Member Since: 04 Oct 2016
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 2556
Got swamped by a cyclist whilst crossing the road this morning. Lights changed. The middle age entitled woman made an absolute meal of it, going for me, clipping in, clipping out, stumbling and then shouting at me....(I'm 6ft 5in and make Reacher seem small being an ex rower, Royal so not sure how she thought she could ride through me).
I told her to go on if it meant so much to her but she fumbled and couldn't clip back in and had to pad across the front of me. As she was a rather entitled tubby cyclist I honed in for some human advice that got the socialist look / glare of absolute anger face to face ......... I suspect off to the Council or University. Angry woman.........
8th Jan 2024 10:32 am
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26755
astonbuilder wrote:
is it all chewing gum? We have, what looks like chewing gum, all over our paving slabs at home. Turns out its berries and/or the berries as sh@t by birds. Really hard to remove, even with a jet-wash.....
I’m pretty sure it is CG. The fact that it’s mainly concentrated outside pubs and at bus stops makes it more likely.
8th Jan 2024 1:39 pm
astonbuilder
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8101
I had an email from Tesco home insurance saying mum’s insurance due for renewal and it said payment would automatically be taken on 8th Feb, blah, blah, blah. We’ve had issues like this before and have resorted in the past to my sister or wife pretending to be mum on the phone…..
Last year I did a price search and found somewhere cheaper than Tesco and phoned to say ‘mum’ was moving so not to auto renew and got all the about needing to talk to mum, her account, etc. despite emails to me (in my name!) and my bank account paying the bill…
In end the saving was only about £10-15 so decided to just leave it. That wasn’t an option this year obviously.
Rang them up and waited 45 effing minutes on hold with muzak and “your call is important to us” clap-trap, grrrrrrr. Finally, a handler comes on and I say I want to cancel the auto renew on my mum’s policy and immediately the usual “is she with you now”, “can she not ring us”, etc. started. I, very politely explained mum no longer owned the property, was in a care home with dementia and likely not long left to live and as it was my email they write to and my bank account that pays it all I was asking was the auto renew to be cancelled so the policy would lapse, I’d already given them best part of six months premium as knew this issue would occur so best to just leave it to time out.
Got the, expected, GDPR and privacy guff spouted from ‘The Script’. I asked to speak to supervisor or, better still, someone in the “when a person dies” department if they could check their process flow and pass me on as that was a better area to handle this issue. Without ‘power of attorney’ they said not interested, mum would have to handle it.
I pointed out that I answered all the security questions, could tell them the date and the payment amount, ‘electronic’ receipt reference, what account it came from, what card was used, anything they asked I had the answer. I wasn’t changing any policy, wasn’t trying to get anything, Tesco had no ‘loss’ or compromise, just stop the process that meant money was taken from my account!
When they said that was not possible, I asked if they would call me back but that I would provide them the care home number and they could ask to speak to mum and “good luck with that”! They actually considered that as an option until I pointed out they’d get nowhere, and it still wouldn’t stop money being taken. I asked that if they weren’t already recording this call they should do as my next step was, emailing the CEO directly.
Still relatively calm but with added sarcasm I spouted off the CEO’s name and email address and said that I would be repeating what had just taken place on the phone.
I then suggested that why don’t they pause taking the payment and write to mum with one of their usual threatening type letters that if “no reply, then no insurance”, etc.
The daft cow actually said “but you said your mum no longer lives there and has sold the house”…….. EXACTLY, FFS!!!!!
It’s been left that they won’t take the money out of my account as I would argue that is fraud at the highest level, including their CEO, my MP and any social media I could get onto that Tesco had a presence given they had been informed mum no longer owns the property and her new forwarding address was offered.
They will write to mum at her original address and “if they don’t hear back” the policy will lapse…….. There you go, wasn’t that difficult at all really was it.
Boils my p*ss!!!!
8th Jan 2024 6:08 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72977
pjm-84 wrote:
make Reacher seem small
I’m assuming you don’t mean the Tom Cruise version.
8th Jan 2024 6:55 pm
robsmith
Member Since: 02 Sep 2007
Location: Staffordshire
Posts: 2396
The "40mphers"...
I followed one today:
From a set of traffic lights at 40 mph in a 40 mph speed limit. No problem.
Enter a national speed limit zone (very clearly marked), they speed up to 41mph and continue on their way.
Turn right onto another national speed limit road, they now proceed at 39mph.
Another set of lights and we have to stop (sprogs all over the place so not much choice really)
The speed limit drops to 30mph just before the lights. They continue at something more like 40mph than 30mph (guestimate from the rate they pulled away from me).
Another right turn (they have to wait for traffic coming the other way and I catch up with them).
Still in a 30 mph area, lots of "low control" kids on wide pavement, 40mpher continues at speed greater than 30mph.
Turn left into same place as I'm going.
I enquire "What's the speed limit along ***** Road"?
"40 mph" is their response. I hasn't been 40mph for over ten years so I reply "You should go to SpecSavers then".
They humph off to a house/shop along the road hopefully never to be seen again until they've been to SpecSavers.Rob Smith
Silver rools OK
9th Jan 2024 3:56 pm
pjm-84
Member Since: 04 Oct 2016
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 2556
DSL wrote:
pjm-84 wrote:
make Reacher seem small
I’m assuming you don’t mean the Tom Cruise version.
Lol....I think most make TC look small.
