Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Found a very suspicious e-mail in my spam folder this morning. On the face of it its a missive from Google about changes to service conditions, in fact it looks as if they have altered a legit notification. The first thing that was wrong was my e-mail address, after my name instead of @ then virginmedia.com it was %virginmedia@ then gtempaccount.com, and further down the page the Google links were all slashed through. Needless to say that is staying well and truly in the spam file. A bright and sunny day today and expected to last for most of the day. Thats about all, be back later.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

Another lie-in this morning, I guess Friday’s late night is catching up on us. The weather is a lot milder this morning 8C according to the app on my phone. I’ve just finished muggertea No2 so it’s now time to head to the workshop, I don’t think I’ll need the heater on today.

 

Back later

[PhilJ W]

Just found this, quite interesting.

http://www.londonist.com/london/maps/fake-britain-map-fictional-locations-england-scotland-wales

Includes the island of Sodor for Thomas fans. (Click on map to get an enlargable version.)

Edited December 16, 2018 by PhilJ W

[andyram]

Good afternoon fellow ER's. Many thanks for the supportive wishes and advice. Firstly, to clarify a point that was raised. The money had cleared which was why the items were sent. It was after this that a fraudulent claim was made. It appears that stolen or cloned cards have been used. 

 At present the payment company (Stripe) have been very evasive and unsupportive. Despite promising to pass this on to their fraud specialists I have yet to hear back from them. This could, of course, be due to the weekend and I will not be lambasting them until at least Tuesday next week. Their T's and C's seem are unclear, but the underlying theme seems to throw it back onto the business owner. I am certainly not impressed with their service and will be taking heed of NHN's advice regarding WorldPay.

 The fraudulent orders continued yesterday. I now have found a way of checking these, which was not made clear to me when I first opted for this company. It is clear that this person / these people are purchasing the goods and then trying multiple cards at the check out, most are being declined, but they keep going until one is accepted. This, I discovered, when observing the transactions over the last few days when the mobile app was connected to the shop Wi-Fi. This showed just how long they were spending at check out and raised the alarm. I then found out how to check it, and saw that in the most recent case there were 17 failed attempts to complete payment. Needless to say I now check this page for all online purchases.

 Incidentally, there was no Arriva liveried locos amongst the purchases - most were new Hornby Princess Coronations.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Andy, I would suggest you start a regime of three payment refusals and the order is automatically cancelled. I am surprised the payment company didn't flag up the different address to the cardholder but then that could be a common occurence especially this time of year.

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl, inner Temple here,

I first awoke, at 01.40, at which point I could hear the windy wet had moved off into the German ocean. When taking Ben the Border Collie on patrol the ground was definitely soggy.

It was also very chilly although we had no frost others at the sailing club reported they had some.

 

For some reason this morning it felt like I had and big hangover but I hadn't had anything to deserve it.

 

At the sailing club it was no wind to not a lot Under A clear blue sky. The water level was extremely low a good two foot lower than normal and... It was high tide.

 

Course for both races 3p, 2p, 1p with buoy 1 just a hundred yards down from the club.

 

Once the usual put the buoys out, bacon butties and Coffee was over we rigged the Boat and attempted to leave the mooring. We were loosely aground, the keel being in an hollow in the mud. It took ages for the rescue boat on full astern to pull us and other boats out. We were the last to be extracted and we're facing the wrong way and in the wrong place as the start buzzer went..

 

Race one

A disaster we started last and remained last, loosing ground all the time even under spinnaker.

There was a ferocious tide flowing out which made life very difficult.

 

Race two, we started 2nd but rapidly dropped back to last loosing about half an Lap by the end of the first lap.. Then...

 

Half wAy up the straight we just touched bottom about 10ft from the bank luckily we had enough boat speed to bounce over the hard mud as we turned back out from the bank. Then we accelerated, and started catching up. Perhaps the hard stuff down below scraped off whatever was holding us back.

 

We were however to far behind to catch up all but one boat which went hard aground and had difficulty getting off..

 

Race three didn't happen just not enough wind...

 

Getting back in the moorings took a dory towing, another pushing and a rope to shore to drag us in and turn us into place. While I stood on the bow to lift our rudder out of the mud so we didn't bend it..

