Curry's. - Do NOT buy anything from them at the moment.

[Phil Pascoe]

Oh for the good old days when you could only buy your cooker from the electicity board shop and waited a year for a phone if you were lucky.

 

[AES]

Re Post #140:
You really ARE, IMO, a total nit wit TN! NOBODY said everything is OK (and NOTE please, I NEVER, EVER use the word awesome). (BTW, just where HAS that hammer thingy that we used to have gone to)?

Know what, I will make a prediction (or a series of if you like):

At some time in the future some BAD stuff will happen. Also at some time in the future, some GOOD stuff will happen. And know what? Despite the BAD stuff that will happen, and because of the GOOD stuff that will happen, the human race WILL still survive, changed maybe (as always) but survive nevertheless - even olive oil growers.

Now PLEASE stop this continual doom and gloom and at least go and enjoy your movie. You really ARE beginning to get on my mammaries (because you just keep harping on and on with the same perpetual gloom).

 

[AES]

Oh for the good old days when you could only buy your cooker from the electicity board shop and waited a year for a phone if you were lucky.

Well Phil, it's a good long time ago now, but although I was only about 10 at the time, I seem to remember there were also some very attractive-looking ladies in the South Eastern Electricity Board showrooms too! And while I'm not completely sure how it was down in the Southwest, I'm not very surprised you had to wait a year for your phone if you ordered it in the electricity board shop. Ours came from the GPO! (can't find the "taking the mickey - but gently - smiley", sorry).

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Re Post #140:
You really ARE, IMO, a total nit wit TN! NOBODY said everything is OK (and NOTE please, I NEVER, EVER use the word awesome). (BTW, just where HAS that hammer thingy that we used to have gone to)?

Know what, I will make a prediction (or a series of if you like):

At some time in the future some BAD stuff will happen. Also at some time in the future, some GOOD stuff will happen. And know what? Despite the BAD stuff that will happen, and because of the GOOD stuff that will happen, the human race WILL still survive, changed maybe (as always) but survive nevertheless - even olive oil growers.

Now PLEASE stop this continual doom and gloom and at least go and enjoy your movie. You really ARE beginning to get on my mammaries (because you just keep harping on and on with the same perpetual gloom).

"Lighten up, Francis".

;-)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember my mother waiting for several months for a phone because her new house was on the corners of three adjoining telephone exchange areas and none of the three wanted to install it as it entailed hundreds of yards of wire. She had one area code, the house to one side had another and the house behind hers had another. This was very late '70s as things were getting a little better.

 

[billw]

Try doing it as part of QC on government dept helplines like DWP, Student Loans and a few others; totally soul destroying and at times heartbreaking

I had to claim travel expenses back from Student Loans Company this year. To say it was utterly soul-destroying is an understatement. Could not believe how difficult they tried to make things, especially when they give you virtually no guidance to start with and then dispute everything for not having the right paperwork.

 

[scrimper]

@scrimper that's all well and good except you are talking about a bygone age when technology was simple and limited. That model simply won't won't today, technology is vast and ever changing.
Customer service is still (fairly) important but the kind of shopping experience you are talking about died decades ago and will never return.

Surely you have just reinforced my point, now that technology is much more sophisticated many people would like some good old fashioned service to help them out. I don't say this to be unkind but I know many older people who are totally confused when setting up new products today with their complex menu systems.

 

[Rorschach]

Surely you have just reinforced my point, now that technology is much more sophisticated many people would like some good old fashioned service to help them out. I don't say this to be unkind but I know many older people who are totally confused when setting up new products today with their complex menu systems.

I am not saying people wouldn't like it, I am sure there are plenty who would. I am saying there are not enough to make it financially viable and they are getting fewer every day.

 

[billw]

I believe the situation the high street finds itself in is the direct ultimate end state of capitalist consumerism, nothing else matters but price. Every generation since the end of WW2 has been bombarded with this most central tenet of consumerism. Hence the continuous decline in the build quality and longevity of the things we have. After all consumerism doesn't work if there is no need to replace what you have. So built in obsolescence has become the norm meaning ever cheaper parts and production methods that favour the mass producer and consequently the wholesaler at the expense of the little guy both in manufacture and retail.

This is pretty much the sum of it.

 

[billw]

I am not saying people wouldn't like it, I am sure there are plenty who would. I am saying there are not enough to make it financially viable and they are getting fewer every day.

Which is centrally the argument about bank branches. My entire financial life sits on my iphone, I have absolutely zero reason to ever walk into a physical banking location. Within 30 years banks will have completely vanished as the last of the generation who, for whatever reason, can't/won't use electronic banking are gone.

My local town centre is full of boarded-up shops, the large chains are mostly gone and the one or two who remain I doubt will bother renewing their leases. There's talk of renovating it but in my eyes I'd just knock the whole thing down and build flats. Maybe have a niche retail area for small firms who pay rent only as a percentage of their sales to give them a fighting chance of survival.

I haven't missed wandering around the shops for the last 5 months, Amazon and Ebay provide 90% of what I want and the other 10% I just go to whatever brand's website I need. Returns have to be paid for by the seller, so what have I got to lose if I don't like or want it?

 

[johnbaz]

Some years ago we bought a high spec laptop from Curries, It came with a six month antivirus, I think it was called Bullguard, This activated when it was started up..

Bear in mind that technology flies right over my head!

One month after we'd bought it we got loads of viruses, It turned out that someone had been using it inside the shop and had activated it so it ran out when We had it four weeks later, It also had quite a few dead pixelson the screen, we wnet back with it to get a refund, They spunus all sorts of tales and in essence said, We'd bu**ered it up and would entertain a refund!

