Amazon exiles discussion

Some annoyances in life can be complained about and even occasionally put right. Others however are just there and there's absolutely nothing to be done except whinge.

I have a thing about warning beeps given out by electronic equipment. Usually because their batteries are low or they are no longer connected to the internet.

The problem is that the manufacturers seem to assume we know exactly which piece of equipment makes which noise and where we have left it.

I had an electronic 'thing' that beeped once every hour or so. The problem was that it only gave one short beep each time. I had no idea where it was so I was reduced to timing the beeps then standing hopefully in different parts of the room to see where it was loudest.

This went on for days and I couldn't track the thing down. Eventually it stopped - presumably because the battery had gone completely flat. To this day I don't know what it is or where it is hiding.

Last year I started hearing 2 consecutive beeps which I thought at first must be my smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. Checked the batteries which were fine and it wasn’t the right sound anyway.
Couldn’t track the noise down to any room or any particular time.
6 months later, went on holiday to Cornwall and got a shock to hear the noise in my bedroom! However, I happened to have my phone in my hand at the time and realised it was vibrating at the same frequency.
Turns out that whenever I put it on WiFi it somehow sounds somewhere out in the ether other than the phone itself. I very rarely use it on WiFi so I can just leave it off most of the time. I’d had the phone 2 years before it started doing this and I now think it dates from Virgin giving me a new hub but that wouldn’t apply when I’m away from home. Don’t know anyone else this happens to but there are quite a few ‘mystery beeps’ questions online.

Mystery beeps and buzzing noises in our House can usually be traced back to my Dad fiddling with things and in doing so setting up Alarms on them that he has no idea of ;o>

We had one that used to go off for several minutes just after 2am every night for almost a fortnight, which my M&D would always blissfully sleep through, but drove me and the two little hairy woofers nuts with it being night after night.

I would get up and go downstairs to meet the Girls in the Hallway - sleepy but stressed-out and restless and whining with agitation. Then I'd try to pinpoint which Room it was coming from before it suddenly stopped again.

Finally I stayed up in the Lounge one night and discovered it was going off right next to my Dad's Armchair. It was his Digital Weather Station! - something that I never even knew had any kind of an Alarm function on it. And it is also a really loud and quite piercing one as well!

My Dad can't stop fiddling with things and so every few months he will invariably set it to go off once more - but at least I know what it is now and how to disable it each time he manages to do it all over again ;o>

My complaint is the basic design of many items. I count myself lucky to be reasonably fit for my age (I'm umpty nine at the moment) but I'm getting problems with arthritic hands and, in any case, I'm small, only just over five feet and in proportion. Many simple DIY jobs are getting beyond me because my hands are simply not big enough to grasp things and now I'm losing the dexterity to use tools to bypass the problem.
I believe that many people, whether officially deemed 'disabled' or like me, getting a bit past it, are disadvantaged because products are designed by large, healthy people who can't (or won't) imagine the difficulties encountered by others who're different from them. Many things could easily be tweaked to make life less challenging.

Completely agree, Isabella. My hands are ok but it took me nearly 20 minutes the other day to extricate a tube of Sweetex from its plastic pack, then to try and open the bloody thing.
As for ring-pulls, I just can’t manage them, so I turn the can upside-down and use an ordinary tin-opener.

Yep! - I also reckon that Supermarkets are specifically designed for extremely agile people who are at least 5 Foot 6 + and have very long arms ... as how else can they explain why, when there is no-one else around that I can ask for help, I have virtually climb up the Shelf sides and use the Handle end of one of my Crutches to hook around and then manoeuvre items to the edge of the Shelf where I can catch them as they fall forwards?

Suzy, in our Sainsbury's they actually have notices on the very top shelves advising customers to ask staff for help if they want stuff from there - chance would be a fine thing! Although it did make my day when I once reached (just!) something for a woman who was even shorter than I am. :o)

From time to time I'm asked to get stuff down from the top shelf in the supermarket, lol

Maybe something like this would be helpful - https://www.amazon.co.uk/NRS-Healthca... 😀

I have two of those gripper thingamabobs in the house and find them very useful. I use them mostly for high stuff (which I've usually put on a high shelf myself - don't know why I put it/them there in the first place); also for retrieving rubbish which I've put in the wrong bin (we have three - red for household rubbish, yellow for recycling, green for garden waste). It's amazing how often I'll casually drop something in the wrong bin and then have to fish it out. Grabbers are also useful for picking up things you've dropped which then proceed to roll right under the couch or similar. However, I've yet to take one to the supermarket!

