GRIPES

[Bruce]

Robo debt is still out there and another cock up to increase the suicide rate. I'm ready to quit which Bank.  Who can you trust? NO ONE. Nev

 

Many years ago I quit that bank. They had just given a $20 million golden handshake to somebody, and I realized that the money was actually customer's money. Not only that, the sum could have been 200 million.

 

The best investment I could have done would have been to buy something...  lumps of gold, real estate, a farm.

 

These investments mean that you don't have to trust "managers".

 

 

[red750]

A friend was with "that Bank'. Took a cash advance on his credit card, and was charged cash advance interest on the entire balance until he paid it off. Repaid it in of hundreds of $0.01  deposits over a couple of days, with "I hate XxxxBank" in the description field of each one.

 

 

[red750]

Went to Westpac to make a payment into my credit card and presented my CBA debit card to transfer from. They said "We can't handle that." If I had walked outside, I  could have withdrawn from their ATM. I went to a nearby Coles, purchased a few items and withdrew cash from the checkout. Went back to Westpac and said "Can you handle cash?" Teller said "What do you mean?" I said "You couldn't transfer money from my CBA Keycard, I had to withdraw cash at Coles." She replied, "It's an agreement between the major banks." Agreement - more like a cartel if you ask me. I said, "Funny, if I went out to your ATM, I could withdraw cash from it on this card." As I walked out I said "You can handle 23 million illegal transactions, but not a small transfer from Commbank."

 

 

[red750]

I had to take my wife into Melbourne today to sign some papers. First time in the CBD for over 5 years. God, what a nightmare! Never again. The traffic is horrendous, and there's not a street that isn't being dug up, having construction work going on blocking lanes, or streets closed altogether. Took twice as long as it should have, and you have to travel twice as far as necessary. Thank heaven I don't work in town any more, it would kill me.

 

 

[spacesailor]

SO !

 

Don't come to Sydney. not only dug up, but rail-lines all over the place.

 

who but pollies & bureaucrats would be happy with that.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[spacesailor]

There has to be a kick back somewhere !. No shop owner  or house owner would benefit from having a train whizzing past their property, whether in the city or elsewhere.

 

how many shops adorn our large rail line,  only at the station area would the value of land increase.

 

spacesailor

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I had to take my wife into Melbourne today to sign some papers. First time in the CBD for over 5 years. God, what a nightmare! Never again. The traffic is horrendous, and there's not a street that isn't being dug up, having construction work going on blocking lanes, or streets closed altogether. Took twice as long as it should have, and you have to travel twice as far as necessary. Thank heaven I don't work in town any more, it would kill me.

 

We had that a lot in the UK, too.. .Works being done all over the place for trafiic "calming" or whatever; even in areas that hadn't seen an accident for years. I recall wondering if I was being too cycnical in thinking of the c. 80p/litre tax was the, pardon the pun, driving force for this - after all the more fuel you burn doing nothing, the more the taxman takes. Sure enough, it came to light some time after, the councils were offered kick backs to slow everyone down - not for safety - but because of the tax take.

 

I know the current Premier is on a massive infrastructure build program and doesn't have the same intention (after all, the taxes go to the Federal government)... But.. you never know!

 

 

[Yenn]

Rural Qld is just the same. South of here we had 9 months of roadworks with speed restrictions. All the work could have been done in a couple of months by a competent contractor.

 

It is still ongoing North of here and God alone knows when it will end. between us and Gladstone there is a length of about two Km which has been widened to 4 lanes and has flat country both sides of it. No lines to show where the road goes at night and it has been like that for months. Adjacent to that they are turning the roadside into a quarry and have reflective markers marching away up the hills making a driver wonder if there is a side road there.

 

 

[old man emu]

That Amazon thing is not much good. I was watching an American video on Youtube and the presenter was showing a few small tools costing less then $US30 that would be useful in the workshop. I went to Amazon.co.au looking for anything similar, but there was nothing worthwhile in the price range and similar tools were much, much dearer.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Yes I was looking on Amazon today for a long ball-ended 8mm hex socket.  I think they were going to post it from the USA.

 

 

[onetrack]

Every time I look on Amazon for something, it's "out of stock". I think sellers are deserting Amazon in droves because the arsehole who owns Amazon, treats sellers worse than slaves.

 

The amount of sellers who have had their accounts suspended by Amazon, with no ability to argue their case for re-instatement of their account, is the worst type of authoritarian corporate behaviour, you could ever encounter.

 

Amazon are absolutely ruthless, they act as a kangaroo court with no right of appeal, and they don't give any seller any rights or entitlements. The word of the Amazon Gods is Law.

 

The Amazon sellers Agreement is totally biased in Amazons favour, and basically denies any rights to sellers. In the EU, they took Anti-Trust action against Amazon to make them give sellers 30 days notice of account suspension.

