The grumpy thread

[loserone]

I don't think I have had a laptop with legacy optical media for at least 15 years.  Hateful shite.

[myglaren]

I have two.  Youngest (Zoostorm) is about eight years old and the better {Dell) one is at least twice that.

Good that the optical drives work as both my DVD players have turned up their toes.

[Metal Guru]

8 minutes ago, myglaren said:

I have two.  Youngest (Zoostorm) is about eight years old and the better {Dell) one is at least twice that.

Good that the optical drives work as both my DVD players have turned up their toes.

Read the first line and thought “who the hell calls their kid Zoostorm and don’t you know how old they are?”

[beko1987]

12 hours ago, loserone said:

I don't think I have had a laptop with legacy optical media for at least 15 years.  Hateful shite.

I used to use it as an excuse to keep an old thinkpad around but I don't think I've even got one of those now 😂

Even if I'm bought a CD now I'll go torrent it to get it in the car... 

[IronStar]

Late model madness.

Call from tame Zastava mechanic

Rear shocks are wrong. 
Aren’t they all off a mk2 Golf? 
Well, yes, except, this one has different spring mount. The spring is wider than the plate. 
Actually I’m picking up fronts as we speak. Let me pass you over to the store clerk. 
I’ll send a photo.

15 minutes of digging later

Oh yeah, those are different. Seems that some late models used rear shocks off a pickup, but different springs. 
Don’t tell me. NLA? 
Yeah, NLA. I think that they were custom for Florida, not taken off something else. 
The fuck am I supposed to do now? 
Eh…sorry man.

Tame Zastava mechanic has kindly offered to try hunting them down for me (as he took the car apart and is now blocking his shop).

Fucksake, why is it never easy?

[SunnySouth]

Continuing the ‘all postal/delivery services R shite’ theme from slightly earlier in these pages, an Ebay seller has sent my item sans adequate postage, resulting in a card through the door from His Majesty’s finest to tease me into settling the debt. No problem, shit happens. It’s only a couple of quid, no qualm with the Ebayer who seemed decent enough. RM, however, are unhelpful bar stewards. WTF are these opening times?!

So you can collect your item, but only during the exact hours that the entire population are busy rushing about doing the morning school run, sitting in traffic and trying to get to work. Unless it’s thursday, when the opportunity is also generously offered to collect it while everyone’s doing exactly the same thing in the evening.

Who the f’ck is collecting parcels between 8 and 10 in the bastard morning?! The answer of course is no fucker, which no doubt will provide ample excuse to close it altogether most of the week, and only open the desk between 2 and 4am on the fifth sunday of every second month…

If ever an organisation was showing all the distress signals of being on the verge of collapse, it’s RM. They give the NHS a run for its money, only without the safety net of being saintly and untouchable. RM is f’cked!

[myglaren]

I have had a couple like that, it wasn't the fault of the sender but RM's cockup with identifying stamps as fraudulent (they weren't).

I did collect them as the sorting office is only a couple of miles away, but there was also an option to go online and make the payment and they would deliver as normal.

[Spiny Norman]

5 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Read the first line and thought “who the hell calls their kid Zoostorm and don’t you know how old they are?”

It's not the daftest name I've heard for a kid.

I get that CD drives are probably seen as a bit ancient so my new-ish laptop doesn't have one but it annoyed me that there's some kind of recent update related issue in my desktop that now prevents the device being recognised as a burner while it plays and rips them. There's a limit to how many hours I'm willing to spend on Google trying to fix something when the solution is £12.99.

 

[beko1987]

24 minutes ago, SunnySouth said:

Continuing the ‘all postal/delivery services R shite’ theme from slightly earlier in these pages, an Ebay seller has sent my item sans adequate postage, resulting in a card through the door from His Majesty’s finest to tease me into settling the debt. No problem, shit happens. It’s only a couple of quid, no qualm with the Ebayer who seemed decent enough. RM, however, are unhelpful bar stewards. WTF are these opening times?!

So you can collect your item, but only during the exact hours that the entire population are busy rushing about doing the morning school run, sitting in traffic and trying to get to work. Unless it’s thursday, when the opportunity is also generously offered to collect it while everyone’s doing exactly the same thing in the evening.

