The grumpy thread

[Talbot]

Was really REALLY hoping I could get away without doing any major repairs on the Merc-o-barge for this MOT with the promise* that I would complete any and all welding needed this coming summer, and then MOT it again so that the anniversary comes around in decent weather each year.

Just poked a 40mm hole in the front of one of the sills.  Which means it's probably rotten for the first 500mm back from the front wheel.

Bollocks.

[Zelandeth]

Well on an update to the roofing saga it sounds like things might be okay, maybe.  We'll see.

They've reiterated many times over that while the invoice has been submitted they're not in any way demanding payment at this point, and will be visiting on Wednesday to have a look at the issues I've raised and hopefully we can get the snagging list moving.  It's been a big old project which unearthed a bunch of extra work and some of it was done in a race against the weather so there was bound to be a few things that needed sorted.

So long as they're not going to quibble over sorting them we'll call it a win.  We have had an apology over the lack of communication though which is something.

[High Jetter]

Keep the dialogue open, sounds like you might get a result. He who holds back funds has the last laugh...

[New POD]

20 hours ago, fairkens said:

When people you contract with as part of your job don't finish a job to your satisfaction you threaten to call the police? 

Okaaaaaay then

 

 

 

When they invoice you, knowing that they haven't done the job, isn't that attempted theft ?  I've never threatened any contractor with the police, but I have suggested that we (as in the massive corporate conglomerate I happened to be a small broken cog in) took that sort of thing seriously. 

Current place I work has been too cosy with a couple of companies  and have been really poor at defining the requirements, and I'm having to mop up the mess, so this approach doesn't work because what we were getting for £20k was a bit fucking vague.  I've been having to suggest that they think seriously about the spirit of the order.  Doesn't help that the guy that ordered the stuff, has gone to work for one of them. Wanker. 

[timolloyd]

For lots of small businesses approaching their year-end, it’s helpful to have invoices raised, even when they have no intention of demanding payment. 
 

It helps to show what amounts will be due at a later date.

[New POD]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Keep the dialogue open, sounds like you might get a result. He who holds back funds has the last laugh...

When I worked in the Automotive industry, we'd have stage payments for bespoke equipment that had 20% upfront, 10% on design acceptance, 20% with completion of build, 20% on Acceptance on our site, and 30% 90 days after job one.  I suspect JLR occassionally do 10% on Design Acceptance, 10% on Acceptance on site and 80% 90 days after job one, but with 3 month delay on processing invoices, but that may be just a rumour. 

[New POD]

3 hours ago, timolloyd said:

For lots of small businesses approaching their year-end, it’s helpful to have invoices raised, even when they have no intention of demanding payment. 
 

It helps to show what amounts will be due at a later date.

This is also true. At Honeywell engine boosting I had to ask Bosch Automation to invoice us for work not yet completed before year end so that we didn't loose the money from the budget allocated to it. 

[Talbot]

On 1/8/2023 at 6:00 AM, New POD said:

Please don't invoice for work not done, otherwise we will assume you are attempting to commit fraud and contact the police

"Tell me you have absolutely no idea about business transactions without telling me you have absolutely no idea about business transactions".

Seriously?

Also, staged payments for chunks of work in a larger contract are nothing special.  Almost all Engineering companies work like this, be in in sales to clients or Purchase orders to subcontractors.  It covers everyone and makes sure that larger companies get what the want without putting all the risk on a smaller one.

And no.  Invoicing for something as yet incomplete isn't attempted theft.  Or fraud.  It's business.  It's up to the person placing the purchase order to check that the work has been done before approving the invoice.  That's just project management, I do it all bloody day long.  And if I had a quid for every time I had an invoice to approve for work as yet not fully complete or parts that hadn't arrived yet, I wouldn't be sat at this poxy desk at 09:00 on a Monday morning.

[goosey]

In the Office/workshop today, so have to get in at 8.15 eat my dinner between 12.30-13.00 and work till 17.00, only half way through the day but feels like forever 

[chadders]

7 hours ago, New POD said:

When they invoice you, knowing that they haven't done the job, isn't that attempted theft ?  I've never threatened any contractor with the police, but I have suggested that we (as in the massive corporate conglomerate I happened to be a small broken cog in) took that sort of thing seriously. 

