The grumpy thread

[Metal Guru]

Been trying to get a new ( to me) drivers seat for my Impreza as the bolsters are looking a bit threadbare. Obviously the same seats have the same wear on a 22 year old car, so it’s mainly full leather seats that are in good nick. However with the a/c f@cked, I’m not keen on leather, so thought I’d investigate getting the seat repaired.

Quote, £560!!!  Back to searching eBay.

 

 

 

 

[barefoot]

£560!

Try Vaughan at https://www.customclassicretrotrim.co.uk/

Mention my name. 

[Metal Guru]

15 hours ago, barefoot said:

£560!

Try Vaughan at https://www.customclassicretrotrim.co.uk/

Mention my name. 

Thanks much appreciated, but it’s a 500 mile round trip from me (Southern Scotland) plus an overnight stay, and I’m over £200 already.

[DavieW]

Sitting in the pub tonight for a couple of hours and Sky Sports had nothing but some footballer leaving their club. So f*cking what?

[sheffcortinacentre]

But soccer players are gods, plus it's diverting attention from the cluster fuck that's real news

[goosey]

there’s a place in Hell for people who cut cable ties like this 

[Spiny Norman]

I always do that, keeps them neat & tidy. Beats having lots of little flappy end bits getting in the way, what's wrong with it? 

[Jazoli]

2 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

I always do that, keeps them neat & tidy. Beats having lots of little flappy end bits getting in the way, what's wrong with it? 

They aren’t cut flush

[Split_Pin]

Perfect for ripping your arms to ribbons when reaching for something else.

[Spiny Norman]

Fair enough, I didn't notice on a small photo on my phone, didn't see they weren't neat.  

[myglaren]

Anyone else getting this?  Been like it for the past couple of days

 

[sdkrc]

On 05/03/2026 at 12:56, bramz7 said:

In disruption, just get on the first train you can. Easier to seek forgiveness than get permission, as is often said. 

I appreciate working on the railway skews my judgement a bit but when I was a guard and came across people disrupted on their journey I just let them be. 

 

(Not everyone is like this)

I'm on the train right now, waiting for the conductor.

I bought a return ticket online but only got an e-ticket for the outward leg.  100% a system error, price I paid is definitely for a return journey and Ticket/receipt definitely say off-peak return. Ticket inspector wasn't keen on letting me off. 

Might do a Michael Douglas in Falling Down

[bramz7]

@sdkrc

It's been 3 years since I was a guard, but was this on Trainline? Presumably the ticket you used on the journey down was the outward and not the return? Sorry, I'm not sure I can offer much advice here. 

 

[sdkrc]

35 minutes ago, bramz7 said:

@sdkrc

It's been 3 years since I was a guard, but was this on Trainline? Presumably the ticket you used on the journey down was the outward and not the return? Sorry, I'm not sure I can offer much advice here. 

 

Apologies @bramz7, didn't mean to direct that at you, just having a general complain into the void. Replied to the old thread because I'm 4 for 4 on ticket/journey issues and can't believe my luck. I appreciated your advice the previous time I was having a ramble. 

Bought the ticket on the Avanti website. Just seems that their system failed to generate 50% of my tickets. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, sdkrc said:

off-peak return.

That sounds like a day return, rather than a period return? 

[sdkrc]

37 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

That sounds like a day return, rather than a period return? 

It is. And I was travelling and returning on the same day. 

[High Jetter]

16 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

It is. And I was travelling and returning on the same day. 

Am confussed. Thought there was a period. I always collect booked tickets the day before travel.

[warch]

Fucking estate agents, developers, land agents and other wannabee city boys.

I don't know why they find it so hard to do a fairly simple job competently. Plus you get the usual snobbishness and arrogance (I once turned up in my work clothes having been out on an excavation to collect the keys to our new house and got rapidly channelled away into the lettings area so I didn't scare their prospective buyers). 

Our current mob have already 1. failed to turn up to do a reach walk around of our house 2. tried to charge us twice for the photography 3. failed to get a For Sale sign put up outside our house. 

They're so negative as well, there are issues with our house's location, but we've priced it to reflect that so its a large 3 or 4 bedroom detached house on a decent sized plot for about 50 grand under what much smaller houses with odd layouts or no garden are going for in the same village. 

[Metal Guru]

42 minutes ago, warch said:

Fucking estate agents, developers, land agents and other wannabee city boys.

I don't know why they find it so hard to do a fairly simple job competently. Plus you get the usual snobbishness and arrogance (I once turned up in my work clothes having been out on an excavation to collect the keys to our new house and got rapidly channelled away into the lettings area so I didn't scare their prospective buyers). 

Our current mob have already 1. failed to turn up to do a reach walk around of our house 2. tried to charge us twice for the photography 3. failed to get a For Sale sign put up outside our house. 

