Grumble Thread

[teamsaint]

I can take it, TS.



Well a fraudulent scammer might have a bank account which is totally correctly set up, no?

Quite possibly. Although that would mean two identical accounts at the same bank ? I haven’t thought this through though !!

[oddoneout]

My partner just had to retrieve a delivery from what in these parts is called a Packstation: an array of metal drawers and cupboards where normally one holds the attempted delivery card in front of a scanner and the appropriate compartment opens, allowing one to take possession of the article.

This was not, however, the case at this particular Packstation, which offered no visible customer interface. Instead, she had to use her phone to scan a QR code to download an app and then scan another code on the delivery card and establish a bluetooth connection with the Packstation to persuade it to open the required compartment and reveal the desired parcel.

The extent to which she would have preferred to go to a post office and interact with a human being for the purpose of obtaining the article can hardly be overstated.

Except it's Royal Mail delivery offices these days which, if our local one is anything to go by, are not exactly customer focused. It used to be quite convenient, not least as it is behind the PO(which is what is known a a crown post office, ie not a counter in a shop) so that folks who hadn't twigged that the parcel they'd come to collect couldn't be got at the PO counter(it never could even before the Royal Mail was hived off ) could toddle round the back to collect it, but the opening times are now so restricted that often isn't possible. I think the hours are now aligned with times the rounds are going out - 8am - 10, and that's it ; the afternoon slot has now gone I notice, so if a card is dropped off in the morning for a missed delivery you can't get it until the next day.

[oliver sudden]

Post offices have more generous opening hours here thank goodness, but you generally can’t get a missed delivery here till the next day anyway… there’s an ‘available from’ date and time on the delivery slip but sometimes that’s a bit optimistic, which can be a crashing bore. And if for some reason you can’t pick it up in the following week, back it goes.

Which is also a bore if, to take a completely random example, it happens to be a CD coming from Canada, especially if it would actually have fitted in the damn letterbox.

[oddoneout]

Post offices have more generous opening hours here thank goodness, but you generally can’t get a missed delivery here till the next day anyway… there’s an ‘available from’ date and time on the delivery slip but sometimes that’s a bit optimistic, which can be a crashing bore. And if for some reason you can’t pick it up in the following week, back it goes.

Which is also a bore if, to take a completely random example, it happens to be a CD coming from Canada, especially if it would actually have fitted in the damn letterbox.

The Post Office opening hours are fine, and if one is sending an item that can be done, and at the Coop based post office on the edge of town. It's just collecting a missed delivery that can't be done except within those very restricted hours of the separate delivery office. The alternative is to arrange a re-delivery I imagine.

[LMcD]

Except it's Royal Mail delivery offices these days which, if our local one is anything to go by, are not exactly customer focused. It used to be quite convenient, not least as it is behind the PO(which is what is known a a crown post office, ie not a counter in a shop) so that folks who hadn't twigged that the parcel they'd come to collect couldn't be got at the PO counter(it never could even before the Royal Mail was hived off ) could toddle round the back to collect it, but the opening times are now so restricted that often isn't possible. I think the hours are now aligned with times the rounds are going out - 8am - 10, and that's it ; the afternoon slot has now gone I notice, so if a card is dropped off in the morning for a missed delivery you can't get it until the next day.

Our local Delivery Office is now open from 0800 to 1000 Monday to Friday and 0800-1200 on Saturday. There are also increasingly strong rumours that some or all of our local posties are not out and about every day.

[kernelbogey]

Would this link not have given you the info you needed (or did you have no internet access)?

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/branches/search...

It would have at home, with my laptop: but I was on a railway station on a hot afternoon, with only my elderly ('vintage' in Applespeak ) iPhone, trying to complete the purchase of a car....

[oddoneout]

Our local Delivery Office is now open from 0800 to 1000 Monday to Friday and 0800-1200 on Saturday. There are also increasingly strong rumours that some or all of our local posties are not out and about every day.

Those must be the standard hours now, then. It used to be open from 7am until 3 pm, shut for an hour at lunchtime.
My neighbour is a postie and although on a part-time contract works full time more often than not so I don't think there's much wasted time at the depot.

[Dave2002]

Lucky and unlucky tonight.

Firstly got to War Requiem Prom.

Bought a programme to follow the words.

Turned off mobile phone as instructed before the start.

Then the woman next to me turned hers on so as to read the words from an online programme!

No, No,No - that should be banned too…..

Fortunately she must eventually have got bored to found another way to follow things and turned it off, or put it into a bag - but it was at least 10 minutes - maybe 20mins before she gave up.

I think looking around there were only a few others trying this. You can spot them by the bright light under their chest.

Superb concert though - excellent.

[Old Grumpy]

Online programmes are theoretically a good idea (save paper, trees, money etc.)...


...but can be very annoying to neighbours in the audience unless viewed under minimum back-light illumination on a phone/tablet. One remedy might be to put the house lights up a bit when such devices are permitted - probably spoil the atmosphere though.

[oliver sudden]

Online programmes are theoretically a good idea (save paper, trees, money etc.)...


...but can be very annoying to neighbours in the audience unless viewed under minimum back-light illumination on a phone/tablet. One remedy might be to put the house lights up a bit when such devices are permitted - probably spoil the atmosphere though.

In other words… they’re an awful idea! (Perhaps you are familiar with the German word Verschlimmbesserung?)

As you note, they can’t be used without bringing a distracting light source into the midst of the audience. That light source will for most people also be a mobile communication device, and while it would be nice if everyone downloaded the programme before arriving and then turned off their phones on the way in… well.

Oh and I bet there is literally no one who browses through a folder of PDFs to relive concerts from days gone by.

[oddoneout]

Online programmes are theoretically a good idea (save paper, trees, money etc.)...


...but can be very annoying to neighbours in the audience unless viewed under minimum back-light illumination on a phone/tablet. One remedy might be to put the house lights up a bit when such devices are permitted - probably spoil the atmosphere though.

But add to the data centre problems?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/23/ireland-datacentres-overtake-electricity-use-of-all-homes-combined-figures-show

[oddoneout]

Hot-property conductor Daniele Rustioni

melody-fuelled, rhythm-buoyed journey

Who writes this rubbish? And more to the point who in management thinks it a good idea? It's on the R3 schedules page so not as if they are addressing the general population...

Mutter, mutter - time for another cup of tea and the Guardian garden column I think, while I appreciate the perfume from the sweet pea posy I have just collected from the veg patch.

[Serial_Apologist]

Online programmes are theoretically a good idea (save paper, trees, money etc.)...


...but can be very annoying to neighbours in the audience unless viewed under minimum back-light illumination on a phone/tablet. One remedy might be to put the house lights up a bit when such devices are permitted - probably spoil the atmosphere though.

Which text readers would then need a torch (flash light) to read!

There really doesn't seem to be any alternative than to just listen to the words as written/delivered, whether audible, comprehensible or not.

[french frank]

There really doesn't seem to be any alternative than to just listen to the words as written/delivered, whether audible, comprehensible or not.

And hhwy not? And do enough homework beforehand too?

[vinteuil]

Which text readers would then need a torch (flash light) to read!
There really doesn't seem to be any alternative than to just listen to the words as written/delivered, whether audible, comprehensible or not.

... well of course there is.

In the early days of opera there was no switch to turn off electric lighting - the hall lighting (candles, oil, whatever) remained lit throughout - and copies of the libretti &c were available beforehand. People could read the texts as they watched and listened.

(I accept that the ideal is to know the opera in detail before you attend. This may take some time... )