Who the f’ck is collecting parcels between 8 and 10 in the bastard morning?! The answer of course is no fucker, which no doubt will provide ample excuse to close it altogether most of the week, and only open the desk between 2 and 4am on the fifth sunday of every second month…

If ever an organisation was showing all the distress signals of being on the verge of collapse, it’s RM. They give the NHS a run for its money, only without the safety net of being saintly and untouchable. RM is f’cked!

It gets worse when, as a work from home person you have at least 2 days to nip into my local little office. 

I set off, walk up there and... Read the handwritten note of the week with the 'revised hours' which usually tell me they were open the day before but not for the rest of the week bar Thursday for 45 minutes (when I'm 25 miles away) 

I fucking hate it. Luckily I've built a rapport with my postie and he leaves things behind my bush/in the back garden if he doesn't see my car in its space. Which works fine until he's on holiday/the ebay seller sent my £3.99 tat via fucking recorded signed for delivery and he has no choice 😡

[IronStar]

3 hours ago, IronStar said:

Late model madness.

Call from tame Zastava mechanic

Rear shocks are wrong. 
Aren’t they all off a mk2 Golf? 
Well, yes, except, this one has different spring mount. The spring is wider than the plate. 
Actually I’m picking up fronts as we speak. Let me pass you over to the store clerk. 
I’ll send a photo.

15 minutes of digging later

Oh yeah, those are different. Seems that some late models used rear shocks off a pickup, but different springs. 
Don’t tell me. NLA? 
Yeah, NLA. I think that they were custom for Florida, not taken off something else. 
The fuck am I supposed to do now? 
Eh…sorry man.

Tame Zastava mechanic has kindly offered to try hunting them down for me (as he took the car apart and is now blocking his shop).

Fucksake, why is it never easy?

Bilsteins have a different spring mount that can be removed, allowing the Florida’s spring mount to be mated up. It would be too easy to just slip it on though, it needs to go to machinist to re-bore the mount so it can slide on.

Oh, Bilsteins are almost 2.5x the cost of what I originally bought. Plus machinist’s cost.

Why couldn’t they leave it the fuck alone? They took most of the rear suspension off a mk2 Golf, why oh why would they do a bespoke plate? 😢

On the upside I wasn’t told to fuck off and tame mechanic can be bothered to faff with it, so small victories I guess.

[Remspoor]

Not so much as a grump but more of why do I have to deal with this?

found a snake skin in the wood pile. Every time I go to fill up the wood basket I have to be careful in case the bloody thing is still there. I hate snakes.

[somewhatfoolish]

This is why the UK is so great; there's nothing here that wants to eat or kill me, except possibly domestic cats.

[SunnySouth]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

I have had a couple like that, it wasn't the fault of the sender but RM's cockup with identifying stamps as fraudulent (they weren't).

I did collect them as the sorting office is only a couple of miles away, but there was also an option to go online and make the payment and they would deliver as normal.

Yeah, I’ve got the pay online option but I don’t know then when they’ll deliver it and whether I’ll be here! Collecting in person is ideal for me, and you’d think they’d prefer not to have to faff about putting the thing back out for delivery. But the way the form is structured makes it quite clear that they really don’t want you going to collect stuff, it’s properly ‘last resort’ as far as they’re concerned.

[myglaren]

I have also had the option to collect from a local PO of my choice.  There is one 100 yds from me.

I am a bit spoiled as the couple who live across the street are our posties for most things.  Only gets awkward when they are on holiday.  I do have a secure place for most packages and they and the Evri man know and use it.

[chadders]

39 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

This is why the UK is so great; there's nothing here that wants to eat or kill me, except possibly domestic cats.

Adders /Vipers?

[jakebullet]

Ma busy having a meltdown, so of course it's my fault.

Idiot sister has arranged for one of her "bezzie mates" to come and dewax Ma's lug holes, rather than you know choose your own professional. Big surprise, no sign of the bint 90 minutes after time, so mood = on.

Ma then fires up pressure cooker, except she's blown up the fusible plug in it and it's just jetting steam everywhere. Well why can't I fix it right now? 'Cos I can't magic spare parts out of thin air! 