 

Since then I've had about long soak in the bath, inspected eyelids, and now dinner is about to arrive.

Good night to you all.

[lightengine]

Am I missing something?

If somebody makes a purchase with a fake/stolen card 3 things come to my mind (someone can inform me of others).

1. The goods go to an address.

2. Doesn't the purchaser leave a trail such as ISP address etc?

3. Don't all banks flag up strange expenditure habits to card holders?

[AndyID]

Just found this, quite interesting.

http://www.londonist.com/london/maps/fake-britain-map-fictional-locations-england-scotland-wales

Includes the island of Sodor for Thomas fans. (Click on map to get an enlargable version.)

Also has Craig and Mertonford for those of us old enough to remember the work of P D Hancock.

[Purley Oaks]

Am I missing something?

If somebody makes a purchase with a fake/stolen card 3 things come to my mind (someone can inform me of others).

1. The goods go to an address.

2. Doesn't the purchaser leave a trail such as ISP address etc?

3. Don't all banks flag up strange expenditure habits to card holders?

I genuinely don't think the police have enough time/resources to deal with small-scale fraud anymore, more's the pity.

 

There will be a trail; the purchase could have been made from an internet cafe, or, more likely, from a stolen phone. Smart phones give locations, unlike my coal-fired Nokia 6610i except by triangulation when I make a call. But is it worthwhile for cash-strapped police to search for this?

 

It would be good to think that internet transactions check the cardholder's address with the one on file. If I purchase something for someone else online at, say, Amazon, they always ask for my address.

 

Wouldn't have thought that model rail purchases would make much money for a fraudster.

 

Really feel for the small trader like Andyram in these circumstances; shouldn't have to pick up the pieces after cleared funds have had their status reversed, it's the bank's fault for authorising the payment.

 

Mal

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

Apologies for not having done more than skim through the weekend's proceedings.  Things have been a mite upsan-down since we last spoke

 

Friday night should have involved a delivered meal at home followed by drinks out.  We duly ordered and waited only to receive an email advising our food had been delivered.  But it had not been delivered to us.  We made contact with Deliveroo who we ordered through who, by means of their customer service live chat, effectively called us liars and con-people and firmly asserted the food had been delivered.  We asked the restaurant by phone to confirm and they too said it had been sent but - because we used Deliveroo - our claim was with that outfit and not against the restaurant.  We tried reasoning with Deliveroo again.  We tried asking them to confirm the address the food had been delivered to.  We attempted to have them check with their delivery person for a description of the address delivered to.  All to no avail.  They argued - and in very abrupt terms - that the food had been delivered to us and that was that.

 

After further exchanges between ourselves, the restaurant and Deliveroo we received differing versions of their stories.  Somehow it appeared our order had been delivered to an unattended address where their delivery person had waited ten minutes before abandoning and (version 2.1) leaving the food on the doorstep or (version 2.2) taking it back and leaving it with a homeless person.  We checked every doorstep in the block - unsurprisingly there was no food on any doorstep.

 

We were refused a refund.  We were called liars by Deliveroo.  We were tired and hungry.  Deliveroo eventually terminated the live chat and we found our account had been suspended.  

 

We rang the restaurant again, something like 90 minutes after we should have received the order.  They were happy to make the order again and deliver it personally but we would need to pay them.  As we had already paid for the same order I refused.  They told me I could F*** off because we had wasted their time.

 

I ended up, in a fit of rage, grabbing what ever the local Thai restaurant could still provide 5 minutes before they closed.  It wasn't that good and it wasn't the Turkish meal we had been looking forward to.  Needless to say we were not in a fit state to enjoy it nor to go out for drinks afterwards.

 

I was seething and over-tired when I hit the sack and couldn't sleep.  3am came and went which meant I had been awake for 22 hours.  Fitful sleep then occurred until 8am.  We were both still upset by the events of the previous evening.  Opening my emails there was one from Deliveroo which did nothing to make amends.  Once again they have refused to accept any responsibility for a mis-delivery and have not even gone back to their rider to check.  Quite simply they tell us that as the food was delivered to our address that no refund can be made.  I replied asking which address it had been delivered to.  The reply was terse and off-topic.  Not a reply to the question but a veiled threat that they would take action against us for trying to obtain a refund under false pretences. 

