The grumpy thread

[gm]

1 hour ago, gm said:

I think I just lost at timing belt roulette

engine spinning but with less resistance than usual

non interference so not a biggie when I get it home 

 

Hats off to the RAC, arrived within 15 mins of calling them, had a quick look under the bonnet and agreed that a tow home was the best course of action. 

Timing belt - guilty, as charged ! 

hopefully not too much of a fuss to replace, I bought a crank locking tool many years ago (from junkyarddog off here) which I finally have a use for

[Noel Tidybeard]

56 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

It isn't.  One of the reasons all the doors and windows were upgraded shortly after we moved in.  There will be no less than three locked doors to get past...plus the alarm.

We did eventually get things sorted out when the pharmacist in the Boots round the corner from here phoned my surgery back and basically have them both barrels...they were basically taking the stance of "we're dispensing this medication, you can either approve and log it on your system, or you can argue at the misconduct hearing why you were refusing a patient with mental health problems essential medicines."

Hats off to them for being really helpful.

Sadly this sort of nonsense is about situation normal for my surgery.  They specialise in being as awkward as possible in everything they do.

it is an absolute piece of piss to change "nominated pharmacy" on your records-(just remember to check it's been reset when you next order)

*cannot be done if you are in The Wales*

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

it is an absolute piece of piss to change "nominated pharmacy" on your records-(just remember to check it's been reset when you next order)

*cannot be done if you are in The Wales*

One of the issues is that my GP doesn't let a pharmacy normally send prescription requests through...they send everything out directly to the respective pharmacies.  Makes ordering repeats a royal pain as there is no way to set regular repeats to go through automatically...you have to manually request each one through their convoluted web system.  Which then takes a minimum of ten days to actually make it to the pharmacy.

It's just unnecessarily complicated and time consuming.

[Noel Tidybeard]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

One of the issues is that my GP doesn't let a pharmacy normally send prescription requests through...they send everything out directly to the respective pharmacies.  Makes ordering repeats a royal pain as there is no way to set regular repeats to go through automatically...you have to manually request each one through their convoluted web system.  Which then takes a minimum of ten days to actually make it to the pharmacy.

It's just unnecessarily complicated and time consuming.

TEN DAYS!1!!!!! its sposed to be 48 hours!

[Zelandeth]

Yeah... especially as they won't let you put the request in on regular stuff until you have five days worth remaining.

Getting a normal appointment requires a wait of about eight weeks.

There's a reason their rating on Google was 2.1 stars when I last looked.

[Tamworthbay]

11 hours ago, paulplom said:

The lad from upstairs indirectly had a proper go at my 7 year old daughter yesterday morning, while I was in the flat but my partner didn't tell me till I got in from work. Her reasoning being I would have fucking killed him and I'd be locked up now.

She'd let the dog out of the front garden and the dog had jumped up at him (he's too friendly for his own good and I'm training him not to do it). Que lots of swearing and shouting. 'for fucking hells sake, get your fucking bastard dog under fucking control etc.' He went on far too long and made a proper show of it. My partner heard the whole thing but didn't interact for fear of escalating it. She's quite a large lady and I would't fight her put it that way ?

I really want to grab him by the throat and squeeze till his eyes pop out and then give him a proper head butt, followed by a few stamps. This will get me into trouble though. Can anyone recommend how I can tell him how displeased I am without violence? I need to make sure he doesn't do it again. I know he abuses Natalie's kids upstairs (not sexually), he has massive anger issues and seems to be out of control. I'm not a big bloke but I'm very fit and a bit raw boned. He is very slender and a bit of a runt. He does have a decent job and leaves at 5.30 am every morning so catching him by himself isn't too big of an issue.

Another problem is, if he back answers I will kill him.

 

Contact the Police and say he has been abusive to your daughter, point out her age and the situation. At the very least they will have a chat with him.

[chaseracer]

Zel, have you considered a complaint to your Clinical Commissioning Group (or whatever the hell they're called this week)?

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/

[Parky]

On 11/13/2019 at 2:30 PM, Parky said:

Well here we are six weeks from my car accident and the situation report update.