Maybe if people did, the message would start sinking in? 👍

Anyone else experienced the "You can't actually do it on purpose" phenomenon? The number of times cords, belts, cables etc get tangled on door handles, knobs, hooks and things never fails to amaze me. If I'm trying to fasten something securely or hook something over, it won't do it, it always slips off or comes undone. Try to walk past a door handle with my dressing gown belt unfastened, however, and the darned thing grabs my belt (or worse, the loop) and I'm pulled up short. I guess 'short' is the operative word here. If I had longer legs, the handle wouldn't be on a level with my belt... Platform slippers with high heels?

Val wrote: "I have two of those gripper thingamabobs in the house and find them very useful. I use them mostly for high stuff (which I've usually put on a high shelf myself - don't know why I put it/them there..."

I got 2 grippers when I had my hip done and couldn’t bend down. I don’t like fitted kitchens and deliberately haven’t any high shelves or cupbards but I’m always dropping pens and balls of wool under my chair. Like Val I have 3 bins - and while I do put the wrong things in sometimes, I always have to check them if I’ve had workmen round as they often don’t bother separating stuff. I have everything delivered these days so supermarkets aren’t a problem!

My Dad has got several of those, tech, but I prefer to refuse to use them as I am absolutely determined to stay flexible unlike him - and it's always been a case of use it or lose it on capability with me.

It's a rather odd irony that I may need a Wheelchair these days but I can still reach over without bending my Knees to place the palms of my Hands on the Floor, and I can do the Splits as well, with complete ease (pain permitting of course) as most of my Joints have always been hypermobile.

I still have my Crutches with me most of time, even though I'm can't walk very well for long with them as they badly hurt my Arms and Spine nowadays to try to do so. And I find that they do hook around things rather well in order to be able to pull them forward to the edge of the shelf where I can then brace myself to catch them as I tip them over.

I don't think that it's even anything to do with me being disabled now either that I have become increasing aware of this annoying issue over the last decade? - as I am still exactly the same height with exactly the same Arm length as I have always have - and I don't remember ever having quite so many challenges with the previous designs of standard Supermarket Shelving before?

The Shelves are most definitely designed to be much higher now and they have a much wider depth and angled slant to them that consequently puts a lot of things frustratingly completely beyond my reach.

What I really need is to hire myself a tech to go out shopping with me! ;o>

What I find most annoying in supermarkets is shelves where the items on them are just too tall to be taken straight out because of the shelf above, especially when there's a lot of stock on there so tipping the thing over is a performance in itself.

And don't get me started on the Fort Knox packaging that gets worse year on year.

Isabella wrote: "I guess 'short' is the operative word here. If I had longer legs, the handle wouldn't be on a level with my belt... Platform slippers with high heels?"

I've also noticed in other people's Houses that their new Kitchen Worktops seem to be being designed as standard to be slightly higher now as well? - and I also find reaching so far over to get my Arms into the much smaller trendy Sinks to be quite awkward and even rather painful too after washing-up a few Pots for just a couple of minutes.

There also seems to be far less Worktop space in many Kitchens too and I see that the current trend is either for a huge fancy 6 to 8 Hob Cooker Oven or in having no Oven at all in favour of just a massive all-in-one Microwave instead?

My Neighbours brand new Kitchen is certainly very beautiful and is fabulously trendy - yet I find it to be quite unworkable and barely functional for actually getting to enjoy doing any Cooking in.

Tim wrote: "What I find most annoying in supermarkets is shelves where the items on them are just too tall to be taken straight out because of the shelf above, especially when there's a lot of stock on there s..."

Ahhh, the wedged-in tight Shelf Puzzle, Tim! ;o> ... where you need to attempt to gradually ease one row of Boxes sideways as far as they will go (about 1/2 a millimetre usually), then wriggle slide your Hand up the small space that you have created and start to shuffle move each Box a little to either the left or the right, until you have created just about enough space around the Box that you want, to start with forcibly working it backwards, forwards, and sideways until it finally gives up and pops out from underneath the edge of the Shelf above.

I believe it's creation is designed to mimic a particularly fiendish Puzzle Game often shown on 'The Crystal Maze' ... ? ;o>

I hate modern cookers. I’ve managed to hang on to my freestanding one with eye-level grill and my sister managed to replace hers.
Modern cookers seem to have the grill either in the oven (can’t use both at once) or above the oven so you have to bend double to lift anything out. Neither of these lets you see if things are cooked or burning. Double sinks are annoying too - neither of them has room for a washing-up bowl.

