The grumpy thread

[Mrcento]

On 21/04/2025 at 10:40, DavieW said:

Euro Car Parts had (have?) "Every part for every car" stickers on their vans. I bet they don't. 

They don't.

And 80% of the time,  when they claim to have what you want, you order and pay, they'll just go to the warehouse and lob you A part for A car.

Want a pair of rear shock absorbers for a 2012 Ford Fiesta?, Congratulations, Here are some front brake pads for a  2001 Clio. Oh that isn't what you wanted?, Would a backbox for a 1997 Volvo V70 be of interest?, Nope?, ok well we're doing a cracking deal on Front springs for Peugeot 308's.... c'mon we're close now!

[Mrcento]

6 hours ago, myglaren said:

Found a credit card outside my house this morning.  Have asked various neighbours if they know the person and no-one does including the posties.

There is one with the correct surname but not the right forename.

Impossible to get to speak to anyone at the bank without knowing the account number (on the card) and the account holder's DOB.

Really, the only solutions (apart from posting in local FB groups for your area and trying to fish out chancers who will think there's a shot at some free contactless buys) are hand it to the police or if there's a local branch of that bank, hand it to them. But realistically, it's more hassle for everyone to do that than it would be for cardholder to just cancel the card and get the bank to issue a replacement.

[angle]

On 20/04/2025 at 07:11, Yoss said:

About an hour, ago I was sat in one of the restaurants at Heathrow. There was a lot of commotion coming from the other side of the restaurant. This then turned to screaming and started getting closer until somebody pointed at the bench seat I was sitting on and said it just went under there. What did? I asked. A mouse. Okay, well I'm not scared of a little mouse so I'll just stay where I am. 

Some staff had a little look around but fortunately soon gave up and left me to my breakfast. I realise it's not desirable to have them near the kitchen areas but poor thing is doing no harm under my seat and I'm trying to eat breakfast so leave me alone. I may have accidentally* dropped a piece of hash brown under the seat in case it was hungry. 

Of course it may have been a baby rat rather than a mouse, I didn't see it anyway, but either way why are these idiots screaming? 

About 18 months ago I had to do 15 minutes on a Teams call to various people at Heathrow, including the COO who'd dialled in from their offices. About halfway through he turned his camera off - fair enough, he's important, maybe he got a phone call he had to take or something. At the end he apologised - a mouse had run up his trouser leg and he was dancing around the office trying to shake it off...

[myglaren]

20 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

Really, the only solutions (apart from posting in local FB groups for your area and trying to fish out chancers who will think there's a shot at some free contactless buys) are hand it to the police or if there's a local branch of that bank, hand it to them. But realistically, it's more hassle for everyone to do that than it would be for cardholder to just cancel the card and get the bank to issue a replacement.

I have given up on it.  It seems that she lives close by but not in my street, she is on facebook but I am not and never will be.

She is almost certainly aware by now and will have cancelled it.

[Zelandeth]

Yep, just hand it into the bank or police.

Fact is that the moment you contacted the bank saying that you'd found the card - assuming they do the same as Santander anyway - they will have killed the card there and then anyway.  Still won't send a replacement until the cardholder asks for it, mind you!

[RoverFolkUs]

On 18/04/2025 at 21:20, RoverFolkUs said:

Delightful bloke in the Rover 600 owners group. Yes the boot spoilers are rare but the number of people wanting to buy one could probably be counted on one hand, I know I certainly don't want to pay £250 for one but he's asking strong money for a part with a tiny market without offering delivery. Now because nobody wants to drive 300 miles and pay over the odds for a part he'd prefer to destroy it in front of everyone. 

What a cunt 😂 just ask reasonable money for it or sell it to the highest offer rather than label everyone a delusional timewaster

Update on this

Knobjockey later messaged me offering it to me for £150. Reluctantly I agreed because I do want one, as a matter of principle I wouldn't want to deal with him but it's a rare part and in such cases I don't get to choose who I deal with..

He suggested wrapping it up for postage although I suggested it might be best for me to just arrange collection in person. He said he'll wait to hear from me and won't be selling it to anyone else

I posted up a shitely request and @95 quid Peugeot very kindly offered to collect and hold it for me to secure it, it's a 4 hour round trip so the flexibility would have been handy 

The seller has now decided to completely ignore me, he's been online on messenger regularly but hasn't bothered reading let alone replying to my last 3 messages sent over the past few days. 

What an utter throbbing twat

[IronStar]

I had Raiffeisen bank contact the owner of the card I found, call me back asking if it’s ok if they forwarded my phone number to card owner as he used it 5 minutes before my call on an ATM 300m away. I accepted and 15 minutes later met a 20ish years old dude looking embarrassed and grateful he doesn’t have to deal with re-issuing the card.

