The grumpy thread

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, DavieW said:

Facebook is full of folk celebrating St Patrick's Day - parties, drinks, seas of green t shirts etc., but not a peep from them when it's their national saints day - St Andrew. 

Yeabbut he didn't have Guinness and green hats 😀

[GagaStan]

Was servicing a friends Getz the other day and this was the state of the auxiliary belt

 

this on a car that supposedly had the cambelt down within the last year. Who the hell put that in hung back on! (Or did they even do the cambelt at all 🤨)

[Dyslexic Viking]

3 hours ago, GagaStan said:

this on a car that supposedly had the cambelt down within the last year. Who the hell put that in hung back on! (Or did they even do the cambelt at all 🤨)

I would have considered taking off the timing belt cover to check if they actually changed the timing belt as this does not give much confidence in them.

[warch]

Current irritation. Bloody fucking perpetual railway works taking place in the middle of the night. 

Now, before anyone says, well you should expect that living next to a railway line, we have lived in our house, next to the Heart of Wales Line for 12 years now. Normally you might expect one night time works party raising and cleaning out the level crossing, which fills up with soil, plus one or two checks on the electrics for the crossing gates/lights/bleepers. Because this is a sleepy single track light railway, most works could in fact reasonably be done in broad daylight, assuming they don't need to access the actual track or work near it. 

But it seems to be endless at the moment, new crossing in, new tactile edges for the platform over the road (Stihl saw all night), multiple checks on the crossing electrics. The worst is lineside clearance though which has been going on for ages. They were there at two in the morning last night trimming a small dilapidated hedge over the road from our house that runs adjacent to the roadside and about 6m back from the trackside. 

It does seem really unreasonable to be doing chainsaw work in the middle of the night (you can hear it miles away where I live) plus they were working on the exact same stretch about a month or so ago so its not as if its grown back or anything. I suspect the contractor has essentially been given an open contract to do these works and is really taking the piss/rinsing Network Rail or whoever is in charge of the line.   

[bunglebus]

Is it just me or has customer service done a complete 180 at some point? I was in a customer service role for a long time, and we had to go out of our way to ensure everyone was happy, or get a proper bollocking.

Now it seems like I'm often fighting to get large companies to acknowledge a problem, let alone actually resolve whatever's gone wrong. They just don't seem to give a fuck once they have your money. Current and recent opponents include McDonald's, Tesco mobile, eBay and Royal Mail, all massive businesses that you would hope could fix a problem easily without a fight.

Is it the rise of compensation culture, so companies think everyone's just after money for nothing? All I've asked for is the problem to be resolved, and a refund of any money lost

[Metal Guru]

3 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Is it just me or has customer service done a complete 180 at some point? I was in a customer service role for a long time, and we had to go out of our way to ensure everyone was happy, or get a proper bollocking.

Now it seems like I'm often fighting to get large companies to acknowledge a problem, let alone actually resolve whatever's gone wrong. They just don't seem to give a fuck once they have your money. Current and recent opponents include McDonald's, Tesco mobile, eBay and Royal Mail, all massive businesses that you would hope could fix a problem easily without a fight.

Is it the rise of compensation culture, so companies think everyone's just after money for nothing? All I've asked for is the problem to be resolved, and a refund of any money lost

Use ceoemail.com.  Usually gets results. 

 

[uk_senator]

20 hours ago, MikeR said:

I had heard of dvd rot some 20 years ago and some makes got hit worse than others , so a few years ago I moved all my shite onto hdds with main and backups , then a few years back I built my first servers to dump files onto ,nothing fancy , just file storage  and DLNA for streaming ,  which turned out to be quite usefull for acccess and a place for the many pc's to share work ,  2 servers at home with one being the main worker and another for bups , with a 3rd at our caravan as a extra disaster cover .  I must have a scan of my old bup dvds to see it any are affected ...

