The Vent and Rant Thread

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Ah, but what if we're talking about Kelvins?

Originally Posted by pholy

I don't think you can get to minus 40 Kelvin...

We Need To Talk About Kelvin.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by pholy

I don't think you can get to minus 40 Kelvin...

Common sense says it shouldn't be possible, but then that's why I never put much faith in common sense:

http://www.mpg.de/6776082/negative_absolute_temperature

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Seems to be a lot of that going around. You're the third person I've heard making similar complaints recently about bait and switch tactics; and all concerning different apps.

Yeah... unfortunately app developers are discovering that they can make more a lot money by switching to the "freemium" model.

[kindlekitten]

Don't you hate it when someone you really dislike comes up with something clever? Well here it is...

"It was so cold today that I saw a teenage boy with his pants pulled all the way up"

Yeah, I know, not THAT great. But it was in the twenties with bright sun,, (no rain!) And we had three rather large,(for our little town) events today, one of which pulled in almost 2000 people! And for a place with one stop light in the main downtown corridor , that's huge!

Anyway eleven hours downtown, three events, totally exhausted

[cromag]

Originally Posted by orlok

We Need To Talk About Kelvin.

I don't mind people talking about me, but they should at least get my name right.

Kevin

[Rumpelteazer]

I was expecting a package yesterday but it didn't arrive. When I checked the tracking page it stated that DHL tried to deliver it around noon but that the address was closed. Excuse me, but we live over our store and that was open from 10am until 5pm and before and after someone was home who would have heard the doorbell.

Now they are going to deliver it on Monday, when the store is closed. So I have to get up early, put a sign on the door that states someone is home to receive delivery (then you also get customers ringing the doorbell because they think that just because your home you should help them) and then wait for the delivery, and DHL doesn't deliver around a set time on Monday, it could be 9am but they've also delivered around 5pm.

So I just send them, another, pissed off email. Also stating that because this happens with most of their deliveries we would never choose to send anything for our own business with them.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I was expecting a package yesterday but it didn't arrive. When I checked the tracking page it stated that DHL tried to deliver it around noon but that the address was closed.

This is probably the delivery driver trying the wrong address, or perhaps even not bothering. I had one important package, being delivered to a porters lodge at a university (so there would always be someone there), and for several days it was undelivered with the reason given being that there was no-one there. It turned out that the driver hadn't even bothered trying to deliver it at all, because they thought that some roadworks (at one end of the road) had made the road inaccessible.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This is probably the delivery driver trying the wrong address, or perhaps even not bothering. I had one important package, being delivered to a porters lodge at a university (so there would always be someone there), and for several days it was undelivered with the reason given being that there was no-one there. It turned out that the driver hadn't even bothered trying to deliver it at all, because they thought that some roadworks (at one end of the road) had made the road inaccessible.

Usually one of three things happen when a package isn't delivered: the store is closed and they don't ring the doorbell. Or, they're on the other side of the inner city and to get to us they have to exit the city to the ring road and enter at an other exit and they don't want to bother. Or, they just don't feel like walking 50 yards, we're in the car free zone and the closest they can get by car is 50 yards away from our door.

DHL and their daughter company Selektvracht are currently the worse delivery company in my area.

[Rumpelteazer]

It just isn't my weekend. First problems with two packages. Then, last night, my father tells me I had to mind the store today because he has a billiard tournament. And this afternoon, when measuring a length of wire for a customer the roll with nearly 100 metres of wire still on it came crashing down on my left hand (I suspect my father didn't push it down enough, not locking it in place), which is now swollen and black and blue and the muscles in my arm and shoulder are also sore.

[Bilbo1967]

Crawled up into the loft at the weekend to find the Christmas lights for outside. Remembered to test them before putting them up - working fine - and then spent an hour hanging them from the front of the house. When I proudly turned them on (wife and children looking on expectantly), obviously they didn't bl***y work

No idea why.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Ugh, ugh ugh...

Keep in mind that the current normals are -7C and -18C.

01   -4.1  -9.9
02   -5.4 -11.3
03  -11.3 -17.7
04  -17.6 -25.6
05  -20.9 -32.5
06  -25.6 -33.7
07  -27.1 -34.1
08  -20.7 -30.2
09  -24.3 -29.0

upcoming
10  -22.0 -22.0
11  -17.0 -29.0
12  -16.0 -22.0
13  -21.0 -21.0
14  -21.0 -24.0
15  -14.0 -23.0

I never like it when there's a stretch when the normal low is warmer than the actually high temperatures recorded.

