The grumpy thread

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, chodweaver said:

19 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Wait, what? When did that happen? Though you married the monty.

They eloped, but it didn't make it to Gretna Green

Ah yes, forgot he swopped it for some old tat.

[mitsisigma01]

11 hours ago, reb said:

The DWP are cunts.

That is all.

Once you breakdown their barrier of bullshit and blocking and you manage to work out what you're entitled to their ok ..... Not for me but for my elderly neighbour, last month she got over 2k ....

[PhilA]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I still don't trust wire nuts for all they're everywhere in the US!

I have had fewer problems with wire nuts when they're used properly than with chocolate block type screw fittings.

[Remspoor]

Windows 7. Yes I like my PCs like my cars, old but trustworthy.

My grump? A few weeks ago I got a message saying that This Copy of Windows is not Genuine. I thought WTF I have not changed anything. Wife accused me of visiting doggy website or something. Then the other day my wife got the same message. Found a solution using CMD.

Yesterday talking to our friend who runs a local IT shops  knew all about this. It seems Windoze wants everyone to change. I am not willing too change anything until it is really broken.

[Spurious]

Just now, Remspoor said:

Windows 7. Yes I like my PCs like my cars, old but trustworthy.

For what it's worth, Windows 10 is fine for day to day use and that was coming from a big fan of 7.

It's pretty mature now, you could customise it so it looks like 7 if you like. 

Only real gripe with many of the OSs since XP, is that a lot of the really usefu settings and tweaks are buried in menus/pages that are hard to find and haven't changed since Windows NT/2000. That gripe applies to 7 also. 

Otherwise, it's a stable, useful OS. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Spurious said:

For what it's worth, Windows 10 is fine for day to day use and that was coming from a big fan of 7.

It's pretty mature now, you could customise it so it looks like 7 if you like. 

Only real gripe with many of the OSs since XP, is that a lot of the really usefu settings and tweaks are buried in menus/pages that are hard to find and haven't changed since Windows NT/2000. That gripe applies to 7 also. 

Otherwise, it's a stable, useful OS. 

Took me ages to change to Windows 10 from 7. I still do prefer 7, but 10 is okay now and does the job. My main laptop is on 11 and is running fine* as well, but I really don't like it as an OS.

[Remspoor]

Just now, Spurious said:

For what it's worth, Windows 10 is fine for day to day use and that was coming from a big fan of 7.

It's pretty mature now, you could customise it so it looks like 7 if you like. 

Only real gripe with many of the OSs since XP, is that a lot of the really usefu settings and tweaks are buried in menus/pages that are hard to find and haven't changed since Windows NT/2000. That gripe applies to 7 also. 

Otherwise, it's a stable, useful OS. 

Some of our  hardware is not up to running 10. Plus we may have to upgrade other software too. The wife has a new Dell laptop with 10 on it. 

[Mally]

  A few weeks ago.   Spain won't let me in because un vax.  Fair do's.

Then they say, Open house, anyone in, free for all.   So I book and pay to go the following week. 8 hours later, Spain 'sorry mistake not allowed in'.

Cancelled holiday, almost lost money, but Travel Agent D in L saved me.

Next review due 15 May, according to experts* expected to be allowed in. On Spain's review  ban extended until 15 June.

Sod Spain, I book Bulgaria, no test needed free for all.

Today 21 May, Spain, You can come now from today, with a test,

It's only 6 bleedin days since you extended the ban for  30 more days.

On the bright side. I'm going on holiday!

[Remspoor]

19 hours ago, Mally said:

  A few weeks ago.   Spain won't let me in because un vax.  Fair do's.

Then they say, Open house, anyone in, free for all.   So I book and pay to go the following week. 8 hours later, Spain 'sorry mistake not allowed in'.

Cancelled holiday, almost lost money, but Travel Agent D in L saved me.

Next review due 15 May, according to experts* expected to be allowed in. On Spain's review  ban extended until 15 June.

Sod Spain, I book Bulgaria, no test needed free for all.

