My Rants

Petrol Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Why do Petrol Prices vary so much, this really annoys me, OK I can see why the Shetlands might be a tad more expensive then the North of England where I live, but let me give you an example.

I use www.petrolprices.com to compare petrol prices... its normally very accurate, in and around my location the price is currently 85.9p per litre, but less than 10 miles away its 82.9p per litre.... why ? it cannot be down to distribution codes, so what is it ?, this price difference is actually pretty big, my normal fill is around 55 litres which is £1.65, it almost cheaper for me to drive 10 miles to this petrol station !

Come on petrol companies, give us the same price, you money grabbing buggers.

Kids Toys

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:42:00 +0000

I’ve just spent Christmas morning attempting the impossible, no, not trying to break into Fort Knox, no, that would be easy, instead I have been trying to extract my kids toys out of the boxes they came in.

Why the hell does Upsey Daisy have rope around her neck ?, plastic ties that are impossible to cut with a knife around her legs and arms, which have been tied together by a 10,000 tonne tying machine !

I don’t know why this is, I know it’s pretty recent, is it to stop thieves from nicking the stuff out of the boxes ?, that’s easily fixed, seal the damn boxes, or is it some stupid EU directive ? I would love to know.

What I do know though is that the house is littered with potentially dangerous bits of cable ties, which you simply cannot find once you have used a Stanley knife to cut them, mainly because you lost sight of them when you screamed after accidently cutting your finger trying to cut the bloody things... then 2 hours in hospital waiting for a tetanus.

Royal Mail

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Now I know I could be accused of bleating on about Royal Mail, but yet again they amazed me. Today I received a package that was posted 10 days ago, this was a first class item. As it needed a signature I asked the postman why it had taken so long for something in their own words should take between 1-3 days.

He reply was, its Christmas.... which I responded, of course it is, that makes it OK then, after all, it’s not like we have Christmas every year is it, or if you bothered to check the previous 100 years worth of history you might of realised that you will be a bit busier.... so ramp up !

Car Garages

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:45:00 +0000

I’ve had a little issue with the car lately and its proving to be a little difficult to fix, OK so some things are not easy to find and fix, but it’s the way they work that really annoys me.

So, the garage takes a look at my problem, it’s going to cost £120 to fix it, for some new parts and labour, I give them the go ahead. I pick my car up, 30 yards after leaving the garage the problem reappears, so I turn around and go back. The garage says, oh it must be something else, and that’s going to cost you another £150, OK I say, so I owe you £30 then I say to them, there was a rather puzzled look on their faces.

Come on I say, you charged me £120 and didn’t fix the issues, therefore put my original parts back on my car, and replace the new parts and I’ll pay you the difference ! well all hell broke loose then.

You see it doesn’t work like that, the garage can have as many goes as they like in not fixing my car and charging me, and it appears that it’s OK as I am footing the bill. I had the same issue with my boiler, they are all bastards and something should be done to outlaw this practice.

0870 Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:13:00 +0000

Let make this simple, these numbers should be banned FULL STOP. Can you imagine buying a sweater at M&S and finding out something is wrong, so you go back to see customer services, when you get there as soon as you enter the queue they start asking for money, that is exactly what these companies are doing. Of course the funny thing is the government is getting in on the act as well, the DVLA made over 3 million pounds on 0870 calls last year !, I wonder by Ofcom are doing very little.

I have a prime example of this rip-off practice, Jet2 lost my seat booking last year, a booking that I paid extra for, I had to ring them (they don’t have email !), I sat in the queue for 20 minutes, then when I got through they said my seat had now been booked by another passenger so I had lost it, after arguing and then trying to get my booking fee back, the total call was 35 minutes. However much I argued they would not give me the cost of the call back, in the end I realised that it was going to cost me more in call charges than the refund so I had to give up, they are scum !

On the other hand though, Virgin, if the fault is down to them they refund the cost of the call, well done Virgin.

Police and Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:45:00 +0000

I read that Police may start using fingerprint scanners on the streets, but of course the lobby of privacy campaigners are dead against it, these people are idiots.

I am all for a) Finger printing and b) DNA records being held for everybody in the UK, also any visitors to the UK, as a law abiding citizen why would I not be ?

Why would the police or anybody else be interested in tracking me, or looking into my privacy, it’s a joke, they are far too busy looking for real criminals. Let’s look at some fact’s, a rapist could be caught within hours, a murderer who leaves a finger print, or any crime that the criminal leaves some form of evidence; the police could identify the criminal within hours, why is this not good ?