Finding replacement parts for a discontinued electrical item.

My mother has one of those Steepletone all in one music centres...made to look like a vintage record player, but has a CD player, tape deck, radio..etc..you know the type. This thing wasn't cheap, when bought...but some 10 years on, it needs a new turntable belt. Been searching the internet to try and find one the right length...can I? No.

I couldn't give a monkey if a new belt is just a generic one..but can't find one the right length anywhere, pain in the wotsit. Everything else works, so why should consumers render a perfectly good piece of equipment, and be expected to buy a new one, just because the manufacturer no longer supports an older model.

Go on then? - tell us the model number so that we can all go looking as well ;o>

They’re a family firm set up in 1972, could be the sort of company to have spares?
http://www.steepletone.com/contact/

Or you could try the old car fanbelt trick with a pair of tights.
😀😃

Oooh, but just what colour Tights though, Lez Lee? ;o>

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Oooh, but just what colour Tights though, Lez Lee? ;o>"

I can offer him bright turquoise or tartan.....

Lez wrote: "I can offer him bright turquoise or tartan....."

;o>

Duke? - is this website any good to you? ...

http://www.turntabledrivebelts.co.uk/

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Go on then? - tell us the model number so that we can all go looking as well ;o>"

Hello cheeky! I have already been looking..but it seems the model number doesn't help things much. But for reference it's a Steepletone 2057...that's it!

Lez wrote: "They’re a family firm set up in 1972, could be the sort of company to have spares?
http://www.steepletone.com/contact/

Or you could try the old car fanbelt trick with a pair of tights.
😀😃"

lol! It had occurred to me, I could just use a very long rubber band...as that's essentially what it is!

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Duke? - is this website any good to you? ...

http://www.turntabledrivebelts.co.uk/"

Ah! didn't see this...thank you..i'll have a gander...ta!

If a drive belt is the same thing as a jockey-pulley, a rubber band should work as that’s what I used to fix my old Dansette.

Like Lez says you could also send Steepletone an Email or PM them via Facebook - it costs nothing to do so and they may have current models that use the same size of Belt and be able to help you with Spare Parts at an even better bargain price.

I'm not sure if the Website Link I gave you is going to be the cheapest around? - as I chose it mainly for the fact that it has an extensive choice of Belt sizes available and I'm not sure quite what size you are looking for ;o>

Just trying to work out the correct length, as the old one is probably stretched now.

Right used the link Suzy gave me, bought a belt...here's hoping I got the right one..thanks folks! :)

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Like Lez says you could also send Steepletone an Email or PM them via Facebook - it costs nothing to do so and they may have current models that use the same size of Belt and be able to help you wi..."

Yes, they weren't the cheapest..but knickers to that..i just wanna get the thing running again..so mum stops nagging me about it! Done and dusted! :)

YAYYY!!! - let us know how you get on with it, won't you? ;o>

Cheers Suzy! :)

what grindeth my gears? everything really, but,

sugar tax - 'thankyou for drinking 'regular' coca cola for fifty years! as a reward for your brand loyalty, please accept our special deal that enables you to pay more for your favourite soft beverage! two for the price of three', roughly! and i would rather drink a leper's streamie than touch 'diet' coke!

50p per unit alchohol tax - doesn't directly affect me, as i'm not a huge drinker this weather, but asking yer regular jakey to shell out £11 for a 2 bucks bottle of premium 'apple free' white cider is going to lead to increased thieving, aggravated hard-core begging, and much fussing an a fighting in the alkymunity, which will spill over to the streets!

pavement parkers - greedy, selfish bastards - they've got all the road, now they want the pavements too! round here, some of the selfish, greedy bastards are pavement parked in a manner which would force pram pushers and wheelchair users to navigate such via the road! not on, and hopefully shortly to become an offence! if you pavement park, and notice that your passenger side rear view mirror is wildly out of alignment, you'll know that me and the luxster have passed your way!

gimme a minute, i'm sure there's more (i know there's more!)

Agree 100% on all

The first two are down to 'health nazis'. Neither of course will have much impact on the well-off, just those on lower incomes. Nothing changes.

The third. You could try carrying a packet of sticky notes (preferably with the kind of glue which would leave a sticky mess on the windscreen) and tell them the next time you find their car on the pavement you'll leave them a message written with your keys! 😉

Grumpy Old Men/Women anyone?

