The grumpy thread

[Zelandeth]

Why the bloody hell did I move south? 25C in the shade, absolutely no breeze whatsoever, so in addition to having to deal with pouring with sweat, every flying insect known to man is out in force.

 

Heap of stuff needs doing in the garden, and there's the Invacar to work on...but here I am hiding inside where it's (slightly) cooler.

 

Can I move back to Aberdeenshire please?

 

Oh...wait...the other three folks in the household have jobs fixed in place here and have clear ladders to climb. Bugger. Oh yeah... that's why we moved here.

[dave21478]

Why the bloody hell did I move south? 25C in the shade, absolutely no breeze whatsoever, so in addition to having to deal with pouring with sweat, every flying insect known to man is out in force.

 

Heap of stuff needs doing in the garden, and there's the Invacar to work on...but here I am hiding inside where it's (slightly) cooler.

 

Can I move back to Aberdeenshire please?

 

Oh...wait...the other three folks in the household have jobs fixed in place here and have clear ladders to climb. Bugger. Oh yeah... that's why we moved here.

 

Keep windows and curtains closed during the day and open them at night when its cooler to let fresh air into the house. - its obligatory here.

 

 

Aberdeens permanent drizzle would be rather welcoming right now as I sit in the darkened living room waiting till later this evening when it might be cool enough to mow the lawn.

[xtriple]

When I had my Metro (84 'B' reg, one  local owner from new and minted up by me cos it was lovely and deserved it   ) we took it to a few shows and they let it in, usually grudgingly and then I'd sit and listen to people whinge about ' A fucking MiniMetro!' being allowed in while looking at the same shit boxes you describe. Metros are great cars and disappearing at an alarming rate.

[chaseracer]

They'd nearly all gone 15/20 years ago!

[Supernaut]

Aberdeens permanent drizzle

Cruden Bay, earlier:

 

[richardmorris]

Keep windows and curtains closed during the day and open them at night when its cooler to let fresh air into the house. - its obligatory here.

 

Untitled.jpg

 

Aberdeens permanent drizzle would be rather welcoming right now as I sit in the darkened living room waiting till later this evening when it might be cool enough to mow the lawn.

 

Which is why all of France has window shutters,

[N Dentressangle]

Oh where to start.....

 

Samsung smart tv is now refusing to connect to interwebs. Can't do a hard reset as some fucker (curry's/PCWorld) has entered a pin code and not told us.

 

 

 

The code was pre-set as 1234 on ours. Worth a try?

[PhilA]

I took a look at my phone just now after this weather talk to see the forecast. Hot hot hot hot hot with occasional thunderstorms

 

That's not what got on my wick. Scrolling down there's now a "life index", which lists 3 things. Pollen, running and golf (high, poor, very good).

 

I refuse to agree my life revolves around pollen, running and golf. I want a "working in the garage" index (hot, wasps).

 

Phil

[The Moog]

I think we might be breaking the no politics rule here?

This. 

 

It isnt that difficult to follow.  

[dave21478]

Cruden Bay, earlier:

 

IMG_6254.JPG

Cruden bay is miles away.

 

Central Aberdeen right now....

 

probably.

[richardmorris]

Why the bloody hell did I move south? 25C in the shade, absolutely no breeze whatsoever, so in addition to having to deal with pouring with sweat, every flying insect known to man is out in force.

Heap of stuff needs doing in the garden, and there's the Invacar to work on...but here I am hiding inside where it's (slightly) cooler.

Can I move back to Aberdeenshire please?

Oh...wait...the other three folks in the household have jobs fixed in place here and have clear ladders to climb. Bugger. Oh yeah... that's why we moved here.

Et voila, my patented* patio sunshade. One Citroen beachtowel for the c5 ( it says reassuringly German, which I expect is a marketing guys idea of a joke), held up with M&S trouser hangers.

[Cavcraft]

Don't expect it'll work or last very long, but randomly decided to answer stupid questions using quotes/half quotes from Family Guy. Today's first recipient:

 

'£200'

 

What?

 

'Dises or petrol'

'Oh the car'

 

What car?

 

'Oh VW Golf'

 

Who is Adam We?

 

'Later'

 

What number did you dial?

 

 

(No further messages received. Yet)

[GrumpiusMaximus]

NHBC warranty

 

Not your problem unless you agreed snagging

 

Anyhoo, I have a number of colleagues who are available to royally fuck them over

 

 

In fairness to them:

 

This is the first issue we've actually had.  When I've emailed over snagging issues, I've had very prompt calls from the sub-contractors to sort out the issues.  Plumbers have been the best so far.  The local sales staff are basically excellent and when we've hassled them, they've got things done.

