ask an ilxor for help

ok

ppl like to be asked for advice/help, we're all a bit low, let's ask each other for help

this can be very narrow and specific, or it can be wide-ranging

it can be expertise based, or even geographic (my request is)

better if it weren't financial

ok ill start

i need a load of specific windows broken in paisley, scotland

who can help

dm me

Yeah I have a question. If you go into a pub and your preferred aperitif isn’t clearly visible on the shelves, should you ask the barman to see if it’s there, or should you insist on getting up yourself to point it out to the fellow?

thread rule

one at a time pls

my ticket is open

i have just broken all the windows in paisley, scotland

my car windshield is broken, i could get to paisley but need a little financial assistance - does this help?

thx

Can an ILXOR help me with glazing?
Some c*nt just broke my front window here in Paisley, not sure why

I can break two windows in exchange for match-fixing a few footie matches

Is there an ilxor that can recommend a cheap source for stones to edge my garden? I live just west of Paisley, Scotland, and some cretin just stole all of my garden stones, no doubt for some nefarious use such as breaking windows.

ok lets start numbering these pls

mine was #1 i believe?

#2 - I need some plywood, here in Paisley

crut ty can you dm some pics and think about what suitable recompense might be

that last post should not be read as a standalone ty

ah ffs

it was irvine, not paisley

sorry folks

ok i will raise another ticket in fairness

Is Irvine, Scotland worth visiting?
Irvine makes a good base for exploring the Ayrshire coast. Several supermarkets and shopping outlets can be found within the town, and the Rivergate Shopping Centre offers a mix of both independent and major retail stores.

sounds like you answer your own query

woah paisley seems exciting

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donoghue_v_Stevenson

its a fuckin kip all it has going for it is a few places still have windows

for now

I was born in Irvine, and no it's a very run of the mill Scottish town

I'm thinking of moving to Paisley and starting a business, has anybody got any suggestions?

scarves, perhaps

A mate of mine says that being either a glazier or a quarryman in Paisley would be a money maker.

I’m going to Paisley tomorrow, as it happens. On the train. The Paisley Overground.

guys forget paisley ive closed that ticket we are all in on smashing up irvine now

extra credit- wear celtic tops

are there any instruments forbidden to use for smashing

i don't wanna finish the job and find out the work was invalid because there's a 'no tire iron' clause

we have an irvine here in california that I'd be happy to smash up, it's in orange county

I once knew a dog named Irvine. he is dead. should I smash him up

irvine scotland is in orange country

if sleeping dogs are to be let lie we shant be digging up any for the purposes of this thread let us hope

these are pretty handy for smashing scottish windows:

https://www.mastersofgames.com/cat/board/go-stones-glass.htm?srsltid=AfmBOop-rC5y3lz3U3Hy_LjFvceEnDcJaUUSIM4oLBjhvIHoO4qGaOXz

ty ive been clear i hope that my issue isnt tooling its geographical

waht have these poor widows ever done to you

dm me

― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Friday, 8 November 2024 20:02 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyone who needs to know will find out in due course

I made the mistake of going to Irvine (Scotland) on the day of Charles's coronation. It was a sunny day, I had the day off, my pal had a new car and did me and her and my partner fancy a drive to the coast for a fish supper in the sea air? We got to the beach and it was wild. It was about 6pm and the sand was a mess of broken glass, abandoned flip-flops and torn Union Jack flags. We ate our dinner in the car and hurried back home.

Irvine beach is a very odd beach to look at - it's hard to explain but it is very grassy compared to any other beach I've ever been to anywhere in the world. A friend of a friend filmed a music video on it for an indie-label dance track called "Everything Happens In Ibiza" and it was met with ridicule because nobody would have ever mistaken that beach for anywhere other than Irvine.

how far a drive was that out of interest

sounds like its just a stones throw away

XXP - A little farther up the coast towards Largs would have served you better, Irvine beach is pretty grim, yeah.

I hear Paisley mentioned, I come to thread.

First Trevor Sorbie dies, now this.

I grew up near Paisley but the side furthest from Glasgow. The train home from the city would have continued on to the Ayrshire towns - Irvine, Troon, Largs, Saltcoats and so on. A lot of my school friends lived just within the edges bordering Ayrshire. It was a bit of a local tradition that as soon as you got your driving license at 17/18 you had to go a jaunt to the coastal towns.

Largs is the best seaside town in Scotland, and you can get a ferry to Millport which is even better. Irvine was more a place you went because you were going to the Magnum Centre (a pool and ice rink which is now closed). Troon was good for looking at boats. Ayr has the best playpark which made it the most appealing until you were too old for it. Ardrossan had an amazing indoor playcentre and to be honest I wish I could still somehow go jump about the ball pits and slides now.

