Insignificant/ Significant things that BYP or just wind you up a little

[Cousin Jack]

Customer Service, or the lack of it in the UK. Especially the twats at O2.

Long story short (ish).

Old phone, out of contract, and paid by DD every month since Noah was a lad. Today I get a snotttogram saying I haven't paid and they are going to add a late payment surcharge unless I get off my arse and pay sharpish. So I ring them (O2) to find out what the problem is, and if they are trying to charge it to a card (I have changed one CC recently) or direct from my current a/c.
After about what felt like 2 hours but was probably only a 1/4 of that I finally spoke to a human. I say human, zombie might be a better description. He was as unhelpful as possible while still being polite. I did manage to establish that it was a DD on my bank, but he would not/could not explain why, after about 4 years, the payment process had failed. He insisted the problem was with the bank.
So off to Barclays, and another 15 mins of my life wasted before I got to a human being. This one actually helped (a bit) and we established that Telefonica had set up a new DD, Barclays had accepted it, but Telefonica had not asked for any actual money.
Abortive attempt to contact O2, after an age (actually nigh on 30 mins) listening to ghastly sounds intended to emulate music I was cut off.
Rinse and repeat.
Back to 02, this time on line. I tried to pay the overdue amount using a credit card, but failed in that. The O2 just plain refused my CC. No referral to Visa, just No.
Rinse and repeat.
I managed to raise the complaints team. They obviously have a new brief, make sure no complaint is ever registered. They did however manage to take my money (on the same CC the website refused 10 minutes earlier. They offered no explanation either, but they did recite the very long boring (and totally irrelevant) spiel in their script with better diction that the first bloke at the beginning of this saga.
All of this occupied me for most of the afternoon, I have omitted all the boring bits like having to receive assorted security codes by SMS, and having to repeat security about 17 times, via keypads and then the same answers by voice.

Do I know why the DD was set up to replace the one that has been in place for 4 years? NO
Do I know why, having set it up, they didn't use it? NO
Do I have any faith that this won't happen again next month? NO
Do I know that O2 cares about me as a customer? NO
Will I be signing up to 02 again? NO

[Mr. Dazzle]

I never drink water. Fish piss in it.

Its worse than that, water is the main ingredient in cinzano!

[Ant]

I went to fill my camper with fuel today.

The €120 limit for paying by card is no longer enough to fill the tank

Even when it was £1.20 per litre, the £99 limit would only just be enough to get me a full tank in the estate car.

I was going to say the same, I’ve been hitting the £99 limit for months on an empty tank, in recent weeks it has just been more depressing given what has been left in the tank when I’ve hit the limit.

I drove around with the range showing zero miles left for a while. Filled up today at a station with a £99 limit - just over half a tank that got me

[Rockburner]

The water here is about as soft as you can get. Before they installed a modern treatment works some decades ago, the water had a slight brown tinge from the peat, tasted lovely and was mildly acidic. Acidic enough to work as a descaler as I found out when I moved up here and my kettle was slowly cleaned up.

It was like that when i visited South Uist in the 80s. For us southern kids it was seriously weird trying to wash with "dirty" water.

[Rockburner]

Even when it was £1.20 per litre, the £99 limit would only just be enough to get me a full tank in the estate car.

I was going to say the same, I’ve been hitting the £99 limit for months on an empty tank, in recent weeks it has just been more depressing given what has been left in the tank when I’ve hit the limit.

I drove around with the range showing zero miles left for a while. Filled up today at a station with a £99 limit - just over half a tank that got me

What are you driving? A Kenworth?

[Mussels]

I was going to say the same, I’ve been hitting the £99 limit for months on an empty tank, in recent weeks it has just been more depressing given what has been left in the tank when I’ve hit the limit.

I drove around with the range showing zero miles left for a while. Filled up today at a station with a £99 limit - just over half a tank that got me

What are you driving? A Kenworth?

My Jeep was the same, before I got rid of it 8 years ago it cost £100 to fill up and would last me a week at an average 15mpg.

[KungFooBob]

I hit the pay at the pump £100 hard limit the first time ever last week when I filled up the wife's diesel V40. It's only a little thing!

[Pirahna]

When we got the van it had a small bit of paint damage on the bonnet which the VW dealer is doing FOC, all wifey had to do was book the van in. Six fucking weeks it's taken her to get around to it. The fan belt has apparently developed a squeak, no probs get it done at the same time and while you're there get a years MOT on it. I'm back in England next Friday and we'd planned to drive down to Spain the week after. Any sane person would get an MOT done at the dealer the same time as everything else but she doesn't want to do that, she want's to take it to another MOT place, fuck knows where as she doesn't know any. It's a T32 Kombi so query if it's a class 4 or 7 ticket, she can't find the old MOT and looking online doesn't tell you.

