Unhappy Thread

[jpendle]

I believe that in the UK HVAC is referred to as LOT.

Light the fire
Open the windows
Turn on the fan

Regards,

John P

[The Q]

I've never understood why petrol varies in price so much between different branches of the same store. Surely it costs the same to supply the petrol? When they replenish the tanks it probably all comes on the same tanker anyway. Baked beans cost the same in every branch of Sainsbury's, why can't petrol?

Cheers,

Chris

There's an agreement between government and supermarkets that the supermarkets don't undercut the lowest priced other petrol station with in iirc 3 miles by a certain amount which was I think 3p. So if all the non supermarket petrol is more expensive, then so too will be the supermarket's.

Also there is a question of turnover, our local little Tesco gets 3 tanker loads a week. The big Tesco in Norwich can get through that much in a day. Both have two staff on duty at any one time.

[lil chris]

Re two staff on at the petrol station, it used to be in the rules there had to be two staff when delivering diesel,(note not Petrol), not sure if the rules have been changed.
Chris H.

[Yet_Another]

I've been waiting in for a delivery, which is apparently coming by electric van. Except it's now not coming, because said van doesn't have enough charge to get here.

Range anxiety for electric vehicles is completely justified, it appears.

[cmason]

So the washing machine (around 5 years old so out of warranty ) starts stopping intermittently, mostly part way through the rinse cycle and occasionally at other points. It goes into a "temporarily stopped mode" ( best translation I can manage ) and can be restarted where it left off with the start button. There are occasional error messages indicating a problem with the outbound water filter, but not on every occasion. The lady of the house is not happy at all. So it falls to me to check the filter (no problem) and then read the user manual - a potentially huge translation task which in this day an age is quickly resolved with computer equipment and software. However I cannot find the fault. So book with Hitachi to have them send an engineer.

Takes them a week or so to get a chap onsite ( are they trying to persuade me to purchase a new machine? I ask myself ) - he does his best to diagnose but finds no fault - and the machine runs flawlessly while he is on site. He does suspect a microswitch which detects that the outbound filter is not correctly inserted but is not certain, fiddles with the actuator lever and says it should be fine. Says if problems return to call him back. I reckon he already knows what is wrong with it.

And you guessed it problems got worse. So call Hitachi again. They say a couple of weeks (again I suspect they are trying to get me to buy a new machine). Lady of the house gets agitated. Due to level of agitation they magically reschedule and the same chap gets here after a couple of days although that involved my good lady hanging around all day waiting as an accurate time could not be provided. Although at least he brough the correct part based on previous suspicion.

Anyway today he changed the microswitch. And all is well with the machine and peace descends Chez Mason.

Except for 2 call out charges and a microswitch which cost 20,000 yen in total ( around 100 pounds ). Actually the cost was a relief - next swap out would have been the computer board ( yes i know its just a washing machine, but... ).

What is irritating me is:

1. what feels like possible deliberate delaying tactics to try and get us to purchase a replacement for an otherwise perfectly good machine.

2. The nature of the failure - see the pic below after some disassembly of said microswitch - seems that soapy water has seeped into the switch assembly and contaminated the contact set with dried soap crud .... one hopes it is only a low voltage sensing line. But still there must be a better design by which this could be sealed. The back is potted and the actuator on the cover looks waterproofed but the centre joint must have allowed ingress. Not good. Pics to illustrate below.

Opening the switch on what seems a not very well sealed joint:


The crud inside - no wonder it was intermittent:


Potted rear - well sealed:


Sealed actuator "nipple" on top:

[stevewalker]

Yes, they've got you when your stuck.

This week, we have spent far too much - my wife has bought presents for my birthday (Tuesday); we have bought a laptop and a new phone for our middle son, as he's going away to university; presents for his birthday (today); a family meal for his birthday (yesterday, so as to include other family); another meal for us all near his university today; and parts for my Land Rover.

Myself, my wife, our youngest and oldest sons took him to university today, but with all his stuff, plus his presents and five of us, there was no way we could fit into my wife's EV, along with her wheelchair, so we took our Zafira, which is hardly used now. All was well until we were about to come home and the battery suddenly died!

We thought she was covered for any vehicle by the RAC, but it turns out that only her Motability car was covered. We therefore, stuck, had to join the RAC again and then pay for a battery - total £332 !!! If I'd been near home, I'd have called family, got it home and mail ordered a battery for about  £60.

[dannyboy]

'Got you by the short and curlies' springs to mind! But Happy Birthday for Tuesday. 

[JBQFC]

Our gutters need replacing so I have been contacting local companies to get quotes

1 made a quote with out even looking at the job 

1 kept changing times and dates then failed to turn up

1 made a date and time then failed to show up

1 turned up then from ground level side the all the fascia and soffits where worn out and would also need replacing then quoted silly money

5 others have failed to come back to me

 

John

[Newportnobby]

In our area there is so much new build going on it's nigh on impossible to get private work done. However, we do have a 'Safe Trader' site run by the local Trading Standards and, should someone not reply to a question, then Trading Standards come down hard on them.
Good luck.