DVD rot was pushed as a thing, but in reality I`ve not seen that happen (that said, I`ve not checked all the DVD`s I recorded 10-20 years ago, I should really), thing is, these are new discs, & are seemingly pickling the surface of the disc during recording, I assume from the heat of the process? The problem as, that when digital media goes wrong, it goes completely wrong & becomes unusable, whereas with analogue, like VHS etc, it tends to slowly deteriorate, so although the quality drops off, its still usable/recoverable to some degree.

About 5 years ago, I got a 5tb external hard drive, cost a fortune at the time, & I got it to merge all my old hard drives data (dozens of drives dating back to the late 90`s) onto one unit.. It took a lot of time, dragging & dropping, but I was getting on with it slowly, then, one day I was hoovering, tapped that 5tb drive with the pipe, which was mid transfer, which immediately started graunching.. & sure enough, it had f*ked the drive.. I opened it up, to find grooves round the platters from the pickup arm. Totally f*ked basically.. Thing is, I`d been formatting the old drives as I went.. Brilliant.. Yes, I know I can recover some of it, but I just gave up at that point, & still have piles of drives that need archiving & recovering. I could do a server setup, but its the same tech at the end of the day, & is fallible. I could put it all on a cloud server, which would cost a fair bit to keep, but should be safe, in theory. 

Another problem I`ve noticed recently, is that random photo`s on my computer are inexplicably destroying themselves, as in slicing themselves in half or compressing themselves, like this (that isnt the door glass there, the computer has sliced the picture in half & lightened the bottom half, & moved it a few pixels across like that):

 

[MikeR]

3 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

DVD rot was pushed as a thing, but in reality I`ve not seen that happen (that said, I`ve not checked all the DVD`s I recorded 10-20 years ago, I should really), thing is, these are new, & are seemingly pickling the surface of the disc during recording, I assume from the heat of the process? The problem as, that when digital media goes wrong, it goes completely wrong & becomes unusable, whereas with analogue, like VHS etc, it tends to slowly deteriorate, so although the quality drops off, its still usable/recoverable to some degree.

About 5 years ago, I got a 5tb external hard drive, cost a fortune at the time, & I got it to merge all my old hard drives data (dozens of drives dating back to the late 90`s) onto one unit.. It took a lot of time, dragging & dropping, but I was getting on with it slowly, then, one day I was hoovering, tapped that 5tb drive with the pipe, which was mid transfer, which immediately started graunching.. & sure enough, it had f*ked the drive.. I opened it up, to find grooves round the platters from the pickup arm. Totally f*ked basically.. Thing is, I`d been formatting the old drives as I went.. Brilliant.. Yes, I know I can recover some of it, but I just gave up at that point, & still have piles of drives that need archiving & recovering. I could do a server setup, but its the same tech at the end of the day, & is fallible. I could put it all on a cloud server, which would cost a fair bit to keep, but should be safe, in theory. 

Another problem I`ve noticed recently, is that random photo`s on my computer are inexplicably destroying themselves, as in slicing themselves in half or compressing themselves, like this:

 

Can't say I have seen anything like that picture happening , I tend to use 3.5 inch drives for back up in the servers  , a bit more robust imho, but anything else is 2.5 inch hdd in a caddy , with a set of drives for each slice of data , IE , films , photos , docs , so if one drive flips ,I still have 3 more to fall back on .

[hairnet]

the tensile strength of malted milk is garbage

[Heidel_Kakao]

34 minutes ago, hairnet said:

the tensile strength of malted milk is garbage

Yeah they are not very dunkable.

[MikeR]

mate gets his disco back soon after it being off the road again , just one more bit of reaming out plus vat for a job on the exhaust , the two sensors needed replacing as well as the metel bits of the exhaust dpf ...

jeez !!  off the road for 5 months out of seven ..

[barefoot]

Masters of Reinvention, on the telly last night. What a pile of utter shite. A folding caravan that reduced in height by only  50cm and still had a pitched fucking roof made of tarpaulin. Condensation and rain noise anyone?

