More Empire Building Round Here.

[Evans Electric]

On the radio at the moment ,  the question of the nisnaming of Birmingham International  rail station .  I hear this sort of thing quite often  and posted a while ago  with the stupid (to me)  re-naming of a local polytec. 

It went through various name changes from North B,ham Polytechnic ...to ...University of Central England ..and now....

 .....  Birmingham City University   , not to be confused with  the long established Birmingham University  9 miles away.

Back to the rail station , if I was a stranger travelling to B,ham by rail , I could well get off at  B,ham International thinking I'd arrived in the city centre, only to find I was at Birmingham Airport , 8 miles away from the city. 

Some times my logic doesn't match with others but that should be named Birmingham Airport , thats why it was buit. 

Just in case anyone is heading for the city by train , its New Street Station you'll want .

Just seems daft to me .

 

[steptoe]

Deke, norn iron is the exact same,

Belfast international airport, [formerly Aldergrove] is in Antrim, about half an hour away from Belfast,

George Best airport [formerly Belfast harbour airport], is, surprisingly enough, in Belfast, near the 'old' docks.

go figure.

 

[ProDave]

Life's a lot simpler up here.

There's one train station in Inverness, and it's called "Inverness"

There's no station at Inverness airport (3 miles away) you can only get there by car, taxi or bus. Though the railway line passes within half a mile of the airport.

 

[Evans Electric]

Deke, norn iron is the exact same,

Belfast international airport, [formerly Aldergrove] is in Antrim, about half an hour away from Belfast,

George Best airport [formerly Belfast harbour airport], is, surprisingly enough, in Belfast, near the 'old' docks.

go figure.

Its crazy .

I also note a lot of companies who , when they have their vehicles liveried , must imagine they are so well known they don't need to say what they actually do . 

OK   There are major brands that everyone knows ,  BT,  British Gas , Virgin , Royal Mail.    But I see many  ...Bodgett & Scarper Ltd   Tel; 01212345678                  OK  give us a clue?       Eccles & Bluebottle  International .     HHmmm  must phone them .

 

[ProDave]

What about the people that phone you, leave a voice mail saying "phone me back on this number" (without leaving the number). My answer phone does not do CLI let alone do it and store the results for all the messages.

 

[steptoe]

I couldnt tell you the last time I listened to a voicemail,

I normally just delete them,

if its that important they will call me back.

 

[Evans Electric]

OUr landline answerphone is on all the time now  due to the daily barrage of international sales calls  from Asians called John , Dave  or Steve and  start the call with  " Hello  Mr. Eevens  I am from Microsoft & your computer has big trouble which I must fix "

99%  ring off  when answerphone kicks in .

 

[Sidewinder]

I once lost out on a £3k+ job by letting a call go to answer phone, then retrieving it hours later, it was a breakdown, & the client went elsewhere!

 

[Robin Spark]

The old dear who left me that 15minute voicemail called me back the other week.

I was just sitting down, late saturday afternoon, cuppa coffee and the phone rang.

"Oh hello Mrs C ", i said.

She is partially deaf, seemed panicky about her garage light not working so after a good 5 minutes on the phone it was easier for me just to get in the motor and go and see her! Got the light all sorted and then she asked if i knew a good decorator?

My cousin loved it when i passed on his card as she needed a decorator. She never let him be all day, and she changed her mind twice on the colour she wanted her window sills to be painted!

Still, i think she is a lovely old lady

 

[Sidewinder]

TBH, I have a lot of time for the elderly & confused in society, I could well be one of them one day, & generally they are not malicious, in my experience, but, they do need tradesmen who will look after them and not rip them off.

 

[septiclecky]

OUr landline answerphone is on all the time now  due to the daily barrage of international sales calls  from Asians called John , Dave  or Steve and  start the call with  " Hello  Mr. Eevens  I am from Microsoft & your computer has big trouble which I must fix "

99%  ring off  when answerphone kicks in .

Seems the norm now as on a another forum I go which is dedicated to the merchany navy one of the members made a comment about when he was over here visiting friends he posted that the number of houses he visitedeople would let the answer phone come on before they picked up a call

 

[batty]

Very true Sidey problem is the world is now full of shysters trying to make an easy buck not prepared to do an honest days work.

We have a call minder which displays the number ringing most calls are international or no number if it is a private number they will leave a message if its important. 

 

[Robin Spark]

TBH, I have a lot of time for the elderly & confused in society, I could well be one of them one day, & generally they are not malicious, in my experience, but, they do need tradesmen who will look after them and not rip them off.

Tbh i told her any problems to phone me and although i havent really made any money from doing work for her, its saved her risking going up her stepladders to change her florries.

I cant really justify callout charge for that and i told her that. However it was a young person just being lazy then that would be a different matter.

Very true Sidey problem is the world is now full of shysters trying to make an easy buck not prepared to do an honest days work.

We have a call minder which displays the number ringing most calls are international or no number if it is a private number they will leave a message if its important.

We now have caller display and any nuisance calls i block the number!

 

[Sidewinder]

Robin,

You can always say to her, look, put a little money in a special purse for me, what, you, feel the job is worth, then when I feel I have done enough work to get paid, you can give me the contents of the special purse.

IF it's too much, then I'll leave some in there, if it's not enough, that is my tough luck.

 

[Robin Spark]

Tbh sidey, im not that bothered. She gave my cousin 2 days work and then her mobile hairdresser also gave him some work at her house which is another 2 days worth of work.

My cousin has got me quite a bit of work in the past, so its all worked out ok.

 

[Sidewinder]

Robin,

I can see that & I have done that sort of thing before, but, you are running a business, you can't do too much for nowt.

It seems that I now do all the maintenance at the Chapel my kids go to, & I don't charge for my time, but, the family have to help!

Mind I don't mind, but there are benefits to this also, but, they are not in the shape of work for me as we are VAT Reg'd so it rules us out of domestic works really, plus our overheads mean that our rates are twice what it seems most Pt P muppets charge, and of course they are fully competent electricians.

One put heating in the Chapel, 15kW of it on one phase, on top of all the lighting, about 3kW, and the existing 12kW of heating.

It melted the head, then blew the main fuse!