Author Topic: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.  (Read 1576279 times)

Wombat

  • Is it supposed to hurt this much?
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8100 on: 08 September, 2016, 08:27:37 am »
I had several instances of that in NZ, so after the second refusal, I contacted my bank (Santander) in the UK to ask what was going on, as they knew I was in NZ.  The response was that there had been no attempted transactions. I also had a rash of it in France*. One can only surmise that some furrin' machines go "ooh, a furrin' card, dunno what to do with that, so I'll just claim it was refused."  I get the impression that most other countries have even more backward banking systems than our own.

* I did also have a nasty rash in France, but I'll try not to mention it again.
Wombat

ian

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8101 on: 08 September, 2016, 08:57:11 am »
Try Japan. It's always a lottery whether the machines will deal with any given card. The only sure bet is the Seven Bank machines in 7-11s.

While Japanese banking systems are impenetrable, US banking systems are forever 1976. There's a place where COBOL will never die.

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8102 on: 08 September, 2016, 01:26:11 pm »
Try Japan. It's always a lottery whether the machines will deal with any given card. The only sure bet is the Seven Bank machines in 7-11s.

While Japanese banking systems are impenetrable, US banking systems are forever 1976. There's a place where COBOL will never die.
I seem to remember withdrawing cash from post offices in Japan...

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8103 on: 08 September, 2016, 01:40:12 pm »
I found that one of the two cash machines in Nan (a small town in NE Thailand) was perfectly happy to give me money in 1995, which surprised me a little. I didn't try the other machine because the first one worked. I don't recall having much trouble anywhere since except Bulgaria in 1998, where the options were very limited. But I confess that I've not tried Japanese cash machines much. I have other ways to get money there, & an envelope full of yen & a loaded Suica card waiting for my next visit.

I did find that one bank in Sydney refused to give me money in 1999, but I tried the next machine I saw & it worked. I was there for months, working in Chatswood & getting paid in the UK, so I needed cash machines, & I don't recall any other refusals.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Mr Larrington

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Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8104 on: 08 September, 2016, 03:08:30 pm »
The Wells Fargo machine in Battle Mountain has always been a bit of a lottery but it's the only bank-operated one in town since the Bank of America shut its branch c. 2004.  There are probably machines in various gambling dens but I'd reckon they'd charge a BRITON even more than the three dollars the robbers at Chase wanted yesterday.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8105 on: 08 September, 2016, 08:16:16 pm »
Farnell offers free next day delivery for orders placed up until 8 pm.

Their website seems to have crashed at 7:58 pm and I might or might not have left it until the last moment to complete my order.
Quote from: Kim
Paging Diver300.  Diver300 to the GSM Trimphone, please...

Torslanda

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Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8106 on: 09 September, 2016, 01:43:18 am »
Having worked all day with a finish around 21:00, coming in feeling knackered & nauseous, it's now nearly 2 AM and can I sleep? Can I bollox . . .
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8107 on: 09 September, 2016, 06:58:20 am »
I had trouble with a pay at pump machine in somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, West Texas, got chatting to the gas station attendant and it turned out he had been in the USAAF and stationed at Mildenhall, just down the road.

Small world.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8108 on: 09 September, 2016, 10:09:07 am »
I was sitting at my desk in Sydney one day when a new staff member was being shown round the office & introduced to people. We astonished everyone by greeting each other by name. We'd worked together in Reading 10 years earlier.

I once met a former neighbour in Dahab, which is in Egypt, on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. While I was telling her she was the second person I knew who I'd met by chance in Egypt, the other one being in Luxor, the other one walked in.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8109 on: 09 September, 2016, 10:19:55 am »
Burglar alarms. Why don't they have a timeout like car alarms? Head aches. Still, at least I haven't been burgled.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8110 on: 09 September, 2016, 10:56:30 am »
No battery to drain.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8111 on: 09 September, 2016, 11:34:04 am »
Burglar alarms. Why don't they have a timeout like car alarms?

IIRC the legal requirement is 20 minutes, but only for external sounders.

From extensive anecdotal experience during the Great Selly Oak Substation Clusterfuck of 2012 I can report that most, but not all, alarms seem to honour this.

There are batteries to drain.  They're the ones that allow them to go off during power cuts.  And when the wiring is cut.  And when the batteries are knackered.

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8112 on: 09 September, 2016, 12:07:19 pm »
Council, it is commendable that, when one makes an online complaint via your website1 the following occur:
1) you provide a reference number; and
2) you confirm the information submitted via email.

Do you know what else would be sensible?  Including the reference number somewhere in the email.  ::-)


1 It is now the 21st century (I checked).  If I neglect to type www. before $LondonBorough.gov.uk I should still arrive at the home page of the council web site, not receive an error message.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8113 on: 09 September, 2016, 01:06:51 pm »
There's definitely a battery, sometimes there's one in the external sounder and one inside the control panel. I've just had to replace the one in my control box.

Looking in my instructions mine will go off for 20 mins, but it will then wait a bit and go again twice more after that. I'm not sure it's a legal requirement as there is an option to change the settings to 30 mins on mine, and to change the number of repeats.
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8114 on: 09 September, 2016, 01:14:13 pm »
There are batteries to drain.  They're the ones that allow them to go off during power cuts.  And when the wiring is cut.  And when the batteries are knackered.

