Author Topic: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.  (Read 1575950 times)

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9900 on: 02 April, 2018, 06:03:59 pm »
Indeed.  The killer feature of Virgin is that (unless you're out in the sticks and they're just reselling DSL) it's a completely separate network, with its own exciting failure modes (which are usually fairly localised).

With the *DSL services over Openreach lines, there are varying degrees of how much our-favourite-telco kit is actually involved between the last-mile cable/fibre infrastructure and your ISP.  For example, my AAISP ADSL2+ line is BT twisted pair to the exchange, and then TalkTalk wholesale provided backhaul[1] to AAISP's LNS.


[1] This sounds like a frying pan / fire situation, but in practice it's been more reliable (as well as cheaper per byte), and better performing as they provide the ISP finer control[2] of the DSLAM parameters than Openreach do.
[2] Which AAISP provides the customers with direct access to.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9901 on: 02 April, 2018, 08:26:08 pm »
Almost. The backhaul is provided over BT fibres, but what is deferent is the levels of kit the providers put in the exchanges which has a direct impact on contention ratios. It’s a long time since I was directly involved in the network and things are constantly evolving, but what doesn’t change is that the more people involved in maintenance of any given service the greater the likelihood of a problem.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9902 on: 02 April, 2018, 10:30:05 pm »
There's also a complete disconnect of attitudes between the wholesale and retail arms of given organisations.  Just because a retailer is competing primarily on price (with contention ratios to match) doesn't mean their wholesale services are going to be bad if specced appropriately.

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9903 on: 03 April, 2018, 07:06:15 am »
Virgin did buy up the NTL, Mercury and other networks, and let any unprofitable bits slide (they won't, for instance, connect our house despite a old NT cable run at the bottom of the drive).

It amuses me that the village/small town where I live is where NTL's operational centre for the UK was, and still hosts Virgin Media's head office (1200 people, apparently) in the same grandiose building. We don't have a sniff of cable around here, it's BT only  :)

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9904 on: 03 April, 2018, 07:56:16 am »
I miss NTL. You could ring 'em up and change package mix there and then no hassle. Switch on a film channel just for Christmas etc.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9905 on: 03 April, 2018, 07:59:36 am »
Last weds 21st I placed an order for FTTC, and got an acknowledgment that my service would swap (same provider) on the 28th. I opted to get the “free” modem as well. Yesterday (26th) I get am email saying my modem will be despatched today, with a 3-5 day delivery. So that leaves me with no service for anything from 2 days to 4+, depending on the whim of RM. Just as well my existing modem is suitable for FTTC then.

Oh no it won't, as BT/Openretch will not actually install your service on the day they have an appointment for.  They need to ignore at least 4 appointments before they actually install anything, and that's after several emails to the CEO of Openretch (Mr Clive Selley  clive.selley@openreach.co.uk )  They get added points if by doing so they leave a lone woman in a house in the middle of nowhere snowed in for a week with no phone or internet.  Utter bastards, I hope every one of them dies horribly and painfully.  BT and Openreach should be stripped of their franchise/monopoly and all of their office staff prevented from ever working anywhere where customers depend on them.

Actually, and confounding expectations, the router arrived the day after posting (not that i needed it as I said), and the service switch happened  sometime between 23:00 on the 28th and 07:00 on the 29th. Took me all of 2 minutes to reconfigure my modem and hey presto, 74Mb/s download, 18Mb/s upload.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9906 on: 03 April, 2018, 09:52:00 am »
O noes!  I've been banned from posting on Farcebok for 24 hours because some humour-impaired clod didn't like my comment* on a video featuring a rabbit-infested Japanese island.

* HAIRY JAPANESE BASTARDS, together with a picture of Father Jack.
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 #9907 on: 03 April, 2018, 10:29:35 am »
Just delete your account.  Farcebook isn't worth it just as Twatter, Instasham etc. aren't either.

I started a new Farcebook account recently and I've completely mislaid my log in details.  Has my life gone into crisis?  Nope.  Ah, must be able to manage without that then!

Wombat

  • Is it supposed to hurt this much?
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9908 on: 03 April, 2018, 11:10:07 am »
Do you mean like the railways, or the water industry or perhaps the electricity. No? The gas then. Hiving off the core network doesn’t work unless it’s government controlled. The operating companies whinge and whine that the core charges them too much for service, and ALWAYS blames them for all delays or problems. The government thus imposes cost controls on the core which causes a further cut in service provion and greater reductions in infrastructure.
 
You can’t have completion in utility provision, because no one is going to provide a universal competing network let alone several companies. If you have free completion you end up with the profitable bits, ie cities with densly packed populaces having multiple providers and sparsely populated regions having reduced or none existent service. Ask an American in the wilds of Alaska what broadband speed they get.

As for Virgin, just where have they spent their money providing networks? That’ll be the cities.

Even the mobile operators share infrastructure outside of the big cities as it’s just not viable to provide their own.

How many villages are there with no gas, even close to populated areas? Do you have mains gas?

