The grumpy thread

[angle]

Don't really want to go down the insurance route, it's a 13 year old Laguna that they'd write off for a stone chip. I basically just wanted her to realise she can't just drive off and maybe get an apology, but never mind...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Three.  Oh yes.  I remember them.

 

Four years or so of good service (and poor signal - which did become a running gag after a while) and I give them a call.  Got put through to the standard fuzzy line somewhere in SE Asia/India.

 

'Hello, I'd like my PAC code so that I can cancel my service with you.'

 

'Why do you want to leave, sir?'

 

'Well, not that it's any of your business - because it isn't - but I can't get coverage in the area that I'm moving to.  There is no signal.'

 

'Where is that, sir?'

 

'Like I say, it's none of your business but it's East Kent.  There isn't any for miles.'

 

'Well, let me check if we are due an upgrade there...'

 

'No.  Let me stop you there.  I'm not interested in your script or your conversation flow chart.  I am interested in getting my code.  Wild horses couldn't keep me on your network because it will be utterly useless to me in six months.'

 

'Let me just check...'

 

'No.  Skip ahead to the part where you put me through to your cancellation team.'

 

'I'll have to check with my manager.'

 

'Right.'

 

*Hold music plays*

 

'Hello, sir.  I believe we are getting a signal upgrade in East Kent in the next few ye...'

 

'No.  I'm not interested in your script.  I don't care what you've been told to do by your manager.  Put me through to your cancellations department.  Now.  You are not going to be able to persuade me to stay on this network.  Upon request, you are legally obliged to give me the PAC code and if you don't, then I will be making a very bloody serious complaint.'

 

*Finally puts me through*

 

After that, I got my PAC code within a minute from a nice bloke in Scotland.  Who said they were planning to upgrade but they were uncertain what was going to happen because various political events had thrown a bit of a spanner in the works.

 

I hate call centre outsourcing.  15 minutes for my PAC code, which I am legally entitled to.

[fordperv]

Aside from shitting through her letterbox and raping her cat there's not much you can do if you don't want to go the insurance route, the coppers don't really give 2 fucks, a potless moron smacked my saph door and turned out she wasn't insured as well, gave the wrong name, I found out her correct one and supplied the police with all the details guess what, all they said was we will tell patrols to look out for the car.

[Kiltox]

Persimmon.

 

Yes, I know. But the Barrett three beds were out of our range and they also locked us in the show home! House is actually fine, just typical new build snagging...

Have you seen the “Persimmon - unhappy customers” Facebook group? Incredible.

[loserone]

Wait, there's new builds worse than Barrett?

 

I was going to ask how, but then remembered the thread with THAT brickwork.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Have you seen the “Persimmon - unhappy customers” Facebook group? Incredible.

 

 

No but I've heard about it from Lady Grumpius.

 

I know they're one of the worst.  Knew this when we went into it.  Which is why we've got everything written down, done our research, etc.

 

The simple fact is that we live in the South East, specifically Kent.  There are only a couple of places in Kent that we could afford to have a home and the place where we have bought is a joint Barratt/Persimmon site.  The Barratt homes are more 20-30K more expensive and badly designed (I could go on a rant about the 7/8th size double bed they had in the second bedroom, or the fact that to get to the shower in the en-suite, you had to twist around the sink) but aside from all those other issues, they effectively locked us in their forecourt when we went to look at their show home because they had forgotten we were there.

 

Apparently our next-door neighbours were bluntly asked 'if they could even afford a home' by their sales staff.  The bloke told them to 'fuck themselves', went next door and reserved with Persimmon.  On this site, it would seem that Persimmon are the much better buy.

 

We were lined up on an old council house in the next town along.  We had the draft contract in our hand.  Turned out there were many, many permissive covenants that could have put us straight into negative equity the second we moved in if the council had decided to enforce a couple of them.

