The grumpy thread

[New POD]

  On 19/07/2021 at 21:59, yohan said:

Shouldnt really talk about my customers but… this one deserves a mention.

I have visited him twice to service and repair his mower which he had bought second hand and it is of a cheap B&Q own brand variety. Not so bad if its just used every other weekend, but no, he uses it everyday to earn a living. He then asks me to repair his 4 month old strimmer of same brand and origin. I then point out that the parts he needs are only available through a warranty claim which I as an independant mechanic am not allowed to do (rant within rant).

So anyway, next appointment is arranged to repair something else on his mower, parts are ordered and visit arranged in one weeks time. Then in the meantime I start getting phonecalls from him 2 to 3 times a day every day including late evenings and weekends. His strimmer is broken again but still usable and he has found a second hand obscure chinese branded one locally to buy, should he buy it he asks? No I tell him because the brand has disappeared and parts are an arse to find, so lets just fix the other one when I come for the mower. .. OK… Next day… the strimmer is cutting out… wait until tuesday when our appointment is I tell him… 2 hours later… it doesnt start anymore, seems to be siezed… right make a warranty claim… 1 hour later… B&Q wont accept it anymore so he just went and bought the one I told him not to… next day…can I come and fix the new one… yes on tuesday… ok… monday evening 7pm… A customer just booked him to cut grass tomorrow morning can I reschedule the appointment… Sorry fully booked until my holidays and I dont come back until mid august… „ok I‘ll wait until then“…

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That's no way to run s seasonal business. If I mowed lawns for a living, I would have 3 back up plans,  and I'd have a stock of spares. 

I'd be on first name terms of an equipment hire shop owner.

Oh and I'd have a repairer (you), with a contract, where he came within 24 hours and fixed it. For which I'd obviously pay more. 

Perhaps you could help him with his business model. Why not offer to rent him the equipment he needs, and take the stupidity out of his decision making? 

Leaves him.to worry about his customers and how to get more work. 

[sierraman]

  On 20/07/2021 at 05:34, New POD said:

By living in a house share in Hemel.Hempstead and cycling to work? And eating Tesco value beans on toast for your main meals. And having a partner with a 20k job.  Hence the number of HMOs and the popularity of spare room dot co dot UK (which is very London centric) 

That is you can't live independently, alone, in nice secure accomodation in London. 

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That’s not living. 🤣

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 06:07, sierraman said:

That’s not living. 🤣

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No.  But if you live in London.are single, and on £20k that's the reality. £1436 a month take home. 

Now you can get a studio flat for £700 - £800 plus bills,  in what area ?  But there's never going to be money in the pot. 

Or you go "lodger" or house share in a nicer area. 

It's shit. And reason why other cities are nicer. 

[yohan]

  On 20/07/2021 at 05:43, New POD said:

That's no way to run s seasonal business. If I mowed lawns for a living, I would have 3 back up plans,  and I'd have a stock of spares. 

I'd be on first name terms of an equipment hire shop owner.

Oh and I'd have a repairer (you), with a contract, where he came within 24 hours and fixed it. For which I'd obviously pay more. 

Perhaps you could help him with his business model. Why not offer to rent him the equipment he needs, and take the stupidity out of his decision making? 

Leaves him.to worry about his customers and how to get more work. 

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You are right in that he needs help, but I think in more ways then just running a business, since he cant even work a ruler when I ask him to measure the diameter of a hole, so that I dont have to drive half an hour there and half an hour back to determine which version of a part fits his strimmer.

Since Im only a mobile mechanic and not a dealer, I had pointed out where and what to buy.  But he has neither got the money (living in a sink estate) nor even heard of such lofty brands as john deere or husqvarna… 

[chadders]

  On 20/07/2021 at 00:50, wuvvum said:

Been looking at jobs online - thinking of trying to find a job based in London but that allows me to work remotely for most of the time.  Except that some of the salaries are absolutely shocking.  One I was looking at - admittedly an entry level position and not the sort of thing I would be looking for - offered a salary of £20K a year.  How the actual fuck is anyone supposed to survive on £20K in, or anywhere near, London?!

