The grumpy thread

[dave21478]

The decline of Halfords is sad but inevitable. Since so few people do their own maintenance these days the actual demand for parts must be relatively low and they cant afford to devote retail shelf space to stuff that moves slowly and has low margins, instead giving it over to pink seatbelt pads, air fresheners, cheap camping equipment and stereos which apparently works for them. If you want parts they can order them from a local factors and usually have it within the hour (assuming the factors is open - not many work as long hours as Halfords do).

The high costs of their retail park locations means that the choice would have been to do this or go bust. Given the rise of various internet sellers, ebay shops, ECP and the like, I am surprised Halfords still manage to chugg along - literally everything they sell can be bought a lot cheaper online. I know they are part of a bigger retail group, but if I had money to invest in company shares, it sure as fuck wouldnt be Halfords.

 

I worked there for five or six years in my youth, just as they bought over the Ripspeed name and bastardised it from a fairly respected tuning company to peddler of Fox alloys and Peco back boxes. That was the start of the decline, with reduced ranges of all parts, getting rid of the under-counter racking full of manifold studs, brake fittings and the like, reducing the range of paints and increasing the range of stereos.

[fordperv]

I wasn't quite undressing-myself-in-the-street desperate. It threw the belt just before 6 so I knew I had time to hot-step home, grab a car and go to Halfords.

It was more that I had (stupidly) presumed that Halfords was a sure thing in my hour of need. I should've maybe stuck this sordid tale in the grin thread as their ineptitude has introduced me to a smashing old motorfactors operating out of a converted terrace house that appears at first glance to be cheap. Need oil and filter for the old bus so I'll pop in and investigate.

I love old motorfactors, the one I use is open till 7 and is great, they are usually within a few quid of eBay prices, but I don't mind paying a bit more as they know me and have always tried their best to get me the obscure stuff I need.

[Inspector Morose]

Well that's just great. Not ten minutes after posting the final pics onto my trip to Gaydon thread the hard drive on the computer fails terminally. Checked through and it's the drive alright. Guess where all my pics and films are?

 

Maybe the gods are telling me to go solid state with an external backup.

[mercrocker]

Maybe the gods are telling me to go find an old Olympus Trip 35

 

 

Seriously, I feel your pain FPB and its the reason I no longer even try with digitalickery. The ones you posted on here are safe here though? Can you still save them back from your posting?

[Inspector Morose]

Hopefully I can get into the old drive and recover the photos on there - about 100 gigs worth. Films and whatnot? Meh, not that bothered really. It's just a major pain in the arse though as I was going to do something other than fixing computers on my last day off for over a month!

 

Must get an external storage system and back up to there. And another hard drive to run the operating system. And an enclosure so I can get the stuff off the old drive etc etc etc.

[Alan_Green]

Assuming you haven't dropped it and caused mechanical damage take the hard drive out. Slot it in a "hard drive reader", Run a free program called "Recuva".  You should get everything back. 

[gm]

I went mountain biking yesterday - not much of a grump, I fact I really enjoyed myself - the grump is that I leaned the bike against the honda while I opened the boot and the wind caught the bike and scraped the handlebars right along the side of the car

 

further grumpiness occurred when I stopped at the bank machine for some cash and the damn thing crashed on me, stealing my card. Now I have to wait for a week for a new one to be issued

[purplebargeken]

I only go into Halfords to perv at one particularly gorgeous lady sales asst. No other reason required. 

[dollywobbler]

If my alternator belt went I'd cut the elastic off the top of my boxers to get me emergency motoring again

 

When my BX Mk1 seized its alternator, I simply cut the belt off and drove home. Sorted. I love simple cars.

[scaryoldcortina]

Phone still won't receive calls! EE blame unicom, unicom says it's EE's problem. Here I am, stuck in the middle.....

[mk1_4dr]

Phone still won't receive calls! EE blame unicom, unicom says it's EE's problem. Here I am, stuck in the middle.....

 

Ombudsman time?

[EssDeeWon]

Phone still won't receive calls! EE blame unicom, unicom says it's EE's problem. Here I am, stuck in the middle.....

 

Refuse to pay the bill, I bet like a miracle EE will start getting their arse in gear.

 

Amazing how this works with large business's and organisations.

