Oh the joy...

'Wish I had broad band Martyn, the download was going to take almost 8 minutes according to the programme. I think I can imagine the story though. I have similar experiences with my business, people calling and emailing me for highly detailed and complex advice that is usually only provided by well paid and expert 'consultants'. Being a hopeless nerd on all matter pertaining I usually give far more than is good for me. It's when someone gets bolshy because I haven't been able to provide these 'services' as and when they desire it that one is reminded just what utter pilocks some folk can be.

Now about that fully restored 101 I asked you to lend me for the holidays........

I can see both sides of this argument actually.

Without any doubt the guy has a really bad way of dealing with people and didn't seem to know who he was calling, why he was calling or what he hoped to achieve. And anyone knows that Martyn is not one to take crap lying down, so he really did choose the wrong bloke to rant at. So he got what he asked for really.

However....

And notwithstanding that everyone in the club does it all for free and for the love of the trucks....

And Darren (and indeed Martyn) is a really nice bloke who knows everything there is to know about spares....

And I've bought bits from Darren and they arrived in reasonable time and in good condition....

The 101 Club has, in this guy's version at least, taken £1500 off the bloke and six weeks later produced no parts in return. Furthermore he doesn't seem to have been able to get hold of Darren in six weeks. There's definitely a problem here, and the 101 Club would do well to sort it out. The committee needs to set service expectations among its member (which I think are mostly common sense, but that is a big variable amongst the human race in general). It also needs to publish to the members a grievance procedure and ensure that there is a backstop when members are on holiday.

I don't think any individual has caused this, or can fix it. But if I had £1500 missing from my bank balance and no response from the selling organisation I'd be losing the plot somewhat as well. Is it normal to draw down the funds prior to shipping of goods - this seems to be a particularly large transaction and perhaps the Club needs to look at ways of dealing with larger orders.

How many 101's were made then, is it known? If there are thousands then one day I might get around to owning one. The missus has seen pictures of Grumble and didn't look too impressed, she still won't tell me if she likes the 110 yet either. Only had it 10 months now...

I agree, that the guy has some cause for complaint, but there's ways of dealing with these things, and he was bang out of order in my book.

David

Martyn,

My sympathies!!! Now...I wonder why I decided to form a club with no constitution, no committee, and a basic set of rules (i.e. The GLASS CoC).

In my other role, well, I know just where you are coming from. I stopped answering our Land Line years ago. And my mobile tells me who's calling ;-) And if it's after the 9pm watershed printed in the newsletter - you'll either get :

1. No answer.
2. An answer, dependant on my mood.
3. Some sort of garbled wibble, as I'll be enjoying myself ;-)

Now let me get this correct, I can phone at midnight Sundays, excellent what a service. What was the number again ????

:-))

One Basic Rule : Its urgent as long they dont have it , then when they do have it or you finally ring them to tell them its ready its no longer urgent and can sit around gathering dust!

On or around Tue, 03 Aug 2004 13:59:17 +0100, Mother enlightened us thusly:

I thought it was very restrained, meself...

It was made clear in the club magazine that no orders would be processed in June. It was also made clear that Darren would be away on holiday. I'm not in a position to comment about this chaps dealings with Darren - it's not my job.

My job is 'membership'. The caller had previously been told this on two other occasions when he'd called - but cannot understand or will not listen.

I therefore thought it was not appropriate for him to fire off at me in this way.

I'm sure this / any club run by volunteers could find areas where they could improve. We could set service level standards, quality measurement and a series of set grievance proceedures. On the other hand, we could all just say "f*ck it, that's too much like my day job" and piss off to let others have a go at running it if they think they can do any better. Free vote and all that.

Now that would make interesting viewing!

I think there's some reason to have a clear back-up procedure. Sort of, "If you have problems, and cannot contact the responsible committee member, _write_ to $ADDRESS_1 or $ADDRESS_2 giving complete details."

Last year, I fell off a combine harvester and broke my leg. Totally unexpected, and it kept me off-net for a fortnight. I could have handled telephone calls, I think, which would have covered ordinary queries. But if somebody wants to get stroppy, insisting on a written complaint can defuse things a little.

Idea! Have you ever thought of doing a reality TV show? your 'free time' might just earn you a few quid...stuff like this would certainly pull the ratings in!!!

Mother"

Oh, I forgot to add "(c) Terry Pratchett"

On or around Wed, 04 Aug 2004 10:33:41 +0100 (BST), snipped-for-privacy@zhochaka.demon.co.uk ("David G. Bell") enlightened us thusly:

though, of course, that'd be no use in this case, as the tw*t concerned admitted that he'd not got time to read the club magazine in order to find contact details for the person he needed to contact, or so I understood him to mean.

and if as Martyn said it was made plain that no orders would be processed in June, the bloke should take that into account.

Martyn,

I sort him for you ;-) "Got a problem? I'm sure our Technical Director would love to help" :

Fantastic!

Looks absolutely superb, what a smashing job they've made of it.

All you need is a sign on your door saying something like: "Complaints Department" :-)

in article cetans$1n1$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, Neil Brownlee at snipped-for-privacy@pccontrolNOSPAMsystems.com wrote on 5/8/04 13:55:

How long and at what gas mark...?

Very swish.

- Rory Manton

- Oh gods , why me?