 

It was only their 'emergency' contact number that's proved to be an issue.  We can't park in our road at the moment but they told us that before we moved in.  The house is decently built by and large and actually reasonably generously proportioned.  Our garden is 31 feet long by 24 wide - which is really rather decent in a new-build estate.

 

So I'm actually *happy* with the house and mostly happy with Persimmon (who have had a rocket inserted up their arses a couple of years back, I believe).  Just one phone robot and company policy is the issue here.

[MarvinsMom]

this current heat wave, while been very welcome means that for work i'll need to wear a maxi-dress in place of my more usual leggings-tunic top combination.

 

so i've had to shave my legs this evening.....

 

and the bath now looks like someone has shaved a bloody wookie.

 

lovely.

[Aston Martin]

[clayts450]

In fairness to them:

 

This is the first issue we've actually had.  When I've emailed over snagging issues, I've had very prompt calls from the sub-contractors to sort out the issues.  Plumbers have been the best so far.  The local sales staff are basically excellent and when we've hassled them, they've got things done.

 

It was only their 'emergency' contact number that's proved to be an issue.  We can't park in our road at the moment but they told us that before we moved in.  The house is decently built by and large and actually reasonably generously proportioned.  Our garden is 31 feet long by 24 wide - which is really rather decent in a new-build estate.

 

So I'm actually *happy* with the house and mostly happy with Persimmon (who have had a rocket inserted up their arses a couple of years back, I believe).  Just one phone robot and company policy is the issue here.

 

Most developers don't have an out of hours service, or if they do it goes to some inbound contact centre a zillion miles away where they take calls for many other developers. And are ultimately useless because some numpty hasn't provided them with contact details for local tradespersons to call when it goes titzup.

 

I used to help out on our Out of Hours team (housing association) when homeowners used to call us in their first year of ownership (we'd originally sold the property to them, or it was shared ownership - all new builds covered by developers warranty for first 12 months) and you'd look at the list of developers and virtually every one (and we're talking some big companies here) said 'send own contractor, no out of hours service provided by this developer'.

 

For your situation, water pissing down onto an electric fitting is an immediate 4 hour priority - I'd certainly be kicking some asses to say you were left with the possibility of electrocution, fire or worse (unlikely as you clearly have two brain cells in your head, not all callers are so fortunate). Also pull a compulsory compo face and you might get some satisfaction.

[Lankytim]

 

 

There's a big breakers yard in Daventry I occasionally drive past that appears to have quite a few scrappage cars in for breaking, presumably from Thurleigh. Minis and Beetles, covered in moss and with writing on the windows. 

[chaseracer]

The Owd Giffer was based at Thurleigh in the early 80s, flying trials in a Canberra with the Radar Research Squadron.

[Lord Sterling]

Thurleigh? I was a fairly regular visitor to Thurleigh back in my trade-plating days. I didn't realise all the scrappage cars were stored there otherwise I'd have been up for some exploring.

 

It is galling to these otherwise nice old cars being left to rot, but as I've said before before and at the time, this was the drive to make Britain into a throwaway nation, buy, use, chuck away, spend more money to buy yet more new things so the economy can still keep going or something..

[320touring]

Fucking Clios.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

NHBC warranty

 

Not your problem unless you agreed snagging

 

Anyhoo, I have a number of colleagues who are available to royally fuck them over

 

 

Just to clarify:

 

They wouldn't call up a plumber then and there.  Despite water falling through my ceiling.

 

On Monday?  No problem.

 

Tight-fisted wankers.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Most developers don't have an out of hours service, or if they do it goes to some inbound contact centre a zillion miles away where they take calls for many other developers. And are ultimately useless because some numpty hasn't provided them with contact details for local tradespersons to call when it goes titzup.

 

I used to help out on our Out of Hours team (housing association) when homeowners used to call us in their first year of ownership (we'd originally sold the property to them, or it was shared ownership - all new builds covered by developers warranty for first 12 months) and you'd look at the list of developers and virtually every one (and we're talking some big companies here) said 'send own contractor, no out of hours service provided by this developer'.

 

For your situation, water pissing down onto an electric fitting is an immediate 4 hour priority - I'd certainly be kicking some asses to say you were left with the possibility of electrocution, fire or worse (unlikely as you clearly have two brain cells in your head, not all callers are so fortunate). Also pull a compulsory compo face and you might get some satisfaction.

 

 

Tried all that.