So come on, let’s do it and find all the arseholes in the world and lock them up (I guess we had better build lots of new prisons first).

Oil Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:58:00 +0000

I have always been told that competition is good, the more people offering goods the better, also I believe it is illegal for competing companies to get together and price fix.

So tell me, why does this happen with oil, which idiot decided that the worst most important commodity should have a set sale price for all, be traded by idiots only interested in what model car to buy with their massive bonus and finally allow the production to be governed by people who’s interest is to keep the price high.

Surely we should be creating competition to reduce the price, not allowing idiots to trade oil, it’s too important to the world.

Keyboards

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:39:00 +0000

Now I am a computer professional (sounds a bit grand does that!), and I can type faster than I can write, I have been using keyboards for over 20 years and there is one thing that pisses me off, manufactures that constantly play around with the position of the keys... STOP IT

Clearly I don’t mean the standard QWERTY layout, but the other keys and also shapes of the keyboard.

Why make the left shift so small you can never hit it, why make the delete button so small you cannot hit it, why make the Enter Key only one key high instead of 2, why put other keys in the left control key position (this control key and the left shift key are used loads by keyboard short-cuts by the way), why curve the complete keyboard, why move the insert, Home, Page Up & Down) keys to be vertical, why make the function keys touch sensitive...... I could go on and on and on

The keyboard has a very basic function, the original designers knew that the keys we use the most should be big, so stop mucking around with them and leave them the way they were originally designed.

X Factor

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:21:00 +0000

OK so I know I am letting myself in for a barrage of abuse, but I do like watching X Factor.

This week again Simon complained about the public voting being rubbish, and yes I have to agree with him, however what about the judges voting, it’s just as bad.

How the hell did Daniel stay in, I know his wife died and I so impressed by what he has done, but this is a talent contest, OK so they keep him in, why ? they know he is not good enough, that idiot Irishman keeps telling him how crap he is, but refused to vote him off, next time Daniel is up and sings a tear jerker is the Irish idiot going to keep him in again, no, so why get rid of Scott !

Same last week with that horrible Rachel girl, come on, there is no way she was better than Austin, and this week proved it with a terrible performance.

So Simon, before you complain anymore about the stupid public voting, get your judges in order first.

Oil Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:12:00 +0000

Its been far too long since I ranted, its about time I put that right.

What the hell is going on with Opec and the oil producing countries, they are now going mad because the price of oil is below $70 per barrel, I didn't see them doing too much when it was going up to $147 a barrel.

Do these idiots realise they are part of the reason the world is in turmoil, because of their utter greed, one of the main reasons prices of things has risen is because of oil, OK so they increased production "a little" to try and reduce oil prices when they were going up, but lets face it, they didn't try too hard did they. Now the shoe is on the other foot they are doing all they can to increase it.

Oil is too critical to the world, the price should not be left to Opec, maybe a world body like the UN should decided on the price of oil, the world would be a better place.

Bloody Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Its been a while since I have Ranted about the weather so its time to put that right.

What another shit summer, I thought last years was bad but Jesus this has almost been as bad, it has rained every day except 2 where I live during August, and even the days it didn't the weather man forecast said it was going to rain !

I love the UK, its the best country on earth, I getting old though and I can't do with this shit weather, global warming my arse !

Royal Mail Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Its been a while since my last Rant, and its about time I put it right...

My last Rant in April was about the Royal Mail Opt out scheme, well its not August and guess what, I still get all the shit put through my letter box, to cap it all, I went to pick up a parcel yesterday from the sorting office, 30 minutes it took ! I hate the Royal Mail.

Royal Mail Opt Out

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:02:00 +0000

To try and stop loads of crap coming through my letter box, I have signed up to the Opt Out programs for advertising etc.

I have found out that you can also opt out of the hand delivered Royal Mail stuff, this is the unaddressed stuff that Royal Mail deliver, this is of course good news, however Royal Mail as being complete bastards with it.

If you opt out, not only do you stop junk mail but you also stop important government information leaflets, this is so wrong I cannot believe, Royal Mail should not be allowed to do this, how are they getting away with it.

Surely its easy... this advert for some insurance company only goes to opt in people, this government leaflet goes to everybody, how hard can it be, it's just an easy way for the Royal Mail to scare people into not opting out, its disgraceful.

To cap it all.... its says that we might still get some of this junk mail when they use temp staff ! clearly they don't know how to train people either.

