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

[Regulator]

I’ve got to change our mobile phone service provider

Giff Gaff is OK.  They do cheap, £6 or thereabouts, rolling monthly renewals (Goody Bags or some such *stupid* name) which are fine for near unlimited calls/texts and a moderate amount of 'phone based browsing. 

Of all the utilities to need to change, I think that mobile phone contracts are probably the most needlessly complicated.

Dunno, broadband can be gear-grindingly painful too.

I’m with giff gaff and would recommend them. They’re quite generous on their international roaming as well. 

[Kim]

Of all the utilities to need to change, I think that mobile phone contracts are probably the most needlessly complicated.

Dunno, broadband can be gear-grindingly painful too.

Yeah, but it's necessarily complicated.  The phone people just like to string you along.

[Tim Hall]

Found an out of print obscure book that I've been searching for, on and off, for a while. It's listed on a Ebay from a USA based seller.

Ships to:

Worldwide
Excludes:
Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Croatia, Reunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela

That's stretching the definition of "Worldwide" to an Annoying Degree.

[Mr Larrington]

Time for that accommodation address in Belgrade?

[Jurek]

Overnight engineering work overran last night, so this morning there were no trains to take me to work.
So I opted to WFH.
Only my internet connection was down.
And the right channel in the amplifier through which the iMac runs, has stopped working.
Trying to establish that the loss of my internet and loss of one of the channels on my amp were unrelated was fun.
Not.

[Beardy]

I had a grumpy old man moment in Boots this morning. I had a handful of items and was asking past the pharmacy counter to see that there was four members of staff behind the counter and that they had no customer queueueueueueing. I stoped and asked the salesdroid to pay for my items. She rather dismissively told me there was a till at the other end of the store, which I had already noted had on salesdroid and a queueueue. Had she been polite rather than dismissive I _might_ have wandered off muttering, however… I politely pointed out that a)there was a queueueue at said till point, b)she had a till, and c)there was 4 of them and no other customers. Her snarky backchat caused me to ask her a bit more forceful if d)she had heard of customer service. As one of the other three behind the counter was the store manager and he did not intervene, I suspect he might not have been totally happy with her attitude. I’ll find out from the other pharmacist, ie not the one that was there today, next time I see her as she is a friend.

The youth of today don’t know they’re born… grumble mumble etc.

[barakta]

I won't use Boots pharmacies anymore cos their staff are so often incredibly rude.

I've been known to walk out of a Boots when they refused to serve me at the till and insisted I used the shitty self-checkouts. I'd explained I struggled with them and got bullshit especially trying to use a gift card which didn't work on the self-checkouts. As there was clearly staff available, I just put my prospective purchases down and walked out.

[Regulator]

I now use PillSorted for my regular meds as the Boots in the village never appears to have anything in stock.  I sometimes use them for emergency prescriptions but that's very hit and miss as well.

[Beardy]

Boots is the better of the two pharmacies in town, which tells you how bad the other one is. In addition to that, the actual pharmacists have always been very helpful to me and one of them is a long time friend as well. The salesdroids have always been meh, but this is the first time I’ve had one be less than helpful. We’ll see if I’m banned next time I go in.

[Mr Larrington]

When Lloyds Direct utterly failed to supply a quarter of the pills in my latest order Boots in 'stow Central were able to get them in by the next day.

[T42]

Oh well, if we're grumbling about pills, both of the pharmacies we use have recently switched suppliers, with the result that the nice compact little boxes we used to get have become four times the size and no longer fit my pill drawer.  And this when our dear government is rabbiting on about ecologicalities and plastic in the environment.

Furthermore, now that the wunnerful food-waste collection scheme is under way we're discovering that the brown paper bags the council provide go soft under the onslaught of damp coffee-grounds and tea-bags. Even a banana skin will make them soft enough to tear when we try to extract them from the dedicated bin.  Maybe we're supposed to desiccate everything in the oven first.

[barakta]

I suspected branded pharmacy chains are a bit like bread in branded supermarkets, very variable at a local level.

