Author Topic: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 3009463 times)

Kim · « **Reply #26600 on:** 06 May, 2021, 11:54:37 am »

Quote from: ian on 06 May, 2021, 09:40:40 am

Indeed, don't just unilaterally cancel a DD. It's the same as not paying the bill.

Someone should tell Severn Trent Water...

citoyen · « **Reply #26601 on:** 06 May, 2021, 11:54:50 am »

Quote from: geraldc on 06 May, 2021, 11:49:35 am

After the chat finished, I marked everything down as excellent

Whenever I get one of these customer satisfaction surveys, I make a point of always giving top marks for everything as a point of principle, even if the service was shit.

Solidarity, innit.

ian · « **Reply #26602 on:** 06 May, 2021, 01:50:02 pm »

Quote from: citoyen on 06 May, 2021, 11:54:50 am

Quote from: geraldc on 06 May, 2021, 11:49:35 am
After the chat finished, I marked everything down as excellent

Whenever I get one of these customer satisfaction surveys, I make a point of always giving top marks for everything as a point of principle, even if the service was shit.

Solidarity, innit.

It's the curse of NPS.

Jasmine · « **Reply #26603 on:** 06 May, 2021, 02:41:40 pm »

I recently had an email to give feedback about an online customer service chat. The person on the other end had been really good, and fixed a problem that I didn't actually think they'd be able to do. The feedback link was to a webpage where you click a smiley face or a sad face. That's it. I was so incensed by this that I opened another query with my actual (entirely positive) feedback and a request to escalate to a manager.

If you are going to ask for feedback, at least let people leave it.

ian · « **Reply #26604 on:** 06 May, 2021, 03:09:37 pm »

It all feeds into pretend metrics (what I call faux quantification) that are destined to appear on Powerpoint slides in management meetings.

citoyen · « **Reply #26605 on:** 06 May, 2021, 03:19:03 pm »

NPS is supposedly asking are we doing well *as a company*? But if you give negative feedback, you can bet it's the employees who feel the brunt of it, not the management.

ian · « **Reply #26606 on:** 06 May, 2021, 03:37:50 pm »

As the proud owner of a product NPS, I simply have the detractors killed.

Management are obsessed with faux quantification, turning complex things into simple numbers and then overinterpreting them. Even putting aside the dodgy methodology, at least once a month I have to explain confidence intervals/margins of error and why we should not panic when a number changes. I am ignored.

Beardy · « **Reply #26607 on:** 06 May, 2021, 04:17:35 pm »

I look on NPS and it’s ilk in a similar way I looked on the Investors in People programs back in the 90’s. It’s a badge to show people that you as a company take something seriously while you quietly reduce the delivery of whatever service it covers. All dreamed up by some MBA holder with little 0r no knowledge of the actual business their company (or client company) is actually engaged in.

geraldc · « **Reply #26608 on:** 07 May, 2021, 10:42:56 am »

A discussion in the office this morning about pensions, and what funds we can invest in (with our employers selected pension provider). Currently about 5 of my colleagues (including my most islamaphobic one) are logging into to their pension accounts and are all switching to a sharia compliant fund based on performance.

T42 · « **Reply #26609 on:** 07 May, 2021, 10:55:18 am »

rafletcher · « **Reply #26610 on:** 07 May, 2021, 10:19:07 pm »

We’re going to visit some gardens in late June, in aid of local churches. There are descriptions of the various properties. The one that caught my imagination was “there are several ponds, and... a deer park”

ian · « **Reply #26611 on:** 08 May, 2021, 09:45:14 pm »

Sod deer park, I really want a house with a moat.

We walked past a house the other month which had a moat. And not just that, it was a two-level moat with a fucking waterfall. That's just gratuitous.

Our garden features a 'fox park.'

On the subject of deer, a while back we were walking through a big deer park (somewhere down Eridge way) and they were all muttering. Hundreds of them, looking at us, and making a strange muttering noise that I've never heard before. Very odd. We were eating Bakewell tarts.

