Little things that irk you.. (no swearing please)

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

International Signed For Andrew.

Only trackable within the UK and paypal will bend you over and go in dry if the buyer claims it hasn't arrived, as I've found out in the past.

Looks like I'll be sticking to UK only from now on.

[Colin]

It also lets you know when it's been signed for at the destination though Andy, I use it quite a lot.

[J0e Musashi]

Exactly. Once it's been signed for, that's proof that it's been delivered.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Really? I had a package sent to Australia that went missing. Was sent International Signed For, but never showed further than being ready to be sent overseas. The seller claimed it never arrived, but I've kept an eye on their auctions and half the stuff I sent has been relisted. Paypal still finger blasted me for ?50 as it wasn't signed for, so never arrived as far as they are concerned.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Taken from the RM website:

International Signed For items are electronically tracked only up to the point they leave the UK.

[koopatroopa90]

RM haven't done Airsure to Italy for years have they? If the item is big enough I guess a courier might be a better option?

I'm pretty sure the assholes at my sorting office save up my packages before sending them out. Is it just a coincidence that 6 or 7 items all bought at different times all turn up on the same day, elastic banded together? Probably not. Workshy tossers.

Mine definitely do this. Still, least the stupid woman who used to get angry if she had to deliver anything other than a letter or two left, I don't even order half the amount I'm sure many of you guys do!

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

RM haven't done Airsure to Italy for years have they? If the item is big enough I guess a courier might be a better option?

I sent games to Briarios last year using Airsure. Not worth a courier, as it's a ?20 Japanese GBA game. Not a huge sum, but if they claim it never arrives, I'm out ?30(Inc postage) AND the game.

[dazzling_bubble]

Additional to Builder 5 - after hearing nothing I wasn't going to bother, but having had enough of poor service, and to prove a point, I rang him up to find out was going on. "Oh I was just about to send your quote to you..." Yeah, right. Quote does eventually turn up by the end of that day and the guy is also even further up the rip off chain than the others. ?300 to take down less than half a meter of wall on a stairway. A four figure sum to turn an existing doorway into a double doorway.

And those weren't even the bigger jobs, which were priced stupidly high. And none of them included VAT.

Additional to Builder 6 - he eventually got back to me after I chased him up and is busy up until February with work, so didn't want to know.

Builder 7 - "We're too busy right now", but less friendly than Builder 6 because they didn't even want to know what the job involved. No `sorry but come back to us in a few months and we'll see if we can help`. Nice.

Builder 8 - Got in touch with them as I didn't know if they did domestic work. Blokey rings me up and says they do and he'll be around the next day. When the guy turns up as arranged it turns out he's from a completely different company

Apparently this guy is employed by several builders in the area because they can't price jobs up properly (Alarm Bell No 1!) so they get him to independently price them (so independent in fact that he made a beeline to asking about how much the house cost to try and sniff out what kind of funds I had available).

Once he's costed it all out, the builder then slaps on how much they want to make on a job after his original price (Alarm Bell No 2!), so I already know this is heading into silly quote territory.

Then comes the "ooh, this is a big job" line which sets off Alarm Bell No 3, and I can see him already booking his next all expenses paid holiday with whatever he thinks his take home is going to be from this.

I start telling him what we want in terms of structural stuff, but also that we want some sockets chased in and new ones added - then comes the showstopper;

"Ooh, we can't do that, you'll have to get the whole system checked before anyone will touch it. It's the law. Then there's the total rewire..."

WAIT, WUT?!

He skirted over the rest of that, but a long conversation short this guy is basically telling me I have to pay for the works (including making good the walls), then pay for an electrician he knows to come in an do the wiring / chasing in etc, over the brand new walls I've just paid to have done, before having them re-plastered again.



The search continues into four months long next week. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so utterly soul destroying to be messed about.

This may be of help or may not but I've used www.mybuilder.com in the past as all the people on there are rated from previous jobs and they quote online within 48 hours or arrange a visit. Had a kitchen refitted and bathroom knocked through using someone from there.

[Wools]

Traffic.

There's only one road out of the office where I work and road works are in place for all of this year (Only 3 months left!) and currently, the traffic is awful. These next 2 weeks are meant to be so bad that flexitime is now in effect. To be fair, the construction company put in place to improve the road has been brilliant so a few bad weeks is nothing.

Although it?s painful waiting to leave the office, Tea, Digestive Biscuits and watching the Doom II run through on Giantbomb is easing the pain.

[Spatial]

This may be of help or may not but I've used www.mybuilder.com in the past as all the people on there are rated from previous jobs and they quote online within 48 hours or arrange a visit. Had a kitchen refitted and bathroom knocked through using someone from there.

Yeah, builder number two was kind of from there (I used it to find him, rather than posting the job on there because of the way the site generates its cash).

It is a handy site for finding people though - maybe I should give it another shot (at the rate I'm burning through builders I'll have to).

Having worked in the building industry on both sites and private homes, breaking out an internal wall is an awful job. You won't believe how much mess and rubble gets removed from just a small space.

My parents had the wall between dining room and living room knocked through and turned into one room a few years after we moved into the property. I remember just how messy and dust ridden it was ever after the work was done and the walls were being decorated.

I can believe that and I'm not unrealistic about what the jobs involve, but they still seem to be quoting silly money for stuff. As a rough guide I'd expect a wall that doesn't need supports put in, to be around ?1200 maximum, including making good. The figures they charging are double or even triple that before you start adding the VAT.

What's more important is if that is what they think is the going rate, they can't seem to justify it other than "Job X costs Y". Asking them to clarify just goes to a dead end, which just leaves me feeling I'm being conned because they seems to think they can make up the bulk of the quote with labour costs.

[vanpeebles]

I can believe that and I'm not unrealistic about what the jobs involve, but they're still quoting silly money for stuff and can't seem to justify it.

I reckon I could break that wall out for you with an M60

[Spatial]

.....

[Spatial]

I reckon I could break that wall out for you with an M60

Tell you what, if I haven't found someone in 6 months, and you can lay your hands on an M60, you can come around and give it a try

[dazzling_bubble]

What's more important is if that is what they think is the going rate, they can't seem to justify it other than "Job X costs Y". Asking them to clarify just goes to a dead end, which just leaves me feeling I'm being conned because they seems to think they can make up the bulk of the quote with labour costs.

Its unfortunately exactly the same with cars and garages........

[buster_broon]

Modern games and how much they install onto the system harddrive

Ive got an original release PS3 and all you get is 55GB so because I've now embraced digital gaming I'm constantly having to juggle what Ive got on there

Tekken tag 2 sticks 8GB onto the harddrive which is massive and if you add Resi 5, future soldier and need for speed it's around 20GB