 

The house we have bought is about the same size, has the various guarantees with it, is cheaper and in a nicer area.  Although I was dead-set against a new build and I keep my eyes very bloody wide open, I don't regret it, even if I do think that Persimmon are mostly a bunch of shysters.

 

And our brickwork is fine.

 

We haven't blundered into this with our eyes closed.  Lady Grumpius is quite ferocious with her research and we are fully aware of their reputation.  We've been over our house with a fine tooth comb and we've documented every conversation re. snagging, etc.  I'm not blind to the fact that there are many badly-built homes from this firm and lacklustre after-sales support.  We seem, however, to have got the good side of them.  The sales office ring us back straight away (scared of Lady Grumpius), the central support team respond to my emails (I'm very, very strong by email) and when things need sorting, we pester them until they're fucking sorted.  

 

Not everyone will do this and they shouldn't have to, I admit.

[Bianconeri]

Three have always worked like that.

I had loads of trouble years ago when they were brand new to the business. I had a phone with a volume button that didn't work. Chap in India wanted me to take the SIM out and wipe the contacts with a cloth - a trick basically to cut the call short because you can't do that whilst on the phone*

Loads and loads of calls to try and resolve it, eventually got put through to someone in Scotland. He sent me a new phone. He also told me in future, if I use the option for signal faults it always goes through to them.

* I've worked the phones for PC support and had similar tricks to cut one long call into two shorter ones, so we all got our bonuses.

Three behaved like complete tw@s to me back in about 2010. Long story short, handset was playing up and under warranty, Three shop ‘expert’ also managed to balls up voicemail while making handset worse. Ended up removing my whole company’s business from them during call with customer support ‘director’.

[myglaren]

Wasps .... Invading the house ..Wave your arms they attack u . wave a towel to get them out the door they ignore u .... One quick spray of killercide and they fly out the dam door ???

Smoke allegedly sends them to sleep and you can stamp on them.  May be a specialist smoke though (weed)?

 

My daughter seems to have a nest of them somewhere.  She pus a bit of jam and some water in empty jam jars, smallish hole in the lid.  They go in after the jam, can't fathom how to get out and drown.

[Kiltox]

I hope it all works out for you Grumpius - I am a bit nervous about the new build I’m buying - small developer so the warranty is BLP not NHBC - basically keeps the lender happy and that’s about it

[Des]

I used a can of wasp nest killer after finding the hard way that fly spray gives the bastards super powers, great stuff, comes out as a foam like a fire extinguisher so when I'd squandered my opportunity of surprise and was dealing with a rabid swarm i could, to my enormous satisfaction, employ the thing as a death cannon.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I hope it all works out for you Grumpius - I am a bit nervous about the new build I’m buying - small developer so the warranty is BLP not NHBC - basically keeps the lender happy and that’s about it

 

 

You will be fine.  It is nerve-wracking but there is a process there for any rectifications.  Be thorough with your snagging and keep records.

 

It's exciting and terrifying!

[Cavcraft]

Ref the lady* in the Passat who hit your car, sod the Argos catalogue. Just get an old car and return the favour.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Smoke allegedly sends them to sleep and you can stamp on them.  May be a specialist smoke though (weed)?

 

My daughter seems to have a nest of them somewhere.  She pus a bit of jam and some water in empty jam jars, smallish hole in the lid.  They go in after the jam, can't fathom how to get out and drown.

Apparentlly some oil soaked sawdust on fire in a baked bean tin , just pisses them off and all of them come out of the nest to make you fall off your step ladder, causing great hilarity to family and neighbour's, apparently...

[captain_70s]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

 

Bleh.

[Tamworthbay]

Smoke allegedly sends them to sleep and you can stamp on them.  May be a specialist smoke though (weed)?

 

My daughter seems to have a nest of them somewhere.  She pus a bit of jam and some water in empty jam jars, smallish hole in the lid.  They go in after the jam, can't fathom how to get out and drown.