[beko1987]

Refuse to pay the bill, I bet like a miracle EE will fuck you hard up the arse.

 

Amazing how this works with large business's and organisations.

Efa...

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah.

 

 

I think I'll be visiting the shop that sold me the contract and applied the PAC code and not leaving until they fix it.

[EssDeeWon]

Yeah.

 

 

I think I'll be visiting the shop that sold me the contract and applied the PAC code and not leaving until they fix it.

 

Its not fit for purpose so you are actually entitled to a refund.

 

Plenty of other phone shops / providers out there.

[scaryoldcortina]

True enough, and all within walking distance of the EE shop because Metrocentre.

 

What I'm most bothered about is that the lost/broken number is my main one that everyone has. I've been using it since 1998, you can even find it on google streetview if you know where to look.

 

 

Minor grin though, no one has rung asking about the car accident I had while using my ppi refund to buy solar panels since last wednesday.

[hairnet]

no ebay cockfluffer i wont tell you the reserve - THATS WHY ITS FKIN THERE

 

and also you have a field with two thousand characters

 

learn to spell and not talk in text speak = knuckledragger

 

they also cant read as it says no whats ur best pryce m8 mesages in the listing

 

'ive got 900 cash wud that buy it'

 

no its an auction not an advert

 

*losing the will to live*

 

least ive had a few sane kweschuns

[fordperv]

Couriers take the piss, i was at work today came in this evening to find this card

 

 

It was chucked on the floor by my front door which is set back from the wall, i don't have a porch, guess what no actual parcel though, dicks! I'm going to have to see what doesn't turn up this week and go from there as I've tried entering the card number and my postcode on their website and no info is there.

[Timewaster]

Is there an abandoned 924 in the street?

[anonymous user]

Do you have a neighbour with a porch, or a neighbour called Porch, or P. Orch?

[fordperv]

My neighbors don't have porches either and no names close.

 

I wish there was an abandoned 924 I'd be on it like a £5 whore

[Rusty_Rocket]

Re the parcel delivery- there's a lady round here that does deliveries in her own car, I assume for one of the budget shitehawk delivery services.  I often see her motor crammed absolutely full of parcels, literally to the roof.

What annoys me most, is the fact that she'll dump said parcels on any poor unsuspecting individual who'll open their door to her.  I simply love being woken by that after a night shift, for a neighbour I don't know, ten doors down.

 

I suspect she may also have been the person who left a parcel for me, IN the bottom of our wheelie bin; I had to tip the whole thing up to get it- no note left either- I found it when I was putting the rubbish out!!!! 

[mercrocker]

Wait until they privatise the Royal Mail it will all be like this then......

[Richard]

A friend of mine did parcel deliveries for a while, he managed to get a suit through a letterbox once. He didn't do it for long.

[jakebullet]

I'm having hilarious* fun with hermes at the min.

 

Got a where is it? Monday night. Checked tracking and it's not moved since Saturday.

Oi hermes, where's mi parcel? They assure me it will be delivered by 8pm Tuesday.... time no doubt chosen that they'll have buggered off home.

 

Message this morning, still not arrived. Checked tracking, delivered to secure location Monday noon. Hmmm. Oi hermes, which wheelie bin did you put it in? Oh it's not been delivered, we just put that on the tracking for a laugh. It's in our depot, honest. How about delivering it then? We'll think about it...

 

Saga continues tomorrow.

 

TL:DR Hermes are shit.

[jakebullet]

Oh, and a top tip of the day: If you're wearing gloves to avoid super gluing your fingers together, and your eye starts itching, there's something you should do before you itch it.

 

Fortunately the fumes made my eye run like a bastard and I stopped half an inch away from disaster.

[Pillock]

I used to do deliveries for Next amongst others. It was an arseache if you had to carry parcels over because nobody in, I can see why they dump them up trees and under patios.

[Timewaster]

Right round the back of our house is a plastic dustbin used to store kindling.

I happened to find some old bits of wood in the garage the other week.

I thought I'd sling then in the kindling bin. Inside was a parcel that had been there since April!

 

As it happens, the Mrs had already complained that it hadn't arrived and received a refund.

[maxpower]

Windows 10............ what an utter bag of shite!!!

[jakebullet]

Not any more he isn't

 

http://youtu.be/9UCoul5SRzA