What Irked You Today?

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 hours ago, 426 pack said:

Today I was going through my truck because I have a very bad misfire and when I opened the hood I notice that my coolant was almost completely empty and my oil was low so after talking to some people I have come to the construction that my head gasket is bad and the only way that I can fix it is if I pull the cab off the frame. My truck has over 300,000km on it but it still is a little frustrating. 

You might want to reevaluate your diagnostic procedure. What year and make truck? What other symptoms do you have? What is the compression in each cylinder?

Edited October 22, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[Tom Geiger]

Sale is falling through on my New Jersey house.  We received the worlds worst homeowner inspection.  Keep in mind that I completely gutted and rebuilt this house nine years ago!   The inspection report is written so poorly that you cannot differentiate between their boiler plate and actual concerns.  And every point in the report is designed to take no responsibility or liability on the part of the inspector.  In every instance they recommend a second opinion by a licensed HVAC company, Electrician, plumber etc.  All told that would result in another 5 inspections.

Inspection was written  like  "water heater and central a/c systems are nine years old and will fail at ten years. Have homeowner replace systems prior to closing."  Um no!   The two a/c systems in my own house are over 20 years old and in excellent operating condition!    

The inspection report is so poor, that as a qualified individual, I may send it in to the state licensing board.  After we get past this whole debacle!  And of course this mess has cost us a month.

[Mark]

I wonder if the inspector has a list of "recommended" contractors...

[OldTrucker]

Who hired the inspector?

My son had this happen and after he threatened a lawsuit the house got re-inspected and they only found one small issue which he fixed himself!

Seemed like someone was trying to help the buyer a bit too much!

[espo]

11 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Sale is falling through on my New Jersey house.  We received the worlds worst homeowner inspection.  Keep in mind that I completely gutted and rebuilt this house nine years ago!   The inspection report is written so poorly that you cannot differentiate between their boiler plate and actual concerns.  And every point in the report is designed to take no responsibility or liability on the part of the inspector.  In every instance they recommend a second opinion by a licensed HVAC company, Electrician, plumber etc.  All told that would result in another 5 inspections.

Inspection was written  like  "water heater and central a/c systems are nine years old and will fail at ten years. Have homeowner replace systems prior to closing."  Um no!   The two a/c systems in my own house are over 20 years old and in excellent operating condition!    

The inspection report is so poor, that as a qualified individual, I may send it in to the state licensing board.  After we get past this whole debacle!  And of course this mess has cost us a month.

Sounds like the so called inspector may not be as qualified as he thinks. Went thru the same type of deal on our last house. I went over the listed problems in our case with the buyers and their agent our agent was useless. The big sticking point was the inspector thought the basement was flooding because there was water on a hole in the floor. I demonstrated how a sump pump works and with everything else explained they bought the house. If you have really hard water in your area hot water heaters seem to start leaking in 5 to 6 years, in our case anyway. We just replaced the builder grade air conditioner after 19 years. I'd get a second opinion from someone who knows what their doing and have your agent re contact the buyer. 

[stitchdup]

Over 3 hours cleaning up raw sewerage at work. Some so called engineers must have learned their trade with lego. I'm off to shower and change

[Tom Geiger]

11 hours ago, espo said:

Sounds like the so called inspector may not be as qualified as he thinks. Went thru the same type of deal on our last house. I went over the listed problems in our case with the buyers and their agent our agent was useless. The big sticking point was the inspector thought the basement was flooding because there was water on a hole in the floor. I demonstrated how a sump pump works and with everything else explained they bought the house. If you have really hard water in your area hot water heaters seem to start leaking in 5 to 6 years, in our case anyway. We just replaced the builder grade air conditioner after 19 years. I'd get a second opinion from someone who knows what their doing and have your agent re contact the buyer. 

My attorney and I agreed that the inspector's report was indeed written to deny any responsibility on his part and was very poor.  I have another inspection report from the first buyer that is more realistic.  There is really nothing wrong with the house so they nitpicked that a window wouldn't latch and a shower head was leaking.  Stuff like that!  It's interesting that the reports appear to be written about different properties. Neither of them addressed the same issues!

The buyer just wanted out and the inspection complaints were just a smoke screen to wiggle out.  Spoke with my attorney yesterday, the only remedy would be to sue for performance, which means a costly court appearance and maybe tying ourselves up for months.  

We have sold this house three times!   Buyer one couldn't come up with the down payment. Yes, he signed the contract which states that buyer represents he has funds to close. Again, a costly court appearance for any relief.

Buyer two flaked out during attorney review.  Sale was not contingent on any sale of his existing house, but he claimed the deal fell through on his house and didn't have funds to complete the deal.  

So end analysis is that if you are in a real estate deal in New Jersey, you can just walk away at any whim and the other party would need to take on a costly lawsuit.   Argh!

[espo]

2 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

My attorney and I agreed that the inspector's report was indeed written to deny any responsibility on his part and was very poor.  I have another inspection report from the first buyer that is more realistic.  There is really nothing wrong with the house so they nitpicked that a window wouldn't latch and a shower head was leaking.  Stuff like that!  It's interesting that the reports appear to be written about different properties. Neither of them addressed the same issues!

