What's made you grumpy today?

[The Picnic Wasp]

My parents were both heavy smokers and I worry that my then home life, public transport and working in a smoke filled office is bound to have had some effect on me.

I hate it when I detect that cigarette smell outdoors. Standing at the checkout of a Pets At Home store last night I should have been able to enjoy fresh air streaming in the wide open doors in an evening of beautiful weather. Instead, the place was contaminated by the smell of smoking. I couldn't quite believe it when I left the store that the guy was thirty or forty yards away lurking in a quiet corner. It travels so far and gets everywhere.

It really should be banned except in folks' own homes and every form of NHS help and treatment offered to addicts with the tobacco companies picking up the invoice.

[David L]

RFU/RFL picking up the tab for MND/dementia care?
McDonalds billed for obesity-related health issues?
Slippery slope

[pxr5]

As an ex-smoker myself I still love the smell of cigarette smoke (pipes and cigars even better). I could go back to it easily, but for obvious reasons I never will now. I still vape though. 

[David L]

As an ex-smoker myself I still love the smell of cigarette smoke (pipes and cigars even better). I could go back to it easily, but for obvious reasons I never will now. I still vape though. 

Vaping - soon to be identified as a major health risk.........certainly one that needs to be taxed in order to mitigate its cost to the NHS

[Slim]

Pretty awful day yesterday. The plane from Tivat was delayed by nearly two hours, partly due to an impressive thunderstorm. Most bus stations would put Terminal 2 at Tivat Airport to shame. It has two vending machines and some toilets. But we spent about 50 minutes just sitting on the plane before takeoff.

Came through immigration at Manchester quickly enough, but the little bus to take us to the car parking took about half an hour. Then there was a crash on the M6, so we were stuck in stationary traffic with the engine off for half an hour just a few miles out of Manchester. Then there was a diversion due to a road closure. Didn't get home until about 2135, and we'd left the hotel 12 hours earlier exactly.

Travelling abroad? It's just not worth it. I've promised to do another cruise next year then I'm not going to go anywhere more exotic than Wales.

[Nickslikk2112]

then I'm not going to go anywhere more exotic than Wales.

Careful Now! Down with that sort of thing!

[captainkurtz]

Since Tuesday, too many things to mention.   

[pxr5]

Still fucking about with BT - they have become an absolutely shambolic company.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Still fucking about with BT - they have become an absolutely shambolic company.

It used to be fairly easy to speak to a human at BT but this week despite trying on numerous occasions and at different times of day and evening I have been informed that the waiting time has been between 20-45 minutes. I've tried to find the answer I need online but to no avail. I firmly believe they're just mocking customers now, knowing that folk are aware that if they jump ship the lack of service will be similar or worse. I'm still open to suggestions though and would consider Sky or another provider if I hear better reports. I've had Openreach at the door a few times recently requesting access to the telegraph pole which they insist is in my garden, but isn't. Maybe the next time they knock the door I'll deny them access for a laugh and lock the rear gate.

[captainkurtz]

Still fucking about with BT - they have become an absolutely shambolic company.

It used to be fairly easy to speak to a human at BT but this week despite trying on numerous occasions and at different times of day and evening I have been informed that the waiting time has been between 20-45 minutes. I've tried to find the answer I need online but to no avail. I firmly believe they're just mocking customers now, knowing that folk are aware that if they jump ship the lack of service will be similar or worse. I'm still open to suggestions though and would consider Sky or another provider if I hear better reports. I've had Openreach at the door a few times recently requesting access to the telegraph pole which they insist is in my garden, but isn't. Maybe the next time they knock the door I'll deny them access for a laugh and lock the rear gate.

Everyone is crap, I'm afraid.  Apart from
octopus...who just get everything right.

[Fishy]

Still fucking about with BT - they have become an absolutely shambolic company.

It used to be fairly easy to speak to a human at BT but this week despite trying on numerous occasions and at different times of day and evening I have been informed that the waiting time has been between 20-45 minutes. I've tried to find the answer I need online but to no avail. I firmly believe they're just mocking customers now, knowing that folk are aware that if they jump ship the lack of service will be similar or worse. I'm still open to suggestions though and would consider Sky or another provider if I hear better reports. I've had Openreach at the door a few times recently requesting access to the telegraph pole which they insist is in my garden, but isn't. Maybe the next time they knock the door I'll deny them access for a laugh and lock the rear gate.

That segues nicely into my openreach short story.. more tomorrow

[David L]

BT/Openreach is one of the most dysfunctional organisations I've ever dealt with. I know, I worked for them for 44 years!

[Fishy]

Ok are you sitting comfotably then i'll begin..

Just for some context our house (no 37) as you face it has an access lane on the right owned by the council which goes nowhere really but is used by Scottish Power for access as there is a small electricity sub station about half way down. It sits at the end of a wall behind our grden.. the wall is about 10/12Ft high which runs all the way back to the beginning of the street. On the other side of the wall are NHS premises and now some new houses towards the other end, away from us.

So back in 2020 during lockdown we had just come back from a walk and it was actually my wife spotted a guy pulling himself along this wall towards our garden. At the time he was on the wall in our neighbour's garden which at the time had just been sold so was empty. We shall come back to No 35 later  in this saga.  So out we pop to the back garden and ask this guy what the hell he's playing at.. ?  A nice friendly man from eastern europe I think working for BT casually saying he was just pulling a fibre cable from a pole  which sits behind nos 31/33 on the NHS premises side of the wall to another pole which sits in this lane adjacent to us. We point out that this means we will have a big drooping cable over the back garden which ain't happening so please stop. Also the cable would be over the new neighbours garden who would know nothing about it and also would hang over 31/33. So he stops what he's doing quite happily and says he'll need to contact his line manager. So he disappears then about half an hour later said manager appears at the door asking if he can have a look in our back garden.

