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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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10 hours ago, Markeh said:

Center Parcs has definitely gone downhill over the past 10 years. I believe they got bought by another company and cost cutting started big time.

My mother worked as a villa cleaner in the late 2000s at Sherwood. The perks were pretty decent back then, she could take people in for day visits to the facilities like the pool and spa, we could book unused chalets with a week or two's notice for something crazy like £50, any household stuff that was left behind could be kept - in 5 years we never had to buy toilet roll, washing up liquid or dishwasher tablets. Anything alcoholic or decent had to be handed in but if not claimed in x amount of time could be had. Big hampers of stuff at Christmas, invites in for events like fireworks shows and that sort of thing - Nothing like that now, I'm led to believe!

I stayed at the Woburn one which is reasonably new just before covid kicked off - it was nice, probably because it was still new, and they did bend over backwards to help two people with mobility issues in our party, but £600 for a 2 bed "executive" for a weekend in January seemed steep! The maths only works out if you're going off-peak with a group of adults and are splitting the cost I would say. It's mad the amount of local people who go there for a holiday as well - I don't understand how you can go on holiday somewhere that's a 15 minute drive from your house. For the money, I'd rather go abroad.

 

10 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

It was cheaper for us to book a lakehouse down towards Windermere than what it is for Centre Parcs, mind you that was nearly 14 years ago. Cala Gran Haven nr. Blackpool wasn't bad for us, it's a holiday, and that's all it needs to be. The prices weren't too bad there the last time I checked. 

Crazy thing about Centre Parcs Whinfell, is that it’s 10 miles from the Lake District but 90%+ never leave the site once there. 

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11 hours ago, MikeR said:

the phone gps is wank around Stoke on Trent ,

seems my car likes to block the signal with its heated screen , and this phone just struggles at times .....in Stoke on Trent !!

nothing worse than seeing the sat nav losing its arse , in a area you dont know , in the dark ........

must try a new position for it or change the car .

Is it just me that can't help but hear the Homes Under The Hammer theme tune whenever I hear somebody say Stoke on Trent? Mrs Yoss started doing it, now it's a Pavlovian reaction. I know they go to other places but at least once in every program they seem to be in the Stoke/Derby area. Usually with Dion Dublin, he must live local. 

This post does not apply to anyone reading it in Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand etc... 

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Is 5 days without a working car now. Have talked to them and the coil has been ordered, so I hope it comes and is replaced quickly. I hate this not being in control of something, and not having a working car and most of all I hate phone calls. So this is a sign that I need more cars or a car transporter or both.

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I’ve stopped in the £25 type B&Bs before in Blackpool and they were grim, gloss paint over anaglypta and the fire doors propped open.

Center Parcs, we used to go regularly in the week when it was cheap but last time we went we found a pair of shitty knickers under sister in laws mattress (they weren’t hers by the way...). The reception didn’t seem fazed by this. 

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I am really, really getting the pip with local garages. 

Garage 1 - BMW specialist, been using them for 10-20 years, he's now winding down for retirement, now they don't want to touch diesels. I've had a small electrical fault (parking sensor), nothing to do with engine... "no mate, sorry".  Last job he did he left an oily black bootprint on the cream-colour luggage cover "was there when you dropped it off", bollocks was it. 

Garage 2 - BMW specialist. Started using them after the bother above. Generally OK but took them 3 goes to fit discs for some reason, I had to keep taking it back, last time they finally got it right they gave the car a courtesy wash and left some weird stain on the paintwork where some cleaning agent dripped. I'm not too fussy as it's a workhorse, but c'mon. 

Garage 3 - BMW main dealer. I had a new BMW given to me (don't ask)... it was supposed to be full of fuel but wasn't, that cost me a few quid to fill and they gave my car a valet as an apology (not needed, but thanks anyway), they managed to pressure wash lacquer off (size of a beermat) off the plastic rear bumper. Again, it's not some garage queen, but it pissed me off. 

Garage 4 -  The village garage - Fiat needs a clutch slave fitting... "engine and gearbox out job mate"... is it bollocks. They've had it a week and the car hasn't moved. Just be honest! I am particularly narked at this as I occasionally drop off goodies for them as a thank you for other (paid) jobs. 

Garage 5 - VW specialist, GF has been taking her car there with an intermittent flat spot when cold. They've just been fitting parts and hoping it works. It never does. I went and gave them an earful for not attempting to diagnose it, and just charging her megabucks for parts it probably doesn't need - "not our fault mate, there's no codes on the code reader, what can we do?"... I fucked them off for that lazy nonsense. 

Garage 6 - welding place, went bust, lovely guy but clueless what to charge. I always tipped him. Made no difference it seems.