 

We have been shaken and distressed by this.  We are getting nowhere with Deliveroo who seem to be masters at hiding their points of contact.  No matter.  It will be placed in the hands of Trading Standards tomorrow and, speaking of Standards, the London evening rag of that name will also be advised.  Deliveroo has a large business across London and will perhaps not want it harmed by a revelation of their business methods and customer service standards.

 

Yesterday I felt in great need of an evening out just to get away from the previous 24 hours.  None of my usual drinking acquaintances was available or answering calls.  I walked up to the local House of Falling Down Waters and found i populated by a barman and a solitary customer.  Blank drawn there, then.  Back home SWMBO had abandoned the day and was in bed.  I was wide awake.  Some solitary drinking indoors occurred and some time was spent on the computer until I finally felt able to unwind sufficiently to attempt sleep.  I didn't sleep well.

 

Today we started with a late breakfast with SWMBO then suggesting I go out while she wrote thesis.  I duly ventured forth and made use of some large red objects which convey folk up and down London's streets.  When I returned late in the afternoon she was asleep on the sofa, exactly where I had left her five hours earlier, not yet dressed and with nothing written.

 

Thank goodness for Neighbour (Upstairs) who was willing to listen to a much-needed un-bottling of some thoughts.  They will be away in a couple of days time and not back until mid-January.  Electronic communication will be the order of the day.  

 

With my usual quite busy Sunday evening schedule including cooking, cleaning and ironing I have less time to dwell on recent events but I suspect damage has been done to the fragile recovery from previous dark corners of the mind.  Tomorrow, if nothing else, I have four hours at the House of Fun to keep me fully occupied.  After that I need to speak with those people I mentioned above which will raise the ire of Friday night once more.

 

Thank you for listening.  

 

Now back to the storyline.

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather dark little village a long long way from any branch of Ikea.   A rather good night was had last night at our Christmas meal.   We ended up with 4 French, 1 Portuguese and 7 English of which 4 were northerners and the rest were southrons.  Beth and the other two wives did the cooking and we just did the eating.   It worked out at 11 Euros per head though we all chipped in to treat the 91 year old former mayor (Also a retired railwayman) and his 93 yr old bit of stuff.   A lot of liquid was consumed and Beth and I finally got home about 01.15.

 

Today has been cleaning an tidying up after we'd walked over to fetch the cars.  Beth had to take a lot of food stuffs and I had to collect one of the French who lives a little way out of the village. Neither of us were fit to drive home.  The ironing was then done and one or two others tasks.

 

This afternoon after I had done some clearing up in the shed I spray painted the frames on my 2F apart from that not a lot though some eyelid inspection was done by the boss.

 

Tomorrow we set off back for the UK.   It's a strange feeling going back there for a holiday.  Though it will be good to see the kids and especially Rachel and bump.  She's now about 21 weeks and doing well.  

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Purley Oaks]

Evening all.

 

Apologies for not having done more than skim through the weekend's proceedings.  Things have been a mite upsan-down since we last spoke

 

Friday night should have involved a delivered meal at home followed by drinks out.  We duly ordered and waited only to receive an email advising our food had been delivered.  But it had not been delivered to us.  We made contact with Deliveroo who we ordered through who, by means of their customer service live chat, effectively called us liars and con-people and firmly asserted the food had been delivered.  We asked the restaurant by phone to confirm and they too said it had been sent but - because we used Deliveroo - our claim was with that outfit and not against the restaurant.  We tried reasoning with Deliveroo again.  We tried asking them to confirm the address the food had been delivered to.  We attempted to have them check with their delivery person for a description of the address delivered to.  All to no avail.  They argued - and in very abrupt terms - that the food had been delivered to us and that was that.

 

After further exchanges between ourselves, the restaurant and Deliveroo we received differing versions of their stories.  Somehow it appeared our order had been delivered to an unattended address where their delivery person had waited ten minutes before abandoning and (version 2.1) leaving the food on the doorstep or (version 2.2) taking it back and leaving it with a homeless person.  We checked every doorstep in the block - unsurprisingly there was no food on any doorstep.

