Many UK Electronics engineers are doing nothing at work

[Simon]

ban me from what?

From the RS website?
Just kidding, Simon, no offense.

i banned myself from their website. If they want to attract engineers they should have a customer services team with an engineering background. Last time i rang to explain for the umteinth time that a lack of stock availability option in the search made the website near useless. She told me that is just the way it is, so i told her I was going elsewhere and that is just the way it is and hung up. Of course she gets paid regardless of me ordering or not and so do her managers until they start to piss their big customers off and more manufacturers start dealing direct.

[floobydust]

I like the troll-power of this thread 

Reminds me of the book I started reading Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
The author discusses useless jobs, why they are everywhere, and why they exist even in the private sector.
"He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, which becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth."

YouGov 2015 survey: 37% of surveyed Britons thought that their job is not making a meaningful contribution to the world.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom

[cdev]

Humanity is growing up. Leaving its adolescence and becoming adults.
Or not. Its our choice.

[cdev]

Here is David Graeber's original essay!

https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs

I like the troll-power of this thread 

Reminds me of the book I started reading Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
The author discusses useless jobs, why they are everywhere, and why they exist even in the private sector.
"He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, which becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth."

YouGov 2015 survey: 37% of surveyed Britons thought that their job is not making a meaningful contribution to the world.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom

[MrMobodies]

ban me from what?

From the RS website?
Just kidding, Simon, no offense.

i banned myself from their website. If they want to attract engineers they should have a customer services team with an engineering background. Last time i rang to explain for the umteinth time that a lack of stock availability option in the search made the website near useless. She told me that is just the way it is, so i told her I was going elsewhere and that is just the way it is and hung up. Of course she gets paid regardless of me ordering or not and so do her managers until they start to piss their big customers off and more manufacturers start dealing direct.

It reminds me of background of the staff working for Virgin Media when they took over NTL.
They did not even know what an IP address was when I asked for one.

I switched from Virgin Media to NTL business on cable in 2009.
Reception: Yes how can I help.
Me: Technical support.
Four seconds I got put through to someone from the technical support going through the options I can get for a Cisco 2801 router.
They can supply me with HWIC DOCSIS module that will work for a £400 and a range of modems they can supply.

No problems I got what I paid for 10mbps down and 1mbps up without any throttling or any problems until 2012.

In 2012 I called many times as the line was busy and when I did get through was promised a call back. No reply to email support from my normal contact as it was running really slow. I phoned again to hear the dreaded "Just so you know, we're here to give you the best service possible" and was waiting for ages.  I thought I escaped that. Yes Virgin Media took them over.

Me: Can you put me through to the technical support please.
Yes we can but what is it regarding?
Me: Well the broadband is really slow, it is so suppose to be 10mbps/1mbps down but it is like dialup less than 56k , there is little traffic on my end, and N/A was put in the registrant when I registered a domain from the control panel despite my address being correct on the account.
Well if you contact out technical support by email....
Me: Email? No no no that can't be right. I already phoned but it was busy and emailed technical support about the domain issue and got no response, I tried weeks ago and and got no call back.

You said you will put me through to technical support.
It is now company policy that we can't do that.
I hanged up.

I phoned the faults team and explained the situation.
They transferred me to someone regarding my conduct and that I was reported for being rude and aggressive to one of their members of staff.
I said that can you listen to the call and see that they lied to me and I wasn't being rude I never swore at them or anything. I hanged up because said they were going to transfer me and then said it was company policy that they can't.

"Look you have to understand that we have gotten rid of 2/3 of our technical support staff and we can only get them to call you back."
Me: Well that was not what the lady offered.

I was sent an Email from Nominet about cancelling me domain name. I told them there was no way to change it and Virgin Media took over and are not calling me back on the issue. They said I was not the only one and set me up an account on their site to change the registrant details.

I went to their 50mbps package and a young sounding lady who did not have a clue and had to forward everything to the technical team and would not let me speak direct and it was a disaster. She was suppose to upgrade me for free as from a letter they sent out but she ended up setting up a new account and I got billed twice. I got my money back for that mistake in the end. They routed me all the way to Telford and Wreckin so instead of 10ms it went up to 20ms on a good day. My remote connections kept on dropping out but was kept open on the other end. I was let off the contract early due to that issue which happened after some change they made to their broadband network followed by a firmware update that bricked two of their Superhub routers.