I found it a bit strange they didn’t kill it there and then when I reported it, but apparently they have a procedure that's taking details and trying to reunite the card and the owner. Not sure how would it stop nefarious actor from cloning it and using it 6 months down the line, but heyho.

[95 quid Peugeot]

18 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Update on this

Knobjockey later messaged me offering it to me for £150. Reluctantly I agreed because I do want one, as a matter of principle I wouldn't want to deal with him but it's a rare part and in such cases I don't get to choose who I deal with..

He suggested wrapping it up for postage although I suggested it might be best for me to just arrange collection in person. He said he'll wait to hear from me and won't be selling it to anyone else

I posted up a shitely request and @95 quid Peugeot very kindly offered to collect and hold it for me to secure it, it's a 4 hour round trip so the flexibility would have been handy 

The seller has now decided to completely ignore me, he's been online on messenger regularly but hasn't bothered reading let alone replying to my last 3 messages sent over the past few days. 

What an utter throbbing twat

Keep plugging away. I'll piss in his letterbox a couple of days after I've collected it  @RoverFolkUs

[Lacquer Peel]

2 hours ago, Mrcento said:

They don't.

And 80% of the time,  when they claim to have what you want, you order and pay, they'll just go to the warehouse and lob you A part for A car.

Want a pair of rear shock absorbers for a 2012 Ford Fiesta?, Congratulations, Here are some front brake pads for a  2001 Clio. Oh that isn't what you wanted?, Would a backbox for a 1997 Volvo V70 be of interest?, Nope?, ok well we're doing a cracking deal on Front springs for Peugeot 308's.... c'mon we're close now!

I have never had this experience of ECP. 

[myglaren]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep, just hand it into the bank or police.

Fact is that the moment you contacted the bank saying that you'd found the card - assuming they do the same as Santander anyway - they will have killed the card there and then anyway.  Still won't send a replacement until the cardholder asks for it, mind you!

If only it had been Santander, who are so easy to deal with and have a branch a mile from me.

This was Citybank and impossible to contact.

Nearest police station is an hour away on the bus  A three hour round trip.

There is one a mile away but no public access.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

10 hours ago, myglaren said:

If only it had been Santander, who are so easy to deal with and have a branch a mile from me.

This was Citybank and impossible to contact.

Nearest police station is an hour away on the bus  A three hour round trip.

There is one a mile away but no public access.

Commit a minor crime like pigeon bothering and then the Police will come to you!

Ah.  I forgot that this was 2025.  That plan won’t work.   You’ll just have to murder someone instead.

[comfortablynumb]

4 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Ah.  I forgot that this was 2025.  That plan won’t work.   You’ll just have to murder someone instead.

No need to go that far.

Just post online you don't like someone....🤦

[goosey]

Committed the ultimate faux pas by going into a customer with my shades on, also just realised I had the collars up on my Engineers overall, should have known something was up when the smokers started whistling Grease Lightning as I walked past 

[Zelandeth]

14 hours ago, myglaren said:

If only it had been Santander, who are so easy to deal with and have a branch a mile from me.

This was Citybank and impossible to contact.

Nearest police station is an hour away on the bus  A three hour round trip.

There is one a mile away but no public access.

Glad you have a functional branch at least.  Ours is an utter joke since they moved into their shiny new building.

I ended up having to ask a security guard where the fluff the actual bank was in the end.  Now bear in mind, they own the building - so there's Santander branding all over the place.

Would you have figured out this was the actual branch?

I sure couldn't, I figured it was their staff cafe!

One teller, a virtual queueing system (which doesn't work as there's bugger all mobile phone reception in the building, and if you don't have a smart phone you're stuffed), and a minimum 20 minute wait for anything.  Last time I was in there to pull more cash out than I could from an ATM I was there for well over an hour.

As soon as our current mortgage term is up we're moving banks as I cannot be arsed dealing with that nonsense.  Especially as the council have hiked the parking charges in the area so it's £2 minimum to park there as well.

If I didn't have seemingly endless problems with their online/mobile banking system it would maybe be less of an issue - but I have had endless problems with it, so it is.

[myglaren]

Ours is excellent and the staff are great.

Hadn't used it in years due to difficulties getting into the shopping centre due to people smoking in all the entrances but that has abated somewhat now and Covid helped a lot, the activated charcoal masks make things much easier.

[chadders]

Ours is very good as well, the online banking always working well and having rapid balance updates.

[Tenmil Socket]

I have one of those damp traps hanging in the boot of my car and it was pretty full.

