Update on this. The old machine got sorted by Apple. £199 for a new battery – SSD was fine! Because the machine was in good condition, they only charged for the battery but replaced the whole keyboard assembly! If I’d waited a week I could have saved myself the cost of the new MBP but new stuff is good!

The stuff in my street is / has been run in via man hole covers under the footpaths. Didn’t see any major digging going on. There’s not been any cable services like Virgin available at all so far. So it could be a year before its switched on!

OK, I realised that 45p was the upper limit (tax reasons) but I wasn’t expecting that so many employees would actually get that much. Quite generous employers out there!

I had a word with the dog – he promised not to eat that leaflet…

Great thanks – hadn’t seen that thread

Uhmm, so is there an easy way of finding out which of these companies is in my street – a central database so soemthing?

I had a small house which ran on LPG bottles, was on first name terms with the delivery driver pretty quickly!

I got mains gas put in, if you go this route be careful on quotations. Can’t remember the name of the part of British Gas that did the new pipe connections, but unsurprisingly they were crap. Price changed every time I called them so waited for a low quote and booked it! They still turned up and tried to dig up the whole car park rather than the trench to the back road as agreed, lucky I was at home that day!

Also, can yo ushare cost with neighbours? I split with one neighbour as the others in the row declined. One tight arse still tried to bribe the guys to add his house in when they started digging! He was told to FO, guess they get it a lot.

Final thing is that, if relevent to your geography, the new connection may need to cross someone else’s land. I had to find an obscure property company in London to get permission plus all the neighbours behind me, they were all pretty understanding.

Another failure to resist here…thanks OP

@cougar, not yet, was a rush to get the appeal in for reasons given. I will do.

I should just ask Cougar to write my replies, sums up what I’ve been trying to explain.

They have informed me that the clock has stopped so to speak in terms of the option to pay the reduced fine if (almost certainly when) they reject my appeal.

As I understand it, I can then pay up or appeal to Popla with the same evidence supplied to the parking company. If I do that and lose, then I have to pay £100.

Not heard from the lease company yet but if they are charging us and I win the appeal then they will have to drop their charges as well (as I understand via reading cases).

We’ll see, will update win or lose!

otherjonv – they are outside the rules not (necessarily) because of the time delay for them to send a notice but because of the subsequent information that they are obliged by law to provide us. This includes a copy of the original notice to keeper (the lease company) – otherwise how can we tell that they did in fact issue the notice within 14 days? They are also obliged by law to provide photographic evidence, they haven’t thus far. They are further required by law (all detailed in the POFA 2012) to obtain a copy of the lease agreement and supply that to us – surprise, surprise they haven’t done that either. A few other things as well not listed here.

Trail rat – these are not loopholes, they’re constituent parts of a well defined legal framework. A framework designed to prevent cowboy tactics and intimidation.

I see, which is why I said a portion, not all. If everybody plays to the same rules then all’s good isn’t it.

I break the rules, they don’t = my problem
I play to the rule, they break them = their problem

In this case nobody played to the rules so why should one party be penalised?

I didn’t perhaps add that I had never intended the stay to exceed the maximum duration, just wanted somewhere convenient to meet up and use one car. We got delayed as the M6 was shut and we moved about a mile in three hours.

To be honest, even though I wanted to tap into others’ experiences, I expected almost universal condemnation – this being righteuos STW after all. Just fascinates me that a still signifcant portion of respondents seem only to care about personal responsibility and are happy for corporate responsibility to be a ‘nice to have’.

Anyway, appeal underway, lesson learnt.

I did, as I’ve admitted several times already. They also breached the contract…

I’ll give it a shot at appealing with Popla after the parking company inevitably reject my intial appeal!

Stumpy – not quite right I’m afraid, the lease company identified the hirer not the driver.

Cougar

You’re right I think about who they needed to issue a notice to. However, they don’t tell me in the notice to hirer when they made that contact. They should have provided a copy of that notice (to keeper – the lease company) with our notice (to hirer) but didn’t.

It’ll take time and stress but they’ve clearly dropped a hollock on this. They of course know this but care not a jot!

I’ll also try the Tesco route but its so late in the process, wrg to reduced fine option that it may realistically be too late.

Oh, and there is no mention on the notice of POFA at all. Not sure if that makes it harder or easier to appeal

I have no guilt or conscience issues about leaving a car in a near empty car park, attached to a shop in which I spend thousands a year. I didn’t murder anybody! They issue thousands of these weekly I suspect, its not asking too much for them to do it legally is it?

As I’ve mentioned, if they are playing with a straight bat then I’ll pay, if they’re not then I won’t. This is all I’m trying to ascertain.

It seems that Onzadog makes a good point in that their obligation is to inform the keeper within 14 days and they could well have done that, tho the letter that we have doesn’t provide a copy of that communication, which I understand it should have.

Letter of the rules stuff and they fail in sections 13 and 14 of POFA, its just whether the stress of fighting it is worth it. On the other hand, is it morally acceptable to not fight it…

@andrewreay – i agree with you and if the parking company has adhered to their legal requirements I will pay. However, I suspect that issuing the notice beyond the 14 day limit breaches that requirement.

