The grumpy thread

[Cheggers]

Attended my speed awareness course this morning. T'was entertaining enough, but can't see it changing the way I drive.

[Pete-M]

Few days ago I noticed that one of the radiator hoses on the Impreza was looking a tad perished and likely to die any moment, so ordered a pair of silicon ones from eBay which arrived on Wednesday. Thursday morning I put them in the boot of the and headed off to work... about half a mile from work a huge cloud of steam erupted from under the bonnet so I limped it very gently to the garage at the top of the street from work. "Any chance you can fit a couple of radiator hoses on this for me today, I've got the pair". Garage said no problem and I left it with them for the day. I'd have done them myself in 10 minutes but had a busy day at work and wasn't going to be around to do it.

 

Collected the car this morning, paid the bill £45 !! Get it to work, open the bonnet, coolant level is low and the top hose has been fitted by someone who obviously doesn't know what they're doing. There are two bends in the hose which are about a third closed over because they've just fitted the hoses and not trimmed them to fit properly. It's not rocket science, take a Stanley knife and trim 1/2" to an inch from each end and the hose would fit perfectly with no sharp bends. Too much work for 'em obviously.

 

No wonder the garage trade gets a shit name if so called 'prestige specialists' can't fit a bloody hose without cocking it up.

[scaryoldcortina]

Grr. I just got home, I set off at just after 9.30 this morning to drive to York (usually about 2 hours each way). It should NOT take 8 hours. Ok, it was raining rather hard all the time but ffs.

 

On the plus side, I'm home without breaking down or crashing (unlike quite a few other people judging by the traffic chaos) and I have a new toy to play with.

 

Thanks Pete!

[Pete-M]

It took me around four hours to get home from York, normally a two hour run....

 

Glad you like your new item Andy..

[Pete-M]

Can we have the edit button back please?

[dollywobbler]

I'm confused by this. I have an edit button. Is this a browser-specific fault? I'm on Chrome.

 

EDIT - see?

[messerschmitt owner]

Can we have the edit button back please?

I'm on a macbook with firefox, safari and chrome and all have an edit button when I log in!

[myglaren]

Can we have the edit button back please?

I'm on a macbook with firefox, safari and chrome and all have an edit button when I log in!

 

Possibly for those using a phone - it often gets omitted by phones.

[Pete-M]

Weird. I'm on the PC, both on Firefox and Chrome I don't have an edit button

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah, I'm on a linux PC using firefox, and now you mention it I don't have an edit button any more either! Report and quote are still there....

 

edited to add WTF? It's come back!

 

 

 

Pete, item is lovely. I've been playing with it since I got back and am now in the bad books for ignoring her all day

[myglaren]

Yeah, I'm on a linux PC using firefox, and now you mention it I don't have an edit button any more either! Report and quote are still there....

 

edited to add WTF? It's come back!

 

 

 

Pete, item is lovely. I've been playing with it since I got back and am now in the bad books for ignoring her all day

 

Odd, all three of my computers are on Linux and all show (consistently) the edit button.

Chrome for this site though, not Firefox, although other sites using the same software work the same in Firefox.

[Pete-M]

eBay.

 

Jag was on there for four days (five day auction), I've had lots of enquiries about it, but all through people who 'don't want to place a bid' and who've not actually bothered to phone me. So fuck 'em. I've pulled the auction. Can't be dealing with wankers.

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah, I'm on a linux PC using firefox, and now you mention it I don't have an edit button any more either! Report and quote are still there....

 

edited to add WTF? It's come back!

 

Odd, all three of my computers are on Linux and all show (consistently) the edit button.

Chrome for this site though, not Firefox, although other sites using the same software work the same in Firefox.

 

Don't worry, in my case it was user failure. I wasn't looking at my own posts when I couldn't see the edit button

[myglaren]

Neat explanation

 

My own somewhat delayed grump revolves around the two new computers - an OS free desktop and an Asus laptop.

From a dongle I installed Ubuntu on the desktop in 20 minutes, as expected. Buggered about with it for a while then opened the laptop.

Win7 preinstalled. Took 45 minutes of futzing around to get it working. Installed Firefox that was an 'experience'. It came with a ton of shovelware.

Removed said shovelware plus much other crap and went to install Microsoft Security Essentials. Forty minute download, half an hour to install. It would do a quick scan that 'may take a few minutes'!

An hour and a half, then it would install updates - another two hours, then another two hours to run a full scan, then there were 273 updates to install.

Left it to it and went to bed, taking my old (7 years) Toshiba.

Following morning it was still installing updates.

At 1pm I pulled the plug on it as it had clearly got stuck.

After the usual admonishments it started to boot into windows then announced that it would install the updates, looked like it was going swimmingly - for another two and a half hours.

It rebooted and then went on with a further set of updates, another couple of hours, then repeat with more.

 

I did try to install Ubuntu but it wasn't having any of it. This was my fault, not being aware that you have to push Esc during the splash screen, not del, F1, F2 , F8 or F12.

Resetting the primary boot device in the BIOS proved unworkable but eventually got it to boot and installed Ubuntu - 18 minutes!

 

Then a guy at work had problems with his laptop, had installed Norton Buggeritup and screwed the registry.

Messed around with that for a bit then reinstalled Windows (7) on that with pretty much a repeat of the crap experienced on mine.

 

I'd forgotten how much I don't like Windows.