As I say, I am desperately sorry that you are suffering problems, and that the organisation can’t sort it out, it really shouldn’t be difficult, but believe me it is. But I also KNOW that the only way to improve service and rollout new technologies in a timely way is for all the utilities to be single entities controlled by the government. If you a cite one single country in the world where true free enterprise provision of utilities has resulted in a universal service of world leading technologies I’d really really like to know.

Oh, and you mention the government paying BT to provide fibre roll out to sparsely populated areas. That was put out to private tender, and In the last round only BT actually put a bid in to do the work and I suspect even then it was reluctantly. It costs a lot of money and is hard to provide firbe coverage.

You have some very valid points, but my main gripe with them wasn't about the difficulty of providing a rural service, it was the appalling customer service, arrogance, and complete disinterest as to whether they bothered to turn up for a scheduled appointment.  They just did not care, and never, ever, responded to any of my nine complaints until I emailed the CEO of Openreach.  That is easily fixable by sacking the people concerned, and hiring some who have experience in a company that "does" customer service.  All of the other firms that I was involved with on my house move did what they were supposed to, on the day they were supposed to, BT/Openreach were the only failures. (I'm leaving out the succession of house owners who repeatedly lied to us about actually moving out, as they aren't companies.

As for Virgin, yes, it wasn't as rural as where we are now, it was about 8 miles from a city, in a village, and they provided the complete infrastructure.  And no, we don't have mains gas here, or even mains water.  The European and Welsh Govts paid for the fibre infrastructure, which was done, the bit where it failed was the easy bit of getting the fibre a whole 15 metres from the pole to my house.  They wasted so much manpower by assorted engineers turning up at random with no idea why they were there, it would have been so much easier just to have the one guy turn up at the scheduled time and do the job.  That is just incompetence, and very sad, as its an insult to the engineers who did their best.
Wombat

SoreTween

  • Most of me survived the Pennine Bridleway.
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9909 on: 05 April, 2018, 10:39:30 am »
The expenses administrator at work has just asked me to commit fraud  :facepalm:
2023 targets: Survive. Maybe.
There is only one infinite resource in this universe; human stupidity.

fuzzy

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9910 on: 05 April, 2018, 01:10:17 pm »
The expenses administrator at work has just asked me to commit fraud  :facepalm:

My wife administers expenses- she is regularly requested to do likewise.......

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9911 on: 05 April, 2018, 01:25:11 pm »
O noes!  I've been banned from posting on Farcebok for 24 hours because some humour-impaired clod didn't like my comment* on a video featuring a rabbit-infested Japanese island.

* HAIRY JAPANESE BASTARDS, together with a picture of Father Jack.

It'll be the Catholic lobby - linking Father Jack and bastards probably did for you.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9912 on: 05 April, 2018, 01:57:16 pm »
The expenses administrator at work has just asked me to commit fraud  :facepalm:

My wife administers expenses- she is regularly requested to do likewise.......

I once had a £1 unreceipted expense questioned, I did point out that if I were going to do fraud, it wouldn't be for that little
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9913 on: 05 April, 2018, 02:44:56 pm »
I once had a £1 unreceipted expense questioned, I did point out that if I were going to do fraud, it wouldn't be for that little

Back when I worked in Scotland, Dundee council spent £<oodles> to find an error of 8d in a payroll total.  I heard the figure quoted as £2000, but that seems a lot for 1971.  It turned out to be cumulative rounding error. Computers in council offices weren't all that usual back then.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9914 on: 05 April, 2018, 03:10:04 pm »
I once had a £1 unreceipted expense questioned, I did point out that if I were going to do fraud, it wouldn't be for that little

Back when I worked in Scotland, Dundee council spent £<oodles> to find an error of 8d in a payroll total.  I heard the figure quoted as £2000, but that seems a lot for 1971.  It turned out to be cumulative rounding error. Computers in council offices weren't all that usual back then.

BT billed me for one penny when I first got Broadband in 2005. I had paid online for router and other Stuffs but there was a slight disparity, I think due to VAT so they invoiced me and I raised a Direct Debit for £0.01...

essexian

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9915 on: 05 April, 2018, 03:25:04 pm »
If you want to do away with fraud in expenses, then employ Concur to run them.

No, they are not brilliant at spotting problems but as their system is so complex and difficult to use, its hardly worth trying to claim anything back. Hence the reason I haven't bothered making a claim (they are normally only for a few quid) for months now.

Concur.....grrrrr. :demon:

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9916 on: 05 April, 2018, 04:02:27 pm »
all this actually reminds me of an ex client of mine (now retired and enjoying sailing around the Scottish Isles)

He used to work for a Gubnment Department up in Aberdeen (won't say which one).
First there was the resizing - he was given a head count org and told that's what needed to be met, redundancies and early retirements if necessary. The head count was so far out of date and his present organisation was so far below it, that he was able to give good early retirement to those who wanted it, recruit a bigger team and still hit the KPIs.