Phones on Airplanes

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:20:00 +0000

I shake my head in utter despair as I read a report that says airlines are going to allow people to use their mobile phones on airplanes.... what the hell.

Has anybody had the misfortune of sitting next to someone on a train making a call... HELLO ITS ME... it's horrible, the train (and airplane for that matter) are too loud, it disturbs everybody within 50 feet, come on can't you live without your phone for a few hours !! I for one can and welcome the fact that I am free from all the shit of everyday life.

Keep airplanes silent, keep mobiles banned.

More Than

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Today was the day that I had to renew my house insurance, so of course I went through all the usual web sites like confused, compare this and that.com, what was remarkable was the difference from £320 to £1,700, I just find things like this amazing.

Anyway my rant is with More Than, these were (see were - no longer) my insurers, the quote I got was pretty expensive to say the least, however I noticed that I had not told them about my loft conversion, so I now have 4 bedrooms instead of 3 - whoops.

Now these are the people who have fixed cover, buildings £500,000 and contents £75,000, pretty generous I would say, so image my surprise when they told me that increasing my bedroom count added another £90 to my insurance quote, how can this be ? the cover is the same, this just shows that this cover level is actually total bull, I will never use these people again.

Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:48:00 +0000

I have various apple stuff like a Nano, so I run iTunes on my PC, this of course means I am subject to Apple Automatic Update which no matter how hard I try I cannot switch off which really annoys me.

Anyway today it popped up saying I needed to download an update.... and oh what was it, the Safari Web Browsers WHAT !

Come on Apple this is truly ridiculous, not only are you telling me that I need an update for some software that is not installed on my PC, you are downloading a new browser, how dare Apple do this, it's like Apple downloading a new Word Processor even though I use Microsoft Word or Open Office, it's just wrong and Apple should be disgusted with what they are doing, it's clear to me they are trying to up the new of Safari but this underhand tactic is just wrong.

Once it's installed it will become the default browser on the system saying goodbye to IE or Firefox, I wonder how many people have fallen foul of this already and now use Safari (which is Rubbish by the way) instead of IE or Firefox which I am sure they were happy with before.

Smokers

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:15:00 +0000

You will see from this rant that I don't smoke, however this rant isn't really about the act of smoking, whilst I hate being in a room full of smokers, its not an illegal activity and I have to put up with it, this rant is more about littering.

You see, smokers think its OK to throw away their fag ends into the street, you see it's not, it's littering, I eat Crisps but I don't throw away the packet, I put it in a bin. It seems to me that it's almost socially acceptable that smokers are allowed to throw their fags anywhere, well it shouldn't be, smokers choose to smoke and they should also choose to deposit their leftovers from this activity sensible in a bin once they have put out the fag.

Weather Forecasts

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:10:00 +0000

OK so we all know that weather forecasters are rubbish at their jobs, I can't think of another job that allows you to screw up as much as being a weather forecaster, look below, the first is from www.bbc.co.uk/weather , look at Monday, then look Mondays at www.weather.co.uk, spot the difference... what a joke.

BBC

Weather.co.uk

Sky & BT

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:11:00 +0000

OK so I decided to take Sky Talk, looked like a good plan, £5 per month for free calls to normal landlines, brilliant I thought, but no.....

For a start BT started charging me £4.95 for Caller ID because I was no longer making calls on their network, then I discovered that 0870 numbers are more expensive on Sky Talk and we seem to call these rip off numbers frequently, over all I was paying more, so I decided to cancel.

Everything went well, apart from it taking me 30 minutes on an 0870 number to cancel, it would be cancelled within 4 hours.

Tonight I discover that my phone no longer works, I get a Sky message saying that I have a reduced service and to call the rip off 0870 number, on what !, my phone isn't working... of course at a stupid cost on my mobile.

Sky now inform me that I need to speak to BT as my line is dead and reactivate my account with BT, Sky - why didn't you tell me this when I cancelled... great. So I call BT, they tell me I need to set-up a new account, with new costs etc..... but hang on, I already have an account with you, I pay line rental, also if I prefix my number with 1280 I get billed by BT instead of Sky, so I have an account... why do I need to do all this, but of course my ranting made no difference and I had to set-up a new account, guess what.... it takes 48 hours to set-up a new account so I have no phone for 48 hours.

Sky as bastards, BT are no better.... I am going to move everything to Virgin.

Hiring a Car

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:41:00 +0000

Has anybody ever had the misfortune of hiring a car ?

Its the most unfriendly experience I think you can have, firstly you stand at the counter for 20 minutes whilst they type in all your details, come on how hard can it be, name, address, driving license details, why does it take so long.

