Grumble Thread

[Bryn]

They may well have fewer staff but it may not be due to current company staffing policies. Staff shed due to Covid haven't been that keen to come back which has a knock-on effect on staff cover for sickness among other things. https://www.ft.com/content/93736968-...5-fcd9736d37f6
Ironically Ryanair has been doing rather better as it took a different approach to the challenges of the covid shutdown. https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/...ctor-struggles

The same situation applies to other modes of public transport in the UK. It's not just industrial disputes which are causing the cancellation of journeys.

[Dave2002]

In recent weeks I've been on 3 flights, each of which involved changing planes.

Some months back we had a flight arranged with BA from Scotland to London. We had to go that way to pick up another flight for a holiday. Because we tried to avoid possible problems we booked a night in a hotel near Heathrow. Ideally we would have preferred not to fly via LHR, but that is often unavoidable.

We booked our flight to London months in advance. A few weeks before the flight, we were notified that the flight was cancelled, but we could re-route via Manchester - so we accepted that.

On the day of the flight about two and a half hours before the flight to Manchester was scheduled, we were notified that the flight to London was cancelled. "Oh - but that's OK - we can put you on the next available flight"! Yes - a day after - too late -> = Holiday ruined!

We solved the problem with very little help from BA by re-routing via Aberdeen, taking a long taxi ride to get to the plane, which was then delayed for a further couple of hours.
However, it didn't totally ruin our holiday which would have been the case if we had assumed that we could have made every connection in the first place.

The final bit of good news, was that eventually we were able to claim compensation for the problems, which initially BA tried to duck out of [quoting some obscure legistlation or "operational reasons"], but with a bit of further persuasion they eventually paid some reasonable compensation for the inconvenience.

As you mentioned though - these are first world problems - many people in poorer countries are more concerned about where their next meal is going to come from.

[Dave2002]

They may well have fewer staff but it may not be due to current company staffing policies. Staff shed due to Covid haven't been that keen to come back which has a knock-on effect on staff cover for sickness among other things. https://www.ft.com/content/93736968-...5-fcd9736d37f6
Ironically Ryanair has been doing rather better as it took a different approach to the challenges of the covid shutdown. https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/...ctor-struggles

Interesting to see Ryanair providing service for once. Also, it may not be generally known, but their engineer training and servicing is considered very good, and they often have newer aircraft than rival companies.

Re other airlines - I have seen that in the US there is a shortage of pilots, and one suggestion by a travel writer was to put 747s back into service, as even though they are less efficient, then can still shift a lot of passengers with only a few pilots, so the pilate/passenger ratio is increased. AFAIK this hasn't happened, but some A380s are now being brought back into service, whereas a few years ago these were considered uneconomic and mothballed - perhaps permanently. I'd really like to fly on an A380 at least one more time - brilliant plane - quieter inside and more comfortable than most Boeings - and some of those are appallingly noisy.

[Dave2002]

The logic is entirely geared towards getting you to buy. Once too many customers can find their way to what they actually need the opportunity to expose them to stuff they don't need but might end up buying anyway is reduced. Change the layout and you force everyone to wander past goods they wouldn't otherwise see.
There are occasions when changes in the shop's retail offer (away from all food to part non-food for instance) will necessitate changes in layout, but that will still be with an eye to making customers go past as much as possible to increase the chance of purchases.

Not quite. Getting you to buy more expensive items where some cheaper items are available in the store may also be an objective.

Some retail outlets seem to deliberately put cheaper items lower down, so that customers will "have" to buy more expensive products on accessible shelves. Not of course that I'm cynical, but I've also noticed trolleys being put in front of shelves which have cheaper items, and also putting items on lower shelves means that where stores provide cost/unit markings or other usefully relevant pricing information, these are almost impossible for anyone with eyesight like mine to read, without lying on the floor.

Sometimes they may put items higher up - which affects some people a lot more than myself.