Other party admits liability, his insurer has car for a fortnight, finds loads more structural damage and declares it a write off.  Makes offer that doesn’t cover the outstanding pcp after early redemption penalties - having had the car three months that was inevitable.  They recommended going to my insurer as I have new for old cover in first three months.

My insurer won’t accept their assessment of the car being uneconomic to repair and so it is shifted to another shop “approved” by eSure.  This is a an old petrol station in Basildon with a shed out the back where the car sits in a muddy puddle in an insecure compound for another week.  These guys declare the car repairable and let on that the repair figure is 54% of the cars value,  at 55% it is a write off.  If I hadn’t paid extra for sat NAV, the repair cost  would have exceeded limits and it would have been declared a total loss.  However they also slip up by revealing salvage parts may be used where appropriate in order to keep costs down,

Complain to insurer who is adamant the work quality is superb, meet standards for uk repair shops etc.  Claims it is a superb garage but has never been there himself.  Don’t get me wrong, they are great panel beaters but when their main engineer rolls his eyes at the prospect of removing the dash and making sure it all works after I lost a lot of confidence.  And if anything doesn’t work after, like the auto wiper function the car has to Ben fixed by Brian out the back who has the big screwdriver.   

Then told it is standard practice to use salvage parts on repairs and my insurer can’t understand why I would want my car fixed with genuine parts.  I don’t fancy it being bits of crashed Mini with a blow over respray.  And I know Mrs P won’t use it anymore as she won’t trust it.  I also doubt this mob will reassemble it to factory  as the dash and screen have to come out, as does the front suspension to allow removal of the entire side panel.  In the factory this is done by laser guided robot, this lot have a mig welder and a tape measure.  

And the car will have a marker on it showing extensive repairs estimated to take at least six weeks. And that will fuck my pcp trade in figure as the garage isn’t Mini approved.

So have just insisted it has to go to the local Mini garage for an approved repair.  Insurer not happy as “They will be more expensive and they will write the car off” which is what I want them to do. 

I tell you what, dont ever let anyone crash into you.  The guy who hits me with his £500 Focus goes off and buys another.  His work is done.  I have had nothing but grief and shit and it seems to be never ending.  I can’t understand it, the other party admits liability, the insurer agrees and has stated in writing they are liable, their engineer writes the car off, but mine is determined to fix it on the cheap.  I don’t understand why they don’t just give me a cheque, claim it off the other party, and draw a line under it.

I certainly don’t see why I should end up with a patched up poorly aligned amalgamation of salvage parts on a three month old car.  Or am I being snooty and unreasonable?

Right then, at long last eSure agreed the car was a write off but only because “Letting Mini do it will be too expensive”.  So basically admitting they were doing it to a price rather than a standard.  Ah well.  Anyway next thing.  Apparently despite having a policy that pays full value if written off within the first year, it only applies if you own the car.  So because there is finance on it, they don’t have to pay full amount at all!  I said fine, I will speak to the finance company and you can pay them but no, they aren’t the registered keeper so they can’t get involved!  Nice little sidestep there eSure, wonder what the Ombudsman make of that?
 

So looks like I will be left with no car and my deposit monies just disappearing.  Like tears in the rain.  Like fuck that’s happening.  Even if I have to add it to my injury claim as a financial loss I will be having that thanks very much, even if it costs eSure loads in legal protection costs.  In the meantime I have a 19 plate A class Merc.  Nice Merc you got here eSure....

(me on the left)

 

[vulgalour]

That's insane. Why is insurance in this country insane?  I thought they only bullshitted owners of old cars but now, it looks like people with practically new cars in a no-fault incident get screwed over too.  What a shitshow.  Sorry I can't be more helpful or useful, Parky, I've just been amazed at how much of a crapshoot your insurers have been through the whole process of what should, in the face of it, have been pretty open and shut.

[chompy_snake]

2 hours ago, Parky said:

eSure 

Good luck with getting anything out of esure! 