I'd like my pharmacy to stop giving me boxes of offcuts of meds packets. I guess better me than some confused elderly person but it's still irritating.

[T42]

I suspected branded pharmacy chains are a bit like bread in branded supermarkets, very variable at a local level.

I'd like my pharmacy to stop giving me boxes of offcuts of meds packets. I guess better me than some confused elderly person but it's still irritating.

Is that even legal?

[mrcharly-YHT]

I suspected branded pharmacy chains are a bit like bread in branded supermarkets, very variable at a local level.

I'd like my pharmacy to stop giving me boxes of offcuts of meds packets. I guess better me than some confused elderly person but it's still irritating.

Is that even legal?

STandard and necessary.

Say, box comes with 80 pills. Patient X is prescribed 2x per day, for two weeks. So 28 pills are dispensed. Should the pharmacy throw away the remainder?

the legal requirement is for the warning/use notice to be provided with the pills. Sometimes that means the pharmacy has to print off a copy.

[barakta]

As Mr C says it is legal and required cos batches don't match prescribed amounts.

It is annoying enough when it's 1 offcut in a normal packet but sometimes I get 30 pills as 5 or 6 different offcuts of different brands, which is a complete pain.

And yes, I've had a printout with meds (from hospital) which was clearly designed for A3 printing onto A4, it wasn't actually readable and as it was a controlled drug I'd had a weird reaction to, I did have to Google it to find the leaflet in a readable form.

[Beardy]

I’ve had a moan at my friendly pharmacist about the warning leaflets. I get two boxes of three different dose tablets of thyroxine every two months and have had for the past twenty four years. Yet I still get six identical leaflets with every prescription. I also take on tablet twice daily so that’s another leader that I get four off. Then there’s two each of the remaining drugs. The only thing that anything has changed on my bi-monthly prescription in the last 15 years has been the dosage.

But nothing can be done about the total waste in f paper because it’s a legal requirement with no flexibility in the rules.

[T42]

I suspected branded pharmacy chains are a bit like bread in branded supermarkets, very variable at a local level.

I'd like my pharmacy to stop giving me boxes of offcuts of meds packets. I guess better me than some confused elderly person but it's still irritating.

Is that even legal?

STandard and necessary.

Say, box comes with 80 pills. Patient X is prescribed 2x per day, for two weeks. So 28 pills are dispensed. Should the pharmacy throw away the remainder?

the legal requirement is for the warning/use notice to be provided with the pills. Sometimes that means the pharmacy has to print off a copy.

I only ever get complete sealed boxes, but then all my meds are long-term so maybe they do snip bits off here as well. That said, I've never seen a pharmacist doing so.

[Mr Larrington]

One of my shiny Nevada Department of Transportation trouser bands made a successful bid for freedom on the way to Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles just now.  Bah

[T42]

I'll keep an eye out for it.

[andrewc]

The Council Tax bill has just arrived.   £1613.59 for a tiny Band A 1 bedroom flat  in Liverpool.  (£1210.19 after my single persons discount).  :'(

[Mr Larrington]

Txt msg apparently from Porcelfarce.  Going directly to their website shews that the tracking number in the msg actually exists and it will be delivered tomorrow.  Only trouble is, I haven’t ordered anything from Armour Motor Products of Poole.  This is mostly because I do not have a motorcycle.  Finger trouble on the part of the real customer seems likely.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tomorrow: Mr Larrington has fun on a Kawazumi ZY1900 TerminatorBastard.

[liam_whippet]

Armour Motor Products of Poole, you say?

Presumably a well-made set of greaves are less likely to fall off than, er, 'trouser bands from the Nevada Department of Transportation' - and are, if anything, more shiny??

[hellymedic]

The Council Tax bill has just arrived.   £1613.59 for a tiny Band A 1 bedroom flat  in Liverpool.  (£1210.19 after my single persons discount).  :'(

Mine was £2488.51 for my 3 bedroomed semi...

[Mr Larrington]

Whatever it is, it’s out for delivery.  In Manchester.  When it doesn’t show up on my doorstep I may have some fun at Porcelfarce's expense