Today 21 May, Spain, You can come now from today, with a test,

It's only 6 bleedin days since you extended the ban for  30 more days.

On the bright side. I'm going on holiday!

To be honest they only have bowed to monetary pressure. Masks are worn on public transport and in all buildings related to health issues. Including the pharmacy.

Some shops still insist that their staff wear masks, even when behind a till screen. The Spaniards are so indoctrinated that they wear their masks when alone in their cars.

Walk around the shops and you can still her the warnings about keeping your distance. Hand Gels are still available at shop entrances. And these are used.

[Jazoli]

2 hours ago, Remspoor said:

To be honest they only have bowed to monetary pressure. Masks are worn on public transport and in all buildings related to health issues. Including the pharmacy.

Some shops still insist that their staff wear masks, even when behind a till screen. The Spaniards are so indoctrinated that they wear their masks when alone in their cars.

Walk around the shops and you can still her the warnings about keeping your distance. Hand Gels are still available at shop entrances. And these are used.

No different to a lot of England still then, went to collect something from Domino's pizza the other night and it was strange to see every single member of staff behind the counter wearing a mask, see plenty of morons driving round with masks on in their cars too. 

[Mally]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

To be honest they only have bowed to monetary pressure. Masks are worn on public transport and in all buildings related to health issues. Including the pharmacy.

Some shops still insist that their staff wear masks, even when behind a till screen. The Spaniards are so indoctrinated that they wear their masks when alone in their cars.

Walk around the shops and you can still her the warnings about keeping your distance. Hand Gels are still available at shop entrances. And these are used.

Yes I'm aware.  I've travelled to Spain 6 times during Covid,

Providing it wasn't illegal I was on Ryanair. Only 6 people on one flight,

I've had Curfew in Fuengirola, Restaurants closed at 7.

Walked the length of Calle Gerona in Benidorm in pitch blackness.

Been refused admission to my paid for meals in the Hotel because they changed the rules, unvax not now allowed in Restaurants.

I'm very old, I haven't got time to spare. So I carry on, Shit or bust.

Spain still require a test, think Portugal do as well.

Absolutely pointless, there are many ways of producing a negative test, or positive even, although I wouldn't do it myself. many do.

They let 150 vax people on a plane without a Covid  test, and 50 unvax people with a test. Defeats my logic that one.

[Timewaster]

Fucking incompetent main dealers.

The Aircon on my daily driver Mitsubishi Outlander failed last October so I booked it into the dealer as it was under warranty.

(See today's courtesy car thread in the modern section).

They told me a tale about needing a valve and it would have to come back to have one fitted, which they did.

The Aircon worked for about a month, by which time it was well into winter so I didn't worry about it until the next service.

At the service they charged me £200(!) to regas the system and that wasn't covered.

Rather miffed, I paid up.

Two weeks later it failed again and was booked back in.

On collection they tried to charge me another £200 which lead to a discussion with the service manager who waived the charge.

Two weeks later it failed again and they said they wanted the car for a week to take the dash out to fully investigate.

I rearranged my work to fit around a car with it all my stuff in it, filled the loan car up with fuel. After one day they said something about a seal and it was ready, I picked it up the next day.

The fix lasted for..... Two weeks.

They had it in again for what was now the sixth time.

The new to the job service adviser rang me to say they couldn't fix it as"they didn't have the technology to find the issue" and it would have to go to an aircon specialist. WTF?

I asked how that would work with the warranty and was told, err I'm not sure.

Also, in all this time the car is now out of warranty.

So basically they have washed their hands of the job and left me to find my own solution.

I called another Mitsubishi dealer and they said that their only Mitsubishi trained mechanic had left.

I called a local mobile aircon specialist who came out and looked at it and said there was no dye in the system, so how have they been looking for a leak? He said he suspects the condenser is the issue and will come back and check for leaks with a UV light in a weeks time. He charged £125.

He also said the dash out story was mad as that would be the exchanger and he has only had 3 fail in 20 years but condensers once a week.