Largs beach is great for many reasons:

- stones rather than sand
- chippys galore
- best ice cream in Scotland
- lots of old arcades
- the Viking centre
- Kelburn Country Park isn't far which is a great day out for kids to run about but also hosts a summer festival which attracts a particularly fun set of characters
- Bed & Breakfasts every corner

Hugging the coast is a good idea when visiting Ayrshire, never under any circumstances think about going inland.

the Kilbirnie/Beith/Dalry axis is something else altogether. One of my best pals, who I didn't really get to know until we were in our 30s, is from Dalry, and some of the stories about the grief he gets for daring to move out the village and become a successful professional are tough listening.

My sister lives in Lochwinnoch which is 4 miles from Beith but luckily is in Renfrewshire. That 4 miles makes all the difference according to her.

The Lochwinnoch boys in my year at high school - there were about 30 of them - were all very odd, a very insular and rigid group. The girls were fine but the lads were all hard work, although I guess I can never be sure how much of that was down to Small Village Mentality and how much of it was down to Lochwinnoch being posh compared to the schemes and estates our sort came from.

The two lads I know from Lochwinnoch who came out as gay waited until after high school, when they moved far away and never really returned home. It doesn't surprise me that they don't feel they want to go back.

ilxors not from Scotland - get on a train that passes through Lochwinnoch and listen to how the announcer pronounces the name of the village, you'll learn so much just from hearing that one word aloud, but do not ask me to explain this

Lochwinnoch is the only place I've been to which has an Otters Crossing road sign on the road into the village but, having just Google Imaged, it looks like there are a lot of these in Scotland.

It's true that mattresses are notorious for being non-reusable and non-recyclable. They're considered to be one owner items and then they become trash in the landfill. These days most places that sell new ones will also cart off the old one for you when they deliver your new mattress.

sarahell, the word is ESCALATE.

I’ll often just start asking them personal questions. Usually they’re thrilled to talk about themselves a bit.

Sorry, as someone who worked on helpdesks I can tell you ppl who come out of the gate with "get me a manager" are usually put on hold forever with extreme prejudice.

Simply be friendly, listen, answer what they ask and if possible, let them know you do know how to do The Thing - but remember, these are very poorly paid people in windowless desk farms who absolutely CANNOT go off script, no matter how much they'd love to (they'll be pinged, written up and then let go).

There was a good LifeKit episode about this. Reciting what many above have said.

How to talk to customer service – and actually get what you want

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1086915600/get-what-you-want-customer-service

in all my customer service experience across different jobs, any time someone comes to get me as a manager because a client wants to speak to someone more senior, the first thing I'll want to know is if the person has been reasonable or not to my team member. If my team member seems upset, aggravated or frustrated by the client, it's more than likely I'm going to defend my team member and be difficult for the client. The person transferring you through to, or reaching out for, a manager, is more than likely to say something like "this person is an nightmare" if that's been their experience.

if you want someone to do something for you, my tip is to act like of course you're going to do this thing for me and you're going to resolve it now because it makes sense to do so. My basic example:

"the washing is done, would you mind hanging it up to dry for me?" vs "the washing is done, you're going to need to hang it up to dry"

The former allows room to push back and refuse, the latter feels like a natural next step for someone to do.

I usually phrase it like ‘is this something you can help me deal with, or do you need a manager to sign off?’

I have worked far too many retail jobs to like the idea of kicking the bottom of the totem pole, just so we’re clear.

It IS hard though. I've had all kinds of abuse off clients and customers and yet when I'm confronted with nonsense policies and poor procedures I feel myself very easily slipping into "this isn't difficult, why are you struggling to do this" frustration!

Do people steam clean mattresses? I think in terms of wear I would think about two things: Accumulation of human body stuff, skin cells, oils vs. compression that makes it not correctly supportive. If it's still supportive, maybe steam clean it with the most robust machine you can get your hands on and see if that refreshes it? It might also help some compression if the heat un-mats the fluffy bits.

i will be that person
wtf is going on itt

just a little window breaking, let's be cool

xps to in orbit: I was once on a bus behind a man trying to sell a second hand mattress over gumtree to someone who called him about it. Over the course of five minutes the mattress was described as:

- “stained”
- “ten years old”
- “used by all my kids”
- “lightly stained”
- “a bargain at the price”
- “a few dark stains”

This ended when the man got off the bus, threatening to punch the person calling over their reluctance to take such a good deal.

