Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[TordelBack]

Is it really necessary for the police helicopter to hover low over my house shaking my windows and blaring its strobe lights through my blinds every night?

[Dark Jimbo]

Depends what you're up to, I suppose.

[Jim_Campbell]

Is it really necessary for the police helicopter to hover low over my house shaking my windows and blaring its strobe lights through my blinds every night?

Should I not have rung the Police and fingered ye as a Fenian Bastard? Oops! My bad.

Sorry!

Jim

[TordelBack]

Right about now I'd settle for the Owlship or PSU Spy-in-the-Sky cameras, hell even Blue Thunder perving on my naked yoga sessions, just something that doesn't wake the kids and freak out the dog!

[johnnystress]

I used to say the same..until they got enough evidence and then, well it was a fair cop

housemate.not me
I used to say the same..until they got enough evidence and then, well it was a fair cop

housemate.not me Undecided

also I now live beside a small airport, and now, the dog that put up with police raids, drunk punks, off their tits ravers, drunk scumbags..has now developed an issue with helicopters

bah

it's hard to live on the leafy 'burbs

[johnnystress]

double post..

EDIT

ah here

tech people please sort out this forum-thanks

[Banners]

For the last few weeks we've been working on a DVD for our biggest client. The company who were lined up to make the DVD itself (and who we usually use for stuff like this) have been brilliant - providing quotes and help along the way.

We came to place the order this morning, only to be told that due to 'unforseen circumstances' they could not meet our deadline. To be fair, this wasn't their fault and I was glad they were honest enough to tell me.

So, I hit Google and found somewhere else. Via email, they offered a great price but said they needed our master disc tomorrow (Fri) in order to hit our deadline. They also asked for a cheque for the full amount (several hundred pounds) which was to be made out to a different company name. No problem.

So, I went to the Post Office and asked for Special Delivery in order to send the DVD and cheque. However, the Post Office could not find the address of this company in their database. So I called them on my cell.

The landline wouldn't connect. I eventually got through to a mobile where a chap (who I'm sure was driving) reassured me that they could be found at the address they'd given me. So, I wasn't to worry - just send it...

The (wonderful) Post Office clerk though insisted the address didn't exist, and if I still wanted to send the disc, it would have to be via regular mail. She also inferred, but couldn't say officially, that she would advise against sending anything to a company who didn't exist on their system.

It was only then that the alarm bells started to ring, so I walked away without sending the disc and ripped up our cheque.

Now I don't know if this company is legit or not, but it's a lot of faith to put in an organisation whose address doesn't check out via what is I assume is the most authoritative source on the planet. I now need to look elsewhere of course.

Did I do the right thing? Or have I risked missing our deadline because I wouldn't trust the little guy whose company is being unfairly punished by a dodgy database?

M@

[Colin YNWA]

From what you said it sounds entirely liek the right and wise thing to do!

[TordelBack]

From what you said it sounds entirely liek the right and wise thing to do!

Yup.  Been stung this way before ourselves - hired (we thought) by a respectable mid-sized company, did the job but couldn't get paid and they stopped answering the phone, so I wrote a formally snotty letter to the registered MD who was on the phone 5 minutes after getting it.  No connection whatsoever with our 'clients', who just happened to be using an identical business name for an ostensibly identical business.  Still pursuing the €13K that cost us more than a year later.

Nowadays I check new clients/suppliers out in the Companies Office - don't know how it works in the Ooo-Kay, but they should have an online service, with instant access to registered address, directors and accounts summaries for a few quid.  At the very least you can check that the business addresses agree, and that they are registering annual accounts.

[Peter Wolf]

From what you said it sounds entirely liek the right and wise thing to do!

Yup.  Been stung this way before ourselves - hired (we thought) by a respectable mid-sized company, did the job but couldn't get paid and they stopped answering the phone, so I wrote a formally snotty letter to the registered MD who was on the phone 5 minutes after getting it.  No connection whatsoever with our 'clients', who just happened to be using an identical business name for an ostensibly identical business.  Still pursuing the €13K that cost us more than a year later.

Nowadays I check new clients/suppliers out in the Companies Office - don't know how it works in the Ooo-Kay, but they should have an online service, with instant access to registered address, directors and accounts summaries for a few quid.  At the very least you can check that the business addresses agree, and that they are registering annual accounts.

Try Dun and Bradstreet:


http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:SR_a7hSXvkAJ:www.dnb.co.uk/+dunn+and+bradstreet&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

[I, Cosh]

Nowadays I check new clients/suppliers out in the Companies Office - don't know how it works in the Ooo-Kay, but they should have an online service, with instant access to registered address, directors and accounts summaries for a few quid.  At the very least you can check that the business addresses agree, and that they are registering annual accounts.

Companies House is what you want.

Search Here

[Banners]

Cheers fellas - will get it sorted in the end (I hope)...

:-)

M@

[Tiplodocus]

For some reason Mrs Tips decided we needed a set of Chef's knives. (Never mind the fact that are geared to slicing meat and we are (mostly) vegetarian.)

So she decided to buy them off a bloke who was selling them out the back of a van at her work the other day.  Quite a few people in her work place also purchased them. 9 pieces - in a case - £30. 

"You're all doing us a big favour as we are just going into liquidation so we need to shift as much of this really high quality stock as possible for a knock down price." was his patter.

As soon as I looked at I though "Uh Oh". That looks like the Victorinox logo tacked onto a company named "Swiss Tech" pretending to be a quality product.

One internet search later and we can't turn up "Swiss Tech" (as expected but "Swiss-Tech" do make a very nice multi-tool apparently).

So it looks like she's paid £30 for some fake make knives.  Now the quality may not actually be that bad (after all, a lot of what you pay for is NAME and REPUTATION). But they do feel a little light and ting a bit when you bash them on the work surface.

She's so much more brilliant (and attractive and sexy) than me in absolutely every aspect of life that I'm amazed any sense of logic appears to have deserted her on this occassion.

Still £30 for knives may not be too bad - as long as they don't go blunt too quickly.


(I once applied for a job in Music Marketing that turned out to be flogging dodgy speakers from teh back of a van in and around central scotland.  I warned the target punters off every sale as soon as I was alone with them and reported the company to the police but nothing ever seemed to be done about it).

[Colin YNWA]

I once applied for a job in Music Marketing that turned out to be flogging dodgy speakers from teh back of a van in and around central scotland.  I warned the target punters off every sale as soon as I was alone with them and reported the company to the police but nothing ever seemed to be done about it.

Christ I knew someone when I was a student in Sheffield who got sucked into this exact con! Either its a classic or these fella's were well travelled?

[Dandontdare]

So she decided to buy them off a bloke who was selling them out the back of a van at her work the other day.  Quite a few people in her work place also purchased them. 9 pieces - in a case - £30.  

I once bought a set of screwdrivers off one of those young guys with big holdalls and shiny suits in a pub, dozens of them in a plastic case with a handle, all for about three quid or so. The first time I tried to unscrew something I ended up with a yellow handled corkscrew. I swear they must have been made of aluminium.