The more perversely hilarious though was the new office.  He put in a request for a plant and a clock.  Response from London - No.  Why not he asked?
Response from London was to fly a snivelling serpent up to Aberdeen to point out that his pay grade did not come with a clock and plant, that was the next pay grade.
In the end, he nicked a plant and clock from the next office when the bloke left.
What a waste of money rather than just saying, nip down to B&Q, get yourself something for £X and put the receipt in the system.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9917 on: 05 April, 2018, 04:10:30 pm »
...and there was I, thinking you could get a plant & clock for £20 or £50 if you were doing POSH....

(Many of the wall clocks hereabouts were £1 from Woolworths when I moved here in 2000 and work fine.)

Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9918 on: 05 April, 2018, 04:36:47 pm »
The expenses administrator at work has just asked me to commit fraud  :facepalm:

My wife administers expenses- she is regularly requested to do likewise.......
Once, when I worked in Hungary, I was paid a per diem expense rate that included meals. I flew to London ostensibly to visit the LSE, but miraculously the trip coincided with a rare, capital Half Man Half Biscuit gig. Too good to resist. I looked at hotels, but could find nothing near the Kentish Town Forum; except that is for a dingy B&B. Instead of booking a £200/night place a coupla miles away, I went for the £55 B&B. Win, win, or so I thought. However, when I submitted the claim, the word 'breakfast' appeared on the invoice for the B&B. Claim denied. I had to get a workmate to photoshop out 'and breakfast' and reprint the bill and scrunch it up to make it look genuine. Claim paid!
Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, Macintyre, Treadmore, Davitt.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9919 on: 05 April, 2018, 07:04:30 pm »
Grumble, gripe and growl, the one day I actually need to buy a stamp is the day they close the sub-post office.  FSVO "the day".  They actually moved it further up Larrington Towers Road in August last year and I utterly failed to notice.
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 #9920 on: 05 April, 2018, 08:12:18 pm »
Grumble, gripe and growl, the one day I actually need to buy a stamp is the day they close the sub-post office.  FSVO "the day".  They actually moved it further up Larrington Towers Road in August last year and I utterly failed to notice.
Stamps, how quaint. You can buy postage online now, and pay by PayPal

OTOH you can't register a giffgaff SIM by paying the £10 required with PayPal, and they won't let you use a payment card for more than a couple of SIMs, so I had to use a voucher bought at a shop. To compound that, Asda's kiosk wouldn't take cards for payment for said voucher.

It all seems a bit farcical to use a card to get folding money from a hole in the wall, to exchange that for a bit of paper with number on it, to come back home to use the number to persuade giffgaff that I've paid them £10 to get a phone number on a SIM card that's I've had for weeks.
Quote from: Kim
Paging Diver300.  Diver300 to the GSM Trimphone, please...

SoreTween

  • Most of me survived the Pennine Bridleway.
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9921 on: 05 April, 2018, 08:40:04 pm »
If you want to do away with fraud in expenses, then employ Concur to run them.

No, they are not brilliant at spotting problems but as their system is so complex and difficult to use, its hardly worth trying to claim anything back. Hence the reason I haven't bothered making a claim (they are normally only for a few quid) for months now.

Concur.....grrrrr. :demon:
;D You had me for a moment, I thought this was going to be the first1 and probably last2 comment in support of Concur.

I'm running up expenses of about £1.5k per 3 week rotation at the moment, mostly a hire car I really could live without but thems the rulez.  I'm not paid nearly well enough to not bother with that.

1 Since the Big Bang Burger Bar opened its doors.
2 Before a certain Restaurant serves the main course.
2023 targets: Survive. Maybe.
There is only one infinite resource in this universe; human stupidity.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9922 on: 06 April, 2018, 01:48:29 am »
If you want to do away with fraud in expenses, then employ Concur to run them.

No, they are not brilliant at spotting problems but as their system is so complex and difficult to use, its hardly worth trying to claim anything back. Hence the reason I haven't bothered making a claim (they are normally only for a few quid) for months now.

Concur.....grrrrr. :demon:
;D You had me for a moment, I thought this was going to be the first1 and probably last2 comment in support of Concur.

I'm running up expenses of about £1.5k per 3 week rotation at the moment, mostly a hire car I really could live without but thems the rulez.  I'm not paid nearly well enough to not bother with that.

1 Since the Big Bang Burger Bar opened its doors.
2 Before a certain Restaurant serves the main course.

Does this make you William the Concurrer?

Yes please, the suit of armour with the arrow hole in the helmet...
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9923 on: 06 April, 2018, 08:02:35 am »
Grumble, gripe and growl, the one day I actually need to buy a stamp is the day they close the sub-post office.  FSVO "the day".  They actually moved it further up Larrington Towers Road in August last year and I utterly failed to notice.

Ours is always open, except when we need it.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.
« Reply #9924 on: 06 April, 2018, 08:18:42 am »
Our post office moved into Tesco a few years ago. Recently they refurbished it and now it opens longer hours, up to 8 pm weekdays and on Sundays.  :thumbsup:
It is simpler than it looks.