7 hours ago, Stoney871 said:

Threaten to cancel your contract, they usually give you a better offer to stay.

I did that once with o2 and they just said "okay, thats cancelled now for you" I didnt even want to really, I was just trying to get a better deal!

I successfully do it every year with Sky though.

1 hour ago, WES180 said:

I did that once with o2 and they just said "okay, thats cancelled now for you" I didnt even want to really, I was just trying to get a better deal!

I successfully do it every year with Sky though.

I have to admit to doing that myself when I was on the M&S contract at work.  Customers would phone and moan that they missed out on the offer, and didn't want to go ahead with their order at full price.  I knew they were just bluffing to try and get a refund of the difference, but as soon as they said "give me the discount or just cancel my order!" I'd quickly respond "OK sir/madam, that's your order cancelled.  Full refund will be back in your account within 3-5 working days.  Thank you for calling!". 

I know, I'm mean.  But you have to do something to make life interesting in a call centre environment...

I don't like being woken from a rare decent sleep this morning by a strimmer, hedge cutter and leaf blower all being used simultaneously just across the road...I thought I'd been kidnapped and taken to some sort of torture compound!  

Wouldn't mind so much if a leaf blower even worked...they just don't on concrete, far quicker, more efficient and quieter to use a broom!  

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I don't like being woken from a rare decent sleep this morning by a strimmer, hedge cutter and leaf blower all being used simultaneously just across the road...I thought I'd been kidnapped and taken to some sort of torture compound!  

Wouldn't mind so much if a leaf blower even worked...they just don't on concrete, far quicker, more efficient and quieter to use a broom!  

But Tom that means they'd have to exert some effort and they can't do that!

I don't like not being able to go for the job mentioned yesterday, because one thing they would have needed to see was my driving licence, and guess what mysteriously vanished this morning?

It isn't like I wasn't sure where it was in the first place either.  It was on top of a pile of cards in the living room that I had removed from my wallet in order to clean it (the wallet, that is).  This morning all the other cards were there, but the licence is nowhere to be found. 

SERIOUSLY!!!!!

I don't like that my solitary left sinus infection turned out to be the precursor to a full on stonking streamer of a cold.  Which went from partially blocked nose to streaming like a sluice gate in flood conditions, around midnight last night

I don't usually get colds, and for that matter flu.  I can't recall having one at all since I moved here, which was over 10 years ago.  I've got far too much to do, to  spend some time having a cold  

I also don't like that the various cold and flu preparations have far too many carbs for my diet.  The Tesco all-in-one max strength I took last night had close to 6 grams, per mug.  Which is almost as much as I eat in a day.  The artificial sweeteners are not much better,(4g per mug) they are might low calorie polyols, they might be indigestible: but they are still carbs.  However, the capsule variants don't appear to have any carbs So, if I can get my streaming nose under control, I can at least go to Tesco and stock up on those.

 

12 hours ago, Ken.K said:

I will change my bulbs soon and get 6000k side lights, dipped and main beams maybe then if anyone tries it with me will do it back to them. Cos I see it's mostly white lights.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 

 

12 hours ago, jmurray01 said:

I have no problem putting my high beams on if somebody comes at me without dipping.  Yes it doesn't help me any, but it gives them a taste of their own medicine.

That's just reminded of a hilarious yet embarrassing incident I had way back in my Mk2 Capri, that I'd actually forgotten all about, until now

At the time, near enough all of us copied the rally cars and had installed banks of auxiliary driving lamps, on bars both below and above the bumper.  There was a certain competitiveness to it, if someone had fitted 6 lamps, the next person to fit some would do 8 or 10 and so on.

On this particular day, my mate and I had installed 16, in two rows of 8 on mine, and on his, an ambitious 24 (also a Mk2 Capri)  Thus trumping everyone in our immediate group of mates, on of whom had had the most at 14.  Although they were wired to work with main beam circuit, I fitted a switch so I could have just the standard main beam or both the auxiliaries and main beam, they had their own feed and distribution box

Having finished our respective installations we set off to meet up with everyone else in the middle of rural Dorset, at another mate's farm.

Now, on the way home, on a the narrowest, quite curvy and darkest of country lanes, driving on just my main beams without the auxiliary lamps. As soon as I saw the hedges being illuminated some way ahead: I dipped mine.  The other car, didn't.  He came around a bend and straight at me: I had a face of full beam and couldn't see much. I flashed him with just the head lights, which he ignored

Right I thought, here's a taste of your own medicine, flicking my aux switch and flashing all 16 55w lamps  together with the head lights.  In the split second after i flashed there was sudden loud pop sound coming from my relay box, and then the auxiliary lamps wouldn't extinguish whatsoever.

It seemed that I'd got a dodgy relay somewhere Realising the car battery couldn't sustain that kind of draw for long, I still had about 20 miles to drive, I'd better find a way of extinguishing them.

