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Posted

My wife's special super power is getting people seen by Doctors.

i have heard her mention 

the disabilities act,

thier duty of care, (to a vulnerable patient/child) 

asking to see thier written complaints procedure.

 

Posted
  On 27/01/2025 at 10:10, Metal Guru said:

No insurance company is going to accept an expired licence.

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If your licence has expired but there is no reason why you shouldn't have a new one, the insurance company has no higher risk, because you are still the same driver and the insurance ombudsman has ruled in customer's favour on numerous occasions. But that don't stop insurance companies trying it on. 

  • Like 2
Posted

Bloody moderns!

Colleague who is not at all car savvy has a 67 plate Astra K  petrol with 90k on the clock, fsh.

Looks to be a common fault but vacuum pump has failed and snapped the end off the crankshaft, engine still runs.  New crankshaft only available from Vauxhall but showing as on backorder for months with no expected delivery date, so looking like it's scrap...

Might make a cheeky offer...

Posted

Don't know anything about those engines @Floatylight, but if it's 'just' a vacuum pump drive, surely it's possible to bodge a repair?

Posted

All the manufacturers are back order re parts some upto 6 months.

  • Sad 1
Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 13:36, Floatylight said:

Bloody moderns!

Colleague who is not at all car savvy has a 67 plate Astra K  petrol with 90k on the clock, fsh.

Looks to be a common fault but vacuum pump has failed and snapped the end off the crankshaft, engine still runs.  New crankshaft only available from Vauxhall but showing as on backorder for months with no expected delivery date, so looking like it's scrap...

Might make a cheeky offer...

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May I suggest , with relevant experience of recent vauxhalls , no , no , no , noooooo  , run Forest run , life is to short .... Trust me something else ...prob gbox will follow suit 

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  • Thanks 1
Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 13:36, Floatylight said:

Bloody moderns!

Colleague who is not at all car savvy has a 67 plate Astra K  petrol with 90k on the clock, fsh.

Looks to be a common fault but vacuum pump has failed and snapped the end off the crankshaft, engine still runs.  New crankshaft only available from Vauxhall but showing as on backorder for months with no expected delivery date, so looking like it's scrap...

Might make a cheeky offer...

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Wouldn't this be a broken camshaft rather than crankshaft? 

Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 10:19, comfortablynumb said:

MK1 grandson (5) has been sent home from school, high temperature, he's been ill, but seemed to be getting better. He's autistic and in a special needs school..

Daughter has got him a doctor appointment, but since she hasn't got a license,  SIL had to leave work and come home to collect him, and then got stuck in traffic, meaning he was literally 2 minutes late to the appointment.

Doctor refused to see him!

They've complained, particularly since last time they went the doctors kept them waiting!

He's now got another appointment for 5.25 this afternoon!

Where the hell is the logic in that? Yeah say they'll have to wait for the next appointment, but he's a child for Christ sake, let alone one with special needs.

I despair!

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 Gentle,sympathetic letter of complaint to the practise manager is the best IMHO. They're often under massive pressure.

Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 22:46, High Jetter said:

 Gentle,sympathetic letter of complaint to the practise manager is the best IMHO. They're often under massive pressure.

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Sod that! The NHS is under pressure. Of course it is , but so are many other people. We have got into this mindset of not criticising the NHS and be grateful for anything we can get however inadequate. The “we won’t see you if you’re late” rule is pure arrogance by doctors. It doesn’t matter how long you wait though, we’re important, you’re not. (I’ve NEVER been seen within 10 minutes of an appointment time).I

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 00:44, Metal Guru said:

Sod that! The NHS is under pressure. Of course it is , but so are many other people. We have got into this mindset of not criticising the NHS and be grateful for anything we can get however inadequate. The “we won’t see you if you’re late” rule is pure arrogance by doctors. It doesn’t matter how long you wait though, we’re important, you’re not. (I’ve NEVER been seen within 10 minutes of an appointment time).I

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Fully accept that some flexibility would be prudent, especially in the case of a child with special needs or somebody otherwise vulnerable.

