The Vent and Rant Thread

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

golly. suddenly being a renter doesn't look quite so bad. even if my landlord is a blood-sucking b*stard.

could be worse, perhaps a vampire...

[zelda_pinwheel]

i beleive he is *also* a vampire. as well as several other unsavoury things, including several which i will refrain from mentioning here, this being, after all, a *family* forum.

[yvanleterrible]

Contractors are not all that bad and 30$ an hour is cheap to deal with the filth usually found in old houses. Most of them only want to deal with new dwellings with reason. And don't forget that the prices they charge don't reflect their take on the job. Only a percentage is their wages, the rest is the materials they have no control of, (I admit that some take a big cut there) and numerous visits to drive to and fuel to get there.

BTW, how much does a P. charge by the hour to deal with the filth in our brains?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

BTW, how much does a P. charge by the hour to deal with the filth in our brains?

100 dollars/euros/pounds per cell?

I'll be fairly cheap, then...

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Contractors are not all that bad and 30$ an hour is cheap to deal with the filth usually found in old houses. Most of them only want to deal with new dwellings with reason. And don't forget that the prices they charge don't reflect their take on the job. Only a percentage is their wages, the rest is the materials they have no control of, (I admit that some take a big cut there) and numerous visits to drive to and fuel to get there.

BTW, how much does a P. charge by the hour to deal with the filth in our brains?

The $30 per hour I did not balk at. I could change a window in three hours and I am marginally handy. He wanted me to believe that it was an all day thing to change out a window. Even one that is 90 years old.

I think my hourly rate is around $300 for therapy. (I work for Mayo Health System, so I don't have to do my own billing, or set my own rate.)

[pshrynk]

[zelda_pinwheel]

ha !!!!

[nekokami]

I know we're supposed to be complaining, not being constructive, but Steve, check for bees (or other hive-type insects) in your cable junction box. We've had that problem with our phone lines.

I can't add much to the contractor horror stories except agreement. There are good and honest contractors out there, and I've even had the pleasure of working with some, but many seem to be disorganized, dishonest, or both.

[Patricia]

I've been relatively lucky with contractors. I only use people who are recommended by friends or colleagues. (My house is about 90 years old, and is one of the newest in the street.) I try and have all the work done in the university vacation, so that I'm at home and can make the craftsmen lots of tea, listen to their life stories etc. I'm in hopes that this makes them feel reasonably friendly about the job. It also means that they know that I know when they've been absent.

Steve: why don't you charge rent to those naughty people who have installed unexpected thingies on your property, without your permission? A free connection seems like the least they could do. I'd hold out for more.
My daughter, who works for British Telecom, tells me that they pay rent to people who have telephone poles on their land, provided that the people actually ask for it.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Patricia

<snip> and can make the craftsmen lots of tea, listen to their life stories etc.

Heh, in the US you get them subs, pizza, soda and beer to keep them happy. Beer after they knock off for the day of course.

BOb

[RWood]

Steve: I feel your pain and I will share my story for those that care to listen.

Many years ago I wanted to get Internet at speeds above dial-up. In those days there was a cable company here called Media General They hooked up my house and about 17,281 others to the same loop so my speeds were a little slower than an old Silent 700 TI thermal terminal running at 110 Baud. I lived too far from the Central Office to get Steve's beloved DSL so the only avenue open was Starband satellite service. This was fine (although a mite pricey) for several years until they started to limit not only the speed but also the total throughput within a week. One online sewing video by my wife and email was dead for the next 6 days. By then Media General had sold out to Cox and we tried them (again.) Other than the service going out about once a week and having to restart the modem a few times a day, the service was poor. They were subject to rip storms that would take the Internet down for hours at a time. They were just as responsive as Comcast, give or take a week.

Verizon put their fiber run across the front of our house and left a juncture box in the ground at the corner of the lot. (The same kind described by Steve but a at least it stays shut.) I ordered the Verizon FiOS service. They came on the day they promised and installed it that day. The Internet has run flawlessly since then. We have telephone, TV, and Internet from them. They treat it like a utility with their own battery backup.

In these parts Cox and Media General are fighting words, Verizon is a word of praise.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I know we're supposed to be complaining, not being constructive, but Steve, check for bees (or other hive-type insects) in your cable junction box. We've had that problem with our phone lines...

Here it's geckos. They get into the outdoor power points, or into the pool pump electricals, or into the power box (where it's nice and warm and safe) and lay their little Jila Mint eggs which hatch out little baby geckos which give the electricity a "short"er path than it would otherwise take. So, for us, it's been electricity (the next door neighbour lost an entire pool pump from it).

They're lucky they're so cute - when they run around the walls inside your house chasing all the bugs and making their territorial chirruping noises - or it'd be the flat of my shoe for them.

Cheers,
Marc

[RWood]

Here geckos sell auto insurance for GEICO.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by RWood

Here geckos sell auto insurance for GEICO.

Here they sold cell phones for Telus. Cute little buggers.(pun intended)

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I know we're supposed to be complaining, not being constructive, but Steve, check for bees (or other hive-type insects) in your cable junction box. We've had that problem with our phone lines.

I'd be glad to (not that it wasn't checked before, and found to be clean). There's just one problem: To check the outside junction boxes, whether they are across the street, or on the other side of town, first they insist on coming into my house to check my lines! And despite the number of times I have told them (and "told" is certainly being more than polite for the way I've often spoken to them) that the house has already been checked and OK'd by their technicians, twice, they still insist on coming in first. They don't come in, then they won't check anything outside.

Fine, you say? Stay home and let them in, you say? Well, sorry, but I'm not wasting any more of my work time to stay at home and wait for those idiots to show up (especially since the two times they did show up did not result in fixing the problem). I had instead settled on regular harassment, making service calls, and allowing their technicians to show up and never find me at home. Not that that solves my problem, but its constant effectiveness in wasting their time demonstrates how incredibly stoopid they are.

At this point, I'm playing the waiting game... not with them, but with my wife, who doesn't seem to mind the fact that the web has been consistently down for the past 2 weeks now (I'm writing this from work). I am refraining from making any service calls, and either she'll get fed up and complain, or I'll just get Verizon (and castrate myself next day, which might... just might... upset her even more).