The grumpy thread

[shedvan]

When complaining at a restaurant its advisable not to accept replacement foods or free whatever. That is unless you have a hankering for the good old fashioned taste of jism in your food.

 

One particular episode comes to mind when I was working in a pizza parlour and the cleaning of the electric fly-trap happened to coincide with some luckless harness lurching in and his order of a large pizza

[TimothyClaypole]

Royal Mail, the new pricing is just out of all reason.

 

1.028kg in a smallish box, £8.90 for just 1st class, recorded would be over £10.00 - so being Ebay/Paypal I'm open for a molesting having no tracking on it...

 

I use TNT sometimes and that is only £10.83 through Interparcel and that's any weight you can manage to pick up or fit in a box etc.

 

I only paid that today as I'd stuck £4.50 in unfranked stamps on it that I peeled off parcels at work. When they started using those sticky labels to print postage was a black day for my stamp collecting.

 

 

Are Yodel any good as they quote £4.89 for upto 2kg's but I think you have to drop them off at the local off licence or butchers or something, then a bloke in a beat up Zafira with no insurance throws it over a fence etc. ?

[autofive]

royal mail prices have become silly since april

 

100g -500g is now the same price

 

parcels have to be weighed and measured, and then extra for tracking info that is useless when you want to make a claim

 

I use 'interparcel economy' (which is UPS) for everything - theres free tracking, claims are easy, and payed into your bank (royal mail give you stamps WTF?) and picked up from your house or work

[Rover414]

Rover attracted no attention until it went on the axle stands and had it's face removed. "Can I take that for scrap mate?". Err, how about FUCK OFF twat.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Watch it, it'll disappear while you're at work

[Rover414]

I was thinking that, luckily it's blocked in by the C1 and currently there is always someone in the house. Do they patrol the streets waiting for the opportune* car to come up?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

very much so

[Junkman]

The decline of the coffee culture.

 

This is a major piss off for me. Since the total demise of the tea culture about a quarter century ago, one has to do with coffee.

Now even this is under threat.

 

There are those seemingly omnipresent coffee dispensing machines everywhere you go. At work, at the train station, at your local tyre dealer, whatever.

No matter what you select from these, regardless which buttons you press, you always get the same unidentifiable mix of fair trade diarrhoea and bath foam.

 

OK, so you say why do I use those machines and don't get me a coffee in one of those newfangled chain coffee shops that now are next to each chain phone shop?

Well, because they piss me off even more. I have a passionate dislike for chain franchise operations on a general principle, but in addition, the shit they sell is in no way better than what you get from those stupid machines, only with the added nuisance that you now also have to cope with what nowadays probably is called a hot drink preparation engineer and her/his artificial friendliness courtesy of some fuggin customer care training made in USA. Holy shit. It goes like this:

 

HDPE: What can I do for you?

Me: Selling me a fuggin all included holiday in fuggin Tadzhikistan, ffs, because that's most likely what I came into a fuggin coffee shop for.

HDPE: Would you like a Filter, Espresso, Espresso Strong, Americano, Americano Classic, Cortado, Macchiato, Latte, Latte Macchiato, Cappuccino, or Mocha?

Me: Whatever is closest to a coffee, ffs.

HDPE: So, an Americano?

Me: (No offense to our American forum members intended) Well, similar to beer, America is actually the last place I'd turn to in order to get a decent cup of coffee.

HDPE: A Filter then?

Me: OK, go for it.

 

And now usually comes the pinnacle of all stupid questions:

 

HDPE: Which flavour?

Me: What?

HDPE: Which flavour?

Me: Beef Goulasch???? Ffs, do you have it in coffee flavour by any chance?

 

After this comes the next standard paragon of the customer care training, for which I could kick someone's teeth in:

 

HDPE: Ohkayyyy...

 

This fuggin drawed out OK you get all the time now, am I really the only one who finds this utmost annoying?