This works a treat, at this time of year put bits of scrap meat in and you will get loads more. Adult wasps eat sweet stuff but the grubs are carnivorous (nope I didn’t know that until fairly recently either). We had a nest in a shed back in the days the council did pest control, a guy came out with a can of smoke making stuff and a big stick. Killed them dead in no time, not sure if you can just buy the stuff if you aren’t a pest controller though. The nest was about as big as football.

[Pillock]

We went for some food at a pub and sat outside a couple of weeks ago.

 

Spent ages watching a lone wasp hack off bits of leftover meat and try to fly away with it, giant chunks of chicken.

[Wilko220]

This wasn’t what I wanted to read on my morning commute...

[Cavcraft]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

Bleh.

Tenner if you describe Hairnet.

[somewhatfoolish]

We were lined up on an old council house in the next town along. We had the draft contract in our hand. Turned out there were many, many permissive covenants that could have put us straight into negative equity the second we moved in if the council had decided to enforce a couple of them.

 

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

[Guest Hooli]

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

You can. A mate did after finding out about a chanchil? Tax meaning he'd need to pay towards a new church roof.

[BavarianRetro]

I'm back in court again. Witness this time...

 

Bleh.

Surely better than being the accused?

[Guest Hooli]

Update my excellent* trip so far.

 

My bike is in Austria and has been diagnosed by the garage. It's got a failed stator, oddly exactly what I said sat when it broke. Parts take five days to order so it seems I'll get flown home and then back to collect it once fixed.

This trip really hasn't worked out well. I'll have to pay for parts and I know that'll be over £300 as I priced one about four years ago, last time it burnt out.

 

Thank fuck for the breakdown cover though. It's free from Carole Nash and apart from the Italian office has been excellent.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Can you not buy indemnity for this sort of thing?

 

 

You certainly can and that's the point of it but if I don't have to and there are other options, why would I?

 

In our instance, it may have meant losing two large, permanent sheds, a covered car parking space and a conservatory.  Not playing that game. 

 

Chancel repair liability wasn't one on our list but then at least there isn't a risk associated with it...

[sierraman]

Out of all the vehicles to use for a ram raid, it wouldn’t be a Maestro diesel van.

[barefoot]

Not so much grumpy old man as embarrassed old man.

 

Yesterday I momentarily drove like a twat, through a gap that wasn't as big as I thought it was, causing me to have to drive through it much faster than I should have done. Someone hooted at me and I am ashamed of myself. I shouldn't still be doing stuff like that at my age.

[omegod]

Just had a lovely week in Lanzarote, fantastic hotel and weather, why grump you may ask? got home knackered at 3 am and whilst approaching and opening the front door and one noticed a strange whiff, ones hand was reaching for the light switch as one recognised said whiff ..GAS, the house was completely rammed with it 

 

Turned out FIL had been down to drop some milk and bread off that morning and gave the hob a wipe over, inadvertently knocking one of the rings on full wack which had been merrily blasting away for 15 hrs,  Managed to oped all the doors and windows and legged it as it was becoming a bit overbearing, family sat in the car and I called BG emergency number and ,good enough 2 lads turned up 40 mins later and sniffed the house with a gadget by which time it had vented. Got a free carbon monoxide detector off them too. We won't mention the whole affair to FIL  as he would feel awful but rather a close shave! I'll turn the main gas off next time.

[Guest Hooli]

Not so much grumpy old man as embarrassed old man.

 

Yesterday I momentarily drove like a twat, through a gap that wasn't as big as I thought it was, causing me to have to drive through it much faster than I should have done. Someone hooted at me and I am ashamed of myself. I shouldn't still be doing stuff like that at my age.

Blame those heavy lead boots....

 

 

 

...oh

[sierraman]

Surprise welcome home! Cue to a Gas explosion.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!

[omegod]

Surprise welcome home! Cue to a Gas explosion.

 

 

Pretty sure it would have took me and a couple of neighbours houses out too  , Can laugh about it now....well kind of