Current place I work has been too cosy with a couple of companies  and have been really poor at defining the requirements, and I'm having to mop up the mess, so this approach doesn't work because what we were getting for £20k was a bit fucking vague.  I've been having to suggest that they think seriously about the spirit of the order.  Doesn't help that the guy that ordered the stuff, has gone to work for one of them. Wanker. 

You might want to bear in mind that the spirit of the order, whatever that is, is irrelevant. In addition their credit control department might block any future deliveries if you're considered a credit risk.

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

the spirit of the order, whatever that is, is irrelevant

Absolutely this.  If the scope of work and deliverables hasn't been clearly defined by the buyer, then that's their issue.  Or indeed if the scope of work defined in the quotation from the subcontractor doesn't match what the buyer wants, that is again the buyer's problem to sort out.  Scope of supply is absolutely critical to ensure a subcontract goes well.

[Zelandeth]

Yep, invoice going in was basically to get the tax point down in the books.  

The story I've been given (and I am taking this with a large pinch of salt) is that the foreman had a family emergency up in Yorkshire which meant that him and a large number of the company (they're a family owned and run organisation) were away from the area and indisposed as of mid October until a week or so back.  Which does tie in with what we saw.  Up till that point he had been dropping by every day or three to keep an eye on where the guys were up to with the job and keeping me in the loop.  Then they just seemed to evaporate.  Plus I know they'd been fighting a race against the weather and the same supply chain issues as everyone at the moment with some aspects.

It might all be waffle, but the timings and way stuff unfolded do fit the explanation I've been given.  We'll see on Wednesday if I continue to get sense out of them I guess.

[Bren]

No longer positive for covid. But still snotty and coughing up shite. Even after nine days.

Rona - get tae fuck.

[MikeR]

Is sat here watching a old dual core lappy  running makemkv on Linux , beat hands down a recent win 10 lappy that tried to do the same job !!! 

Technology ! 

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 minutes ago, MikeR said:

Is sat here watching a old dual core lappy  running makemkv on Linux , beat hands down a recent win 10 lappy that tried to do the same job !!! 

Technology ! 

I've just spent two months trying to run a lot of Python & R software on Windows 10 and/or WSL2 - no chance on either - very, very peeved.
New Year, New OS

[MikeR]

26 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I've just spent two months trying to run a lot of Python & R software on Windows 10 and/or WSL2 - no chance on either - very, very peeved.
New Year, New OS

Now the Linux lappy is ripping the dvd using the external drive , so the win10 lappy or it's version of makemkv is suspect ! 

[Yoss]

On 1/6/2023 at 3:38 PM, Yoss said:

Just found this tied to a lamppost on my delivery. Don't try reading it, I'll summarise. 

 

It's about proposed 20mph speed limits in Southampton. It covers a big area as you can tell, most of western Southampton in fact. The 20 limit itself is not the main grump here, a lot of the above are small residential roads where you would struggle to reach 30 anyway. Although Shirley Road is the main bus route to the western side of Southampton and Hill Lane is a lovely straight wide road that has The Common on one side and big well spaced houses on the other so that seems daft to me. 

The grump is in the small print at the bottom that says any objections should be sent to the relevant address within 21 days of this notice, i.e. the 23rd of December, and sure enough the letter is dated 2nd December. This notice was printed on standard photocopier paper, not laminated or protected in any way. There is no way this notice has been here since the 2nd of January let alone the 2nd of December, it obviously hasn't been there any longer than since it last rained, in fact it has started raining again now so I imagine it is slowly dissolving as I write. 

I doubt any objections would make any difference anyway, they've decided they are going to to do it and that's that but they could have at least gone through the motions of doing it properly. 

Seems I wasn't paying attention. A quick browse of the council website shows this is going to cover almost the whole city and is being implemented in 14 sections. The first section has already been implemented but in an area I rarely frequent so hadn't noticed. 

