The grumpy thread

[Dave_Q]

1 hour ago, mercedade said:

When I did this 2 months ago, I actually went through with the cancellation because I got so sick of it (their best offer was £28pm), arranged to move to Shell Broadband and then Virgin called me back 3 days later with another offer - now down to £22 pm.

I accepted Virgin's offer and called off Shell

Next level move, good to know. 

TBH I have no intention of actually leaving them as no other provider currently available on my street can get anywhere close to this. 

[Volksy]

I've just had this with Talk Talk.

 

Was out of contract, and the price rising (doubling).

Went with Shell via Uswitch, £26pcm with a £120 Amazon voucher 18 Month Contract. For Full Fibre also.

Called Talk Talk to cancel, put through to retention, couldn't get anywhere near the price from Shell. Passed to 'Cancellations', Oh! Look, I've found this deal which may suit you.....

Full fibre, free install, 12 Month Contract, £22pcm discounted by 50% for the first six months. 

 

It really is a pain in the arse to deal with stuff in this way. Should have taken a 24 month contract, so I don't have to do this again in a year....

[myglaren]

I should too.

£84 broadband and including mobile @ £5 a month , no landline phone. 

55 megawhatists down, 20 up, in theory but often as low as 10 down, none up and often drops out altogether.

 

[Bren]

Before I buy tyres I need a new tyre pressure sensor as one has failed.

I am wary of the cheap chinese items - the cheapest I can get a genuine item is £50.

Unnecessary tech because people cannkt check tyre pressures.

[EyesWeldedShut]

30 minutes ago, myglaren said:

I should too.

£84 broadband and including mobile @ £5 a month , no landline phone. 

55 megawhatists down, 20 up, in theory but often as low as 10 down, none up and often drops out altogether.

 

We're FTTC about 1km away, dodgy copper up from there -  4Mb down 0.5 up

Switched to a 4G Sim router - Smarty - £16 a month and it's around 8 Mb down and more up - drops out now and then but, for £16 we feel like it's zooming along.
We were due to get full fat fibre to the (rural) premises under the UK 'levelling up' grants but, Catch 22. The company that was doing it says not enough people have signed up - they need (say) 400 signups. There's 340 people live here. Hmmmmmm - that's a Grump

 

[Zelandeth]

Penalty charge notice through from MK Council for having the audacity to break down in a bus stop a couple of weeks ago.

Like hell they're getting a penny out of me.

For starters a breakdown is a reasonable cause to have been there (unless they would rather have had me stopped where I was blocking a busy, signal controlled junction), so it would be getting appealed anyway.  I have written evidence from the breakdown recovery provider that they attended.

Secondly, the bus stop clearway markings in the stop are completely unenforceable anyway as they have totally fouled up the markings themselves, and the accompanying signage is completely missing.

I only know that crap because installing the things was part of my day job for several years.  I did check the current version of the manual as well in case the regs had changed, but nope.

Also, I was there for a total of around 15 minutes, during which time nobody approached me, nor did a single bus pass by.  So I'm kind of curious where their evidence came from.  Guessing some council vehicle fitted with CCTV (I don't *think* the junction itself is covered by CCTV), but it does feel distinctly big brotherish.  I don't have a copy of the photo, just a "You were here at time X on day y and contravened this bit of the Road Traffic Act."

I've no problem whatsoever with the presence of bus priority measures like this, but I do have an issue with them being enforced in quite such a predatory way.  Especially when the only person I inconvenienced was myself...and when the very measures needed TO enforce them haven't even been installed properly.  It's really not hard to get a bit of road lining and a sign right...

[Remspoor]

Cookies. The computer type.

Looking for new tyres for the car. Spanish website filled out the size. The chose another Spanish site and another. All of them had the tyre size completed for me when I opened up the page. Then out of curiosity looked at UK sites and Dutch sites. All of them had the tyre details completed.

I should clear the cookies are each site visit. 😕

[Dave_Q]

44 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

Cookies. The computer type.

Looking for new tyres for the car. Spanish website filled out the size. The chose another Spanish site and another. All of them had the tyre size completed for me when I opened up the page. Then out of curiosity looked at UK sites and Dutch sites. All of them had the tyre details completed.

