The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[MattH]

Netflix, having cancelled my account last week, do you really think that sending me an email every single day since saying that I can rejoin for the standard price is
a) going to change my mind, or
b) annoy me enough that I'll remove myself from your mailing lists and potentially miss something that would tempt me to rejoin for a while?

An email a month or so would be fine (like NowTV do), but this is just taking the mickey.

[Beardy]

I don’t believe that it is beyond the wit of engineers and designers to come up a toilet seat hinge design that is flexible enough to account for porcelain moulding errors yet stable enough once installed to not allow the seat to move. Why, therefore, do toilet manufacturers continue to provide such shittily designed hinges?

[Pingu]

Is there an amusing back story to this?

[Beardy]

I’m sorry to disappoint, but no backstory, amusing or otherwise. Just the new toilet pan I fitted recently came with those crappy cam adjustment design that just can’t actually work. I kind of accepted that on replacement seats, but on a new fresh out of the box bog, I’d kind of expected better.

[robgul]

I don’t believe that it is beyond the wit of engineers and designers to come up a toilet seat hinge design that is flexible enough to account for porcelain moulding errors yet stable enough once installed to not allow the seat to move. Why, therefore, do toilet manufacturers continue to provide such shittily designed hinges?

Having just fitted a new pan/cistern and seat ("comfort height" - really great) I cobbled the fittings by a) fitting some rubber sleeving round the seat fixing bolts to keep them "centred" in the porcelain, and b) put a dab of clear silicone under the two discs that the bolts hold down  (The seat is the type that demounts from the fittings so fairly easy to effect my fix - so far there has been no movement)

[Canardly]

IME the best thing for a 'Euroflo' fitting type is those rubber cone shaped bungs being inserted underneath into the appropriate hole together with a stainless washer and wing nut be it 8 or 6mm. I gave up on detachable type lids after numerous incidences of loose fittings and sliding seat syndrome. For a time we also had those one way only fixings due to a hidden cistern which proved to becompletely useless. As to why the surface washers cannot be manufactured with a non degradable grippy material,  Deity knows. Self centering washers are available for kitchen taps so why not WCs?

[Giraffe]

"fitting type is those rubber cone shaped bungs being inserted "
butt plugs, dear.

[Pingu]

I’m sorry to disappoint, but no backstory, amusing or otherwise...

Chiz

[ian]

Ah, so, new shoes. Like all thoroughly modern gentlemen, I purchase them online these days. Out of the box they come, hmm, look a bit well, worn. Glance at soles. Actual dirt from the outside world. I get that people try shoes on, that they don't fit and they return them. But these look like someone has worn them for a week or two, entered and run a tough mudder and then returned them. Grumble because I now have to faff about to return them and I like the colour, but I'm not keen to re-order them from the same vendor.

[andrewc]

I can't find my folding camping mug         I've got other receptacles to use, but they take up more room.   If I order another one you know what will happen....

[Kim]

Danglemug time...

[T42]

Danglebugs, OTOH, are nasty large black insects that people the sun-baked canyons where roads cut through the maize-fields and hover in wait for car windscreens and striving cyclists' gaping cakeholes.  Don't forget the salt & pepper.

[ian]

Chewing gum. What is its purpose, other than for me to step in or otherwise adulterate my clothing with the foul stuff? That dread pavement suck as you lift your shoe. The experiment where you end up mixing toothpaste and peanut butter in an attempt to liberate a clump of the foul stuff from a jacket.

I've tried it. It tastes of mint for about two seconds then tastes of nothing. Did anyone in the entire history of mankind's engagement with chewing gum say 'gosh, I love to hear the sound of someone masticating' or 'you look great chewing, please do it some more.'

I'm broadly against the death sentence, but I think maybe in this case it would act as a suitable deterrent. #harshbutfair.

[campagman]

I've got some of that chewing gum that is supposed to clean your teeth. I think the idea is good and has some potential.

[ian]

That's probably a lie from Big Chewing Gum.

[Pickled Onion]

Did anyone in the entire history of mankind's engagement with chewing gum say 'gosh, I love to hear the sound of someone masticating' or 'you look great chewing, please do it some more.'

I have known people who habitually chewed gum in the belief that it made them look more attractive 

[Kim]

Did anyone in the entire history of mankind's engagement with chewing gum say 'gosh, I love to hear the sound of someone masticating' or 'you look great chewing, please do it some more.'

I have known people who habitually chewed gum in the belief that it made them look more attractive 

I was going to say, it's what teenagers who don't have the nerve to take up smoking do to look cool.  And the ones who do do in an attempt to mask the smell of smoking.