They are one of the worst insurers in the ever. It's who the tw@ in the BMW was insured with when I was involved in horror van smash..... They tried saying it was our fault, shortly followed by I was passenger so entitled to nothing. 18months later I got a less than fair payout that didn't reflect injuries correctly. 

 

[captain_70s]

57 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

That's insane. Why is insurance in this country insane?

It's mandatory by law and run by completing businesses to make the maximum profits possible. Can you think of a worse combination for actually delivering a good service to a customer?

Having said that Footman James did send me an email asking if I wanted to combine my insurance policies for the Dolly and Acclaim for a saving of £3.05... (Although in fairness it would also add agreed value on to the Dolly's policy).

[Parky]

54 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

That's insane. Why is insurance in this country insane?  I thought they only bullshitted owners of old cars but now, it looks like people with practically new cars in a no-fault incident get screwed over too.  What a shitshow.  Sorry I can't be more helpful or useful, Parky, I've just been amazed at how much of a crapshoot your insurers have been through the whole process of what should, in the face of it, have been pretty open and shut.

It has been a pretty awful experience to be honest.  It couldn’t be any more straightforward.  Man hits me, admits liability, his insurer bent over backwards to help me yet mine fights me all the way.  I can’t understand it.  Whatever they pay me, they get back off Privilege so they literally have no loss whatsoever.  

Still it’s a nice Mercedes hire car.  Probably in their interest to settle this fairly soon as the costs of that will mount up pretty quick

[paulplom]

6 hours ago, chompy_snake said:

Good luck with getting anything out of esure! 

They are one of the worst insurers in the ever. It's who the tw@ in the BMW was insured with when I was involved in horror van smash..... They tried saying it was our fault, shortly followed by I was passenger so entitled to nothing. 18months later I got a less than fair payout that didn't reflect injuries correctly. 

 

It took me 7 months to get my money from them when I wrote my van off. They even sent an assessor out to make sure I didn't do it om purpose. 'It's my work van you cunt!' A total shower of shit and I vowed never again.

[New POD]

6 hours ago, captain_70s said:

It's mandatory by law and run by completing businesses to make the maximum profits possible. Can you think of a worse combination for actually delivering a good service to a customer?

 

That can be countered by saying if you are seen by customers as fair reasonable, easy to deal with, generous, honest, those customers will stay, and bring back more customers.   Who will spend more. 

 

[rainagain]

I’ve had a couple of non fault accidents and every time the insurance company have been total twats. 
 

Stupid things like even though they’re claiming full costs from the third party they wouldn’t hire me a replacement car bigger than a three door corsa as my car was over ten years old. That’s fine my family will just magically shrink. When I complained the guy had the cheek to say “you can’t expect a rolls Royce when you own a mini”.

I didn’t want a rolls Royce or a mini just a car the same friggin size as the one we bought to suit our family. Eventually when I told them there was no way my pregnant OH could bend into the rear of a three door car to strap in our kid did they eventually ‘upgrade’ me to a five door corsa. 

I’d bought the insurance from privilege who are a broker, they kept trying to pass me to the actual insurer who told me they wouldn’t speak to me as I wasn’t their customer. I actually ended up getting two phones and calling both at the same time and putting them on speaker phone and letting them argue it out themselves. 

[scdan4]

This is why 2 things now exist.

1) accident management companies 

2) gap insurance.

Which when you think about it both cost the insurance industry more now  than doing the job properly in the first place would have.

 

(However, having insured abroad, ours is actually cheap imho. (Not very good, but cheap))

 

[bub2006]

10 hours ago, chompy_snake said:

Good luck with getting anything out of esure! 

They are one of the worst insurers in the ever. It's who the tw@ in the BMW was insured with when I was involved in horror van smash..... They tried saying it was our fault, shortly followed by I was passenger so entitled to nothing. 18months later I got a less than fair payout that didn't reflect injuries correctly. 

 

I didn't know they tried saying it was our fault,if you told me I forgot! How could it have been my fault? Maybe i was impeding his travel by doing 65 in the inside lane and he was doing 142 at point of impact. What about him stating my van was evil and should be rammed off road too! Insurance companies are big fuck ups. Regulated by themselves with no government guidelines as such or external complaints procedures for something required by law. 

