The grumpy thread

[Timewaster]

Dealing with Euro car parts is a proper game. This clutch you've bought will be the wrong one anyway, so don't worry about it.

 

When i ring them up it goes like this.

 

'Yes I'm after a clutch for a Fiat Doblo 1.9D, 2003 model'

 

'Do you have the reg number'

 

'Yes, but I'm not telling you what it is'

 

'Er... It'll be much quicker to find the part from the reg number sir'

 

'It'll be much quicker to find A part from the reg number but I'm afraid my experience is that it will be the wrong part, it almost always is'.

 

'Er, oh. Alright then, what vehicle is it again?'

The advent of number plate look up and PC based catalogues means that car parts is no longer a skilled job, the guys who knew which transit bits fitted ldvs and how to tell a bendix wheel cylinder from a girling one have all left and been replaced with trolley collection rejects on minimum wage selling imported Chinese crap made of cheese and tin foil.

 

Still, the parts are a bit cheaper than they used to be so everyone wins eh?

 

Bitter? Me? No no no, having left the counters I've never looked back.

[nacho man]

 

Just went out in the garage to do a few quick jobs and what not. Fuel filter and fixings looked like they was in one of them submerged vehicles in the rivers being dredged.

[myglaren]

What the fuck have they done with Flickr?

Can't they leave the fucking thing alone? Jesus WEPT!!!!!

They don't listen to the people that use the thing.

 

https://yahoo.uservoice.com/forums/211185-us-flickr/suggestions/5679218-why-do-you-have-to-keep-changing-the-site-layout

Tried to migrate my Flickr! account from BTYahoo to my other Yahoo account.Just round and round in circles.  Gave up in the end and will probably let both accounts die the death.  The Yahoo Mail one is absolutely dire.

[Junkman]

This Ford scene tax thing is beginning to massively piss me off.

 

Need a starter for my Grandad.

 

Ebay UK: £167.40

Ebay Germany: EUR 70.00

 

I took the liberty to tell the UK seller where he can shove his, and exactly how far up.

[trigger]

Tried to migrate my Flickr! account from BTYahoo to my other Yahoo account.Just round and round in circles. Gave up in the end and will probably let both accounts die the death. The Yahoo Mail one is absolutely dire.

Flickr has had it's day now, Shame as a few years ago it was a great place to share photos and chat to other car fans, I've spent untold hours on there building up a massive database of scans and show photos but I just can't do it anymore.

 

Every time I upload a photo on chrome my computer crashes (it's a pretty powerful Dell too, not some cheap thing) and I miss so much that's posted now, I can't even scroll down photos without the page freezing up.

 

I pretty annoyed about it really as I can't even move my 33000 uploads elsewhere.

[wuvvum]

I think cortinadave had a Peugeot 406 with the airbags blown out it but had to weigh it in come mot time . I recon if you knob bled the warning light it didn't look like the dash had exploded you could get it through .

 

Most 406s look like the passenger airbag has blown anyway, so that would have been one less thing to worry about.

[vulgalour]

I think my Twitter account has been compromised, Chrome won't even let me on the basic Twitter.com site but other people I know can get on no bother.  Bit of an arse, it's one of my main interesting car stuff sources and I'm not sure how to get myself on there now.

[mat_the_cat]

Sat here waiting for an eBay buyer to collect my bike...he was due here at 7. Not heard from him yet and no reply to my text message asking him where he was.

 

FFS, he's just collected now! Still, nearly £800 for the Stellar respray fund so I should be happy. But a bit sad that my biking days are over, for now at least.

[Sigmund Fraud]

This Ford scene tax thing is beginning to massively piss me off.

 

Need a starter for my Grandad.

 

Ebay UK: £167.40

Ebay Germany: EUR 70.00

 

I took the liberty to tell the UK seller where he can shove his, and exactly how far up.

 

£70 ? I'd go with the Autoshite alternative of a £5 brush set (and two weekends of swearing to rebuild it).

[RedSparrow]

Work send me a powerpoint presentation to proof read. Fine, nice easy bit of work.

 

Except half the text has been written in MS Paint and imported as bitmaps so I can't change them. Do I bother staying up all night re-writing a load of shit in Paint? Probably not.

[vulgalour]

240kg of scrap = £24.  Minimum payout at yard = £30.  Bums.

[dugong]

240kg of scrap = £24.  Minimum payout at yard = £30.  Bums.

10kg of scrap is worth £1? Jesus. 

[ruffgeezer]

Could you have done a massive shit on the weigh bridge?

 

 

The weight of it could bring you up to the minimum payment and if the ask you what it is, just reply "s'crap".

[CortinaDave]

FFS, he's just collected now! Still, nearly £800 for the Stellar respray fund so I should be happy. But a bit sad that my biking days are over, for now at least.

 

 

£800 should be enough to drive your Stellar up to Scotland and get my mate to respray it! He usually only charges 4-500 quid. This is one he did for me a few years back.

 

Its not OMG, but he's pretty bloody good at that money IMO.

[Sigmund Fraud]

240kg of scrap = £24.  Minimum payout at yard = £30.  Bums.

 

Time to dig any ancient batteries out of the shed ?

