Seems I have found my limit in diy, it's not lack of knowledge, what I don't know is easily found on here or other sites. No it's the UK postal service, they have screwed up ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I have tried to build! I get some parts delivered, eventually, enough to get my hopes up but not enough to actually complete anything!
This is new to me, I used to be able to rely on them, not any more! it's so bad I think i'll have to give up altogether on diy! Miserable Country!
This is new to me, I used to be able to rely on them, not any more! it's so bad I think i'll have to give up altogether on diy! Miserable Country!
Strangely enough I usually get the items sent by small ebay sellers, they have to refund if badly late etc so not that surprising. It's Farnell orders and stuff coming from abroad that seems to go missing. The list is now too long to bother typing but out of four projects I started this summer, one is actually finished, a C moy headphone amp kit from Freds Amps in Oz, it too went missing for a couple of months and finally turned up soggy and distressed. The other thing i'm sick of is being charged Island delivery rates, simply because of my area code, when I live on the mainland. Anyway I have worked it out, I have to double order everything from at least two separate suppliers in the hope that one of the orders will get here.
From what I can gather stuff usually gets stalled in a warehouse either south of the border or in Glasgow. It's usually not the local post office at fault but the system. I share a huge postal area which extends from just outside Glasgow (Paisley) to me in North Argyll 90 miles away and which includes a number of islands too. If it is prefixed by a code near the city your stuff will get to you usually next day but the rest of us are treated as a foreign country and usually charged a huge extra premium even though I have the Glasgow train passing by here several times a day! Loads of southern UK ebay sellers refuse point blank to send items here.
Anyway I have just ordered more diodes from another two suppliers because Farnell's order went missing. Hopefully one of the orders will actually make it here!
Anyway I have just ordered more diodes from another two suppliers because Farnell's order went missing. Hopefully one of the orders will actually make it here!
Not much UK post goes by rail any more. Most is on the road. Long distance is by air.
My post (Cambridgeshire) is generally OK for letters and large parcels but a bit slow for small packets. Just to confuse things, many satnavs send delivery drivers into a small cul-de-sac on the other side of the road. Drivers these days, of course, are incapable of reading maps.
My post (Cambridgeshire) is generally OK for letters and large parcels but a bit slow for small packets. Just to confuse things, many satnavs send delivery drivers into a small cul-de-sac on the other side of the road. Drivers these days, of course, are incapable of reading maps.
In the mid 1990s, I was in London on business, and wanted some goodies from Maplin. So, I prudently ordered on a Monday to allow all week for them to show up. The very next morning, less than 24 hours, the parcel was delivered to my room. Terrible service; if it had been the 1890s, I probably would have received the parts the same day.
I blame "privatisation" and the profits that all these other companies are sucking out of the investment in the postal service.
If we had one national delivery system that was well organised and economic we could all get a cheaper and better service.
But back to the point being raised.
The postal service being run by Royal Mail does give a good service and at a good price.
We generally get letters next day and they are upto 5mm thick. You can get a lot of SMD and lower power through hole into that.
Parcels generally take two days.
If we had one national delivery system that was well organised and economic we could all get a cheaper and better service.
But back to the point being raised.
The postal service being run by Royal Mail does give a good service and at a good price.
We generally get letters next day and they are upto 5mm thick. You can get a lot of SMD and lower power through hole into that.
Parcels generally take two days.
That is what is wrong.
Why should we standardising on the most expensive way to move goods around the world?
Rail is far more economic than road. But the rules have taken away the Rail incentive until it cannot compete at the low volumes left.
The amount railtrack/government charge the train operators per carriage per mile is apparently scandalous. That is why our railways are in such a mess, they are having to claw back hundreds of millions lost from the failed privatisation and subsequent buy back of the network and it's crippling the service. This was from an ex rail worker I know but then he has a grudge so we can discount him eh 
Agreed! Some services should be private, but, in my opinion, any service which we can not live without should be publicly owned. Water and Electricity are two such services, we all need the national grid and we all pay for it along with the cost of the energy we use AND the share dividends the investors get out of the misery. The railways were built on private investment but never made profit outside of the busiest routes.
The reason they had to be nationalised in the first place has never been addressed.
The reason they had to be nationalised in the first place has never been addressed.
You would think that if a business was in trouble the Gov would let it go to the wall and then the market could step in to pick up the slack. That's how the free market works after all??? Isn't it?
Or if a service was deemed suitably improtant then it should be purchased for the people by the people and run that way forever.
it's not why they were nationalised that is interesting but the way the sneaky tax doging funkers engineered it so that industries paid for by our taxes could be sold off to the highest bidders.
At the very least every industry/service that is critical to the UK's longevity/secuirty should be run and owned entirely within the UK. These ar5eholes were so quick to get on their own personal Euro gravy train that they never thought about that. "So the things that once made Britain Great were sold off in the 80's to lower your rates. National industry that we all owned have been privatised, a nation pawned."
Or if a service was deemed suitably improtant then it should be purchased for the people by the people and run that way forever.
it's not why they were nationalised that is interesting but the way the sneaky tax doging funkers engineered it so that industries paid for by our taxes could be sold off to the highest bidders.
At the very least every industry/service that is critical to the UK's longevity/secuirty should be run and owned entirely within the UK. These ar5eholes were so quick to get on their own personal Euro gravy train that they never thought about that. "So the things that once made Britain Great were sold off in the 80's to lower your rates. National industry that we all owned have been privatised, a nation pawned."
I particularly don't like the fact that state owned German and French railways own shares in UK rail company's and get to reinvest the payback in their railways while ours go under funded! Whose side are our government on in any of this?
I read somewhere recently about how the nationally owned industry's helped to keep the UK together as in we were working towards a common cause. The ConDem's don't care for anything other than the bottom line though and willingly throw the baby out with the bath water to suit their political direction.
A dangerous direction if you passionately believe in the union of the nations. They may already have gone to far for it to be stopped.
Rant mode off
I read somewhere recently about how the nationally owned industry's helped to keep the UK together as in we were working towards a common cause. The ConDem's don't care for anything other than the bottom line though and willingly throw the baby out with the bath water to suit their political direction.
A dangerous direction if you passionately believe in the union of the nations. They may already have gone to far for it to be stopped.
Rant mode off
Last edited:
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.