Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[ophic]

Originally Posted by timwilky

These contracts may initially sound expensive. But when the boiler is getting to breaking down age, well worth the cash.

Except they normally have a get-out clause.

My tenant's boiler failed its annual inspection, fully supported by a contract, but as it was over a certain age, parts were not available and they refused to fix or replace it. In fact they disabled it and left - in the middle of winter, of course. Tenant with 2 young children and a baby.

They knew how old the boiler was when they renewed the contract, as they inspect it every year. Same old story - happy to take your money and then fail when you need them. No discounts were offered, no suggestions, no help at all really. And this was British Gas, not some small time startup company.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by timwilky

Boiler is acting up.

No problem it is under contract.

Technician today looks at it, and says if you buy a new boiler we may be able to discount by approx £700 if I do no work on this. WTF have I been paying a contract for if you aint going to fix?


So he has spent the past 3 hours swearing at it. Glad to know I am getting my moneys worth. and should be OK for the winter.

After a long time and a few replacement fans on our Vaillant condensing boiler (at many £100's per fan) and the basic cause of the fan failure not being picked up by service engineers (the bearings in the fan failed due to moisture from condensate getting into them as well as onto the fan control PCB, the bearings are not easily replaceable as once assembled the fan impeller is glued on). I have finally found the problem myself - and it dates back to original installer of boiler not reading the instructions. Basically the horizontal section flue pipe that exits through house or garage wall is supposed to slope away from boiler (surely this must be common to all boilers) so that any moisture condensing in the flue drains away to outside world, BUT the original, highly trained Corgi, GasSafe or whatever they call themselves these days installer fitted the exhaust sloping back towards the boiled so that condensed water (acidic) was running back down the pipe, dripping onto top of heat exchanger flashing into steam and then condensing on the fan assembly, affecting the fan PCB control board and rusting the bearings.

Originally Posted by ophic

They knew how old the boiler was when they renewed the contract, as they inspect it every year. Same old story - happy to take your money and then fail when you need them. No discounts were offered, no suggestions, no help at all really. And this was British Gas, not some small time startup company.

Good old BG, the cowboys of the heating industry, Happy to sell you an umbrella, but as soon as it starts to rain they take it back - they are supposed to service our neighbours boiler and heating system, we have the same system and I asked him if they had ever replaced or advised him to replace the sacrificial anode in his pressurised hot water storage tank (which is there to stop the glass lined, mild steel tank rusting through and flooding the house) he said it had never been done (supposed to be replaced every 5 years, tank is now 20 years old) - I have personally replaced ours 3 times so far (only cost about £40) - we had a similar tank rust away and burst many years ago, luckily it was in garage, not upstairs in the house, so damage was limited. BG have never mentioned replacing it or done it.

[ophic]

re-condensed water is acidic? I'd have expected it to be fairly pure as that's basically a distillation cycle.

It'll still cause rust, mind.

[Chris_SVS]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Having just been driving from Shropshire down to and around south west Cornwall and then back again over the course of 2 weeks with a Nextbase 512GW dashcam I should be in a position to show some footage on youtube of terribly bad driving (both on motorways and elsewhere) mainly I have to say by BMW drivers (Bad Mannered W^nkers in their German staff cars) trouble is that although I have a 32Gb card in the device, it starts overwriting older files after as little as 2 hours (it is HD 1440p, each 3 minute file is over 600Mb, and it also records a 'low resolution file suitable for viewing via wifi on a phone or tablet at same time) - there is a crash sensor and a button on bottom left of unit that you can press to 'protect' a file but looks like I may have to either lower the resolution or invest in an 128Gb card to get decent driving time out of a card, and they are not cheap. I could downgrade the video resolution but that defeats the object of having HD for number plates etc.

1440 is silly when 1080p is more than enough to see details needed, ie: plates I empty my 32gb card once a week if even that, but 1080p/30FPS still gives perfectly good footage if required

[littleoldman2]

Originally Posted by ophic

re-condensed water is acidic? I'd have expected it to be fairly pure as that's basically a distillation cycle.

It'll still cause rust, mind.

The CO2 from combustion dissolves in the water to make H2CO3 which is acidic.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Chris_SVS

1440 is silly when 1080p is more than enough to see details needed, ie: plates I empty my 32gb card once a week if even that, but 1080p/30FPS still gives perfectly good footage if required

I have tried 1080p and 1440, and 1440 is much better, the main choices are 1080p @ 60fps or 1440p @ 10fps I will check file size on 1080p but due to higher frame rate there may not be much difference. Unless you view the 1440 on 4K or UHD TV or monitor the difference may not show, as most PC monitors and TV screens are 1080p

2 hours is plenty for most journeys but I would rather ditch the low res file the dashcam records in parallel with the high res one. If I can get a decent 64Gb card for the right price I can live with 4 to 5 hour life.

[Chris_SVS]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

I have tried 1080p and 1440, and 1440 is much better, the main choices are 1080p @ 60fps or 1440p @ 10fps I will check file size on 1080p but due to higher frame rate there at not be much difference. Unless you view the 1440 on 4K or UHD TV or monitor the difference may not show, as most PC monitors and TV screens are 1080p

2 hours is plenty for most journeys but I would rather ditch the low res file the dashcam records in parallel with the high res one. If I can get a decent 64Gb card for the right price I can live with 4 to 5 hour life.

Frame rate wins = smoother footage. My helmet cam only does 60fps @720p, 30/1080p is acceptable enough and the files are easy enough to manage/edit

[Red ones]

Virgin phoned me today and said they are going to upgrade my TiVo for free.
Totally free.

It only costs £20 to activate it.

It's free.


They got cross when I said there is a difference between free and £20. Free means I don't pay £20.
They said that the £20 means they did the box for free if it breaks. They didn't like my comment that if their box breaks then I'd expect them to fix it for free. And if the box is free then I don't expect to pay.

They withdrew their offer. Mean people!

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Chris_SVS

Frame rate wins = smoother footage. My helmet cam only does 60fps @720p, 30/1080p is acceptable enough and the files are easy enough to manage/edit

I can understand some people want it but I am not looking for smooth footage, I am more interested in finer detail and being able to read number plates, faces and other detail as far away as possible.

[shiftin_gear98]

Virgin have rung me about 10 times in the last 4 days. Starting to grate a little. Might have to tell them to **** right off if they ever ring when I can actually answer the phone.