Here's a map. 

I live just outside area 3 bit will have to enter it to go anywhere. Although in the spiel that went this map it said the major roads within each area would remain 30mph but Shirley Road is on the list and that is the A3057, the main road from Southampton to Romsey so that's a bit of a contradiction. 

Then in the paper at the weekend I read that Cornwall Council are planning to make every residential road in the county a 20 zone so it seems there's no escaping it. It's the future. I've been practicing driving round at 20 over the weekend to get used to it. 

[Remspoor]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

The story I've been given (and I am taking this with a large pinch of salt) is that the foreman had a family emergency up in Yorkshire which meant that him and a large number of the company (they're a family owned and run organisation) were away from the area and indisposed as of mid October until a week or so back.

Just a shame they could not inform you at the time. Or even a week or two later.

[Remspoor]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

Seems I wasn't paying attention. A quick browse of the council website shows this is going to cover almost the whole city and is being implemented in 14 sections. The first section has already been implemented but in an area I rarely frequent so hadn't noticed. 

Here's a map. 

I live just outside area 3 bit will have to enter it to go anywhere. Although in the spiel that went this map it said the major roads within each area would remain 30mph but Shirley Road is on the list and that is the A3057, the main road from Southampton to Romsey so that's a bit of a contradiction. 

Then in the paper at the weekend I read that Cornwall Council are planning to make every residential road in the county a 20 zone so it seems there's no escaping it. It's the future. I've been practicing driving round at 20 over the weekend to get used to it. 

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

[richardmorris]

15 hours ago, timolloyd said:

For lots of small businesses approaching their year-end, it’s helpful to have invoices raised, even when they have no intention of demanding payment. 
 

It helps to show what amounts will be due at a later date.

Yes. But my business doesn't send invoices out until the work is completed, even if the invoice itself has been generated at yhe end of the month. 

It could just be a simple mistake - eg press save and send  rather than save and new option.

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

34 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

@Kiltoxis this your doing to promote Amis?

[artdjones]

Wouldn't it make more pollution and emissions for cars to drive at 20mph in 3rd rather than 30mph in 4th?

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

Well the SNP have done it already in Scotland.

[Mally]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

I blame @Kiltox and AMI.

Hope he gets done for speeding.

[AndyW201]

Used the Merc at the weekend, parked on the drive yesterday, no problems.

Horrible grinding, scraping noise this morning when reversing off the drive,

Aye, that'll be why then.

Fucksakes...

[Yoss]

52 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Wouldn't it make more pollution and emissions for cars to drive at 20mph in 3rd rather than 30mph in 4th?

The Southampton City Council website makes no mention of emmisions, it appears to be merely on safety grounds. There's also no mention of how it might be enforced. 

Green Skoda with its 1.6 16v can comfortably do 20 in 3rd but blue Skoda which is standard would really rather be in 2nd. It will do it in 3rd but is labouring a bit but its happier in 2nd. So am I expected to drive round in 2nd gear? 

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

42 minutes ago, Mally said:

I blame @Kiltox and AMI.

Hope he gets done for speeding.

Getting a ticket for speeding in an Ami is the type of thing you request in A2 size format so you can frame it!

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

Well the SNP have done it already in Scotland.

It's particularly bad in the Borders Council areas. At least over on the South West it's not as common, and only really for especially built up areas (say the centre of Ayr for example), with most still being 30mph zones thankfully, which means I can navigate them in 5th gear. A lot of these used to be 40mph zones before, and were, in my opinion, a bit better for it then.

[Metal Guru]

57 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

It's particularly bad in the Borders Council areas. At least over on the South West it's not as common, and only really for especially built up areas (say the centre of Ayr for example), with most still being 30mph zones thankfully, which means I can navigate them in 5th gear. A lot of these used to be 40mph zones before, and were, in my opinion, a bit better for it then.

There was some talk about making rural roads 40mph in Scotland. That would be a blanket 40 in the Borders apart from the 20s in towns.

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

There's plenty of 30km/h zones in built up areas in That Europe.  No Tories though admittedly.