Grumble Thread

[french frank]

I went for the "remember me" option as I'm the only one using the PC

I didn't know there was computer version. I can never find a 'Remember me' option for my phone apps. This morning BBC news unusually asked me to sign in (on the phone) but I just clicked 'Not now, dear' and it went away.

[Nick Armstrong]

facial recognition

Ah true, maybe that was an option requiring a photo.

As usual I dismissed it without a second thought

[oddoneout]

I didn't know there was computer version. I can never find a 'Remember me' option for my phone apps. This morning BBC news unusually asked me to sign in (on the phone) but I just clicked 'Not now, dear' and it went away.

A box popped up/pops up on various sites that need me to use a password. I haven't made use of it across the board, bank details for instance are for me to remember. It's all Google I imagine, even if it doesn't say so, but I am resigned to a certain amount of snooping and cross linking of harvested information. As I don't have a suitable phone for such things I don't know how it works for them.

[Pulcinella]

Smartphone access to NHS app can also be via fingerprint detection or facial recognition.

I hadn't realised that, so thanks for the prompt.
Now done.
But I still didn't respond to today's message asking me to rate my experience yesterday, getting my flu and Covid jabs.

[french frank]

Smartphone access to NHS app can also be via fingerprint detection or facial recognition.

Yes, I do use fingerprint recognition when offered the option and it usually goes straight through.

[LMcD]

I can’t be bothered, so I print out a request for my prescription, drive a few miles to put it in the box at the surgery, then try to collect the prescription ia few days later. Sometimes it’s there - sometimes it’s gone to another pharmacy. I have also tried dropping repeat prescriptions back at the pharmacy, but that then appears to take longer as the method seems -as far as I can tell- to be that the paper is transferred back to the surgery- about eight miles away- then a doctor reviews and signs it - then the paperwork is returned back to the pharmacy a day or two later. I often check with a phone call to see if the paperwork or meds have arrived at the pharmacy, with about a 60% success rate.

Both the pharmacy and the surgery have computers which “know” about my prescription, but automating the authorisation process up here in the wilds seems a challenge too far.

I don’t really mind too much, as it keeps me active and provides employment to van drivers, and I get to talk to people!

It takes longer for a prescription to travel electronically from my GP's PC to the pharmacy 15 yards away in the same building and for the pharmacy to then process it than it does for the good folk in Leeds to receive and process my order and deliver my medication to my door. I can always telephone them if there's a delay or other problem, but that's never been necessary so far.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is really weird!

A letter addressed to The Resident arrived here yesterday from the Office for National Statistics selecting me, or rather the addressee, for an "important study" covering "a range of topics, including work, retirement, higher education, unemployment and looking after the family or home". I (the unnamed Resident) can get in touch with the interviewer online via a code which is given. The study asks "questions" - of what kind are not hinted in any way - "about everybody in the household, who must be kept in the picture. A £25 voucher is enclosed for a range of shopping outlets, with a further £25 offered on completion of the study.

Firstly, a link to how I was selected gives no information other than what the studies are and how and for what/whom in general terms they are used.

Secondly it was addressed to The Resident, not to me, so is that the consequence of some permissive lapse on my part that allowed the Council to hand on my email address to "affiliated organisations" I might be prepared to fill out questionnaires for, of which I have no memory?

Thirdly there is no "household" here - only me, assuming the definition of household to be a group of cohabiting people with a Head thereof.

Fourth, nowhere does it state in the letter that my involvement in the study is optional, not compulsory. What happens if I refuse?

[oddoneout]

This is really weird!

A letter addressed to The Resident arrived here yesterday from the Office for National Statistics selecting me, or rather the addressee, for an "important study" covering "a range of topics, including work, retirement, higher education, unemployment and looking after the family or home". I (the unnamed Resident) can get in touch with the interviewer online via a code which is given. The study asks "questions" - of what kind are not hinted in any way - "about everybody in the household, who must be kept in the picture. A £25 voucher is enclosed for a range of shopping outlets, with a further £25 offered on completion of the study.

Firstly, a link to how I was selected gives no information other than what the studies are and how and for what/whom in general terms they are used.

Secondly it was addressed to The Resident, not to me, so is that the consequence of some permissive lapse on my part that allowed the Council to hand on my email address to "affiliated organisations" I might be prepared to fill out questionnaires for, of which I have no memory?

Thirdly there is no "household" here - only me, assuming the definition of household to be a group of cohabiting people with a Head thereof.

Fourth, nowhere does it state in the letter that my involvement in the study is optional, not compulsory. What happens if I refuse?

