The Ranting Room

Dean wrote: chopper wrote: Took the day off work to sort our car out (someone crashed into the back of us last week in the snow). The insurance broker had arranged for a garage to collect the car and a hire company to provide a hire car. Despite me checking with the garage two days ago when they said they would collect the car in the morning, they hadn't turned up by 12. When I called they couldn't find any trace of it on their collection sheets and so had to arrange a special collection. They eventually turned up at 3. The car hire company phoned us on Monday and said they would phone this morning to arrange a time to collect me and take me to their place to pick a car. Of course nobody phoned. When I phoned them, it turns out they don't have a car to hire me as they're all out. I phone the company whose job it is to arrange all this and I can't get through as their phone lines are "exceptionally busy". I know they're busy because of the snow and resulting accidents, but why can't they phone me to tell me they don't have a car? Do you sometimes get the feeling that "these people" have never dealt with an accident claim before?   The hire company my insurance people used expected me to pick the car up from their depot 12 miles away and then return it back to them when mine had been repaired... "Can't you bring it to me?" I said .... "Sorry, we can't do that, you need to come to the office." ... "But as of this morning I haven't got any transport so I can't get there." ... "Well, we're not supposed to, but we can come and pick you up" ... "Then why can't you use the hire car to pick me up?" ... "But then we would have to use two cars and two drivers and it would leave the office short staffed"... "Okay, fair enough - I finish work at 5:30" .... "Erm, sorry, we close at 5"  .... "Okay, pick me up at 4 then".   When the car arrived to pick me up (at 4:45 because somehow it got lost somewhere on the 12 mile direct route between the two towns), there were two people in it  We drove over to their office in Basingstoke, filled out some exceedingly unnecessary forms and paperwork and they showed me the hire car - "Oh, great - same make, model and colour as the car that hit me - and it's only a 1.6 - hardly an equivalent replacement for mine." Back into the office, some um-ing and arr-ing and I finally drove off in a 2 ltr Astra VXR coupe   When mine was fixed I phoned them up and said "Finshed with the car, you can come & pick it up now" ... and they did.

Jim Garten wrote: Neil wrote: I'm all for the welfare state as a catch net to prevent people starving or being homeless but new labour and the left wing do gooders have taken things too far.  I'll happily vote Tory as I'm fed up of having to scrimp and save to get by whilst my taxes get some local workshy layabout the latest Nike Mugger trainers. Not just trainers either, neil - Radio 4 reported yesterday our esteemed Prime Minister intended to give away half a million laptops with full broadband access to lower income families... WHY?!? Since when has internet access been an essential of life? Who is going to pay for the laptops? Us. Who is going to pay the ISP fees? Us. What are a lot of these people going to do with them (gross generalisation coming up)? Take them to Cash Converters & sell them.

Quite.  The simple message that this sends to all in this country is that the way to get all you want is to do no work, earn no money, pay no taxes and have no savings.  If Mr Brown gets another tennancy in number ten then I'm fairly sure that this country will be completely both morally and finacially bankrupt before the end of the decade; and to think that we once ran the largest and most successful empire the world has ever seen.

Took the day off work to sort our car out (someone crashed into the back of us last week in the snow). The insurance broker had arranged for a garage to collect the car and a hire company to provide a hire car.

Despite me checking with the garage two days ago when they said they would collect the car in the morning, they hadn't turned up by 12. When I called they couldn't find any trace of it on their collection sheets and so had to arrange a special collection. They eventually turned up at 3.

The car hire company phoned us on Monday and said they would phone this morning to arrange a time to collect me and take me to their place to pick a car. Of course nobody phoned. When I phoned them, it turns out they don't have a car to hire me as they're all out.

I phone the company whose job it is to arrange all this and I can't get through as their phone lines are "exceptionally busy".

I know they're busy because of the snow and resulting accidents, but why can't they phone me to tell me they don't have a car?

chopper wrote: Just had a third text saying I shouldn't have got the second text saying I'm not eligible and I will receive the £1 after all.   In February.

I just received a text from Vodafone which says "Congratulations, to say thank you for being a Vodafone customer we are giving £1 free credit. Just text "REWARD to this number".

alphawave10 wrote: To mr blacksword...there speaks the true voice of the tories...anti-european and xenophobic. If the poles or whoever didn't tkae these jobs on minimum wage ...the lazy scum in the uk won't...so get your facts right. At least labour aren't going to make million pound homes free from inheritance tax.....how many uk people own a million pound home...erm tories.   Also, at least any labour chancellor hasn't had to have elocution lessons because they had a squeaky voice....step forward gideon osborne...now why did he change his name to george????

The Doctor wrote: Time for a rant from The Doctor.  For a long time, I thought this was a level of stupidity that only afflicted Americans.  However, in my travels abroad, I have seen that it also afflicts the Polish and the Germans, and is perhaps at least an affliction among those of European descent.  Although perhaps it is a world-wide phenomenon.  I am referring to snow removal.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that walking through 6 inches of snow (while annoying) is so much better and so much safer than walking on a 1/2 inch sheet of ice.  So if you are going to shovel the snow, for  sake, remove the ice underneath.  If you're unable or unwilling to invest the time and energy to get rid of the layer of ice underneath, leave the freaking snow there.  It provides traction which the ice doesn't (although failure to remove the ice may lead one to end up in traction).  Yes, it is a pain to walk through snow.  It is even more painful to slip on the ice, bust your skull wide open and have to be rushed to the hospital.    Rant over.

Edited by mystic fred - January 09 2010 at 05:16

chopper wrote: We're not allowed to clear our driveways or pavements in case someone does slip and then sues us.

Slipping isn't really a problem here, until it comes to freezing rain. That causes the ground to be more slippery than anything, at least here. Then again, we have no sidewalks out here, and since there is at least 3/4 feet of snow on the ground plowing/ blowing/ shoveling it still leaves enough for traction.

Dean wrote: There was a Canadian on UK TV yesterday bemoaning the fact that Gatwick Airport only has 2 snow ploughs when Calgary Airport has 60... we usually have snow once a year, it lasts a couple of days.

When we were on Newfoundland last year in a small town called Woody Point (which in the UK would have been a moderately sized village) we noticed a compound containing about 20 snowploughs... and another in the next town along... and another in the next town along...



Mind you, they do have in excess of 50 feet of snow a year...

We're not allowed to clear our driveways or pavements in case someone does slip and then sues us.