That is what happens when you replace technical/engineering staff with staff who don't have a clue.

[Simon]

I had virgin media bill me twice for the installation I had paid cash for on the same bill and ignored my cash deposit on the contract. It took a year of arguing to get my £80 back. At the time I was newly back to the UK and did not know about trading standards who now are practically no more because even the government sector is full of non jobs. Now as an individual i have to contact a charity called citizens advice which the government pays to handle the calls and defuse the situation so that trading standards have less workload. So because the call handlers are ignorant of the law unless you spell the law out to them so that they can check with a supervisor and find you are right your complaint against a company is not recorded. Same with the police. Police stations such as they are do not have officers in them anymore. Last time I wanted to try and hand some evidence in I had to sit and wait for an officer to come in from duty to talk to me because the clerk could not. If you ring the police call centre like with trading standards you are speaking simply to call handlers who don't know the law so things just go round and round in circles.

[bd139]

This is why I buy everything on the credit card or Paypal. Problem they won’t deal with? Charge back!

Paypal are surprisingly good against shitty retailers.

You have to use the status quo to fight itself and sit there sipping cocktails while it self destructs.

[Simon]

indeed that is what I now do.

[CJay]

I had virgin media bill me twice for the installation I had paid cash for on the same bill and ignored my cash deposit on the contract. It took a year of arguing to get my £80 back. At the time I was newly back to the UK and did not know about trading standards who now are practically no more because even the government sector is full of non jobs. Now as an individual i have to contact a charity called citizens advice which the government pays to handle the calls and defuse the situation so that trading standards have less workload. So because the call handlers are ignorant of the law unless you spell the law out to them so that they can check with a supervisor and find you are right your complaint against a company is not recorded. Same with the police. Police stations such as they are do not have officers in them anymore. Last time I wanted to try and hand some evidence in I had to sit and wait for an officer to come in from duty to talk to me because the clerk could not. If you ring the police call centre like with trading standards you are speaking simply to call handlers who don't know the law so things just go round and round in circles.

Police stations have been that way for a good number of years now, call centres much longer (sister is a copper, neighbour has been a civilian a call handler for a good 15 years or more)

[Bassman59]

This is why I buy everything on the credit card or Paypal. Problem they won’t deal with? Charge back!

Absolutely. Do not be afraid to use the power of your credit card's customer-protection squad. Never pay cash, never use a debit card.

[Simon]

This is why I buy everything on the credit card or Paypal. Problem they won’t deal with? Charge back!

Absolutely. Do not be afraid to use the power of your credit card's customer-protection squad. Never pay cash, never use a debit card.

You mean credit card, debit cards give you nearly sod all.

[MrMobodies]

Paypal is great.

Anything that arrives in the post I take pictures.
I use Toshiba Flashair SDCARDS and have a robocopy script that waits on a server for it connect and automatically copies the new pictures over.
That saves me having to mess about.

When there is a problem I just open a folder with the pictures and a case on Ebay.

Quite often I am sold "new" things that are actually used and this also happened to me a few times on Amazon. Last time it was a "new" hard drive from an Ebay seller with no negative feedback. It was sold out elsewhere. The packaging was what gave it away. They reset the Smart counters on the drives firmware but it didn't fool MHDD on the sector timing test and the colour of the copper joints on the board and the manufacturing date was a few years old. It had lots of slow and bad sectors on it. I left some negative feedback about being sold used as new and test your drives from this seller etc. The seller had it removed a couple of weeks later, I knew they would do that and Ebay customer services said you got your money back and there is nothing we can do. I think it was from a seller called Extreme Supplies.

The pictures and date stamps of the unpackaging to testing is what gets them caught out in the end.

[Simon]

My last case with ebay got me nowhere, the seller did not come clean and I could find no way to get ebay to review. Amazon also are in the game of making themselves uncontactable. i will use neither in future although i plan to start selling on ebay again. Paypal will not handle ebay issues they send you back to ebay.