Now bear in mind that technology flies right over my head!

My eldest lad is a dab hand with computers so he took it back and thirty minutes later he gave us our money back!, He shot them down with everything they said apparently so they couldn't refuse!!

I've never been near the place since!!


John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My nearest town has two what were "main" streets that are on quite steep hills. The road that bisects them is virtually flat and are minor, badly laid out (messes of) streets. Common sense would tell anyone the flat streets should be the main streets, but many of the roads were built to align with an estate that held nearly all the land three, four, five, six hundred years ago with London.
Towns and cities were not designed and built to suit 2020 and will have to be changed.

 

[Jake]

Returns have to be paid for by the seller, so what have I got to lose if I don't like or want it?

For now. as of next year the big online retailers will be lobbying hard for that to be dropped.

 

[billw]

For now. as of next year the big online retailers will be lobbying hard for that to be dropped.

Yeah and in some circumstances I agree with their grievances, e.g. clothing retailers having to send tons of items out to a customer for them to try out and then return the ones they don't like. Hopefully some of them will come up with sensible policies that mean serial returners have to pay but those who only sparingly return stuff aren't unduly penalised.

 

[artie]

billw said:
Returns have to be paid for by the seller, so what have I got to lose if I don't like or want it?

I don't believe the retailer has to pay the return cost unless the goods are faulty or not as described.

 

[Rorschach]

billw said:
Returns have to be paid for by the seller, so what have I got to lose if I don't like or want it?

I don't believe the retailer has to pay the return cost unless the goods are faulty or not as described.

You are correct, under distance selling regulations sellers are only liable for return costs on items that are faulty or sold with a false description. If you simply do not like the item then you are responsible for the return costs.

 

[Jackbequick]

If cities aren't commercial hubs, what is their point? People flocked to the cities because there wasn't any work for them in the villages - population growth and increased farming efficiency meant no work, inheritance laws gave the land to the eldest son, but luckily the industrial revolution had had a need for desperate, starving peasants in large numbers. That is no longer the case, so why live in a city?

Interesting changes to come...

The overpopulation was hanged from the age of 6 onwards . The Y shaped gibbet entertained the lunchtime crowds at Tyburn. Many 'criminals' trying to survive or pinching some minor item or upsetting some 'upper-class' precieuse were sent to Australia where shockingly hundreds including children were maltreated, whipped, hanged .

Cities growing suit politicians, financiers importers and small businesses ...in a sense they are invaluable but culture destroying.

One expensive apartment building I wired in Sydney had kitchens with only an outlet for a microwave..why?? "because the sort of professionals who will live here will eat out or eat take-away". Phew!!...

Cities do offer a sort of 'life be in it' but there comes a point where the beauty becomes shadows. I recall as an apprentice working Sundays in Sydney city, the European migrants dressed typically in brown striped suits, with children and "Missus'...walking in the early morning the almost otherwise deserted streets.

We all connected back then being so much the same, unlike now when Australians struggle to be tolerant when accused of 'isms' by the pious and sanctimonious bored new breed.

An experiment was tried to make Bathurst a central business hub but it failed. The problems setting aside 'committed' people or those who should be really do come from overpopulation and selling the place out which Australia is well engaged in doing. Read "Clancy of the Overflow", Sydney and London had similarities.

 

[Endy]

Like many others, I try and buy locally, but I draw the line at Currys/PC World. I bought a colour laser printer (>£1000) from them, and had trouble getting it to work. After a month of it not working I complained and they said it was out of warranty. Although it was personal purchase, on a personal credit card, they had put it through their business sales team. The small print, which I only saw after the event, confirmed their goods only have a 30 day warranty. My solicitor said I stood no chance. Currys/PC World deserve to go bust.

I bought a new cooker for my wife, she had intimated to me that she would love a new white cooker like the one on display in Curry’s/PC World, the day came for delivery and she eagerly took a pair of scissors to remove the polythene wrap and polystyrene, there it stood in all its naked glory on a pallet, her face dropped!???? The cooker was the stainless steel model and would look totally out of place with the rest of her pristine white kitchen, they had sent the wrong one!!!! They totally and utterly refused to exchange it as the packaging had been removed, we had a long drawn out battle with them and got nowhere, I never bought there again.

 

[Jackbequick]

You are correct, under distance selling regulations sellers are only liable for return costs on items that are faulty or sold with a false description. If you simply do not like the item then you are responsible for the return costs.

I'm afraid you are, said kindly, dreaming ...try to get the return postage...eBay is a perfect example...The thing is you want your money back, they have it. They don't give a toss about you...little you. There is no enforceable obligation anywhere to return postage return costs, why would they?...The Postal service got the postage money, not the vendor unless he/she/it added some profit into the postage...which happens commonly on eBay. Amazon and Abe owe me money based on their claims but which I will never recover for goods which never arrived.

 

[Rorschach]

I'm afraid you are, said kindly, dreaming ...try to get the return postage...eBay is a perfect example...The thing is you want your money back, they have it. They don't give a toss about you...little you. There is no enforceable obligation anywhere to return postage return costs, why would they?...The Postal service got the postage money, not the vendor unless he/she/it added some profit into the postage...which happens commonly on eBay. Amazon and Abe owe me money based on their claims but which I will never recover for goods which never arrived.

Dreaming? I think not. You might have had trouble but I have not had any trouble. I buy a lot of things online for my business and have not had a problem in getting refunds of both the item and postage where applicable. I know how distance selling regulations work, I sell online as part of my job.

Maybe you would like to do some research before you come here and tell me I am wrong. The information is very easy to find.
In fact, here is a very good concise version:
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-ri...-contracts-regulations#returning-faulty-goods