[dollywobbler]

I stupidly did some digging on the driveway yesterday, and woke up with a swollen and painful foot - the ongoing saga continues. It's been really bad today, to the point where driving the 2CV is painful. So, I called the GP over four hours ago seeking advice. X-Rays are pending (which happened over a week ago FFS) but the duty doctor is allegedly going to call me back. Nowt so far, and the surgery shuts in an hour.

 

Quite seriously miffed, as it may throw my weekend plans into chaos. Would quite seriously like to get this problem sorted.

[dugong]

Work send me a powerpoint presentation to proof read. Fine, nice easy bit of work.

 

Except half the text has been written in MS Paint and imported as bitmaps so I can't change them. Do I bother staying up all night re-writing a load of shit in Paint? Probably not.

I am at a loss for words. How can a professional company write captions IN PAINT?

[RedSparrow]

I am at a loss for words. How can a professional company write captions IN PAINT?

 

Yep. This is a massive German automotive company who shall remain nameless.

What gets me is why would anyone do that? Powerpoint and the Open Office equivalent have tools for it in the bloody program! It's like they've purposely made more work for themselves (and me).

[fordperv]

Any idea where I can get the bits to do it? Its a VP37 I think. That's if I get to that stage, although it's right at the front of the engine it looks like a real ball ache to get off.

Try pds fella they nice and local

[cms206]

CHEERS HERMES, GR1 CERVISE WUD CONTACT DILEVERY MAN BT I CNT COS HE DNT EXIZT.

[cort16]

You're nearest depot for pickup is probably Belfast

[Cavcraft]

Work send me a powerpoint presentation to proof read. .

 

 

Ahh, there's your problem, right there. I find just not reading any of the shit they send at work does the trick, if they want to think I have then best of bleeding luck to them.

[dollywobbler]

I walked to the pub and played pool, which has improved my foot more effectively than speaking to a doctor. Doubt I'll get a diagnosis before the weekend, so I'll just chew painkillers and go ahead anyway. Huzzah!

[rml2345]

An accident on the M8 closed the motorway, which is fair enough but every time they shut it Central Scotland comes to a complete halt. It took 3 hours to get from Edinburgh to Harthill, a journey which usually takes 40-50 minutes. They should have invested some money in the A roads instead of fucking trams.

[trigger]

I've got very mixed feelings today, I'm excited because I've had the call to say the Cortina's finished and is ready for collection tomorrow, Plus I've now taxed it so It's all ready for the road.

 

But I'm also sad as I've got a funeral this afternoon where my work mate is being cremated, 42 years old with two young children, I'm going with my wife and a number of other work mates but it's going to be bloody horrible, especially when i see his kids faces. Cancer got him and it was awful watching him deteriorate towards the end, I've now got another work friend who this week has had a lump found on his brain and lower back which the hospital thinks is cancer, he's only in his late 40's. 

[mat_the_cat]

/\ This is a bit close to home at the moment, as I've recently found out my Dad has a probable cancerous lump. Biopsy next, so they know for sure.

 

Sorry to hear about your workmate, and hope he gets a fitting send off. I've never been in the position of loosing someone at an untimely age, but imagine it must be awful.

[beko1987]

We had a colleague die one weekend last year, wasnt a very nice or productive monday that wasnt. Best of luck!

[Pillock]

I've looked back at least half a page and can't see this rant has happened yet, so: Insurance.

 

rant rant rant rant

 

But what annoys me, is it going up for no reason.

 

whinge whinge whinge

 

So, to recap - £851 renewal quote for two cars, after paying a lot less than that figure last year.

Spent an hour getting new quotes from MoneySupermarket and all that jazz - which annoyed me in itself, for the amount of companies that offered (say) £368 and you click through to the website and it's £750 or something (QuoteMeHappy, this is you I'm talking about). Anyway, got the Touran covered for £370 and my Focus for £300. Quotes saved.

 

Phoned Admiral and spoke to some Welsh lass (which gives me a bit of a lob on anyway, what a lovely accent). We changed NOTHING in terms of details apart from a job description, and she said herself that made no difference. So then she mentioned something about a "loyalty bonus" and whacked £90 off. Then she twiddled with the hire car cover and knocked £15 off each one. Total saving £120 for not just rolling over and renewing. If you're doing the mental maths, you'll realise I'm still paying more than separate insurance but I left the hire car and legal cover on which was £37 per car, so I could have got it down further. 

 

So I'm happy that I've insured two cars, that both do high mileage for business use, live on the street, and one driver has two claims and only a years NCB, for £729. I know that sounds a lot compared to a classic, but it's not. 

However I'm pretty friggin' angry that they clearly just lob on £120 in the hope I won't query it. 

[Pillock]

Bollocks, I've once again chosen to post about insurance when clearly people have got much bigger issues to deal with. 

Sorry to hear about your mate Trig, 42 is no age at all (and a figure I'm really not far off). Equally Mat_TC, fingers crossed for your dad getting some good news

[Mr Lobster]

Sorry to hear that Trig and MTC. Hope it all goes well this afternoon. 

 

I'm 39 in a couple of months and you do start to become more aware of this stuff as you get older. 42 is no age to die at.