 

Anyhow - and sorry about the multi-posting here, I didn't expect so many replies - it's drying out and no harm has come to anyone or anything.  We had the downstairs lights on a separate RCD.  Switched that off and that was all they told us to do on the phone anyway.  Apparently that makes it 'safe' and therefore not a priority.  I generally agree with that - but there must somebody that doesn't know how to switch the RCD or is vulnerable or unable to calling in, so the complete blanket policy of disinterest is quite disturbing.

 

The ceiling will need painting, the overflow will need tightening up.  Maybe an hour's worth of work?  Got off lightly.

 

You'd think given how much they paid their boss this year (£75 million) you'd think that sending out the occasional emergency plumber was well within their means.  But that's capitalism for you.

 

And yes, I have two brain cells in my head.  Only two though, sadly.  No more.

[wrenchvolt]

Fucking Persimmon......but because this is a new build, nobody is going to let me touch the problem because they'll complain that I've 'fiddled'.

 

 

This sort of thing really makes me see red. These house builders use a bloody warranty as an instrument to dictate what people can and can't do to their own homes. I'm far less level headed than you by the sounds of it, I'd probably lose it, call them all cunts and tell them to roll up their bloody warranty and defects liability and shove it up their arse.

 

Good call on letting your other half do the talking, that's generally my strategy when I'm about to swear at some poor person down the phone.

[panhard65]

We have a Persimmion home built 6 years ago. Get a decent plumber to check everything using one of those endoscope  cameras. The lazy bastards that built ours only used enough copper pipe to go from the boiler into the floor space above. Then used plastic pipe to the floor below the hot water tank then copper out to the tank. The fact that the boiler instructions say they must use at least a metre of copper pipe from the boiler before using anything else were totally ignored means nothing apparently as it took 3 years to go wrong. The toilets use really shit flush units that have all failed by 5 years. The shower waste trap is only available from one company and now no longer available, so unless you get lucky and find a new old stock one means a new shower tray. They really are shit and hopeless when it comes to fixing things.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

They've been pretty responsive, to be fair.  When I've emailed with issues, they have contacted the contractors, who have called me and I have a couple of appointments already booked in and set up for my original issues.  Boiler installation looks fine but I'll bear that in mind if we have a problem.

 

As for getting my other half on the phone, she's generally much more persuasive and I had gotten to the point of interrupting the representative when she was trying her assertiveness techniques on me.  Disclaimer:  I used to teach assertiveness when I worked in mental health.  I knew her playbook and knew the next stage in my brain was to deconstruct her training, repeat her course to her and taunt her with it, whilst calling her a cunt - which wouldn't have helped.

[wrenchvolt]

I suppose what would ultimately would make us feel better never seems to help, condemned to misery and impotent rage I guess. I thought about smashing my 626 with a breaker bar but just lobbed some copper grease in the garage instead. Mazda works again with no oil leaks. You will get your place sorted. Missing a days work (assuming pay as well although none of my business)  is a fucker. Bitch trying to pull mind fuck kung fu on you, as per her job role? Over a water leak?!? Life is too surreal sometimes.

[wrenchvolt]

I admire this guy's passion and commitment to resolving disputes over the phone:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2oXMdZ4sk

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I suppose what would ultimately would make us feel better never seems to help, condemned to misery and impotent rage I guess. I thought about smashing my 626 with a breaker bar but just lobbed some copper grease in the garage instead. Mazda works again with no oil leaks. You will get your place sorted. Missing a days work (assuming pay as well although none of my business)  is a fucker. Bitch trying to pull mind fuck kung fu on you, as per her job role? Over a water leak?!? Life is too surreal sometimes.

 

 

No pay loss if I miss work.  Might be able to get partner's Dad to sit in the house anyway (he's agreed to it) if he's feeling well enough.  So, all is not lost!  Believe me, if I was missing a day's work out of it I'd charge them my freelance rate as opposed to my actual salary.

 

As for car grumps.  Golf needs new headlamp bulb.  Annoyingly it's the bulb that requires I remove the headlamp or battery to get to it.  Not the end of the World but annoying.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I admire this guy's passion and commitment to resolving disputes over the phone:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2oXMdZ4sk

 

I applaud his calm and measured approach.

[BorniteIdentity]

We lived in a Persimmon home up until 2015.  The snagging list was so short and trivial that it doesn't justify thinking about.  At 10 years old it was still in first class condition, and we only knew of one notable problem on our estate being a chimney that had insufficient lead work around it.

 

So there we go, a bit of balance.

 

Hope you get it sorted, GM.