[MikeR]

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

[New POD]

18 hours ago, MikeR said:

mate gets his disco back soon after it being off the road again , just one more bit of reaming out plus vat for a job on the exhaust , the two sensors needed replacing as well as the metel bits of the exhaust dpf ...

jeez !!  off the road for 5 months out of seven ..

Is that the same mate that sold me a gasless mig welder that he'd only "used once" 

Some might say Karma is in force if it is.....🙃🤣

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, MikeR said:

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

Bank of MikeR ? Lend me a pony. 

[High Jetter]

Toothpaste. When I were a lad there were multi-coloured pastes, mainloy aimed at kids I think - Aquafresh, Colgate 123, Signal et al. When I became a grown up my teeth became sensitive and I switched to Sensodyne Gentle Whitening, a grown-up toothpaste in a proper grown-up solid-white colour.

Just opened a new tube of it to find a translucent blue gel inside.

[beko1987]

On 18/03/2025 at 11:16, uk_senator said:

DVD rot was pushed as a thing, but in reality I`ve not seen that happen (that said, I`ve not checked all the DVD`s I recorded 10-20 years ago, I should really), thing is, these are new discs, & are seemingly pickling the surface of the disc during recording, I assume from the heat of the process? The problem as, that when digital media goes wrong, it goes completely wrong & becomes unusable, whereas with analogue, like VHS etc, it tends to slowly deteriorate, so although the quality drops off, its still usable/recoverable to some degree.

About 5 years ago, I got a 5tb external hard drive, cost a fortune at the time, & I got it to merge all my old hard drives data (dozens of drives dating back to the late 90`s) onto one unit.. It took a lot of time, dragging & dropping, but I was getting on with it slowly, then, one day I was hoovering, tapped that 5tb drive with the pipe, which was mid transfer, which immediately started graunching.. & sure enough, it had f*ked the drive.. I opened it up, to find grooves round the platters from the pickup arm. Totally f*ked basically.. Thing is, I`d been formatting the old drives as I went.. Brilliant.. Yes, I know I can recover some of it, but I just gave up at that point, & still have piles of drives that need archiving & recovering. I could do a server setup, but its the same tech at the end of the day, & is fallible. I could put it all on a cloud server, which would cost a fair bit to keep, but should be safe, in theory. 

Another problem I`ve noticed recently, is that random photo`s on my computer are inexplicably destroying themselves, as in slicing themselves in half or compressing themselves, like this (that isnt the door glass there, the computer has sliced the picture in half & lightened the bottom half, & moved it a few pixels across like that):

 

I had a HTC m8 that started taking photos like that towards the end of it life 😢

The image corrupting like that just on a hard drive is worrying though... You got enough coin for a 4tb data hdd and usb adapter? Can get everything backed up onto a hopefully known good drive incase your about to suffer some random horrific hardware failure? Then keep a good copy on it that you rarely access. And don't drop the drive 👌

I've got my unraid server for my data hoarding habits, and 96% isn't backed up anywhere else but I keep a 4tb hdd in a padded hard drive box that they get shipped with and once a year do a copy/add new of all the photos of the kids and such I've taken

[myglaren]

28 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Toothpaste. When I were a lad there were multi-coloured pastes, mainloy aimed at kids I think - Aquafresh, Colgate 123, Signal et al. When I became a grown up my teeth became sensitive and I switched to Sensodyne Gentle Whitening, a grown-up toothpaste in a proper grown-up solid-white colour.

Just opened a new tube of it to find a translucent blue gel inside.

I usually just pick the nearest tubes up and I found myself using blue stuff a couple of weeks ago.

Seems to work alright.

[DavieW]

15 hours ago, barefoot said:

Masters of Reinvention, on the telly last night. What a pile of utter shite. A folding caravan that reduced in height by only  50cm and still had a pitched fucking roof made of tarpaulin. Condensation and rain noise anyone?

Professor what's her name looked easy on the eye in the trailer. 

[barefoot]

37 minutes ago, DavieW said:

Professor what's her name looked easy on the eye in the trailer. 

