The grumpy thread

[Pillock]

Data loggers? I'd prefer all delivery vans to have them. When I get cut up, tailgated or forced to brake hard it's usually a van, clearly in a rush. I can almost guarantee if I have to use the motorway, at some point I'll have a Sprinter so close behind me I can't see the windscreen.

Our guys have them in their vans, all they get penalised for is harsh braking (i.e. driving like a clown) - they get "advisories" if they could have used cruise control, or less revs, but I'm told they take no action on that as it's hard to know the situation - plus all our new vans are semi-auto. The rest of the stuff is handled by the tacho and speed limiter. As a benefit, we get cheaper insurance (it's also a GPS tracker), stuff gets delivered in one piece, and the vans are usually less knackered. Oh, and it also means we can tell customers where their deliveries are down to street level. We also managed to catch someone who was leaving a depot at 6am, driving to a layby, the engine would switch off and then back on 10 minutes later with 20 litres less in the diesel tank...... every day.

 

Customer service.... have HMV gone bust? It's a shame but they are a victim of a change in media delivery and there's very little they could have done. They also need to point at least a few fingers at the media industry who keep prices high because every single person in the supply chain wants a cut of a £14.99 CD - cost of materials is pence, if musicians released directly they'd get a "normal" wage and CDs would be piss-cheap. There are very talented artists out there but is it right that they're promised multi-million-pound "salaries", do they do their job better than I do mine? All X-Factor etc has done is prove that anyone with a pretty face and an autotune machine can be a pop sensation, for at least a few months.

 

Play.com have gone purely because they were exploiting a (now closed) tax loophole which made stuff from Jersey tax-free. In essence, Play.com helped put HMV out of business in the same way that Bob's Coffee Shop can't complete with Starbucks because Starbucks wangle their tax returns and Bob doesn't have the resources to do that.

 

My employer has been helped greatly by Comet going down, and to a smaller extent Jessops. Sad but true.... but then we were (depending on who you speak to) 1/2/6/12 hours from going under a couple of years ago and were rescued at the last minute. Since then we have changed a lot of the business and in my eyes offer a lot better customer service, but only time will tell.

[HillmanImp]

If the big retailers do continue to go I would hope to see excessive shop rental rates to drop dramatically to encourage independent retailers to move back in, so that each town can have a different shopping experience, rather than the same fucking shops laid out differently in every single fucking town in the country.

 

Whether or not t'interweb and supermarkets market domination will result in this I don't know.

 

Probably a good time to post this........

 

 

Only a few days away if the predictions were correct.

[freebird]

I don't agree Mr Boll. Sure, a data logger is a good way to prove when someone has been an absolute arse, but they are instead used to micro-manage people - which makes them feel like they're about 4 years old and entirely untrustworthy. No job satisfaction here, so it's incredible that they can be as friendly as they are. The vans are generally all limited to 56mph or less anyway.

 

It's like call centres, where people get in trouble for taking too long to go to the toilet or to actually help a customer. A friend of mine always got in trouble for trying to help people. "We haven't got time for that." Great way to run a customer service 'help'line!

Exactly!!

We had trackers fitted to our vans a few years ago, had group meetings where we were assured that they were not there to spy on us etc but to work in tandem with our work manager system so that the right jobs would be issued to the right people and we wouldnt be criss crossing each other going to patches and passing someone on the way out of one.

It was, of course, bollocks.

We do more mileage, we constantly criss cross each other and they use the tracker to monitor our "efficiency" effectively on our one to one meets with our managers they look at how long we spend at the exchange, at customers etc, etc. Its got to the point where they try to get "ineffective" time down from, say, 1 hour per week to half and hour, then God knows. Naturally, that ineffective time barely equates to an extra job a day but, hey, why deviate from reality?

Bottom line is that they have a whole bunch of pissed off engineers who now couldnt give a fuck when, years ago when i started ( 23 yrs and counting) we all thought it was the best job in the World, we worked hard and would put ourselves out to get things done.

Piss poor management, too many "Graduates" and not enough have come from the shop floor who actually understand WHAT we do and HOW we can make a difference.

That can apply to loads of industries as well as the retail sector, i suppose.

[outlaw118]

I have always had a tracker on my van since starting with my current employer in October 2000.

 

The management reasoning is simple and digestible enough. As customer facing staff, likely to be involved in confrontational situations, the trackers are there for our safety. I believed that, right up until the time I drove my van into the River Strood, attempting to cross the causeway to Mersea Island at "medium" tide. The tracker records, phone records and AA call-out log were all scrutinised, and the actual facts of the matter were deemed irrelevant, in favour of bullshit "evidence" from the tracker, which, according to that, I attempted to cross at high tide. Nobody (except me) believed the trackers time to be incorrect....it was, by ONE hour.