Therefore, one breach each and a draw. Or are you suggesting the rules only apply one way?

Thanks all

Stumpyjohn – the sanctimony took longer than I expected, rules work both ways, yes we broke them but seemingly so did the parking company.

Onzadog – thanks. That refers to the notice to keeper and this is a notice to hirer. It doesn’t provide any specific mention of when the notice to keeper was issued.

I have on my notice to hirer:

Date of event 27/9
Date issued 14/10
Date 14/10

This is a notice to hirer rather than notice to keeper. So the lease company has provided our details, which is fair, but this actual letter is from the parking company.

That’s the bit I’m unsure of. They should, according to a bit of googling, have provided me with a copy of the hire agreement, but didn’t.

I can’t find a reference in the POFA about the serving notice within 14 days

I will return the owc one again and no doubt they’ll eventually replace it but they send it back to the states! I’ll sell it when the new one is sent!

Will get another brand as a replacement to keep the old mbp operational but this new MBP is pretty impressive!! That is after another 60 quid on bloody adapters!

Very expensive solution achieved at JL…

We went Neff with all our appliances, never again! Save yourself a few hundred straight away with an alternative to them!

The Muck boots have been hard to get hold of so I’d get them ordered if you want to go that way. They also come in a variety of models, including different sole choices (some more spendy ones are vibram).

I got some Muckmaster but haven’t used them in anger yet. I wanted the full rubber versions ‘Wetland Pro’ I think they are called but could only find them on one German website! Screwfix is also a stockist.

@molgrips – the rumour was that the new 14″ MBPs were the same size as the old 13″ version – just less bezel. Haven’t checked the numbers myself yet though.

More importantly, when are they likely to pair the mbp with free stuff!? I got Beats headphones last time and I want something this time as well!!

160! DT Swiss

Thanks all, Halfords looking favourite!

I don’t do Facebook but I’ll look at other 2nd hand possibilities.

Bigyim – thanks for the offer but its going through work so would be messy to use someone else’s card – will perhaps sign up for one though!

Isn’t this fly tipping?

There was a time a couple of years ago when police adopted a tactic of driving into these thugs on mopeds. Too easy for them to get away even in the rare event they get pursued by police. The level of hand wringing opposition was embarrassing.

We had EXACTLY the same crap pulled on us – mentioned it on other threads previoulsy. There’s an element of trust that one’s own insurer will look after their customer’s interests – no way, complete scam and should be banned.

My other half told her insurer to stuff it in the end as they hadn’t been honest in the dealings post (non-fault) claim. Told them no way would she turn up in court (don’t remember being asked for docs proving affordability). As soon as she pushed back they caved and accepted what would have been the usual hire rate from the other party’s insurers for the car concerned. Same as you, she was practically told to accept an equivalent car rather than a box with tyres.

J273 – I get the iritis on average I’d say every six months. Rarely both eyes at the same time, although I tend to use the steriods in both just in case!

OP – sounds like you’ve had a shite time of things. I would say that as long as you keep on top of the AS, it shouldn’t stop you doing things that you enjoy. Hopefully you have been assigned a specialist nurse as I found that contact the most helpful and accessible. All the good staff around here have jacked it in due to stress and work levels so I’m currently in a bit of void trying to work out who will be my new contacts!

I forgot to mention the uvitis (iritis) that has been mentioned above by others. That’s a real pain in the arse (eye!). If you get reddening and soreness in the eye (one or both) – get it checked ASAP. There are eye clinics scattered around (Manchester eye hospital being an example) but go to A&E if not and ask for the registrar (think that is the term) responsible for the seeing bits. Important to get on the steriods ASAP – if you do have an incidence of this, the pupil dilation drops make a drive home in the dark and rain an interesting experience! Go in the day and take sunnies…

No experience of those injections but I use Humira (brand name I think) every two weeks. Really helps me but as mentioned above, stress does you no favours – my pain increases with workload (partly because excercise reduces).

Sit stand desk if you’re a desk jockey. Lots of short breaks. Flares still happen (by that I mean worse that usual pain) without pattern but gnerally under control. I never tried yoga or regular stretching but can clearly see the benefit of doing so – I have limited flexibility now – even feel it getting on or off a bike!

Open stations might just mean unleaded only, every station round here is shut or pretty much empty with only unleaded left, no diesel to be found.

In reply to the what drugs question…

Etoricoxib (with associated omeprazole); sulfasalazine and the stuff that worked the magic is Humira (fornightly injections at home by pen). Humira was the one that I had to wait ages for as it was costly, off patent now I think so produced by other manufacturers and should be more accesible.

I also took methotrexate for years, then quite suddenly that became difficult due to nausea, tried an injection version of it before canning it entirely.

Assume this was a girl dog? No danglies to grab hold of?

I guess you had no choice if you thought it had hold of your kid. Hopefully the owner gets banned from owning dogs.

BFe Max?

Shamefully mine is still sat next to me unridden, just need to cut the steerer to size and apparently shorten the brake hoses after seeing yours…

Say yes to drugs! I was in pain for years before getting access to the stuff that worked for me. Still have bad days but there was a point where I couldn’t even shake hands in meetings due to the pain!