Now she says she's not going to bother with an MOT as she might be back in England for Christmas. Good luck with that. She needs me to travel with her for the EU passport and that's not going to happen.

[KungFooBob]

It's a T32 Kombi so query if it's a class 4 or 7 ticket

If it's on the V5 as a motorhome it'll be class 4. If it's a conversion that hasn't been reregistered then it'll be 7.

My 3500kg plated Transit coach built was class 4.

[Count Steer]

I'm completely lost anyway. I thought the conversion was sold, Pirhana's in Ireland, home is in Spain....so where's the missus and where's England and Christmas come into it?

[Pirahna]

It's a T32 Kombi so query if it's a class 4 or 7 ticket

If it's on the V5 as a motorhome it'll be class 4. If it's a conversion that hasn't been reregistered then it'll be 7.

My 3500kg plated Transit coach built was class 4.

The Crafter conversion is gone, replaced with a T6/T32 Kombi, just a van, no conversion.

The MOT class is can be either 4 or 7. If it was the panel van it would be class7 but the Kombi with the extra seats and windows can be classed as dual use, and with a minimum weight below 2045kg then it can be a class 4. The reality is it depends on the MOT tester at the time and whether they'll do it as a 4 or does she phone around for a class 7 test. As I said any sane person would just get it done at the dealer when it's there already, or not as now seem to be the case.

[Pirahna]

I'm completely lost anyway. I thought the conversion was sold, Pirhana's in Ireland, home is in Spain....so where's the missus and where's England and Christmas come into it?

All good points. As I mentioned above, the conversion is no more. I'm in Ireland with the old man at the moment, wifey is in England with the van and storage container (have I meentioned the container before?). I'll go back to England, put some stuff from the container into the van then wifey and I will drive to the house in Spain.

Christmas comes into it because the MOT on the van is up in January. Ideally she would just get an MOT done now then we don't have to come back to the UK until next July, but no, she "might" come back at Christmas. If she doesn't get an MOT done now she'll definitely be coming back at Christmas. Still, it's her van and she can do whatever she wants.

[Felix]

DPD. Lazy DPD, Wankers DPD. Thick as pig shit DPD. I hate DPD.

[mangocrazy]

DPD. Lazy DPD, Wankers DPD. Thick as pig shit DPD. I hate DPD.

But. Hermes. And Yodel.

[Felix]

DPD. Lazy DPD, Wankers DPD. Thick as pig shit DPD. I hate DPD.

But. Hermes. And Yodel.

TBH i have never had any issue with Yodel. Not even a damaged parcel. Hermes was good also for the first couple of years but i knew the couriers so that probably helped. When they moved on it went tits up for them. At least now under there new name you can write a review about your courier. Last week he pulled out my recycle tub to replace the spot with my new router and Angle grinder dust sucker. This is in my front garden and teh whole street can see the parcels as the bloody tub was left on the ground. It was empty as well so half a brain would have said put them in the tub. Bad review he got that day

[Ant]

I was going to say the same, I’ve been hitting the £99 limit for months on an empty tank, in recent weeks it has just been more depressing given what has been left in the tank when I’ve hit the limit.

I drove around with the range showing zero miles left for a while. Filled up today at a station with a £99 limit - just over half a tank that got me

What are you driving? A Kenworth?

E class estate.

[demographic]

90% of rear foglight usage.
They're called foglights, not rainlights.

That, coupled to pulling so close in front of me that they damn nearly take my van front wing off and forcing me to knock my wipers up a notch gets a bit irritating.

[Mr. Dazzle]

90% of rear foglight usage.
They're called foglights, not rainlights.

That, coupled to pulling so close in front of me that they damn nearly take my van front wing off and forcing me to knock my wipers up a notch gets a bit irritating.

I can actually remember the last time I needed to use mine.

Why can I remember? Cause its such an unusual occurrence, that's why.

[Felix]

Years. I mean years. Last time i used my fog lights have been to check they work before an MOT.

[mangocrazy]

The last time my Lancia Beta needed a UK MoT I removed the rear fog lamp as it wasn't a requirement when the vehicle was made, it spoiled the look of the rear of the car and the damn thing was faulty anyway. Win-win.