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

[fimm]

I posted a grumble earlier this week about having had injections in both arms and only my dominant arm being painful. Said grumble was lost in the Great Crash, and now I wish to update my grumble to the effect that both my arms are still sore.

[T42]

Sympathies. Having had a perfusion port in one arm and a pressure bandage on the other wrist made life rather puzzling yesterday. Pressure bandage still there and catches on stuff during mousing. Itches like hell now, too.

[robgul]

I HATE white bikes - servicing a rather nice Trek today . . . every time I touch it my gloves leave marks on the white parts - when I'd finished all the work and put it back together then had to spent 10 minutes with a clean cloth and bike cleaner to wipe it all down.     Upside is that the customer is delighted with the result.

[JellyLegs]

I rang HMRC this morning as they have kindly decided to base my tax code for this year on their estimate of my income rather than my actual pay and somehow they have estimated I will receive almost three times my salary.  Should have been easy for them this year too as for the first time in twenty odd years, I just have the one employment. 

HMRC Phone Lines open at 8am.  I ring and it connects at 7:59:55, goes through 30 seconds of “Why don’t you try our online help” [I had] and then tells me they are closed. Ring back, now 8:00:45 and get put on hold.  What follows is lots and lots of inane “your call is important…” messages interspersed with a bit of hold music. No helpful info like a position in the queue.  Thirty four minutes later, I get put through to a human.  Less than two minutes after that, problem solved by very helpful agent.

[Kim]

That's pretty good going for HMRC...  Unless of course you discover the helpful human has fucked up your tax code.

[barakta]

HMRC and other government depts not having resource to handle calls properly boils my piss.

Charity Commission has been regularly closing down its phonelines early which spannered my tiny charity. We have 2 deaf, 2 autistic people (1 is deaf and autistic) so phones are REALLY not our thing but had to be used cos they Did A Stupid with all our logins. Need to write them a complaint.

[JonBuoy]

Lots of Electricity-type vans were gathering in my street when I left the house for a pootle at 1600.  When I got back at 1900 they had dug a decent sized hole across the pavement to the house two doors away.  Had a brief chat with the digger driver who told me that they were trying to discover why the voles weren't getting into the house and suspected that the posh new porch was the culprit.  He also asked me if I could do wheelies    Loud digging noises are still happening - hopefully they don't carry on too late!

[JellyLegs]

That's pretty good going for HMRC...  Unless of course you discover the helpful human has fucked up your tax code.

I hadn’t considered that possibility     though the new tax free amount she quoted me on the phone was close enough to the figure I was expecting for it not to be worth me arguing.  It will all be cleared up in my self assessment return next year.  The near tripling of tax deducted in my April salary that resulted from their fantasy coding will leave us needing to dip into savings, but I am fortunate enough to have some savings to raid, and the overpaid tax will be refunded to me next month.  Because my income varies and up until this year I have had two or even three PAYE positions running simultaneously, I am used to doing a tax return at the year end to clarify if they owe me or I owe them.

HMRC and other government depts not having resource to handle calls properly boils my piss.

Charity Commission has been regularly closing down its phonelines early which spannered my tiny charity. We have 2 deaf, 2 autistic people (1 is deaf and autistic) so phones are REALLY not our thing but had to be used cos they Did A Stupid with all our logins. Need to write them a complaint.

It should not be rocket science but almost all big corps and Govt departments seem to be making it incredibly difficult for anyone to contact them nowadays with anything but the most simple and standard questions.  Accessibility should be baked in to everything they do, but unfortunately the are plenty of organisations out there who will only react when their hand is forced.  Hope you get it sorted.

[jsabine]

I rang HMRC [...] No helpful info like a position in the queue.  Thirty four minutes later, I get put through to a human.  Less than two minutes after that, problem solved by very helpful agent

45 minutes on hold, 6 minute conversation in my case.

But given it was updating my mother's tax code to reflect her additional tax allowance for being registered sight impaired (and backdating it, albeit only to the last tax year), still a pretty good hourly rate (as long as I get either commission or inheritance ...)

[T42]

Is it the Luftwaffe? Is it a swarm of hornets?  Nope, it's Pressure-Washer-Man!!!  The obsessive over the road who spent hours doing his back patio* a couple of days ago has been blasting everything he can find since mid-morning.  He did his house walls as far up as he could reach, he's done his front steps and his garage door. He'll be doing his hedge next. Noisy!

* wish he'd do his back passage.

[hellymedic]

D is away for the weekend so I’m home alone.
Light bulb blew in downstairs loo. ‘Too bad', I thought ‘I can wee, wipe & flush without light.’
Then it got dark. Hall, stairs & landing light wouldn’t work.
‘Buggrit’ I think ‘probably tripped upstairs lighting circuit’s circuit breaker.’
Oh well, I sit downstairs all day and kitchen lights & sockets are OK.

Undressed & did teeth by glow of bedside table light and D’s computer screens - D having failed to rest his computers before leaving.

Log in to home alarm system’s website. Seems AC power to alarm panel has failed so that must also be fed from the upstairs lighting circuit. It has battery back-up.

D will be back tomorrow...

[hellymedic]

Anonymous yacf forumenger is en route to the rescue.
Yay!!!

[Peter]

 

[Kim]

Hurrah.

It's normal to feed alarm (particularly fire alarm) panels from a lighting circuit, as it makes it more obvious that the supply has tripped, and removes the temptation to just turn off the supply to a malfunctioning alarm.

[hellymedic]

Spur to alarm panel was rewired in December, having been wrong for eons.
Alarm system is still maddening.
Give audible warning when bike shed is opened/closed, despite my best efforts. All other sensors work silently.
Bike shed sensor was only recently replaced.

[barakta]

Glad someone could assist, I know we'd happily do so if we were in vicinity. YACFweb ftw community.

[Mr Larrington]

After divers retailers had Issues with card payments the other week, today it was the turn of the Co-op up the road.  Fortunately the sub-post office two doors down has an ATM.

[hellymedic]

Mercy mission accomplished!
Circuit breaker reset.
Blown bulb replaced.
Joe Blow pump taken home for investigation and fettling.

Many thanks to Team!

[hellymedic]

Alarm system power restored too.
Email alerts for much...

[T42]

Filling in a demand to finally get a complementary pension that I accrued in the early 80s but was never informed of since the company went dramatically bust.

Their easy on-line form wants exact dates of employment not just for the 80s but for my entire career.  And every time I stop to look something up or to hunt for a bit of bumf it logs me out then opens up another tab when I log in again.

Good job my hair no longer offers any tearing-purchase.

[Regulator]

My walk back from the pub yesterday has led to excessive foot pain this morning (in my right foot).  I need to get the underlying issue identified and addressed before I do the walk to Rome at the end of May.  It might be time to see the physio again.

[SteveC]

I have just received an email from the National Trust inviting me to book up for 'Christmas at Stourhead".