9th Jan 2024 4:18 pm
James W
Member Since: 27 Mar 2008
Location: Riyadh, KSA
Posts: 3077
HMRC
Tax Return done well in time for 22/23 tax year early Dec , just a couple of grand or so to pay so it falls under being reclaimed under my Tax Code / PAYE.
Firstly get increasingly firm emails and/or SMS asking me to complete my tax return on time, even though it's done. Still getting them now.
As of Jan start getting payment chasers on email and SMS. Ignore them assuming 'already paid'
Now.... get a payment due now letter with a payment slip on the bottom!
To avoid this last year, I just paid the due amount outright. And they sent it back to me and said they wanted to take it PAYE!
useless - absolutely useless organisation.D4 XS, gone, much loved, never forgotten
2018 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography - Gone to someone with less sense and more time to enjoy it
2016 Toyota Hilux Invincible - Liberating experience
10th Jan 2024 12:51 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72977
Try phoning them. Only took 1hr & 20 mins for SWMBO to get through to a humanoid last week. Quite quick for HMRC, we thought.
Last edited by DSL on 10th Jan 2024 4:41 pm. Edited 1 time in total
10th Jan 2024 1:04 pm
James W
Member Since: 27 Mar 2008
Location: Riyadh, KSA
Posts: 3077
On hold currently - 52 mins so farD4 XS, gone, much loved, never forgotten
2018 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography - Gone to someone with less sense and more time to enjoy it
2016 Toyota Hilux Invincible - Liberating experience
10th Jan 2024 1:20 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72977
You’re getting there. Just make sure your phone has enough juice in it and you don’t hit the red END button by mistake.
10th Jan 2024 4:42 pm
Farmer Chalk
Member Since: 07 Mar 2013
Location: Independent Republic of Kentishshire.
Posts: 4190
You think you have issues…
First of all let me explain that I am the simplest equation for tax reasons.. I get a service pension and I am currently employed.. thus I only have two income streams both PAYE.
I have to complete a tax return and I declare everything .. I have no other income, no shares, no dividends, no properties, etc etc.. thus super simple..
However this year I have had 11 different tax codes in 12 months. In December without warning they put me on an emergency tax code and thus removed an additional £1000 from my pay.. thus Xmas month I was put in another massive financial hellhole over trying to deal with the Xmas costings on a huge shortfall.
They did exactly the same thing last year and it financially ruined me then..
what made this worse was that in January 2023 I wrote to HMRC explained that I would prefer to pay more tax per month via paye and then treceive a rebate in January.. they said this couldn’t be done until my p11D was released in April. Thus when it arrived I immediately sent a copy of it with an accompanying letter. Asking to take any tax due via PAYE over the next FY.
Speaking to them at Xmas after submitting my SA they decided I owed them £4K! So through no fault of mine, having declared both earnings , they consistently applied incorrect codings and now want to charge me interest on the repayment..
However because you can’t win I agreed and reluctantly gave them my bank details. A cheery phone all ended with the chap saying my tax code will amend again..
A couple of weeks later I received another message from HMRC to state my coding had changed. I decided to check only to find it was another emergency tax code whereby they now needed to take an emergency £560 extra per month. I duly rang them again to state that I had just arranged a payment plan to which they could see… oh no Sir this is not for 22-23. This is for 23-24.. and is additional to what you have already agreed..
Wtf…
When i challenged all of this saying I wrote a letter requesting this in June to be taken PAYE they agreed. They stated my letter was opened on the 6th June and actioned on the 11th November… wtf again…
So I continue to pay interest for their total incompetence….
10th Jan 2024 6:57 pm
astonbuilder
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8101
not helped by them all working from home. Piece in the paper yesterday said something like 83% of them are WFH at least two days a week......
Tales of woe of being handed 'between departments' that was actually the husband WFH in bedroom handing over to wife WFH in the dining room, another putting call on hold to change nappy, household background noise distractions, etc.
It's OK thought as HMRC say 'most' calls answered in 25 minutes and 80% of people say they are 'happy' with the service......
11th Jan 2024 8:34 am
RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13400
robsmith wrote:
The "40mphers"...
I followed one today:
Them and "pull out in front of you requiring you to brake only to then crawl along" types.
Had one yesterday - I'm doing doing 60 on a 60 road, sunny and dry so no visibility issues. Transit-type van pulls out about 100m in front of me requiring some braking, then even more braking as I realised he wasn't accelerating - sat at 20mph rather than getting up to even a modicum of reasonable speed. Once I'm able to safely overtake, I give him a full-on Paddington Bear stare and he looks across at me in total surprise that there's anyone else on the road.
Brain-dead numpties. Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
11th Jan 2024 10:02 am
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: Wiltshire
Posts: 14239
Why? There was a bin behind where they were parked!
Click image to enlarge
New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
11th Jan 2024 10:56 am
HairyFool
Member Since: 04 Jan 2023
Location: Essex
Posts: 616
Because of pensions I have 5 different income tax streams. After nearly 2 years of them trying to take a bit of tax from each one, screwed up as each one applies an annual increment on 3 different anniversaries I had had enough.
I suggested they apply all my tax free allowance on one single pension and charge the rest at basic rate. Any increment means no changes needed.
I am now waiting for next April to see if this setup survives the tax year turnover A visitor from the dark side, my other vehicle is an MG5 EV
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about needing to talk to mum, her account, etc. despite emails to me (in my name!) and my bank account paying the bill…