Then you get your car, you need to go over it with a fine toothcomb, as if you miss that little scratch you can be sure the bastards will find it when you take it back. The thing is, the onus is on me to find it, if I don't I have to pay, this is just wrong, it has to be the other way around, the car hire company should have to prove the scratch was not there when you hired it.

I do have an exception to this, Dragon Cars in Spain, we hired a car and crashed it (not me somebody else !), there was a massive dent in the side of the car (actually this happened whilst driving it out of the airport, 2 minutes after we had hired it), when we took it back, they look at it and said... well that's why you have insurance and that was the end of the matter, brilliant service.

Hotel Rooms

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Something has always puzzled me about hotel rooms. What’s the first thing you want to do when going into a hotel room, is it to switch on the Toilet light ? well No.

So why the hell do hotel designers always seem to put the toilet light switch as the first switch when you enter your room, wouldn’t it be nicer to actually have the main room light switch, I think so.

eBay

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:03:00 +0000

I read with interest the changes that eBay are making to the feedback system, basically stopping sellers from leaving negative feedback.

I believe the current feedback system is being abused by Sellers and this is why eBay are introducing this, today almost all sellers will not leave feedback until they have received feedback, thus they are abusing the feedback system. They are trying to protect their feedback rating by effectively bullying people into leaving positive feedback, if the buyer leaves negative feedback they will retaliate with negative feedback, this whole system is wrong.

When I purchase something my deal with the seller is over as soon as I pay, tt that point, assuming I have paid promptly positive feedback should be left by the seller, its then up to the seller to promptly deliver the goods and for the goods to be in then exact condition described, if they are not then they deserve negative feedback as they have not kept to their end of the deal (assuming the seller is not willing to put things right).

What eBay is doing though is wrong, as there are some bad buyers out there and these deserve to get negative feedback, I believe what they should do is not allow a seller to receive feedback unless the seller has given feedback to the buyer, however, if the seller gives bad feedback, the buyer should not be able to leave negative feedback for the seller as clearly the buyer has not kept their end of the deal.

iPod Touch

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:32:00 +0000

OK so I have bought one of these little beauties, why I have no idea, for me its a waste of money I should of bought a hard disk version but I fancied the ability to surf the web over wi-fi.

Anyway apart from being upset by my stupid choice of the Touch, something has really annoyed me, and that's Apple charging £12.99 to get some applications that I feel should be free, namely, email, maps, weather and stock prices, however it doesn't stop there.

The main rant is over these new applications, firstly email will not connect to my STMP server because it requires SPA security, secondly maps searches America first, so I have to put UK after everything, Weather doesn't find Timisoara in Romania (when Yahoo weather does and that feeds the link) and Stock Prices doesn't give me monthly charts for half of my stocks, overall for something I had to pay extra for its rubbish and I am seeking my cash back from Apple.

Airport Lounges

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:27:00 +0000

I am lucky (or unlucky due to the amount of flights I have to take to gain access), in that I can get access to these executive lounges at airports, I have to say that they are great, it gets me away from the normal holiday maker, they have free beer and snacks and the seats are normally large and comfortable, overall they are great.

Except for one small thing, they are filled with business men and women who in general have their heads stuck up their own arses.

Tell me why they have to wonder around with a Bluetooth headset, as soon as they sit down they take the seat next to them for their coats, no matter how busy the lounge is, and when you ask them to move their coats so you may use the chair they look at you with disgust (or maybe that's just me with my Orange County Chopper tee-shirt and big fat belly sticking out).

As soon as they sit down the laptop comes out, let play who has the best laptop (well actually that will be me, but I don't brag about these things).

Lovely places filled by arseholes, what a shame.

Its Just Stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Ranting Mike) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:26:00 +0000

I read a report today on the BBC website about the air crash at Heathrow

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7196128.stm

I want to praise everybody on board especially BA staff, the pilots clearly did a fantastic job, the comment that got me was this from the BA staff on the ground looking after the crash victims

"However, there are some limitations to what we can do due to the various regulations with which we have to comply and the restrictions of operating in an airside environment. For example, we have to wait for permission to remove baggage and any other personal belongings from the aircraft. When that permission is received, our aim is to get these belongings back to customers as quickly as possible. "

What the hell... they need permission to get the bags off, what idiot decided to implement stuff like this, would anybody not want their belongings back, there credit cards, their clothes, stupid rules like this make me sick the person who made the rule should be shot.