Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Paddywhack]

22 minutes ago, Genie said:

Had to pay through the nose for a UK holiday in August.

I’m quite looking forward to it, but also feels a bit like I’ve had my pants pulled down. 

I'm going to center parcs in July.

I think I accidently clicked some kind of charity button when booking it because I seem to be paying for another 4 or 5 families holidays as well. 

[brommy]

11 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Our Birmingham office is in Bromsgrove.

Has anyone asked why it’s not your ‘Bromsgrove office’ in Bromsgrove? I’m curious if it’s relevant your customers know it’s your ‘middle of England’ office as using ‘Birmingham’ would obviously indicate to more people than using the true ‘Bromsgrove office’.

Other than a B60 or B61 postcode (East or West side of the pre-bypass A38 and presumably for postal administration purposes only), Bromsgrove is definitely Worcestershire and with separation from the South Birmingham suburbs provided by the protected status Lickey Hills, I assume it will remain in Worcestershire for generations to come.

Does your business include ‘Worcestershire’ and ‘Birmingham office’ in your official address? For example -

Chrisp65 Ltd.

Birmingham Office,

New Road,

Bromsgrove,

Worcestershire,

B60 1AB.

That would seem odd - almost like Birmingham is in Worcestershire!

 

 

[Mark Albrighton]

4 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Dawley and to a lesser extent Broseley (depends on where you are from in Telford) has always been the punchline to any joke referring to the slightly slack jawed inhabitants of Telford. My wife says as I am from Donnington I have no room to talk. 

Been a while since I set foot in Dawley, but I think Donnington is a bit nicer so I reckon you’re alright there. Brookside is another whose reputation precedes it.

Broseley is a funny one, I’ve heard the occasional dubious thing about it but I think it’s quite nice in places. Really good park and open space for the kids anyway.

[Seat68]

13 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Been a while since I set foot in Dawley, but I think Donnington is a bit nicer so I reckon you’re alright there. Brookside is another whose reputation precedes it.

Broseley is a funny one, I’ve heard the occasional dubious thing about it but I think it’s quite nice in places. Really good park and open space for the kids anyway.

Agreed. To me Broseley always was a good place to live. I think its Dawley people doing whataboutery. 

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Had to pay through the nose for a UK holiday in August.

I’m quite looking forward to it, but also feels a bit like I’ve had my pants pulled down. 

 

55 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I'm going to center parcs in July.

I think I accidently clicked some kind of charity button when booking it because I seem to be paying for another 4 or 5 families holidays as well. 

I'm just not even going to bother. It sucks, but I can't be paying these sorts of prices. Will just do some more of the North Worcestershire Path and a couple of day trips to Barmouth I imagine.

[HanoiVillan]

12 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Our Birmingham office is in Bromsgrove.

 

12 hours ago, sidcow said:

No way is Tamworth Birmingham. Would be like trying to claim Redditch or Bromsgrove.  Too much open countryside is the distinction. 

Obviously there is no green gap (in the main) to The Black Country so that's a hard border.  But anywhere else where you don't cross open countryside to get to it is fair game. 

FWIW I agree that Bromsgrove isn't Birmingham - clearly Worcestershire - but I don't know that 'open countryside' is the reason why. If you drive down the A38, there's about 1km which isn't developed on at least one side (between Rubery and the M5 roundabout). Otherwise it's developed all the way.

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, brommy said:

Has anyone asked why it’s not your ‘Bromsgrove office’ in Bromsgrove? I’m curious if it’s relevant your customers know it’s your ‘middle of England’ office as using ‘Birmingham’ would obviously indicate to more people than using the true ‘Bromsgrove office’.

Other than a B60 or B61 postcode (East or West side of the pre-bypass A38 and presumably for postal administration purposes only), Bromsgrove is definitely Worcestershire and with separation from the South Birmingham suburbs provided by the protected status Lickey Hills, I assume it will remain in Worcestershire for generations to come.

