably the highest achievement of a police officer nowadays (what else can they do in their cars).

[Mr Lobster]

Probably stopped as ANPR recognised the car as being registered to someone who had a licence revoked so they probably reckoned you'd be worth a stop unfortunately.

 

Bit of a bummer though.

[Station]

Yeah, the thing is, he went to pull in in front of me in traffic but there wasn't enough space, so he went in behind me, which obviously triggered it. They weren't arseholes or anything, but I think the whole seizure thing is a bit extreme, especially when I had a named driver in the car.

They couldn't even find anything on the computer about it.

[Lankytim]

If there was a passenger who was fully insured and licenced to drive the car then I have no idea why they seized it. All this car seizure seems to be the traffic cops bread and butter nowadays. Im off to drink drive with impunity, see ya!

[Cavcraft]

If there was a passenger who was fully insured and licenced to drive the car then I have no idea why they seized it. All this car seizure seems to be the traffic cops bread and butter nowadays. Im off to drink drive with impunity, see ya!

 

Because 'allegedly' some coppers are on a dropsy from recovery firms with police contracts. I've hard of people who've proved (later) they had insurance and when they request the tow in and storage back from the rozzers they are met with 'take it up with DVLA as they are supposed to update the records'.

 

Oh, insurers have cottoned on now too: on mine it states 'not to be used for vehicles not owned by this person' or something like that. This is to stop people with trade insurance recovering cars back for owners for a backhander.

[Station]

That's what I have been told, my missus is fully covered to drive my car - but she can't collect it from the compound. This is not common sense, it's an obvious ploy.

Merseyside police use RNW for their recovery (exclusively) - if there isn't some business connection in the lodge Masonic lodge between the chief constable and the boss of RNW somewhere ... who gets the £150? Why are the police contracting out to a privately owned recovery company - maybe because they can't handle the huge amount of seizures with their own recovery trucks. What a lovely little money spinner.

 

I'd love to know why my missus couldn't drive the car and avoid the hassle of getting it impounded?

[scaryoldcortina]

FFS station, bad luck! I seriously think that the police are taking it a bit far with the new power to seize thing. First off, as far as I know you are still entitled to drive even if you have no valid licence (because of expiry, photocard, change of address, dog ate it etc) unless you have been disqualified by a court. Absolute worst case is prosecution for invalid licence (which is rare) Secondly, having an insured and licenced driver in the passenger seat means they have no reason to remove the vehicle from the road even if they think you are banned. The no licence=no insurance argument is bull too. Try it! ring your insurer up and say "I've just noticed my licence/photocard is invalid, am I still covered while I get a new one?" and the answer will be yes.

Burden of proof is on them too... unless you admit the possibility that the almighty ANPR is right. So, they will try to coerce an admission out of you to seize the car. I've even had 2 traffic cops knock on my door at 9pm to "inform" me that my car (parked outside) was uninsured, and they were going to seize it. Had a recovery truck (usual contractor) with them.They didn't, and had to give me a HORT/1 instead because I didn't have my insurance on me, because I insisted it was insured. They were obliged to give me the 7 days grace provided for in the road traffic acts.

 

 

Anyway.... I'm sick to death of hospitals, and particularly the scamming aresholes who run the car parking. My son broke his arm on thursday, today we had a fracture clinic to attend. Normally when I go to this hospital it is with my wife, who is in a chair and has a blue badge, this means free parking (if you can get a space - how does a hospital only need 15 disabled spaces? and why are they 100yds from the door up a steep bank? all good questions..)