 

The company changed suppliers to "Tracker" (can't remember who it was before) and yes, the system will detect pretty much anything. Braking, acceleration, speed as well as location. Which as Ian McWobblyDobbler has previously said allows the proles to be micromanaged, and this has happened.

I agree, that if you've got nowt to hide, you've got no worries, but trust me, it's fairly tedious/embarrassing to get the phone call asking either why you spent 30 minutes on the M11 doing 82mph, or why you drove 12 minutes between visits when they were 2 minutes apart. Yes, I have to tell someone when I piss.

 

Our "operations manager" is the cause of many woes within my job; when I started she was a filing clerk, and somehow, she's managed to become lord/lady of the manor, also finding jobs for her son, his fiance, and her sister-in-law.

She does however have a degree.

In archeology or summat.

Honest.

[Cavcraft]

I suspect the good old days of accidentally* putting the tacho card in the wrong way round and the mystery* of the broken speed limiter are long gone now, which is why I don't miss driving for a living.

 

My own grump?

The majority of Audi drivers I've encountered recently are wankers. (Probably) pretend big time, (probably) small cocked wankers at that.

[andrew e]

I remember 15 years ago driving normally aspirated new high top transits, a skill which involved so much bloody effort just to get upto 60 mph! No abs, no pas, no AC. Just deafening noise akin to being inside Big Ben when it was chiming.

 

Shouldn't this be a "I hate my wanky minimum wage job" grump? If so get over it. A bit like Herr Gonad above implies, grab the world by the balls. I have a bloody hard job that has me out the house in 15/16 hours lumps, but you know what I live well off it. On the other hand my wife earns flat miinium wage. 2 minutes from the house, no targets, no hassle. Life's what you make of it really.

[outlaw118]

I agree...to a point.

My job is by no means minimum wage, but neither is it massive. My objection to the data loggers/trackers are those as shared by ian, which is the "prove anything with statistics" type of shittery, and using the spurious data as a stick top beat them with, whilst imposing nigh-on impossible targets, for the under-paid and undermotivated staff.

thats when the whole thing comes full circle, with the lack of service blah blah blah...

[andrew e]

True there chap, just a viscous circle that always ends up on the same place - shite management, with appointments made too nepotistic fuckwits in the golf club/lodge/gimp dungeon wherever. Do other countries suffer this, or is it a proud British tradition alone?

[Mr Lobster]

Its not the technology thats the problem, its how is used by managers who have been promoted way beyond their level of competence.

[outlaw118]

Bang on both of you.

I'm positive Ms Ops Director has pictures of the Head Of income in a compromising position with a minor/dog/nun.

Technology should help, but in the hands of twats, as Mr Lobz said, it's a fucking hindrance.

[M'coli]

Aye, but what about those poor sods who have a bloody hard job, have all sorts of pressures on them, minimum wage and a cunt of a manager to boot?

[Ben_L]

Fucksticks...

 

Opened the bonnet of Cavalier to do "Pre-MOT checks" (Reminds me, I forgot to glue that headlight bracket back together!), check the Coolant bottle and it's vacant of anything vaguely liquid like but instead, theres a sort of sandy sludge in there. Marvellous! So, in the deserted works car park, off comes Coolant bottle and hoses to be cleaned out when I then drop said sludge all over my office floor... Smashing! Cleaned, relocated and back on the car, THREE KETTLES full later, it's full (With Antifreeze of course - Probably a bit too much).

 

It's not leaking anywhere and was spot on level a fortnight ago when I did pre-flight checks before a long run to Northampton... Where is the water going FFS!!!!!

 

Oh well, the Coolant bottle is clean and a majority of the water in the engine is also clean...

 

 

First person to mention OMGWTFBBQHGF gets a torque wrench up the japseye.

[michael1703]

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!

 

Went to bed at midnight,3 hours sleep and my bike alarm goes off, blipped the fob,back to bed,just getting sleepy and it goes off again, repeat process 4 times until I summoned up the desperation to go outside in -7, unbolt the seat and connect optimate,walk back in house,chuck a log on the fire to defrost fingers and it goes off again!

 

Just put the key in ignition and left the ignition on as its the only way to stop it, 45 mins til the proper wake up alarm goes off,no sleep for me

[michael1703]

AND..............

