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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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Picked my Saab up from the specialist complete with new balljoint (apparently the cause of the creak)... 

the grump is that when I got there the guy showed me some very worn brake pads and said that he couldn’t leave them one he’d seen how worn they are and had changed them.... now they desperately needed doing that’s no quibble .... I have a set in the garage ready... but to change them without calling me is a bit off... that was an extra £95... just before Christmas... there are times in my life when that would have been impossible. What if I couldn’t have afforded it? 

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7 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Picked my Saab up from the specialist complete with new balljoint (apparently the cause of the creak)... 

the grump is that when I got there the guy showed me some very worn brake pads and said that he couldn’t leave them one he’d seen how worn they are and had changed them.... now they desperately needed doing that’s no quibble .... I have a set in the garage ready... but to change them without calling me is a bit off... that was an extra £95... just before Christmas... there are times in my life when that would have been impossible. What if I couldn’t have afforded it? 

I'd have been livid, not difficult to make a phone call!

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Went onto town earlier. Stopped beside a space, into reverse, car behind pulled up close behind me. I started reversing, was of it wasn't what clear enough what I was doing. Car beeped, but reluctantly moved. When I got out, the cars window went down and there were two uniformed police in it. 

'Didn't you look before you reverse?' 

'Yes, you were stationary.' 

'You got that close to my bumper'

By now I'm fucking seething inside. This berk wasn't paying attention and got too close to me. 

'Why are you driving around in an untaxed car? It's not insured either'

'It's taxed and insured'

Cue conversation about who I'm insured with (I don't know) and how I pay for tax (also don't know offhand). 

'You're not helping much.' (I'm not doing anything wrong, you jobsworth bellend)

His colleague then says he'll check 'the other one', as he's doing so I check .gov website on my phone-car shows as taxed. Colleague then confirms his double checking had revealed that the car is in fact both taxed and insured. 'Some times it takes a while to update'. Fucking double check before making accusations then. 

TL:DR chinless little prick takes revenge on his school bullies by treating me like a criminal for five minutes

 

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10 hours ago, New POD said:

Apparently I'm not allowed to be be grumpy.  Not allowed an opinion either. 

It's all shite today. 

It got worse.  Just find got back from taking the cat all the way to the *nearest out of hours vet in St Helens only 35 mins in the car.  I found her in the corner of the garden, both rear legs had failed. About 10:40.  She's been put to sleep now.  Prognosis was it would be pointless trying to fix her.  17 or 18 years old.  

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I once had a similar type of wild police accusation.

Was coming home from work in the Cinquecento, inside lane of a 2 lane stretch, 25mph all the way. Flow of traffic. 4th gear. Cars, vans etc all passing me in the outside lane doing 35-40.

I get to the traffic lights, police car pulls up behind me. Cinq conks out. No power (It turned out to be a connection to the alternator i'd just changed was loose).

I get out, blocking traffic, open bonnet and the policeman behind gets out the car, i think he's away to offer me help to move it or just ask if a need assistance. He wasn't. I told him i lost electricity and it just cut out, he tells me to move it round the corner into the layby. I wiggle the terminals and get the electric back, he says to park up.

So i pull in as requested, he follows me in, then turns on his fucking blue lights (we're well off the road so it's nothing to do with safety, a total 'LOOK AT ME' move. Gets out the car and basically screams at me 'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?

I'm utterly confused at this point.... i'd just had a tiny breakdown and had got going again, I hadn't done anything wrong bar given a few people a few seconds inconvenience.

DO YOU KNOW HOW FAST YOU WERE GOING?

(Now i can see where this is going) yes- 25, behind a van, being overtaken by everyone.

No, I had to do 60 all the way along here just to catch up with you and still couldn't get near you until you'd stopped at the lights. (he'd shown zero interest in me or the car until it broke down and i'd seen him in my mirror all the way along the road about 50ft back, he was talking absolute shite, he was driving at the same speed as me).

I was doing 25. If i'd been doing more than that, what about everyone overtaking me, you saw them, you were behind me long enough..... (this was the point he really realised i had been paying attention and knew the whole line of him chasing me at 60 was horseshit and totally changed angle)

And is this car insured?

Of course.

(We go through the whole license check, address, where have you been, where are you going schtick, all came back clear and i co-operated)

This car is modified.

Yup.

Do the Insurance company know?

Yup.

Everything?

Yes.

I bet i could call Traffic down, let them go over it and they'll find something. (i notice he's totally dropped the whole thing about speed now and has shifted onto looking for insurance fraud or a car defect)

Ok, do that.

Traffic know their stuff, they aren't kind.

That's fine.  I built it. No problem. I'll wait. (He wanders off and talks on his radio for a few minutes and wanders back over)

I'm Just going to issue you a warning today. Be thankful Traffic are busy, Watch your speed and watch your attitude.