[MikeR]

Je       , every claim I hear about seems to be a horror story !!!  ...  you work hard to get something nice and it gets twatted !!

after getting stung over a low car park  wall that ran into the side of my decent *  car one dark night ....                  * if a Fiat can be

I decided running a shed was the best way forward.    ie    old volvo followed by a Micra ,   Mk1 Zaffy  , Meriva ,  Focus .

Never again would I be tied to a insurer that reams me out because I had to tick the claims in the last lifetime box  .

so I do have a  Focus that is worth sweet FA I can walk away from if the worst happens ...  I still have not fixed the rear wing some one hit ...

and dont mention the window winder ...... and suffered 2 break ins and numerous parking hit and runs with out doing a claim ...

[strangeangel]

 

<Answers four pages of questions>

 

 

Shame it didn't tell me that when it asked me what the car was on the first page...

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

 

<Answers four pages of questions>

 

 

Shame it didn't tell me that when it asked me what the car was on the first page...

 

It's the online equivalent of a telephone options system which doesn't cater for what you want....

[Parky]

3 hours ago, scdan4 said:

This is why 2 things now exist.

1) accident management companies 

2) gap insurance.

Which when you think about it both cost the insurance industry more now  than doing the job properly in the first place would have.

 

(However, having insured abroad, ours is actually cheap imho. (Not very good, but cheap))

 

The stupid thing is the small print states quite clearly that the first owner is entitled to the full refund in the first year.  But then they turn round and say “ah yes, but you have finance on it so technically you aren’t the owner”

”Ok says I, i will get the finance company to claim as they  are the owner”

”Aha, but they aren’t the registered keeper though!”

Basically if I bought it with a personal loan, no question re full refund.  Because I bought it on finance their initial offer was SIX GRAND less than I paid for it three months ago  leaving me with zero car and a big payment to the finance company.  I am not being six grand out of pocket because some other cunt can’t drive around a wet corner so I said make the pencils sharper and come back when common sense pays a visit.

As so many cars are bought on HP and PCP I do wonder how many folk are with eSure because of this new for old policy in the first year?  I wonder how many realise it won’t apply to 90% of new car buyers.  I certainly didn’t otherwise I would have gone with someone else.
 

Words such as complaints team, Ombusdman and Twitter are dancing around the page.  They want the V5 asap but I would rather wait for a proper offer as if I hand the car over to them I am effectively screwed from a negotiation perspective

[Mr Pastry]

This  doesn't help much, but I suspect in cases like this the insurance companies will scratch each other's backs.  Ultimately they are all in the same racket business together.  One side may have admitted liability, but they still want to contain their costs and pay out as little as possible, and they will try and arrange that quietly, behind the scenes.

[Jamie]

1 hour ago, Parky said:

The stupid thing is the small print states quite clearly that the first owner is entitled to the full refund in the first year.  But then they turn round and say “ah yes, but you have finance on it so technically you aren’t the owner”

”Ok says I, i will get the finance company to claim as they  are the owner”

”Aha, but they aren’t the registered keeper though!”

Basically if I bought it with a personal loan, no question re full refund.  Because I bought it on finance their initial offer was SIX GRAND less than I paid for it three months ago  leaving me with zero car and a big payment to the finance company.  I am not being six grand out of pocket because some other cunt can’t drive around a wet corner so I said make the pencils sharper and come back when common sense pays a visit.

As so many cars are bought on HP and PCP I do wonder how many folk are with eSure because of this new for old policy in the first year?  I wonder how many realise it won’t apply to 90% of new car buyers.  I certainly didn’t otherwise I would have gone with someone else.
 

Words such as complaints team, Ombusdman and Twitter are dancing around the page.  They want the V5 asap but I would rather wait for a proper offer as if I hand the car over to them I am effectively screwed from a negotiation perspective

I can see this gap insurance becoming the next ppi as surely they have to make it crystal that your gap policy is pointless if buying on pcp/hp

[myglaren]

1 hour ago, Parky said:

They want the V5 asap but I would rather wait for a proper offer as if I hand the car over to them I am effectively screwed from a negotiation perspective

They should never have that!