Today though, no badgeholder, pay-to-park. I think I should mention that there is *no* parking near the hospital site at all, and that it is a good 15 miles away from our house and needs 3 bus changes to get there... So, in we go, ticket at the barrier, big empty car park, spaces available right at the front (on the flat, 20yds from the main door....) off to the clinic we go. Waited for an hour to see a doctor for 5 minutes He looked at the x-ray taken on thursday, not the patient (very impatient and grumpy actually...) and told us to come back at 8.00am tomorrow cos he needs surgery to reset the bone. So back to the car park.. Ticket in the machine, £1.50 please (1-2 hours) oh shite, I've only got a quid (up to 1 hour is 95p, we've been an hour and 5 mins) so out with the plastic and double shite there isn't a card slot on the fucking machine. It takes coins and notes but not plastic. Back into the hospital, asked the porter on the reception desk. No, the hospital doesn't have a cash machine, and there isn't one nearby (about a mile across town, but the car is stuck in the car park....) but the cafe on the second floor does cashback if you spend over £3 and pay with a card. Ok, better than nothing. Took grumpy hungry child to cafe, a small sandwich, can of coke and a bag of hula-hoops came to £3.30, but I got a fiver cashback. I did notice the cafe is run by the same company that manage the car park.... back to the ticket machine, ticket back in, £2.40! Oh joy, its taken a whole hour to sort that out. Bollocks. I'm torn between taking enough cash to park all day so I can stay with conor tomorrow and taking a chainsaw to the barrier before leaving.

[pogweasel]

Parking in general is just an arseache these days.

Couple of times recently I've had to use these 'ring up to pay' things, either because the machines won't take actual currency or I have only got 68p in change on me...FFS, it takes about 20 minutes to go through all the rigmarole of giving them your vehicle reg (which it seems not to understand if it is not an XX00XXX format, please hold...) then tapping in your credit card number whilst trying not to drop your keys, phone,card, wallet and whatnot into a gulley, then tapping in your location number which you need off the meter so you have to walk back to that again.... AND they have the bollocks to charge you an extra 40p 'admin fee' for this service. Grr.

[Mr H Sceptre]

Anyway.... I'm sick to death of hospitals, and particularly the scamming aresholes who run the car parking. My son broke his arm on thursday, today we had a fracture clinic to attend. Normally when I go to this hospital it is with my wife, who is in a chair and has a blue badge, this means free parking (if you can get a space - how does a hospital only need 15 disabled spaces? and why are they 100yds from the door up a steep bank? all good questions..)

Today though, no badgeholder, pay-to-park. I think I should mention that there is *no* parking near the hospital site at all, and that it is a good 15 miles away from our house and needs 3 bus changes to get there... So, in we go, ticket at the barrier, big empty car park, spaces available right at the front (on the flat, 20yds from the main door....) off to the clinic we go. Waited for an hour to see a doctor for 5 minutes He looked at the x-ray taken on thursday, not the patient (very impatient and grumpy actually...) and told us to come back at 8.00am tomorrow cos he needs surgery to reset the bone. So back to the car park.. Ticket in the machine, £1.50 please (1-2 hours) oh shite, I've only got a quid (up to 1 hour is 95p, we've been an hour and 5 mins) so out with the plastic and double shite there isn't a card slot on the fucking machine. It takes coins and notes but not plastic. Back into the hospital, asked the porter on the reception desk. No, the hospital doesn't have a cash machine, and there isn't one nearby (about a mile across town, but the car is stuck in the car park....) but the cafe on the second floor does cashback if you spend over £3 and pay with a card. Ok, better than nothing. Took grumpy hungry child to cafe, a small sandwich, can of coke and a bag of hula-hoops came to £3.30, but I got a fiver cashback. I did notice the cafe is run by the same company that manage the car park.... back to the ticket machine, ticket back in, £2.40! Oh joy, its taken a whole hour to sort that out. Bollocks. I'm torn between taking enough cash to park all day so I can stay with conor tomorrow and taking a chainsaw to the barrier before leaving.

 

Personally think its disgusting that hospitals charge for parking at all. Its not as if you're their for the fun of it - you're either visiting someone who is ill, or taking someone who is sick/ill. They could easily police the car park by having a security guard present to stop folk using it illegally (ie for going shopping etc).

 

Bastards.

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah. I never seem to have any change anymore - most of the time I'm using a debit card to buy stuff, pretty much everywhere (even tiny hardware shops and scrapyards) takes cards! Thats what got me most of all about the parking. It isn't so much the charges as the fact that if you haven't got cash you can't get out, and you need to know this in advance. The main car park in Durham takes cards in the pay machines..and there are cash machines near the shops, but the hospital isn't in the town centre! It's a mile away, over the river and up a steep hill.