Does your business include ‘Worcestershire’ and ‘Birmingham office’ in your official address? For example -

Chrisp65 Ltd.

Birmingham Office,

New Road,

Bromsgrove,

Worcestershire,

B60 1AB.

That would seem odd - almost like Birmingham is in Worcestershire!

 

 

 

There is a perceived need with some purchasers of our services that we need to be ‘local’ to the work or to their office. For many Clients the invention of the personal motor vehicle is yet to truly register, never mind the advent of zoom and teams. 

Those same purchasers would have problems knowing where Lickey End was, or Forest Hill, or Dinas Powys. So, on tenders and letterheads we basically have to state ‘offices top, middle and bottom’, but can’t say that, so we say ‘Cardiff London Birmingham Edinburgh’. Purchasers then feel comfortable that they could risk giving us a job in Croydon or Coventry. I know that’s dumb, you know that’s dumb, it’s how it’s been proven to work.

The actual specific addresses are then correct, if some crazy person was to actually post us something.

London is the main issue, it appears to be difficult to convince Clients in London that you could possibly do their work if you don’t have an office in London. So, we have a London address, and hey presto, we get work in London. It’s a glorified postbox. We have switched it on, and switched it off, we get zero interest when we don’t show a London address. Nobody ever queries that whatever office they contact, it’s a 90% chance someone with a South Wales accent will rock up to the meeting. But they would never ever consider contacting someone in Cardiff, to do some work in Finchley. 

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by chrisp65

[brommy]

@chrisp65thanks for the detailed reply. Interesting and shouldn’t be necessary but 100% see that it is.

[Nath182]

56 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Agreed. To me Broseley always was a good place to live. I think its Dawley people doing whataboutery. 

Broseley is better known for it's 6 fingered & web-toe'd inhabitants than being a dodgy area tbf.

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

FWIW I agree that Bromsgrove isn't Birmingham - clearly Worcestershire - but I don't know that 'open countryside' is the reason why. If you drive down the A38, there's about 1km which isn't developed on at least one side (between Rubery and the M5 roundabout). Otherwise it's developed all the way.

Not exactly worth an argument but I personally wouldn't class a single road with houses on it with nothing but countryside behind them as built up.     A glance on google maps shows there are swathes of countryside between Rednal and Bromsgrove.

Most of the A5 has houses on it all the way between Tamworth and Nuneaton but you wouldn't class them as one single built up area.  Country roads can have houses too!

[It's Your Round]

1 hour ago, Nath182 said:

Broseley is better known for it's 6 fingered & web-toe'd inhabitants than being a dodgy area tbf.

That’s what I’d always known it for, ‘those people’ from the other side of the river. But then I grew up in Little Dawley and the locals were biased. 

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Not exactly worth an argument but I personally wouldn't class a single road with houses on it with nothing but countryside behind them as built up.     A glance on google maps shows there are swathes of countryside between Rednal and Bromsgrove.

Most of the A5 has houses on it all the way between Tamworth and Nuneaton but you wouldn't class them as one single built up area.  Country roads can have houses too!

Fair point!

[HanoiVillan]

Probably done this on here before, but my job requires me to be typing the word 'paragraph' many times per day, but I absolutely cannot type the word 'paragraph' without making multiple mistakes and having to go back and correct them. Just can't do it.

[sidcow]

14 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Probably done this on here before, but my job requires me to be typing the word 'paragraph' many times per day, but I absolutely cannot type the word 'paragraph' without making multiple mistakes and having to go back and correct them. Just can't do it.

It amazes me how frequently I mistype words so badly that spellcheck doesn't have the foggiest idea what I was trying to write

[ender4]

19 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Probably done this on here before, but my job requires me to be typing the word 'paragraph' many times per day, but I absolutely cannot type the word 'paragraph' without making multiple mistakes and having to go back and correct them. Just can't do it.

I do this with “the” all the time.   

I always write “teh” and then have to go back and correct it.