As a semi-related side note, when I was a student I did a bit of temp working for a GPs surgery as an administrator.  One afternoon I was asked to gather, process and present the data on 'did not attend' (DNA) for appointments, i.e. ones where the patient didn't show up.  After a couple of hours of going through the last three months of appointments, I got to a figure of 25%.  Apparently this was fairly typical.

I admit that this was over a decade ago but if 25% of appointments just aren't attended by the patient then we should be addressing that issue - but I can't recall anybody in power ever talking about it beyond a bit of token hand waving.

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 06:53, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Fully accept that some flexibility would be prudent, especially in the case of a child with special needs or somebody otherwise vulnerable.

As a semi-related side note, when I was a student I did a bit of temp working for a GPs surgery as an administrator.  One afternoon I was asked to gather, process and present the data on 'did not attend' (DNA) for appointments, i.e. ones where the patient didn't show up.  After a couple of hours of going through the last three months of appointments, I got to a figure of 25%.  Apparently this was fairly typical.

I admit that this was over a decade ago but if 25% of appointments just aren't attended by the patient then we should be addressing that issue - but I can't recall anybody in power ever talking about it beyond a bit of token hand waving.

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Our surgery text you every day on the run up to an appointment. 

Posted
  On 27/01/2025 at 12:56, UltraWomble said:

Someone reversed into my car twice this morning in the Aldi car park and then drove off (no obvious CCTV cover) 

Unfortunately for the driver of the 2006 Fiesta with P plates my 17 YO daughter was in the back of the car whilst I was in the shop and had the presence of mind to take down the number plate ( but not use her bloody iphone that is glued to her hand all the time to take a photo of the car).

I dont really want the hassle of going through my insurance, if they had stopped & exchanged deets I'd have just said bung us £50 and I'll buy some paint myself and that would have been that, but its this attitude now that "if I dont stop no one can prove anything and Ive got away with it"

I can pay a tenner & get her details off the insurance database, but can I really be arsed with it & the aggro?

GqOjE0JP.thumb.jpg.7d821ad79b693215480c904964d75bd3.jpg

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image.png.efed88fd10448c7ab6d278dc711780e0.png

Waste of time it appears :(

 

Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 21:59, artdjones said:

Wouldn't this be a broken camshaft rather than crankshaft? 

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Correct! Well spotted..

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 08:08, Floatylight said:

Correct! Well spotted..

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Doh! Why didn't I see that?🤦

Posted

Oil pissing out. Reek out the back. Fuck me man.

20250130_092535(0).thumb.jpg.207183083b957f4b3b6e66f824a1fff1.jpg

Posted

With only 30k on? That's no good.

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Posted
  On 29/01/2025 at 02:55, LightBulbFun said:
Grumpy at Royal mail who claimed "delivery attempted no answer" when in actuality there where 2 of us in the household at that time... I expect this sort of bullshit false-flagging from 3rd party couriers, but not Royal mail themselves...
I really wish there was a button on the tracking service to call bullshit it to it, to let them know "actually fuck off with that, there *was* someone in the house at the time you claimed no one was in" (theres not even a sorry we missed you card through the letter box)
EDIT: had to chuckle at the note however  
image.thumb.png.02edc323353c41153df73b0fdac17770.png
But royal mail is a 3rd party now private business and the parcel lads now have the same rush as herpes etc

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 06:53, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Fully accept that some flexibility would be prudent, especially in the case of a child with special needs or somebody otherwise vulnerable.

As a semi-related side note, when I was a student I did a bit of temp working for a GPs surgery as an administrator.  One afternoon I was asked to gather, process and present the data on 'did not attend' (DNA) for appointments, i.e. ones where the patient didn't show up.  After a couple of hours of going through the last three months of appointments, I got to a figure of 25%.  Apparently this was fairly typical.

I admit that this was over a decade ago but if 25% of appointments just aren't attended by the patient then we should be addressing that issue - but I can't recall anybody in power ever talking about it beyond a bit of token hand waving.

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Our dentist charges £10 for a no show or cancellation with less than 24hrs notice. 

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 09:47, JJ0063 said:

Shat its turbo?

