Rant of the Day v2.

[TheGreenGoblin]

It's on repeat now

Gives you a chance to catch up. There will be questions later.

[boing]

"For in and out, above, about, below,
'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.'

Omar

[Pontius Navigator]

I didn't take the opportunity

[Boac]

Feeling better after your doze, Grandad? Not long now to cocoa.

[Pontius Navigator]

I shall probably take a shower before bedtime, watch a new late night series before retiring with my cocoa by 10.

[PHXPhlyer]

Asus router...Check
Fiddled with control panel...Check Don't know what I did exactly.
Android phone, IPad, and Android tablet ...Connected
Desktop not seeing network
Kindle Fire tablet says ...Network not in range...Sitting next to router however connected to network via link extender
Beats the Hell out of me.
Have to wait til daughter wakes up to check connection status of her Mac and IPhone.

PP

Rant over (for now)
Reset router to factory settings.
Reused Network name and password.
Everything reconnected including Fire tablet and printer via WPS.
Finally something going right!

[ExSp33db1rd]

What is it with banks these days ? We have oft complained about the inability to converse, or even connect, with overseas banks, but we have just spent two days just trying to talk to an NZ bank, and no, visiting the local branch doesn’t help, many of which are being shut down, but not ours, yet – “ We can’t help with that, you have to telephone the Call Centre “ When I rang yesterday, and after the 10 minute crap of button pressing options, I got the recorded message that I would be answered within 65 to 93 minutes, hang on. After almost an hour of ear piercing rap sounds (not music ) I gave up. This morning my wife made the call and wonders of wonders was told that she would only have to wait between 27 and 45 minutes, and almost 27 minutes to the dot she was connected. Madness. I suggested that perhaps they could institute an auto call back service ? We do that, but only for the first 50 callers in line, the rest of you have to hang on. To be fair, the young sounding female who answered did very well to, successfully, help us, she was a new employee still under supervision. I’m thinking of writing to suggest that she be made Chairman (Chairperson ? )

[emjay]

The UK "Royal" Mail has a bare-bones tracking service for letters/small packets bravely heading away from the sceptred isle. For a fee and a few moments form filling at the Post Office, you get assigned a tracking code to use on the Royal Mail site.
This is useful for keeping overseas recipients/purchasers informed of progress, especially now when sending into the EU.
Just pass on the tracking code and website URL - then the recipients can track for themselves.

Sadly no. Due possibly to some excess of caution, the website blocks naughty Johnny Foreigner IP addresses by simply sulking. Yes, you can (like any hack attempt worth its salt) bypass this by using a VPN but no, this is not common knowledge in the universe of possible recipients.

Yes, this has happened before and persistent lobbying got it removed. But no, the collective memory in the responsible IT group is not much more robust than a goldfish circulating its bowl.

Sigh....

[Rwy in Sight]

ExSp33db1rd , please to write this letter. These rare efficient people need to be known to the management (hopefully not for firing)

[Magnus]

Speedy, an insurance company with which we deal does that. The usual guff about 23 minute queue, followed by "Press 1 if you would like us to call you back". It actually works!

HBOS is our main bank, and I had a call from someone claiming to be security services. "I just need to ask you a few security questions, sir". "No. Fcuk off; you 'phoned me". I went into our local branch, gave them the 'phone number, and she confirmed that it was indeed fraud security. She called them, handed the 'phone to me, and they went through unexplained transactions as my card had been cloned. Wrote off anything I disputed (I'd bought a set of tyres in London apparently), and when the call finished, the local manager said she'd have to destroy the card, and how much cash did I need to tide me over until our new cards were issued. I think that was pretty decent service. New cards took about 3 days.

[Pontius Navigator]

We had a cloned card once. They used for a tube ticket, then some stamps, then tried to hire a BMW for £700. I could have been in for £20k if they never returned the car. Fraud department was excellent.

My daughter checked her account and found it ££££ expenditure for a 14 day holiday, not unusual in her case. She rang the fraud department. Apparently the thieves were still on holiday!

[Wodrick]

I had my 'petrol' card cloned, that was all I used it for. £600 only noticed when I got a statement. Seems I had been doing on-line gambling in Perth (Jockistan)
Now I've never been to Perth then or now but I knew where it had been cloned, being an insular sort of chap I used the same station most every time, Tesco at Handforth Dean.
I was able to present the local plod with the thieving Paki that had processed my purchase.
The Bank involved (MBNA) couldn't hide their apathy and took ages to process a refund, they were convinced I had been in Perth.

[ian16th]

Back in the day when credit card transactions were still done with multi-part 80 column cards and zip-zap machines, with signatures, my card bought a Renault engine!

Fortunately the signature on the card was nothing like mine and everything was sorted quickly.

[Alisoncc]

Back in the day when credit card transactions were still done with multi-part 80 column cards and zip-zap machines, with signatures, my card bought a Renault engine!

Fortunately the signature on the card was nothing like mine and everything was sorted quickly.

And you successfully sold the engine at a good price.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ian, once we bought two identical pairs of wellies and our signature was genuine. Only thing, they had processed two slips together. Give Barclaycard their due, they refunded the money.

[ian16th]

Back in the day when credit card transactions were still done with multi-part 80 column cards and zip-zap machines, with signatures, my card bought a Renault engine!

Fortunately the signature on the card was nothing like mine and everything was sorted quickly.

And you successfully sold the engine at a good price.

Having spent a year at Istres/Orange, 1957-58. I said that if I lived in France I'd buy a French car.

Otherwise, I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

Even my experiences with rented ones have been poor.

[Magnus]

Danish pal swore never to buy anything french, but ended up with a Qashqai which, of course has a ffroggie engine. Thanks, Henrik, I'll stick with M-B.

[G-CPTN]

I had a Peugeot which had one of the best diesel engines.

[k3k3]

Danish pal swore never to buy anything french, but ended up with a Qashqai which, of course has a ffroggie engine. Thanks, Henrik, I'll stick with M-B.

Most of the sub 2 litre MB engines are made by Renault...

[llondel]

Ian, once we bought two identical pairs of wellies and our signature was genuine. Only thing, they had processed two slips together. Give Barclaycard their due, they refunded the money.

I've had cases where I really did buy multiple items that went through as separate transactions and I had a query from the card company to check that they were all real.