[SoreTween]

I was going to say, it's what teenagers who don't have the nerve to take up smoking do to look cool.  And the ones who do do in a failed attempt to mask the smell of smoking.

ITYM?

[orienteer]

In the past have had tradesmen round to quote for some work. If they were chewing gum that's an immediate fail.

To me it's a sign of contempt.

[Kim]

I was going to say, it's what teenagers who don't have the nerve to take up smoking do to look cool.  And the ones who do do in a failed attempt to mask the smell of smoking.

ITYM?

Indeed.  Smokers' idea of how the sense of smell works is painfully naive.

[onerousdeporte]

Why do chain reaction use EVRI?  Cos my parcel has been out for delivery for days and not made it to me.

Insult to injury is the texts and emails being sent to say the parcel delivery is running late and should be with me at 21...and the emails arrives at 22!

Planetx used to be terrible but now use fedex, and parcel arrived within time slot...

[Beardy]

Why do chain reaction use EVRI?  Cos my parcel has been out for delivery for days and not made it to me.

Insult to injury is the texts and emails being sent to say the parcel delivery is running late and should be with me at 21...and the emails arrives at 22!

Planetx used to be terrible but now use fedex, and parcel arrived within time slot...

The problem is that the recipient of the parcel is not the customer of the delivery company, the retailer is. As long as the carrier remains cheap and the retailer remains ignorant of the delivery issues no change will occur.

[onerousdeporte]

Why do chain reaction use EVRI?  Cos my parcel has been out for delivery for days and not made it to me.

Insult to injury is the texts and emails being sent to say the parcel delivery is running late and should be with me at 21...and the emails arrives at 22!

Planetx used to be terrible but now use fedex, and parcel arrived within time slot...

The problem is that the recipient of the parcel is not the customer of the delivery company, the retailer is. As long as the carrier remains cheap and the retailer remains ignorant of the delivery issues no change will occur.

Evri, is the new name for hermes.  Hermes were terrible, so how to improve the consumer perception...make the service better?  Of course not just change the name so the consumer doesn't know they are getiing hermes.  Worst bit is waiting and waiting then getting emails that the package won't be turning up an hour after the time slot.  Best one is the parcel was delivered then getting emails and texts about delays and tha package will be there tomorrow.

[TheLurker]

Evri, is the new name for hermes.  Hermes were terrible...

Some of this may be down to individual couriers and how large a conurbation you live in.  Urban traffic plays merry hell with delivery schedules.  A lifetime ago I did exactly that sort of delivery work for Jenners and frequently got my ear bent for "late" deliveries* about which I could do bugger all but apologise, even though I came to know every rat-run and traffic avoiding short cut to the south side.  So heaven help a new bod in a big town with traffic volumes many, many times worse than they were 40 years ago.

Of course it would help if the parcel delivery companies didn't force their drivers to deliver unfeasibly large numbers of parcels in too short a time, but they have done this ever since parcel delivery wagons were bikes with a basket on the front.

By the by.  Many of MrsL's electronic mail-order purchases are delivered by Hervri, and the bloke who covers our patch out here in the sticks is almost never late.

*Even though there was no advertised delivery timetable.  Never mind, the customer is always right. 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Evri, is the new name for hermes.  Hermes were terrible...

Some of this may be down to individual couriers and how large a conurbation you live in.  Urban traffic plays merry hell with delivery schedules.  A lifetime ago I did exactly that sort of delivery work for Jenners and frequently got my ear bent for "late" deliveries* about which I could do bugger all but apologise, even though I came to know every rat-run and traffic avoiding short cut to the south side.  So heaven help a new bod in a big town with traffic volumes many, many times worse than they were 40 years ago.

Of course it would help if the parcel delivery companies didn't force their drivers to deliver unfeasibly large numbers of parcels in too short a time, but they have done this ever since parcel delivery wagons were bikes with a basket on the front.

By the by.  Many of MrsL's electronic mail-order purchases are delivered by Hervri, and the bloke who covers our patch out here in the sticks is almost never late.

*Even though there was no advertised delivery timetable.  Never mind, the customer is always right.

Traffic congestion
That's it, and we all contribute to it.

It is notable that deliveries are frequently *early* on the islands, despite the distances. People buy a lot online here; the major couriers ship to a depot in Inverness, where a local islands courier takes over.

There is no traffic congestion and the deliveries are made, on time, by a driver with a smile.

I'd hate to be a delivery driver in any city. Must be one of the worst jobs imaginable. Underpaid and despised.