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

[Polar Bear]

For a while DPD were the best around here by a long way.  The likes of Yodel and Hermes are both unreliable and in the case of Hermes ime, dishonest.

DPD though has gone downhill rapidly in the last two months.  I currently have a package with them that was delivered to the local depot and then went out for delivery.  Ten days later it is still out for delivery.  WTF?

I have been in touch with Bike24 who have tried to resolve with DPD but so far without success.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Royal Mail and Parcelforce are the most reliable by a long way IME.

[TheLurker]

...in the case of Hermes ime, dishonest.

Dodgy courier companies are nothing new.  I worked for Jenners as a driver / porter for a while 35 odd years ago and when I was working the loading bay I was under strict instructions to double check everything that came off an ANC van against the manifest to make damn sure it was all there.  I expect older members of the parish who've done similar work saw the problem long before I ever did.

[CAMRAMan]

Morrisons home delivery. I know it's a bank holiday and you probably want to get finished asap, but you usually call if dropping off early. Then I spot that one of your colleagues has put a 1Kg jar of Nutella on top of some bread rolls; then there's the matter of the Persil powder leakage over some of the things from a box that looks like it's been kicking around for months, with splits in the box. Must try harder...

[rafletcher]

....unreliable and in the case of Hermes ime, dishonest

That a bit like generalising all businesses that only take cash are dodging tax  . Hermes as an organisation isn’t inherently dishonest, and in our area the “Hermes Lady” has always been excellent.  It’s really down to the individual in most cases.

[Polar Bear]

Royal Mail and Parcelforce are the most reliable by a long way IME.

Royal Mail are generally fine here but Parcel Farce are anything but.

....unreliable and in the case of Hermes ime, dishonest

That a bit like generalising all businesses that only take cash are dodging tax  . Hermes as an organisation isn’t inherently dishonest, and in our area the “Hermes Lady” has always been excellent.  It’s really down to the individual in most cases.

Yes, I see your well made point but counter it with three separate Hermes bods and repeated issues with claimed deliveries not made and packages inexplicably opened.  Perhaps I am just unlucky.

[woollypigs]

Morrisons home delivery. I know it's a bank holiday and you probably want to get finished asap, but you usually call if dropping off early. Then I spot that one of your colleagues has put a 1Kg jar of Nutella on top of some bread rolls; then there's the matter of the Persil powder leakage over some of the things from a box that looks like it's been kicking around for months, with splits in the box. Must try harder...

Since we can't get a slot in at out local tesco's* we have to go with Morrisons. They keep packing the wrong things and often the items we want are out of stock. Trying to get a refund for the missed/wrong delivery of things, is very hard and they often refund the wrong amount so we have to apply fill in the hard to find form again.

*click'n'collect and delivery, we can get a slot sometimes and when we do it is like 3-4+ four weeks into the future and it is not a guarantee that we can get what we want on the shopping list.

I hear from a few dog walkers I talk to that the local Tesco and Morrisons are not fully stocked as it was back in Jan. We have tried Sainsburys, it's depo/store is far away, and like Tesco it is hard to get a slot, along with costing more than the other stores. Asda is the easiest to get a slot**, but their fresh good aren't fresh and we often have to send it to the bin, along with their own brand things aren't that good compared to others. And frozen goods are defrosted when they arrive, because like Sainsburys their depo/store is far away. Both Asda and Morrisons tend to bash out shopping around a bit too.

** getting a slot without using the priority option. Sainsbury's and Asda both send us a "Apply here, to get in front of the queue, because you are high risk according to the medical records your GP send out", but going to their website to confirm said thing, both their 'puters says nope, nada, no.  Morisons we got through but be had to pay a small fee to get it, so now we can get a slot within the next 36-48 hours.

So we have been using a local fresh fruit delivery service and a company that normal deliver to restaurants and companies to top up our shopping.

If we around here aren't fully stocked yet and still struggles to get what is needed, I ready do worry come Jan ...