 

We were refused a refund.  We were called liars by Deliveroo.  We were tired and hungry.  Deliveroo eventually terminated the live chat and we found our account had been suspended.  

 

We rang the restaurant again, something like 90 minutes after we should have received the order.  They were happy to make the order again and deliver it personally but we would need to pay them.  As we had already paid for the same order I refused.  They told me I could F*** off because we had wasted their time.

 

Very sorry to read about your trials and tribulations, Rick. I haven't used Deliveroo and don't intend to start anytime soon, but a couple of thoughts spring to mind - why didn't the Deliveroo rider check the address with base once he/she discovered the delivery address was empty? And had someone been in at that address would they have checked the payment card to ascertain identity? Our son's off/on gf has had Indian banquets delivered to us at 2am just to get us out of bed - this was a few years ago, though. We sent it back but the delivery guy wasn't happy - no tip, either!

 

Deliveroo should certainly not have accused you of fraud; it all sits uncomfortably with Andyram's saga - a fraudster who received the ordered goods sent bona fide by Andyram, and you who missed a meal because of incompetence somewhere along the way.

 

Not a good start to a weekend; hope tmrw goes a whole lot better

 

Mal

edited for spelling

Edited December 16, 2018 by Purley Oaks

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Sorry to hear of your experience with Deliveroo Rick - after similar nonsense with a well known purveyor/deliverer of pizzas which names its business after a long established game involving things with dots on I have little or no trust in many of these alleged food deliverers.  The only one we've come across that was really good was one of the local 'Indian' restaurants but their food has gone down the swanee big time since HM Immigration Service paid them a visit and a major reduction of kitchen staff occurred.

 

Tesco was as expected in terms of other customers  with some ranging from the Greater Spotted Aisleblockingwomble to downright idiots and selfish oafs.  No doubt things will get worse as the week progresses!

[AndyID]

More on Deliveroo here.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

UK re-connected to civilisation.  That was a wild night.  39 trees down.

 

Rick, sorry to hear your tale, I hope matters improve promptly.

 

A morning of helping (or trying to) Jayne as her boiler has conked out - looks like an electrical failure.  Then off to dodge the aisleblockerwombles, wasn't too bad. A quick lunch at a local café afterwards as we couldn't be ar$ed, then pour intention was to have a walk but of course, Ils pleut as Jamie may say.  (Grammar likely incorrect - failed O level French).

 

A wasted sort of weekend feeling.

[lightengine]

Rick, can't help thinking that when Deliveroo said they would take action against you and you then did/said nothing back, they will automatically think that they were right in their assertion.

[New Haven Neil]

That's rotten Neil, but despite that it might not be too late. Feet are pretty much immobilized in ski boots and there isn't a lot of hip action either. It's all about gradual weight transfer from one ski to the other. Possibly not so different from riding a motor bike. Failing that there are even recumbent skis that don't require any leg/foot action at all.

 

I'm really not athletic and I only started skiing in earnest in my forties, but it is an incredibly exhilarating sport and it gave me an immense sense of achievement when I was able to go down the bunny slopes without falling, and it helped me keep my chien noir in its kennel (sorry Shona). For anyone who has ever experienced a "flying dream", skiing is the next best thing. You sort of think "I'm going over there" and you do without any apparent effort.

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

I'm not aware of any artificial slopes here Andy, we don't have much call for that sort of thing as our population isn't large enough.  Despite the mountain being called Snaefell, it doesn't really get much snow!  We have only had two significant snowfalls here in the 16 years we have lived here. However, when it does.....

 

 

Funnily enough, this is right outside of the house belonging to the family of the Canadian  ski-er chap I mentioned!  They don't currently stay there, but will in a couple of years when he retires.

[newbryford]

 

Rick, can't help thinking that when Deliveroo said they would take action against you and you then did/said nothing back, they will automatically think that they were right in their assertion.

 

Rick - whack your complaint on their social media pages.

 

Golf today was a much warmer affair than yesterday. Managed to climb to about 7 C.

