Modern Vespa

Couldn't you have worked a colonoscopy in with your vacation plans?

Definitely off-topic, but we'll be in Portland next week....any other insider travel tips? I always have more room in my CD collection.

Times that by 100 and you will get the idea how us cyclists feel.

I see things slightly differently, yes street beggars can often improve their situation if properly motivated and had access to some good advice but if some man or woman was sat in the street in the middle of winter in rags, I can be sure the change in my pocket will be more use to them then it is to me and thats even presuming they put it towards drink, weed or cigarettes.

Costco.

We've had an executive membership for years. We needed a new fridge, so we decided to leverage our membership and buy one through Costco.

July 6th was the delivery date, between 4:30 and 6:30. Wonderful. Except they showed up at 3:15. I wasn't home. I have to be there to unhook the water because the installers are not allowed to if there is no shutoff at the fridge. Which there isn't. By the time I got home they had the new unit unloaded from the truck and the doors laying in the yard. It was damaged. I wasn't there, so I don't know if the delivery guys did it or it happened prior. I discussed it with them, and decided to take the new fridge and deal with Costco after the fact because, after all, their customer service is splendid. Not only was the back vent area damaged, there was also a dent in the front door that was in the installation pictures taken by the delivery team. Also, even after several days, while being set at its coldest temp of 33°, it is keeping our food at a balmy 38°-39°.

I worked my way though their circular phone menus for about 20 minutes and wound up back at the main menu four times. I drove to the store, got a second phone number that took me to exactly the same place. But I eventually made it through to a human.

The replacement was scheduled for the 19th. Yes, the 19th. Between 5:00pm-7:00pm. Spiffy. At 5:00pm we had the fridge unloaded, water off and unhooked and the front door disassembled. At 7:15pm I decided it was a no call / no show and called Costco's concierge service. The contacted the carrier and they had just left for the delivery before ours. We were still two out. I cancelled and told them I would call back to reschedule. At 8:00pm the delivery driver called to tell us he was running late. I told him we had already cancelled. At 9:00pm, Costco logistics called to see if I wanted to reschedule. I said yes, but I would call back. Tomorrow. During the course of the night I received two emails. One was a confirmation of delivery that included a photo of the steering wheel inside the van and another saying it would be delivered at 12:12am. Neither of which was true.

I rescheduled, the next day and requested that they deliver after 4:00pm. They said they could request it, but there were no promises. When we received our time slot the evening before delivery, it was 1:00pm-3:00pm.

I went to the store fuming and had three people waiting on me. A manager made the call to logistics and placed the rescheduled order, stressing that it had to be after 4:00pm. They got the same response; no promises.

The night before delivery scheduled for today we received our delivery window of 1:00pm-3:00pm. I called Costco, listened to their on hold music (that is now permanently etched in my brain) for half an hour and spent the next half hour (apologetically) shouting at the poor girl on the other end of the line. I cancelled that order and pushed it out to the 12th of August to allow me time to make calls and straighten this out.

This morning I received an email saying "Your delivery is on its way!" I immediately called (on hold again) and confirmed that the order was NOT coming today and it had been pushed out to the 12th. As we discussed last night.

My wife called in a panic at 12:15 this afternoon. They were in the driveway with the new fridge. I talked to the delivery drivers and sent them on their way. Even if I had planned on being there at 1:00 today they were 45 minutes early. I would not have been there.

I called Costco again. Trying not to foam at the mouth, I had a lengthy conversation with representative number 12 (at least) about our woes. I escalated it to a supervisor who was practically argumentative with me and actually used the words, "If you are unwilling" and at that point I was done. I have her direct number to call back when we decide what we are going to do.

I called the corporate number and formally ranted at that level. Nobody at Costco - absolutely nobody - has offered to make this right. They all read the same cue card "We're sorry this has happened and I can understand your frustration ..." Well, no you aren't and no you can't. Otherwise you would fix this problem.

Even at the supervisory level, when I asked, "What is Costco offering to make this right?" I was told that they were offering us a replacement. Duh. So has everyone and they've continually failed. Oh, and replacement with no promises about delivery.

Once this transaction is complete I will be ceremoniously burning my Costco card.

I haven't been there in a while, but from what I hear from people in the area you might consider wearing a helmet and carrying some mace. Oh, and a face covering to block the stench.

I do have a soft spot for Newport. Right on the ocean. Great seafood. We stayed at Starfish Point. Perfectly lovely place.

Probably could if we'd visited Amsterdam (after a couple of brownies for sedation) 😋

[quote="seamus26"]
Costco.

Bummer.

That was however a most excellent rant! Wait until you finally get one delivered that works and then have it die on you within just a few years...I just see it in the tea leaves.

Recently had a bad experience with an LG refrigerator but got lucky and found out the model we had was given an extended warranty due to class action suit.

We literally qualified three days ahead of the deadline. If we had bought the refrigerator one week later we would have been out of the class action warranty...it made it almost 5 years before it died.