I pulled into the next  field entrance; illuminating most of the country side; as i did so  Despite having a lot of light up front, it was too dark to see properly under the bonnet. Having failed to find the feed fuse by feel. I thought the only way forward is to remove the feed from the battery. It's tremendously challenging to unscrew a M6 bolt, you can't see with a pair of regular pliers 

Meanwhile, the oncoming full beam car, which turned out to be a Rover 3500, started accelerating towards and then past me, whereupon he just floored it.  In hindsight, i think he thought I was going to physically challenge him, having first stunned him with my lights,  as I'd pulled over, and got out

 

 

.

 

 

 

I don't like not being able to go for the job mentioned yesterday, because one thing they would have needed to see was my driving licence, and guess what mysteriously vanished this morning?
It isn't like I wasn't sure where it was in the first place either.  It was on top of a pile of cards in the living room that I had removed from my wallet in order to clean it (the wallet, that is).  This morning all the other cards were there, but the licence is nowhere to be found. 
SERIOUSLY!!!!!

Can't you just access and print off a copy of your licence details like you would if hiring a car?
Surely they would accept that until you locate your licence?

Sent from my SM-G930F

https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

Sent from my SM-G930F

If you don't recall your licence number to access the info then DVLA should be able to confirm it for you.

Sent from my SM-G930F

Isn't the driving licence number about 10 digits long?  How is anyone expected to remember that lol?  

8 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Isn't the driving licence number about 10 digits long?  How is anyone expected to remember that lol?  

It's only the last 3 chars of your driving license number which you'd have to remember, the rest can be worked out.

That's why on insurance comparison sites they pre-fill the first part of your license number.

Ah, I didn't know that.  Can't say I've ever seen it on comparison sites either.  Safe to say I definitely don't know the last 3 digits of mine if I ever lost it!

19 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

It's only the last 3 chars of your driving license number which you'd have to remember, the rest can be worked out.

That's why on insurance comparison sites they pre-fill the first part of your license number.

Isn't the licence number constructed from a mixture of your DOB backwards, part of your surname (the first 5 letters, or all of it if you have a short one) plus some random letters

34 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Isn't the driving licence number about 10 digits long?  How is anyone expected to remember that lol?  

I scanned mine and saved it to both a pdf and bmp file, on a USB drive. in case I actually mislay the license.

Although what I haven't covered is, what if I mislay my license during an extended power cut

20 minutes ago, GMX said:

Isn't the licence number constructed from a mixture of your DOB backwards, part of your surname (the first 5 letters, or all of it if you have a short one) plus some random letters

I scanned mine and saved it to both a pdf and bmp file, on a USB drive. in case I actually mislay the license.

Although what I haven't covered is, what if I mislay my license during an extended power cut

Mind = blown.

 

I just looked at my driving license and you're right! I never noticed that.

Driver number (5)

A	B	C	D	E
MORGA	657054	SM	9IJ	**

 

A -  First five characters of surname. If the surname is less than five characters the remaining spaces will be made up using the figure 9. (eg MAN99)

B -  The first and last numbers are the year of birth. The second and third numbers are the month of birth. If you’re a woman, ‘5’ is added to the second number and the total used as the second digit eg if you're born in October the second and third numbers would be 60. The fourth and fifth digits show the day of your birth.

C - The first two initials of your forenames. If you have only one initial then the second will be a ‘9’.

D - Computer check digits.

E - Licence issue number.

 

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090120175652/direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DG_068315

Wow!! 

Not sure which thread this should go in but it's worth a mention...

This afternoon I didnt like watching the car in front drive forward across 4 lanes of traffic when the left only arrow popped up...

I do like the way they managed to dodge cars coming from both directions and at quite a speed though!!

I'd followed them for quite a while and they'd driven fine before they so it was a genuine mistake I think.  The left only arrow did appear to almost point straight over, I guess the light block had been knocked by a bus or something...but even my small brain could work out you wouldn't have a forward only arrow at a major crossroads lol.

 

Also for anyone interested, I did get the miss-stamped letter in my Grandads name from the PO this afternoon with no hassle at all.  Though that may be partly to do with the huge queue, lack of parking and the fact there was only one guy serving lol.  

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Not sure which thread this should go in but it's worth a mention...

This afternoon I didnt like watching the car in front drive forward across 4 lanes of traffic when the left only arrow popped up...

I do like the way they managed to dodge cars coming from both directions and at quite a speed though!!

I'd followed them for quite a while and they'd driven fine before they so it was a genuine mistake I think.  The left only arrow did appear to almost point straight over, I guess the light block had been knocked by a bus or something...but even my small brain could work out you wouldn't have a forward only arrow at a major crossroads lol.