 

131kbps broadband speed BT opencrotch visit Friday,more wasted time

[michael1703]

until I summoned up the desperation to go outside in -7,

 

Got my figures wrong there,could have been minus ten or twelve according to local weather station.

 

Range rover wouldn't start so had to jump it and then it re froze after I de iced it

[dollywobbler]

Its not the technology thats the problem, its how is used by managers who have been promoted way beyond their level of competence.

 

Yes, perhaps that that the point I was messily trying to make. The actual data logger makes a lot of sense - we have them on our minibuses and it's handy for working out distances travelled etc. We don't use them to beat drivers up with unless they're doing stuff like using the buses for their own purposes without at least asking first. We definitely don't do things like compare MPG per driver "You cost us £2.31 more than Philip last month. Pay it back please."

[beko1987]

Ian is 100% spot on. The nimbyism doesn't confine itself to the repetitive jobs, though. It extends to the development of sales staff, who are provided with virtually no product-related training. Try walking into a Carphone Whorehouse and asking for something simple but slightly unusual, such as their smallest Windows Mobile device, or the mobile phone with the highest MAh rating on the battery- after looking at you like you've just descended from Mars, they'll spend three minutes wondering how to compare them and end up getting them out side by side and physically measuring them/reading the battery ratings.

 

I do believe carphone whorehouse staff are idiots.

 

I bought MsBeko a new phone for christmas. A nice Sony Xperia U for £140 with £10 credit. Had to call them up to order it as our local shop had none, and the lad tried to sell me a MicroSD card for it. When I pointed out that the phone does not take external storage, he went quiet, then said 'Ah yes, you are correct. Sorry, It's what it says on the website"

 

So, basically I was (using the company minutes~) to call him, for him to go onto their website and press buttons... Do they not teach product knowledge nowadays?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

The salespeople are not necessarily idiots. The managers just think that they'll save money on training by telling them 'you can get the information on the internet'. Which makes them look like fools in front of the customer when they invariably fail to find it or are obviously unsure about it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Highly successful business tho innit

[Angrydicky]

Internet (and phones) doon, and has been for the last day. I'm posting this via some unbelievably shit wifi connection, which is super slow.

[chaseracer]

ID thieves. Fuck off and get your own credit rating, you fucknuggets - mine took a long time to get where it is, and you are not going to fuck it up.

 

Unamused...

[warren t claim]

Oh look, Blockbuster Video are the latest high st casualty.

[RedSparrow]

I am sorry to hear about the job losses of course, but I'm amazed Blockbuster lasted as long as it did. Besides the internet, you've been able to buy popular films for a couple of quid for a few years now in supermarkets.

[cobblers]

+1, It's a shame for people to be out of work, especially since it adds to the already large amount of unemployed retail staff already battling over the few vacancies out there.

I'm genuinely so surprised they HMV and Blockbuster have somehow managed to drag it out for so long when their business models haven't been in any way relevant for about 5 years. HMV have some bloody expensive real estate too, so the rent bills alone must be absolutely mega.

[Mr Lobster]

I'm genuinely so surprised they HMV and Blockbuster have somehow managed to drag it out for so long when their business models haven't been in any way relevant for about 5 years.

 

HMV seemed to want to pretend that everything wasn't changing. Theres a quote from (IIRC) the CEO about five years ago saying that online retailers and downloads wouldn't have any impact on their business and that supermarkets were but a thorn in their side. By understanding that there market was changing and making neccesary changes they could have survived although they may still carry on of course.

 

Blockbuster. Amazes me they carried on this long. Fancy going to a shop in a town centre to search for a film only to find that they haven't got it anyway. Before selecting something else, driving home and watching it then going back into town to return it. How quaint.

 

Sadly I'm fairly sure there will be more casualties on the high street along shortly.

[dollywobbler]

A different grump. Ordered some bits on Ebay. Got a card from the postie saying insufficient delivery. Trekked into town and paid the £1 handling fee and the postage. Got my little package which appeared to have no stamps on it at all. Very insufficient! Ebay seller now claiming he has proof of postage and seems most unwilling to back down. All for £1.69 (including handling fee). I wonder if he thinks I'll just give up over something so trivial. It's not like stamps actually fall off is it?

[autofive]

if he has proof of postage he can make a claim for the costs and should reimburse you ASAP

[RedSparrow]

Just ask him to send you a scan or photo of the receipt.

[Mr Lobster]

Business or private seller? Not that it makes much difference but if its a business seller then he should sort it a lot easier. Private seller might just not be arsed.

[dollywobbler]

He's a private seller. He doesn't seem very keen to pay. Claims he watched the chap in the post office put the sticker on the parcel.