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

[rafletcher]

Our smoke alarm finally died a death at 2am on Sunday, so I purchased some replacements - and went for the "Scottish" (and, I think, "Welsh") solution of wirelessly linked alarms - 2 smoke and 1 heat, the latter for the kitchen.

In the instructions for locating the heat alarm it says "The heat alarm... is ideal for kitchens".   

In the instructions for positioning the heat alarm it says "Areas to be avoided include the following:- Humida area such as... kitchens... where the relative humidity may exceed 60%"   

I've no doubt our small galley kitchen, some 2m x 3m, will fall into that category   

[perpetual dan]

Our smoke alarm finally died a death at 2am on Sunday, so I purchased some replacements - and went for the "Scottish" (and, I think, "Welsh") solution of wirelessly linked alarms - 2 smoke and 1 heat, the latter for the kitchen.

In the instructions for locating the heat alarm it says "The heat alarm... is ideal for kitchens".   

In the instructions for positioning the heat alarm it says "Areas to be avoided include the following:- Humida area such as... kitchens... where the relative humidity may exceed 60%"   

I've no doubt our small galley kitchen, some 2m x 3m, will fall into that category   

Where did you find them? Our local diy place hasn’t had any for ages.

[The Family Cyclist]

Ah my normally grumpy colleague really likes to email when a phone call would be better, quicker and more efficient.

She needed to know how much hose a repair needed, fuly knowing the tech who can answer this is busy and driving between jobs she emails him copying several people in whereas a 30 second phone call would have got the answer hours ago

I did nearly ring him myself but she's got form for basically trying to get rid of responsibilities through emails so she can deal with this.

She also ironically regularly rings me to ask questions she's already emailed me, which I have replied to hours ago....her excuse being.....she gets a lot of emails

[TheLurker]

Conversely... I have a colleague who will, when asked a question requiring a yes or no answer in an e-mail or in a text chat, *insist* on telephoning and boring the arse off me with a half hour history of why the answer is no.  When I don't fucking care why it's yes or no I just need to know which it is.  Annnd relax.

[The Family Cyclist]

Conversely... I have a colleague who will, when asked a question requiring a yes or no answer in an e-mail or in a text chat, *insist* on telephoning and boring the arse off me with a half hour history of why the answer is no.  When I don't fucking care why it's yes or no I just need to know which it is.  Annnd relax.

Ah we have one of those. He will email, print the email to hand to you and goninto detail you don't need bur he keeps a lot of stuff to self to make himself useful

[Beardy]

I’ll ring if I have to, but I’d much rather email or message you. That way I get an actual answer I can use and don’t have to try and make up the bits I didn’t hear. Though if I’m really fed up with you dodging the task I need you to just get on and do, I’ll arrange a telemetting with you and your boss with a follow up email to all.

[Beardy]

A moan about companies that refuse to allow access from commercial VPN providers, often with error messages that just leave you hanging.

B&Q report that their servers are ‘currently out of service for maintenance’, which is becoming less of a problem these days because the increasingly stock either own brand, exclusive to them versions of branded products, or just pain cheap tat.

And the reason for the map at this time of night is my discover that Audible reports ‘No network available’ until I close the VPN.

Yes, I can see why they would do it, but I still think it’s just bullying tactics.

[Jurek]

Royal Mail are changing their stamps to ones which feature a barcode.
After the end of January 2023 stamps without barcodes will be invalid.
However, you can download a form from their website, fill it in and send it with the stamps to Freepost Swapout, and RM will send you barcoded stamps to the same value.
So between home and work I had just over £20.00 worth of stamps.
So I did all of the above and wrote Freepost Swapout on the envelope making it Pretty Bloody Obvious what is in there.
I'm not going see my £20.00 again.
Am I?

[hubner]

Can they be swapped in a post office?

Can you get the form from there?

[hubner]

I've noticed there's a paper £20 note in my wallet, they were withdrawn in Sept.

Now I have to waste time and go to the bank to pay it into my account.

[andrewc]

I had an "emergency cash stash" in case the Machines Failed......   all paper 20's.  I spent the last of it a few months ago. 