[french frank]

Well, that's disconcerting. Just ordered ink cartridges for printer, having put the name of the company I usually buy from into google, but failed to check the url of the top hit - which looked pretty much what I was expecting to see. But my usual vendor was second on the list (both having 'Ad' in front of the link, both having paid for their top positions). So have gone through the process of buying the usual multipack and paying with PayPal without noticing who I'd bought from until I got PayPal's confirmation. But I can only complain to me about me for being careless, and it will probably be all right.

[Bryn]

Well, that's disconcerting. Just ordered ink cartridges for printer, having put the name of the company I usually buy from into google, but failed to check the url of the top hit - which looked pretty much what I was expecting to see. But my usual vendor was second on the list (both having 'Ad' in front of the link, both having paid for their top positions). So have gone through the process of buying the usual multipack and paying with PayPal without noticing who I'd bought from until I got PayPal's confirmation. But I can only complain to me about me for being careless, and it will probably be all right.

I always skip past all those starting with "Ad.".

[oddoneout]

Not quite. Getting you to buy more expensive items where some cheaper items are available in the store may also be an objective.

Some retail outlets seem to deliberately put cheaper items lower down, so that customers will "have" to buy more expensive products on accessible shelves. Not of course that I'm cynical, but I've also noticed trolleys being put in front of shelves which have cheaper items, and also putting items on lower shelves means that where stores provide cost/unit markings or other usefully relevant pricing information, these are almost impossible for anyone with eyesight like mine to read, without lying on the floor.

Sometimes they may put items higher up - which affects some people a lot more than myself.

Well it's still about buying... Yes the eyeline shelf placing is important and brands will put a lot of effort (verging on strong-arming in some cases) into getting the prime slots such as those, it's been around for a very long time.

[teamsaint]

Well it's still about buying... Yes the eyeline shelf placing is important and brands will put a lot of effort (verging on strong-arming in some cases) into getting the prime slots such as those, it's been around for a very long time.

And the retailers charge the manufacturers heavily for those slots. In many cases they charge just for stocking a line at all, which explains the enormous variety of some products, EG olive oil.

[teamsaint]

Well, that's disconcerting. Just ordered ink cartridges for printer, having put the name of the company I usually buy from into google, but failed to check the url of the top hit - which looked pretty much what I was expecting to see. But my usual vendor was second on the list (both having 'Ad' in front of the link, both having paid for their top positions). So have gone through the process of buying the usual multipack and paying with PayPal without noticing who I'd bought from until I got PayPal's confirmation. But I can only complain to me about me for being careless, and it will probably be all right.

I , somewhat reluctantly, bought a printer about a year ago with one of those pay per month deals for ink.I came with 6 months of free ink, IIRC. I ow pay £2.99 a month for 50 pages , and can roll over 3 months.
There is a 99p a month deal for 10 pages, and I guess a 3 month roll over. I wouldn't go back to paying for cartridges at those prices.

[Dave2002]

I , somewhat reluctantly, bought a printer about a year ago with one of those pay per month deals for ink.I came with 6 months of free ink, IIRC. I ow pay £2.99 a month for 50 pages , and can roll over 3 months.
There is a 99p a month deal for 10 pages, and I guess a 3 month roll over. I wouldn't go back to paying for cartridges at those prices.

Curious to know what model you have bought.

We have a cheap Epson colour inkjet, plus a Brother monochrome laser printer - obtained very cheaply. The laser printer has a fault in the scanner, but works fine as a printer.
Replacing it would be expensive, as also would trying to have it repaired [I did check ...] - so we live with it.

We still do a modicum of printing - and we need to have reasonably decent printers for bar codes etc., for orders and for airline boarding passes etc. Some older printers we had were not accurate enough for some applications.

Lastly, there are still people who use expensive colour printers. Most of us don't - but I have a mild interest in photography. I recently saw a print of one guy's photograph which was just lovely - far better than an on screen experience - but he did say that it cost a lot to produce with better quality paper and high quality Canon inks. Mostly it's not worth doing that - as most photos are not so deserving of high quality printouts, but a few are.

For interest - this was the photo - https://www.waynerobertsonphotograph...sland-of-trees

[teamsaint]

Curious to know what model you have bought.