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Well lots of smoke, then no smoke, then no oil (as its on the road), and "engine failure" on the dashboard.

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 09:47, loserone said:

With only 30k on? That's no good.

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Recovered it to my Mum's work. Hoping it's not too expensive.

Posted

Just been catching up on some recycling which had been accumulating in the conservatory.  Main task was to flatten several thousand boxes and wedge as many into the recycling bin as possible.  About 30% of the way through I've managed to nicely slice the tip of my left index finger on an edge.  Fluffing hell that stung.

Now plastered up I'm ignoring that job for at least the next seven days!  Typing while down a finger is really awkward.

Posted

Frigging Royal Fail!

I bought a new Ethernet cable off eBay for my PlayStation a few weeks back. Payed extra to get it 24hr post. It didn’t turn up. Reported it to eBay after the last expected delivery day, as usual. Seller then decides to put the tracking details up which show it delivered. So I look at the tracking on Royal Mail website - sure enough, delivered, with a lovely little photo of my parcel and some other cunts front door! Ah well, delivered is delivered right!? Who cares where to.

Then today. I have a parcel due to arrive (different courier) so I’m waiting in for that anyway. So I had two parcels to post that I’d sold on eBay so I used Royal Mail’s online service to book and pay for the postage and have them collect the two parcels… as they offer to do it. 
No sign of the postie all day! Then I get two emails saying ‘we’ve successfully completed your collection’… errr. No. I have the parcels here on the side board next to the front door! 
Try the online tracking just out of interest and the bloody tracking has somehow started progressing despite the parcels still being in my hand! How!? Surely they need to scan the barcodes on the parcels when they get collected for that to happen?

Whats happening with Royal Mail. At my old house they were absolutely brilliant but here it’s absolutely shit.

Posted

Royal mail! Yeah, so in the news it said they're only going to do deliveries every other day, particularly for second class?

I must be missing something. It's been like that round here for the last 3 years.

Posted

Usual Thursday evening at art club down in hartlepool 

got a lift there off one of my mates

he fell over and fucked his shoulder so I had to drive us back in his car

74 plate Hyundai Tucson 

One of these but black

IMG_7725.thumb.webp.e0f4bd76916030ba2565148634c9c9cb.webp

fuck me what a nannying car

manoeuvring out the parking space it did an emergency stop and beeped at me, cos it was a tight spot and I had to get close to the car in front at 1mph to get out

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

oh yes, I dared to venture to 31mph

beep every time a speed limit changed

beep every road sign it saw

braking for me at random

swerving towards parked cars when I was passing on the centre line

 

i mean, it looks great and drives really nicely

nah I can’t be done with moderns

stupid acceleration too

throttle on or off

 

im glad I don’t have a car like that

oh yes, it cost £48k

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 18:08, danthecapriman said:

Frigging Royal Fail!

I bought a new Ethernet cable off eBay for my PlayStation a few weeks back. Payed extra to get it 24hr post. It didn’t turn up. Reported it to eBay after the last expected delivery day, as usual. Seller then decides to put the tracking details up which show it delivered. So I look at the tracking on Royal Mail website - sure enough, delivered, with a lovely little photo of my parcel and some other cunts front door! Ah well, delivered is delivered right!? Who cares where to.

Then today. I have a parcel due to arrive (different courier) so I’m waiting in for that anyway. So I had two parcels to post that I’d sold on eBay so I used Royal Mail’s online service to book and pay for the postage and have them collect the two parcels… as they offer to do it. 
No sign of the postie all day! Then I get two emails saying ‘we’ve successfully completed your collection’… errr. No. I have the parcels here on the side board next to the front door! 
Try the online tracking just out of interest and the bloody tracking has somehow started progressing despite the parcels still being in my hand! How!? Surely they need to scan the barcodes on the parcels when they get collected for that to happen?

Whats happening with Royal Mail. At my old house they were absolutely brilliant but here it’s absolutely shit.

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I can't really explain any of that, especially the pick up. As you say, we have to scan the packets when we pick them up. It's beyond me. 

