Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

While I appreciate communication from vendors, do I really need 8 emails about one little order? 

First, the confirmation that they received an order. 

Then the confirmation that they received an order that lists the items I ordered with their prices. 

One more to let me know that I have now paid for the order.

Then another confirmation that they are preparing the items I ordered for shipment. 

Then yet another just to inform me that the items have actually been shipped and provide a tracking number as proof.

Don't forget the extra email to let me know how terrific the item I just order will be once it arrive. 

Then we get the delivery email to let me know that UPS just knocked on my door and dropped off the package. 

One more email to ask me how I like their service and ask me to leave a review. 

It's no wonder I have to wade through so much junk. I'm pretty sure we could reduce that count to 2 with little effort. 

tuna55 said:

tester (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to tuna55 :

You have a few things to do. Update your resume is the obvious one. The less obvious is to look at the private equity firm's track record. It will take only a few minutes to figure out how they operate. The Worst case is it will confirm your worst fears and make your decisions easier.  The Best case will show that they are building a business portfolio of some kind, complimentary businesses, across industries, etc... 

I intend to do just that after this week is over. It's a very busy and stressful week with our listing agency in town to witness tests (UL). Essentially google [company name] "layoffs" when looking through their portfolio of divested or longer term companies. It's called Tailwind. I don't know much about them, and none of their companies immediately ring any bells.

Update...

I am accepting an offer with a private company as their engineering manager, start date July 22, exactly two months later. Not too bad. A tiny bump in pay, 6.5%, plus an extra week of vacation and my commute goes from a solid hour and change to 20 minutes.

tuna55 said:an extra week of vacation and my commute goes from a solid hour and change to 20 minutes.

Dude that's huge. 40+ minutes per day of extra time coupled with reduced expenses. (I would say "less gas," but not with the Bolt.) Add in another week of leisure time per year; that's awesome. Hope the job is everything you need and expect.

dculberson said:

tuna55 said:an extra week of vacation and my commute goes from a solid hour and change to 20 minutes.

Dude that's huge. 40+ minutes per day of extra time coupled with reduced expenses. (I would say "less gas," but not with the Bolt.) Add in another week of leisure time per year; that's awesome. Hope the job is everything you need and expect.

Thanks!

That reduced transportation cost is in that 6.5%, and indeed as you guessed, the Bolt is so cheap per mile that it's a very minor cost savings. A minor downside, the current employer  is on 7.5 hour days, so I am working an extra half hour each day but gaining an hour and a half in commuting. I'll probably give some padding at first, leave at the same time but arrive home 45-55 minutes earlier than normal. That's a lot of truck stuff and guitar practice.

I am ok, but my heart is still racing! 

In reply to tb :

! ! !

In reply to Duke :

Yeah, I knew you guys would understand. Luckily, I am more nimble than I look!

2 tons my ass...

We need a shower door installed on the master bath shower stall. The first GC I contacted told me they were too busy to take on a small job, which is understandable. I contacted the company they recommended and requested an estimate. Nobody contacted me for a week until I called them to see WTH was going on. They had all of my info but didn't bother calling me. So I had them set up a time and date for an estimate. They scheduled a 4 hour window where they would be here; 0800-1200.

They showed up with one minute to spare. I was just sitting down to eat my leftover burrito before work when I saw their truck pull up.

tb said:

In reply to Duke :

Yeah, I knew you guys would understand. Luckily, I am more nimble than I look!

 

2 tons my ass...

oh goodness that could have been it for you, dude.

Trying to get back into school. I've paid my fees, jumped through hoops, done everything I can do. How is the system this complicated? Literally four times I had to sign in to different portions of the school site to make an advisement appointment. Then no confirmation, so I needed to call to confirm since there is no reply from their email system. 
Every single time I've tried to deal with any college, it is a headache and costs me $50. There is no communication, zero professionalism, and I'm amazed that these systems can be so convoluted. 

In reply to tb :

Since I own at least two of those jackstands, I'm curious to know more about the details of the failure, how it was loaded and all that, so that I may escape a similar fate.

I totally could have just died, not lost on me at all. I work alone and keep 2 floor Jack's and 4 jackstands in use like I should. 

This case was a 2014 Fiesta ST, a virtual lightweight. I had this one stand and it's twin behind the front wheels in the prescribed factory spot. The rear was on the wheels, level and smooth concrete floor. No real shenanigans on my part, was tightening exhaust bolts with 3/8 hand ratchet. Heard a slight groan somehow over the fan, a/c and stereo and just had that split second "oh E36 M3" realization. It crumpled over the span of a long second and I suffered only minor scrapes from moving fast.

Other stand held fine alone, but it is in the junk pile already. The rotor that hit the ground was due for replacement anyway.

tb said:

In reply to Duke :

Yeah, I knew you guys would understand. Luckily, I am more nimble than I look!

 

2 tons my ass...

Wholly E36 M3!  I have the 3 ton version of those....bought them because the Hammer Store ones were supposedly death traps, and those had the locking pins.  Now you've got me going to inspect the welds on them...

Project farm did a video comparing a bunch of different jack stands, maybe worth a watch if you're in the market.

I have started just using cribbing more unless I need to take a wheel off, in which case I slide the wheel under in addition to the jack stand and leaving the jack under the car

In reply to tb :

Dude, I'm glad your okay but I'm freaked out about this.   Sometimes I'm under my truck and I'm way slower than you......WOW!

Dang, tb! Glad you're alright!

Another vote here for chucking a wheel/tire under the car as insurance. I'm also in the habit of rocking the car pretty good once it's on stands to make sure it falls, if it's going to fall, before I crawl under it.

I do have a hard time watching PF videos - something about his delivery and cadence just curl my ear hairs - but I'll give this one a watch.

I think for me it is a sign to buy newer, nicer equipment and to review my practices. Since I know everyone loves an autopsy I present for the experts:

Thx. I didn't put the wheels under like usual because they are new and shiny... kinda dumb. 

Admittedly, I'm a bit freaked out from it. I consider myself to be safety conscious but E36 M3 happens...

So it is a piece of stamped steel, folded square and welded on the failed corner?weld failure or...? What is your takeaway of ones to avoid? That is some scary stuff there!

Maybe it's the pics, but that stand looks like it was heavily side loaded....  And I would suggest that it deserves it's own thread in the main discussion or tools section.

Fwiw I don't know why it happened, kinda why I count this as a minor rant and not a huge deal. I think it was bad luck?

I don't see any torn or broken metal, busted welds or rust holes. It just bent over and scared the berkeley out of me. Probably some qualified people know much more about this stuff than I do.

berkeley insurance and medical billing. berkeley em all.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Mute with Closed Captioning.  Pretend your deaf, like me. It works pretty well.

Helped a friend install an aftermarket cat back exhaust on his 2006 R53 Mini Cooper. It's from a well respected company and made in the UK. It looks good and sounds great but that's where my compliments end. It took two of us using pry bars to get it even close to lined up. We had to modify the factory exhaust hanger locations. The flange was welded 90 degrees off from the factory flange. We had to cut and reweld. We checked their website and they show the correct orientation so this one was built wrong somehow. The left and right pipes didn't quite match so each side required different hanger modifications. Overall just a crappy experience. I'm glad we were doing it on my hoist and we had the tools and skills to fix it.