 

All I want to do is have a local place than can diagnose instead of bullshitting and then fitting parts and guessing, I don't much care what it costs as long as they're honest. I'm doing more work on the cars at home when time allows, but why can't I find somewhere to take my money and do a proper job? :(

 

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First one sounds like most Village garages, I’m sure there’s some bloody good ones but a lot are out of times. A BMW specialist that doesn’t deal with diesels really ought to pack up, 60% of the cars they’ve sold in last 25 years will have been diesels. The village garage down road is one of these set ups that really only wants to do brake pads on old ladies cars.

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15 hours ago, MikeR said:

the phone gps is wank around Stoke on Trent ,

seems my car likes to block the signal with its heated screen , and this phone just struggles at times .....in Stoke on Trent !!

nothing worse than seeing the sat nav losing its arse , in a area you dont know , in the dark ........

must try a new position for it or change the car .

It's not like your route home needed a sat nav.  A50 West. A500 (EITHER WAY left or Right) M6 North, M62 west, M57 North. 

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7 hours ago, Yoss said:

Is it just me that can't help but hear the Homes Under The Hammer theme tune whenever I hear somebody say Stoke on Trent? Mrs Yoss started doing it, now it's a Pavlovian reaction. I know they go to other places but at least once in every program they seem to be in the Stoke/Derby area. Usually with Dion Dublin, he must live local. 

This post does not apply to anyone reading it in Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand etc... 

Good, I live in Spain, so it applies to me? BTW The Dutch get BBC TV via the cable service so they could know all about HUTH.

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YouTube with vids on reactions to something like food, watching a film, listen to music. As if these people have never seen or heard the subject before. Do they not use the internet?

Oh and car valeting vids too. All that work, take it outside and........

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4 hours ago, motorpunk said:

I am really, really getting the pip with local garages. 

Garage 1 - BMW specialist, been using them for 10-20 years, he's now winding down for retirement, now they don't want to touch diesels. I've had a small electrical fault (parking sensor), nothing to do with engine... "no mate, sorry".  Last job he did he left an oily black bootprint on the cream-colour luggage cover "was there when you dropped it off", bollocks was it. 

Garage 2 - BMW specialist. Started using them after the bother above. Generally OK but took them 3 goes to fit discs for some reason, I had to keep taking it back, last time they finally got it right they gave the car a courtesy wash and left some weird stain on the paintwork where some cleaning agent dripped. I'm not too fussy as it's a workhorse, but c'mon. 

Garage 3 - BMW main dealer. I had a new BMW given to me (don't ask)... it was supposed to be full of fuel but wasn't, that cost me a few quid to fill and they gave my car a valet as an apology (not needed, but thanks anyway), they managed to pressure wash lacquer off (size of a beermat) off the plastic rear bumper. Again, it's not some garage queen, but it pissed me off. 

Garage 4 -  The village garage - Fiat needs a clutch slave fitting... "engine and gearbox out job mate"... is it bollocks. They've had it a week and the car hasn't moved. Just be honest! I am particularly narked at this as I occasionally drop off goodies for them as a thank you for other (paid) jobs. 

Garage 5 - VW specialist, GF has been taking her car there with an intermittent flat spot when cold. They've just been fitting parts and hoping it works. It never does. I went and gave them an earful for not attempting to diagnose it, and just charging her megabucks for parts it probably doesn't need - "not our fault mate, there's no codes on the code reader, what can we do?"... I fucked them off for that lazy nonsense. 

Garage 6 - welding place, went bust, lovely guy but clueless what to charge. I always tipped him. Made no difference it seems.

 

All I want to do is have a local place than can diagnose instead of bullshitting and then fitting parts and guessing, I don't much care what it costs as long as they're honest. I'm doing more work on the cars at home when time allows, but why can't I find somewhere to take my money and do a proper job? :(

 

Some of it is cant be arsed.

I think the rest of it is a lack of the requisite skills. There has been a brain drain from the motor trade.

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1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

Oh and car valeting vids too. All that work, take it outside and........

I like Autoshine Cars on YT - he cleans cars that are so fucking filthy you can barely see any of the interior or work out what colour they are supposed to be, and it's oddly satisfying to watch.

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Getting my Moto G30 to play music.

The old Huawei Y33 was simple enough but a) it loses the SD card after a while, can be five minutes or ten hours, seems to depend upon which amplifier it is being played through, or headphones.

It doesn't work at all with the harmon/kardon amp - no sound and it even turns it off.  How it manages that on a seventies amp is beyond me.

It is only used as an MP3 device.

Just dragged some music onto the G30 and it has taken about an hour to get it to pay for more than thirty seconds.

Haven't a clue how I did it and will probably never manage it again.

