After a better night I watched an
episode of “The Good Place” before having my usual peer into the
Internet. This morning I had a rather snotty message from the chap who sold me
a Lego model Cadillac last September. On the day when I put the thing together
I wrote here “To be honest I could have made the
car in a fraction of the time had I not needed to keep popping to my Lego store
to get spare parts. Am I being unfair in expecting that when I buy a Lego set
from eBay, it should be complete?”. I gave the
chap neutral feedback about it on eBay, and now (seven months later)
he’s got the hump and wanted me to contact Facebook to amend what I wrote.
As the day went on I found myself
exchanging emails with this seller. He maintained that what he'd sold me was a
complete set. I took the line that bits were missing (because they were).
From his point of view I was in the
wrong for not giving him a glowing report.
From my point of view he sold me
something that was not as was described and then took seven months to respond
to my complaint which he then denied entirely.
In the end I offered to contact the
people at eBay and ask them to change my initial neutral feedback of "Item
was not complete" to a negative feedback of "Item was not
complete. Seller took seven months to respond, then did so with a stream of confrontational
messages". I think this has effectively closed the matter.
In over six hundred transactions on eBay
I've only had a handful of bad experiences, but I suppose no matter where you
shop there will be instances when things don't go smoothly. But doesn’t this sum up all that is wrong with the “feedback”
mentality? The accepted etiquette is that you give full marks no matter how
crappy the goods or service received. Whenever I buy an e-book on Amazon the
thing always comes with a plea from the author to give them a five-star rating.
I know of a few authors whose e-books have got such five star ratings from
their mates (who haven’t even read the books that they’ve rated). I
can’t help but wonder how many people gave my eBay fellow a good review because
that is the expected thing to do even though their purchase wasn’t what they
were hoping for?
I saw my father-in-law was still posting
misinformation on Facebook about the dangers of 5G technology. There is a
crackpot group in Hastings who are trying to scare the masses about the
possible dangers of 5G technology despite their so called “scientific
evidence” showing a really fundamental misunderstanding of science. What
they are saying is akin to claiming that all insurance is bad because a
third-party insurance policy on your motorbike doesn’t cover water damage from
a leaking washing machine.
I have a theory that the person leading
this campaign doesn’t wasn’t a 5G mast built near her house because it might
block her views.
I might be wrong… I wonder how I might find
out.
As I drove to work this morning the
pundits on the radio were talking about the Prime Minister having been admitted
to hospital last night. His bout of illness with the corona virus had taken a
turn for the worse, and I found myself thinking about the chap today.
Boris Johnson would seem to be making a
fair stab at being Prime Minister; better than I thought he would. Several
times over the last few years I said that Teresa May had made such a stuff-up
of Brexit that whoever took over would be seen as the saviour of the nation,
and judging by his election victory last year Boris was certainly seen as that.
His recent firm stance about social distancing has shown him to be a decisive
leader where others might have dithered. Now he's gone down with the disease
himself, self-isolated, been admitted to an NHS hospital, and with reports that
he's been given oxygen he really is being seen to be suffering with the rest of
us.
Rightly or wrongly, unless he deliberately
makes a total tits of things, he will probably go down in history as one of the
most popular Prime Ministers ever.
With dog food being in short supply at
home I went to Sainsburys before work where there was already a queue forming.
I joined the queue to find that (yet again) my "idiot magnet"
was working at full power. I was directly behind a "rather delightful
fellow" who was loudly ranting about how he'd come to get the shopping
even though he had no idea what to get. He was not at all happy that Sainsbury's
have announced a policy that only one person per family needs to go shopping.
Everyone knows (so this chap was telling everyone) that both he and his
wife have to come shopping together. Apparently (like most women!) she
can't be allowed to drive, and (like most men!) he can't do the shopping
because it is "women's work"(!) He explained in great
detail and at great volume to everyone within fifty yards how he'd made a
decision. Because she would stuff up the driving more than he would stuff up the
shopping, he'd left his wife at home whilst he came out. (I would have
thought that he could have driven her to the car park and then stayed sitting
in the car whilst she shopped, but I wasn't going to get into a conversation
with the chap).
After fifteen minutes of this idiot
repeating the same old tired misogynistic drivel the supermarket doors opened,
and a call went out to NHS workers in the queue who were invited in half an
hour before everyone else. It was with something of a sense of relief that I
was first one through the door this morning. As I went in I could hear the
idiot arguing with the Sainsbury's staff claiming that because he should be
regarded as a "key worker" because his wife wasn't with him
and it takes him ages to do the shopping.
I got what I needed; dog food and spuds.
Heavy stuff. As I passed the bakery counter I saw yet more supermarket staff
doing themselves no favours at all. One chap had asked a question of the woman
behind the bakery counter. She replied "We don't answer customer's
questions any more".
And the supermarket staff wonder why the
public get cross with them.
I went in to work. It was a colleague's
birthday today. We had cake. And with my bit done I came home.
"er indoors TM"
is out with the dogs. I wonder what’s for dinner…
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