 

Thats without getting on to the fact that if the NHS knew how to use the IT equipment we paid for we wouldn't have even needed to be there today. His x-rays were taken in A&E at Northallerton, they gave me his notes (containing a CD with the DICOM files on it) and left it up to me to transfer him to durham (phonecall, attend today's clinic). As noted before, the doctor only looked at the X-rays, he actually needs to be seen for surgery tomorrow AM. They even gave me back the CD so they don't lose it! What I'm saying is that even if different trusts can't access each other's patient databses, they could have emailed the files across, the doctor could have looked at them and phoned me to ask us to come in tomorrow. What a waste of resources

[Mr H Sceptre]

Plus, you never know how long you're going to be in a hospital, therefore you don't know how much it will cost in the first place.

[scaryoldcortina]

Thats a good point! I had to help recover a car from a hospital pay car park (in Newcastle) because the owner of the car was detained by the hospital (routine clinic turned life-threatening) and his wife couldn't drive. Car park bods couldn't care less either, so I ran her home in their car (10 mins away) and got the bus back for mine. Trade policys come in handy sometimes.

[Albert Ross]

Luckily I can get in my local Hospital car park, as there's no height barrier. In Nottingham, they have multi storeys, ( no good for an 8 foot tall motor) so when a mate of mine was dying late last year, the choice was, drive from Doncaster and park in a dark side street, expecting to see a vacant spot when I return, or indeed an empty wheel-less Land Rover.... OR, (Which I opted for) Train to Grantham, thence to Nottingham, walk to QMC, see my mate, give him a huge hug, Say my goodbyes all the while holding back the tears, (and share a smuggled pork pie, stilton and guinness feast with him) than get the bus back into Nottingham, wander into the Salutation and quaff many pints of ale, before catching the latest possible train home via Sheffield.... Total saving was about 3 quid, considering that I drank most of the savings......... So I had a better deal using public transport. He died in January.... 50 years old.... We had a quiet send off, but in my heart, he's having a party.

I do miss him.

 

Cheers Jon.

 

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

[myglaren]

Thats a good point! I had to help recover a car from a hospital pay car park (in Newcastle) because the owner of the car was detained by the hospital (routine clinic turned life-threatening) and his wife couldn't drive. Car park bods couldn't care less either, so I ran her home in their car (10 mins away) and got the bus back for mine. Trade policys come in handy sometimes.

 

Which hospital?

 

I was in the RVI a couple of years ago and a guy came in for something to do with his eye. He expected it to be an outpatient treatment but they kept him in overnight and he wasn't able to drive for 48 hours after the operation.

Lived out in the sticks with his wife unable to come and get his car that day so the overnight charges would have been - significant.

He mentioned this to one of the nurses who went to see a supervisor. They waived all but the first hours parking fee.

 

My eldest grandson was born in the same hospital, a nightmare as he had gastroschesis and wasn't expected to survive.

They provided my daughter and son in law with a flat in one of the hospital wings* and gave my son in law a free parking pass as he had to go to work every night. Most accommodating.

 

 

*(The wing of flats were paid for by Frank Spencer)

[scaryoldcortina]

Funnily enough, it was the RVI, and about 4 years ago. Maybe the verbal pasting I gave the duty manager when I got back for my car sank in somewhere.

[myglaren]

Why were you stopped in the first place and where did it happen?

 

Have no idea why I was stopped, it was by Green Lane station (I actually pulled into Esso garage - I think the rozzer wanted the seizure on full show of the dual carriageway, but I hid round the back). It was a silver/gun metal BMW estate. I was given no option even if it wasn't my fault, my car was getting seized - all this while one of them was texting his mate about his golf clubs - ffs have some professionalism in your job, please! They seemed quite pleased about that, it's probably the highest achievement of a police officer nowadays (what else can they do in their cars).

 

I think that this merits a letter to your MP. Zealotry beyond imagination.

[myglaren]

Funnily enough, it was the RVI, and about 4 years ago. Maybe the verbal pasting I gave the duty manager when I got back for my car sank in somewhere.

 

Lets hope that they do respond to feedback.

My grandson is 11 now so they were quite sympathetic in the past.