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Brexit Blues


JohnD

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I've been trying to send a parcel to Germany.

I went to my local PO, and they said £27!

So, I took it down to my local corner shop, that I know is a Hermes drop-off point.     They say I must book the delivery online so I go home and do that.

I go back to the shop, and they scan the label, and then say they can't take it.  They don't know why. maybe because it's "International".

I go home, and try to talk to Hermes online.   Their idiot robot voice wants a tracking number, "its under the  bar code", which is hyphenated in several places.       Idiot robot won't accept it, so I ring my corner shop, who suggest without the hyphens.     Now, why didn't I think of that?   But a better question WHY DOES HERMES PUT THEM IN IF THEIR IDIOT ROBOT CANT UNDERSTAND THEM??

I ring the Hermes Idiot again, and it DOES understand the tracking number without the hyphens.    And then says, this is an International shipment, please go to Hermes International,   Good bye!

I go to Hermes International ..... but by this time I can't remember what happened.    Somehow their Idiot Robot went around in circles.   There is no way you can speak to a human at Hermes.

So, I start to think for other shippers.  ParcelForce quoted me £15!  Ah ha!   so I go back to the local PO with that quote, only to be told that the Gov sold ParcelForce years ago, and they can't accept it at that price.   So I go home and get onto Parcel Force.       When they ask me what's in it, and I say "used car parts" which it classifies as "Vehicle parts (miscellaneous".  THEY WON'T TAKE IT!!!!!!!!   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm returning a crank damper that I've tested for someone, so I look at the box it came in - DHL delivered it, so I get onto them!    £37 bloody quid!!!    But my client agrees, I pay for it online and get the SEVEN PAGES of printout that are needed, the instruction sheet and address label and FIVE COPIES of the customs declaration!   I stick them to the parcel and set off to the nearest DHL drop shop.   Now starts the really amusing bit.

At the first, Nah, mate, I don't do DHL.    Despite my showing him his shop and address listed on DHL's webpage.

But there are others, more distant,  but others.    At the next, Yessir!  we can take it!   Oh,oh.    the computer rejects it "Your parcel has not been recognised".     Despite my pointing out that the label was printed BY DHL, FROM THEIR WEBSITE, "not recognised".

There is a third Drop shop  further, but still a reasonable distance away, so back in the car and off we go.  And Lo!  Yes, we'll take that!   Thank you!!! and I even get a receipt.

Of course, like Hermes, DHL is inpenetrable behind an idiot robot voice, so I can't tell them of the inadequacies of thier appointed agents, but at least my client should get their part back ASAP!

And for me, it's time for a G&T!   That took from one until half past five.  Teeth of the gods, I have every sympathy for anyone trying to export their goods!   This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Brexit!

John

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Hi John,

I've given up with Hermes. I used to go out of my way to use them but my last experience has brought that to an end.

As you found there is nobody to talk to.  If you persist with the robot you may get a real person to send you an email. But they are useless.

A package I sent did not arrive.  OK perhaps I can claim the default "20 insurance - no bloody chance.  You need proof of value from Ebay. BUT !!!! it didn;t come from ebay or any other alphabetical bays.  I gave up.

A month later the package arrived at the correct address - but covertly. It was left on the door step without oa knock or anything.

At least it came home.

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Ah that brexit dividend…. That same one that has raised my company’s shipping costs from 4% to 15% of order value… plus the hidden costs of extra admin and chasing around.

Possibly some cost is also Covid related, but most not and the aggro is all brexit.

Youngest sons GF has a job offer in Majorca for a 6 month contract. Of course she needs a visa now….. (thanks to All the Piffle and his oven ready deal) and the processing time for these is currently about 8 months….

I seem to remember I asked those in favour of brexit to flag up a real benefit brought by it. Just one. I’m still waiting?

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1 hour ago, JohnD said:

And for me, it's time for a G&T!   That took from one until half past five.  Teeth of the gods, I have every sympathy for anyone trying to export their goods!   This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Brexit!

Well deserved John

21 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

I seem to remember I asked those in favour of brexit to flag up a real benefit brought by it. Just one. I’m still waiting?

Things do seem to be rather less than stellar at the moment don't they.

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It gets worse.

I sent my client an image of the address label, as it had the bar code tracking number etc.

He has replied, WRONG CITY!!!

There are diferences between addressing styles between Europe and UK, but I had used the five figure code he had included with his address.   Unlike the UK's six character post code that is unique to a street anywhere, it seems that different cities use the same number codes!   Oh, calamity!