[Cudzoziemiec]

....unreliable and in the case of Hermes ime, dishonest

That a bit like generalising all businesses that only take cash are dodging tax  . Hermes as an organisation isn’t inherently dishonest, and in our area the “Hermes Lady” has always been excellent.  It’s really down to the individual in most cases.

Yes, I see your well made point but counter it with three separate Hermes bods and repeated issues with claimed deliveries not made and packages inexplicably opened.  Perhaps I am just unlucky.

Or it could be that the dishonest and/or incompetent Hermes person is not the actual couriers but the manager of the local depot?

[andytheflyer]

** getting a slot without using the priority option. Sainsbury's and Asda both send us a "Apply here, to get in front of the queue, because you are high risk according to the medical records your GP send out", but going to their website to confirm said thing, both their 'puters says nope, nada, no. 

Mrs ATF is on the priority list, we had the NHS letter, and the LA rang us to see if we needed help - which we didn't, except that neither Tesco nor Sainsbury had us on their priority lists.  Mentioned this to the LA woman (not the Doors version...) who gave me a number for Tesco.  Rang that, got straight through, "yes, yes, you are on the list - oh, hold on............ now you are.  Give it 24 hours."

We did, and she was on the list - so we get a slot every 10 days.  Never did crack Sainsbury even after ringing all around the houses.  WoT.

Learned the trick of booking a slot immediately after a delivery - usually you can't get a priority slot within about 6 or 7 days, so we book a slot for 10 days after a delivery and put a few items on the list and checkout.  You can amend the list up to midnight the day before the delivery.  Works well for us.  Sometimes they get something wrong but if it reduces the risk to Mrs ATF, who's awaiting her second lot of cancer surgery this summer, then it's good for us.

[barakta]

The supermarket list has been a shitshow, there's a 400+ strong legal case about it, which is where the supermarkets have refused to backdown even with a lawyer backing people. The government's list was also a sodding mess.

[Polar Bear]

As a registered blind person you'd have thought that I might have made the list.  No.

Fortunately for me I get very thick-skinned when some thoughtless fascist starts having a moan at me for taking my time and getting too close to the shelves.

[barakta]

Yup, blind people were missed off, no recognition that many relied on online delivery or can't distance safely or need staff assistance. Many of those 400 litigants are blind because supermarkets yoinked slots off regular users without giving them a chance to say "err, I'm disabled, I need that".

Several friends have done media skits on this issue, one is the spouse of a shielding person so they HAD to go to the shop in person cos spouse who usually does it, couldn't...

[Mr Larrington]

Professor Larrington managed to get the partially-sighted Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) onto the list of Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles, but it took much persistence.

[CAMRAMan]

I would ditch Morrisons, but, for unknown reasons, they aren't charging me for delivery.

[andytheflyer]

The supermarket list has been a shitshow, there's a 400+ strong legal case about it, which is where the supermarkets have refused to backdown even with a lawyer backing people. The government's list was also a sodding mess.

We were worried early on as my wife had been told that she needed urgent surgery and if she caught the bug at the wrong time the surgery would be postponed or cancelled, and that could have been a bridge too far. She'd just completed chemo and radiotherapy by the start of lockdown.  If I went shopping, caught the bug and gave it to her that could have had the same result.  We'd survived on deliveries from the village corner shop and the bakers, but the choice was limited and we stuck it for as long as we could, so getting slots from Tesco was a huge relief.  We do feel sorry though for those who should be on the list but are not as getting ordinary slots was impossible for us as we'd not previously shopped online.

[andrewc]

Why, 20 years ago, did I stop hill walking & take up cycle touring ?  Because it doesn't hurt as much.        Recently I've thought about going back to do a bit of wild camping on foot , but I'm in no shape to do it.  14 flat km took me 4 hrs (including 1hr for breaks), and has given me sore feet , that's without any load 

[Cudzoziemiec]

That's about 2.5 mph overall. Not fast but not terribly slow really. Keep it up and you'll be in shape for it by next spring, that's soon enough!