Opened the boot at the supermarket yesterday and it had let go and covered everything with the liquid that was in it 😩

[Volksy]

20 hours ago, myglaren said:

If only it had been Santander, who are so easy to deal with and have a branch a mile from me.

This was Citybank and impossible to contact.

Nearest police station is an hour away on the bus  A three hour round trip.

There is one a mile away but no public access.

I was walking to my car on the way to work the other day. Strewn across the road were credit, debit, Costco, Library cards. All listing the same person. 

I live on a quiet narrow back street, but it's a pedestrian/cycle cut through from the bottom end of the village high street. I assumed that some poor lass had had her bag robbed from one of the bars. I gathered them up and called 101 when I got to work. Seems no crime had been reported from someone with the name on all the cards, so there was nothing they would do. They said I could hand them in at the nearest police station, but they would probably just shred them.

The lady had a distinctive Italian name, so a bit of googling and facestalking identified her as a PT at a local David Lloyd gym. I gave them a call and left my number. About an hour later she called me, they had been taken, along with other things from her car during the night. She said her toddler regularly plays with her car keys so it must have been unlocked. Although until her work called her she'd no idea they had gone missing. 

She came and retrieved them from my work later that afternoon. 

In your case, probably just best to cut the card up and bin it, as it's probably cancelled already.  

[Zelandeth]

Why oh why is consumer grade networking equipment such utter and complete trash?!?

Trying to get our fancy pants new router set up, as it comes with extenders to get a proper mesh network set up to cover the whole house rather than having three separate networks as has been the case since the dawn of time.  Of course the only way to actually pair said repeaters is via a stupid bloody app.  Which doesn't work.  WHY is there no way to set up these devices through the web UI?  Why do we have to use a fscking phone app?  It's madness.

Really wish we could just get the necessary credentials to connect to the line and let me use some of the readily and pretty cheaply available enterprise gear that actually fscking works - however I've tried to prise that information out of Vodafone five times now without any success.  I'm not inclined to shop around either as I can't actually fault the internet service itself, and it's a good price we're paying for full gigabit fibre.

I guess on the plus side I have managed to make the printer accessible from on the wired network for the first time in recorded history, so that's progress!

Lordy I miss the early days of DSL/ADSL where you just got a set of login credentials and could use any hardware you liked...

[chadders]

We have 3 extenders, on one network, which are just plug and play with our BT router, they even stretch to the summerhouse some 50 feet or so away. The additional 2 were provided free due to the size of the house.

[myglaren]

I have one and a gizmo that connects to the mobile antennae when the broadband drops out*.

Don't need the extender, signal is fine except close to the router, probably breezeblock walls combined with the proximity of the microwave and fridge/freezer.

 

*a dozen times a day, has for years.

[Markeh]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Why oh why is consumer grade networking equipment such utter and complete trash?!?

Trying to get our fancy pants new router set up, as it comes with extenders to get a proper mesh network set up to cover the whole house rather than having three separate networks as has been the case since the dawn of time.  Of course the only way to actually pair said repeaters is via a stupid bloody app.  Which doesn't work.  WHY is there no way to set up these devices through the web UI?  Why do we have to use a fscking phone app?  It's madness.

Really wish we could just get the necessary credentials to connect to the line and let me use some of the readily and pretty cheaply available enterprise gear that actually fscking works - however I've tried to prise that information out of Vodafone five times now without any success.  I'm not inclined to shop around either as I can't actually fault the internet service itself, and it's a good price we're paying for full gigabit fibre.

I guess on the plus side I have managed to make the printer accessible from on the wired network for the first time in recorded history, so that's progress!

Lordy I miss the early days of DSL/ADSL where you just got a set of login credentials and could use any hardware you liked...

Ultra Hub? Mine was a right faff to pair the repeater too! I believe it is possible without the app (something about holding down a button until it's in a pairing mode, I forget precisely how!) but I had chaos trying to get it to work - I think their idea is you pair it while it's next to the router then move as appropriate. Once I did this and after a bit of faffing I did manage to get it to pair via the app.

I will say they seem quite good when they're working, they don't seem to object to having lots of devices connected and new ones joining all the time (occupational hazard for me!) and the repeaters having onboard RJ45 has allowed me to remove Powerline adapters. Obviously no substitute for wired but did give me at least 3x faster broadband in my office compared to Powerline!

I imagine an enterprise grade setup would be far better but as far as ISP supplied kit goes it's probably the best I've ever had.

[Metal Guru]

I’m officially old! Went to the chemist with a prescription, told it would only be 5 minutes, so I said I’d wait. There are two chair for waiting, both occupied but  a teenage girl on one of them offers me her seat. 
Surprised , shocked even, I immediately declined, (I’m only about 30 in my head), before the realisation , I am actually old.