(laughing) Ok, I will if you will, Thank you.

So it went from him accusing me of doing over 50 in a 30, driving so recklessly he felt the need to initiate a chase, to insurance fraud, to an unroadworthy vehicle, to threatening Traffic to come and give my car a going over to find something, anything wrong, to being waved on my way, warned about speed (he knew full well he couldn't prove, didn't happen and cameras would back me up) and attitude (for no doubt correcting him and being willing to go through with his threat to send Traffic down) 😂

To be honest, i think he saw the car, thought it'd be an 18 year old he could bully and was surprised it was a nearly 30 year old (at the time) beardy bloke.

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2 minutes ago, New POD said:

It got worse.  Just find got back from taking the cat all the way to the *nearest out of hours vet in St Helens only 35 mins in the car.  I found her in the corner of the garden, both rear legs had failed. About 10:40.  She's been put to sleep now.  Prognosis was it would be pointless trying to fix her.  17 or 18 years old.  

Sorry to hear that.

Rest in piece.

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11 hours ago, brownnova said:

Picked my Saab up from the specialist complete with new balljoint (apparently the cause of the creak)... 

the grump is that when I got there the guy showed me some very worn brake pads and said that he couldn’t leave them one he’d seen how worn they are and had changed them.... now they desperately needed doing that’s no quibble .... I have a set in the garage ready... but to change them without calling me is a bit off... that was an extra £95... just before Christmas... there are times in my life when that would have been impossible. What if I couldn’t have afforded it? 

Its shit like that which makes me charge nothing for looking at broken vacuums for people. Amount of blatently poor people who ro k up with an inherited dyson that's got a simple fault, cakking themselves that I'll charge a fortune, asking to be informed ASAP of the cost etc

Can feel their relief when I say £30 and job done to them, I save the £100 refurbs for the people who tell me their cleaner had broken said vacuum etc... 

Unexpected £95 bill would leave me begging to mummy, and I know their sorting their finances so they can survive until they die so would feel bad about that. 

Bet when you change the pads next their a shitter brand than you had to fit... 

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7 hours ago, New POD said:

It got worse.  Just find got back from taking the cat all the way to the *nearest out of hours vet in St Helens only 35 mins in the car.  I found her in the corner of the garden, both rear legs had failed. About 10:40.  She's been put to sleep now.  Prognosis was it would be pointless trying to fix her.  17 or 18 years old.  

So sorry to hear that,you did the kindest thing 😥

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When I was 19 or so I drove a wreck of a Mk1 Ford Ka.  My parents garage joined onto a lot of rented garages and we rented one of them for my car.  Coming home at midnight-ish from college one day (I'd been running sound for an evening show) a Police car with two youngish coppers followed me for a good half mile, turned into the garages with me and then decided to block me off my parking their car directly behind my garage.  Probably presuming I was a dealer or similar and looking for an easy collar.

I got out.  'Hello Officer, is there anything I can help you with?'  Well, as anybody that has met me knows, my voice matches my posh upbringing and I don't sound like I'm from the rough end of Northfleet.  This surprised them.  'Erm.  Yes.  Erm.  Well.  Erm.  Yes.  Your light there is smashed'.  'Yes.  I know.  It's a foglight and as I'm sure you know, it's not a legal requirement.' 'Ok.  Thank you.'

And they just drove off.

I laughed like a drain for a full minute afterwards.  It was the look of disappointment on their faces when I first opened my mouth that did it.

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While I have had many stops by the police (although not this millennium) the number of times they have been a bit arsey is outweighed massively by the number of times they have said things like 'we'll put you down as doing 76' or 'OK, but get that fixed ASAP' and let me go. 

It's a tough old job, they are human, some of them are wankers, some have bad days, but most are just trying to do their job like all of us.

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It does seem to vary depending on whereabouts you are.  The closer you get to London and other major cities the more attitude the police seem to have.  I've had quite a few dealings with Norfolk Constabulary over the years, from both sides of the law, and I've almost invariably found them to be polite and professional.

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1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Unexpected £95 bill would leave me begging to mummy, and I know their sorting their finances so they can survive until they die so would feel bad about that. 

Bet when you change the pads next their a shitter brand than you had to fit... 

I'm a little surprised the garage changed them without asking, like you say £95 ( or any amount) can hurt some people. 

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Thames Valley tried to pot the black with me one night when I had my Puma, I've always been positive, they tailed me for miles running me through every system they had I expect. Then shot off when I passed them all. 

I may have shot onto the bypass legally but fast to test them, could see him screaming round the roundabout after me (made fucking sure to be under 30, then nailed it to 69 and stayed there...) 