The buyer just wanted out and the inspection complaints were just a smoke screen to wiggle out.  Spoke with my attorney yesterday, the only remedy would be to sue for performance, which means a costly court appearance and maybe tying ourselves up for months.  

We have sold this house three times!   Buyer one couldn't come up with the down payment. Yes, he signed the contract which states that buyer represents he has funds to close. Again, a costly court appearance for any relief.

Buyer two flaked out during attorney review.  Sale was not contingent on any sale of his existing house, but he claimed the deal fell through on his house and didn't have funds to complete the deal.  

So end analysis is that if you are in a real estate deal in New Jersey, you can just walk away at any whim and the other party would need to take on a costly lawsuit.   Argh!

I share your pain. We are listing our home with the thought of down sizing as my wife hopes to retire in the next couple of years. I often have seen interesting houses that are being relisted with a disclaimer that the deal fell through because of "an over zealous inspector". This always makes you wonder just how much is the inspector and how much is the home. Looking at homes in the area that are under 20 years old sometimes you have to wonder if they were Frat Houses at some point. I just can't see how someone wouldn't take better care of what is often their biggest asset. Anyway good luck to you on selling your home. 

[cobraman]

Lately folks in our area have had a rash of packages stolen by the so called porch pirates. I have been lucky not to have had anything taken (yet ? ).  Since I am retired I am usually home and can get to the door as soon as I hear the bell. Even the folks with the Ring door bell are stolen from. I guess the crooks don't care as a lot seem to look in the camera and smirk.

[Cpt Tuttle]

I had a bicycle accident so about everything on my right side hurts now......just came home from the hospital and at least nothing seems to be broken, they said I was very lucky that didn't get more hurt, but I would have preferred to not have the crash at all because the pain is still...painful. ?

[Jim N]

20 hours ago, Cpt Tuttle said:

I had a bicycle accident so about everything on my right side hurts now......just came home from the hospital and at least nothing seems to be broken, they said I was very lucky that didn't get more hurt, but I would have preferred to not have the crash at all because the pain is still...painful. ?

I hope you heal up quickly Mattias.

[TonyK]

Watched the NASCAR truck race at Martinsville today on Fox Sports 1 and the video went out for the last restart with 2 laps to go. Apparently everyone missed it but there was audio which sounded like a transistor radio. Sounded like it was exciting. Then to make matters worse, they were running late so immediately went to a football game. Pretty disrespectful to NASCAR and it's fans.

[oldnslow]

Ditto

[TarheelRick]

12 hours ago, TonyK said:

Watched the NASCAR truck race at Martinsville today on Fox Sports 1 and the video went out for the last restart with 2 laps to go. Apparently everyone missed it but there was audio which sounded like a transistor radio. Sounded like it was exciting. Then to make matters worse, they were running late so immediately went to a football game. Pretty disrespectful to NASCAR and it's fans.

Not trying to start a flame war, but I feel NASCAR has been disrespectful of its fans for many years now.  I was born and raised in the middle of NASCAR country, Junior Johnson's shops were less than 10 miles from my house.  Childress racing is less than 50 miles.  Used to be a hard-core fan, but all the changes to the cars, rules, and racing formats have completely turned me off.  I will tune in to the last few laps to see who wins, I am still a FORD fan.

[TonyK]

You're in the middle of NASCAR country and I'm far away from it so rely on television coverage and that's why this sort of thing irks me so much. And yes, I agree with your comments. Used to watch every race years ago but pick and choose races now. Being retired I've got plenty of time to watch but everything in the sport has changed and not for the better in my opinion. Won't go into all the details but even the broadcasts are hard for me to watch as the constant manufactured drama and announcers yelling all the time as if every pass is for the win grinds on me.

Luckily I like most any type of racing so do enjoy watching other television coverage where announcers prove they can tell me what's going on without insulting my intelligence.

[slusher]

20 hours ago, TonyK said:

You're in the middle of NASCAR country and I'm far away from it so rely on television coverage and that's why this sort of thing irks me so much. And yes, I agree with your comments. Used to watch every race years ago but pick and choose races now. Being retired I've got plenty of time to watch but everything in the sport has changed and not for the better in my opinion. Won't go into all the details but even the broadcasts are hard for me to watch as the constant manufactured drama and announcers yelling all the time as if every pass is for the win grinds on me.

Luckily I like most any type of racing so do enjoy watching other television coverage where announcers prove they can tell me what's going on without insulting my intelligence.

Think it was a network problem with the race running over or provider....??

Edited October 28, 2019 by slusher

[espo]

I still don't think they would do that if they were showing under water ballet or some other exciting sport like that. 

[Tom Geiger]

People and a Halloween event that went bad!