 

Also for anyone interested, I did get the miss-stamped letter in my Grandads name from the PO this afternoon with no hassle at all.  Though that may be partly to do with the huge queue, lack of parking and the fact there was only one guy serving lol.  

Glad to here you got the letter ok. 

1 minute ago, dezwez said:

Glad to here you got the letter ok. 

Turned out it was only an Xmas card for my Nan after all.  How they managed to get the wrong initial and forget a stamp I don't know lol.  I know you'd use the male initial when writing to a couple but surely that stops when the man passes.

32 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Turned out it was only an Xmas card for my Nan after all.  How they managed to get the wrong initial and forget a stamp I don't know lol.  I know you'd use the male initial when writing to a couple but surely that stops when the man passes.

It should do, but if the person forgot to put a stamp on, perhaps they had also forgotten he had died?

 I also thought that might be the case, but they've only written Nan's name inside.

Dont think I'll ever understand how the elderly mind works... 

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

 I also thought that might be the case, but they've only written Nan's name inside.

Dont think I'll ever understand how the elderly mind works... 

Well, you will, in 40-50 years time!!

Every time I've gone out this week, I've encountered an idiot of spectacular proportions in a VW

This afternoon's idiot was in a Polo, who not only didn't bother with indicators, or indeed lane discipline; but  was weaving from side to side, preventing the rest us of overtaking them when safe to do so.

21 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Dont think I'll ever understand how the elderly mind works... 

My mum is of an age where her short term memory is a bit faulty.

We have the at least once daily panic of "I can't my biue purse, or handbag, or blue card, or walking stick, debit card etc" And often there's is repeat performance, 5 minutes after I've found it for her, but she's forgotten it's been found

This week, she is writing her Xmas cards, and forgets which cards she already written: some of her friends have received 2 cards, other's 3, my youngest brother and SIL received their 4th card from her yesterday!

29 minutes ago, GMX said:

Every time I've gone out this week, I've encountered an idiot of spectacular proportions in a VW

This afternoon's idiot was in a Polo, who not only didn't bother with indicators, or indeed lane discipline; but  was weaving from side to side, preventing the rest us of overtaking them when safe to do so.

My mum is of an age where her short term memory is a bit faulty.

We have the at least once daily panic of "I can't my biue purse, or handbag, or blue card, or walking stick, debit card etc" And often there's is repeat performance, 5 minutes after I've found it for her, but she's forgotten it's been found

This week, she is writing her Xmas cards, and forgets which cards she already written: some of her friends have received 2 cards, other's 3, my youngest brother and SIL received their 4th card from her yesterday!

That's old age unfortunately, it doesn't come alone...  Does she still drive?  I ask as sometimes people with memory loss can still carry out tasks that come naturally without problem, although there comes a point where that too is not possible.

11 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

understand how the elderly mind works..

Trouble is, it get to a stage where it doesn't!

My mum is over 90, and has been really pretty normal, and using Sudoku & the jigidee internet site to keep her mind active, and sending long, rambling but still clear Emails.

A month ago, she went down with something, we still do not know what. UTI, pressure of Xmas, stress of her arthritis? We got a card, it had a stamp, but she had mixed my missus' name up with my brother's girlfriend/fiances name. Both names were on the envelope & both then crossed out, and the wrong one on the card. She had also forgotten to sign it That was despite (or perhaps because of!) my missus phoning her once or twice a day to find out what was happening, and then organising social services & NHS care teams into action.

She lives alone, 200 miles from me, and about 15 miles from my brother, and values her independence. She is not co-operating with the care agencies, refusing to let them do anything. Generally being as awkward as only an elderly person with some degree of dementia (now) can be.

Yesterday, the doctor finally arranged for her to be admitted to hospital. They were going to discharge her this morning, but decided to do a CT scan instead. We do not know the results yet, the hospital would not say, apparently.

Looks like I will have a few 400mile round trips coning up.

------

But what I also don't like, and is bugging me, is BT.

On Wednesday, my phone line started crackling again, it is usually caused by water & corrosion in the master socket, though whether from the BT wiring or my wiring, or just condensation, I don't know. Anyway I repaired a dodgy joint (a wire fell apart when I opened it), and the crackles have gone. My hub SNR is 14 to 15dB, which looks normal, reported hub connection rate is 7.9MBPS (Max is 8). But my "IP Profile" is still stuck at 0.14MBPS.

The max download speed is now 0.09 to 0.12MBPS, about 60 times down. No better than dial-up, really.

Some sites say it can take BT 3 to 5 days to re-instate the IP profile after a line problem. That is ridiculous. In the meantime, I do not know if it is fixed, or if there is still a problem. It has restored in 24 hours in the past.

We are just about stuck with BT, the local exchange is not "unbundled", so no TalkTalk etc. I just could do with a decent connection to find about hospital parking, traffic, etc.

Not a great week. Though I feel for Jamie as well, not a great week there, either.