Euphemisms

Instead of clogging up posts with off topic discussions, have them here. Keep it clean folks!
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SteveClem
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by SteveClem »

Generally, the bigger the company,the worst the customer service. Small businesses value and care for their customers. When I sold my business to a big FTSE 100 company, I was appalled by their customer service and their care towards our staff.
Couldn’t understand why they paid good money to buy a flourishing business and then tried hard to destroy it.
It was the worst 2 years of my life, trying to keep the business going and look after our people. Eventually I just gave up and resigned.
Subsequently the big company has struggled and dropped out of the top rank. :evil:
burnham28
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by burnham28 »

The Ginger bush is tucked up nice and warm but there is no signs of my purple morning glory. I stopped posting my horticultural experiences as I was getting negative replies to my posts.
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Blaketon
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Blaketon »

Good to see another euphemism :wink: . I am sure that many large organisations don't know their corporate posteriors, from their corporate elbows, whether they be British Gas, British Wallycom, banks or even so called regulators. We seem to live in the age of the flow chart, the jobsworth and the risk assessment. I just wonder what kind of twonk thinks up these euphemistic platitudes and do they really believe people will swallow them? Still, when you look at some of the marketing tripe some fall for (I include many manifesto pledges, from all sides, in that but will say no more), perhaps their expectations are not so fanciful.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Blaketon »

SteveClem wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 7:01 pm Generally, the bigger the company,the worst the customer service. Small businesses value and care for their customers. When I sold my business to a big FTSE 100 company, I was appalled by their customer service and their care towards our staff.
Couldn’t understand why they paid good money to buy a flourishing business and then tried hard to destroy it.
It was the worst 2 years of my life, trying to keep the business going and look after our people. Eventually I just gave up and resigned.
Subsequently the big company has struggled and dropped out of the top rank. :evil:
Yet the public love big firms. I have said that a lot of marketing works by mixing that which smells, with stupidity. In these days of much online shopping, there is also the issue of bent search engines, which is why I try to avoid them and if I use them (There is one, very well known one, I will not use), I go beyond the first pages. Before there were such things, I knew where I got certain things and that still applies. I certainly don't find it necessary to live on a smart phone (Which is just as well, as I don't have one). Speaking of "Smart", to what extent is it a euphemism (Perhaps for "Racket") when applied to phones?
leafie
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

These days I spend a lot of time on the M6, M61 and M60. Taking them in order M6 very few broken down cars, M61 same, M60 same. M6 1 maybe 2 crashes a week on the bit I use M61 same M60 constant almost daily usually in the 3rd lane. Audi or BMW stuffed in the back of another Audi or BMW.

M60 (smart motorway) regularly down to 50mph or even 40 mph. When cars with automatic braking become the norm traffic flow on motorways will improve in my opinion and the hard shoulder will become almost obsolete.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by ManyMinors »

How many of us do you imagine drive cars with "automatic braking" though? Even when we do, cars will still suffer the occasional puncture (as I did on the M4 recently) and some people are dis-organised enough to run out of fuel on the motorway :o. Drivers sometimes become unwell at the wheel, and cars DO sometimes break down still. Yes, modern cars are generally more reliable and we use the hard shoulder less often but there is still a need for it. Often I see emergency vehicles using it when the motorway traffic comes to a halt......
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

ManyMinors wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 2:33 pm How many of us do you imagine drive cars with "automatic braking" though
Which is why I said "when it becomes the norm". My wife's 2 year old Nissan has it as does my son's 3 year old Skoda, therefore I think it is coming more quickly than we think.
les
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by les »

What’s automatic braking? Sounds dangerous !

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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Owlsman »

What’s automatic braking? Sounds dangerous !
If this is what is being referred to then I've got it in my Honda Jazz! Allegedly - because I've never actually put it to the test - the car is supposed to brake automatically at low speeds to avoid a rear-end shunt with the car in front. In certain circumstances the car does bleep and a warning light flashes if it thinks I'm approaching the car in front too quickly but as for actually applying the brakes that's something I like to be in charge of...…... with my right foot.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Admin »

I had it a decade ago in an aging S-class Merc (what can I tell ya, I was going through a mid-life crisis and imagined myself as a plutocrat). It was called 'adaptive cruise control' then, if I remember rightly, and would allegedly disengage the cruise control if I got too close to the car in front, and if necessary even brake gently to keep a set distance behind it. I say allegedly, because despite setting out to test it several times, I never quite got to actually seeing if it would work. I mean, can you imagine the conversation - "Yes officer, I did see the car in front, but I didn't think my car would allow itself to hit it..." :) :oops:
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leafie
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