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People still living at home, which is not too far from work. Some of our junior admin staff were in this category.

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 07:02, yohan said:

You are right in that he needs help, but I think in more ways then just running a business, since he cant even work a ruler when I ask him to measure the diameter of a hole, so that I dont have to drive half an hour there and half an hour back to determine which version of a part fits his strimmer.

Since Im only a mobile mechanic and not a dealer, I had pointed out where and what to buy.  But he has neither got the money (living in a sink estate) nor even heard of such lofty brands as john deere or husqvarna… 

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When people say they'd like to be self employed, but they don't have any ideas, I always say, what was the last thing you paid for.  Could you do it better? In this case, are we are all thinking we could do it better?  I could get finance, get the right tools, in the right van, go to the right areas and get customers who'd pay a proper amount, and employ people a lesser amount, whilst making sure that I was making a profit and making sure my back up plans were in place. 

Probably. Why don't I? Lazy. 

[MikeR]

I have parked my Focus up on the drive ...

decided that the C1 can do more than its nominal 3K miles a year .......

being a Diddy car , its first  run out was to Knotty Ash ....

[Tadhg Tiogar]

  On 20/07/2021 at 00:50, wuvvum said:

Been looking at jobs online - thinking of trying to find a job based in London but that allows me to work remotely for most of the time.  Except that some of the salaries are absolutely shocking.  One I was looking at - admittedly an entry level position and not the sort of thing I would be looking for - offered a salary of £20K a year.  How the actual fuck is anyone supposed to survive on £20K in, or anywhere near, London?!

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Slavery was never really abolished as such.

[twosmoke300]

  On 20/07/2021 at 05:43, New POD said:

That's no way to run s seasonal business. If I mowed lawns for a living, I would have 3 back up plans,  and I'd have a stock of spares. 

I'd be on first name terms of an equipment hire shop owner.

Oh and I'd have a repairer (you), with a contract, where he came within 24 hours and fixed it. For which I'd obviously pay more. 

Perhaps you could help him with his business model. Why not offer to rent him the equipment he needs, and take the stupidity out of his decision making? 

Leaves him.to worry about his customers and how to get more work. 

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Meanwhile back in the real world 

[Dead_E23]

I have one of those shit B&Q mowers which I bought cheaply as a non-runner mainly because it was in the next road. It only needed a woodruff key, but whilst I was pondering whether it might need a carb (it didn't) I found this place here sells bits for them: https://coreservice.co.uk/shop/bq-own-brand/petrol-products-bq-own-brand/lawnmowers-petrol-products-bq-own-brand/bq-own-brand-40cm-petrol-lawnmower-with-se475-engine/

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 08:16, twosmoke300 said:

Meanwhile back in the real world 

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See my slightly later post. 

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 08:15, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Slavery was never really abolished as such.

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Ah, but there's nothing that forces someone to take a job in London. 

The upside* of Brexit/Covid shit storm is that employers are suddenly struggling to get (un)qualified staff at minimum or just low wages.   

Either they pay more, or they find a way of doing business without staff. 

If they have to pay more, does that mean the price goes up? Does that mean that customers go elsewhere, or decide not to buy (which on a large scale causes recession?) 

Or does it mean the business owner takes less profit, or has to negotiate with his landlord, or makes better use of his assets? Like keeping a restaurant open longer and offering different options at different times of the day. The butchers shop that turns into a restaurant at night. The night club that runs as a small business conference centre in the day. 

Anyway. I digress. I have no idea what point I was trying to make. 

[New POD]

Ah yes. I've looked at what jobs are available in my field in the Northwest of England and there's fuck all industry and too many people chasing those jobs I can do. 

Move south, and the opposite appears to be true. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

  On 20/07/2021 at 09:00, New POD said:

..... Anyway. I digress. I have no idea what point I was trying to make. 

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Could you run the middle bit by me again?

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 09:16, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Could you run the middle bit by me again?

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The country is fucked.  

Our wealth (Or rather the wealth that belongs to the wealthy) was gathered by fucking over the rest of the world and fucking over the desperate and poor, in our own country. 