[CAMRAMan]

I've gone t'other way and I'm walking far more often than cycling. I've bought a lightweigt tent with a view to wild camping on the Peddars Way/NNCP some unpsecified time next year. Stick with it. I'm fairly sure you'll have good equipment. I started out on canal towpaths and built up from there. 14Km from scratch is respectable, even if your feet hurt. Were you alone or with someone else? Finding someone with a compatible pace is the hard part.

[Beardy]

That's about 2.5 mph overall. Not fast but not terribly slow really. Keep it up and you'll be in shape for it by next spring, that's soon enough!

3.5kmh including the break time or 4 ⅔kmh moving time which is approaching 3mph, the speed the army use for calculating on foot travel. As Cudz says not fast, but a reasonable speed over long distances.

[Gattopardo]

So tired, when is the best time to have a washing machine on...when someone else is trying to get sleep.

Oh and being told it is so tiring being a passenger for a couple of hundred mile driving trip, not so fun for the driver.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Crack! I was just moving off from the lights when, with a sharp noise, my foot slipped and something fell from the bike. Fortunately, it wasn't me. Unfortunately, it was the r/h pedal. The body had broken away leaving the spindle in the crank. Roadworks at the junction combined with quiet traffic meant being stranded in the middle of the B4469 wasn't anywhere near as traumatic as it could have been, and I only had about two miles to walk home. Unfortunately, this means I only got two miles riding.

Looking at the pedal now, there are small cracks and chips in the inner surface of the sleeve, for want of a better word, that forms part of the pedal body and goes round the spindle itself. I'm not sure if this is what caused the failure or is a result of the failure. It also looks as if something might have either snapped (very cleanly) or simply unscrewed itself at the end of the spindle where it fits into a bolt on the outside of the pedal body. I hadn't noticed any looseness previously. They were cheap pedals but only 18 months old. Genetic brand. Came from SJS – I'll see how they respond to an email.

The Pirates of Bridgwater say no.
"I'm sorry to hear that you have had an issue with these pedals.
Unfortunately these pedals only have a 1 year warranty so given the age of these now we would not be able to offer a refund for them.

I'm sorry I could not be more help than this. "

Pah! I'll look elsewhere for replacements. At least they replied quickly though.

[Basil]

Bloomin' 'eck.  These poo bags are like flippin' bin liners. And too stiff to scrunch up a supply in the back pocket.
More use to horsists than dog owners.  Oh hang on.  They don't have to clear up, do they?

[woollypigs]

Tesco's baby poop bags, 35p for 300, for the win.

[Canardly]

Damn hard water. Mixer tap dripping less than a year after replacing CW cartridge. Bring back tap washers is wot I say.

[Polar Bear]

Crack! I was just moving off from the lights when, with a sharp noise, my foot slipped and something fell from the bike. Fortunately, it wasn't me. Unfortunately, it was the r/h pedal. The body had broken away leaving the spindle in the crank. Roadworks at the junction combined with quiet traffic meant being stranded in the middle of the B4469 wasn't anywhere near as traumatic as it could have been, and I only had about two miles to walk home. Unfortunately, this means I only got two miles riding.

Looking at the pedal now, there are small cracks and chips in the inner surface of the sleeve, for want of a better word, that forms part of the pedal body and goes round the spindle itself. I'm not sure if this is what caused the failure or is a result of the failure. It also looks as if something might have either snapped (very cleanly) or simply unscrewed itself at the end of the spindle where it fits into a bolt on the outside of the pedal body. I hadn't noticed any looseness previously. They were cheap pedals but only 18 months old. Genetic brand. Came from SJS – I'll see how they respond to an email.

The Pirates of Bridgwater say no.
"I'm sorry to hear that you have had an issue with these pedals.
Unfortunately these pedals only have a 1 year warranty so given the age of these now we would not be able to offer a refund for them.

I'm sorry I could not be more help than this. "

Pah! I'll look elsewhere for replacements. At least they replied quickly though.

What pedals are they?