As for the rest of it, it's all part of the race to the bottom I'm afraid. We now have a two tier workforce. Anybody taken on in the last year or two is on less money, longer hours and worse conditions (like no paid breaks). What they are getting paid isn't much more than minimum wage (the minimum wage keeps going up faster than our own pay rises). 

Then the way we do things was changed quite dramatically around the same time. Most deliveries in our office were shared vans. So two people working together from one van. They would take everything for their area from letters to the biggest packets. Now we have DPRs, dedicated parcel routes. They take all the bigger packets but just do packets and nothing else. But that didn't make the shared van duties easier because they made them all longer to make up for doing less packets. 

Anyway most of these new starters are the guys doing the DPRs. And they have no incentive to do the job any better than any of the other couriers because they are on basically the same terms. 

When I started 34 years ago it was seen as a career. There were plenty of old boys there who had never done anything else. Some had started as telegram boys! Nobody comes into it now thinking of it as anything other than a stop gap until something better comes along so they have no reason to care. The staff turnover at the lower end is huge. 

This is the future. I've got around ten years until retirement so I'm just going to stay and watch the company fall apart around me. 

 

Posted
  On 30/01/2025 at 21:39, Yoss said:

I can't really explain any of that, especially the pick up. As you say, we have to scan the packets when we pick them up. It's beyond me. 

As for the rest of it, it's all part of the race to the bottom I'm afraid. We now have a two tier workforce. Anybody taken on in the last year or two is on less money, longer hours and worse conditions (like no paid breaks). What they are getting paid isn't much more than minimum wage (the minimum wage keeps going up faster than our own pay rises). 

Then the way we do things was changed quite dramatically around the same time. Most deliveries in our office were shared vans. So two people working together from one van. They would take everything for their area from letters to the biggest packets. Now we have DPRs, dedicated parcel routes. They take all the bigger packets but just do packets and nothing else. But that didn't make the shared van duties easier because they made them all longer to make up for doing less packets. 

Anyway most of these new starters are the guys doing the DPRs. And they have no incentive to do the job any better than any of the other couriers because they are on basically the same terms. 

When I started 34 years ago it was seen as a career. There were plenty of old boys there who had never done anything else. Some had started as telegram boys! Nobody comes into it now thinking of it as anything other than a stop gap until something better comes along so they have no reason to care. The staff turnover at the lower end is huge. 

This is the future. I've got around ten years until retirement so I'm just going to stay and watch the company fall apart around me. 

 

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Shit! I didn’t know things had got so bad at Royal Mail. Although most big companies are like it now. Squeeze as much as possible out of everyone and everything in exchange for as little as they can get away with.

The pick up thing is bizarre. I used to get on well with our old postie back when I was in Waterlooville and she showed me the little scanner thingy one day and how it all worked, sure enough when she scanned the label on the parcel shortly after an email came through to say it had been collected. Then when the parcel goes through various other parts of its journey and gets scanned again, that’s when the tracking details update through to delivery. 
Im not sure how the system has managed to do what it has here though. How can it begin tracking when it hasn’t been scanned!? Even weirder is it’s doing it on two separate parcels! 
I do have a theory, though obviously it’s nothing more. That maybe the postie had some labels in the van (although I’d specified they didn’t need them as I print my own) and they couldn’t be bothered to collect so scanned the spare labels in the van. 
It does seem very slack here. Back in Waterlooville it was really good, couldn’t really fault it. Here I’ve had the above two problems and a big parcel with loads of Xmas presents inside for family up north disappeared without trace at Coleford depot. They collected it, the tracking started and got to Coleford depot then just stopped and the parcel never arrived. Tracking never updated again and so far over a month later they haven’t found it or updated us on our complaint and compensation claim for it. 
The complaint and claim I made for the Ethernet cable that was delivered to the wrong address has gone unanswered now for going on a week.

Still, hopefully tomorrow I can get the two parcels to the Coleford depot and actually get them into the system on their way. I shan’t bother arguing or saying anything though, it’s not the person at the offices fault and as long as they get posted I don’t care at this point.
 

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