In other animal-related news, everyone should look up Biggy Pop (he's Iggy Pop's Moluccan cockatoo). Got some moves, that bird.

citoyen · « **Reply #26612 on:** 08 May, 2021, 11:48:28 pm »

What 3 rude words
https://twitter.com/what3rudewords?s=21

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #26613 on:** 09 May, 2021, 01:22:29 pm »

"I read this and thought of you":

Quote

One of the best examples of the Rain Gothenburg approach is the design for a new school, Torslandaskolan, the competition for which was titled “The world’s best school when it’s raining”.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #26614 on:** 09 May, 2021, 03:35:00 pm »

Quote from: ian on 08 May, 2021, 09:45:14 pm

Sod deer park, I really want a house with a moat.

We walked past a house the other month which had a moat. And not just that, it was a two-level moat with a fucking waterfall. That's just gratuitous.

Our garden features a 'fox park.'

On the subject of deer, a while back we were walking through a big deer park (somewhere down Eridge way) and they were all muttering. Hundreds of them, looking at us, and making a strange muttering noise that I've never heard before. Very odd. We were eating Bakewell tarts.

In other animal-related news, everyone should look up Biggy Pop (he's Iggy Pop's Moluccan cockatoo). Got some moves, that bird.

Oddly enough he came up in conversation last night and a couple of minutes were idled away watching said birb strutting his funky Stuffs.

citoyen · « **Reply #26615 on:** 10 May, 2021, 03:45:54 pm »

Posted by a friend on Facebook -
"There are these new websites that basically nick other people's stories and then stick them through a special AI machine, which changes them *just* enough for it not to be plagiarism. It happened to one of our articles about UB40's Red Red Wine today, and it's bloody brilliant."

Here's the link - you won't see the joins...
https://thevgatimes.com/2021/05/08/ub40-launch-vegan-wine-inspired-by-no-1-hit-red-red-wine

nicknack · « **Reply #26616 on:** 10 May, 2021, 05:39:39 pm »

That's totally bonkers.

Salvatore · « **Reply #26617 on:** 11 May, 2021, 12:03:15 pm »

My nephew has just returned with his wife and little (4 yo, I think) daughter from a two-year stint working in Florida. They are now isolating at my sister's in Shropshire. This morning the little one announced she'd seen a raccoon in the garden. It was grey, with a long bushy tail, running along the fence.

ian · « **Reply #26618 on:** 11 May, 2021, 12:09:39 pm »

Raccoons do get everywhere, so it'd be no surprise if one ended up in the luggage. In some US states, they're smart enough to get driving licences. I doubt they'd have a problem in Florida.

Giraffe · « **Reply #26619 on:** 11 May, 2021, 04:53:41 pm »

It's a micro-bear!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #26620 on:** 11 May, 2021, 06:43:25 pm »

Genuine raccoons do pop occasionally in the Land of UK; there was one in Liverpool in 2018 and one somewhere else (probably Somerset) in 2012:

Quote from: Miss von Brandenburg

We saw a live racoon on the BBC news last night, they found one in this couple's back garden. It was knocking over the plant pots and getting into fights with the dogs. It now lives at a rescue centre, looking cute.

Wikinaccurate claims there are more than a million of them in Germany. Bloody EU raccoons, comin' over 'ere…

Pingu · « **Reply #26621 on:** 11 May, 2021, 09:32:00 pm »

Trash panda.

andrewc · « **Reply #26622 on:** 11 May, 2021, 10:29:08 pm »

https://twitter.com/danbarker/status/1392204516351741954?s=20 "It is with regret that I report that the "mad sailor shop", Arthur Beale's, is closing, one of the oldest shops in London."

No money in old ropes ? Think I've been past this place a few times but never bought anything.

Guy · « **Reply #26623 on:** 12 May, 2021, 07:59:53 am »

I am the living proof that men *can* multi-task. I have just walked from the kitchen area to my office, while spilling coffee down my trousers at the same time!

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #26624 on:** 12 May, 2021, 10:45:14 am »

Quote from: andrewc on 11 May, 2021, 10:29:08 pm

https://twitter.com/danbarker/status/1392204516351741954?s=20 "It is with regret that I report that the "mad sailor shop", Arthur Beale's, is closing, one of the oldest shops in London."

No money in old ropes ? Think I've been past this place a few times but never bought anything.

In the 70s and early 80s there was a stall in the Shambles in Stroud on the Wednesday markets, and possibly all week, that sold rope and string. Old skool plant fibre rope, presumably hemp or jute, it had a strong planty smell. It wasn't a yacht chandlers, it didn't sell anything about from rope and string. I've no idea who its customers were.