I should clear the cookies are each site visit. 😕

I feel like I should be more bothered about this sort of thing, but if Zuckerberg and Bezos want to know I've been looking at £200 scrap mopeds again, or whatever early 00s car from my childhood is now available for circa a grand, they're welcome to that useful marketing info. The algorithm has little idea what to sell me either way.

[EyesWeldedShut]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

  Guessing some council vehicle fitted with CCTV

Bus itself? TfL operate bus lane cameras from some of their buses. Ask my brother in law how he knows.
MK maybe do the same?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Bus itself? TfL operate bus lane cameras from some of their buses. Ask my brother in law how he knows.
MK maybe do the same?

There would have been my first thought if one had passed by in either direction the whole time I was there!  However I didn't see one for the whole time I was parked up there.

[Metal Guru]

9 hours ago, Volksy said:

I've just had this with Talk Talk.

 

Was out of contract, and the price rising (doubling).

Went with Shell via Uswitch, £26pcm with a £120 Amazon voucher 18 Month Contract. For Full Fibre also.

Called Talk Talk to cancel, put through to retention, couldn't get anywhere near the price from Shell. Passed to 'Cancellations', Oh! Look, I've found this deal which may suit you.....

Full fibre, free install, 12 Month Contract, £22pcm discounted by 50% for the first six months. 

 

It really is a pain in the arse to deal with stuff in this way. Should have taken a 24 month contract, so I don't have to do this again in a year....

I was with Talk Talk in the early 2000s. When I tried to change ( to Orange), we went through all the rigmarole of changing , told me it was all going through, then contacted Orange entirely behind my back and said I’d changed my mind.

[EspenO]

5 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Looking for new tyres for the car. Spanish website filled out the size. The chose another Spanish site and another. All of them had the tyre size completed for me when I opened up the page. Then out of curiosity looked at UK sites and Dutch sites.

They might all be different store fronts for Delticom AG

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

There would have been my first thought if one had passed by in either direction the whole time I was there!  However I didn't see one for the whole time I was parked up there.

How about either a stealth drone (if you are paranoid) or one of those wee parcel robots that creep around MK.
(I'd suggest concrete cows but they're a total MK trope so too obvious)

[myglaren]

16 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Penalty charge notice through from MK Council for having the audacity to break down in a bus stop a couple of weeks ago.

Like hell they're getting a penny out of me.

Considering the number of cars permanently parked in bus stops around here that is completely predatory.

[hairnet]

yeah so having been up since 7am on thursday

going to bed now

wanted to set alarm for 9pm (tonight)

so put in 0930 and wondered why it said 16 hours

made me check 3 phones that the date and time were right

and set it again and still 16 hours

oh ive broken something so turned it off and on again

ive just realised no its me thats doing it wrong i want tonight not tomorrow

im def going to sleep now

verdict: useless twat

[twosmoke300]

Followed a lovely RHD VAUXHALL Astra today on Romanian plates. 
Nothing dodgy there ! No Siree

[horriblemercedes]

What a shitty evening. My friend called and her fiance has died. Never met him but I have noticed that with him seems to be the first time she was ever happy and from what she told me, he seemed like a great guy. Totally unexpected. 36 years old, had a heart attack and was gone in minutes. 

 

Straight after that call my mum phoned and my sister has been taken to hospital. Waiting to hear more about that - that's all I know. 

 

I was looking forward to a pleasant, quiet Friday evening with a book or film and a pizza! 

[Remspoor]

23 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Zuckerberg and Bezos

I do not do social media. it seems now you have to be signed in to twatter to read so I will not be doing that any longer either.

[Remspoor]

18 hours ago, EspenO said:

They might all be different store fronts for Delticom AG

I have not visited any of the those listed. But if they have the market for tyres sewn up then it is a good passibility. I have never heard of them until you posted that.

[EspenO]

5 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I have not visited any of the those listed. But if they have the market for tyres sewn up then it is a good passibility. I have never heard of them until you posted that.

Maybe not sewn up, but certainly a major player and early internet sales adopter 🙂 I’ve used one of their norwegian-language store fronts (dekkonline.com) for quite a few years now.  After a while you recognise the similar layout and search options on their various sites. 