I think it might be this?

https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/findingyourstudy/playmypart#about-the-study

At first I thought you meant a physical letter in which case "The Resident" is simply a way to get a response from a residence that fits the criteria for the study. If it was an online contact then yes I imagine that at some point you have indicated willingness, or not said no, to be contacted for such purposes - have you done such a study before? In the first case the council won't have been involved, in the second they won't have handed on your email address, but perhaps might have included the question in a communication, although I would have thought it a risky strategy for them.
Household can just mean the house or equivalent and its occupant/s, not necessarily a family or group of occupants, so it can be a single person household.

[Pulcinella]

We had a spate of these absolutely pointless surveys (so bad that I actually wrote back and queried the premise of some of the questions, and got an email of thanks back), but we took the money (and in one instance a shopping bag), though I think it was only £10.

Have some fun: fill it in and respond as absurdly as you think fit to their ridiculous question!

[Dave2002]

I think it might be this?
https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/infor...bout-the-study

Curious that it appears to be administered [at least partly] by an office in Northern Ireland, yet the only non English language option is Welsh. There are Gaelic speakers in Scotland and Ireland I believe.

[Petrushka]

We had a spate of these absolutely pointless surveys (so bad that I actually wrote back and queried the premise of some of the questions, and got an email of thanks back), but we took the money (and in one instance a shopping bag), though I think it was only £10.

Have some fun: fill it in and respond as absurdly as you think fit to their ridiculous question!

I, too, had a spate of these a few months ago and it was £10 in my case as well. I spent the money on books, of which you can never have too many. It was a pity they didn't want my views for more surveys as I liked the idea of getting free books.

[oddoneout]

We had a spate of these absolutely pointless surveys (so bad that I actually wrote back and queried the premise of some of the questions, and got an email of thanks back), but we took the money (and in one instance a shopping bag), though I think it was only £10.

Have some fun: fill it in and respond as absurdly as you think fit to their ridiculous question!

I had one in 2020 and the questions were particularly ridiculous. They were intended to get some aspect of the effect of Covid on those in work, but the questions had been cut and pasted(not very well)into a generic q'nnaire by someone who clearly had virtually no knowledge of employment matters beyond 9-5, Mon-Fri office based salaried work. As there was no N/A or other opt-out tick box for the questions, I couldn't do other than fill in erroneous information for that part of the survey - choosing the least wrong of the options given - as casual staff at a visitor attraction with no furlough, no WFH option etc.
The shopping voucher was an email attachment and when I asked for a "real" one as I had no printer or smartphone I was met with rather an unpleasant reaction, even after I pointed out that there was no prior indication it would be a digital voucher. I did eventually get it some months later, when I had given up on it.
I did send on my concerns about how accurate the results would be given that my case wouldn't be the only one where the assumed employment model wasn't applicable, nor the only person to be unable to use a digital voucher, but didn't have a response beyond thanks for my feedback.

[LMcD]

This is really weird!

A letter addressed to The Resident arrived here yesterday from the Office for National Statistics selecting me, or rather the addressee, for an "important study" covering "a range of topics, including work, retirement, higher education, unemployment and looking after the family or home". I (the unnamed Resident) can get in touch with the interviewer online via a code which is given. The study asks "questions" - of what kind are not hinted in any way - "about everybody in the household, who must be kept in the picture. A £25 voucher is enclosed for a range of shopping outlets, with a further £25 offered on completion of the study.

Firstly, a link to how I was selected gives no information other than what the studies are and how and for what/whom in general terms they are used.

Secondly it was addressed to The Resident, not to me, so is that the consequence of some permissive lapse on my part that allowed the Council to hand on my email address to "affiliated organisations" I might be prepared to fill out questionnaires for, of which I have no memory?

Thirdly there is no "household" here - only me, assuming the definition of household to be a group of cohabiting people with a Head thereof.

Fourth, nowhere does it state in the letter that my involvement in the study is optional, not compulsory. What happens if I refuse?

You could always deny that you ever received it. 'What letter would that be, then?'

[Old Grumpy]

Article in today's Observer about empty schools : "The Rookhope primary school in Weardale, off the Northumberland coast..." - honestly!!

Why can't metropolitan journalists check their facts before writing this crap - Rookhope is in inland County Durham and is about 52km from the nearest point on the Northumberland Coast (Seaton Sluice) as the crow flies!

[Serial_Apologist]

I think it might be this?

https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/findingyourstudy/playmypart#about-the-study

At first I thought you meant a physical letter in which case "The Resident" is simply a way to get a response from a residence that fits the criteria for the study. If it was an online contact then yes I imagine that at some point you have indicated willingness, or not said no, to be contacted for such purposes - have you done such a study before? In the first case the council won't have been involved, in the second they won't have handed on your email address, but perhaps might have included the question in a communication, although I would have thought it a risky strategy for them.
Household can just mean the house or equivalent and its occupant/s, not necessarily a family or group of occupants, so it can be a single person household.

It is a physical letter - arrived in the official brown envelope.