This was a multi franchise Renault,  Dacia, MG, Isuzu dealer and Mitsubishi service centre.

Fortunately they never charged me for any of this warranty work apart from the regas but what a bloody waste of time this has been. I have to take half a day off work every time.

I have yet to get a response to my complaint.

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

They don't give a shit as Mitsubishi are doing a runner from the UK so will want to Palm off owners as much as possible.

[artdjones]

12 hours ago, Timewaster said:

Fucking incompetent main dealers.

The Aircon on my daily driver Mitsubishi Outlander failed last October so I booked it into the dealer as it was under warranty.

(See today's courtesy car thread in the modern section).

They told me a tale about needing a valve and it would have to come back to have one fitted, which they did.

The Aircon worked for about a month, by which time it was well into winter so I didn't worry about it until the next service.

At the service they charged me £200(!) to regas the system and that wasn't covered.

Rather miffed, I paid up.

Two weeks later it failed again and was booked back in.

On collection they tried to charge me another £200 which lead to a discussion with the service manager who waived the charge.

Two weeks later it failed again and they said they wanted the car for a week to take the dash out to fully investigate.

I rearranged my work to fit around a car with it all my stuff in it, filled the loan car up with fuel. After one day they said something about a seal and it was ready, I picked it up the next day.

The fix lasted for..... Two weeks.

They had it in again for what was now the sixth time.

The new to the job service adviser rang me to say they couldn't fix it as"they didn't have the technology to find the issue" and it would have to go to an aircon specialist. WTF?

I asked how that would work with the warranty and was told, err I'm not sure.

Also, in all this time the car is now out of warranty.

So basically they have washed their hands of the job and left me to find my own solution.

I called another Mitsubishi dealer and they said that their only Mitsubishi trained mechanic had left.

I called a local mobile aircon specialist who came out and looked at it and said there was no dye in the system, so how have they been looking for a leak? He said he suspects the condenser is the issue and will come back and check for leaks with a UV light in a weeks time. He charged £125.

He also said the dash out story was mad as that would be the exchanger and he has only had 3 fail in 20 years but condensers once a week.

This was a multi franchise Renault,  Dacia, MG, Isuzu dealer and Mitsubishi service centre.

Fortunately they never charged me for any of this warranty work apart from the regas but what a bloody waste of time this has been. I have to take half a day off work every time.

I have yet to get a response to my complaint.

 

As this is an ongoing fault from within the warranty period they are still liable for a free fix. Maybe they need threatening with the small claims procedure? I.E. that you are going to have the work done and the sue them. Put it in writing in an email to the service department, including a timeline of the history of the fault.

[Metal Guru]

35 minutes ago, artdjones said:

As this is an ongoing fault from within the warranty period they are still liable for a free fix. Maybe they need threatening with the small claims procedure? I.E. that you are going to have the work done and the sue them. Put it in writing in an email to the service department, including a timeline of the history of the fault.

Copy the email to the CEO.  See ceoemail.com. Always gets me results.

[Pieman]

Working in Portugal over the weekend, hotels and hire car all arranged by my employer.  Sort out timings and luggage to avoid the worst of the shitshow that currently is Manchester Airport, get there a few hours early on Thursday with everything carefully arranged to be below the hand luggage limit so I didn't have to check in my bags.  Took half an hour to get through security, made it airside in plenty of time so could finally relax.  Went to one of the bars to have lunch, got my wallet out to pay...

...and realised I'd left my fucking driving licence at home.

Thankfully managed to call my employers and had the hire car assigned to me transferred to a colleague who was originally sharing a car with someone else, and he did the driving (greeting me at Lisbon airport by humming the Muppets theme at me!).  But why can't I ever do ANYTHING without fucking some aspect of it up?

[barefoot]

Buying tickets for Download festival. 