So he has a look.. we explain that its not happening.. he agrees then says it'll need to go back to planning.
Couple of days later another guy appears asking to have a look. We go thru the same conversation with him and he asks if there is any possibility at all of us allowing them to run this cable. I explain that you can run your cable but it's not looping across our garden.  I said to him why not run it along  or behind the wall but the problem being the poles are not in a straight line with each other.  Also there are lots of trees (not belonging to us) which could be a problem and also the small sub station as well. He mentions maybe the solution would be to put another pole in the lane  which would allow for a straight run and then connect to this existing pole in the lane.

The reason they needed connected to this existing pole is that it had  been provisioned for fibre. The pole behind nos 31/33 had no fibre and the nearest other pole to that one was already full we were told. He has a look then declares that it'll need to go back to planning.

So to cut this short a little bit for the next 4 years I think we had about 5 or 6 pairs of engineers at the door. They would usually turn up in a couple of vans.. sometimes even 4 van loads of them. They would pace up n down the street.. check the lane.. check for the poles then eventually come to our door asking...  do we know who owns the lane.. YES .. its the council... do you have a key for the padlocked gate.. No  but the council do we've never had one then i say to them its about the fibre isn't it. So on each occasion we go thru the same old story some have a look in the garden, others dont bother then they all disappear.

For a communications company their internal comms must be non existant as each pair of enginners that show up know nothing of the past history with all this and just say we got this job handed to us to have a look at. So it turns out that all this work was to try and enable the old bloke in no 27 to get FTTH. His current copper line comes from the non fibre pole behind no 31/33 hence the requirement to try and get a cable to the fibred pole in our lane.

So now jumping to about a month ago another Openreach van appears.. again usual dicking around then a knock on the door.. mind if we have a look in your garden..
       sure this about the fibre isn't it..
       sure how did you know.. ? 

same old story is gone thru..
      yes  you are engineer number 11 or 12.. its for the bloke in no 27..... no hang on its for no 35 this job. Ok right so you're now expecting to run her cable right across the middle of our garden from the pole in the lane.. sorry not happening go away. ( Her existing copper line is from the non fibred pole) So we have a chat with the neighbour who agrees that it won't work and completely understands our concerns.

I also have to say that all the BT men and women who have turned have all been very understanding and polite.

Ok so now a couple of weeks ago another couple of vans turn up.. one with a pile of poles and a drill/digger thing that looks like it came from Thunderbirds. More pacing about and luckily the guy from no 31 asked them what they were doing and was told they would be erecting poles on the street just outside his house to just in front of the gates in the lane. He told them it wasn't happening so they then eventually packed up and left. We then  all got onto a web site where you can log objections to proposed poles. Last week we all got replies saying that engineers have advised that the poling estimate has been cancelled and won't be going ahead.

Finally another young lady appeared in a van from Openreach.. usual story comes to the door.. blah blah blah you know the rest. What she told us was that the space above your property belongs to no-one according to BT  so if they can get stuff in with out having to get onto your property then they'll have a go.. if they need onto your property then you deny them access...  plain n simple

So over 4 years on BT still haven't come up with an answer for the poor bloke in no 27 or our neighbour ( altho she said she's now gone back to Sky.) We're currently with Virgin who dug up all the pavements years ago so no pole problem with them.

Fully expecting more visits from Openreach
Here endeth the tale.. for now... (to be continued i suspect)...

[Thenop]

These companies... I haven't seen a pole in years mind you. It's all underground cable here

[pxr5]

Still fucking about with BT - they have become an absolutely shambolic company.

It used to be fairly easy to speak to a human at BT but this week despite trying on numerous occasions and at different times of day and evening I have been informed that the waiting time has been between 20-45 minutes. I've tried to find the answer I need online but to no avail. I firmly believe they're just mocking customers now, knowing that folk are aware that if they jump ship the lack of service will be similar or worse. I'm still open to suggestions though and would consider Sky or another provider if I hear better reports. I've had Openreach at the door a few times recently requesting access to the telegraph pole which they insist is in my garden, but isn't. Maybe the next time they knock the door I'll deny them access for a laugh and lock the rear gate.

When you contact BT ring this number instead:

Connections Team - 0800800030 (even if it's not them you need they can put you through elsewhere).

And for retentions use this:

Retentions Team - 08007831401

I've never had to wait longer than 5 minutes with that first number.

Some promising news on my part after that horrendous time on Monday. I rang again yesterday (Tue) lunchtime and got through to a guy in Stoke. He was the first person I've spoken who promised to take full ownership of my problems. But though he was from Connections he could also do orders - very useful. So he went to do another order for me with either BT or EE and neither would work, so he created me a completely new account and it went through - I've even got an OR appointment for Fri 08 Oct. He promised to ring today and he did at exactly the time he said he would and check all was good. He is going to ring again on Monday to keep an eye on things. I did explain to him how many other personnel I'd spoken to there had left me abandoned with no way of contacting them again, but he promised he would keep me fully updated all the time. So fingers crossed I may (touch wood) be actually getting somewhere. I think that's the main problem in that you always get another person in a random part of the UK each time you ring so there is no continuity. That person you speak to first should be somehow contactable. This guy in Stoke is also going to manage the switch over and handle my old account and any billing changes required.