The Vent and Rant Thread

[kindlekitten]

oh now that's quite frightening!

[GeoffC]

New Tardis 'flies' tonight on UK BBC 1 .....

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Thr TARDIS is more stable than my equipment....

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

(like, get some homing pigeons instead, i'm sure they're far more reliable than the post. )

Ouch. But, well, try this for mail incompetence:

I had to go and pick up a package the other day, because it had 8p "insufficient postage". Well, not only was it something sent 3 1/2 months ago, but you could clearly see where a stamp had been scraped off (there were glue marks whee the stamp was (in the middle of 2 other stamps) and scrape marks along the front of the padded envelope).

Sigh. (Oh and there's a £1 penalty as well for under-payment on postage, and no they were not willing to forgive it because it was their fault!)

[kindlekitten]

good grief!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Ouch. But, well, try this for mail incompetence:

I had to go and pick up a package the other day, because it had 8p "insufficient postage". Well, not only was it something sent 3 1/2 months ago, but you could clearly see where a stamp had been scraped off (there were glue marks whee the stamp was (in the middle of 2 other stamps) and scrape marks along the front of the padded envelope).

Sigh. (Oh and there's a £1 penalty as well for under-payment on postage, and no they were not willing to forgive it because it was their fault!)

Oh good grief. I'd suggest writing and complaining, but my own experience with that suggests it's a waste of time and effort

The postie who does our round most often just delivers underpaid ones anyway The others are a bit more officious though.

What really annoys me is the "handling charge" on stuff bought from the States. Paying duty etc - no problems (although it's very nice when it slips through without needing to pay ), but the handling charge is just absurd.

And don't get me started on courier companies who say they'll put something out for redelivery, and then don't.

[Sparrow]

Bloomin' Royal Mail - if I drop litter in the street I'm breaking the law; how come they can drop litter through my letterbox with impunity??

I am sick to death of registering to not receive unaddressed mail - it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Bloomin' Royal Mail - if I drop litter in the street I'm breaking the law; how come they can drop litter through my letterbox with impunity??

I am sick to death of registering to not receive unaddressed mail - it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

The same goes for the incredibly annoying telemarketer calls I get all day long. We have a "Do Not Call" registry here which we are on, but we still get any number of calls each day. No, I do not want an extended warranty on my car, thank you very much!!

The worst occur during the run up to a political election. It's not bad enough I have to watch and listen to the candidates' assinine TV and radio advertisements, now they call me at home most often at the dinner hour to make their pitch.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Bloomin' Royal Mail - if I drop litter in the street I'm breaking the law; how come they can drop litter through my letterbox with impunity??

I am sick to death of registering to not receive unaddressed mail - it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

And their red rubber bands all over the street - which seem to migrate to my front garden...

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kazbates

The same goes for the incredibly annoying telemarketer calls I get all day long ...

A popular method used by telemarketers at one time was to launch into a spiel about aluminum siding before giving you a chance to speak, followed by the question, “Do you own your home, or do you rent?”

Once, when being on the receiving end of that tactic, I waited for the question, then answered, “We rent, but the owner is out in the yard. Hang on a second and I’ll get him to the phone.”

I then set the phone down, and when back to the living room to watch TV.

A half-hour later, I picked the phone up and discovered the telemarketer was still on the line!

That was a dirty trick. More so; since at the time we were buying that house. These days, I’m nice enough to just say, “Thank you, but I’m not interested at this time,” and immediately hang up.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Oh good grief. I'd suggest writing and complaining, but my own experience with that suggests it's a waste of time and effort

Yea, me too ><

I figure they put it aside because of the missing stamp and when they were clearing up after the postal strike it go tossed back into the delivery box. Oh, and I was expecting an important package and I thought that was it!

[Slite]

Originally Posted by kazbates

The same goes for the incredibly annoying telemarketer calls I get all day long. We have a "Do Not Call" registry here which we are on, but we still get any number of calls each day. No, I do not want an extended warranty on my car, thank you very much!!