[meshking]

I dislike windows as much as anyone (well, less than iTunes) but that sounds like the windows install was buggered rather than a fault with windows itself.

 

I have found windows 7 much harder to screw up than xp etc, but when it does get screwed recovering it is much easier too.

[myglaren]

Only had one prior experience with W7, setting up a netbook for a former colleague.

Not a pleasant experience.

I won't be using it, it only stays until the warranty is up, then it is gone for good.

[dollywobbler]

eBay.

 

Jag was on there for four days (five day auction), I've had lots of enquiries about it, but all through people who 'don't want to place a bid' and who've not actually bothered to phone me. So fuck 'em. I've pulled the auction. Can't be dealing with wankers.

 

That does seem to go against the basic principle of an auction. Last car I bought on Ebay, I bid with less than 2 hours to go. I don't want to wait for days to find out whether I've successfully bid on something, so I go for the rule they tell you for real auctions - last minute is best. Now everyone watching it will assume you've sold it off-eBay.

 

Though selling cars can be an utterly depressing business I must concede.

[cobblers]

Anyone who doesn't like windows 7 should get a load of Windows 8, it's insane. It's like they got a 14 year old lad to design a full screen application launcher in shockwave flash in 2004, then set it to run full screen on boot instead of windows explorer, but instead of really committing to it, when you click a program it just loads the app full screen with explorer in the background, only it's not normal explorer - the removed most of the useful functionality out of it.

 

It felt like I was a first initial beta version of some bollocks PCworld had designed to make computers easier for old/blind/mental people, but this was actually the final version on a brand new laptop a bloke I know bought.

[Richard]

Computers are a bit like cars in that every advance in power and efficiency has to be more than outweighed by bloat.

[Cavcraft]

Anyone who doesn't like windows 7 should get a load of Windows 8, it's insane. It's like they got a 14 year old lad to design... it....

It felt like I was a first initial beta version of some bollocks PCworld had designed to make computers easier for old/blind/mental people, but this was actually the final version on a brand new laptop a bloke I know bought.

 

This.

 

Could they have made it any fucking harder to navigate? I have yet to find one solitary feature that makes it better than Windows 7 and it sure as hell isn't any quicker that I can see, in fact it's actually slower on some websites involving flash player type things. My missus was moaning about it as apparently on-line bingo is loads slower, though she was noticeably quieter about that last night when she won £500!

[Pete-M]

I just got bored of endless messages from people telling me they live miles away and that they'll pay the start price if I stop the auction there and then - even though the BIN was 25% more. I don't give a fuck where they live, that ain't my problem. They found the advert and they want the car, if they can't afford it then they shouldn't be bothering the hell out of me, never mind expecting me to knock money off because they're daft enough to live miles away from me.

 

I also stated in the ad that I wouldn't entertain offers from anyone who wasn't standing in front of me with cash yet they still made their offers by message. I told them to call me if they wanted info on the car but they didn't, so fuck 'em.

 

I know the trick with eBay is to bid late, but I also know that if I was going to buy an 18 year old Jaguar XJR I'd ring the vendor to find out more about it.

 

I really can't be dealing with eBay fucktards. The car is very cheap indeed for what it is. It's a steal for anyone who knows about them, so for a multitude of fucktards to think that the start price is the asking price and think I'll drop the opportunity to get more because they've sent me a message is just daft..

 

I'll keep it for now.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

You need to chill out pete M, thats par for the course with whatever you're selling no matter how much you're asking. You could put a 6-bedroom house in Knutsford on there with a £500 BIN and you'll have half a dozen folk asking if you'll take £300 (cos they really need 8 bedrooms). Its just the way of the world. Any serious buyer would ring you up, you have told them to do that and they aint so just delete their messages and forget em. They would not buy the jag no matter how much it was or where it was.

[Pete-M]

Aye. You're right. I just got bored of 'em. I'll keep it, it's less hassle than dealing with buyers!

[dollywobbler]

Aye. You're right. I just got bored of 'em. I'll keep it, it's less hassle than dealing with buyers!

 

That's very true. However, I just ignore people who can't read my ads. I usually say I'll ignore silly offers, so I'm only doing as advertised.

[RedSparrow]

Me too. I plan in future listings to write in big letters 'I WILL IGNORE ANY STUPID QUESTIONS - IF I DON'T REPLY CONSIDER YOURSELF A MORON' or similar.

[FredTransit]

OK black Christmas trees. WTF is that all about?? If you are that dipressed, would you be feeling like celebrating crimbo?? Least of all with a black tree.....

[dollywobbler]

OK black Christmas trees. WTF is that all about?? If you are that dipressed, would you be feeling like celebrating crimbo?? Least of all with a black tree.....

 

Our tree is very dark purple...

[Albert Ross]

Black is in. It's this season's new black. Black.

 

Black.

 

 

BLACK.

 

You used to keep me in the cellar and feed me pins!!!!!!!

[FredTransit]

crimbo trees should be green or possibly snowy white end of........

[Negative Creep]

Are there people out there that need this kind of guidance??

 

Probably not - but there are people who are t*ght-arsed enough to see the chance to claim a refund because the salad cream they bought did not contain a tomato and a lettuce leaf as the illustration on the label had lead them to believe it would.

 

I agree it's laffable - but my guess is that this is the manufacturers protecting themselves from money-grabbing time wasters.

 

In much the same way that paracetamol boxes will carry a warning that they contain paracetamol