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

[rafletcher]

Ah, yet another Brexit bonus. I needed some replacement disc pads, Shimano JO3A. Most retailers in the UK are asking £22 - 25 a pair. Bike24 in Germany, €13.22.    Fortunately my stepson lives in Berlin, and is visiting the UK in a couple of weeks.

[barakta]

Sadly pissing off the HostileEnvironment Home Office could get the entire uni shut down...

Vs the few hundred £ damages a disabled student could claim. And the uni would have a reasonable excuse...

Same for copyright, 10k fines and criminal record, so fuck disabled people and access via the regressive copyright exemptions which have to be applied for case by case (causing delay in access)...

Listed buildings are more important than disabled access and all...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Listed buildings are more important than disabled access people and all...

FTFY

[T42]

Wanted to watch Paris-Roubaix yesterday via France Télévision's site, but the wretched login page just went round in circles.  Tried it again just now and it worked.   

[rafletcher]

If it wasn’t for the contrails we’d have a virtually clear blue sky.

[hellymedic]

I have just booked train tickets for a forthcoming trip from CrossCountry.
(I couldn't get tickets via GWR to work and failed to log into Transport for Wales).

I want orange cardboard ; I don't have a suitable phone and wouldn't want to faff with one at a gate line if I did.

They now charge an extra £1 to collect tickets from a machine and £1.20 for 2nd class post.

Post suits me fine but £1 to collect tickets from a machine rankles!

[Kim]

Ugh!  That's something to get disgruntled about next time I find myself using a train.

[hellymedic]

It's also ableist as the reason I don't have a smartphone is that I can't operate a touch screen.
Other rail operators might charge/deliver differently but having battled with several over the weekend, I ran out of spoons.
South Western Railway didn't have an orange cardboard option in the winter IIRC and we ended up printing our tickets onto A4 paper.

[Polar Bear]

Milk & More

Two things, both which have been raised with you and your delivery operative more than once:

1:  Please put the delivery in the box.  You have been doing this for more than a year continuously so why stop now?

2:  We take unsalted butter.  Salted butter is not a suitable substitution.

I suspect that it's a churn of staff but I find such a basic lack of attention to detail really frustrating.

Time to be wasted now emailing / telephoning these numpties and I shall leave a note out for the milkman for the next delivery.  Little things help retain customers ...

Bottled milk to the doorstep is an expensive luxury and the walk to the Coop for organic milk in ruddy plastic would give me exercise but I'd be consuming plastic which we are trying to avoid.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Milk & More

Two things, both which have been raised with you and your delivery operative more than once:

1:  Please put the delivery in the box.  You have been doing this for more than a year continuously so why stop now?

2:  We take unsalted butter.  Salted butter is not a suitable substitution.

I suspect that it's a churn of staff but I find such a basic lack of attention to detail really frustrating.

Time to be wasted now emailing / telephoning these numpties and I shall leave a note out for the milkman for the next delivery.  Little things help retain customers ...

Bottled milk to the doorstep is an expensive luxury and the walk to the Coop for organic milk in ruddy plastic would give me exercise but I'd be consuming plastic which we are trying to avoid.

Badoom tish!

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have just booked train tickets for a forthcoming trip from CrossCountry.
(I couldn't get tickets via GWR to work and failed to log into Transport for Wales).

I want orange cardboard ; I don' have a suitable phone and wouldn't want to faff with one at a gate line if I did.

They now charge an extra £1 to collect tickets from a machine and £1.20 for 2nd class post.

Post suits me fine but £1 to collect tickets from a machine rankles!

I'd agree. I think a charge for post is justifiable as it is a cost, though £1.20 probably more than covers the cost. But a charge for collecting from machine is not on. The last few train tickets I've bought have been from TVM, from manned ticket office and on train; all the same price, there's no extra charge in those circumstances for using a machine. Nor, which might be more logical, for buying via interaction with a real live human*. Those have all been GWR, I don't know if that makes a difference.

*But if they really wanted to encourage people to buy from TVMs rather than humans, it would be a good idea to make sure they all work. Simply installing a machine on a platform is not enough.

[Mr Larrington]

The thieving bastards who flog gig tickets charge you for:

• Posting you Proper Tickets such as you might want to keep as a souvenir, which is almost reasonable, and
• Using your own paper, electricity and ink/toner to print them yourself

This latter crime will see them off to the Reëducation Camps toot sweet once we of the Democratic Ruthless Bastards Party are entrenched in #10.

[Rod Marton]

I have just booked train tickets for a forthcoming trip from CrossCountry.
(I couldn't get tickets via GWR to work and failed to log into Transport for Wales).

I want orange cardboard ; I don' have a suitable phone and wouldn't want to faff with one at a gate line if I did.

They now charge an extra £1 to collect tickets from a machine and £1.20 for 2nd class post.

Post suits me fine but £1 to collect tickets from a machine rankles!

I'd agree. I think a charge for post is justifiable as it is a cost, though £1.20 probably more than covers the cost. But a charge for collecting from machine is not on. The last few train tickets I've bought have been from TVM, from manned ticket office and on train; all the same price, there's no extra charge in those circumstances for using a machine. Nor, which might be more logical, for buying via interaction with a real live human*. Those have all been GWR, I don't know if that makes a difference.

*But if they really wanted to encourage people to buy from TVMs rather than humans, it would be a good idea to make sure they all work. Simply installing a machine on a platform is not enough.