As I said, it's impossible to contact DHL either.    I just must hope that they can work it out, else I can forget any propect of more work from that part of Europe.

John

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13 minutes ago, JohnD said:

It gets worse.

I sent my client an image of the address label, as it had the bar code tracking number etc.

He has replied, WRONG CITY!!!

There are diferences between addressing styles between Europe and UK, but I had used the five figure code he had included with his address.   Unlike the UK's six character post code that is unique to a street anywhere, it seems that different cities use the same number codes!   Oh, calamity!

As I said, it's impossible to contact DHL either.    I just must hope that they can work it out, else I can forget any propect of more work from that part of Europe.

John

Jeez! Is it too early for another G&T?

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A few years ago my younger son went on a cycling boot camp in southern Spain and stayed in a house on a development on the outskirts of one of the coastal towns. 

On this development of several hundred houses and dozens of roads, all the roads had the same name. Only the house number was unique.

Apparently this even challenged the local taxi drivers, many of who would insist on pickup and set down at the entrance to the estate.  
 

Absolutely barking mad…..

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In 1990 took the Spitfire on the ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge, to Berlin, then via Dresden to Prague, Salzburg, Munich and back through France and Belgium to Holland for the boat home.

In Prague we stayed in a B&B recommended by a friend of the friend we stayed with in Berlin. We met her in central Prague where I left her and my wife to get the underground to the B&B while I drove the car. Turned out that in the then Czechoslovakia they had normal house numbers but multiple streets with the same name in the suburbs which were identified by a number prefix. Only the piece of paper I had with the address was missing the street number and I was unaware of the multiple street business.

However I only discovered this after I was on my own and in a Prague housing estate looking for streets that were off the edge of my map. No mobile phones in those days. Stopped by a house where two men were rebuilding a garden wall. They couldn't speak English or German, only Czech. So as a fairly large crowd gathered to watch (this was right after the Wall came down and the Spitfire was on GB plates with the roof down)  a lot of sign language and waving arms explained to me the multiple streets with the same name thing and then how to get to the approximate area. After emptying the car of the various children that had climbed in off I went and found the place.

 

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That’s a great story, though I suspect more fun I’m memory than it was at the time :biggrin:

A bit like driving through through Turin in the aftermath of an epic thunderstorm, with the map sat nav and google all disagreeing about the route and the road we actually wanted being closed….. 

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This year I paid somewhere between €30-40 to receive a birthday present for my wife which had been sent from the UK.   Not sure how much the present was worth, but I wouldn't have said much more than that...

On 9/23/2021 at 11:46 PM, Nick Jones said:

Not sure we can entirely blame that on brexit......

I think you probably can :)  Ireland (both bits) didn't have a CO2 shortage and whilst they keep loudly claiming that the EU has a shortage of truck drivers too, this was true (for both the EU and the UK) pre-brexit/covid and there still seems plenty of petrol in the pumps and food on the shelves.

Anecdotally, I've just given up on trying to get anything from the UK and switched everything to EU based suppliers now.  I still have a (Euro denominated) UK based bank account because for some reason people in the UK insist on using sort codes and stuff instead of IBAN numbers :) But I just received a letter from them saying that they might close it as it's seen no activity for 12 months.

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It becomes ever clearer that whatever agenda our “leaders” have, running the country for the safety, convenience and prosperity of its people isn’t very high on it….

Whether this is a sheer incompetence and lack of understanding of the way the world actually works, or deliberately stacking the deck to advantage of a select few, that they may corner and hide yet more loot, isn’t entirely clear, possibly a mixture of both.

What I just can’t quite fathom is how they continue to largely get away with really hurting the country in so many ways, with stupid and downright cruel decisions, without much consequence to themselves. It is true that the opposition are a terrible disappointment, just a void in space, but you’d really think that the the general population might begin to notice minor matters like 150k + dead of Covid, gaps on shelves, rampant cost rises, general economic mayhem, and now what is basically a “run” on petrol stations because so many automatically assume the government is lying when they say there is no problem with fuel supply.  The huge irony is that for once they are basically telling the truth, and I suspect that the stupid bastards clogging petrol stations and creating the actual problem are the same ones who voted for them…..

Septic Isle, populated by the dim…..

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Ireland has no CO2 problem, because Guinness is stored under Nitrogen, not CO2!