I'm sure she'd look absolutely enchanting with my cock in her mouth, but she knew fuck all about caravans which was sort of the point.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, MikeR said:

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

We've been bank free here for years now, other than the NatWest mobile branch which visits for a couple of hours on a Friday morning.  We do still have a post office though, and basic banking stuff can be done there.

[cobblers]

I don't think I have visited a physical bank in about ten years?

[chadders]

5 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

We've been bank free here for years now, other than the NatWest mobile branch which visits for a couple of hours on a Friday morning.  We do still have a post office though, and basic banking stuff can be done there.

We've just got a post office which means the cash machine can run out in the tourist season. The pubs and shop take cards so I don't think it's a big impact apart from the ice cream van, which might even take cards now.

[Datsuncog]

The last time I visited a physical bank was about a year ago, because I wanted to withdraw some of my cash in coin bags to use as a float for a car boot sale.

They informed me that they didn't do withdrawals in coinage or anything like that anymore. Ok, a bit niche I suppose, but really?

Another time I wanted to withdraw a somewhat larger sum from my account, because I was going to look at a car with a good chance of buying it (£1,500, so not exactly an absolute fortune).

No, I would have needed to have given them three working days' notice that I was going to withdraw such a large sum. All they would give me over the counter was the same amount as the ATM limit outside.

So, I suppose I find myself wondering what use is a bank branch if they've stopped offering any services beyond what an ATM can do?

But then, when they shut the branches they take the ATMs as well... 

[cobblers]

5 minutes ago, chadders said:

We've just got a post office which means the cash machine can run out in the tourist season. The pubs and shop take cards so I don't think it's a big impact apart from the ice cream van, which might even take cards now.

It's cheaper and easier to take cards than it is to handle cash nowadays (2% flat fee, no monthly costs, the machine costs £150 and you get paid every day). The only genuine reason a business won't take cards is that they don't want to pay tax. 

 

[chadders]

Quite a few people around here retired to be by the sea and much prefer using cash, they've always been used to it and can see exactly how much they have left. A fair few don't bank online so that there'd always be an element of doubt.

[myglaren]

39 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

The last time I visited a physical bank was about a year ago, because I wanted to withdraw some of my cash in coin bags to use as a float for a car boot sale.

They informed me that they didn't do withdrawals in coinage or anything like that anymore. Ok, a bit niche I suppose, but really?

Another time I wanted to withdraw a somewhat larger sum from my account, because I was going to look at a car with a good chance of buying it (£1,500, so not exactly an absolute fortune).

No, I would have needed to have given them three working days' notice that I was going to withdraw such a large sum. All they would give me over the counter was the same amount as the ATM limit outside.

So, I suppose I find myself wondering what use is a bank branch if they've stopped offering any services beyond what an ATM can do?

But then, when they shut the branches they take the ATMs as well... 

I called the bank when I was going to buy my Mazda 6 to be sure that the sale would go through and the amount that I could pay with my card was far in excess of the cost of the car (£3.5k)

[DavieW]

A small bungalow across from me is council owned. The tenant used to be a lovely, if slightly garden ornament obsessed, older lady. She went into care and now it seems to have been allocated to a junkie couple. 

This morning he's having a shouting match with someone on his phone. This goes on for about 5 minutes. Conversation ends with "give me your address you fuckin' moron"  

A bit later him and his girlfriend are having an almighty row while a boy about 12 is kicking a football against the house. 

I wonder how long before there's a protest to get rid of scum boy?

[nev_jr]

28 minutes ago, myglaren said:

I called the bank when I was going to buy my Mazda 6 to be sure that the sale would go through and the amount that I could pay with my card was far in excess of the cost of the car (£3.5k)

When I bought my Mercedes there was no kind of check or hiccup provided from the bank just to double check it was me... fuck

Thinking about it I can't remember the last time a transaction was queried, double fuck.

[comfortablynumb]

Took a couple of thou out of my building society over the counter about a month ago, just the usual 'why do you want it?' and 'is anyone forcing you to do this?'

Otherwise, here's your cash, sod off