We have a cheap Epson colour inkjet, plus a Brother monochrome laser printer - obtained very cheaply. The laser printer has a fault in the scanner, but works fine as a printer.
Replacing it would be expensive, as also would trying to have it repaired [I did check ...] - so we live with it.

We still do a modicum of printing - and we need to have reasonably decent printers for bar codes etc., for orders and for airline boarding passes etc. Some older printers we had were not accurate enough for some applications.

Lastly, there are still people who use expensive colour printers. Most of us don't - but I have a mild interest in photography. I recently saw a print of one guy's photograph which was just lovely - far better than an on screen experience - but he did say that it cost a lot to produce with better quality paper and high quality Canon inks. Mostly it's not worth doing that - as most photos are not so deserving of high quality printouts, but a few are.

For interest - this was the photo - https://www.waynerobertsonphotograph...sland-of-trees

HP 4100 . Cost about £40. Its cheap and cheerful, but very unfussy. Been quite pleased with it.

For those like you who do a bit of printing, the 10 and 50 page per month deals are worth the money I think. I haven’t needed a replacement cartridge yet.

[oddoneout]

HP 4100 . Cost about £40. Its cheap and cheerful, but very unfussy. Been quite pleased with it.

For those like you who do a bit of printing, the 10 and 50 page per month deals are worth the money I think. I haven’t needed a replacement cartridge yet.

I was looking up HP printers yesterday during one of my periodic "should I replace it" forays, as my existing one died some years ago due to the ink jets drying up from lack of regular use, but as the scanner still works and I don't now have much need to photocopy there hasn't really been much need. I think I would have run into problems trying to use alternative ink refills when the cost of HP ones became an issue so probably would have had to stop using it anyway.
It seems that there have been problems with the subscription/auto-replace aspect, but one post did make some sense in that respect. It was suggested that in fact the printer wasn't being bought so much as leased, given that the price does not reflect the actual cost of the printer, and the ink refills are in effect the lease payments, hence the difficulties of trying to alter or opt out of the package.There's something in this article which suggests that is the case https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/1...e-your-printer
The Trustpilot reviews are consistently damning, and even though I have my doubts about that site the sheer weight of numbers suggests there are problems. However as it was the subscription requirement that stopped me going ahead previously, and I see no reason to change my view on that so I'll have to hope for those times I need a copy that the local hardware store keeps its machine, or the library's much more expensive service. There used to be a brilliant copy shop in town - state of the art machines to cover all sorts of jobs, and knowledgeable staff - but the lease of the premises ended, an alternative couldn't be found and the owner wanted to retire so it closed.
Sorry TS that probably isn't very helpful - I hope you and your machine will be happy together, not all reviews I read were from folks having difficulties,there are people for whom it works fine.

[teamsaint]

I was looking up HP printers yesterday during one of my periodic "should I replace it" forays, as my existing one died some years ago due to the ink jets drying up from lack of regular use, but as the scanner still works and I don't now have much need to photocopy there hasn't really been much need. I think I would have run into problems trying to use alternative ink refills when the cost of HP ones became an issue so probably would have had to stop using it anyway.
It seems that there have been problems with the subscription/auto-replace aspect, but one post did make some sense in that respect. It was suggested that in fact the printer wasn't being bought so much as leased, given that the price does not reflect the actual cost of the printer, and the ink refills are in effect the lease payments, hence the difficulties of trying to alter or opt out of the package.There's something in this article which suggests that is the case https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/1...e-your-printer
The Trustpilot reviews are consistently damning, and even though I have my doubts about that site the sheer weight of numbers suggests there are problems. However as it was the subscription requirement that stopped me going ahead previously, and I see no reason to change my view on that so I'll have to hope for those times I need a copy that the local hardware store keeps its machine, or the library's much more expensive service. There used to be a brilliant copy shop in town - state of the art machines to cover all sorts of jobs, and knowledgeable staff - but the lease of the premises ended, an alternative couldn't be found and the owner wanted to retire so it closed.
Sorry TS that probably isn't very helpful - I hope you and your machine will be happy together, not all reviews I read were from folks having difficulties,there are people for whom it works fine.