It has been a constant feature of the UK, all my life, that politicians have 'solved' employment problems, the lack of candidates, by encouraging immigration.      I hope that this opinion will not damage my liberal political reputation.     Working alongside the thousands of Caribbean and South Asian colleagues in the NHS has shown me their professional competence and value as people.   In many cities, that black people made public transport function became a fact, although few made it into actual management.      Further back, textile workers were brought to the UK, paid a pittance and housed in the worst that could be found.      All the while, UK industries leant on trained people from the Old Empire, offered training to few natives, and did nothing to support those emerging nations whose workers they stole.

Now, in the face of a lack of HGV drivers, caused throughout Europe by poor pay, poor conditions and inadequate training, so that few young people enter the trade,  the politicians solution is to "waive visas" for them, in other words again to steal them from nations equally in need.   And this is from politicians who cry up the policies of the market, only not where demand requires employers to pay their workers more and treat them better.

But they are not alone in treating HGV drivers badly.    Because I tow my race car about the country, I often park in the lorry section of service stations.  This leads me to find the ways that drivers enter those and their accomodation areas, special sections of the cafeterias which are often segregated from those for the general public.     Apartheit, in the UK?    Surely not, but it is real!

JOhn

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7 hours ago, JohnD said:

Ireland has no CO2 problem, because Guinness is stored under Nitrogen, not CO2!

It has been a constant feature of the UK, all my life, that politicians have 'solved' employment problems, the lack of candidates, by encouraging immigration.      I hope that this opinion will not damage my liberal political reputation.     Working alongside the thousands of Caribbean and South Asian colleagues in the NHS has shown me their professional competence and value as people.   In many cities, that black people made public transport function became a fact, although few made it into actual management.      Further back, textile workers were brought to the UK, paid a pittance and housed in the worst that could be found.      All the while, UK industries leant on trained people from the Old Empire, offered training to few natives, and did nothing to support those emerging nations whose workers they stole.

Now, in the face of a lack of HGV drivers, caused throughout Europe by poor pay, poor conditions and inadequate training, so that few young people enter the trade,  the politicians solution is to "waive visas" for them, in other words again to steal them from nations equally in need.   And this is from politicians who cry up the policies of the market, only not where demand requires employers to pay their workers more and treat them better.

But they are not alone in treating HGV drivers badly.    Because I tow my race car about the country, I often park in the lorry section of service stations.  This leads me to find the ways that drivers enter those and their accomodation areas, special sections of the cafeterias which are often segregated from those for the general public.     Apartheit, in the UK?    Surely not, but it is real!

JOhn

John I don't think your liberal (in it's truest meaning) view are harmed by any of that. Rather reinforced.

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No one came knocking on my door as having a lapsed class 1 or c+e articulated lorry licence. 
just didn’t bother with paying for and having a medical after not using the licence for a bit. 
 

got to be easier to get a lapsed driver back in the driving seat than starting from zilch with a new driver.

Edited by Hamish
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20 minutes ago, Hamish said:

No one came knocking on my door as having a lapsed class 1 or c+e articulated lorry licence. 
just didn’t bother with paying for and having a medical after not using the licence for a bit. 
 

got to be easier to get a lapsed driver back in the driving seat than starting from zilch with a new driver.

You'd think Hamish but it would probably require a more imaginative approach which kind of goes against the grain. 

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Lapsed licence?    I gave up my doctor's registration, I thought at the right time.   You have to jump through a lot of hoops to keep it!

Then, when I started vaccinating people, I was asked to re-register.  Oh, dear, I thought, this will be fun!   But I emailed the General Medical Council and asked.   Certainly, they said, no problem!  You are re-registered!

So, if in theory I can do cardiac and brain surgery or deliver babies, can't they make it as easy to restore your HGV licence?

John

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2 hours ago, JohnD said:

So, if in theory I can do cardiac and brain surgery or deliver babies, can't they make it as easy to restore your HGV licence?

John

Hello John

                 It would pay for the racing! just one op per week in your garage(so as not to waste to much time away from the car!)

Roger

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Two post lift (not that I have one) and a pallet for the operating table, the gas axe instead of gas and air (it could sterilise the instruments too), overalls instead of those pansy gowns.    Stitch'em up with pop rivets.

Yes.  Yes, that would work!   Form an orderly queue now!   Surgery is already in short supply, don't panic!

John

 

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19 minutes ago, JohnD said:

Two post lift (not that I have one) and a pallet for the operating table, the gas axe instead of gas and air (it could sterilise the instruments too), overalls instead of those pansy gowns.    Stitch'em up with pop rivets.

Yes.  Yes, that would work!   Form an orderly queue now!   Surgery is already in short supply, don't panic!

John

 

Sounds like Young Frankenstein so should be good for a chuckle. 

Make a great 'how to' YouTube channel John  :D

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