Finished 5th out of 20, but our team was first.

So a good day was had and the M6/M56 wasn't too full of families on C*******s visits.

 

I may go and do some mudelling.

 

Have a good week folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

edit: spillunk

Edited December 16, 2018 by newbryford

[bbishop]

Sorry to read of Andy's and Risk's problems.

 

Meanwhile still in igloo-land, hopefully heat will return tomorrow.

 

Bill

[Barry O]

we have one ringitandbrinit we use in Leeds. It always takes 45 minutes but is always on time and what we order.  Other than making sure I don'y knock deliveroo cyclists and moped riders of their cycles of chose I have never used them..and won't be either! Do we need to send some of the ERs around to adjust their attitude I wonder?

 

 

Need a drink..pub visit off tonight as its is chuckinitdarn so time for ...some form of alcoholic drink!

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

We went to over this Enfield, had lunch and afternoon tea with MiL and drove home without incident.

We have a few cards to post to neighbours. Our neighbours who were due to set off to Wales now don’t know what they are doing. They now have there own car back. They were trying to fit in a visit to see their daughter and grandchildren. The daughter and children wanted to come to Essex but no longer have a car capable of transporting 3 humans and three Labradors. So the neighbours were going to go and fetch them after staying a while with them in Wales. Then one grandchild had to be back for her part time job, but is now redundant. Then their daughter was off to A&E with suspected appendicitis, almost resulting in an immediate departure to Wales! Neighbours are in their 70s and are not having a quiet retirement. Aditi and I are somewhat younger and couldn’t cope with all that.

Tony

[jamie92208]

Evening.

 

UK re-connected to civilisation.  That was a wild night.  39 trees down.

 

Rick, sorry to hear your tale, I hope matters improve promptly.

 

A morning of helping (or trying to) Jayne as her boiler has conked out - looks like an electrical failure.  Then off to dodge the aisleblockerwombles, wasn't too bad. A quick lunch at a local café afterwards as we couldn't be ar$ed, then pour intention was to have a walk but of course, Ils pleut as Jamie may say.  (Grammar likely incorrect - failed O level French).

 

A wasted sort of weekend feeling.

 

Never mind about the French Neil, I only scraped an O Level at Grade 6 (The lowest level of pass).  I found my school reports during the move and was consistent at French, 23rd or 24th out of 24 throughout my school career.   

 

Rick, very sorry to hear about your saga.   I will certainly not be using Deliveroo.   Fortunately we don't have such services here in La France Profonde, as Smiffy would say.  Tonights meal was a Beth special concoction of prawn stir fry with the left over dauphinoise style potatoes from last night, so in a way it was a takeaway as we had to bring said spuds from the other side of the village.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Rudgate Ruby Mild.....

 

Bliss!

 

Baz

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Gwiwer]

We have a choice of delivery services living where we do.  I have never liked nor trusted Deliveroo.  I saw their methods in Melbourne and I saw the way they care for your orders there and here.  They don't We have used them a couple of times before and everything arrives in a mess probably because it has been transported at 45 degrees in a cyclist or motor-cyclist's back-pack.  I have even seen them riding down subway stairs in Melbourne.

 

So I would have used Just Eat who have always been good.  SWMBO preferred a restaurant which deals with Deliveroo and thus began the ongoing saga.

 

On Saturday night we did end up ordering a Turkish meal from the place I chose via Just Eat.  It arrived in 27 minutes against an estimate of 60, was delivered with a friendly smile and thanks, was piping hot and was perfectly enjoyable.  Except for the languishing memory of the previous night and what should have been. 

 

Thank you for the various messages of support.  This isn't going to just lie down despite the cash loss to ourselves being modest.  It was the way we were treated by not one but several of Deliveroo's people with whom we engaged in live chat and their ongoing refusal - 48 hours later - to accept any possibility that their rider had mad a mistake.  We are still being told we were out and the rider got no reply.  We were in and looking out for them.  They clearly went to the wrong address and not even to one in our block.  Because we did a walk-round and no-one had food left on the doorstep as they have suggested.

 

I have had enough of it for another day.  It is time to attempt sleep.

 

Good night all.  Best wishes.