Cheerfully unhelpful suppliers

[Another Dave]

Bugger. Now you've made me grey out myself :(

Another Dave

[Andrew Mawson]

[Roger Chapman]

Just thought I would reply to AWEM's message but Thunderbird stripped that content out as a signature. ;-)

[Ghostrecon]

I think the point is you are replying after the '--' so its stripped out as a signature by many newsreaders

[Pete]

I would suggest that they are the sort who need to pay their mortgage, gas, leccy etc., etc., etc and aren't to proud to do such a job in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.

[Andrew Mawson]

OK Is this better? Windows Live Mail is far from ideal, and I'm having to run WLMQuotefix for each reply to sort the lack of quote '>' appendages. It puts a silly phase in - something like 'I promise to quote correctly in future' which I cut out, but I hadn't realised that the '--' was also inserted by WLMQuotefix !!!!

AWEM

[The Medway Handyman]

You reply was greyed out & doesn't appear in this post.

[Theo Markettos]

We have a shop like that... they would rummage about a bit, produce a 1970s shoebox and say "triode or pentode?".

Radio 4 is also played constantly at the pain threshold... this shop's almost an institution (in a good way, not in the lunatic asylum sense).

Theo

[Lobster]

Yes that's much better :)

[Another John]

Well said Pete. Notwithstanding the fact that some *do* enjoy it, I think that that sort are balanced, in my experience, by the ones who are prepared to be reasonable, allow latitude, and are merciful, if the target-pursuing boss isn't looking. (I live outside the big city, mind).

And let's not forget that the people who moan most about traffic wardens are usually the kind of tosser who parks his car/van/goods vehicle on double yellows "just for two minutes" and asserts that *he* (or she) is a special case to whom double yellows shouldn't apply.

As for the OP's "cheerfully unhelpful" suppliers: Yes, I've met these people, but often I find that their cheerfulness is the only way they have left, for dealing with the *shit management* above them, who have established policies in the teeth of the shop-floor staff who had protested long and hard that if they implemented the proposed policy, they wouldn't be able to do the job properly .... "ah, *screw* the customer!"[1] is frequently the attitude of such managements.

John

[1] "because *I*'m trying to run a business here, and besides: it's *you* that deals with the customers, not me, so *you* can take the shit that this will stir up, peasant! You're paid to do what you're told!"

[Ghostrecon]

yes much thank - you

[djc]

'Issues' aka 'bugs', so if you got something out of them it wouldn't work

[Bob Eager]

Oh, and that timber place in Strood, Medway...really weird.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , tony sayer writes

I am about to scrap some *ex. working order* Marconi moisture meters.

I think they used a 90V HT battery and a stack of PP9s for the heaters.

The operation must be something like a Wheatstone bridge with the ground cereal forming the unknown resistance.

Free to good home:-)

>

[Steve Walker]

In my first "proper" job as an Engineer, I was loaned to the Test Department for a couple of periods adding up to 12 months, testing very large industrial compressors. Because the TD often started early and/or finished late or worked weekends and multi-million pound items were hanging around that couldn't be delayed, we were permitted to "raid" the stores whenever we wanted and we had direct access from our area, bypassing their gates and fence - they absoltely hated us!!!!

SteveW

[geoff]

Copied and pasted"

Having moved from 'the big smoke' into rural East Sussex, I find that local suppliers including those that are big chains are in fact very helpful in comparison to where we were. They have the time to discuss and in several case suggest an alternative supplier if they couldn't help. It really is a refreshing change.

Have you ever thought of being cheerfully helpful and putting your message ABOVE your sig sep?

[Andrew Mawson]

Geoff,

See post in this thread regarding WLMQuotefix

AWEM

[damduck-egg]

I'll raise you having the key to a brewery sample room at the ripe old age of 19. Only the head brewer and a I think a foreman had easy access to others. I had it so I could take QC samples. We had a student away from home at the time of her 21st,Conveniently the Head Brewer and his cohorts had gone to a conference for a day or two so given that window of opportunity we held a party for her in the sample room after work. Can genuinely say I have held a piss up in a Brewery.

G.Harman

[geoff]

In message , Andrew Mawson writes

I saw all the other relevant posts after mine had hit the aether

[McGyver]

Here are two stories to the contrary:

1. I went to a drug store to get a battery for a clock. The battery looks like a coin. I searched the battery department displays and couldn't find the right one. A clerk, looking like the sort of person who would steal my car with me in it, said "What chew wan?" I said "A battery for this clock." He examined the battery and looked through his stock thoroughly and couldn't find the right one by part number. He started over and this time found a battery of the right voltage but not exactly the right size. He said "Lemmee see if this fits." He took the new battery our of the package and put it in the clock and it worked. He put my old battery in the package the new one came out of and said: "Use this package to pay for it. If that new battery stops working, you bring it right back in here and we'll take it back because we sold you the wrong one."
2. I went to a hardware store carrying in my hand an obscure part out of a gas stove. As I walked in, a female clerk, approximate age 14, said "I know what that is, follow me." She led me to the dungeon shelves, rooted around until she found two of the gadgets. She said: "This one is exactly like yours. This other one is better and more expensive. But the one you brought in is really old, and that old stove isn't going to outlast the cheaper part. So I would buy the cheaper one. It will work fine."

My guess is that my two examples more nearly represent the majority than yours. I hope so.

McGyver