Oh well. We haven't got one. 
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

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Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8115 on: 09 September, 2016, 01:36:13 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

fuzzy

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8116 on: 09 September, 2016, 02:06:15 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

A former colleague, when I worked in the control room, was fond of asking complainers re constant burglar alarms whether they were farmers or knew a farmer.

The inevitable question from the caller "Why?" would be answered with "Well, farmers generally have a shotgun" at which point he would hang up.

A bit unconventional, our Dave ;D

He also rarely had to deal with the follow up call from a householder with a somewhat sick burglar alarm box.

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8117 on: 09 September, 2016, 02:12:44 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

A former colleague, when I worked in the control room, was fond of asking complainers re constant burglar alarms whether they were farmers or knew a farmer.

The inevitable question from the caller "Why?" would be answered with "Well, farmers generally have a shotgun" at which point he would hang up.

A bit unconventional, our Dave ;D

He also rarely had to deal with the follow up call from a householder with a somewhat sick burglar alarm box.

So that's where my colleague who also ran a small holding got the idea from. said neighbour was on holiday at the time.

fuzzy

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8118 on: 09 September, 2016, 02:22:38 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

A former colleague, when I worked in the control room, was fond of asking complainers re constant burglar alarms whether they were farmers or knew a farmer.

The inevitable question from the caller "Why?" would be answered with "Well, farmers generally have a shotgun" at which point he would hang up.

A bit unconventional, our Dave ;D

He also rarely had to deal with the follow up call from a householder with a somewhat sick burglar alarm box.

So that's where my colleague who also ran a small holding got the idea from. said neighbour was on holiday at the time.

Very possibly all Dave's fault!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8119 on: 09 September, 2016, 02:31:16 pm »
Not very far from where I grew up (and I believe it's quite close to where Flatus now lives) there is a secluded valley with a 19th century mansion which was for some reason abandoned when it was about three-quarters finished. Presumably either the owner ran out of cash or the builders had a strop, as I'm pretty sure there was no planning permission back then. Whatever the reason, the entire building and in fact the whole valley lay unused. At some point in the early 20th century the land passed into the hands of a local farmer, who didn't farm that valley but did rig up trip wires linked to shotgun triggers, as a deterrent against skoolboyz. I don't think there were any casualties cos a) the kids knew where the trip wires were, b) the shotguns had no aim. Still, the halcyon days of home protection and all that.  :hand:
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8120 on: 09 September, 2016, 03:00:27 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

A former colleague, when I worked in the control room, was fond of asking complainers re constant burglar alarms whether they were farmers or knew a farmer.

The inevitable question from the caller "Why?" would be answered with "Well, farmers generally have a shotgun" at which point he would hang up.

A bit unconventional, our Dave ;D

He also rarely had to deal with the follow up call from a householder with a somewhat sick burglar alarm box.

So that's where my colleague who also ran a small holding got the idea from. said neighbour was on holiday at the time.

Very possibly all Dave's fault!

Maybe not though as it would either have been in Cumbria or Hertfordshire.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
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Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8121 on: 09 September, 2016, 03:19:26 pm »
I was sitting at my desk in Sydney one day when a new staff member was being shown round the office & introduced to people. We astonished everyone by greeting each other by name. We'd worked together in Reading 10 years earlier.

When a new bug was being introduced around the Nut Mines some time after the Millennium the new bug and I said to each other "Hello, Dave!" not out of Papa Lazarou fanboizm but because we had known each other a Penniless Student Oaves about twenty years previously.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8122 on: 09 September, 2016, 05:24:30 pm »
Not very far from where I grew up (and I believe it's quite close to where Flatus now lives) there is a secluded valley with a 19th century mansion which was for some reason abandoned when it was about three-quarters finished. Presumably either the owner ran out of cash or the builders had a strop, as I'm pretty sure there was no planning permission back then. Whatever the reason, the entire building and in fact the whole valley lay unused. At some point in the early 20th century the land passed into the hands of a local farmer, who didn't farm that valley but did rig up trip wires linked to shotgun triggers, as a deterrent against skoolboyz. I don't think there were any casualties cos a) the kids knew where the trip wires were, b) the shotguns had no aim. Still, the halcyon days of home protection and all that.  :hand:

I suspect I know where you mean, it's a tourist attraction now.

D.
Somewhat of a professional tea drinker.


T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8123 on: 09 September, 2016, 05:29:58 pm »
What should be a legal requirement is for them to be connected to some sort of monitoring system.  Outside of term time we're surrounded by empty houses, and their alarms can go off for days without interruption.

Actually, let's have car alarms being monitored too.

A former colleague, when I worked in the control room, was fond of asking complainers re constant burglar alarms whether they were farmers or knew a farmer.

The inevitable question from the caller "Why?" would be answered with "Well, farmers generally have a shotgun" at which point he would hang up.

A bit unconventional, our Dave ;D

He also rarely had to deal with the follow up call from a householder with a somewhat sick burglar alarm box.

It's not burglar alarms that are the bugbear round here but minors on ear-shattering sub-50cc motorbikes. A shotgun would be the ideal solution but I gather that The Law frowns upon such radical approaches.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Biggsy

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Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #8124 on: 09 September, 2016, 06:57:30 pm »
EE is to double the price of data boosters on my old T-Mobile PAYG tariff.  6 months practically-unlimited internet for £20 was too good to carry on being true after all.  I'll be considering alternative networks at last.
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