I was quite sceptical about it all. I had an earlier version of the same HP machine and was paying approx £15/20 for cartridges.

Honestly, I can’t fault the machine or the replacement ink system. It has been pretty seamless, easy to change to cheaper tariffs ( you can’t really go wrong at 99 p a month) and the machine does a nice job.
But interesting to read about your research Odders.

[french frank]

Well, that's disconcerting. Just ordered ink cartridges for printer, having put the name of the company I usually buy from into google, but failed to check the url of the top hit - which looked pretty much what I was expecting to see. But my usual vendor was second on the list (both having 'Ad' in front of the link, both having paid for their top positions). So have gone through the process of buying the usual multipack and paying with PayPal without noticing who I'd bought from until I got PayPal's confirmation. But I can only complain to me about me for being careless, and it will probably be all right.

Off topic as usual Ordered late on Thursday and arrived today. With a free biro, I suppose because I was a new customer. And Royal Mail said they would deliver today. But, on topic: I had to stay in waiting for it.

[Dave2002]

Expired credit card details - refresh!

I have had issues about credit card refresh before, and this year I may have a few more.
A month or so I had an email from GiffGaff telling me that my credit card details would expire.

I did nothing to alter or update any details.

Recently I realised that the date had passed, but my phone still seems to be working. GiffGaff has an aggressive pricing policy if there are failures - for example if one runs out of download allowance - rather than stop - it simply bumps the price up by a huge factor - I think around 1000!!!

However, my thought was that this would probably not happen. If I didn't pay, I'd simply get no service until I bought back in, or alternatively I could switch to another provider.

But no - now I find another email from GiffGaff telling me that my latest Goody Bag has been purchased successfully.

I have had problems before - assuming with other organisations that when the credit card details expired, so would subscriptions and/or service, but some seem to be able to circumvent this. Quite frankly this is a pain - as while sometimes continued service may be desired, sometimes it is not, and is deliberate on my part.

Checking every possible service provider before and after credit card expiry dates to see whether they have done this, and are still taking funds for services no longer wanted is a real nuisance.

It is also worse with a lot of services now which are run almost exclusively online. Some providers are good and send out sensible reminders and checks, but others do not.

I have now followed this up with my credit card provider. That was a very tedious phone call, but it seems that there aren't (IMO) enough safeguards against problems like this.

If a merchant has details which are valid, but a new card is issued by the CC company, the details remain valid as there isn't a check done against the date of the CC card.
It seems that if a card is reported as Lost or Stolen then the details are changed and any roll over subscription payments will then be blocked.

Logically, therefore, as I tried to explain to the agent, anyone who wants to be sure that unexpected and continuing payments will not happen should report their card as lost or stolen - maybe at least once a year. However the agent did say she had not said that, but I just pointed out that my statement was a logical consequence of the information which she had given to me - that otherwise payments would not be blocked.

Further, if there are ongoing payments to a merchant/supplier they can be blocked by the CC card company on request - but apparently "only if the CC account holder has made attempts to contact the merchant/supplier directly to cancel any future payments." Why that should be a requirement I cannot imagine. Given that so many transactions are now done on line, that transactions may be with overseas suppliers, and that in some cases payments may be made and not noticed until later, the CC card companies are ducking out of any responsibility for issues like that.

This also happened with another company - medici.tv - which I believe is based in France. I asked for a refund for the subscription which I do not believe they should have taken, but clearly the banking mechanisms did not prevent them from taking payment, nor do they force the company to issue refunds.

I have never had good service from medici.tv, and the recent emails I have had from them are the first I can recall. In the past I have complained about the glitches in transmission, and the service level - issues which were never resolved. So it's only in the case that I have a complaint over subscriptions that they have responded, and the only answer they have provided so far is that they won't take a subscription next year. This is completely unsatisfactory to me and I feel that others should be warned.

Horses, stable doors, bolted. Terrible customer service.