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50 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

While I have had many stops by the police (although not this millennium) the number of times they have been a bit arsey is outweighed massively by the number of times they have said things like 'we'll put you down as doing 76' or 'OK, but get that fixed ASAP' and let me go. 

It's a tough old job, they are human, some of them are wankers, some have bad days, but most are just trying to do their job like all of us.

I've been pulled twice and the attitude test got me away easily both times (sidelight out one night, changed it infront of him and had a chat and one night in my yoof if he had been 5 minutes earlier I'd have been done for many things... Luckily I was pulled just for being in the middle of nowhere and blagged it

Having a girl in the car helped... Sadly I wish what she said ever came true. Wasted a whole year there...

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52 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

It does seem to vary depending on whereabouts you are.  The closer you get to London and other major cities the more attitude the police seem to have.  I've had quite a few dealings with Norfolk Constabulary over the years, from both sides of the law, and I've almost invariably found them to be polite and professional.

Yes that's true.  Being white and sounding middle class as I do is also a massive help I suspect.

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26 minutes ago, stephen01 said:

 like you say £95 ( or any amount) can hurt some people. 

We thought about that whilst driving for 25 miles at 11pm to the out of hours vet. 

Some people don't have a car, and a taxi would be ??  Plus ££££* for the initial consultation at midnight. Plus £££* for the (final) treatment. 

*I think the total when they invoice will be £300.  

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14 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

Yes that's true.  Being white and sounding middle class as I do is also a massive help I suspect.

Starting the conversation with "Gentlemen, how can I be of assistance?" In a home counties accent always helps. 

I once got stopped for overtaking on a bend.  I could see across the fields, the whole road for about 1/3 mile. The road is 15 foot above the field and no hedges. I never went over 50 mph in a 60. To overtake an old dear in a Micra doing 20 mph. 

I had to laugh when they suggested my overtaking them might scare them.  And they might crash. 

I take your point. But if they are that unaware of the cars around them, and clearly failing to keep up with the traffic maybe you should be looking at when they ladt had thier eyes tested. 

16 years later I think they might have had a point. 

 

Not

 

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I once got stopped due to an altercation with another motorist, ready for the inevitable bollocking or whatever, the copper searched the cars found a big bag of weed in the other car. Told me to go away pretty much, I’m assuming because he’d dropped on the other car having the drugs on board couldn’t be arsed with dealing with me. 

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10 hours ago, New POD said:

It got worse.  Just find got back from taking the cat all the way to the *nearest out of hours vet in St Helens only 35 mins in the car.  I found her in the corner of the garden, both rear legs had failed. About 10:40.  She's been put to sleep now.  Prognosis was it would be pointless trying to fix her.  17 or 18 years old.  

And Today, less than 12 hours later my sister in law was out for a walk with my mother in law and MIL collapsed.  She's back home now. But FFS. Anything else. 

Oh yes.  Great Nephew aged 1, had a series of mini seizures, in Ohio, 3 weeks ago. 

I believe Depeche Mode wrote a song that sums it up for me. 

Still at least @MikeR had the all clear from the cancer last week so not all is shit in the world. 

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Spent hours last week inputting all my accounts onto the much-lauded (and free) Wave cloud accounting system. Dead snazzy, but then I realised some of the advertised features didn't work. 

It got worse. Yesterday, all non-US and Canada customers basically got told to GTF with no notice at all....

fuckyou.thumb.png.f4e1c1b26448ea5e2f641982ba0e908d.png

Fuck you very much. The alternative (Zoho) is a year's free subscription, but the general consensus amongst Wave users is that it's shit.

Does anyone here use Brightbook ? Looks promising.

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5 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I don't understand why anyone would want their business accounts at risk in the cloud. 

Got mine on an excel spreadsheet.  One tab for each month. One tab for invoiced amounts and Vat, one tab for expenditure One tab for salaries/paye/nic, one tab for every pay slip, one tab for every invoice, one tab for every expences claim I've made. 

Then multiple Pdfs in a folder.  Folder stored on 2 laptops and an external hard drive and every document emailed from a gmail account to an outlook account (so it's also in the cloud - which is just someone else's big computer in a building in Derby (probably)

My turnover is not at a level where I'd have to do it on software, but there's a list here of approved free software.

 https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/making-tax-digital-software?_ga=2.183294446.957716299.1606970407-888914354.1576912492

 

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I have use sage for many years and I don’t find it a user friendly piece of software at all but chose it initially as it seemed almost an industry standard and accountants seemed to like it . 
Fast forward about 6 years , one wife and two book keepers later in back to doing it my self . Finally got the hang of it , books more up to date and less mistakes than ever before then the accountant drops the bombshell 

 

“ As of next year we won’t be supporting Sage customers “

 

Fuck fuck fuck 

Xero is what they recommend but I hate change for changes sake.

 

 

 

 

 

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