[MrMobodies]

If found in the past there was a period when I was put through to the Indan call centers and I had a lot of difficulty with dealing with counterfeit things I get that are so sold at prices not too cheap but now they have a concierge programme for members who have joined them over a certain amount of time and I get through to mostly Scottish and Irish staff on the phone.

Quick to get through. They are nice to speak to. They understand what I am talking about and they are very quick at arranging to get my money back and as long as I have got the pictures and proof of unpackaging.

If someone has difficultly with a dodgy seller over dodgy things I will try and help them if is within the time of return. I will run the usual tests and take pictures. I take advantage of concierge service by phoning up as me explain the issue and pass them through to the victim. After the tests and pictures the seller doesn't have much of a leg to stand on and they just send a shipping form that they pay for with no more hassle.

[bd139]

My last case with ebay got me nowhere, the seller did not come clean and I could find no way to get ebay to review. Amazon also are in the game of making themselves uncontactable. i will use neither in future although i plan to start selling on ebay again. Paypal will not handle ebay issues they send you back to ebay.

Never had that problem. I’ve had some right turds sent to me before or not even sent and they usually just decide in my favour straight away.

[Simon]

nah, Paypal are Ok though. I had some idiot in a tin pot country somewhere make a claim on a µCurrent i sent him not being to description because the PCB was not screwed to the box. My response to the case was a rant about his competence as an engineer and that if he could not manage a screwdriver and 4 screws he is not competent enough to use the device. Paypal found in my favour. The customer is not always right.

[Bassman59]

This is why I buy everything on the credit card or Paypal. Problem they won’t deal with? Charge back!

Absolutely. Do not be afraid to use the power of your credit card's customer-protection squad. Never pay cash, never use a debit card.

You mean credit card, debit cards give you nearly sod all.

I meant what I wrote: never use a debit card.

To expand: when you use a debit card, money is immediately deducted from the linked checking or savings account. If there's a problem with the transaction, you have to work with the card issuer and the merchant to get a refund. Good luck with that. In the meantime, the money is still gone.

If you use a credit card, that doesn't happen. If there is a problem with the transaction, you notify the credit card issuer and open a dispute. The dispute may take some time, but the key is that you don't have to pay the amount in dispute when the bill is otherwise due. (If the dispute is resolved in the merchant's favor, of course you have to pay the bill.) Further, if a vendor gets too many chargebacks, the credit companies (Visa, MC, Amex, etc) may pull their merchant account, which is basically a death sentence.

One more thing about debit cards. Since they are linked to your bank accounts, imagine the worst-case scenario: the card gets compromised and a Bad Guy runs up a bunch of charges on the card just after you've sent in your mortgage check. When the mortgage check is deposited, it's bounced. Other checks bounce. And sure, the bank will investigate and make you whole, but now you've got to deal with all of those bounced check fees and then late payments and such.

Never use a debit card for purchases.

[Simon]

Sorry yes I misread your post.

[Kjelt]

Looking at all these posts during working hours I guess Treez was right afterall   

[Simon]

Looking at all these posts during working hours I guess Treez was right afterall   

The thought had crossed my mind, my employer is too tight to buy a circuit studio licence so I use my own on my own computer - what goes around comes around!

[Kjelt]

The thought had crossed my mind, my employer is too tight to buy a circuit studio licence so I use my own on my own computer - what goes around comes around! 

Isn't that against the license agreement ? Anyway if my company doesn not provide me with the tools I need, I can not provide them with the quality output they want.

[bd139]

In the land of 20 minute+ compilations I have a lot of spare time. Software sucks. Or does it?

Also I have to provide my own kit too being a contractor.

[Simon]

The thought had crossed my mind, my employer is too tight to buy a circuit studio licence so I use my own on my own computer - what goes around comes around! 

Isn't that against the license agreement ? Anyway if my company doesn not provide me with the tools I need, I can not provide them with the quality output they want.

Let's say I am subcontracting to my employer which as a design contractor is what I'd do anyway with my licence and no they don't get full "quality" of my time because I have plenty of distractions on my own machine.

[Zero999]

Looking at all these posts during working hours I guess Treez was right afterall   

Yes, I don't think Simon should have banned him. He was entertaining and I miss him. Besides, who else is going to make everyone feel good about themselves by thanking all their posts?

[Simon]

He can come back in a bit.