I think I've been a GOW all my life, it's just that now I have more time to indulge my pet hates...

Just the other day, on my way home, a man asked me 'Is that your car?' as someone had parked half on the pavement and also part blocking his drive so he was having difficulty getting out. Between them, I had to walk round on the road as his vehicle was so enormous it overhung the pavement anyway. Pot and kettle, anyone?

Brass Neck wrote: "Grumpy Old Men/Women anyone?"

According to my mum, I was born grumpy and only get worse as I get older, hence my name - Grizzly appearance and grumpy nature!

What makes me just feel so unbelievably sad and also want to absolutely scream my Head off at the same time?

Those bloody awful and also downright patronising 'confiding girl-to-girl talk' adverts that are currently promoting a now well-known range of 'feminine hygiene products' ... !!! ... GRRR!!! ;o<

These disgraceful Companies are openly cashing in on trying to spread a form of a very unhealthy and quite shameful body hygiene paranoia in their active encouragement of young women to become so uncomfortably conscious and deeply unhappy with their own amazing bodies and their perfectly natural functions and processes!

This primitive kind of thinking really should have been stopped in it's tracks decades ago - as these products have been created to deep-cleanse and to dry up the completely normal and healthy lubricating Body fluids that are naturally present in such places so as to cleanse, moisten and protect. These feminine hygiene products greatly reduce and even destroy the essential good Bacterias that are produced by the Body - and, in doing so, they only greatly increase the risks of suffering from serious ongoing Infections and also, tragically, of even going on to develop certain forms of Cancer as well.

I found this terrible truth out for myself through my nursing of far too many middle-aged (30 to 50 year old) terminally ill women who, even when they had been diagnosed with Ovarian and Cervical Cancers, would still sneak off regularly to the Ward Bathroom's to 'clean' themselves every day - because they had sadly been raised to believe that they were 'dirty' women if they didn't do so. The poor souls were actually dying from believing in old wives tales that came purely from so many previous years of extreme female sexual repression and out of sheer ignorance.

And I can't believe that I can turn on the TV in 2018 and now see young healthy women in this current day and age actively being urged to go right back to the sad and dark days of the ignorant misunderstandings of their own Grandmothers on all of this?!!

And I sincerely wish that the Government or a leading Cancer Organisation would step up and make a firm stand against these disgraceful Companies, and educate our future generations of young women to not to fall for believing that they should be using such utterly un-necessary and yet also potentially extremely dangerous products on their absolutely amazing and perfectly normal bodies!

you ****in' tell them, suzy! :)

i have a p.h.d. in applied crabbit (language and technique).

tim - keys would make a sound (i have thought about it, tho'!) - other thoughts involve depositing one of lux's little bagged delights thru' an open window, or the silent splashing of cheap nail varnish (across at least 2 doors), casual stylee as i walk by innocently!

Could get nasty though, tech. They’d probably realise it was the occupant of the house they were outside and retaliate!

oh no, i'm no daft enough to s**t the nest! i refer to cars pavement parked on the route of my dog walks!

however, you're clearly overlooking the simple fact that i'm the baddest m**********r that i'm likely to encounter! :)

me and fang!

Ah right. I’m an innocent soul not used to the workings of the underworld.
😳

You and that beautiful big soft fluffy bounceful of Dog by your side? ... ! ;o>

Or does the lovely Lady Lux tool up and make herself look like she is suitably 'well hard' when out and about with you, tech? ;o>

Tech wrote: "you ****in' tell them, suzy! :)

i have a p.h.d. in applied crabbit (language and technique).

tim - keys would make a sound (i have thought about it, tho'!) - other thoughts involve depositing one..."

Direct action tech. You know it makes sense! 😂

Suzy, it's shameful. But what price women's health when set against $$$$$, huh! 😤

Just about every blurdy ferkin thing in the universe these days seems designed to annoy, frustrate or drive me insane. In fact so much so I think I have become completely desensitised to the modern world and wander around in a dense impenetrable fog which I find helps me to survive.

tim - that's the spirit!

suzy - "You and that beautiful big soft fluffy bounceful of Dog"

indeed, and with a myriad of tastefully co-ordinated hair slides, eyes that say 'be my pal!', and a mind considering what your throat tastes like! :)

martyn - it's a good place to be!

I read that as a dense impenetrable frog!