I can conform that GWR do not charge you to use a machine, however they charge you an exorbitant amount for ticket delivery. Also they have the world's most user-unfriendly website (which falls over regularly), I'm not surprised you couldn't get tickets through it. I buy tickets through it often enough to be used to its quirks, but still have to check regularly that the ticket I am ordering is for the right train on the right day between the right stations. I'm not entirely sure why I stick with it, probably because I travel mostly on their trains and it is one of the few sites you can book bikes on.

One further word of warning: GWR online ticketing is not integrated with GWR ticket offices. This can lead to some interesting situations.

[ian]

I have my first real cold (apparently not covid) since the debut of the plague era – it's a lot worse than the covid I had a few weeks back. An epic grotload of snot seems to have pressure-sealed my head. I don't miss this. At least the worst of it waited till the end of the Easter weekend.

[Tim Hall]

Out at Easter with many many friends, staying in bunkhouser type place. Some of us went for a Healthy Walk on Sunday, with a view to taking a glass of BEER halfway round. Get to Thee Pubbe, which seems to be very proud of its pies. A bit of an eating place vibe, but still a Thee Pubbe.

"Have you booked?"
"No, we're just after a quick drink"
"I'm sorry, we're really busy (we were the only ones at the bar)"
"We'll only be half an hour, having a drink in the garden"
"We're expecting a large group in an hour. I'm sorry, we're really busy"

No BEER so off we went.

[ian]

That seems to be common these days in country pubs – buying a pint involves the staff spending much time looking at booking lists and consultations with managers, all conducted in a near empty pub. Entreaties that we'll stand out of the way and be gone in twenty minutes struggled to make much headway. The majority of the time, the promised hoards of booked customers have yet to appear when we leave. Possibly they were eaten by bears. They never book.

[Polar Bear]

15 years or more ago we started encountering this on our Sunday rides.  The pretentious pubs of southern Leicestershire became all gentrified and if you didn't have a booking you were turned away.   What resulted though was discovering a few small, local gems where unpretentious but good food can be had for not very many earth pounds and the teapot seems to never be quite empty.

If the hospitality trade is struggling now it's partly down to their own greed in the past.  I have no sympathy for the bleating, whinging, moaning, self-entitled proprietors.

[ian]

Much of it seems to be down to junior staff and their managers, none of whom seem empowered with any kind of decision-making abilities. I suspect some of these pubs don't have landlords, they have an executive leadership team and PowerPoint slides about table occupancy statistics.

Also, I hate to say it, but British staff. As a nation, we can't do service. Bar staff, you know the person who's already at the bar? That's the one you serve first, not the chap who just walked up. It's not hard, I've worked behind a bar.

[TimC]

Trip Advisor/Facebook reviews are a fairly powerful weapon against public house bureaucracy. None of them like to have it revealed that their Service Is Crap and their welcome is no such thing.

[Tim Hall]

Trip Advisor/Facebook reviews are a fairly powerful weapon against public house bureaucracy. None of them like to have it revealed that their Service Is Crap and their welcome is no such thing.

Yup. Already tripadvisored them. and razed the pub to the ground and sowed the land with salt

[Hot Flatus]

Out at Easter with many many friends, staying in bunkhouser type place. Some of us went for a Healthy Walk on Sunday, with a view to taking a glass of BEER halfway round. Get to Thee Pubbe, which seems to be very proud of its pies. A bit of an eating place vibe, but still a Thee Pubbe.

"Have you booked?"
"No, we're just after a quick drink"
"I'm sorry, we're really busy (we were the only ones at the bar)"
"We'll only be half an hour, having a drink in the garden"
"We're expecting a large group in an hour. I'm sorry, we're really busy"

No BEER so off we went.

This is because you mistakenly thought you were in a pub. You weren't, you were in a restaurant purporting to be a pub.  Imagine going into a restaurant and asking if you could just have a drink...you'd be shown the door.

I'm not being sarcastic, it's just that pubs either have to sell a lot of pints (with small margins) or they are effectively restaurants.  If you look at how many pubs have closed in the last decade you can see why.

[Jurek]

Trip Advisor/Facebook reviews are a fairly powerful weapon against public house bureaucracy. None of them like to have it revealed that their Service Is Crap and their welcome is no such thing.

Yup. Already tripadvisored them. and razed the pub to the ground and sowed the land with salt

Remind me to never cross you.

[ian]

Yes, but that doesn't address why they can't just sell you a pint and let you sit at an empty table that isn't booked for another 30 minutes without having to spend several minutes in consultation. Particularly when the staff mostly seem to standing around and waiting for the promised arrival of the predicted hoards. And even if they are busy, they ought to be able to handle busy.

[Canardly]

During a ride a few years back Wowbagger and I once stepped inside a 'Pub' somewhere in the wilds of Essex/Suffolk, both being somewhat hot and bothered and of course wearing relevant cycling apparel. We had been looking for a suitable hostelry for some time but these were noticeable by their absence. One or two snooty looking glances down the elegant but derogatory noses of the bar staff suggested a tactical locality error and we both withdrew quietly.

[Hot Flatus]

Yes, but that doesn't address why they can't just sell you a pint and let you sit at an empty table that isn't booked for another 30 minutes without having to spend several minutes in consultation. Particularly when the staff mostly seem to standing around and waiting for the promised arrival of the predicted hoards. And even if they are busy, they ought to be able to handle busy.

It isn't worth their while. They probably make 75p on a pint.

Lots of pubs aren't pubs.