As you are probably aware, the ticketmaster site has a countdown feature, which keeps resetting as you progress through the various pages. Got to the last one, I'm entering my credit card details, the countdown ticking merrily away... Nat West wants to send me a One Time Passcode via text. The signal is so shite around here, that I've given up with a smart phone & bought a dim-boy special. No sign of the fucking OTP & ticketmaster timed out on me. Three times I went through that before phoning the bank who after looking at the debacle on my account managed to pre-authorise me for that site. Woo fucking Hoo.

Biffy Clyro & the Darkness here we come.

[Fat_Pirate]

Those twee AirBnb TV adverts are doing my head in, even if I overhear them from another room.  I'm sure they show an equally cloying 'England' one in other countries, full of smiling beefeaters, pearly kings, red phone boxes and roast beef.  Not rain, Wetherspoons microchips and EDL yobs telling them to fuck off back to their own country

[Rocket88]

“I don’t like fuss”….. then why is your simpering mug all over a sodding funeral plan advert then…….

[New POD]

8 hours ago, Pieman said:

Working in Portugal over the weekend, hotels and hire car all arranged by my employer.  Sort out timings and luggage to avoid the worst of the shitshow that currently is Manchester Airport, get there a few hours early on Thursday with everything carefully arranged to be below the hand luggage limit so I didn't have to check in my bags.  Took half an hour to get through security, made it airside in plenty of time so could finally relax.  Went to one of the bars to have lunch, got my wallet out to pay...

...and realised I'd left my fucking driving licence at home.

Thankfully managed to call my employers and had the hire car assigned to me transferred to a colleague who was originally sharing a car with someone else, and he did the driving (greeting me at Lisbon airport by humming the Muppets theme at me!).  But why can't I ever do ANYTHING without fucking some aspect of it up?

Travel for work? Someone mentioned I might need to go to Italy a couple of weeks ago.   I've been trying to get the supplier to solve their issue without a visit to them.  Not sure why it's my job.  MD is trying to cut out quality and supplier development teams. 

Had a teams meeting with them today.  My MD is insisting I and another guy visit This week.  

All well and good but seems that we need to fly from Manchester to Verona on Wednesday, which requires leaving the house at about 4 am.  Anyone know what the queues are going to be like for an 8 am flight? 

And flying back from Milan early Friday. 

Drive to supplier.  With samples of shit parts.  Stay in hotel. Go to supplier' s sub contract heat treatment site. Demand that they do more consistent work (parts are too hard) 

Drive to different hotel close to Milan airport. Get up very early and arrive back in Manchester at mid day.  Total cost each pails inton insignificance when you price up the scrap (30% of everything off an automated assembly line) 

Not sure where my passport is. I have down loaded my Covid vaccine certificate. So all good there. I have my driving licence. 

Don't have a company credit card. 

My colleague?  I barely know him, he's exactly half my age, and is a bit Aspie I think.  I think I'm supposed to mentor him or something.  

 

[myglaren]

Sat on this, dressing gown got trapped under a leg.  Lifted up to free it, pulled it out rom under me and collapsed in a heap.

Could have gone worse.

 

 

[Zelandeth]

Just had - after many, many, many failed attempts - a roofer come and take a look at ours to see if we can get the odd occasional water ingress issue sorted.  Suspected some stuffed flashing.

No... there's an *entire* ridge tile missing - so there's a metre long gap right at the top of the roof on one side of the house (there's no line of sight from the ground so we weren't aware of that!).  Water has obviously got in under there, and pooled where the felt has sagged.  Basically the bottom foot or so basically doesn't exist any more, the tiles are pretty much holding it together.

The other side of the house we don't have any quite so obvious issues - but the pointing around all of the tiles is utterly fscked and judging from the visible bow to it, it ain't much better.

The third and fourth smaller bits of roof we can see from the edges that the felt is stuffed.

Basically...we need an entirely new roof.   Well... basically two normal sized and two smaller ones.

Budget, £15-20K.  Joy.

[grogee]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Just had - after many, many, many failed attempts - a roofer come and take a look at ours to see if we can get the odd occasional water ingress issue sorted.  Suspected some stuffed flashing.