[somewhatfoolish]

38 minutes ago, chadders said:

Adders /Vipers?

If you can find an adder they mostly just want to be left alone, degradation of habitat means there aren't many to find. Wikipedia tells me the last fatality in the UK was in 1975, so it must have been the fault of Harold Wilson. 

[chadders]

I seem to remember that they were quite 'common' in the Lake District living in the bracken on the fells. At least that's what the farmer told us.

[comfortablynumb]

14 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

If you can find an adder they mostly just want to be left alone, degradation of habitat means there aren't many to find. Wikipedia tells me the last fatality in the UK was in 1975, so it must have been the fault of Harold Wilson. 

Last adder I saw, I ran over 

I thought it was a piece of rope left in the road, a country lane, didn't realise it was just sunning itself and sent right over it.

Felt bad about that, poor bastard 

[myglaren]

I was bitten by one in about 1970.  Was miles from anywhere looking after my boss' cottage.  A five mile walk to the nearest 'shop', a newsagent with a few basic odds and ends at the beach.

My leg swelled up and was painful but not much to be done.  All OK 24 hours later.  A mosquito bite a couple of years later was far worse.

[DavieW]

More pissed off than grumpy, but I left my part time job on Saturday and my section leader (who I know was working) never came near me to say thank you or cheerio. 

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

Continuing the ‘all postal/delivery services R shite’ theme from slightly earlier in these pages, an Ebay seller has sent my item sans adequate postage, resulting in a card through the door from His Majesty’s finest to tease me into settling the debt. No problem, shit happens. It’s only a couple of quid, no qualm with the Ebayer who seemed decent enough. RM, however, are unhelpful bar stewards. WTF are these opening times?!

So you can collect your item, but only during the exact hours that the entire population are busy rushing about doing the morning school run, sitting in traffic and trying to get to work. Unless it’s thursday, when the opportunity is also generously offered to collect it while everyone’s doing exactly the same thing in the evening.

Who the f’ck is collecting parcels between 8 and 10 in the bastard morning?! The answer of course is no fucker, which no doubt will provide ample excuse to close it altogether most of the week, and only open the desk between 2 and 4am on the fifth sunday of every second month…

If ever an organisation was showing all the distress signals of being on the verge of collapse, it’s RM. They give the NHS a run for its money, only without the safety net of being saintly and untouchable. RM is f’cked!

As a postman, and quite local to you too I think, I think it is disgraceful. It wasn't that long ago we started opening the callers office on Sundays and late night Thursdays on top of the usual hours. Every office had its own opening times but as a big city office we had the longest hours. 

Then we had an edict from above enforcing these hours on every office in the country regardless of how busy they are. It's not our decision. I quite often see people peering through the closed callers office doors and then they see me in uniform and ask what's going on and I can't defend such a ridiculous decision, so I don't. 

Part of it is down to another new way of working where we now have to try all packets twice. If your not in one day, I have to take it out with me the next day too, which is great, just what I need. I mean, if you're at work on Monday you're probably going to be at work on Tuesday aren't you. But occasionally it works so that makes the callers office slightly less busy so the upper management think it's justifiable. There was a plan to close the callers offices completely and I think they'd love to this if they could. 

They are also leaning on us to try and leave packets without actually telling us in those exact words so I do always try to find somewhere to hide them if I can, but it is left to the postman's individual discretion and some posties are idiots. Probably no worse than anywhere else really but we have about 140 people at our office and if you take any group of 140 people a fair few of them are going to be idiots. 

It's not going to get any better either. 

[High Jetter]

Glad to see there's some degree of discretion. Our DO has similar hours, can work it in on Sat if needed.

[reb]

It is 4:36am.

I woke up with a jump half an hour ago because in my dream apparently I was jump starting an office chair with a jump pack (?) and evidently it went wrong or something. Can't get back to sleep.

Fuck it, I'll have a coffee and just get on with work. Honestly the annoying thing is mostly that I'll have to wait longer for my amazon delivery than I would have if I woke up at 8:30 like I planned.

[New POD]

9 hours ago, Yoss said:

As a postman, and quite local to you too I think, I think it is disgraceful. It wasn't that long ago we started opening the callers office on Sundays and late night Thursdays on top of the usual hours. Every office had its own opening times but as a big city office we had the longest hours. 