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Regarding the stamps, Mrs Scum keeps a stash of them... I insisted that they were used up sending Round Robins and cards.
Thankyou for the tip on the swapout address!

[orienteer]

Royal Mail announced a six month extension of the old stamp deadline today; it was 31st January, now 31st July.

[Jurek]

Can they be swapped in a post office?

Can you get the form from there?

Nope and,
Nope.

[Jurek]

Royal Mail announced a six month extension of the old stamp deadline today; it was 31st January, now 31st July.

Wahay!
An additional 6 months of theft opportunities.
ETA - I'm sure that not all postal workers are thieves.

[hubner]

Can they be swapped in a post office?

Can you get the form from there?

Nope and,
Nope.

Discrimination against people without a printer. Legal challenge time.

[Jurek]

Can they be swapped in a post office?

Can you get the form from there?

Nope and,
Nope.

Discrimination against people without a printer. Legal challenge time.

G'luck with that.

[rafletcher]

Royal Mail are changing their stamps to ones which feature a barcode.
After the end of January 2023 stamps without barcodes will be invalid.
However, you can download a form from their website, fill it in and send it with the stamps to Freepost Swapout, and RM will send you barcoded stamps to the same value.
So between home and work I had just over £20.00 worth of stamps.
So I did all of the above and wrote Freepost Swapout on the envelope making it Pretty Bloody Obvious what is in there.
I'm not going see my £20.00 again.
Am I?

Yep, my wife got her replacement stamps today, after 2-3 weeks.

[graculus]

We have an actual form, delivered (one presumes by our postman on his rounds) a couple of months ago. Probably won't need to use now as  we don't have that many stamps to use up.

[hubner]

Can they be swapped in a post office?

Can you get the form from there?

Nope and,
Nope.

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps

Discover our new Barcoded Stamps
Use up your regular stamps by 31 January 2023, or swap them out for our new barcoded stamps.


Where can I get a Swap Out form from?
 
The 'Swap Out' scheme opened on 31 March 2022. 'Swap Out' forms are available from the following places: print one off our website; complete a request form on the website; contact Royal Mail Customer Services who will arrange for one to be sent to you; pick one up from any Delivery Office Customer Service Point. Please note from end of November 2022 swap out forms will also be available at Post Offices.


Can I take my stamps to the Post Office to swap them out?
 
You will from the end of November be able to pick up a 'Swap Out' form from your local Post Office along with a free post envelope – but the Post Office won’t be able to swap your stamps for barcoded ones.


When does the Stamp Swap Out Scheme end / when do I need to swap out my non-barcoded stamps by?
 
It’s fine to keep using non-barcoded stamps as postage up until 31 January 2023. You can swap out your stamps any time from 31 March 2022 onwards — there is currently no end date as to when you need to swap out your non-barcoded stamps by.

[hubner]

Royal Mail announced a six month extension of the old stamp deadline today; it was 31st January, now 31st July.

It looks like they haven't updated the info.
https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps

[Jurek]

Royal Mail announced a six month extension of the old stamp deadline today; it was 31st January, now 31st July.

It looks like they haven't updated the info.
https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps

No surprise there.
Comms is their raison d'etre.

[Mrs Pingu]

2nd of our Gigaset DECT phone headsets has gone b0rk. Thought they were supposed to be good. Bah.

[ian]

British Gas, you have our billing preferences, our email address, our phone number for messages etc. You regularly send me random shit to these. I have checked online and our billing preference is not postal. That's the only box that isn't ticked.

So we get the bills in the post. Which is now so infrequent (once every couple of weeks at the moment, often 3-4 weeks) that it came with the late payment reminder in the same bundle.

[Kim]

Oh, related grumble:

Natpest were nagging me to switch to paperless statements every time I logged in, and then taking me to a settings screen which showed - correctly - that the various accounts are already set to paperless.  And then refusing to accept the click on the 'save' button on the reasonable grounds that I hadn't changed anything.

Eventually this annoyed me sufficiently that I set one account to postal bills, logged out and came in again to set it back to paperless.  This seems to have worked.  So far.  Who knows what might be in the post.