Saturday we went with my daughter's family to take my grandchildren to their town's "Trunk or Treat" event.  That's where families all park their cars in the park and dispense candy to each other's kids, in lieu of the more dangerous door to door begging that we did as kids.  The event started out well.  About 30 families participated and had the hatchbacks to their SUVs open and decorated for Halloween.  One lady even brought coffee for everyone.

Here we are with our three baby sharks (it's a kids show thing). My two year old grand daughter got the biggest charge of handing out the candy to the kids.

This was supposed to go from 1pm to 3pm.  We noticed past 2pm it picked up dramatically, there were a lot more kids and parents than cars!   And the kids got grabbier and ruder.  Fewer  "Thank you"s and kids reaching around my grand daughter to grab candy directly from our box.  Then it happened. Around 2:45, a girl pushed my grand daughter out of the way and dove into our box with both fists.  That's when my daughter yelled "that's enough" and we grabbed up everything and proceeded to leave.

As we attempted to leave, the road out of the park was full of people heading in on foot with kids with loot bags.  We had to inch our way through, even though this was supposed to be closing time.  90% of the people there weren't participating, just taking!    

 

[Dave Van]

The Windows 10 update that went in last night.....took 40 minutes to get my desktop back up and running right. MS needs to be hit with a anti-trust.....

[ewetwo]

18 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

People and a Halloween event that went bad!

Saturday we went with my daughter's family to take my grandchildren to their town's "Trunk or Treat" event.  That's where families all park their cars in the park and dispense candy to each other's kids, in lieu of the more dangerous door to door begging that we did as kids.  The event started out well.  About 30 families participated and had the hatchbacks to their SUVs open and decorated for Halloween.  One lady even brought coffee for everyone.

Here we are with our three baby sharks (it's a kids show thing). My two year old grand daughter got the biggest charge of handing out the candy to the kids.

This was supposed to go from 1pm to 3pm.  We noticed past 2pm it picked up dramatically, there were a lot more kids and parents than cars!   And the kids got grabbier and ruder.  Fewer  "Thank you"s and kids reaching around my grand daughter to grab candy directly from our box.  Then it happened. Around 2:45, a girl pushed my grand daughter out of the way and dove into our box with both fists.  That's when my daughter yelled "that's enough" and we grabbed up everything and proceeded to leave.

As we attempted to leave, the road out of the park was full of people heading in on foot with kids with loot bags.  We had to inch our way through, even though this was supposed to be closing time.  90% of the people there weren't participating, just taking!    

 

That's too bad Tom. There are a lot of rude parents and children these days. I think it's an entitlement thing. Like everyone owes you something. Sad.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1) People mindlessly rebleating the term "reaching out" instead of just "contacting" or "writing" or "calling" or "e-mailing". It's stupid. Every scam call I get is some fool "reaching out" to get his hand in my pocket. Customer service follow-ups are inevitably "reaching out" to get my feedback or opinion, rather than just calling or e-mailing and asking for it. Technical services marketing themselves are always "reaching out" in response to inquiries I've made. Did I say it's STUPID? Every bit as STUPID as the worked-to-death "awesome" to describe the most trivial and insignificant, and "gifting" instead of "giving".

2) Adults with several decades of life behind them who can't buy a car, get a title transferred, get a tag, transfer insurance, or go to the bank for a certified check without somebody to hold their hands every step of the way.

3) People who quote entire posts, including all two dozen photographs.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[porschercr]

2 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

1) People mindlessly rebleating the term "reaching out" instead of just "contacting" or "writing" or "calling" or "e-mailing". It's stupid. Every scam call I get is some fool "reaching out" to get his hand in my pocket. Customer service follow-ups are inevitably "reaching out" to get my feedback or opinion, rather than just calling or e-mailing and asking for it. Technical services marketing themselves are always "reaching out" in response to inquiries I've made. Did I say it's STUPID? Every bit as STUPID as the worked-to-death "awesome" to describe the most trivial and insignificant, and "gifting" instead of "giving".

2) Adults with several decades of life behind them who can't buy a car, get a title transferred, get a tag, transfer insurance, or go to the bank for a certified check without somebody to hold their hands every step of the way.

Couldn't agree more, especially 1.

[TarheelRick]

What irked me today and over the past several days is the incessant calls from people wanting to "help me" locate the correct Medicare supplement for me.  The biggest irk is they call in using local telephone numbers so my caller ID will look legitimate.  But then there are also the same type calls that come in from many different states and it is the same robocall.  As Ace said, (paraphrase) "I am an adult with several decades of life behind me and I know how to make a couple phone calls to see who can offer me the best supplemental insurance."  Which I do not really need, since I am retired military and have TRICARE for life.  I did sign up for one of the more prominent companies free policy which offers "Silver Sneakers" just so I can get a free membership to my local YMCA. 

[Rob Hall]

I get those also....if it's the same area code and exchange as my cell number, it's almost always a robocall so I ignore it.   (My cell number isn't local to where I live).   I only answer the phone for people/businesses that are in my contacts, I figure anyone else can leave a message.

[porschercr]

7 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

   I only answer the phone for people/businesses that are in my contacts, I figure anyone else can leave a message.

Same here.