We have governments who have mismanaged the future based on what they learnt at Eton or Oxford, going back 100s of years. And continuing to this day.   

I hope wages rise but costs of living don't.

So I'm a clear dreamer. 

[chadders]

Would you class someone with 3 houses as wealthy?

If so who did you fuck over?

[New POD]

  On 20/07/2021 at 10:53, chadders said:

Would you class someone with 3 houses as wealthy?

If so who did you fuck over?

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Mainly Rolls Royce PLC - For the deposits. 

When you say own? 

2 have mortgages and neither of those has a garage and none of them has a stable block, or a paddock or a sunken garden, (except when it rains). 

 

[chadders]

I didn't say own.

Most people have mortgages on their houses and very few have stable blocks, paddocks or sunken gardens, at least in my experience.

 

[cort1977]

For the first time in a generation the balance of power is shifting to employees from employers.  More jobs and a reduced number of candidates will lead to wage rises eventually.  However, as stated above the cost of housing in the south so far outstrips wages now that it would take years to rebalance.

[ChinaTom]

  On 20/07/2021 at 11:15, chadders said:

I didn't say own.

Most people have mortgages on their houses and very few have stable blocks, paddocks or sunken gardens, at least in my experience.

 

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I say he has fucked over society. He’d be better off sinking his independent wealth into a country pile - paying local businesses to dig a pool, local youth to maintain it, retirees to tend the lawns and just have the formal garden and orangery to pass the time for himself. Meanwhile, a bunch of start-outs are being denied the opportunity to struggle and strive their way onto the property ladder via these nice little terraces that can become a proud first step. I’m organising a march to protest against the champagne socialists and holding Rolls Royce responsible for enabling the actions of these parasites by selling their shares in an irresponsible fashion. The March will start by my shed, travel past the veg patches and end up by my back door so I can walk to the fridge to avail myself of a cold drink. Who is with me? No-one? Good. Shan’t have to share my cold drink then.

[New POD]

Who you calling a Champagne Socialist ? 

Malbec perhaps because not really a fan of bubbles. 

[Talbot]

  On 20/07/2021 at 06:22, New POD said:

But if you live in London.are single, and on £20k that's the reality. £1436 a month take home. 

Now you can get a studio flat for £700 - £800 plus bills,  in what area ?  But there's never going to be money in the pot. 

Or you go "lodger" or house share in a nicer area. 

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London isn't the worst for that...

It's very noticeable that housing within the M25 (but not right in the city, obviously) is cheaper than housing outside of it.  The worst of the worst is the gentrified commuter belt that sits from the M25 to about 30 miles out from it.  Housing is easily 20% or more expensive than within london suburbs, yet jobs do not have "London Weighting".  Many many jobs are minimum wage (IE about 20K) and you're lucky to get even a house share for £600-£650 + bills.  A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

 

[yohan]

  On 20/07/2021 at 08:24, Dead_E23 said:

I have one of those shit B&Q mowers which I bought cheaply as a non-runner mainly because it was in the next road. It only needed a woodruff key, but whilst I was pondering whether it might need a carb (it didn't) I found this place here sells bits for them: https://coreservice.co.uk/shop/bq-own-brand/petrol-products-bq-own-brand/lawnmowers-petrol-products-bq-own-brand/bq-own-brand-40cm-petrol-lawnmower-with-se475-engine/

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Ah yes I used them for the first time last week for another customer. Part was in stock, infact they showed having 40 of them. Order confirmed, and then dispatched exactly 7 days later (yesterday)…  so still waiting for it to be delivered.

[Dead_E23]

  On 20/07/2021 at 13:07, Talbot said:

A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

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Does that comparison take account of the quality of the area though?  Anything 2 beds within London for £850pcm is likely to be in a rough area, yet a quick look on Rightmove shows the same amount gives a choice of flats in St Albans or Tunbridge Wells (but not Sevenoaks, unsurprisingly)

[Talbot]

The absurdly expensive stuff is more to the south and west of London.  And yes, the £850 two-bed flat within the M25 isn't going to be in the best area, but then as far as I'm concerned almost everything within the M25 is a grotty area.  There's always specific instances of individual properties that buck the trend, but as far as I can see there's definitely a "hump" of higher prices for property in a ring around london.. essentailly the "easy" commuter belt area.