 

Me: Well, ta.

 

And now comes what brings me to the brink of murder in affect:

 

HDPE: YOU ARE WELCOME. HAVE A NICE DAY.

 

Waaaah! Where's me axe? Where's me chainsaw?

 

In ye goode olde dayse, I could walk into any greasy spoon cafe, could rely on the waitress being grumpy as fugg, which added some much appreciated consistency and regularity to my life, and got a decent cup of fuggin unfair trade coffee, without being interrogated for ten minutes. May these times rest in peace.

[RedSparrow]

I learnt a long time ago to just ask for a small filter coffee. ie a normal coffee.

[shedvan]

Either you were very fortunate in the calibre of your greasy spoon or you could be applying a thick coat of sepia to your recollections Junkman.

 

My recall of the old days in greasy spoonland was that it was some foully bitter instant coffee drek in a polystyrene cup.

 

However you only had to pay 30p for it as opposed to £3.70 so perhaps that balances out

[skattrd]

Fucking cats.

I got used to their footprints all over my cars. but last week one of them shat on the roof of the boring, and this week they have have ruined the car cover I put over the Lancia. I am not happy.

Does anyone have any experience of these ultra sonic deterrent things? ... They seem to cost about the same as the car cover I now have to replace

[cort16]

My sd1 now won't come out of first gear. The box can be a bit slow sometimes but now it just sticks in first and revs it's nuts off . It's doing my fucking heads as its been one thing after another since I woke it up at the start of April .

I've a horrible feeling its going to be another summer if no use for it if this keeps up.

[sporty-shite]

Fucking cats.

I got used to their footprints all over my cars. but last week one of them shat on the roof of the boring, and this week they have have ruined the car cover I put over the Lancia. I am not happy.

Does anyone have any experience of these ultra sonic deterrent things? ... They seem to cost about the same as the car cover I now have to replace

 

Get some zoflora disinfectant and dilute it as per instructions in a trigger spray. Spray it all around the area in question and it'll keep them away nicely.

[Junkman]

My sd1 now won't come out of first gear. The box can be a bit slow sometimes but now it just sticks in first and revs it's nuts off . It's doing my fucking heads as its been one thing after another since I woke it up at the start of April .

I've a horrible feeling its going to be another summer if no use for it if this keeps up.

 

Change the fluid and it'll work as new.

[Cavcraft]

Don't knock the Post Office too much, they've turned things round and are making money now. Mind you strangely* enough there's also talk of them being flogged off, which I'm absolutely certain has nothing to do with a sudden jump from loss to profit.

[retrogeezer]

They could make money by charging the large distributors a proper fee instead of hiking up what they charge the general public time and time again.

 

I just bought a Cavalier Haynes manual from Amazon - £1.87 delivered to my door. So they are sourcing it, storing it, picking it, packing it and sending it for half the price it would cost me just to post it.

 

Same thing for a battery for the key torch thing, 1st class to my door - 95p.

 

Still, at least these big companies aren't avoiding tax in the UK eh!

[Richard]

We'll miss the Royal Mail when it's gone, and it'll be gone quite soon.

[Negative Creep]

Take your break too late in the day after having supposedly taken too long on a bathroom break earlier in the day? That's enough to get a verbal warning.

 

Leave at least 5 minutes early every day and sit there using your mobile in full view despite it being a disciplinary offence to have it on the work floor? That's fine, we'll overlook that.

 

 

One of those scenarios applies to me, one to the teenage blonde girl I sit next to. Can you guess which is which?

[TimothyClaypole]

Your face doesn't fit.

 

You'd fit in well with the "wrong" crowd at our place, the more you do the more they take the piss while the favourites do as they like.

 

I've a nice photo of one of them using their mobile phone at their desk, you are not even allowed to bring them into the building... of course it's worthless as it would just be swept under the carpet with the rest.