No... there's an *entire* ridge tile missing - so there's a metre long gap right at the top of the roof on one side of the house (there's no line of sight from the ground so we weren't aware of that!).  Water has obviously got in under there, and pooled where the felt has sagged.  Basically the bottom foot or so basically doesn't exist any more, the tiles are pretty much holding it together.

The other side of the house we don't have any quite so obvious issues - but the pointing around all of the tiles is utterly fscked and judging from the visible bow to it, it ain't much better.

The third and fourth smaller bits of roof we can see from the edges that the felt is stuffed.

Basically...we need an entirely new roof.  Budget, £15-20K.  Joy.

I live in a new build. I had this brilliant* idea that we just move into another new build every 5-10 years when everything starts breaking. 

Unlike cars, there doesn't seem to be a price penalty for wanting to live in a brand new house. 

I know they have their downsides but a £20k roof bill isn't one of them.

(I should add that I'm shit at DIY and hate decorating. Happy to be under a car all day but can't stand house DIY)

[Zelandeth]

52 minutes ago, grogee said:

I live in a new build. I had this brilliant* idea that we just move into another new build every 5-10 years when everything starts breaking. 

Unlike cars, there doesn't seem to be a price penalty for wanting to live in a brand new house. 

I know they have their downsides but a £20k roof bill isn't one of them.

(I should add that I'm shit at DIY and hate decorating. Happy to be under a car all day but can't stand house DIY)

If we had the odd million or so we'd need to get something with realistically enough room for us I'm sure that would be great.

Though in the same breath, everyone I actually know personally who has moved into a new build in the last 20 or so years has said they'd never do it again.  Between asinine rules around what you are and aren't allowed to do and hellish experiences trying to get the developer to sort warranty issues it doesn't sound exactly enjoyable to me.

If we do move into a new build one day, we will have had a significant amount of input during the design stage.  It'll also be situated on enough land we own to ensure we don't wind up with a five storey block of flats in front of the lounge window six months after we move in.

[grogee]

I was being facetious really, but I did kind of like the idea of being in a brand new house all the time with brand new appliances. 

I think we might be moving house soon as we are needing* more space so inevitably we'll be going into a 1930s semi that leaks like a sieve. 

[Zelandeth]

32 minutes ago, grogee said:

I was being facetious really, but I did kind of like the idea of being in a brand new house all the time with brand new appliances. 

I think we might be moving house soon as we are needing* more space so inevitably we'll be going into a 1930s semi that leaks like a sieve. 

Ah, I'm awful at picking things like that up!

The root cause for this problem starting is basically the third or fourth one of the tiles from the right here.

That is basically all we can see of it... looking from the other side you can't see anything past the gutters. 

Those ridge tiles are shaped like so. 

Basically the front part (which we can see) is present just fine...the rear half which actually keeps the weather out is long, long gone.

[High Jetter]

I hear that you've had problems getting roofers to turn up, but might be worth persisting to get alternatve opinions. Or speak to your insurers soon after a really big storm.

[Zelandeth]

34 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

I hear that you've had problems getting roofers to turn up, but might be worth persisting to get alternatve opinions. Or speak to your insurers soon after a really big storm.

To put the "having trouble getting them to turn up" into a context to show how much trouble...

I've been trying to get someone to look at this since May 2014.

This is the first one who has actually turned up.

Well...aside from the crooks who fleeced us for £1600 squirting some silicone sealant to "repair" the atrium about a month after we moved in and then declared themselves bankrupt once we started chasing them.

[High Jetter]

Ouch. Sorry, I've never lived anywhere so deprived of trades.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Ouch. Sorry, I've never lived anywhere so deprived of trades.

Thing is, it's not.  We get fliers through the door virtually daily.  Thing is that there's so much work around that they can just cherry pick the jobs that are easy money.  Nobody wants to get involved in anything involving actually having to do anything that's not just a "white box" type job.

The "that's not worth my getting out the van for" response turns up time and time and time again.  Plumbers, roofers, landscapers, gas fitter, electricians...same across the board.