To be clear— the context for my question was that I had called to ask a basic question that I knew the rep could answer. I was frustrated that the person had to read numerous scripted sentences as opposed to just looking up the thing I needed, telling me the answer, and then we would each express sincere gratitude for each other and go on to the next thing.

ill give petrol money for anyone not local but who can drive to irvine

When we bought our current mattress, the salesperson casually mentioned that a mattress will double in weight in a couple years from moisture accumulation. That was enough for me to get full moisture proof encasements (which are topped by a separate memory foam toper, which then has a mattress cover over that. Ours are about 14 years old now (2 twin XLs on a king platform) and holding up well. We've also moved 3 times and the encasements kept them protected pretty well. Also resist bedbugs etc.

I also totally get the scripted pleasantries while waiting for the computer to do things, because I end up in that position a fair amount… but this was not that.

they probably have these processes in place for a reason, speaking as someone who works in customer support. I get that it can be annoying though when you just want an answer to a quick question. did they give you the option to take a survey or give feedback at the end?

Companies need to fix their processes to reduce the most obvious and easy calls then pay for enough staff to deal with the most important and obscure or difficult ones.

But they won't and are all prob heading in the opposite directions, so basically just sending people over the top to take the flak for their refusal to spend the time and money it would take to help customers in a tailored way, even to the most basic level.

im trying to imagine the hoops id have to jump through to call up a xompany and get just a few windows smashed up in irvine

I didn’t want to get the rep in trouble. They were just doing what they were supposed to do. They obviously have very little agency and they probably get a bunch of frustrated people who they can’t help who act like jerks.

#ONETHREAD

I have worked in/around call-centers the last twenty years, and you wouldn't believe the dumb shit they make the agents do.

our calls aren't scripted, but there are scripts that have to be read. for instance, when someone calls asked for window smashing in Irvine, the agent is required to state their name is Mauricio Pocchetino before hanging up in mid sentence

ridiculous

The words "Martin Jol" are code for a customer who must be ejected from the call immediately.

fyi, if you are heading south in Orange County, California today, use surface streets only. Apparently some idiot was driving with plywood as a windshield. Rocks(?) and broken glass everywhere.

Long telephone wait time with the auto claims line. If any ilxor can suggest a nice coffee shop nearby it would be appreciated.

This is near Irvine, btw.

alas, no good to either of us

I don't see what my gender has to do with anything

I'm sure that Colin Farrell film is set *in* Bruges. Fucked if I can find the title.

I can be in Irvine by midday tomorrow if you can find someone to cover my classes.

back, just killed Colin Farrell. that was the request ,right?

😬

By throwing him out a window in Irvine, right?

well, he went out the window but....

how it happened...

well that's a STORY

it all started when

if someone had made a strong cup of tea, but then discovered that there was no milk, would that person be justified in opening a can of goat milk and adding some to the aforementioned tea (the person does not know why they have a can of goat milk; it may have been thrown through their window)

scribble out the g and pretend its oat milk

there are now oats cavorting in the tea :/

So you have sown, so you shall steep!

who has a can of goat milk just laying around?

Mine is perched proudly on a floodlit pedestal, hardly what I would call "just laying around".

presumably to get the milk from the oat into that can you had to pulpit

Just feed your goat a steady diet of tea leaves. Saves wear and tear on the kettle...

i made oatmeal with the tea and the morning was saved

why is there a can of goat milk, idk, sometimes mr. cat brings home provisions which flummox me. i believe i've already mentioned somewhere about how he got freeze dried scrambled eggs for us to snack on like popcorn, but other acquisitions have included a sack of seed wheat and numerous instances of appetizingly labeled dog food/treats

mr. cat: want to try some of these jerky bites? they're very good, organic and grass-fed and so forth

me, peering at the packaging: these are for dogs, my love

mr. cat: *stops chewing, stricken*

on an unrelated note

if someone had left something in a guesthouse in an unnamed scottish town and it had been confirmed found but not sent on in several weeks and the guest house manager/owner isnt responding to any contact

anyone know what theyd do short of giving it up or hiring ppl to break a load of their windows

p'raps someone local from ILX could go there and inquire in person?

Unfortunately my sister's in Morocco right now so I can't ask her.

be wonderful but im fairly sure its run very arms length by a twentysomething airbnb landlord with an office registered who knows where

would giving up, small claims court threats or a solicitor/registered letter strike anyone familiar with local customs and practice knowledge as good moves?

i'm mildly shocked that this wasn't Spurs-related tbh

wtf goes to Irvine on holiday????

its a handy first night spot off the ferry 🤷‍♂️

anyone know what theyd do short of giving it up or hiring ppl to break a load of their windows

I suppose one could, for instance, write a vehemently negative review on Yelp. I have heard this is more effective than those stress spinner things that got popular a while back.

Additionally, one could locate as many small businesses in their neighborhood as possible and contact them via website or phone and explain your deep concern that said guesthouse owner has died or suddenly left town because they aren't responding to your request for the return of your property. In a small town that could spur some very nasty gossip.