[theinfamousj]

I have to write 11 more trivia questions today. The problem isn't coming up with questions so much as coming up with questions that someone else might also know the answer to. Help over PMs is greatly appreciated.

Also, I am out of hot sauce. And it is just-barely-not-freezing raining outside and so I don't want to venture to the store in that sort of weather.

[Stitchawl]

Rant Mode: ON

I contacted an excellent company called Homespun Taps, Ltd., with whom I've done business in the past. The produce and sell instructional videos for many different instruments, predominantly strings, and mostly in the folk music genre. Excellent company with great products. I purchased three videos to be sent to my house, and two others that were offered as "Instant Access." And that's when it hit the fan...

It turns out that AFTER you pay for the "Instant Access" videos, you learn that you have to install special third-party software from a group called 'PlatformPurple' to download them. That made me angry. I don't want to install special third-party software into my computer. Had I known that I'd have to install unknown third-party software, I never would have ordered it. To me, instant access means just that; you pay your money and you get a URL to a download site, and instantly begin downloading what you've purchased.

But I'd already paid my money so I installed it. Then I tried to download the videos... and got an error message saying "Error. Can not find .dll, contact tech support." I also got a socket error message. OK, I contacted tech support at PlatformPurple and they told me that the .dll in question really wasn't theirs, but belonged to QuickTime. OK... software often shares with other programs. And I guess it's their standard policy to blame someone else. They told my that my version of QuickTime must be bad and to re-install it. That made me wonder... QuickTime seemed to work just fine when I needed it to. But I re-installed it anyway, tried to download the videos, and got the error message again. I contacted tech support and they said, sorry, the problem is with someone else's software. I told them I had no trouble with that other software, and only got the error message with their software. That seemed to piss them off. Their next suggestion was that I let them into my computer...

Now... call me paranoid, but here's a company that
1. I never heard of,
2. that never said a word about needing special software installed until AFTER I gave them my money,
3. blamed an error message received when running their software on someone else,
and
4. now wants me to let them run around inside my computer?
That just doesn't sound right to me. (By the way, they never so much as mentioned the socket error problem.) So I went looking in my computer, found a copy of the .dll that was missing, and copied it to their installation folder. Can you believe it? The software actually ran... If tech support had simply said that in the beginning I'd have let all this slide.

But, at the same time, I was still getting a socket error message which I had the temerity to contact tech support about. Their suggestion again: Hey, let us inside your computer... How many tech supports have requested control of your computer on the first date? That's a last-ditch hail-Mary play.

I wrote back that I wasn't happy at all with this company and its policies from the very beginning. They wrote back with the following;
We are very sorry this happened, because 99% of the time, everything works perfectly. But in this case, all we can say is that this couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

For all you customer support people out there, who have wanted to say something like this to a customer, but didn't because you realize what the results will be, this is the result in action... And it's being cc'd to a dozen different forums around the Internet. Company's name is 'PlatformPurple.' The support person was Mabel. A word to the wise is sufficient; don't do business with 'PlatformPurple.'


Stitchawl

[wodin]

Originally Posted by orlok

We Need To Talk About Kelvin.

Yes, I knew him well, he used to come over for chicken on Sunday.

[poohbear_nc]

FULL RANT MODE (accompanied with tears of pure frustration)

What are the chances that the receptionist (on her lunch hour) would freeze, crash, and totally fubar a company PC (that she has no business using) that handles, amongst other things, the dedicated email client for receiving invoices, the end-of-year financial spreadsheets that should be updated daily, and ..... I can't go on ....

Yes, I hear you say "Why wasn't the PC pass-worded or restricted to prevent casual users from .... well, using it? Well, my boss hates passwords and refuses to have them on PC's he uses (I'm not making this up), and his sister is allowed free run of the company, including using company PC's for her personal use ....

I'm almost beyond words, having spent the afternoon fending off demands for invoices, spreadsheets, etc., as I have had to fit PC repair into an already full day. And of course the stupid b***h is lying as to what she was doing before the freeze, and what she did to cause the crash - so I'm working blind trying to preserve the morning's data and NOT do a restore to a previous day.

So, during this wonderful afternoon, my boss drops in to say I'll be getting an email with a LOT of attachments - he has decided to acquire another (failed) business and wants me to go over 7 years of tax returns & financials .... on top of everything else I'm dealing with.

I'm having chest pains, stomach pains, head pains, and am mad as hell! I'm seriously considering walking out of this hell-hole and bagging groceries. "Paper or plastic?"

Going home now to play with the cats .....