And this is probably in the wrong thread too :(

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So, turns out the fan heater I use for drying my washing indoors has developed a fault. Unfortunately the first symptom of faultiness was giving me a fucking electric shock big enough to set off the trip switch and knock me onto my arse. Got a hell of an arm/shoulder ache now. Just glad the trip switch kicked in TBH.

Aforementioned fan heater is now set to go in the bin, with the plug cut off and "DEFECTIVE" in sharpie on the front, so nobody "rescues" it from the bin and takes it home. I think I'll get one with a plastic outer casing next time...

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On 1/10/2022 at 5:53 PM, Pieman said:

I like cleaning cars that are so fucking filthy you can barely see any of the interior or work out what colour they are supposed to be, and it's oddly satisfying to watch.

EDIT ; I might of slightly misquoted Pieman  but ...

Come on down , all mine need washing, cutting back ,polishing ,waxing , m.o.ting ... I draw the line at a damp sponge every few years whether they need it or not . Mug of tea and biscuits supplied 👍🏿

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19 hours ago, motorpunk said:

I am really, really getting the pip with local garages. 

Same here since my last garage man retired. Used him for twenty years and he'd usually drop everything to get my van back on the road. Cheap as fuck but it was family ran and I'd take them cakes and stuff in. Gutted when he packed in three years ago.

It's been a fucking minefield since. Totally shit service and a Can't be arsed attitude backed up with fucking lies. I got one to do the belts and water pump on my last saab for £450. Went to pick it up with all the fans running flat out. It sounded like a fucking jet fighter. Complained to the manager who brought the mechanic out. It was already doing than when you dropped it off. Bare faced lied to my face and called me a  fucking liar. I demanded he inspected it and found he hadn't plugged a temperature sensor in. No apologies or fuck all. Fucking wankers.

I found a decent one about a year ago and I've struck up a matey rapport with him. He's been sorting my stuff out and returning it quickly including fitting a new carb to my sons 1986 honda vision. I don't mind paying the price I just want honesty and service.

The problem is they're all so busy they don't give a fuck if they upset you and you don't go back. I've been in business 19 years come the 25th of this months and my work is 99.999% repeat business. It's very rare I work for a new customer. It's all about the customer service. Most customers don't even ask for a quote they just trust I'll do the job and not rip them off.

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16 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

Mate just sent me the 2022/2023 VED rates.

Not good reading...

 

IMG-20220110-WA0004.jpg

First year rates. The surcharge ones will only be the first year price and then drop over the next five years until the car reaches a lower rate where it remains for the rest of its life.

 

Basically on new cars that are expensive or produce higher amounts of CO2, tax is higher in the first five years. After that, it's lower.

 

 

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11 hours ago, Soundwave said:

So, turns out the fan heater I use for drying my washing indoors has developed a fault. Unfortunately the first symptom of faultiness was giving me a fucking electric shock big enough to set off the trip switch and knock me onto my arse. Got a hell of an arm/shoulder ache now. Just glad the trip switch kicked in TBH.

Aforementioned fan heater is now set to go in the bin, with the plug cut off and "DEFECTIVE" in sharpie on the front, so nobody "rescues" it from the bin and takes it home. I think I'll get one with a plastic outer casing next time...

That doesn't sound either good or correct. I thought the trip should work fast enough so you didn't notice any shock. Where are our electricians?

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14 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

HOW EFFING MUCH?! I'm 144g/km and was £170. 😬

Edit: Oh wait.

Update - some of us will be a tenner lighter, like myself.

1567921294_Screenshot2022-01-10220356.thumb.jpg.857175e95797200dc7ac4e34d416f0df.jpg

Can’t believe I’m the first one to ask this, but what about pre 2001 car tax? I can’t find anything on it at all.

Not interested in these newfangled cars.

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11 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Can’t believe I’m the first one to ask this, but what about pre 2001 car tax? I can’t find anything on it at all.

Off the Gov webpage...

image.png.d7ea1d595c85fa95b4e646267b51ade0.png

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2021-overview-of-tax-legislation-and-rates-ootlar/annex-a-rates-and-allowances#indirect-tax

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3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Thanks.

Glad to be of service.

3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Robbing bastards!

Agreed. They're trying to rob us of our shite, the absolute bas- what do you mean this isn't the place to get political?!

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Does anyone else get nagged to death over running a banger. Had a bit of agg yesterday with our car, not the end of the world (I hope...) but it was incapacitated by a coolant leak, bit of a fucker but hopefully £120 of bits and it should be back on the road. Anyhow the comment of ‘simply get a new car on lease’ always comes round. It fucks me off for a variety of reasons that people assume I’ve got a spare £200 a month to rent a car with or like the idea the car I’ve got is within my budget and if I was out of work then I’d be owing to nobody. 

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