[castros_bro]

On 09/11/2023 at 16:58, Zelandeth said:

Penalty charge notice through from MK Council for having the audacity to break down in a bus stop a couple of weeks ago.

Like hell they're getting a penny out of me.

For starters a breakdown is a reasonable cause to have been there (unless they would rather have had me stopped where I was blocking a busy, signal controlled junction), so it would be getting appealed anyway.  I have written evidence from the breakdown recovery provider that they attended.

Secondly, the bus stop clearway markings in the stop are completely unenforceable anyway as they have totally fouled up the markings themselves, and the accompanying signage is completely missing.

I only know that crap because installing the things was part of my day job for several years.  I did check the current version of the manual as well in case the regs had changed, but nope.

Also, I was there for a total of around 15 minutes, during which time nobody approached me, nor did a single bus pass by.  So I'm kind of curious where their evidence came from.  Guessing some council vehicle fitted with CCTV (I don't *think* the junction itself is covered by CCTV), but it does feel distinctly big brotherish.  I don't have a copy of the photo, just a "You were here at time X on day y and contravened this bit of the Road Traffic Act."

I've no problem whatsoever with the presence of bus priority measures like this, but I do have an issue with them being enforced in quite such a predatory way.  Especially when the only person I inconvenienced was myself...and when the very measures needed TO enforce them haven't even been installed properly.  It's really not hard to get a bit of road lining and a sign right...

Isn't that from the newly installed DVLA  AI  which can predict when your vehicle will break down based on vehicle type, age, MOT feed back and vast data base  AND where you will be driving at the time? 

 

[myglaren]

On 09/11/2023 at 19:15, Remspoor said:

Cookies. The computer type.

Looking for new tyres for the car. Spanish website filled out the size. The chose another Spanish site and another. All of them had the tyre size completed for me when I opened up the page. Then out of curiosity looked at UK sites and Dutch sites. All of them had the tyre details completed.

I should clear the cookies are each site visit. 😕

Have you tried Oponeo?

[hairnet]

got back from squiggle and home about 12 ish

pottered about for a bit watched countdown (!) decided was tired went to bed between 4 and 5

got up half an hour ago

ffs

this is why started coming home thursday rather than today

was nearly gonna go from airport to amsterdam - glad didnt now would just have fell asleep everywhere (sir? youre in groningen the train has finished etc)

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I inadvertently ended up watching a couple of minutes of this bollocks. The kid's an utter bellend. 

[chaseracer]

What a TWAT... 🤨

[Remspoor]

8 hours ago, myglaren said:

Have you tried Oponeo?

No I did not.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

What a TWAT... 🤨

In some ways yes, but he is making an awful lot of money doing it, so I don’t think he’s stupid.

[Zelandeth]

Whatever this sodding cold/flu/thing is.  It's been a week plus change now.  Was feeling slightly better yesterday but have slid back today and am now feeling bloody awful again.

Really fed up now.  

[MikeR]

head light bulbs ... duff ones ... changing them is now longer a roadside job ..

sons aygo became one eyed at night , just pull the bulb and pop in a new one ..  thats the plan

no , the bulb arse is up against the turret , the connector is also seized on , and its cold , and its raining ..and the rubber boot wont even shift

in the end we undid all the bolts and forced the headlight unit around till we could get  the bulb out , new one in , test and refit ..

but as one duff bulb normally means the others on its way , in the interests of not suffering on a snowy day we went for some more hand abuse and injuries

by replacing the nearside bulb as well ....

which had the added satisfaction of the earthing lead being in the way , and extra wiggle  room to get the unit moved had to be  acquired by undoing the wing bolt and gently HEAVING till we could get the bulb changed ,tested  , and  refitting involved MORE HEAVING involving long tools to get it back  ..

quite a light injury list , just 3 minor cuts and some blood loss

next time I see a bug with panel gaps I will put it down to headlight bulb changes ...

[beko1987]

Smashed my thumb on my right hand a few months ago when fixing the Xsara. It's gone through it yukky and hurting stage now and is at the waiting for the top layer to fall off and reveal an ugly nail stage. 

 

Earlier this morning I bought my left hand down hard without really thinking and smacked me left index nail square on something with a hard edge and cracked it clean in too with the same mega hurting as the thumb nail coming back 😡