[Negative Creep]

I am very much part of the b-team in that place - always have my mistakes pointed out publicly or blamed for things that aren't even my fault whereas if anyone else does something wrong it's overlooked. I'm totally done with the place and would be very happy if they told me not to bother coming in the next morning

[eddyramrod]

Leave.

 

It's the only answer. I'm not being flippant here, this is serious advice from someone who's been there and still carries the scars. Life is too short, and you spend far too much of it at work, to be unhappy. Go. Even if it takes you a while to get something else, and I'm fully aware of that possibility, it's worth it. Yes, you'll have to adjust your lifestyle, hell, I lived in a scrap caravan for 4 months! But it's better than staying and just getting angrier and more downtrodden. Leave. Now. Seriously. You'll feel so much better so quickly.

[Negative Creep]

Problem is that if I leave of my own accord I can't claim JSA whilst trying to find something else. Big part of me thinks I'll just end up doing something equally shit and low paid, just in a different office

[eddyramrod]

Yep, I understand. I do know it isn't simple. Only you can judge how much adjustment you need, or will be able, to do in terms of adjusting your outgoings. The JSA issue is iniquitous and unjust. However, you do absolutely have to look after your own mental health. If it means going after other shit-level jobs, well ok, I've done that enough, I'm in one now! As long as you can make your life fit around it, you'll survive. Same job, different place? That means a different set of people, hopefully some you will be able to work with! You're clearly not getting that where you are so you really don't have anything to lose emotionally. Good luck.

[Lord Sterling]

Yo, good luck with whatever you decide NC. I do know that workplaces can be shit places to spend time in. I'd agree with what Eddy says, spending time in a place like that can and probably will drive you mad. Life does throw some right shit at you sometimes, so its best to know be prepared and have a relaxed mind about it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

My grump - This knocking noise on the Rover is getting worse. I'm almost certain its coming from the front brakes. I've just parted with £367 to get the bloody thing through the MOT but I reckon Steve's MOT man was a picky bastard. The car was Ok when I took it there, I should have taken it my old garage man.

 

It'll be going back to Steve to rectify this problem soon, but this means I can't take it with me to Telford in the weekend

[Mr Lobster]

Re Post Office.

 

Price changes only affect retail 'over the counter' customers and business customers are paying pretty much what they did previously. Now that the Post Office and Royal Mail are seperate entities I guess its all about making it ready for privatisation...

 

Interestingly I can now post the same parcel to anywhere in Europe for less than the same parcel costs to post to the UK though. Can't get my head around that really.

 

For couriers I'd +1 on Interparcels economy service which is UPS. Always very good.

 

Yodel should be avoided at all costs.

[mattblack]

bathroom break

 

To be fair, having a bath at work is taking the piss a bit.

[sporty-shite]

Sort of a grump and grin all inn one, but the grump is winning so.....

 

I've sold the 306. Hassle free sale on Gumtree to a young lad from Huddersfield, who came down this morning and paid up after a check over and test drive. That should be a grin, I hear you say, and you'd be right. But.....

 

I now have no car. I really want retro80sboy's 106 XSi, but I couldn't get down there today, I'm working tomorrow, and he's working Monday till gone 5. No great shakes, I know, but seeing as I'm relying on Our Maud to take me there, which means dragging the kids along, it's proving to be something of a ballache.

 

I know, it's only Wrexham, but it's an hour and a half each way, and Mrs S isn't full of patience at present, which is also making me grumpy.

 

Meh.

[Angrydicky]

How about Retrogeezer's Bluebird? Seems like a hell of a lot of car for the money!

[skattrd]

Sporty - can't you catch the train down to Wrexham? It'd save putting the Mrs out.

The train ticket may be worth it for marital harmony

[Cavcraft]

Can I help anywhere, Chris? I could (possibly) bike it to Wrexham, lob the bike into the 106 and drive it back here at least. Time/weather/missus not wanting to go somewhere permitting it may be do-able tomorrow.