 

The Amazon corporate selling model will self-destruct, because of its ruthless, Amazon-centric approach, towards dealing with its sellers. 

 

I wouldn't be in the least surprised to see some aggrieved, gun-toting Amazon seller put a bullet in Bezos, he's such a ruthless arsehole.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/amazon-sellers-suspended-no-notice-policy-2019-9?r=US&IR=T

 

 

[old man emu]

Amazon are absolutely ruthless

 

But isn't that the traditional American way of doing business? 

 

In God we trust, everyone else pays cash.

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Amazon are absolutely ruthless, they act as a kangaroo court with no right of appeal, and they don't give any seller any rights or entitlements. The word of the Amazon Gods is Law. !

 

Sounds like RAA & CASA.

 

The same with all monopolies.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

That Amazon ruthlessness does have a positivie outcome - for consumer outcomes. Their customer service at least for me has been beyond reproach - unlike other online retailers. I haven't had much go wrong, but when it has, it has been sorted faster than a trip back to the shops would have done. Generally, the suppliers that get booted out don't keep up to the Ts&Cs of the contract which is for them to kepp their service levels to Amazon's levels and not cost Amazon aything if it all goes wrong. They take a comission off each seller's transactions, but nowhere near a margin they would take if they were selling it themselves.

 

I came up with an idea that showed fantastic customer traction that competed with Amazon's model; problem is, the sellers' idea of after after sales customer service was atrocious. They wanted everything but accepted no responsibility for problems of their making. When I closed down the pilot, quite a few suppliers complained; my response was simple - Amazon wins because fo their customer service - it is not Amazon that is killing others - they are killing themselves.

 

 

[old man emu]

Bluddy Nora!

 

Here it is, the day after Boxing Day, and the hot cross buns still haven't been put on sale!

 

 

[onetrack]

I'll be putting an official complaint as soon as the appropriate Gubmint Dept is open again. That'll be about the 6th of January, I guess.

 

EDIT: I just mentioned this to SWMBO, and she said she saw HC buns for sale on Boxing Day. You must live in an area where deliveries have been delayed by roadworks, fires, crashes, or Jetstar strikes.

 

 

[red750]

This gripe is prompted by a comment on the Flying website re Chinese goods and posted here to avoid thread drift over there.

 

It relates to a common household utensil, the can opener. Firstly, there are those that remove the rim of the can leaving the sharp edge to cut you while removing the can contents. I refuse to use that kind. The other is the one that is supposed to remove the lid leaving the rim on the can. The lid may be disposed of in the rubbish (note I avoided using the word 'can' in its other context).

 

The most common type, available in supermarkets looks like this:

 

[ATTACH]50526._xfImport[/ATTACH]

 

The problem is that the geared wheel which is supposed to rotate the can does not engage with the rim, it just spins when you turn the handle. The cutting wheel punctures the lid of the can but goes no further. We have two of these openers at home and one at the Men's Shed, and they are all the same. Lousy when opening the beetroot can on barbeque day. The only way to remove the lid is to use the opener like tin snips.

 

[pmccarthy]

The worst product that I use is Redhead matches. You can break or flare five or ten before getting one that is useable. The same product when made in AUSTRALIA was very reliable and hardly ever broke and they lit first strike.

 

 

[onetrack]

Red, this is all you need (link below). They served us well in 'Nam. I've had the same problem as you with the Chinese openers. 

 

The only solution, if you want a full size can opener, is to go to a swap meet, and pick up a secondhand, good old, Aussie-made one.

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ex-Surplus-Army-Ration-Pack-Tin-Can-Bottle-Opener-Fred-Military-Dpdu-Dpcu-Sas-/153696574548

 

 

[nomadpete]

Aaah, we used to call the army issue device 'fred', the handle was shaped like a cute little spoon, of dubious usefulness.

 

But the tin opener always worked.

 

FRED

 

F.  (Effin)

 

R (ridiculous)

 

E. (Eating)

 

D. (Device)

 

 

[willedoo]

The problem is that the geared wheel which is supposed to rotate the can does not engage with the rim, it just spins when you turn the handle. The cutting wheel punctures the lid of the can but goes no further. We have two of these openers at home and one at the Men's Shed, and they are all the same. Lousy when opening the beetroot can on barbeque day. The only way to remove the lid is to use the opener like tin snips.

 

Peter, I've found when that happens, tilting the upper side of the opener further towards the centre of the can top helps. It seems to get more grip that way.

 

 

[nomadpete]

I find a more satisfying result from assertively chucking the damned thing as hard as possible at the cat. Especially doing this as his ass disappears over the neighbours fence.

 

 

[old man emu]

 

 

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