The worst occur during the run up to a political election. It's not bad enough I have to watch and listen to the candidates' assinine TV and radio advertisements, now they call me at home most often at the dinner hour to make their pitch.

Oh! I love those!

We have an unlisted number. So I always ask to talk to their supervisor since I am interested in how they were able to call an unlisted number. They usually hang up pretty quick with a lot of apologies

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Ouch. But, well, try this for mail incompetence:

I had to go and pick up a package the other day, because it had 8p "insufficient postage". Well, not only was it something sent 3 1/2 months ago, but you could clearly see where a stamp had been scraped off (there were glue marks whee the stamp was (in the middle of 2 other stamps) and scrape marks along the front of the padded envelope).

Sigh. (Oh and there's a £1 penalty as well for under-payment on postage, and no they were not willing to forgive it because it was their fault!)

that is really bad. unbelievable. i don't know if there is a charge here for under-payment on postage ; i don't think i've ever had that problem (that i know of... it's possible there's a letter in there from 10 years ago just waiting for me to pay, and i've never heard about it...).

the other fun tricks the post office plays on me are :

1. from time to time, they'll randomly return a letter to the sender claiming i don't live at my address. i know this because it's happened several times with my bank, who always telephones me to find out when i moved. i've lived at this same address for over 10 years now. this has occasionally caused me some really annoying problems, when the letter was from an administration and therefore important, but the administration didn't bother to try to get in touch with me to let me know i hadn't received the letter (cue rant about lazy / incompetent bureaucrats again).

2. for about a year, any time i received a package, they would send to it any random office in the city EXCEPT *my* office (where all my packages are supposed to be distributed from if they don't deliver them to my door). frequently, they would deliver to some random office but nonetheless indicate the address of my office on the delivery notice ; so i would go down there, and they would check, and not find anything, and look in the computer, and tell me "well there's the problem, miss, you're in the wrong post ! you need to go all the way over to the one on the other side of the canal, near république !" and i would show them the sticker with *their* address printed on it, and tell them that for the past 10 years they have been my distributing bureau, and were *still* my distributing bureau, but it didn't do any good, and i'd have to go pick up my package in whatever random bureau it ended up in that time.

the good news, is that i called the labo, and they said that everything should be fine ; the solution is made to withstand 20 days unrefrigerated (otherwise they couldn't send it through the post) and it was "only" floating around out there for about 10 days, and even though i missed several days before i got my refill my treatment is not compromised. ouf !!! they also said they regularly have trouble with their packages. i'm not sure it makes me feel better knowing i'm not the only one, but at least i know it's not *personal*.

Originally Posted by kazbates

The same goes for the incredibly annoying telemarketer calls I get all day long. We have a "Do Not Call" registry here which we are on, but we still get any number of calls each day. No, I do not want an extended warranty on my car, thank you very much!!

oh, me too ! except for me it's double-paned windows, and a new kitchen. they really really REALLY want me to buy a new kitchen.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Once, when being on the receiving end of that tactic, I waited for the question, then answered, “We rent, but the owner is out in the yard. Hang on a second and I’ll get him to the phone.”

I then set the phone down, and when back to the living room to watch TV.

hehehe. i like it.

Originally Posted by Slite

We have an unlisted number. So I always ask to talk to their supervisor since I am interested in how they were able to call an unlisted number. They usually hang up pretty quick with a lot of apologies

also a good idea. i will try that next time, although i don't have an unlisted number, but i'm on the "don't call" list...

[Peverel]

Originally Posted by kazbates

The same goes for the incredibly annoying telemarketer calls I get all day long.

My Father had a way to deal with all the ones that were doing windows, and alike, for the house. He just used to ask how they dealt with Grade 1 Listed Building (in the UK that means it is historically listed and cannot be messed with). They always said 'Oh we cann't' and hung up.

My Father used to live in a very average 1980's chalet bungelow..........

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

the good news, is that i called the labo, and they said that everything should be fine

Hooray!!
That IS good news!