Then we had an edict from above enforcing these hours on every office in the country regardless of how busy they are. It's not our decision. I quite often see people peering through the closed callers office doors and then they see me in uniform and ask what's going on and I can't defend such a ridiculous decision, so I don't. 

Part of it is down to another new way of working where we now have to try all packets twice. If your not in one day, I have to take it out with me the next day too, which is great, just what I need. I mean, if you're at work on Monday you're probably going to be at work on Tuesday aren't you. But occasionally it works so that makes the callers office slightly less busy so the upper management think it's justifiable. There was a plan to close the callers offices completely and I think they'd love to this if they could. 

They are also leaning on us to try and leave packets without actually telling us in those exact words so I do always try to find somewhere to hide them if I can, but it is left to the postman's individual discretion and some posties are idiots. Probably no worse than anywhere else really but we have about 140 people at our office and if you take any group of 140 people a fair few of them are going to be idiots. 

It's not going to get any better either. 

If the average intelligence is what I have that makes half of the people more stupid than me. 

[SunnySouth]

On 14/10/2024 at 20:03, Yoss said:

As a postman, and quite local to you too I think, I think it is disgraceful. It wasn't that long ago we started opening the callers office on Sundays and late night Thursdays on top of the usual hours. Every office had its own opening times but as a big city office we had the longest hours. 

Then we had an edict from above enforcing these hours on every office in the country regardless of how busy they are. It's not our decision. I quite often see people peering through the closed callers office doors and then they see me in uniform and ask what's going on and I can't defend such a ridiculous decision, so I don't. 

Part of it is down to another new way of working where we now have to try all packets twice. If your not in one day, I have to take it out with me the next day too, which is great, just what I need. I mean, if you're at work on Monday you're probably going to be at work on Tuesday aren't you. But occasionally it works so that makes the callers office slightly less busy so the upper management think it's justifiable. There was a plan to close the callers offices completely and I think they'd love to this if they could. 

They are also leaning on us to try and leave packets without actually telling us in those exact words so I do always try to find somewhere to hide them if I can, but it is left to the postman's individual discretion and some posties are idiots. Probably no worse than anywhere else really but we have about 140 people at our office and if you take any group of 140 people a fair few of them are going to be idiots. 

It's not going to get any better either. 

Just to add balance, I did indeed venture out during the morning rush hour to collect said item, and the fella on the desk was very decent indeed, nice guy. As always, good people being led by crap management. Grrr.

[outlaw118]

After months of shouting at my PC and being denied access both at home, and at my previous employer, I've got on.

But, whilst I have a few bits to update, I'm sorry to say a long time member (more recently lurker) and my oldest mate @Autoplas passed away last Monday, after battling cancer. He was given 3 months about 4 years ago, and he fought, but it got him in the end.  He was 54, and we'd been mates since we were at school at 11. 

Still can't believe it. RIP Sean.

[Wibble]

9 minutes ago, outlaw118 said:

After months of shouting at my PC and being denied access both at home, and at my previous employer, I've got on.

But, whilst I have a few bits to update, I'm sorry to say a long time member (more recently lurker) and my oldest mate @Autoplas passed away last Monday, after battling cancer. He was given 3 months about 4 years ago, and he fought, but it got him in the end.  He was 54, and we'd been mates since we were at school at 11. 

Still can't believe it. RIP Sean.

So sorry to hear this, condolences to you and his family.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, outlaw118 said:

After months of shouting at my PC and being denied access both at home, and at my previous employer, I've got on.

But, whilst I have a few bits to update, I'm sorry to say a long time member (more recently lurker) and my oldest mate @Autoplas passed away last Monday, after battling cancer. He was given 3 months about 4 years ago, and he fought, but it got him in the end.  He was 54, and we'd been mates since we were at school at 11. 

Still can't believe it. RIP Sean.

That's no age, tragic. Autoplas...aftermarket plastic car parts, wipers, rear screen louvres etc - any connection?

[Spiny Norman]

That's shit. Even more so when it's a contemporary of a similar age, I've lost a few mates recently who were all within a few years of me.