They're so negative as well, there are issues with our house's location, but we've priced it to reflect that so its a large 3 or 4 bedroom detached house on a decent sized plot for about 50 grand under what much smaller houses with odd layouts or no garden are going for in the same village. 

There’s no shortage of estate agents. Just get another one.

[Zelandeth]

A smoke detector somewhere in the house has started doing the low battery chirp.  However it's only doing it like once every couple of hours which is making figuring out where the heck the noise is coming from really difficult.  They all work when tested.  It's going to take a certain amount of luck to be in the right area when it does it again!

[warch]

3 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

There’s no shortage of estate agents. Just get another one.

That's the problem, finding a decent one, most of the ones I've encountered are crap.

[Mr Livered]

56 minutes ago, warch said:

That's the problem, finding a decent one, most of the ones I've encountered are crap.

You can also use two at a time, to try to introduce a bit of competition and keep them on their toes.

They might have a sole agency clause that they try to enforce, but in my experience it's usually possible to negotiate your way out of that with a threat of binning them off entirely if they don't accept it. They're a competitive bunch culturally and there's no harm in trying to leverage that. 

[chadders]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

A smoke detector somewhere in the house has started doing the low battery chirp.  However it's only doing it like once every couple of hours which is making figuring out where the heck the noise is coming from really difficult.  They all work when tested.  It's going to take a certain amount of luck to be in the right area when it does it again!

We've probably got about 15 or so, spread over 3 floors, you just need to be methodical.

Write down a list of rooms, note the ones that you know it isn't in then focus on the rest in whatever order seems best.

Alternatively ours work when tested even with a low voltage so check the actual battery voltages.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

We've probably got about 15 or so, spread over 3 floors, you just need to be methodical.

Write down a list of rooms, note the ones that you know it isn't in then focus on the rest in whatever order seems best.

Alternatively ours work when tested even with a low voltage so check the actual battery voltages.

Found you ya bastard!

Sure enough, battery down at 2.7V.  New one fitted (alarm isn't even that old so just a duff battery I'm guessing).  

It's tricky to locate sound in our house as virtually the whole ground floor is open plan.  So trying to even tell which floor the chirp was coming from while in the lounge is hard.  I knew it was somewhere on the east side of the house though as I first heard it from the kitchen and it sounded further away then.

Just glad I got it before people started wanting to sleep!

[Neil clark]

On 25/03/2026 at 13:53, goosey said:

there’s a place in Hell for people who cut cable ties like this 

I work in aerospace, we have to file it down flush and smooth.... best way lol

[MorrisItalSLX]

On 26/03/2026 at 00:53, goosey said:

there’s a place in Hell for people who cut cable ties like this 

I like to cut them on a 45 degree angle so they are nice and pointy.

[cobblers]

I've been after a decent MWB Crafter 4x4 for a few months, they're not a common van and rare in the spec I need. I have a few saved searches on ebay / autotrader etc,

Finally, this morning the absolute perfect one popped up this morning. Right colour, 20k miles, one owner, right seats, fsh., and best of all it was about ten grand underpriced!!!!

I rang the seller - He'd only posted the advert 5 minutes ago, surprised to have someone call so soon. Seemed a decent bloke, had a good story etc. Only downside was the van is in portsmouth, a 4 hour drive.  I said I would most likely come straight down, just needed to let my wife know because she would have to look after the dogs.

So I sent her a message "Any objections if I nip down to portsmouth to look at a van?"

No reply. 

after 10 minutes I texted her "I need to let the guy know ASAP really, is it OK? can you keep an eye on the dogs?"

10 minutes later I get the dreaded: "Do whatever you want"  🙄

So obviously I had to let the seller know I was "just sorting something out" while I worked out what her problem was all of a sudden.

Anyway, I spoke to her shortly after and she apologised for being a grumpy arse and told me to go and buy the van. Which had obviously sold by this point.

 

[Mr Livered]

27 minutes ago, cobblers said:

10 minutes later I get the dreaded: "Do whatever you want"  🙄

So obviously I had to let the seller know I was "just sorting something out" while I worked out what her problem was all of a sudden.

That's not obvious to me at all. I would have replied "thanks, you're awesome" or some such and gone to Portsmouth. People should say what they mean.

[cobblers]

2 minutes ago, Mr Livered said:

That's not obvious to me at all. I would have replied "thanks, you're awesome" or some such and gone to Portsmouth. People should say what they mean.

I have full blown 'tism but even I know that disappearing at short notice to spend £thousands on a van on the strength of a "do whatever you want" is a "Really Fucking Bad Idea™"

[Mr Livered]

4 minutes ago, cobblers said:

I have full blown 'tism but even I know that disappearing at short notice to spend £thousands on a van on the strength of a "do whatever you want" is a "Really Fucking Bad Idea™"

Well if you're a grown-up, you want to buy something, and your partner has been given the chance to object but not taken it, I can't see the problem. But every relationship is different, you do you.