The point is we needed a new refrigerator for a temp and did some homework. The longest lasting most reliable refrigerators are the basic freezer on top no frills no ice maker models. Consumers rated a whirlpool base model as the top when we got it last year.

My wife didn't want that for the kitchen refrigerator though so it stays elsewhere as a spare. You almost have to have a spare refrigerator nowadays because unless you spend $10,000 for a premium model they will go out when relatively new and ruin a bunch of food.

We live in a fairly rural area in Cambridgeshire, UK, and we have 4 cats hanging around. From time to time one of the cats brings use a "present" - a dead mouse, however, that dead mouse may end up under a cabinet, or refrigerator, and is sometimes difficult to get to, but in the end they get disposed before they start to smell really funky!
Now from time to time George, ( the suspected Ninga mouse killer) brings in a live mouse, plays around with it, and invariably, releases it into the house..
Now, I've laid traps around the house in the form of very sticky cardboard pieces, laden with peanut butter to entice the little buggers, as well as your standard traps that traps the mouse in a humane way, so that Jules can release them back into the wild (when George, will soon find them, and bring the little bugger back in again..)

When a mouse gets trapped in the humane trap, it's with great excitement the mouse is released back, but, if the mouse gets trapped in the sticky board, well, much wailing and sobs from Jules, that it's cruel, as you can't get the mouse off the sticky pad without ripping some part of the mouse away, if you get my drift..

However, these sticky traps are more effective than the humane trap (the mouse seems to suspect the humane traps..) and they quickly solve the mouse issue, but why do I get the blame for the mouse getting stuck? surely the blame must given to George ( the Ninga cat) for bringing in the little buggers in the first place??

HAs anyone out there have another solution to trap mice in a more "humane" way, so keeping her indoors happy??

Bloody mice...

Graham

two days later ...

I was riding the middle of the bush and suddenly got a whole lot of missed call messages and an SMS saying I should call about my cat. But I had essentially zero signal so wrote a message that I knew my phone would struggle to deliver and rode on. A couple of hours later (while being really stressed) I was able to get a phone call through and found that my cat had FedExed himself to a nearby vet. Seriously. He stowed away in the fedex van when he had stopped and opened his door presumably near-ish my house and the driver didn't know where to take him back to (I had my phone number but not my address on the tag).

The scooterwest website.

It won't let me log in no matter what i try. the stupid captcha ("i'm not a robot" thing) just keeps recycling over and over and over again from both my work and home laptops. my phone (both on and off wifi) does it once, the box checks, and when i hit submit it takes me right back to the login screen. i attempt to create a new account and my email is already associated with an account.

this is with edge, chrome, *AND* firefox.

so i guess SIP gets another order instead.

Robot, fix your site please. Kthx.

Lost license plate

Went to ride this morning and now this. I'm pretty sure it just broke off. The scooter hasn't been parked anywhere the plate could have been stolen.

It looks like it has been bent. Is it possible someone broke it off on your last ride, and you didn't notice?

That's been broken off. What are the chances of both of them snapping ?

Thieves.

Not likely. I've kept pretty close to the scooter when it's not in the garage. To me it looks like the plate started to flap in the wind and the metal fatigued.
Poor design of the bracket.

What's really pissing me off is waiting all morning at the county service center for a replacement plate.

The worst lies are the ones you tell yourself

I hope that it hasn't been stolen but the bracket on the left looks bent back on itself to me.

We'll probably never know.

Wow, that's not an impressive start.

Mount should be warranty, but you're probably on your own with the plate.

Steelbytes, looks like you gave years of adventure coming.

Well, the plate cost about two hours of time, but not any money. I'm at Scooterville now to see if they can get me a new bracket.

New bracket under warranty, and ordered.

And...FIXED! temporarily.

My large format printer at work (an HP Designjet Z5200 PS) is giving me an error code, and the message of "power off and on."

When I power cycle it, the error code comes up again. So I googled it.

I found a resolution of "go into Diagnostic Mode and perform a Service Station Diagnostic Test." I did that, but part way through it gives me a new error code with the message "Possible Paper Jam." Except there is no paper loaded.

I did further research and found instructions for removing the cover to check to see if there was something blocking the Service Station. I didn't see anything, but I'm unfamiliar with the internal workings of this printer, so it could have a badger hiding in it and I wouldn't know.

So now I have a call in to our Desktop Printer vendor to see if he services this printer, and if so, how much it would cost (I know he can't give me a firm price, but figure he'd charge just to send a tech out to check the problem). Once I get that information, I'll pass it on to my Director, to see if she wants to spend the money on it.

As I was composing this, the vendor responded, asking if it was out of warranty, and stating that he'd send someone out to check on it on Monday.

What's pissing me off is that we have three large format printers: a Canon iPF8000s, an HP Designjet Z5200 PS, and a MUTOH XpertJet 1641SR Pro. The HP is down (see above), Canon is no longer supporting (or producing ink) for the IPF8000s, and the MUTOH is extremely slow. We've found an approved vendor that is able to find 3rd party ink for the Canon, but they're having difficulty getting it shipped to them. So we're essentially down to just the one slow printer.

