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

[Beardy]

Ok, it’s official. I’m fed up of winning the lottery. I’ve won five (5) times THIS YEAR and I’ve only bought 3 tickets. 

I usually only play the EuroLottery, and then only when I remember. And only one entry. It’s a bit of fun, nothing more. But New Year’s Eve was a ‘must be won’ draw on the Lotto, so I bought a ticket for that as well. I won a fiver and a lucky dip in the next draw. That won a lucky dip, and that won a lucky dip. Hopefully tonight’s lucky dip will end that run! I’ve also bought an entry in two of the the three euromillions this year, and both have won.

So far I’m £5:50 up on where I started the year!

This would be funny but in November I had a similar run when I won on the euromillions four (4) times in a row. So I’ve won the lottery nine times in the last nine weeks. And I’m still poor!* I’m fed up of it I tell you. FED UP!

*fcvo poor. Ok, I’m not poor in any real sense of the word, I accept that.

[Mr Larrington]

O hai Mega-Global Spaignish CityBankCorp!

Thank you for the e-email asking me to update my phone number in your online banking wossname.  Now, if you could see your way clear actually to allowing me to log in, rather than displaying a Swirly Thing for two minutes and then throwing me back to the login screen, why, that'd be just peachy!

Kthxbai!

[Basil]

Today's grumble.
The older I get, the less of my back I can reach in the shower.

[Mr Larrington]

Bollocks! ‘twas a scam . Poxy fondleslab Mail doesn’t show “From” address unless you poke it.

[Basil]

Bollocks! ‘twas a scam . Poxy fondleslab Mail doesn’t show “From” address unless you poke it.

I often get texts and mail about my Santander account.
They're easy to spot as scam as I don't actually have a Santander account.

[Mr Larrington]

I, unfortunately, do.  Though these days it gets used only for a single monthly standing order so there’s less than a hundred quid in it.  The bloody phone call is probably going to cost more than that (18 minutes and counting).

[Mrs Pingu]

Where *is* my purple hat?

[Beardy]

Bloody hell. I’ve won ANOTHER free lotto ticket. This is getting bloody silly. If I believed in anything, I’d swear that <deity> was messing with me!

[Cudzoziemiec]

A multiparty grumble. I claimed compo for a series of train failures back in December. GWR said that for some reason – they didn't state why – they couldn't pay back to my card but would send me a cheque. Which has just arrived. That's the first grumble.

The second grumble is about NatWest's app. As banks no longer have branches (more or less), I thought I'd try to pay in the cheque using the app. There is a special feature for this. It requires you to take a photo of the cheque – but instead of you lining the cheque up according to their instructions (keep it flat, include all the corners, etc) the app takes control of the camera for you. This results in it firing off photos according to some trigger or other, which nevertheless doesn't match the app's own conditions. So the app takes a photo and then rejects it. It took five or six goes before it got one which it liked. And after all that it still gave me a message that the cheque "could not be processed today" and I should contact – of all organisations – the Post Office!

[graculus]

Apols if you already know this: Post Offices keep a stock of envelopes, printed up for the major banks, which you can return to the Post Office with your cheque and paying in slip enclosed and they will deliver it to the bank for free.

[Cudzoziemiec]

When I first had a bank account (mid '80s) they gave me separate cheque and paying-in books, and they both got used. Now, not only are they one item but finding it is the first task!

[Flite]

Post Offices keep a stock of envelopes

Living in a rural area, this is by far the simplest way for us to pay in cheques

[phantasmagoriana]

Post Offices keep a stock of envelopes

Living in a rural area, this is by far the simplest way for us to pay in cheques

I'm with an online-only bank: this is the only way to pay in cheques!

[Kim]

I recently discovered that Natpest have adopted take-a-photo-of-the-cheque-with-your-phone paying-in technology, and more impressively, it actually works.  When Thing2 introduced me to the concept some years ago I though it was a hilarious workaround for the USAnian failure to do anbaric currency properly, but it turns out that it's also useful when there's a pandemic or your bank turns into a trendy wine bar.

[Kim]

When I first had a bank account (mid '80s) they gave me separate cheque and paying-in books, and they both got used. Now, not only are they one item but finding it is the first task!

I had those when I first got a proper bank account (around the time when Wet Wet Wet were permanently on the radio).  At some point they got combined, but the stupid way round - far more cheques than paying-in slips in the book.

I still know where mine is, though.  It's on top of the Dell Optiplex that lives down the side of my desk.

*peers down the side of desk*

*notes absence of cheque book, and moreover the afore-mentioned Optiplex*

*dredges up vague memory of the Optiplex going in the WEEE pile at the tip some years ago*

*wonders where the cheque book went*

[Cudzoziemiec]

Two scenarios: First and most likely is that it got shipped off to Liberia or Bangladesh or wherever Wet Midlands send their WEE. There it got picked up by a canny local, who's having a high old time pretending to be a Western tourist, writing cheques left right and centre for casinos, champagne rickshaw rides. Second is that Barakta's forged your signature to buy herself a new pair of glasses  .

[Feanor]

There's still a cheque book here...

The last time I used it was when the Juniors were still at school, some 5 years ago now.
The school seemed to need a constant stream of small payments for Things, and would only accept cheques!

Contribution for bus costs for visit to Thing: £1.99. Cheque, please.

[Kim]

Two scenarios: First and most likely is that it got shipped off to Liberia or Bangladesh or wherever Wet Midlands send their WEE. There it got picked up by a canny local, who's having a high old time pretending to be a Western tourist, writing cheques left right and centre for casinos, champagne rickshaw rides. Second is that Barakta's forged your signature to buy herself a new pair of glasses  .

I'd be impressed if anyone could forge my signature, given that since the rise of chip&pin I seem incapable of getting it right myself.

[TheLurker]

... far more cheques than paying-in slips in the book.

RBS cheque books have always (well at least since 1980) had paying in slips in the back of them.  They still do.  If you need more you can get separate books of paying in slips.  And when I'm at the bank tomorrow I shall ask them nicely for another one as Mrs L handed me the just emptied one not two hours since.

[barakta]

Kim's chequebook is in the top drawer next to me. While she didn't know that, it is the logical first place she would have looked.

Mine is at the bottom of my box of crap.

I have used cheques for court fees as that's the easiest option unless your create a specific court fee account and I don't sue enough discriminators for that, although I know people who can't phone or handwrite who have them.

Cheques are silly in this day and age. BACS should allow better reference/tagging.

[Basil]

Post Offices keep a stock of envelopes

Living in a rural area, this is by far the simplest way for us to pay in cheques

This works for us painlessly..

I keep forgetting that we have a NatWest in the car park every Wednesday from 10.00 till 13.00.

[Kim]

I ended up behind a mobile horseybank for a bit on a bike ride once.  It was notable for the unusual satellite dish on the roof, and the lack of equine propulsion.

[MikeFromLFE]

Acknowledgement of a formal complaint letter to a nearby District Council signed off "With Warmest Regards"
FFS

[Paul]

There’s a hole in my (left) marigold.
 

[rogerzilla]

There’s a hole in my (left) marigold.
 

I always keep a pair on hand (boom-tish) for such calamities.