Compared to the 2-ish bedroom barn conversion with double garage and massive private driveway that I used to rent in Dorset for £375/month not that many years ago (ok, a bit over 10 years ago) it all seems astonomically expensive to me.

[chodweaver]

Tv and radio ads which...

actually, ALL tv and radio advertising can get in the sea, but the ads that can get in first, to be trampled into the sharp shells and rocks, broken White Lightning bottles, half corroded oil cans and shopping trolleys that will cut them to ribbons, by all the other ads right behind them, are the ads with the 'catchy' little whistle embellishing them. Which is what I have been subjected to this morning by the neighbours' fencing contractors who, despite working in the great outdoors in glorious weather, with birdsong to entertain them, have brought their fucking Makita builder's radio with them, tuned to a commercial station with a playlist made exclusively of the worst 80s shit, but limited to 16 tracks, so Starship 'we built this fucking city' and Phil Collins' Sussudio will be back around in 3, 2, 1...

Fuckers.

So i remembered i had some pressure washing to do. That drowned it out.

[chadders]

  On 20/07/2021 at 13:07, Talbot said:

London isn't the worst for that...

It's very noticeable that housing within the M25 (but not right in the city, obviously) is cheaper than housing outside of it.  The worst of the worst is the gentrified commuter belt that sits from the M25 to about 30 miles out from it.  Housing is easily 20% or more expensive than within london suburbs, yet jobs do not have "London Weighting".  Many many jobs are minimum wage (IE about 20K) and you're lucky to get even a house share for £600-£650 + bills.  A smallish two-bedroom flat is significantly over a grand a month (like £1250). Plus bills.  That same flat in a suburb a few miles within the M25 would be £850.

 

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It's not just London.

Our youngest and his girlfriend rent a one and a half bedroom, i.e. a small boxroom, flat in Oxford and that's 1,500 a month.

[wuvvum]

Oxford is almost comically overpriced nowadays.  As is Bristol.

[sierraman]

  On 20/07/2021 at 11:36, cort1977 said:

For the first time in a generation the balance of power is shifting to employees from employers.  More jobs and a reduced number of candidates will lead to wage rises eventually.  However, as stated above the cost of housing in the south so far outstrips wages now that it would take years to rebalance.

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It’s not just London. My old man lives in Somerset, 80% of the jobs there are pretty much minimum wage working in the tourist industry. Houses are minimum £200k, unless you’ve a very sizeable deposit you are going nowhere on those salaries. Lovely part of the country, but if you’ve no money it’s a gilded cage. As a result all the young folks fuck off to Bristol where the jobs are, in your early 20’s in rural Somerset unless you’ve a trade you are a bit bollocksed if you want to stick around. 

As you say the balance of power is such now that people will gladly work delivering parcels for 50p a drop, I can’t quite coin the phrase but it amounts to something along the lines of ‘if you keep people in a situation where they are feeling as if they owe you, you have an employee for life, they’ll not leave’.

Flip side of same coin we are all contributing to this in a round about way, Ive just ordered 6 mini wire brushes for something absurd like £2.95 delivered. Somewhere along the line someone is paying the price for a retailer to be able to offer that.

[Markeh]

I've screwed up shipping some laptops out last week. Two were meant to go to a computer shop not too far from here, they've instead received an ancient one someone down Cornwall way had bought. Went and fetched the ancient one from the shop, tried to contact the one down in Cornwall to get those two back... nothing so far. Hoping and praying that it's because someone else signed for the delivery and they were out at work, otherwise I'm about £250 out of pocket. Serves me right for trying to package up stuff at 10pm while tired and hot. So pissed off with myself.

And then had to go and grab a third from a parcel drop off place I never normally use, who never actually bothered to give UPS the parcel... Some days I wonder why I do this.