I had my Accord written off by another driver - I was stationary at the time.

The other partie's insurer paid out within ten days, more than I paid for the car.  I drove it for a year then part-exed it.

I expected them to take it and scrap it but they assured me that it was my possession and not theirs.

Only your insurer takes possession of your car.

Same when my daughter's Fiesta was written off.  She retained the car, sold it on and it was back on the road a week later.

The insurance payout was more than she had paid for it and paid for her newer Megane C+C, cash over from the sale of the Fiesta.

You most definitely need to use Facebook/Twitter to help them become aware of how wrong they are, also use the legal cover of your own insurance.

Despicable arseholes that they are .

[strangeangel]

More insurance bollocks... when I got the Aixam (sans V5) I knew I'd have a bit of a wait for getting it on the road, so I got a load of insurance quotes with the starting date for the policy as 30th Nov. The best of these was £249, not great but I have no spare NCB. The V5 finally turned up yesterday and, wanting to have a play, I retrieved the quotes and changed the date to today, at which point the lowest one mentioned above shot up to £371.

 

Having re-run the quote with a series of different dates in, it transpires that I can insure it for the aforementioned £249 in a week from now, so that's what's happening. Presumably the bastards are looking to cash in on some perceived desperation with this tactic? Whatever - fuck 'em - it can sit where it is for another week.

 

On the upside, I discovered yesterday that our local council do a 'green' parking pass for the town centre - 50% off the normal season ticket price for hybrids and free for full electric cars

 

[anonymous user]

Tyre pressure sensors, what a good idea. Two weeks ago one on a back wheel decided to leak and make the tyre go flat (how ironic). This week a front one has gone down and set the Tpm system off (this time showing a blank reading, tyre pressure is fine). So that will cost me again, and I have to put up with binging warnings and flashing lights until it's fixed. And the bonnet pull has fallen apart again good job I bought a spare last time it did that. 

Conclusion this car hates me.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Another Romanian-plated RHD car has turned up in the street. These fellas seem to be untouchable,  like the Romanian-plated Transit on the Great North Way last night that decided not to wait at the red light like the other cars, but instead go straight across the junction when the lights were green for the other direction. 

[dozeydustman]

Gone away to Dorset for the weekend with wifey and her best mate. They’ve gone out for the afternoon, I’m left at base as I wanted to just chill.

 Woke up this morning full of snot, stomach churning over like a washing machine and shivering like it’s minus 30. That’s the weekend ruined for me

[bub2006]

2 hours ago, strangeangel said:

More insurance bollocks... when I got the Aixam (sans V5) I knew I'd have a bit of a wait for getting it on the road, so I got a load of insurance quotes with the starting date for the policy as 30th Nov. The best of these was £249, not great but I have no spare NCB. The V5 finally turned up yesterday and, wanting to have a play, I retrieved the quotes and changed the date to today, at which point the lowest one mentioned above shot up to £371.

 

Having re-run the quote with a series of different dates in, it transpires that I can insure it for the aforementioned £249 in a week from now, so that's what's happening. Presumably the bastards are looking to cash in on some perceived desperation with this tactic? Whatever - fuck 'em - it can sit where it is for another week.

 

On the upside, I discovered yesterday that our local council do a 'green' parking pass for the town centre - 50% off the normal season ticket price for hybrids and free for full electric cars

 

Been going on a while has that. The closer the date of inception means higher premium. for someone like me it means a big ball ache. 

[SiC]

I've had two rear ended shunts and my wife has been rear ended in her car too. One of mine was Admiral, other was under Directline. Wife was with Directline too. My cars were written off, my wifes car was repaired. 

All of it was zero ballache. Paid out in the space of two weeks on the write-offs. Wife car took 4 weeks to repair. All cases got a hire car to cover it. Admiral one went to a claim management company, Directline they handled (or their claim management subsidiary).

Even if it does cost a bit more to stay with Directline, the reports above have made me want to even more. Always been competitively priced (like within a tenner) after I get them to requote on renewal too.