[Sunny Jim]

17 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

I am actually old.

Getting old is better than the alternative ⚰️

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Markeh said:

Ultra Hub? Mine was a right faff to pair the repeater too! I believe it is possible without the app (something about holding down a button until it's in a pairing mode, I forget precisely how!) but I had chaos trying to get it to work - I think their idea is you pair it while it's next to the router then move as appropriate. Once I did this and after a bit of faffing I did manage to get it to pair via the app.

I will say they seem quite good when they're working, they don't seem to object to having lots of devices connected and new ones joining all the time (occupational hazard for me!) and the repeaters having onboard RJ45 has allowed me to remove Powerline adapters. Obviously no substitute for wired but did give me at least 3x faster broadband in my office compared to Powerline!

I imagine an enterprise grade setup would be far better but as far as ISP supplied kit goes it's probably the best I've ever had.

The very one.  

I'd really hoped that the repeater could just run via cabled network as where I really want it doesn't have anything but the barest of signal from the main unit.  I'd had them literally sitting next to each other though and they were still refusing to pair using the WPS button and what little option is open to you via the web interface.

The app just sticks saying a firmware update is needed - and from reading online I'm far from the only one.  Going theory is that the app hasn't been updated to handle the latest firmware version they're shipping on the actual hardware, and has been an issue since before Christmas.

I'd really like to just throw some proper Cisco gear at it and then not need to look at it for the next ten years once it's set up!

[IronStar]

 

14 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

The very one.  

I'd really hoped that the repeater could just run via cabled network as where I really want it doesn't have anything but the barest of signal from the main unit.  I'd had them literally sitting next to each other though and they were still refusing to pair using the WPS button and what little option is open to you via the web interface.

The app just sticks saying a firmware update is needed - and from reading online I'm far from the only one.  Going theory is that the app hasn't been updated to handle the latest firmware version they're shipping on the actual hardware, and has been an issue since before Christmas.

I'd really like to just throw some proper Cisco gear at it and then not need to look at it for the next ten years once it's set up!

Can you just stick the Vodafone unit into the bridge mode and use it as dumb modem? Or if they don’t allow that, DMZ the address of proper gear, which is essentially the same thing, with extra steps.

I solved all my networking woes with option #2 and Mikrotik gear. 

[Zelandeth]

13 hours ago, IronStar said:

 

Can you just stick the Vodafone unit into the bridge mode and use it as dumb modem? Or if they don’t allow that, DMZ the address of proper gear, which is essentially the same thing, with extra steps.

I solved all my networking woes with option #2 and Mikrotik gear. 

The options available to you are pretty limited.  If I can't get this stupid repeater to connect properly I'll just give in, pick up some proper gear from a reputable maker, set them up and turn the wifi on the Vodafone unit off.  It's just annoying as the fact that it came with that functionality supposedly "out of the box" was one of the reasons I went through the faff of switching the contract (and that the price had dropped from when the old one was taken out). 

As it is for now I've stuck the original wifi access point back at the north end of the house so normal service has been resumed - it just means there are two networks again, one at each end of the house, which really isn't the end of the world.  My phone is the most annoying device as it seems to be exceptionally reluctant to ever actually switch from one to the other irrespective of signal strength unless I do it manually.  Majority of other things never move so it's really not an issue.

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

The options available to you are pretty limited.  If I can't get this stupid repeater to connect properly I'll just give in, pick up some proper gear from a reputable maker, set them up and turn the wifi on the Vodafone unit off.  It's just annoying as the fact that it came with that functionality supposedly "out of the box" was one of the reasons I went through the faff of switching the contract (and that the price had dropped from when the old one was taken out). 

As it is for now I've stuck the original wifi access point back at the north end of the house so normal service has been resumed - it just means there are two networks again, one at each end of the house, which really isn't the end of the world.  My phone is the most annoying device as it seems to be exceptionally reluctant to ever actually switch from one to the other irrespective of signal strength unless I do it manually.  Majority of other things never move so it's really not an issue.

Do you have ethernet to the other access point? If you do, why not set that one as passthrough, and get Vodafone unit to run DHCP? Just name WiFi network the same, and it should* work right and roam automatically. 

[95 quid Peugeot]

On 22/04/2025 at 20:29, 95 quid Peugeot said:

Keep plugging away. I'll piss in his letterbox a couple of days after I've collected it  @RoverFolkUs

@RoverFolkUs  have you had anymore interaction with the chump yet

[RoverFolkUs]

31 minutes ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

@RoverFolkUs  have you had anymore interaction with the chump yet

Nothing at all, not sure what else I can do if the pillock won't read the messages 🤷‍♂️