The Nissan flashes up a warning on the dash if you get too close to the car in front, ignoring the warning apparently causes the car to slow down until the gap is reinstated. If the car in front brakes heavily so will the Nissan apparently automatically put the hazard lights on and not rear end the car in front. It reduces the insurance on the car by two groups. I have to admit I've never tested it but a light on the rear view mirror apparently mean it is functioning.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Blaketon »

All these automatic devices are OK until they fail (You could say the same of people). The more there is, on a car, the more to go wrong. Electrics and water don't mix well and since most cars spend all the time outside, in our damp climate, things will go wrong. I had occasion to drive a 19 plate car the other day and that was already playing up, with things coming on by themselves, when there was no need and with no input from me. Being unable to cancel the indicators was the only really potentially worrying fault. I got them to stop, after a bit of fiddling and thereafter signaled only if there was someone who needed to see it. Speaking personally, simplicity is one of the main things which attracts me to the Minor (And my other cars are all pretty simple too).

I think the modern aim is driverless cars and when I see they way some are driven, I sometimes think we have reached that stage. Some of the gadgets now seen are developments toward that end. Even if they get driverless cars to work, there are bound to be accidents but I wonder whether driverless cars would simply become taxis and the day of the owner driver would be over (People will simply order the car to turn up at a set time and someone else will look after it)? I wonder whether certain makes of driverless cars would be programmed to behave in the brat like manner, that drivers of said makes now do :roll: ? I suppose there would still be an outlet for vanity, in that a BMW SUV taxi would cost more to rent than a Fiat 500 type of thing.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

Programme tonight 7.30pm on BBC North West about smart motorways being dangerous. Guessing the M60 will feature quite strongly.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Admin »

I didn't see that program unfortunately, but I DID hear this morning that the AA are now going to refuse to deal with callouts on 'smart' motorways and simply wait for the motorist in the next safe refuge for the Wombles to bring along to them. Be good if ALL the breakdown mobs went along with that view - the number of new Wombles needed to tow people to the waiting AA trucks would hopefully outweigh the alleged savings in increasing capacity this way, and HMG would be forced to abandon the policy and return to sanity
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by geoberni »

leafie wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2020 11:05 am Programme tonight 7.30pm on BBC North West about smart motorways being dangerous. Guessing the M60 will feature quite strongly.
Inside Out North West: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dnb7


That'll be a nice little trailer for the NW Viewers ahead of the Panorama that is on at 20:30 in a weeks time then....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dtqv
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leafie
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

Will be interesting to see how many "incidents " are down to drivers completely ignoring the red X lane closed sign on the gantry even though it is illegal to ignore it. My experience is that countless drivers just carry on down the closed lane and nothing seems to be done.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Admin »

Drifting further off topic, but since it's in the off topic forum anyway I guess that's okay - I saw something out of the corner of my eye on TV today about the fail rate of the software used to calculate whether or not a vehicle has stopped moving and needs a lane closure. I was focused on something else but I'm sure the voiceover said something like the software is not able to highlight stopped vehicles without an unacceptably high false positive rate. :o
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by leafie »

Admin wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2020 6:05 pm I was focused on something else but I'm sure the voiceover said something like the software is not able to highlight stopped vehicles without an unacceptably high false positive rate. :o
Well it is a government purchased computer system.
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by geoberni »

leafie wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2020 5:41 pm Will be interesting to see how many "incidents " are down to drivers completely ignoring the red X lane closed sign on the gantry even though it is illegal to ignore it. My experience is that countless drivers just carry on down the closed lane and nothing seems to be done.
Very much so.
On a related matter, i.e. driving skills, I'm getting sick of the Harry Dunn coverage on TV turning into a vilification of US service personnel living in the UK.
What about the terrible driving of our own citizens and all those coming from Europe?
Focusing on US personnel at RAF Croughton is just whipping up totally disproportionate hysteria.
This morning they were reporting that locals are scared to drive on the local road in case they get into a collision.
For Crying Out Loud!!!
What about all the other places in the UK where Right Side Drivers are now on our Left Side Roads?
All the sea and airports for starters.
:roll:
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Re: Euphemisms

Post by Blaketon »

I've only driven abroad twice and the occasions were 15 years apart. The first time was with a left hand drive hired car (VW Polo) and the last time was in one of my own cars.

The worst things I found, the first time (Aside from once getting into the passenger side :roll: ), were roundabouts (Just seemed all wrong) and I had to watch, if I did a three point turn, that I didn't take to the left.

Oddly enough, second time around, I didn't find roundabouts odd and it all seemed easier, despite me sitting the wrong side. I did get a bit out of sorts, once, at some road works. Yes I was in a familiar car but you'd think it would be offset by sitting the wrong side. Maybe it would have made overtaking awkward but I didn't do much of that, if any, other than on motorways.
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