[chrisp65]

We’ve had AA recovery for years. Originally because we had ropey cars, then because we did loads of miles, more recently peace of mind. I’m away a fair bit so if the other car gets a puncture or fails to start whilst I’m away, we had cover. 

But the cost has been escalating something silly and every year I think, I must do something about this. So I’ve phoned them and been very civil, and pointed out that our cover is getting expensive and I’d seen on their website the same level of cover was basically half the price.

As expected, the nice lady told me that was an introductory offer, so I wasn’t eligible as I’ve been with them for 20 years. I (genuinely) politely pointed out that was a little off and counter intuitive as it meant I’d be forced to leave on principle. She said she could see what I was getting at, but there was nothing she could do... and did I want to pay to renew! I’ve said no, close it. 

I don’t know if I’m more annoyed that they couldn’t offer a deal for an existing customer, or that it’s taken me so long to get around to closing it when I haven’t called them out in a decade.

I guess they’ve worked out that most of their customer base either just pay up without a thought, or huff n puff for a few days, and then pay up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AvfcRigo82]

1 minute ago, chrisp65 said:

We’ve had AA recovery for years. Originally because we had ropey cars, then because we did loads of miles, more recently peace of mind. I’m away a fair bit so if the other car gets a puncture or fails to start whilst I’m away, we had cover. 

But the cost has been escalating something silly and every year I think, I must do something about this. So I’ve phoned them and been very civil, and pointed out that our cover is getting expensive and I’d seen on their website the same level of cover was basically half the price.

As expected, the nice lady told me that was an introductory offer, so I wasn’t eligible as I’ve been with them for 20 years. I (genuinely) politely pointed out that was a little off and counter intuitive as it meant I’d be forced to leave on principle. She said she could see what I was getting at, but there was nothing she could do... and did I want to pay to renew! I’ve said no, close it. 

I don’t know if I’m more annoyed that they couldn’t offer a deal for an existing customer, or that it’s taken me so long to get around to closing it when I haven’t called them out in a decade.

I guess they’ve worked out that most of their customer base either just pay up without a thought, or huff n puff for a few days, and then pay up.

Leave, then in a month or so sign up again and become a "new customer" and get the same cover for half the price.    

 

You're right though, it is ridiculous not to look after loyal customers.

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

We’ve had AA recovery for years. Originally because we had ropey cars, then because we did loads of miles, more recently peace of mind. I’m away a fair bit so if the other car gets a puncture or fails to start whilst I’m away, we had cover. 

But the cost has been escalating something silly and every year I think, I must do something about this. So I’ve phoned them and been very civil, and pointed out that our cover is getting expensive and I’d seen on their website the same level of cover was basically half the price.

As expected, the nice lady told me that was an introductory offer, so I wasn’t eligible as I’ve been with them for 20 years. I (genuinely) politely pointed out that was a little off and counter intuitive as it meant I’d be forced to leave on principle. She said she could see what I was getting at, but there was nothing she could do... and did I want to pay to renew! I’ve said no, close it. 

I don’t know if I’m more annoyed that they couldn’t offer a deal for an existing customer, or that it’s taken me so long to get around to closing it when I haven’t called them out in a decade.

I guess they’ve worked out that most of their customer base either just pay up without a thought, or huff n puff for a few days, and then pay up.

Hate how customers are punished for loyalty in this country, and everyone acts as if it's normal and no big deal, to the point that there are people out there coaching customers how to get deals out of suppliers.

Is it genuinely like this everywhere? Feels like 'rip off Britain' to me, but maybe I'm just naive.

[Genie]

1 minute ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Leave, then in a month or so sign up again and become a "new customer" and get the same cover for half the price.    

 

You're right though, it is ridiculous not to look after loyal customers.

Or get cover in the wife’s name.

[turvontour]

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

I do this with “the” all the time.   

I always write “teh” and then have to go back and correct it.

Form instead of from is the one I struggle with.