The angry thread

[Browning 9mm]

@ woodbury22uk

many thanks for that explanation. I understand it, but it does seem so inefficient in some cases.

as alsways, I seem, regardless of the company, to get a cheerfull, helpfull guy appear at my door with the parcel, but I do wonder how far up the chain the intelligence actually reaches.

[TrevL]

This doesn't bode well for the king size bed I'm expecting tomorrow, three vans possibly?

[Browning 9mm]

only three 

[woodbury22uk]

@Browning 9mm

Hopefully the chill pills won't have got damp during the delivery process.

Before all this computer scheduling malarkey was commonplace, I beat a fledgling scheduling program in a competition at the Commercial Motor show delivering 20 drops. I won on all three parameters:- overall journey time, miles run and fuel economy. My advantage was that the program did not have a good map of the road network. The good quality network maps were only in the hands of the emergency services and military in those days. I had proof of this. In 1989 I came upon an accident on a roundabout between Derby and Stoke. One driver was trapped in his car. Luckily I had a car phone and called 999. "Hello, Scotland Yard Mobile Control Room. What is your emergency?".  Trying to pinpoint my location turned out to be child's play. I gave the road number which I knew, and a rough location on the outskirts of Uttoxeter. The operator said "Can you see the Happy Eater?" "Yes, it is on the other side of the roundabout". Final message from the operator was "Thank you. Help is on its way". Less than 5 minutes later all three 999 services arrived and dealt with the situation.

[Browning 9mm]

I must admit that my preferred delivery is from DPD, they e-mail me with a 1 hour slot, which lets me arrange the HB exercise around it, and even tells me the name of the driver..
which lets me greet him with "Hi xxxx, how are you today" which to me is much better the  "yeah"...

though on one occasion it did not work too well...

'Your driver 'steve' will be with you between xx and yy'

great,

and a few minutes after xx the doorbell went, dogs shut in and " hi, how are you today 'steve'  errrrr
a very nice young lady was covering 'steve's' deliveries, in his van, and so the "computer" worded the e-mail....]
we had a laugh about it, and she went on her way, but it is, IMHO, so much nicer to greet them with a name rather  than just a 'hello'.

they are people, doing a job I certainly would not want to, and the least we can do is be civil, and treat them as people.

[Browning 9mm]

I do feel sorry for these guys, and gals,....
yes, even me ...

when, many years ago, I was working for the AA, they started a system that would text a member, waiting for a patrol, with a message along the lines of " xxx will be with you in about 10 minutes"

then the computer would take over, the patrol deployed would be re-allocated to a detail nearer, and half an hour or so later I'd turn up to be greeted with ...

"did you have a nice cuppa ?"

"pardon ?"

"well 30 minutes ago you were on your way to me, Steve, eta 10 minutes, from Cowfold"

"sorry, my name is Alan, and 30 minutes ago I got detailed to your breakdown in PETWORTH and headed straight here, and yes I would kill for the chance of a cuppa"

"ah, sorry, but the text said ........ do you take sugar in your tea / coffee ?"

these so called managers just don't seem to be able to see the agro they can cause by their so called improvements to their sytems.

tell me you'll be half an hour, and I can live with it, you, delivering a parcel or attending a breakdown, can be busy, I realise that.

LIE to me, and I get  off, and the poor sod who, doing his best, arrives is likely to get both barrels.

not a problem for you in your office, but not the best for the poor sod on the receiving end of the gripe.

[Browning 9mm]

as expected, a lovely guy delivered my parcel a few minutes ago......
what a pity a few of the management were as interested in doing an good and effective job as their drivers

[Trainfish]

Was it Steve?

[dannyboy]

I must admit that my preferred delivery is from DPD,

I sometimes get items delivered by DPD. If the email and text state that 'Jason' will deliver my parcel between 'then' and 1 hour later, I know I will get it, quite often a few minutes before the allotted time. If the email/text state that 'somebody else' will deliver, 9 times out of ten, the parcel does not arrive and on checking, usually get the information that my address can not be found! As I have put in a few emails of complaint, if 'Jason' can find my address, why can 'somebody else' not find it? Plus our system of postcodes has an individual code for every single address in the country - all the driver has to do is look at the 'Eircode' site and it shows exactly where I am. I realise that I live in a reasonably remote area, but to me, that is no excuse for not getting my item. 

[Keith Bingham]

Unable to indulge in foreign travel at the moment, so content myself in going round in circles on my new N-gauge layout which I bought from Arthur Mustoe. It's smaller than my previous layout I built - no room for it in our newly decorated cellar - and I've no time to devote to building another.
So found Arthur, lovely work.
This one is 3 foot 8 by 2 foot 6, single line becoming two road through station, with two road fiddle yard and sidings and lovely pointwork which makes for interesting operation.
Four isolated sections, point work operated by wire and tube. Handsome job.
Now working on adding scenic stuff.

[emjaybee]

Unable to indulge in foreign travel at the moment, so content myself in going round in circles on my new N-gauge layout which I bought from Arthur Mustoe. It's smaller than my previous layout I built - no room for it in our newly decorated cellar - and I've no time to devote to building another.
So found Arthur, lovely work.
This one is 3 foot 8 by 2 foot 6, single line becoming two road through station, with two road fiddle yard and sidings and lovely pointwork which makes for interesting operation.
Four isolated sections, point work operated by wire and tube. Handsome job.
Now working on adding scenic stuff.

Forgive me, but why is this in the 'Angry Thread'?

[Keith Bingham]

Good question. Why indeed is this in the angry thread. My next post will probably be more suitable. I'll conclude by complaining to Dapol that my 2-10-0 has just derailed on the canal bridge!

[weave]

If it's a 'good question', why don't you answer it? 

[Keith Bingham]

It was simply a mistake, I failed to see I was writing in the angry thread.

[Dorsetmike]

We have a family saying that fits that TIBMIN - Thumb in bumb mind in neutral