My director is in the process of getting us a flatbed printer, but that probably won't happen until at least January (due to school district purchasing process).

The Costco saga continues.

I was able to contact the supervisor's voicemail yesterday morning. I left a very polite message asking her to call back.

After two hours I decided since we were just pushing the delivery out to Saturday the 12th anyway I would call Logistics just to confirm.

When the associate in Logistics realized a supervisor had been assigned our case she put me on hold and contacted the supervisor. When the associate returned she assured me the supervisor would call me back within half an hour.

I never received a call back.

So, it's further evidence that even when Costco sets the targets, they are incapable of hitting the targets.

I was able to log in but the site is very slow.

yeah i finally got in after (i counted) 19 attempts at the captcha on edge on my personal laptop.

but as you mentioned prohibitively slow.

I hope they get it sorted as they are one of my favorite vendors. A number of years ago they saved a scooter trip for me by overnighting me a fuel injector for my MP3 500. They were the only US vendor at the time that had one in stock.

Get a small dorm fridge. Keeps your beverages cool, and is a refrigerative lifeboat for when the main one goes under.

This. As astute observers will note.

Visiting Powell's books in downtown Portland. Of course I bought books, but also picked out a nice souvenir mug.

15 minutes later I dropped the bag leaving a taxi.

I see that you chose the option of violence. I too, am known to tread this path.

was there any other collateral damage to the other components?

Nah.

The wastegate actuator was getting worse and worse sending it into limp mode more frequently so i finally decided to change it. Naturally it's attached to the bottom of the turbo.

Eventually fought with it all long enough that i decided to just remove the turbo....but of course one oil line and one coolant line decided to be jerkwads. So i finally just ordered new lines and said eff it

Soon as the new lines arrive its ready to go back in...and the unitronic downpipe and stage 2 along with it.

During my morning commute, I drive down a street that isn't exactly straight - it shifts to the left for a half block, then back to the right. Traffic is fairly light on the street, so people tend to just drift over in to the right lane from the left lane when it shifts (or vice versa).

This morning a Dallas cop was in the left lane ahead of me. I made sure to do the speed limit (35 mph) instead of my usual 10 over. I noticed he drifted from the left lane into the right lane, then back to the left lane. As we approached the next intersection, he had to slow down, and I had to turn right, so I began passing him (doing the speed limit or below). He began to drift to the right, where my truck was. So I laid on the horn. He corrected back and I passed him.

I fully expected him to follow me and pull me over, but he didn't.

What pisses me off is that, had our positions/actions been reversed, I know he'd have pulled me over and ticketed me for failure to maintain my lane and changing lanes without signalling, and probably anything else he could come up with.

Of course. He has the badge, he gets to do what he wants.

The children we employ

I guess the first week of August is a bad week for turbochargers. The compressor fins started making a little noise under boost in my wife's Forester XT. A scope shows no damage, yet, but unwanted shaft play. Time for a new turbo at the cost of $1800 (OEM turbo, misc seals, misc gaskets, new hardware as required).

On the upside, I get 6 or 8 hours of garage time! And I'll save $1200 swapping turbos myself over the $3000 estimate (which was actually pretty reasonable). I'll post about that in the What's Cheering You Up thread when the job is complete. 😂

What vehicle did this turbo come out of? Seems they never design for the mechanic who has to work on the vehicle.

My Honda Odyssey. Again.

The AC was "repaired" on the 31st by replacing a resistor. It crapped out once on the 7th and five times on the 8th. We also replaced the battery on the 1st because the van was having problems starting, but it didn't help.

I took it in today, and they can't find anything wrong. The starter is good. The alternator is good. The AC is good. Oh, BTW, the engine mounts are trashed, and the front end shimmies upon braking.

POS!

2017 GTI. Just waiting on the hoses to arrive tomorrow then in between days of drill this weekend i hope to find some time to get everything back in.

Oh boy! Intermittent AC ... in Phoenix ... in August ... OH THE HUMANITY! I have felt your pain.

When domestic turbochargers were in their infancy the oil available wasn't that great and so it would get cooked around the bearings in the housing.

This would prevent oil flow so the bearing would wear and then the turbine fins would "chip" against the housing due to the new found play.

This would result in the damaged fins being thrown into the combustion chambers.

Even these days I'd suggest that after a long drive you let the engine run for a few minutes to let the turbo cool down before you turn it off.

Not really pissed off, but narrowly missed an opportunity. Driving down the Oregon coast, pulled off at an overlook. A few minutes later an RV pulled up with a GTS on a rear carrier. I started over to chat but thought I should wait for someone to emerge...which they didn't until we were leaving. 😢

My truck has a turbo. When I shut it off, it still runs for a bit afterwards to cool the turbos. It's not the full engine running, but rather some sort of cooling fan/system.

We used to install turbo timers (piggyback computer basically) that would allow it to run for a set amount of time when shutting down back in the heyday of magazines like Sport Compact Car and Import Tuner.